Natsume Yuujinchou Vol 1 Chapter 1

1

Ever since I was young, I sometimes saw strange things. These things that other people couldn’t see are called youkai.

For example, when I wait at the intersection for the light to change and look across the road, somebody is standing there. She looks like a young woman. However, her face is green. Her long hair reaches her feet, and her red, inflamed eyes are glaring at me. Or when I’m heading home from school, walking with my classmates, there is a face in the wall of somebody’s house. A man’s face, three times larger than the usual, is watching passing schoolchildren with emotionless eyes.

It took me some time to realise only I could see them. I was scolded by an old man after I didn’t hurry to cross even when the light turned green and the old man had pulled at my hand. When I said that I could see a large face in the wall with nothing in it, my classmates called me a liar. When things like that happened over and over, as expected, I thought it was strange. Somehow or other, it seemed that, besides the usual people and things that could be seen by everyone, there existed strange creatures that only I could see. At first, I thought that other people also had things that only they could see, and they just kept it to themselves. When I realised that other people couldn’t see them, that in this world – in any case, in the small world that I lived in then – I was the only person who could see those strange creatures, I trembled in fear. I ended up hiding my ability.

However, no matter how carefully I tried to hide it, I could still see the things I saw. On top of that, most of them would appear suddenly. There were some that I could see so clearly that I couldn’t tell the difference between them and normal human beings. I, who had lost my parents young and been passed from relative to relative, sometimes caused trouble because of that. Most people would think a child was strange if he pointed in a different direction and suddenly yelled, or talked to somebody in a room that had nobody in it. Every time I moved, the classmates who were kind to me at first would gradually leave me, since I ‘always told lies’. It couldn’t be helped, since I was at fault. That’s what I thought, so I ended up trying to have as little to do with other people as possible.

– One day, I won’t be able to see them anymore.

When I was a child, I spent every day hoping for that. Without opening my heart to anyone.

I was only able to connect closely with others after I was taken into my current home. The Fujiwara family, Shigeru-san and Touko-san, who are my considerably distant relatives, are kind-hearted people who heard that I was being passed around between my relatives and went out of their way to take me in. In this town, I also formed ties with ayakashi. Those came from incidents that arose from the overlapping of several coincidences and fates – that’s what I think now. Because I happened to hold something I inherited from my grandmother, a youkai attacked me to try to get it, and I broke a barrier when I was trying to run away, which let out an ayakashi that coincidentally happened to be an acquaintance of my grandmother, Reiko. That ayakashi is currently my bodyguard. His real form is a large ayakashi that looks like a beautiful white wolf, but normally he has the form of a round and fat pig cat – if you ask him, he says it’s his vessel – and he is currently living with the Fujiwara family as a pet cat. I call him Nyanko-sensei.

My grandmother Reiko could see spirits like I can. With her strong spiritual power, she would challenge all the youkai she met, and when they lost, she would collect their names on sheets of paper as a sign that they had become her servants. If whoever held this book of contracts called the name of an ayakashi, it couldn’t disobey - the 'Book of Friends’. The person who held it would have the power to control many youkai. There’s no end to the Countless ayakashi come to me to try to take the Book of Friends or get their name back, since I inherited the Book of Friends from my grandmother. Nyanko-sensei is my bodyguard now because I promised him he would get the Book of Friends when I died. The Book of Friends became the foundation for me and Nyanko-sensei’s bond. When I think about it, the beginnings for bonds like this always seem to fall into place. We just happened to be distant relatives. We just happened to be in the same class. We just happened to chat on the street – people’s bonds are created by straining your ears to notice series of coincidences and fates like those ones. This is the opinion of somebody I’ll talk about later.

In this town, my fate continues to overlap with other people and ayakashi. For the first time in my life, I learnt that this was how people form bonds with others. This is probably something that others learn when they’re much younger. Sometimes I wonder – could I have had the same sort of relationships with the people I met before? If I had just noticed the chances scattered here and there and hadn’t looked away.

In any case, like that, I finally started concerning myself with others. Like a child that has just started to walk – scared and confused, slowly.

In the evening, I met Taki on the way back from Nanatsujiya. Taki is a girl at the same high school as me, in Class 5 and one of the important friends that I made in this town.

'Hi, Natsume. Ah…’

The moment after her eyes met Nyanko-sensei’s:

'Kyaa! Kitty!’ Taki squealed, and she hugged Sensei.

Nanatsujiya is Sensei’s favourite manjuu shop. That day, I had bought the new red bean paste flavour with mugwort in it, so Sensei had been hurrying me because he wanted to get home more quickly to eat it. Sensei was struggling in Taki’s arm while grumbling, 'Oi, stop it, let go of me, you.’

'Ah, sorry,’ Taki said as she handed Sensei back to me and released him.

Taki knows that I can 'see’ and also that Nyanko-sensei is an ayakashi.

The first time I met Taki, she had been wearing a plain coat with an old hat covering her eyes, trying as hard as she could to not stand out – she had been walking carefully so that people wouldn’t call out to her. I found out afterwards that that was so she could fight a youkai on her own, but since I hadn’t known at the time, I had carelessly called out to her, and Taki, who had been surprised, ended up saying my name back to me. Because of that, I learned a lot about her situation and about her. I also know now that she’s actually a girl who likes to talk a lot and loves cute things.

'Taki, are you heading home now?’ I said, looking at Taki in her uniform with her schoolbag.

'Yes, I ended up staying late since I was doing some research at the library.’

'Research?’

'Yes, a little.’

'More importantly, what are you holding?’ said Nyanko-sensei, who had been sniffing since a little while ago. 'It smells like an ayakashi.’

Sensei’s nose was pointed towards Taki’s bag.

'Ah, it might be this.’

Like it had just come to mind, Taki took a white envelope that was a bit larger than the regular ones from her bag.

'Hm, that’s it.’

I looked at the letter in Taki’s hand, but it didn’t look like anything especially strange was stuck to it.

'Is a youkai hiding inside the envelope, Sensei?’

'Who knows. It might just smell like an ayakashi because it was near ayakashi for a long time. I only feel a faint presence.’

'Taki, could you let me see it?’

'Ah, OK.’

The white envelope had already been opened neatly with a paper knife. Inside, I could see one piece of stationary and one more brown envelope. The reason the white envelope had been bigger than usual was probably so that it could hold both of these. I took out the other envelope that had been inside. It looked like it hadn’t been glued close, and the top portion had only been folded neatly.

'What is this?’

'That was something addressed to my grandfather, but…’

'Your grandfather?’

Taki’s grandfather was interested in youkai and spent his whole life searching for them. Taki, who inherited some items from her grandfather Shinichirou-san, wound up involved with youkai because of it.

'There were some circumstances, so it arrived now. The circumstances are written in the letter.’

Taki held out the brand new piece of stationery that had been in the white envelope.

'The old envelope that was also enclosed had already been written ten or so years ago, but for some reason, it hadn’t been sent. Then recently, the letter’s owner…’

For a moment, Taki stopped speaking to correct herself.

'The person who wrote this passed away. One of her grandchildren found this and sent it.’

'Really? The contents… Did you read them?’

'Yes. I couldn’t read it well.’

'Eh?’

'There are those wavy letters that people in the past used to write, right?’

'Ah, do you mean cursive?’

'It was written like that. I couldn’t read it, so I thought I would research how to read it at the library, but it seems like it’s a bit different from cursive…’

'Hmm.’

Without thinking, I tried to take a look at the contents, but just barely stopped my hand. Something might have flown out and hurt Taki.

'Natsume, what’s the point of getting involved with something like that? Hurry up and go home.’

'What are you saying? You were the one who said you smelled an ayakashi, Sensei.’

'I need to hurry home to eat manjuu. If you’re interested, you can just take that envelope home and investigate it later.’

'Eh? Ah, that’s true… Taki, could I borrow this?’

I couldn’t let Taki take something that had the presence of an ayakashi home.

'Ah, OK. I want to read that letter if I can. I want to know what sorts of things were written to my grandfather. If that letter has some relation to youkai, then you might have a better chance of reading it than me, Natsume-kun.’

In this world, ayakashi have their own writing, and the Book of Friends was written in that. This might be the same kind of writing.

'If you can read it, tell me what’s written in it, OK?’

'OK, thank you.’

'Come on, Natsume. If you’re finished talking, let’s go home.’

I was hurried away by Nyanko-sensei, so I said goodbye to Taki and headed to the Fujiwaras’ home.

'Sensei, you said that earlier so Taki wouldn’t be in danger, right?’

'Hah? Why would I have to worry about something like that? Even if an ayakashi came out from the letter there, there’s nothing to worry about if I’m there. I’d knock it down before it could do anything to you.’

'That’s true, but you never know.’

Sensei hmph-ed as he ate his manjuu.

I took out the envelope I got from Taki and looked inside. When I thought about it, it would’ve been fine if I had just taken the old letter that had the presence of ayakashi, but I noticed then that I had also taken home the white envelope it had been in. I had felt awkward about reading a letter addressed to someone else, but since Taki had handed it over too, that probably meant it was OK for me to read as well. On top of that, the person who should have read this letter had already passed away.

First, I took out the letter from the white envelope and read it.

Dear Taki Shinichirou-sama

My name is Sako Yoshimi, and I am the granddaughter of Fujie Ichiko, who had taken care of the antique shop called Lamp Hall. Fujie is my mother’s maiden name, so Ichiko was my maternal grandmother.

Last month, on the 29th, my grandmother Ichiko passed away. While I was sorting through the inheritance, I found a bundle of letters addressed from Taki-sama to my grandmother that was kept with great care. None of my relatives knew Taki-sama, but I understood that he was somebody who had a close friendship with my grandmother, so I am writing to inform him of my grandmother’s death.

When I found the bundle of letters from Taki-sama, I was unsure as to whether I should inform him of my grandmother’s death or not. I arbitrarily looked at the letters, but there was not much in way of content – only two numbers written after a black circle. There were more than a hundred of these mysterious letters. Is that some sort of code? There were some relatives who told me to throw them out since they were strange, but as I was interested, I decided to look through my grandmother’s diary.

When I did, I saw that directly after the postmark of each letter, there would be numbers written in the diary. Those numbers were exactly the same as the ones in the letter. My grandmother would always write down the numbers from the letters Taki-sama sent. When I looked more, a few days after or sometimes a few months after, I understood that my grandmother would send a reply. The oldest letter I found was from before my mother was born. It seems he had this mysterious correspondence with my grandmother for many years.

In my grandmother’s diary, the only things that are written down are the day’s weather, what she ate, or sometimes the things she sold. Among those, the numbers from Taki-sama’s letters and the words 'A reply to Taki-sama’ give off a conspicuous colour. I felt that to my grandmother, they had a special meaning.

Incidentally, there was something else saved with the letters from Taki-sama. It was a letter addressed to him from my grandmother. It was in an old envelope and it had the address written on it, but it had not been sealed, and the letter inside was written in strange letters so I could not read it.

When I looked in the diary again, I saw that a few months after the day the very last letter from Taki-sama arrived, my grandmother had written, 'I will write a reply letter. Without sending it.’ I thought she was referring to this letter. It appears that my grandmother kept this letter with her for a long time.

Then, I decided at my own discretion to inform Taki-sama of my grandmother’s death and send this letter as well. We do not know what Taki-sama’s current circumstances are. If this letter does not reach him and is instead received by his family, please feel free to dispose of it.

Hopefully, this will put a 'period’ to form a nice ending to Taki-sama and my grandmother’s many years of correspondence.

Sincerely, Sako Yoshimi

It was a strange story.

Exactly what sort of messages were this old lady and Taki’s grandfather sending each other? Would reading the other enclosed letter solve that puzzle? I took the letter out from the brown envelope and unfolded it.

Just as Taki had said, strange, wavy letters were lined up on the piece of paper.

'So? Was there an ayakashi inside?’

I heard Sensei ask that after he finished eating his manjuu.

'No, there’s nothing here.’

The moment I replied, the letters started moving.

Just when I thought they were rolling like waves, the black letters crept about on top of the paper and then jumped out.

'Uwah!’

For a moment, everything went black. The things that had jumped from the paper had split into two groups and flown into my eyes.

'What happened, Natsume?’

'Something just flew into my eyes!’ I yelled as I covered my eyes.

'What. Let me see.’

Sensei growled as he peeked into my eyes.

'Hm, what are these things?’

'Is there something in there, Sensei!?’

'Skinny little things like worms are moving around in the back of your eyes.’

'Eh!? Are they youkai? Sensei, do something.’

'Why should I?’

'You’re my bodyguard! Plus, you said that even if something came out, you’d knock it down before it could do anything to me!’

'I can’t watch over you even for these small fry of the small fry! Do something yourself.’

'Even if you say do something…’

'Having that level of spiritual power in your body won’t be much of an issue anyway. Does it hurt?’

It had hurt for the moment that they flew into my eyes, but I didn’t feel anything now.

'Does anything look strange?’

I looked around, but everything looked the same. It seemed like there hadn’t been any effect on my sight.

'Then there’s no harm. Just leave them alone – they’re small fry. If I tried to take them out with my power, I’d end up damaging your eyes.’

'But…’

Even if they were small things that didn’t do any harm, I felt uncomfortable having youkai in my body.

Suddenly, I thought of somebody who had an ayakashi in the shape of a lizard birthmark on his body. It had been there since he was young. It did no harm and moved around his body, but the one place it wouldn’t go was his left leg.

'You can just think of it as something like that.’

Sensei was irresponsible to the end.

'Anyway, what about the letter, Natsume?’

'Ah, I forgot about that.’

The places that the letter ayakashi had been had become discoloured stains, and there was one portion that couldn’t be read, but I could see the original contents of the letter written in beautiful regular script.

'Ah, I see. Mojibake had been living here.’

'Mojibake?’

'Like the name, they’re ayakashi who garble text. They live in old paper and take on the appearance of human letters. There are animals that change to look like their surroundings to hide from natural predators, right? These are the same.’

'Camouflage, you mean?’

So there are youkai that are like chameleons and inchworms.

'Mojibake neither understand human language nor can they read letters. They just take on the appearance of something like it. The person who sent that letter was the owner of an antique shop, right? The mojibake probably copied some Buddhist sutras or something in the back of that antique shop.’

I see. There was no helping it when Taki couldn’t read the letters even after researching them.

'But why did they go into my eyes even though they didn’t move when Taki was reading the letter?’

'I’ve heard that mojibake are ayakashi that don’t usually move around much in the first place. They pretend to be letters for a long time without moving. They probably responded to your spiritual power. They might have been surprised and thought an enemy had appeared.’

Things like this happen sometimes when you have power. When I was younger, I had lamented my unluckiness, but I now hope that the power will continue to accompany me well. That said, of course I get depressed when things like this happen.

Now, on the letter that the mojibake had jumped out from, there was a ○mark followed by the numbers '14 – 9’ in kanji. After that, a short sentence had been written, but there was a stain from the mojibake so it couldn’t be read. It just looked like 'I s th en f e me i n it ’.

'Oh, Takashi-kun. Are you washing your face again?’

I had gone downstairs to wash my face at the sink when Touko-san called out to me. She knew that I had gone to wash my face before going upstairs when I had returned.

'Ah, no… Nyanko-sensei had been playing around and then some dust got into my eye.’

Sensei snorted, as if to say, Don’t blame it on me.

'Are you OK? Could you let me take a look?’

Touko-san moved closer to my face and looked at it carefully. She used her finger to pull my eyelid down a bit.

'Hm, I can’t see anything. It doesn’t hurt, does it?’

'Ah, no, not at all.’

When I had Sensei check afterwards, the mojibake were still definitely in my eyes. It seemed that people couldn’t see the mojibake that had flown out of the paper.

'I’m glad. It looks like you got it out. It’ll be dinner soon, so come after you’ve dried your face.’

'I will.’

I wonder if she thought that was strange. No, it’s fine even if she did. In the past, I would have tried to hide more than necessary and actually invite distrust. Now, even little interactions like this made me happy.

In the end, that day passed with no effect from the youkai that had flown into my eyes. However, I just hadn’t noticed the effect, though the change had already occurred. I noticed it the next day.

There was already an omen at school, at lunch in the corridor when I ran into Tanuma, who had been looking at the schoolyard.

'Natsume… is there anything there?’

Tanuma, like me, can feel the presence of ayakashi. That was how we became friends.

'Hm? No, I don’t see anything.’

'Oh, then it’s just my mistake. I thought I’d seen some sort of shadow moving in the bushes.’

Tanuma can’t see ayakashi as clearly as I can. He usually only felt them as shadows and presences.

'Oi, Tanuma? PE’s next!’

'Ah, I’m coming. See you, Natsume.’

Tanuma returned to his classroom after his classmate Kitamoto called out to him. After he left, I looked at the bushes Tanuma had pointed out to me once more just to check, but I couldn’t see anything like an ayakashi.

Nothing else occurred. A large face didn’t suddenly appear in the wall of somebody’s house, and there was no green-faced woman standing on the other size of the crosswalk. Maybe because the sun was bright that day, so the sunlight felt pleasant and gentle, but I wasn’t concerned about the youkai in my eyes. There were such small youkai, and just like Sensei said, there might be no problem if they didn’t cause any harm. Just when I had started thinking that way, and I was walking near the street where the kappa always collapsed with the bowl on his head parched, I stepped on something soft.

'Ugyaa!’

I heard a voice. I immediately looked to my feet, but nothing was there.

'Hey, Natsume! That’s awful!’

The kappa’s voice? But from where?’

'Even though you’ve saved me so many times, I don’t remember receiving such poor treatment! If it’s like this, even if you’re my benefactor, I’ll ask for a match… Ah, I’m dizzy.’

I heard the sound of something falling, but I still couldn’t see the kappa.

Unexpectedly, Nyanko-sensei appeared.

'Sensei, I heard the kappa’s voice, but I don’t see him.’

'What? You can’t see the little thing there?’

Sensei stared at my face.

'Tha… Even if you lie… I won’t be fool… *yawn*.’

From that weak voice, it was clear that the kappa was there, with his bowl dried up as usual. However, I couldn’t see him.

'Sensei, could this be…’

It had to be the mojibake.

'Natsume, come.’

Sensei took me to Yatsuhara. Before that, I drew some water from somewhere nearby and poured it in the direction the voice was coming from. The kappa, who had been grumbling since before, gave his thanks as he always did and seemed to run off somewhere.

At Yatsuhara, the two chuukyuu and other ayakashi appeared to have gathered around me at Sensei’s call.

'It’s a serious affair if Natsume-sama can’t see us anymore!’

'A serious affair, a serious affair!’

'How deplorable. Becoming unable to see us because something like mojibake got into your eyes – there’s a limit to how weak you can be. Though that’s cute too.’

'Uwah, stop! Don’t breathe on me so suddenly, Hinoe!’

'I don’t know what this meat dumpling shorty was doing, but he’s a completely useless bodyguard!’

'Shut up! Someone noble like me has rules about not dealing with small fry like that.’

The ayakashi who had gathered around me because they were worried were certainly there. However, I couldn’t see any of them at all besides Nyanko-sensei. Since Nyanko-sensei’s appearance as a round, piggish cat was a vessel that could be seen by other people, I could see him now as well. That’s why we didn’t notice the change at all the day before.

'Natsume, how about this?’

With a cloud of smoke, Sensei disappeared.

Suddenly, there was nobody around me.

'Sensei, are you there?’

I spoke up in an insecure voice.

Silence.

One bicycle passed by.

As a man in a baseball cap walked past, he looked dubiously at me, standing in a field by myself.

’… Sensei.’

'Relax. I’m here.’

I felt relieved when I heard his voice.

'Please return to your original form. I can’t calm down when I can only hear your voice.’

'It’s not my original form. This is just a temporary form to conceal myself.’

While complaining, Sensei turned back into his Nyanko form.

'If such small ayakashi can directly possess humans, they aren’t exactly harmless. This is interesting,’ said Chobi.

'It can’t be helped. I’ll look for information about the mojibake for you,’ said Hinoe.

'But it would be better not to let other ayakashi know about this.’

'Let’s keep this a secret between us.’

'Secret, secret,’ said the two chuukyuu.

I felt grateful from the bottom of my heart. Not being able to see them was irritating.

I thought while walking home from Yatsuhara with Sensei.

– What if I’ll never be able to see them again?

I’ve met somebody before who lost his ability to see ayakashi and so couldn’t see the ayakashi whom he had bonded with anymore. That was after I had met Nyanko-sensei and the others, so when I found out something like that could happen, I felt a fear deep inside me.

'What are you thinking about, Natsume?’

'Ah, nothing much.’

'You’re probably thinking about useless things, like what if the mojibake take more of your power and start breeding in your eyes to spread throughout your body or something.’

'No I’m not! Don’t say such terrifying things, Sensei.’

I hadn’t been imagining anything so unpleasant, but I couldn’t say it wouldn’t happen. Though right now I just couldn’t see ayakashi, I might become unable to hear them or even feel their presence.

If I lost my ability to notice youkai, they would probably stop interacting with me. Nyanko-sensei… might snatch the Book of Friends away from me and run off somewhere, since I can’t even give back the names of the ayakashi who come to ask for them anymore. I would no longer have days full of ayakashi bothering me. That should have been something I couldn’t stop wishing for as a child, but what was the loneliness I felt in my chest now?

That night, I saw a strange dream.

I was in a dim room – pots and plates, hanging scrolls, ceramic dolls, wall clocks, a peculiar musty smell. The entire shop was blanketed in mysterious rainbow colours. There was a register in the back.

One old lady was looking at a letter she had just finished writing. That was probably the letter that the mojibake had been in. The old lady put the letter into an addressed envelope with resolve. When she was about to glue the letter closed, her hand stopped. The old lady let out a sigh and put the envelope in a drawer without sealing it.

Suddenly, a mysterious light filled the shop, and the antiques lining the walls started clamouring, as if in response to the old lady’s sigh. A lamp that wasn’t plugged in was letting out a warm light, and shadows of dolls started dancing lightly. It was as if the antiques had put on a banquet to console the old lady. However, the old lady didn’t seem to notice and closed her eyes, as if to mull over her memories. Soon, she fell into a doze.

I continued not being able to see ayakashi for three days. It seemed that the youkai at Yatsuhara had kept the secret to themselves, and the kappa appeared to have understood as well and didn’t tell anybody, so I wasn’t attacked by any youkai. The silver lining in the situation with the mojibake was that they hadn’t increased, and nothing worse happened in that regard. I wasn’t particularly inconvenienced, and my days could have been called peaceful. Just, my interest was piqued by the dream.

'Isn’t that the mojibake saying that want to go back to that old lady’s store?’

That was what Hinoe said after she came to report her findings after researching the mojibake. Unfortunately, she didn’t have any results. Nobody had heard of mojibake possessing humans through their eyes, much less a method to chase them out.

'I see; that might be it. Natsume, will you go to that shop?’

Sensei’s unusual proactivity might have been because he, standing by my side, also felt uncomfortable about the half-baked situation I was in.

On the third day, Taki called out to me when I was the way home, and I returned the letter to her. I gave her the summary of what happened with the mojibake, but since I didn’t want her to worry for no reason, I decided not to tell her that they had gone into my eyes. Taki was surprised when she saw the letter without the mojibake and was sincerely happy that the words could be read now. However, the meaning of the numbers remained a mystery.

'But thank you. I don’t know what it means, but I think this letter was important to my grandfather.’

'Um… about the antique shop called Lamp Hall mentioned in the letter.’

’?’

'The address is different than the address of the granddaughter, Sako Yoshimi, but I wonder if it’s still there.’

'Ah, the shop? What about it?’

'It just caught my interest, so I’d like to go once.’

'Eh?’

Surprised, Taki looked at me for a while, but she answered without asking me anything.

'If that’s the case, you’ll have to go soon or the shop will be gone.’

'Eeh?’

'I sent a letter of gratitude to that person. To thank her for sending a letter to my grandfather. I thought I should inform her of my grandfather’s death too. I got the reply to that yesterday, and it said that after a discussion between the relatives, it was decided that the antique shop would be closed.’

'Oh, I see…’

'She wrote that there was nobody to take over the shop. The owner of the building the shop is in wants to rebuild it too, so once the exorcism is finished, they’ll start on that right away.’

'The exorcism?’

'Hm?’

'What do you mean by exorcism?’

'I don’t know exactly. Since it’s a shop that handles antiques, if they’re destroying it, there might be a lot of things there.’

I see, I thought, but I felt a little stuck. Were antique shops always exorcised when they closed?

'If you’re going, Natsume-kun, should I contact Yoshimi-san?’

'Ah, no, that’s…’

Even if Taki went out of her way to do that for me, it would be difficult to explain when somebody who was a complete stranger like me would visit. There was no way I could say that the youkai who had flown into my eyes wanted to return to that shop. I dodged Taki’s question by saying that I had just planned on going when I felt like it so there was no need.

'I think I’ll look through my grandfather’s things once more, since the same letters should definitely be there.’

Taki looked determined, with fists clenched. Taki’s grandfather Shinichirou had left a lot of belongings in the attic and the storeroom, so it wouldn’t be easy. Then, when I was leaving, like it had just come to mind:

'Ah, and if you’re going to visit Lamp Hall, I’ll hand this letter over to you again. Since the address is written on it.’

Taki handed over just the old brown envelope, taking it out from the second envelope.

'OK.’

At that time, I casually accepted it, but it would cause a serious misunderstanding afterwards.

In any case, the next Sunday, I decided to visit Lamp Hall, taking Nyanko-sensei with me. I probably wouldn’t be able to go inside, but it would be fine if I could just look from outside. I didn’t really have any hopes for that being enough for the mojibake in my eyes to feel nostalgic and leave.

The shop was near a train station that could be reached after a few stops by express train from a local station. It was in the centre of a fairly large city with a university, so it had many students. It was unexpectedly close to home, and I arrived before noon after departing past ten. I heard some time ago from Shigeru-san that this town didn’t have a direct line before, and even when travelling by train, it was necessary to make a large detour. Most people commuting to the university stayed at boarding houses.

After eating a quick lunch at an udon shop near the station since Nyanko-sensei was badgering me, I searched for the shop while looking at the address on the back of the brown envelope

The town was mountainous in the north, and there was level ground all the way to the ocean in the south, but the station itself was built in the north. Halfway up the mountain, there was a shrine with a long history, and the town grew on the two sides of the road leading to the shrine. The university was on high ground as well, so the old school building looked down on the town. When you left the station, there was a bus roundabout, with five roads radiating out.

I checked the address on the map at the police box beside the station and walked through the shopping district that stretched northwest along the railroad tracks from the station. It seemed like a student district, lined with second-hand bookshops, stationery shops and stylish cafes. The shop I was looking for, Lamp Hall, was a little out of place. On the way, each time we passed a child, they would see Nyanko-sensei and giggle or point, Sensei was thoroughly offended.

'Oi, Natsume, I’m going home. Go to the antique shop yourself.’

'Don’t say that – come with me. I’ll treat you to manjuu at Nanatsujiya.’

I turned at a few streets and went onto a side road and was checking the address on the envelope when a woman passed by.

'Excuse me, is there an antique shop called Lamp Hall near here?’

'Eh?’

The woman turned to face me, looking very surprised.

'If you’re looking for Lamp Hall, if you turn left there and walk north along the river you’ll reach it in no time…’

She might have been a university student, with her long hair tied into a ponytail and a feathered accessory that looked Native American around her neck. She was wearing faded blue jeans and had a paper bag from a bookshop. Though her appearance was plain, it felt somehow refined.

'But that shop is already…’

'Ah, I know. I just have a connection…’

'Oh, OK…’

The woman looked at me dubiously. Then, she spotted the letter I was holding and appeared taken aback. She looked like she wanted to say something, but in the end, she just bowed and left.

'Come on, Natsume, hurry up.’

When I turned at the corner, just as the woman had told me to, there was a small river there, and from the south to the north, there was a pleasant street lined with willows with swaying branches. On the opposite riverbank, Sensei spotted a sign for a sweet shop and wanted to cross over, but I managed to get the better of him so we continued walking north along the river. The student district had come to an end and regular houses continued. Lamp Hall was among them.

When we reached the front of the shop, Sensei suddenly stood up and growled.

'Ugh, this is not a good sign, Natsume.’

'What’s wrong, Sensei?’

'Something unpleasant is here.’

'An ayakashi?’

'Hm, from my thoughts it’s something more unpleasant.’

We were standing in front of the shop. A sign saying the shop was open was hanging on the door, but I couldn’t feel a human presence from inside.

'What on earth is inside, Sensei?’

At that moment, the door opened slowly. When I saw the face of the person who appeared, I couldn’t not be surprised. If you were to call series of coincidences the fates people share, this person and I were surely very connected by fate.

'Oh? Natsume. We’ve met somewhere unexpected.’

A handsome face smiled brightly at me. In my surprise, I called out that person’s name loudly.

'Natori-san!’

Notes:

The word en (縁) comes up a lot in this story. I couldn’t decide on a consistent translation and ended up using 'connect’, 'ties’ &c. (It was that or 'Natsume formed social links’, OK?). However, I felt that lost a lot of the word’s nuances so if you’re interested, I’d suggest looking up the translation for the word yourself!

Guuzen (偶然) and hitsuzen (必然) also come up a lot. If you’ve read Holic, you’ll recognise the terms, and here I’ve usually translated them as coincidence and fate. Again, the translation is a bit lacking, so if you’re interested, look up hitsuzen.

They’re translated as cursive and regular below, but to be specific, they’re soushotai (草書体) and kaishotai (楷書体), which are both methods for writing kanji.

The words that the mojibake covered are actually stained in the actual novel, but I couldn’t think of a good way to show it. m(_ _;)m

Chapter end