| Pronoun: She/Her | Age: 31 | Where I post about my stories. My likes are eclectic, so expect my blog to just be full of the most random things. | AO3 Account: Madame_Kiksters |
what they DONT tell you about clarinets is that you have to fucking build the damn thing every single time. "what instrument do you play" fucking legos man idk
about build clarinets damn do DONT every fucking fucking have idk instrument is legos man play" single tell that the they thing time. to what "what you you you
I started making a future Natsume design, but since I'm busy and the week is over, I thought id show my graduation cap from 2024 instead. Its a little smudged now, but the show means a lot to me and a few people liked it!
Its still a little crazy to me that I've been drawing for so long. Truly ten years and some more later that this show inspired me.
asdkjfhaskldjf oops this one got away from me but IM DONE
i'll post day 7 after i sleep but i didnt expect this one to keep going aslkdfjhaslkdf my hubris......
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“…must be a nekomata or something!”
“I think he’s just a fat cat.”
Takashi paused right outside of the classroom’s door. Those were Nishimura and Kitamoto’s voices, right?
“But Taki said that she might have been cursed by this Stitch Mark youkai!!” Nishimura exclaimed, the sound of pages flipping following his words.
“She said it was a maybe,” Kitamoto responded. Takashi could imagine the eye roll. “The look on her face was telling me she was just trying to be polite.”
Taking a deep breath, he finally slid the door open and stepped into the classroom. Why were they talking about youkai of all things? Tanuma or Taki, he would have understood, but Nishimura and Kitamoto…?
In Nishimura’s hands was an open book. He couldn’t quite see the title, but the visual inside…
It looked exactly like the youkai that had cursed Taki.
“Oh, Natsume!” Nishimura waved the hand that was holding the book. “You wanna check this out? I found it in the library!”
Hitoyoshi Legends for Dummies.
Huh.
Takashi calmly sat in his seat and took the proferred book, trying to hide his nerves under a mask of confusion. “What’s this?”
He tuned his friend’s explanation out as he flipped through the pages. Each turn revealed a familiar face, with only a small handful that he didn’t recognize. Even Nyanko-sensei was there! He quickly flipped to the front cover, but the author’s name was erased. In fact, any mention of the author required in a normal publication was too worn out for him to even try and decipher.
“I tried looking for the author too,” Kitamoto said, looking sympathetic. “Even online sources are a bit of a dead end.”
“Do you think Taki knows?” Nishimura questioned eagerly. “She said her grandpa had all sorts of supernatural stuff, right?!”
“Maybe Tanuma might have something,” Kitamoto added to their brainstorming session. “His dad’s been a priest for a while, I think.”
Takashi just smiled and nodded along, slowly inching his bag further away from the two. Although he didn’t know who wrote this particular book, he was probably the one most likely to be able to find this mysterious author.
========================
“Hitoyoshi Legends for Dummies?” Natori repeated over the phone.
Takashi nodded. “It looked a bit crude, but the information was pretty accurate.”
“How old do you think it is? Does it say?”
“All the fine print is practically gone, but the paper is in decent condition.”
The exorcist hummed. “Well, since your friend has it, I’m assuming you can’t give it to me. I’ll ask around, but no promises.”
He nodded and gave the actor his thanks before ending the call. Who to try next…? Maybe Taki really would have some insight?
Taki answered the phone in a couple of rings. “This is about Nishimura’s book, right?”
Takashi paused. “Did he already show you?”
“Yeah. He walked home with me yesterday to talk about it. I did think it was weird he knew about the exact youkai that cursed me…”
He held back a snort. If only Nishimura knew that he now has the perfect thing to get his crush to talk to him more. Oh well.
“I looked through grandpa’s stuff, and I didn’t find anything,” Taki continued. “The book was handwritten, though— Based on what I’ve seen, it does seem like something way before our time.”
Now that she mentioned it, the strokes of the characters did remind him a bit of the Book of Friends. Maybe he could ask Natori for some old records he could use to cross-check…?
“Tanuma said it reminded him of old scripture,” she added. “Something about the type of characters and the sentence structures.”
“The images are pretty accurate, too…” Takashi commented. “Either they had a visual aid like your circle, or they could see youkai.” He was banking on the latter.
She just hummed in response. “Did the exorcist say anything?”
“Nothing of note. Same as everyone else.”
“Aw, man!” She groaned. “I know I love a good mystery and all, but we don’t even have a single clue! It’s not like we can just summon a youkai and ask them!”
Takashi chuckled. If he even knew a helpful youkai like that, life would be a lot easier for him.
…
Wait. If they could see youkai…
Doesn’t that mean the youkai would have known them?
“I have an idea,” Takashi blurted out. “If you need me, I’ll be with the Dog’s Circle! Thanks!”
“Thanks-?” Taki’s voice cut off as he ended the call.
He had a lead, finally.
=======================
Hinoe scoffed. “That doesn’t even look like me!”
Takashi had been able to borrow the book from Nishimura, stating that he wanted to show his parents. They’ve been in Hitoyoshi for a long time, he reasoned, so they might know something about the book.
Now, here he was, asking his youkai friends if they recognize the handwriting.
Sorry, Nishimura…
Nyanko-sensei scoffed, taking a sip of his sake. “Are you delusional? It’s exactly you!”
Takashi tuned out their bickering, turning to Misuzu, who had just arrived. “Do you recognize any of this?”
The youkai—in his human form—tilted his head as he flipped through the pages. “There are familiar faces, yes, but the creator… Unfortunately, nothing jumps to mind, Master.”
He sighed. “Thanks for trying, anyways. Do you know anyone who might know?”
He hummed, letting a frog jump into his palm. “I am afraid us youkai have been around for a long time. It would be hard to remember such a specific memory.”
Takashi raised an eyebrow. “But everyone knows my grandmother?”
“That’s ‘cause she’s relatively new,” Nyanko-sensei said as if it was the most obvious fact in the world.
Misuzu smiled, but it didn’t feel like it was one out of kindness. “She also terrorized any youkai she came across, and us youkai are one to hold a grudge.”
Right. The whole Book of Friends thing.
And another dead end, unfortunately.
=========================
Takashi met up with Taki and Tanuma at a nearby park a couple of days later.
“Why are we looking for this guy again?” Tanuma questioned. “They’re not dangerous, are they?”
Takashi shook his head, looking down at the book in his hands. “I don’t think so. I’m just… curious about someone else who might have the sight.”
Taki hummed. “We do know a lot of people who can see youkai, but it’s really pretty rare, huh?”
It was rare. It was so rare that Takashi didn’t meet anyone like himself until now. After meeting Natori and Matoba, he always wondered if there were others like him, who were simply born outside the niche community of people who could see youkai. He guessed it was out of curiosity he was searching for this author; was it someone who already knew the usefulness of their powers, or was it one who saw it as a curse, like himself?
“Oh— Isn’t that the book Nishimura borrowed?” Kitamoto approached the trio, having spotted them on his way back from a quick grocery trip.
Taki sighed. “You didn’t happen to learn about who wrote it, did you?”
“Hm?” He tilted his head. Another dead end, huh? “Oh, that. We asked the librarian, and apparently it was a collection of papers someone compiled. Supposedly, they were originally found in a box that belonged to his great-great grandmother.”
The three of them stared at him before letting out a heavy sigh.
“Why didn’t we think of the librarian…?” Tanuma voiced, putting his face in his hands.
Taki chuckled with little emotion, sliding down a bit on the bench she was sitting. “It was right there…”
Kitamoto raised an eyebrow at their response. “Were you guys that concerned over it?”
They glanced at each other before Takashi spoke. “Not really.”
“Okay…?”
As their friend left to return home, the trio couldn’t help but burst out into laughter. It was really silly, now that they thought about it, that this mysterious goose chase turned out to be something so mundane. Though, perhaps that was a good way to end this debacle.
Natsume Week is over and I can relax again. I’m very proud of all the work I put in. Not everything was executed as well as I had hoped, but that’s how it usually goes. My favourite is definitely the first prompt. I have so much love in my heart for Natsume as a character and I just think it shows somehow.
It was so wonderful to see all the work people made and the different interpretations of the prompts.
I’m glad this is a fandom I am a part of. Thanks for being so kind and supportive of each other 💕
When I was doing research for references for the Goodbye prompt, I stumbled upon the scene of Takashi recognizing the street he was walking down and seeing a younger version of himself walking lonely down the street. The ages seemed about right for 10 years to have passed since he returned to his old home. Since I'm pretty sure he is 16-17 in canon and that would mean he was about 6 or 7 years old here.
(Though, I always headcanon him as 17-18 years old since I'd imagine with him being passed around so much between families, his schooling fell short and he may have had to repeat a year and so he is slightly older than his peers on top of everything else going on with him to make him feel isolated TvT)
I also have a fun lil GIF of Nyanko getting absolutely fed UP with Takashi looking back and lost in thought (since he can't see the younger version of Takashi) xD
gamechangershow
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tangentwithtanner
germansingergirl
discoholicmusic
stormborns
