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In the intervening decades that had seen Nanase grow from an insecure exorcist-in-training to a full-fledged, experienced mistress of the craft, she had never forgotten the story of one Natsume Reiko, a woman so formidable that even the scariest youkai were cautious of her.
During the most trying years of her adolescence, Nanase had had the recurring dream of going once more in search of Reiko, just as she had done when she was in elementary school. Perhaps Reiko could tell her how to become more powerful. Or, at least, how to become an exorcist her father could be proud of. But then she had been sent to study under the Matobas, and all her dreams shifted to one day becoming as good as her new teachers.
Time went by. Nanase grew into her own power. Her father passed away. An heir was born to the Matoba clan, powerful and full of promise. And Nanase wouldn't think of looking for Natsume Reiko until many, many years later, when one day, at the end of summer, work took her back to Hitoyoshi, a city she hadn’t returned to since her father’s funeral.
The youkai Nanase had been called to deal with was but the work of an hour, and by noon she found herself in the unexpected position of having nothing to do until nightfall, when she was bound to take the train back to Miyazaki, where the main Matoba household was located.
Free of any immediate obligations, Nanase supposed that she could pay a visit to her family now that she was in the area. Her cousin—his father’s heir—was a tolerable man, and perhaps it would be good to talk to him about possible candidates to send for training to Miyazaki. She wasn’t getting any younger and someone would need to take her place one day as aide to Matoba Seiji.
The family residence was located in the outskirts of the city, in an area that sill retained much of its rural charm. As the taxi took her down old, familiar roads, a wave of nostalgia washed over her. She remembered walking these roads as a young girl. During the school week, in an attempt to fit in with her peers, she would pretend not to see the small spirits popping here and there among the tall grass. But come the weekend, she would chase after these same spirits following her father's strict teachings.
Nanase sighed. Had she really been so young?
Later that evening, as she was saying her goodbyes, that whiff of the past came back to her, tickled perhaps by buzz of the last remaining cicadas of the season and the smell of a family dinner being cooked on the stove. Turning toward her cousin, she made a request: There had been a woman named Natsume Reiko living in the next town over. She should be some years older than Nanase. Could he found out what had been of her?
* * * * *
Dead.
Natsume Reiko was dead.
She had been so for a quite a while, in fact. And, it seemed, was not really missed.
Her neighbours remembered her as an eccentric woman, not at all conventional. One day, many years ago, she had disappeared only to return some months later with a newborn baby in her arms and no ring on her finger. The baby had grown into a quiet girl that had left town fresh out of high-school to go work in a big city—Kobe, a neighbour seemed to remember—never to come back. She had died giving birth, see, leaving behind a husband and a son, and a mother that couldn't get over her loss and would soon follow her. All very sad, really. Though, to be honest, the neighbourhood had been somewhat relieved when Natsume Reiko had been laid to rest and, with her, the strange things that kept happening wherever she went.
Strange things, indeed.
Nanase read the report sent by her cousin and closed her eyes in unusual regret. She wondered if things would have turned out differently had she searched for Reiko back when she had been a teenager.
* * * * *
It wasn’t difficult to find out what had been of Reiko’s grandson. There was a paper trail a mile long leading to him. Natsume Takashi, it seemed, had been born under a bad sign. Not only had his mother died in childbirth, but his father had passed away just a handful of years later after a devastating illness. Following his death, the child had been passed around from one family member to another, never to remain in one place for more than a few months. Relatives said there was something wrong with the boy. Adults were unnerved by him. Children ran away from him in fear.
After the first two families, social services had put a note on his file: “Attention seeker”. Then came another family and another note: “Trouble child”. And then another: “Pathological liar”. And another: “Possible schizophrenia?” And another: "Seek psychiatric care ASAP".
It was the most recent note that decided Nanase. She had to see Reiko’s grandchild with her own eyes.
* * * * *
Natsume Takashi was not what Nanase had been expecting. Surely a woman as indomitable as Natsume Reiko had been told to be couldn’t be related to this waif of a child. The files said he was eight years old but he didn't look older than six. He had thin limbs—too thin, perhaps—messy golden-wheat hair and a pair of soulful eyes she could vaguely guess under the bangs obscuring them from view as the child looked down to the ground, hugging his legs as he sat under an old camphor tree. In the distance, a group of children played boisterously a game of tag. On a nearby bench, a mother rocked a fuzzy baby, while a couple of young families were having lunch on the grassy lawn of the park. The place was loud and brilliant. Yet here there was this little boy, hiding under the shadows a tall tree, surrounded by a bubble of silence.
As she kept looking, wondering how to proceed, a shadow detached itself from the lowest hanging branch of the camphor.
No, not a shadow, Nanase realized a second later: a youkai. Her hand reached into her coat in search of an ofuda until to stop. Its ridiculous amount of hair, its white mask and the long beard growing under it made it easy to identify. A tree spirit. Scary looking, but completely harmless.
With wobbling steps, the tree youkai went to sit next to the Natsume boy, whose whole body went rigid with tension.
Just as Nanase was about to approach them, the child jumped violently to his feet with a scared scream.
"Leave me alone!!"
The park went instantly quiet. The children stopped their game. The mother, startled, gripped her baby to her chest. On the nearby lawn, the adults turned to look for the cause of the commotion.
Faster than it would have seemed possible for such a small boy, Natsume Takashi bolted from under the tree and ran past a surprised Nanase. As he went past her, she could hear him repeating to himself, "It’s not real! It’s not real! Not real!"
Once, when she had been a young child, Nanase had find the strength to overcome all obstacles in the story of a formidable girl whose mere name sent even the most powerful youkai into hiding. And so, although she had never met Natsume Reiko, she had still been saved by her.
Now it was time for Nanase to pay her back.