Ever since I was little, I have seen strange things. These are beings known as youkai, but the strangest thing of it all is that the humans are somehow able to see me.

The Fujiwaras were kind people. It had been barely a day since they had taken Natsume under their wing, and he already could tell that they were different. He was sure of it.

Natsume set his single box down in the upstairs room, surveying the empty space as he sighed in relief. No ayakashi yet, it seemed. An unpleasant sensation of being watched had started ever since he entered the strangely nostalgic town, but Natsume was determined that this time, he would behave flawlessly. No one would notice him jumping at random or arguing with air.

He rubbed his wrist, a white bandage still in place from the incident two weeks ago with that white ayakashi. A breeze rattled the window, and Natsume turned to open it and stare out onto the unfamiliar town. School started tomorrow for him, and he was entering the year in the middle of it all. He hoped that there would be someone friendly in his class.

"I'm already fifteen, huh," Natsume said to himself, leaning his head out to feel the breeze. "I wonder if this place is near to that forest."

The wind gave him no answers, a small wind chime clinking gently at him instead. Downstairs, he could hear Fujiwara Touko, his new foster mother, call for him.

"Coming!" He yelled, latching the window shut and leaving the room with a second glance back. After all, who knew what would enter the room if the window wasn't shut…

"Hello, my name is Takashi Natsume. Please take care of me," Natsume said, bowing slightly to the class. His bow hid his slightly furrowed brow and his nervous, darting eyes, an expression which he smoothed into a practiced easygoing grin as he straightened up. "I hope to have a great year with everyone."

"Right, Natsume-kun," the teacher said, nodding at him. "Your seat is by the window, behind Nishimura."

Natsume nodded, moving towards the seat in question. The kid in front, Nishimura, grinned at him, one arm on the back of his chair as he watched Natsume settle in and start placing his books on the desk.

"Psssst, hey," the guy whispered, his voice too loud to be inconspicuous. "I'm Nishimura, ask me if you've got any questions, yeah?"

Natsume started ever so slightly, meeting Nishimura's gaze. He wouldn't look left. "Thanks," Natsume replied quietly, smiling slightly. "I'll be in your care."

He didn't dare look left.

When Natsume returned home, he took his shoes off and entered the house. It was quiet; no one else was there. A quick glance around revealed a note with a notice that Natsume's host mother had gone shopping, and he was free to help himself to anything in the fridge if he was hungry. A slight smile tugged at Natsume's mouth, before he headed upstairs to change out of his school uniform.

He slid open his door and startled, jumping back as the wide eyes of an ayakashi narrowed in on his face from where it was by the window, one hand slipped through the cracks as it tried to open it all the way.

Fear bubbled in the back of Natsume's throat, and he lunged forwards. "Hey!" He yelled, attempting to grab the ayakashi as it yanked its arm out of the latch and backed up a few meters in the air, hovering there as it kept staring at him expectantly. Its mouth moved, forming words that only itself could hear, and Natsume stood there, chest heaving, as he watched it for a second. Natsume's eyes narrowed, and he eyed it. "Don't enter this house and cause trouble for the people here," He said flatly. "If you're going to bother me, do it elsewhere."

He turned, expecting no reply and receiving none, to unpack his stuff, change, and quickly head downstairs. He wanted to look around the town anyways, and maybe it would get that ghost-like ayakashi away from the house. Just as he was leaving and locking up, he looked up towards his window. The black ayakashi that had been staring in from outside the window was still there, in the corner of his vision, when Natsume finally turned and left.

Something seemed strange.
Natsume could, like many other ayakashi, smell the presence of others. It was a handy skill for keeping away from them, but never before had Natsume sensed so many- and yet so far every single one on his walk had remained out of sight.

Well, up until now, that is.

"Reiko," the black ayakashi moaned, curling and weaving around trees, white blank eyes tracking Natsume's every movement. It had appeared a little bit after he had left, following him just as he had thought. "Reiko, give it to me."
The hair on the back of Natsume's neck stood up, and he could smell the scent of at least twenty other lesser youkai hidden behind the trees and under the bushes. Waiting, watching, the very air teeming with anticipation.

"I presume," Natsume said, slowly, deliberately, turning around to face the ayakashi. "That you are talking of my grandmother?"

The ayakashi merely blinked at him, not comprehending, before a thin line of white ripped across its face, a mouth full of sharp teeth cracking open. "Reiko," it merely hissed again, right before it dove at him.

Natsume didn't move; he waited until it was half a meter from his face and lashed out, a quick jab between the eyes enough to send it howling into the denser part of the forest. He watched it go, rubbing the back of its head, and suddenly very conscious of the many eyes watching him. Natsume sighed, made a note to figure out where the closest shrines were, and turn to head home the long way.

Just in case.

The first month seemed to fly by; Natsume kept carefully quiet in class. There were more incidents like the first, unfortunately, and Natsume wondered if it was really such a good idea to be in this town. It was dangerous for so many eyes to be on him, always watching, always ready to find out the dirty truth about the half human among their midst, not to mention safety to the people kind enough to be around Natsume. And… The concept of family seemed almost strange after all these years, albeit in a good way. A way that made Natsume long to have met his grandmother. Would it have been different for him, having a human that cared about him, that knew about his past and blood? He knew that she had died young, even for a human, but what happened before that? What human would have possibly wanted to have a bloodline of people fated to be unable to fully exist anywhere?

It didn't make sense. And for several weeks, Natsume pondered over this, not realizing until the day he fell and broke a seal by accident that the answer to his questions had been right beside him all along.

Shrines were convenient; the air around them might have been uncomfortable to Natsume, but at least other ayakashi kept far away. (Natsume never could decide to say "us" or "them" for ayakashi; really it shifted in his thoughts all the time, like the tides of the ocean. He was one of them, but at the same time he most certainly was not.)

Normally, Natsume didn't start the day off by being harassed all day in school by a few smaller ayakashi before being chased by two very large and very dangerous ones on the way home. Natsume was lucky they hadn't managed to rip out his tongue. But today was most certainly not a normal day, he realized with a sinking feeling in his stomach.

As he sat there, chest still heaving from his frenzied dash through the woods, all of his instincts were screaming at him to run right back towards the other dangerous ayakashi… all because of this small good luck cat.

"…" The two of them sized each other up, Nastume tense and wary of the cat while it considered him with a curious stare.

"My, what does a youkai like you want with me?" The cat said, studying Natsume and stepping closer. "You're quite cheeky, not running away or anything. Is it because you're brave, or just stupid?"

Natsume shuddered, a shiver running down his spine. "I'm not a youkai," he said flatly, mouth tasting like ash. He averted his eyes, studying his hands as he nervously waited for the cat to attack him as the other youkai and ayakashi all inevitably seemed to.

The cat, however, just blinked, nose twitching as it sat down. "Hm? Now that you mention it… wait, aren't you Natsume Reiko?"

Natsume shook his head slightly, slightly relieved the conversation had shifted. He looked up, letting the cat see his face closer. He knew it must be because most ayakashi hadn't spent time among many humans to be able to tell the small difference, but still, this was ridiculous. Clearly he smelled different than what he imagined his grandmother had, or at least had some kind of obvious difference in appearance. "No. I'm her grandson."
"Ah. Now that I look, you are a male, after all." The cat circled around him, then looked out over the shrine.

Unable to help himself, Natsume's gaze followed where the cat was looking. "Did you know her?"

"Yes. She lived near here. She was quite the beautiful human." The cat's eyes squinted, something dancing in his eyes. "And just like you, she could see ayakashi. But the humans around her could not, so no one understood. She was alone. Always, always alone."

Natsume glanced away again, hands tightening into fists as he pretended to be studying the trees. "You don't know what happened to her?"
"No. She moved on, I believe, around the time I was sealed in that box. Rude humans," the youkai snorted. "Hm… that reminds me. Do you know of the Book of Friends?"

Natsume blinked, and his mind flashed back to the small book he had taken from his home. "The Book of Friends?" He repeated instead. Why would my father have something if it wasn't important to ayakashi, he realized, but by accident he missed the narrowing of the cat's eyes and small smirk.
By the time he looked back, the cat was gone.

Later, he would look back and wonder about it. Nyanko-sensei, as the strange youkai was later renamed, or Madara if he was being more formal about it, agreed to help Natsume return the strange names written on the inside of the notebook. It was a wild series of events, but nothing could ever, ever explain what Natsume had felt when his new peculiar bodyguard had promised to watch over him as long as he lived, or when he had glimpsed his grandmother for the first time.

Yes, within that one strange, fateful day, Natsume finally achieved what he was looking for: a link. A way to connect to those around him, including his grandmother's very memories. Natsume stirred, rolling over to study the sleeping cat youkai next to him and, all alone in his room, smiled. It was kind of nice, he thought, reaching out to rub Sensei's head. The cat twitched and mumbled, something about food and sweet buns that made Natsume chuckle. It was amazing how fast he had come to trust this youkai, the scent that had scared him a mere twelve hours ago already feeling safe and welcoming. He was amazing.

Maybe one day he could get close enough to entrust his secret to someone else. But that wasn't now, may not be ever, not when Natsume could still clearly recall the chill and knot of terror and anxiety build at the very insinuation that he was anything other than human.

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Honestly, this chapter was really hard for me to write. I know where I want to go after I set everything up, but this spot seemed super hard to write in particular. Not sure if I like the end result still, but I'm determined to move onwards with the plot!
I'd like to give a huge thanks to everyone that's followed and commented so far too? Like, there have been so many nice comments and stuff that I couldn't give up if I tried. I never expected so much attention just for chapter one! (There's about 120 follows for one chapter like whaaaat.) This chapter wouldn't have been possible without you guys!
I've decided that I hate trying to get the dialogue exactly like the manga or anime, so I'm going to go ahead and timeskip whatever is the same as the anime. Assume any gaps follow pretty much the same way as they did in the series. I have my own parts to get to!