Warning: There is violence, blood, and eye gore in the following chapter. Read at your own risk.

Chapter 5: Three

The Natsume clan used to be influential, although unusual. It was different to the other clans in the area. It didn't specialize in exorcisms or offenses. They valued both ayakashi and human. It was rumored that ayakashi belonged to the clan not only as shiki. There was a mix of humans and of ayakashi that led to half-breeds known as hanyou. Those half-blooded were distinguishable by their strangely colored eyes. Most were quiet about the Natsume's practices, but their spiritual power was widely known, amplified by the support of ayakashi and mixed-blood.

As the strongest exorcist clan during the time, the Matoba often had dealings with the Natsume. There had been times of conflict because of their opposing views (the mix of blood, the enacted harmony), but there continued to be an exchange of shiki and the development of effective, less harmful jutsu.

But there was an event that halted that productive, peaceful association. The head of the Matoba clan desired a contract with a member from the Natsume clan. No one recalled if the member was a youkai or hanyou, but a contract was constructed regardless. The member would only contract under a certain condition: that it would obtain the right eye of the head of the Matoba clan. When the time had come to select the Matoba's next successor, the shiki demanded payment. But it was never fulfilled. The exorcist had passed the succession to the next leader and had sealed their right eye. The contract never dissolved, and the shiki continued to seek the right eye it was promised.

I come to retrieve that eye.

"Na-tsu-me," Matoba sounds out each syllable, testing the meaning of the name. "I knew there was something more suspicious about you when we first met; even your name reflects your appearance. I should have followed that initial instinct. Who knew you had tainted blood? I wonder if it actually is possible to make you a shiki if you don't want to willingly join the clan as an exorcist."

"I have no intention of either. You have to offer what was promised."

"...are you perhaps the youkai that has been targeting me all these years?" He looks me up and down. I clench my fists and stare back fiercely. I'm not going to be intimidated or provoked. "No… I'm not sure that is possible. Unless it resides in you now. Or do all members have an obligation to mend a breached contract?"

"…"

"How about we make a contract, Natsume? I will give you this promised eye if you work with me." Matoba saunters over to a wooden cabinet, probably in search of contract materials.

"It has already been promised," I remind him in a loud voice, "unless you want both of your eyes removed."

Matoba slowly turns to me. His face is blank, but I have been warned before of his temper. He takes a step toward me. When I stumble back, my heart skips with a sharp beat, afraid of falling. He doesn't take threats from others.

"Or I can forcibly make you a shiki," his voice strains with a smile.

"I'm still human," I remind in a choked voice. He doesn't seem deterred, but raises his eyebrows, testing me. "I'm only here to retrieve the eye." My resolve is faltering, shaking with my voice and hands. The cunning man that he is sees this and offers again.

"It'd be a shame if the last Natsume blood is disposed or enslaved. Disclosing your identity really was a mistake, Natsume. If you had gotten closer to me, you would have had an easier time to retrieve this offering." Matoba slips his fingers under the eye-patch. My skin pricks as I watch the fingers lift. The shadow of the patch casts onto his cheek.

A feral urge consumes my mind. Leaning and grabbing onto the exorcist, my hand reaches for his cheek, but there is a power that still holds me back from ripping the damned thing off. So close. Just pull it a little more. Expose the cursed object.

A whine and a growl escapes from me, desperate and frustrated at the man I push myself against. None of this feels like me. Never have I made such a noise or behaved this way. Never have I been filled with such a consuming lust for receiving a promised offering.

"Despite you being dangerous, you're a very valuable being."

An arm slips around my back, pulling me flush against the exorcist. The proximity is too much, too hot, and too controlling, like I'm already his. Dropping his fingers from his face, I stare wide-eyed and glare. That eye belongs to me.

"I'm sure my guard would have slipped ever since I decided you to be human. But since you retain mixed blood, I really can't trust you, can I?"

"Give it to me," I snarl, clawing into and pulling the sides of his robes. He chuckles lowly and places his hand on mine to remove it.

"I wonder if you really are a cat youkai. What do you think? Are you the youkai that has been hunting me all these years, or are you being possessed by it?"

I tear my hand from his kimono and scratch against the seal. Nothing happens, only the sound of nails against paper. He twists my hand in his, eliciting a yelp. A single red eye remains on mine, but I keep my focus on the damned seal, clenching and scratching against it.

"Why isn't your beast here to help you? It was a mistake not to bring it."

"I don't want anyone else involved. This has been between our clans for generations." I shriek again when he bends my wrist further. I leave the eye for now so that I can tear off his grip.

"You'll never get this eye, Natsume."

Gripping me, pulling me back, is Matoba's downfall. I push forward, which he doesn't anticipate. He looses his footing and we both fall to the floor. I swear I can feel his panic, taste his racing heartbeat. His struggling becomes frantic and he no longer clings to my clothes, but instead rips at them and shoves. I don't budge, I can't budge. This is the enlightened opportunity. This is how the Natsume clan is going to retrieve their long-awaited promise.

Despite his dying struggle, stubborn to the very end, Matoba's eye still flicker with purpose. I'm sure he left a scar on me (like I did on his arm when we first met). I slip my fingers under the paper seal, pulling up to reveal my prize, revel in the marred scar (just as eloquently described by him from earlier days).

It's tossed to the side without any more thought. I slide my nails along the socket; the eyelid twitches, daring to open and expose the contract written within. Faint, but undeniably cursed. My fingers form into a vice and press.

A resolved sigh.

No more resistance.

"Head of the Matoba Clan, our contract is, at last, complete."

Warm and thick, sticky, saturating into the ridges of my fingertips. His screams are distant in my mind as I feel the burn of his fingernails digging into my arms, but I already reach the connecting tendrils. I burn with excitement, my nerves and heart flare, want and need and resolution finally being plucked by my very fingers.

Holding up the eyeball to what little light that filters into the room, I can fully read the cursed script etched into it. I rotate it around and back to the red pupil, fascinated by its hue now that I can bring it closer to me without danger.

Without warning, neither a word nor a signal, the eye disappears from my palm in a dull light, leaving a pool of blood instead.

My hands shake,

my heart shakes,

as I'm left in this dangerous silence.

Is this it?

Is this what my duty entailed?

Where had the eye gone to?

No longer do I muse through baffling questions or thoughts as a body crashes into mine. It pins me to the floor with legs on top of mine and two hands squeeze my neck. Someone yells above me, their anger dripping and departing with the receding youkai state.

"If this is your true form, I will put it to optimal use. I will personally see to it that you become a servant to the Matoba clan once more. You will receive no offering nor mercy, your willingness manipulated. Blame your cursed, dirty blood for your damnation."

No longer do I feel warm or righteous or invincible. My skin spikes in cold fear as the primal urge fades away. The dark haze clears from my eyes and mind. The only thing I can settle on is to get air into my lungs. Somehow.

Choked and out-of-breath, I try to kick out my legs and pry Matoba's hands off of my throat. But there is no strength, no support, no one, nothing left. I'm abandoned after I retrieved the promise, buried beneath an exorcist scrambling retribution for his removed eye. Betrayed and deserted, my eyes water.

Managing to slip out a leg, I knee Matoba in the side. He collapses easily, already weakened from the blood loss and dwindling adrenaline, and pulls my neck in the direction of his fall. I scramble and scratch and shove at the exorcist, finally able to break free from Matoba's imposed fate.

Terrified — from his blood, my actions, the pounding adrenaline inciting me to act — I hastily flee, marked guilty by the blood dripping from my hands. Neither servants nor clan members follow or beckon. Through the looming gates, down the heavily wooded forest, across the open field with the unnamed hokora, over the wooden arched bridge, far, far off from the abandoned manor reclaimed by the Matoba clan.

The air I heave in stabs the back of my throat.

I make it home — to the gate, the front door, up the stairs, the sliding door, my room, collapsing onto the floor.

Touko calls after me, no doubt because of the thundering noises, no doubt because of the blood left on the things I touched.

I hear Nyanko-sensei pad around my head, feel the air he puffs from sniffing. I cringe when his tongue laps once at a finger smeared with Matoba's blood.

"I guess it really is that bastard exorcist's blood."

He won't be angry, that I know. He hates the exorcist and has offered to kill the man himself. In the end it is me who has severely hurt Matoba. The injury can be fatal, but he has servants and attendants. He will be healed. He will have revenge on his mind.

"I will personally see to it that you become a servant to the Matoba clan once more."

Remembering his words, I cringe and fold into myself, feeling nauseous from dread and the smell of Matoba's blood on my hands.

He will come after me with a more resolute objective than before.

I may become a shiki to the Matoba clan once more.

I reach out to pet Nyanko-sensei's fur. The blood has dried by then, nothing rubs off onto his white hairs. Instead, his content purrs vibrate against my hand and unsticks the voice from my throat.

"The youkai finally taken its eye from Matoba."

"Takashi?" Touko calls again, contained fear leaving her soft voice.

Upset, I push my fingers deeper into the cat's body.

"Good," Nyanko-sensei puffs out. My hand sinks into his body with the exhale. "I'm sure you are finally sated with your interest in that exorcist."

He knew.

I sigh and squeeze his side.

"I would hate to think that we're fated to be involved with each other in some way, but I think that it will continue on forever."

- 終わり -

Notes: I didn't intend for the final scene to be so long, and violent and bloody. As for the strange chapter titles, they correspond with the amount of words you read at the beginning of each chapter. Thanks for reading!

hanyou: half-youkai/half-human
hokora: miniature Shinto shrine, dedicated to folk gods or part of a larger shrine