#natsuyuu hiiragi

[raens-art]

natsuyuu sketch dump pt.1

[airisu7425]

Nyan Koyomi - Natsume Yuuchinchou Desktop Calendar 2024 - April/Aries

[akabloom]

Day four of @natsumeweek calling/answering

ooooughh this one’s a little late cause drawing the girls took some time ,,,

(click for better quality)

ID under the cut

[ID]: A digital drawing of Natori, Hiiragi, Sasago, and Urihime. Natori is in a walking pose with his hand in his coat and tipping his bucket hat up with his other hand. Hiiragi is in front of Natori , Sasago in the middle and Urihime next to Sasago. Each of the girls lower half’s are covered with smoke. Natori is saying “Hiiragi. Sasago. Urihime.” Hiiragi and Urihime respond “Yes.” while Sasago responds “Yes Master.” There is a green-gray background with concrete marks. On the top there are the words “Day four: calling/answering” [End ID]

[patchworkprince]

natsume’s book of friends | natsume yuujinchou by yuki midorikawa • volume 18 cover art

[taizi]

soft ground, claiming moon

fear the fall and where we’ll land

@natsumeweek 2023 day 3; kindness/cruelty read on ao3

(previous) (next) 

x

For a moment, no one moves or speaks or even breathes. Takashi himself is frozen, mind completely blank. This is so far from anything he could have expected that his body doesn’t know how to react. 

Then Taki blurts, “Is that Natori Shuuichi?”

“Wait, the guy from that dumb show Satchan and Sasada argue about every week?” Kitamoto says dubiously. 

Their resident witch twitches, offended, and Nishimura says, “It’s not dumb, it’s really good! There’s nuance! You just have to give it a chance.”

Unmoved, Kitamoto says, “Okay but isn’t he, like, famous? What’s he doing here?”

Their voices are a static wash of sound. Takashi doesn’t hear a word. He’s hyper-focused on the man in front of them. Natori’s expression is still smiling, but that’s his T.V. smile. There’s no warmth to it at all. Takashi can tell the difference. 

Maybe Tanuma can, too, or maybe he just knows how to read Takashi better than most people, because Tanuma shifts to the side until he has a shoulder in front of Nishimura. He dips a hand into the pocket he keeps his prayer beads in. There’s not much he can do against another human person, but if it came down to it, he would be able to guard against the shiki at least.

Here. In his home. While his father is away and his friend is in pain. 

Takashi realizes that his heart is racing, but not with fear. It feels more like anger. 

How dare Natori show up here? How dare he look at Nishimura like he’s some sort of monster? He doesn’t even know the whole story. He didn’t see Nishimura in that hospital room. 

“Um,” Nishimura says, overly loud, not passing for normal at all, “um, not to sound lame or anything, but can I get your autograph?”

He’s excited. Just for a second, the moon is the last thing on his mind. 

But the shiki react to his question like Nishimura just threw a knife at them, in Sasago and Urihime’s case, baring their teeth and reaching for their weapons. Hiiragi tilts her head an inch to the left and otherwise doesn’t move at all. 

They’re visible here, where Taki has laid dozens of circles in the earth. Nishimura flinches back and the shining expression on his face goes shuttered, a window closing against the cold. 

At the same time Tanuma pulls the rosary out of his pocket, and Taki lifts chalk dust-covered fingers, and Kitamoto yanks Nishimura a whole two steps back behind everyone else, Nyanko-sensei disappears in a thick screen of smoke. 

When it clears, he towers above them all in his true form. The fluffy cloud tail of his lashes a few times, knocking a few small boughs from a nearby tree, before he settles down in a half-moon curl around his kids. 

Natori’s shiki stiffen. They would fight sensei unflinchingly if they were ordered to, but they’re outclassed and they know it. Natori’s smile has tapered off but he still has that silver stake in his hand.

“Good grief,” Nyanko-sensei rumbles. “I hate fleas.”

“Sensei?” Nishimura says. He’s squished between Kitamoto and Taki and half-buried in downy white fur, looking torn between bewildered and offended. There’s a faint shadow of the wolf looming in his eyes. “Natsume, what’s going on?”

“Nothing,” Takashi says shortly. “Natori just likes to show up without warning. Or an invitation.”

“And his familiars are poorly trained,” Taki, who was once famously trapped on a tricky mountain ledge for two hours because her kitsune threw a tantrum when she forgot to bring them aburaage as a treat, snaps meanly. 

“Don’t worry about the fleas,” sensei orders. “Go plate that cake already.”

“Sensei,” Nishimura argues, but he’s buffeted forward with a bump from Nyanko-sensei’s great head. 

Kitamoto looks like he’s one more big surprise away from a meltdown, but he uses that momentum to begin dragging Nishimura the rest of the way to the temple, giving Natori a wide berth and a suspicious look. Taki goes with them, glaring over her shoulder with every step. 

Tanuma looks very worried about the standoff occuring in his yard, rubbing one of the beads between his fingers anxiously.

“Should I call Misuzu?” he asks Takashi in a quiet tone. “He always has frogs nearby. There’s usually at least three in the temple somewhere.”

“No need,” Takashi replies. “Sensei and I will handle this.”

Tanuma lingers for another moment, but a glance up at Nyanko-sensei seems to convince him. He passes by Natori with a skittish sidelong look. Natori’s expression turns pained at the way Tanuma hurries out of his proximity. 

When the doors of the temple have shut, Natori says very gently, “Natsume. You know I had to come.”

Takashi says, “But you didn’t.”

“You are in over your head. There is absolutely no way you could be prepared to deal with—what must be dealt with. There’s hardly any text about it anywhere.”

“And if humans don’t have the knowledge recorded, it doesn’t exist?” sensei asks sardonically. “Spare me your self-importance, exorcist. It was your kind that caused this mess in the first place.” 

Normally, Takashi would play mediator between the two, try to check their frankly ridiculous egos, but he can feel his own temper fraying apart and doesn’t have the mental fortitude to spare.  

He can’t remember ever being angrier than this. He can feel the spirits in Yatsuhara becoming agitated, all stirred up because of him. 

“Playing the blame game is a waste of everyone’s time,” Natori says harshly. He’s disquieted by sensei’s remark; it’s obvious in the way he hustles past it. “I’m here to help, whether you believe me or not.”

“Then help,” Takashi says. He doesn’t recognize his own voice. “Don’t hunt. Throw that weapon away.” The way the silver shines in the low light is making him sick. 

“I can’t do that,” Natori says. “You know I can’t do that. He’s going to turn.”

“It doesn’t mean he has to die.”

“He’s a monster. He’ll hurt you, he won’t have a choice.”

“And you think I would just stand there and let it happen?” 

“I think you have a history of doing exactly that.”

It hurts because Natori says it softly.

With a deep breath, Takashi says, “If he’s a monster, so am I. You came here to kill me, too, a year ago. What stopped you then?”

He’ll regret it later because of the way Natori’s whole body seems to crumple at his words. He knows the older man regrets the nature of their first meeting, for all that he was acting on the best information he had at the time. 

For now, he presses on, “You met me. You made an exception. I didn’t hurt anyone. I wouldn’t.” 

Takashi presses his hands together, half in pleading, half to keep a solid grip on his cognizance, because the wilderness inside him is beckoning him ever deeper. It wants him to let go and tear asunder, the way of earthquakes and tsunamis. 

But he won’t. That’s the whole point. 

“Nishimura wouldn’t either,” he goes on. “He would never. If you would just meet him I know you’d understand.”

Natori doesn’t say anything right away. Dusk is upon them, the sky vivid with sunset colors. They are inching ever closer to nightfall. Soon they’ll be out of time to talk. Takashi needs him to be convinced sooner than later. 

Nyanko-sensei’s tail flicks idly. He would never admit to caring about any of the humans who fill his days, but Takashi knows he has a particular fondness for the colorful, chaotic Nishimura. If it came down to protecting him, he would tear his way through Natori’s shiki with his teeth. 

Takashi would prefer it not to come to that. 

Suddenly, Hiiragi steps between their two parties, and puts Takashi and sensei behind her. Facing her master, she tells him, “I know that you’re kind.”

She draws back her sleeve, revealing the neat bandage wrapped carefully around her arm.

“I know that you want to be kind,” Hiiragi says.

For a handful of seconds that feel more like an hour, Natori stares at her without speaking. Then he grinds the heels of his hands into his eyes and sighs with feeling.

Hope floods Takashi’s heart, but he doesn’t relax until Natori tosses that silver stake down. 

“Alright,” the exorcist says wearily. “We’ll try it your way.”

[qweaenr]

NATSUME’S BOOK OF FRIENDS - Covers

[coquelicoq]

rip to hiiragi in the moon-splitting festival arc though. first she paints a protection charm on natsume's arm, standard stuff, but even though right before this he was in a huge hurry to get back to everyone else to make sure they're safe, he's like okay now let's do you. and takes the brush and paints the same charm on her arm. uhhhh. okay. this is fine. okay. then minutes later he throws himself in front of her to protect her from a ton of falling logs with his fragile human body. like not only is he actively making it harder for her to do her job, which is to protect him, by doing stupid heroic shit that puts him in danger, but he's doing said heroic shit to protect HER? like he thinks she's a PERSON??? the fuck is she supposed to do with this shit!

[blisslilacwisteria]

¡Hola, @scorpionatori! I'm your Pinch Hitter for @natsume-ss

I read you are not a big fan of romantic/cheese stuff so my gift to you is a bratty!Natori (xD).

And of course, everyone is feed up with him.

[scribbledeck]

sketching natsuyuus while rewatching!

[joelletwo]

summary of natsuyuu chapter 128 - start of The Sealed-Off Storehouse arc

new arc (sort of) new post! my previous summaries for the preceding related arcs here. we continue increasing the cast of exorcist-related characters... and we see some familiar ones :)

Ms. Iwami comes to visit Takuma, saying her grandfather always told her if there was a problem she didn’t understand, she could rely on Takuma. She wants him to take a look at something, but he tells her he’s lost his youkai sight and wouldn’t be any help if there really was danger. He’s happy to hear her out, though, since her grandfather helped him as an young unknown exorcist. But she suddenly gets flustered over coming to him over something as silly as a joke her grandfather had played on her, saying she’ll enter her storehouse after all. She leaves, crossing paths with Natori and Natsume at the door.

(natsume: natori-san you can't just burst in 😰)

(natori: were you visiting? iwami: it's not important. pay no attention to the opening scene)

(takuma: what's all this about, shuuichi-kun? natori: *prompts his little buddy to take charge*)

Takuma asks why they’ve come, and Natsume explains that he wants help looking into the painting he found at the exorcist auction.

(takuma: why were you at an exorcist auction!!! natori, already been thru this: that's what i'm saying. natsume's actual next response: well... there were various circumstances...)

Natori thinks Takuma will know more than he does, although the auction was highly anonymous, since he has more industry connections. Takuma’s happy to since Natsume helped him with his shiki before. First, they ask who was visiting before their arrival, and Takuma explains she's the granddaughter of a close friend of his mentor’s, and he’s worried about not being able to help with her situation.

Natori and Natsume go to meet with her to put him at ease. Natori says Natsume didn’t have to come (which Nyanko agrees with), but Natsume wants to hear from as many people as possible while he’s looking into the painting. Natori asks him what kind of person Reiko was. From the yokai, you only hear that she was "violent," from humans, she was "weird," but in that painting Natsume saw a different Reiko he’s unfamiliar with. If he could hear about the Reiko that painter knew…

They’re interrupted by fangirls recognizing Natori, irritating Nyanko, who asks why they had to take the bus instead of Natori’s car. He laughs and says it’s a habit from his student days, daydreaming that if he went out to places with lots of people, someone would eventually recognize his gecko and call out to him.

(natori, about to say something really heartbreaking: it's because i'm a romantic ^_^)

(iwami: no one's gone in that storehouse for decades. natori: you're saying...? iwami: there's "something that will curse you if you look at it" in there.)

Ms. Iwami welcomes them as Takuma’s representatives and fusses over a “if you look at it, you’ll be cursed” story her grandfather always told her about something in the storehouse on the property, which might’ve just been a story to keep the kids out, and which she can’t decide if she believes or not while wanting to reorganize it after her father’s passing. Nyanko calls the Iwami house creepy, as it’s filled with lots of strange things, like a weird wall hanging Natsume is startled by.

Natori and Natsume go to check out the storehouse at her urging. Natori’s shiki go in to investigate first, but Natsume stops Hiiragi, checking if she’ll be okay in a place that might remind her of bad memories. She assures him she’s used to storehouses after helping with Natori’s work for so long, and that she doesn’t regret those memories anyways, as they led to her meeting Natsume and Natori.

Natori’s shiki report nothing strange. Natori goes in to make sure, and Natsume asks to come with, saying he doesn’t want to miss finding any more hidden connections to Reiko. Natori makes them both paper dolls that will absorb a single curse in their place as a precaution.

(natori telling natsume the same thing natsume's been telling tanuma when he tags along in recent arcs: and you prooooomise to leave if anything goes wrong, right? ^_^)

He lights incense that will be attracted to any curse if there’s one to be found, but it takes time to accumulate. In the meantime, they look around the place: Natori for clues, Nyanko for treasures, and Natsume for anything about Reiko. Natori finds the texts of a famous exorcist.

(natori: huh? natsume: ! don't tell me you found the curse... natori: no, it's a book of Mr. Shirakouji... it really is a treasure 0_0;;)

Nyanko spots a wall of photos, all featuring prominent exorcists (including a younger Takuma, and Takuma’s mentor) with the same man accompanying them. While they’re looking at him, Ms. Iwami calls them back for a break.

She says the man is probably her grandfather, who had connections to and sponsored all sorts of exorcists through her (non-Sighted) family’s commitment to the traditions, which meant she gets sent all sorts of thank-you gifts for him, including the wall hanging Natsume saw earlier. Natsume startles to look and see it’s moved, though Iwami denies that and says its just a picture of the great youkai protecting her house. She suddenly gets confused about who told her the “curse you if you look at it” story, remembering a ghostly figure, but shakes it off.

(iwami: don't worry about it! me: okay yay ^_^ 💕)

Natori asks about Takuma. She says he was a wonderfully skilled disciple her grandfather’s friend took under his wing who her grandfather sponsored after seeing his talent. Natori is happy to hear him praised.

They go back out to the storehouse, relieved nothing’s happened so far although Natori and Nyanko agree something feels strange, wondering if there’s a barrier. They notice Natori’s incense has gathered around a ceiling tile.

(natori: hey, watch it =_=;)

Natori pushes it up and finds a second floor to the storehouse with ofuda talismans on the rafters hiding it from being discovered, possibly what the incense reacted to, but Natori cautions them to stay guarded. He spots a mirror with ink writing on it - Natori tells them not to look at their reflections, as it’s enchanted, saying it’s probably the “something that curses you if you look at it.”

(chapter end)

[fokron]

sorry I'm still reeling from reading the Natori cousin arc (up to chp 115 bc that's far as I can find the scans).

They really hit us with:

Natori explicitly trusting Natsume with knocking him out of yokai-magic induced hallucinations of his traumatic childhood memories.

Hiiragi literally saying that could only work with someone Natori trusts UNCONDITIONALLY and kinda implying natsume is the only person that applies to in natori's life........ o k a y!!! catch me sobbing!!

After natsume knocks natori out of it natori is like: "sorry for being so weak and a loser lmfao I'll walk u out so u can get back to ur day" and natsume says "Nice Try But I'm Helping You Idiot."

a Yokai-illusion version of Natori (built from the yokai seeing into Natori's soul) literally tells natsume how he was lonely and scared and ostracized as a kid and desperately wanted specifically a younger relative who could see the same shit he sees. and when REAL natori pops up and dissolves the illusion and is like haha don't listen to that thing lol and natsume is like isn't it built from your soul tho and natori doesn't rlly argue against it that hard........................ okay.

Natori blaming himself for mitsuru not being able to exist + no younger relatives getting born in general bc it was so feared that they could get the sight like natori like GOD the self hatred is so thick here fucking hell.

and let's go back to natori desperately wanting a younger relative who also had the sight so he wasn't alone. Natsume. literally natsume. his relationship to natsume. I'm biased bc I headcanon their relationship as sibling-like but I feel there's a lot in canon to back it up and POINTS POINTS POINTS LIKE THIS RIGHT HERE...

Also not super relevant but important to me specifically Nyanko offhandedly saying "good grief you and this kid" but like. to natsume. so referring to natori as a kid which he normally only does with natsume. could be specific translation or me misinterpreting it but um. Nyanko softening up to natori.

And there's a scene within like. a single page. where nyanko transfers from natsume's shoulder to natori's head to natori's arms which shouldn't be as funny and sweet to me as it is but it is.

(tho should be noted whenever I get back into natsuyuu, I usually do reread/rewatch it in order. so I don't remember if nyanko softening up to natori happened a while ago or whatever lol)

and ofc we cannot forget THE REASON NATORI TOOK ON THE JOB IN THE FIRST PLACE WAS MOSTLY FOR A CHANCE (just a possibility!!!) TO HELP NATSUME W/ THE BOOK OF FRIENDS..... and was willing to suffer thru uncomfortable childhood memories about it. Bye I'm actually going to throw up.

[scorpionatori]

natsuyuu should get switched to a shounen magazine just so hiiragi can kill things with her sword

[akabloom]

been sooo eepy this whole week 🥱

[mayorofcattown]

Just had the funniest possible AU idea: Natsuyuu warrior cats AU where Natsume is a kittypet living with the Fujiwaras who keeps getting hassled by Natori and Matoba to join the clan cats in the area, because he's the child of Reiko, a stray who used to challenge everyone, cat or otherwise, to battle, and somehow always won. But Natsume wants none of that and just wants to enjoy his comfy bed and wet food in peace.

I haven't decided what the youkai would be yet, they'd either be the Spirits of other animals/cats that Natsume can connect with thru starclan bullshit, or just non cat animals that Reiko fought with. The second one is funnier but the first probably fits better with canon? But also I remember like nothing abt the warrior cats starclan Lore lol

Matoba is obviously the head of shadowclan (I considered changing the name but tbh shadow clan just works best either way) a strong but ruthless clan of cats that live in the area that banded together to defend against wild animals in the area. Maybe there's a bear or something in the area that has beef with them and keeps trying to attack the clan leader, and gave Matoba a scar on his eye?

Natori is the "head" of windclan, a clan that consists of him, sasago, urihime and hiiragi. Windclan used to be a big clan in the area, but got chased out by Shadowclan and retreated to being strays/kittypets. Natori is the child of a former windclan cat and a bougie purebreed showcat, and was never able to make it as a show animal because of a weird lizard shaped birthmark on his leg, so ran away to bring back windclan himself.

Natsume's highschool friends are just other kittypets in the neighbourhood he hangs out with. Tanuma is the cat of the local monk (he found him as a kitten under his porch), Taki and her brother are the pet cats of a local wealthy family, and her (cat) father was always interested in clan cats but could never meet them. Nishimura and Kitamoto are just average kittypets bought from a pet store.

Of course their names would all be different, I haven't decided on all of them but I think Natsume would be named 'Nutmeg', Tanuma would be 'Tuna' and Reiko would be 'Ghost' or 'the ghost'. Natori would call himself like. Sparklefur or something.

[taizi]

soft ground, claiming moon

chase them all away

@natsumeweek 2023 day 5; healing/forgiveness read on ao3

title borrowed from monsters by katie sky

(previous)

x

It’s immediately as horrifying as Shuuichi thought it would be. 

He’s watching a fourteen-year-old boy writhe and bite back what surely would be a howl if he would unlock his jaw enough to let it out. It squeezes past his bared teeth in the form of guttural growls. His hands, clutching at his own arms, as if trying to hug himself together, are rending the fabric of his sleeves, fingers sharpening to points. 

And Natsume is right there. Surrounded by his friends, a motley crew of stupid, stubborn teenagers. They must know the danger they’re in but they don’t flinch. The fear on their faces is reflective of the pain that Nishimura is in, they don’t spare any for themselves. 

“You would let him turn in a room full of children?” Natori demands of Madara. He feels like he’s going insane. The shiki behind him are restless, but they don’t share his single-minded anxiety. Taki’s twin summons snicker at him and Madara flicks an ear derisively. 

“You really don’t have a clue,” the ugly cat says plainly. “It’s very annoying. Knowing a thing is knowing more than how to kill it. Stop talking and pay attention. Maybe you’ll learn something.”

By the time Shuuichi tears his eyes away from the ugly cat, it’s over. Nishimura is gone, and Kitamoto’s arms remain wrapped around a wolf. 

For a moment that feels like a small eternity, Shuuichi forgets to breathe. He can feel his heart in his throat.

The creature is breathing heavily, body heaving. Its thick coat is red-orange in color with white on the throat and belly, not unlike a fox. The face of it is more broad than angular, haloed by a slight mane, and its big ears are rounded at the top instead of pointed. 

“Nishimura?” Kitamoto says. His voice is barely audible even in the absolute silence of the room. 

The wolf lifts its head and finds his face. They stare at each other for two, three, four seconds. 

Then the wolf makes an abrupt turn, climbing clumsily into Kitamoto’s lap and shoving his snout against the boy’s face. Powerful jaws open, and Shuuichi is about to spring past Madara, after all, and then…

“Ugh—ew! Satchan!” Kitamoto sputters. “Don’t lick me!”

“Puppy kisses!” Ogata shrieks. 

“Let’s not swarm him,” Natsume says, holding an arm out to halt the girls from tackling Kitamoto and the wolf to the floor. “Let him acclimate for a minute. Shibata, are you taking pictures right now?”

“No, video.”

“Why?”

“Blackmail?” Shibata says it like Natsume must be stupid for asking. “Relax, if my phone gets hacked I’ll just say it’s my annoying cousin’s annoying dog or whatever.”

“You consider us family?” Taki presses a hand to her heart. “Shibata.”

Before Shibata can reply to that the way he would probably like to, Madara waddles past him. The cat plants its front feet on Kitamoto’s leg and peers up at the wolf thoughtfully. The symbol on his head begins to glow. 

Out of what looks like pure reflex, Ogata quickly knocks Shibata’s phone out of his hand and it clatters to the floor. If the recording picks up Madara’s voice, it will be lost under teenagers screeching at each other. 

The wolf leans down to sniff at Madara curiously. The symbol fades, and the cat says, “That’s a wolf alright.”

“You are remarkably unhelpful,” Shuuichi says. His voice comes out as little more than a wheeze. He feels like he’s just run a marathon. 

“Sensei,” Natsume scolds him mildly. 

“What more do you want?” Madara sits back. “He’s a human, not a yokai, so he isn’t likely to transform into a yokai, is he? He needs a physical form, no matter what shape it may take. The okami that bit him must have given him its own as a parting gift. Even with the curse that was twisting its mind apart, it probably knew that it wasn’t long for this life.” 

The cat looks around at the children and then past them at Shuuichi. With judgmental green eyes, Madara adds, “Okami are messengers, lesser deities. Whoever encountered one and saw fit to banish it with their shitty home-cooked spell deserves whatever they get.”

That much, at least, Shuuichi can’t argue. There is a strict code of conduct that the exorcist community must abide by, and while exceptions can be made here and there, crafting a spell of one’s own design and then using it without so much as getting it peer-reviewed first isn’t just against the rules, it’s downright stupid. 

He would like to give that person, whoever and wherever they are, the benefit of the doubt. He would like to believe they acted in good faith, doing their best to rid the world of another monster.

But for the first time since he made his mad dash to Hitoyoshi, Shuuichi doesn’t know. 

“It—he is a werewolf,” Shuuichi says. “That much is clear. He turned on the full moon and has weakness to pure metals, like silver. If he were to bite one of you in this form, the curse would spread.”

“Okay,” Kitamoto says, his tone suggesting he would like to add a petulant and? “He’s still my brother.”

“He’s dangerous.” 

“So are you,” Taki says sharply. “So am I.” 

“I’m pretty sure Natsume’s grandpa was a tengu or something,” Shibata adds. “He hasn’t come out and said it but the clues are all there. And I mean, the wind goes all crazy when I tick him off. So Natsume could probably start a hurricane if he got angry enough. That seems a little freakier to me than just turning into a big dumb dog once a month. No offense,” he adds insincerely, with a little nod Natsume’s way. 

“Don’t call him dumb,” Ogata says, because that is clearly more pressing than any tengu-related bombshells. “Natsume please can I hug him now?”

The wolf perks up, rounded ears pointing forward, and Ogata opens her arms for him without waiting for permission or approval. The wolf picks itself up on unsteady legs, wobbles for a moment, then bounds with ungainly enthusiasm into Ogata’s snug embrace. 

“Oh, I was so worried about you, I’m so glad you’re okay,” she says, squeezing him for all she’s worth. “I knew you would be but I’m still so, so glad!”

Taki drapes herself over both of them, worming her arms in there somehow, and the wolf whuffles against their hair, wriggling happily. 

“Here,” Tanuma says, appearing at their side with a shallow bowl in one hand and a bottle of Calpico in the other. “He’s barely had anything to eat or drink all day. I don’t know if his tastes will be the same like this, but…” 

“Should we save the snacks for when he’s a person again or let him have some now?” Kitamoto wonders aloud. 

“We can always go get more,” Natsume reasons. 

Shuuichi watches the convenience store bags come out, and a box of Chocorooms gets popped open, and Kitamoto offers the wolf a handful of the chocolate-covered biscuits. An hour ago, Shuuichi would have been horrified to watch the boy stick his open palm within inches of a cursed animal’s teeth. As it is, his alarm springs from a different source entirely.

“Don’t,” Shuuichi says sharply, his mouth moving before he gives it permission to. When the kids stare at him, their expressions a mixture of disdain and frustration, he adds, “Wolves can’t have chocolate.” 

After a beat, Tanuma says, “What?”

“It’s the same reason dogs can’t have chocolate,” Shuuichi says, unable to believe he’s having this conversation. “There’s a chemical in it that’s toxic to them. It’s literally poison.”

Kitamoto yanks his hand back and holds the biscuits an arm’s length away from the wolf. Shibata is frantically looking something up on his phone. 

“Is that true? What else can’t they eat?” Taki says, looking as though she’s seconds away from flinging all of their snacks out the nearest window. 

And really, Shuuichi finds himself thinking, it’s typical. For all his knowledge and research on werewolves and lycanthropy, for all his determination when he arrived here, it’s the three-hour-long learning spree he went on when he agreed to babysit his manager’s seven-month-old cockapoo for the weekend that would have ultimately done the job. And he turned around and used it to prevent the wolf from dying.

The wolf—Nishimura mostly sticks to either Kitamoto or Natsume’s side, his head on their knee or shoulder. He soaks up the attention from his friends but he seems more tired than anything. 

Taki reasons aloud that the first full moon probably took a toll. She thinks that things will get easier as they go. Only time will tell. 

“I’m still going to try to break the curse for you,” she says, holding his snout in her hands and looking him in the eye. “I’m going to try everything. But even like this, we all love you so much.”

He licks her fingers. Message received. 

A few hours later, when the moon was no longer at its zenith, the wolf shuddered and whined, burying his nose against Kitamoto’s stomach. The change happens a little bit faster this time, pale skin peeking through the fur, ears folding back into messy russet-colored hair. It seems slightly less painful, the body returning to the shape it’s supposed to take. 

Finally it’s Nishimura sitting there, pale and exhausted in Tanuma’s oversized jacket. He leans against Kitamoto, pressing his face into his best friend’s shoulder. 

“I like you better as a wolf, Satchan,” Shibata says in a falsely-earnest tone.

“Literally no one invited you, Sumi,” Nishimura replies hoarsely. 

The room is full of relief and laughter as Tanuma drapes a blanket around Kitamoto and Nishimura’s shoulders, as Natsume presses a cold bottle of Pocari into Nishimura’s hands and Ogata tucks the frog stuffie into the blanket with them. 

Nishimura’s friends care about him so much that there is no room left for things like fear or disgust. They’re so loyal to one another, their lives entangled comfortably, their every conversation about the future a vision of togetherness. 

Shuuichi wonders if any other werewolf changed under those conditions. Under their adopted siblings’ gentle, fearless hands, in a room full of faces who looked at them with affection and trust. 

The curse pulls from nature, shaped by the moon and the toxin in the monster’s bite. What else does it absorb? If those fundamental moments are ones of fear and hatred, then it’s little wonder why the recorded history of werewolves is so frightening. 

It’s clear that Shuuichi’s presence is no longer needed, if it ever was in the first place. A quiet word to his shiki sends them ahead of him, back home. Hiiragi lingers to receive a particular set of orders, and sets off in the opposite direction to begin investigating the exorcist at the root of this mess. She is fond of Natsume and his friends and will tackle this job with particular fervor. 

Shuuichi is on the porch watching her departure when a tug on his sleeve draws his attention.

He turns to find Nishimura, of all people, who skitters back a whole two steps when Shuuichi looks at him. 

“Sorry,” the kid says quickly, as if convinced Shuuichi would bite his head off for standing too close. 

This is the boy that Natsume so fondly described on the phone as your number one fan, Natori. He asked Shuuichi for an autograph earlier. Now he can barely look at him, studying his house slippers intently and wringing his hands. 

Shuuichi boxes up the ache in his chest and shelves it for another time. He offers Nishimura a smile, knowing that there’s no way to undo the damage he’s done, but that’s no reason to add to it. 

“No need,” he says. “If anyone should apologize, it’s me. It seems I just never learn.”

“You,” Nishimura starts, and then pauses. Trying again, he says, “You really hunt monsters?”

“My clan did for many generations,” Shuuichi says readily. Frankly, he owes Nishimura whatever answers he wants. “I’m the only one left in my family with the proclivity for it.”

Nishimura nods slowly. He looks over his shoulder, back into the sitting room. It’s a small miracle his brother let him out of his sight for this long after the night they just had. Nishimura must think so, too, because he takes a deep breath and blurts, “It would have been okay.”

Shuuichi frowns, not understanding. 

“If you had to—hunt me,” Nishimura says. He still isn’t looking at him. “If I was going to hurt one of them and you had to stop me. That would have been okay.”

You only see monsters, Taki had said the very first time Shuuichi met her. She stood between him and Natsume with her arms spread wide, tiny and formidable and determined. Are you even looking?

“No, kid,” Shuuichi says gently. “It wouldn’t have.” 

[sojourner-between-worlds]

Got behind watching the Natsuyuu dub and finally got caught up tonight and

I'm sorry but I hate Natori's VA.

First line of dialog and I was like "nopenopeNOPE that is Not Correct"

Maybe I'll get used to it but between him and the Fujiwaras.... idk man.

(On the plus side: I do like Hiiragi and Hinoe, so there's that. They did a good job on casting those two.)