#i bought the nyanko-sensei ones just to look at them lol

[crehador]

hairclips. we're getting hairclips

[nyanpoe]

(Rough) summary of the last NatsuYuu arc

Featuring chapters 106 and 107, “Visiting a late friend”. 

Note that my japanese isn’t the best, so i might have misunderstood some things.

Also: my own personal notes are in cursive.

In chapter 106 Natsume takes the wrong bus home after going to some far town (if i remember correctly Touko had asked him to run an errand or smth). Yorishima gets on that same bus and after seeing each other (they were like the only ones in the bus) they start chatting. If i remember correctly, Yorishima had offered to show him the correct bus/way home, but he was on his way to return a book to an old friend (named Kusakabe) he used to exchange letters with who had already passed away, so Natsume offers to accompany him.

We get some more insight into Yorishima’s character, how he’s pretty grumpy, asocial and a shut in. If i remember correctly, in the book he was going to deliver, which was one that Natori retrieved from his mansion in the Miharu arc, he found a letter where Kusakabe told him to go visit him someday.

When they get to the house of Yorishima’s old friend, they are greeted by his 3 beautiful daughters AND feel a weird presence in the house.

The chapter ends with Yorishima telling Natsume that Kusakabe only had 2 daughters, not 3.

Here 2 cute screenshots i took of the chapter

Chapter 107 (later part) starts with one of the letters Kusakabe wrote to Yorishima, where he talks about how he can hear his daughters (note: 娘, musume) played despite having told them to being quiet as he was writing. He also notes how he likes it when it’s lively, and contrasts it with Yorishima’s hypothetical reaction.

The daughters (who are all a bit weird and very pushy) talk a bit about Yorishima and how much their father used to talk about him. Once they leave the room, Yorishima and Natsume discuss how one of them might be an ayakashi, as he is sure Kusakabe had always wrote in his letters about only 2 daughters. 

Yorishima starts cursing about how nothing good happens whenever he leaves his house and apologizes to Natsume for dragging him into such a mess. Natsume then realizes he feels like his old self, and reassures him that going all this way for his friend is a very important thing and he'll tag along, for Kusakabe's sake, and mentally adds for Yorishima’s sake too. Natsume then kicks Nyanko-sensei outta the room and tells him to go investigate which daughter might be the imposter (since he was just eating cake and being an ass lol).

Natsume asks if there’s lead to tell apart the fake one, but Yorishima says that none of them resemble Kusakabe physically, although their mannerisms sometimes do. 

AND WE GET A FLASHBACK OF THEIR COLLEGE TIME.

In it, Kusakabe tells Yorishima (after failing to feed him an onigiri) about how he should have also gone watch the meteor shower, how pretty it was etc and how the stars seemed to go and fall from all directions, to which Yorishima was like bruh how could that be and if it wasn’t perhaps a tanuki or ghost playing a prank on him. Kusakabe says that maybe that was the reason why the rest didn’t seem to react to it, but that was all the more reason why it would have been merrier if Yorishima had been with him.

Yorishima immediately tells Kusakabe that he should confess to Kyouko-san already and that he actually would have wanted to see the meteor shower with her instead, leaving the other quite dumbfounded as meddling into other’s affairs (or even caring) was pretty out of character of him. Yorishima just answers that if his roommate is being a pain he won’t get peace either so he should be done with his business. He also tells him that he’s a good man, so there’s no way he’ll get rejected.

~end of flashback~

After that we get a 4 pages Nyanko-sensei pov of spying on the girls, who start acting all creepy, making him freaks out and run away.

The last page has a letter from Yorishima to Kusakabe, in which he thanks him for the last letter and congratulates him, saying he was surprised when he learned about his 2 daughters.

Back to Yorishima and Natsume, Yorishima seems to hold his arm, making Natsume worry and ask if it doesn’t hurt (thinking to himself that it’s the rumored ayakashi arm, and wonders if it’s really true) but the other says he was just deep in thought. They discuss about the daughters again, saying that if they look like kusakabe, what similarities they have etc. Since they dont look alike natsume asks if they dont look like the wife then, but Yorishima says he actually doesn’t know about the wife, neither name nor face. He never got to meet her, as he never met Kusakabe after college again. He says that Kusakabe wrote whatever came to mind in his letters and never got to tell him about getting married not his daughters being born, but mentions that he used to date a girl called Kyouko when they were in college. He says that they looked very happy and (not sure of the jp wording here) just looking at each other/at them? made them blush. 

Natsume assumes that that must have been his wife then, but Yorishima says that she had died in an accident. He talks about how Kusakabe used to be pretty depressed after it, but since he didn't want to make Kyouko sad he came back to his usual self eventually. Still, he didn’t date anyone after that, that’s why he was very surprised when reading the letter talking about his daughters. Knowing that he was able to form a family, after everything that happened, made him so happy he started trembling.

Nyanko-sensei interrupts them and cries a bit about how the girls were Too Much. After that, the lights go off and Yorishima runs to check that the girls are ok. He starts mildly gay panicking bc he doesn’t want anything bad to happen to his friend’s house. He says to himself that it would have been better if Kusakabe had at least told him how his daughters were called, and remembers the note in the book asking him to come pay a visit someday.

He runs into the youkai and asks who is she, to which she replies that she is kusakabes daughter. Yorishima says that he only had 2 so that's not possible but she says that Kusakabe just never got to tell him about the 3rd (among us voice kinda sus). She tells him that if he catches her she'll tell him the full story. While chasing for her, he starts shouting that it’s Kusakabe’s house, even if he passed away, saying in his mind “isn’t anywhere anymore”, it’s the house of his dear friend, and he won’t forgive her if she tries to do something to his beloved daughters.

He catches the youkai and: turns out all the daughters were DOLLS.

Apparently, Kusakabe bought 2 dolls at an antique shop and when writing the letter, he used the word musume, which can mean either daughter or simply young girl. The daughters say he had realized that Yorishima misunderstood and thought he meant biological daughters, but decided to play along and keep using musume when talking about them. And so, when Yorishima visited him, he would learn the truth. He looked forward to when he would come and find out.  That’s why the dolls decided to carry on with that wish, and tell him about how fun and merry Kusakabe’s time there had been.

(Here comes the part where I’m not really sure about some things, and I’m not sure either what they are referring to Exactly so I might have misinterpreted it.)

The dolls say they were actually upset at him for never once visiting Kusakabe, but that seeing his arm they understand he couldnt come. Then, Natsume thinks to himself "to his dear friend... (deepl translation:) in the midst of all the bewitchment...". Yorishima here regrets not being more sincere in his replies to the many letters Kusakabe sent because he thinks that’s probably why he stopped sending them (i think?),and the daughters ask him if he knows why he died. When Yorishima says he heard he died of illness, they say: "yes, the reason is similar to yours (that i understand maybe i read it wrong). he simply stopped sending letters when he lost the strength in his handwriting". (when he didnt have enough strenght to write properly basically, bc that’s shittily worded).  Here they show that Kusakabe told his daughters that Yorishima is very intelligent and his own handwriting was very strong and beautiful, so he would notice and get weird worries. 

The daughters then say that there are a lot of letters he never got to send. 

In one of those letters, he writes Yorishima that he had ordered a new doll for his daughters, so it seemed like his house would become even more lively (and also something about a job but idk if it refers to the doll or smth else). A sepparate bubble shows: “one day, when you come...”.

With the book being returned, the daughters have then acomplished their mission. When they leave Natsume wonders what will they do from now on.  Here Natsume wonders about Yorishima’s regrets, the reason why he couldnt pay a visit to his friend, and his own duty with the book of friends.

Yorishima thanks Natsume for his helps and Natsume says its a good thing he came to see him (aka Kusakabe). He is holding the book open, and as the wind makes the pages flip one last note, with a pretty shaky handwriting ,appears between them. Natsume asks what does it say.

Yorishima says that it just says as usual, just some foolish things.

[nakasomethingkun]

I went to Tokyo a few weeks ago to attend the Natsume Yuujinchou Exhibition that was held at Matsuya Ginza from March 27th to April 9th. This post is basically a report of what I saw at the exhibition, so here we go. 

(Warning: this is an image-heavy post)

We went on the morning of April 2nd (after spending the night at the airport, I might add). Matsuya Ginza - and by extension, the exhibition - opens at 10 am, so we waited at the entrance for the doors to open from around 9.30 am. When the store opened -- whoo boy, a line was immediately formed from the 8th floor (where the exhibition was) down to the 4th floor. We expected this, because the first 500 guests were to receive a free folder. So we bought our tickets and got our free folders, and the first thing we saw when we entered the exhibition was this:

The first room we entered had, on the walls, Natsume and his friends (with their actual height - they’re all pretty smol lol), a relationship chart, Midorikawa-sensei’s drawings, and this beautiful image of a bird that I don’t really recognize?

The second room we entered was basically a shrine for Nyanko-sensei; there was a montage of some of his most memorable moments, and there was a block of gifs of Nyanko-sensei being Nyanko-sensei. The biggest thing in the room was a life-size figure of Madara.

Along the corridor were videos of scenes from various episodes. My favorite was the scene from episode 11 of season 5, when the Chukyu duo made it rain flowers over Natsume. 

Look at my beautiful baby boy!!!!!! I cry everyday

We entered a model of Natsume’s room next. Nyanko-sensei was laying on a pillow with a bottle of sake next to him, and on the windows, you could see a few yokais pop out now and then. There were even the photos that Natsume put up in his closet! On the opposite wall, they’d put up floor plans of the Fujiwaras’ house. 

Connected to this room was a dark room where Miya’s picture of trees (she’s the yokai from episode 9 of season 2; Yasaka is believed to live within the picture) was pinned to the wall. Slowly, the branches grew out of the picture, over the frame and onto the walls, and sakura bloomed on the tree, just like in the anime. 

In the final room was a life-size depiction of all the yokais that ever appeared in the anime (including the small ones; you can’t see them in the pic because they’re at the bottom lol). Natsume’s Dog Circle was set up so that you could take photos with them. And yes, I am very partial to Houzuki-gami and Fuzuki-gami. Not even gonna deny it

Connected to this room was a display where you could “return” names by blowing into a microphone. There were also two models of the Book of Friends, and a model of the pages fluttering out of the book. 

They put up the characters’ images and messages from their seiyuus on one side of the wall; Kamiya Hiroshi’s and Inoue Kazuhiko’s were signed (they were at the opening of the exhibition on the first day). And yes, I am also very very partial to Natsume’s seiyuu.

Opposite to that wall were drawings made by the anime staff.

The last thing at the exhibition was the goods shop. Needless to say, I spent a lot of money there....   

ETA: This is the Hitoyoshi post, as promised!

[chubsonthemoon]

Natsume Week, Day 2

written for @natsumeweek! also on ao3. yes I know I’m like three or four days late I apologize blame finals lol 

prompt: Celebrations/Get-togethers

title: home

summary: Natsume worries (again). Set one year after his arrival at the Fujiwara’s.

words: 2080

The day starts out like any other.

After he shakes off the inevitable morning drowsiness, prodding awake a disgruntled (and most likely hungover) Nyanko-sensei, and finishing breakfast with Touko and Shigeru, Natsume breathes a sigh of relief. No ayakashi banging on his window in the time between dead of night and early morning, none of the bone-throbbing tiredness that came with returning names for hours on end. Just him, his foster parents, his cat, and his schoolbag hanging over his uniform, pressed free of wrinkles thanks to Touko-san’s impeccable ironing.

He almost could forget that today is slightly different than the rest.

(He had decided, about a week ago, that he wouldn’t make a big deal out of it. To the others, it is just a normal day).

Halfway to school, after Nyanko-sensei has at least somewhat recovered from the bright morning sunlight peeking through the cracks in the nearby hills, he notices it, too. “You’re in an awfully good mood this morning,” he muses, momentarily distracted by a dragonfly. “Did you finally decide to hand over the Book of Friends?”

Natsume raises an eyebrow, unimpressed with Sensei’s attempts to nab the dragonfly. “No, Sensei,” he says. “I’m just glad I finally got a full night’s rest for once. Returning names is hard.”

They come up to the bridge that spans the river across from their school, its faded red beams now familiar to Natsume after one year of walking past them everyday. “Then you should just give it to me now, and save yourself the trouble,” Nyanko-sensei says, having given up on the dragonfly with the air of one who has not really given up at all. He waddles ahead, round head held high proudly. “Besides, a weakling like you wouldn’t be able to handle this for another year, or however long you humans stay in one place.”

Thankfully, Natsume is spared from responding by a friendly call of his name behind him. He turns to find Tanuma and Kitamoto, with Nishimura sprinting not far behind.

��Natsume!” Tanuma raises his hand in greeting.

Once again, Natsume is struck with the realization that these are his friends. He cannot help but smile, and wave back. “Morning!”

“You wouldn’t be able to handle this for another year.”

He tries his best to shake away Nyanko-sensei’s words and continues on with the others, Nishimura wheezing as he runs to catch up with them, the sound of everyone’s laughter filling the morning air.

He hopes that his smile doesn’t slip at the thought of a year going by, of a year closer to the end of whatever he has now.

He hopes that they don’t notice when it does anyway.

~

It’s around lunchtime that Natsume begins to realize that the day had been going a little too well for it to last. It begins with Nishimura, who seems distracted all throughout class, even when Taki asked him if she could borrow his eraser. When Natsume asks if he’s feeling alright, he snaps his too-intense gaze up from his shoes to Natsume, eyes wide with fear.

“I’m--uh, yeah. Everything’s fine,” he mutters, then glances nervously towards the door. “Oh, well--gotta go!” he stands quickly, ignoring Natsume’s puzzled expression, and makes a beeline for the door, where Natsume swears he sees Tanuma’s unruly black hair disappearing around the corner.

Kitamoto is quick to follow him, sparing Natsume a quick glance as he goes. “I’d better follow him,” he says apologetically. “Never know what trouble he’s getting into.”

Natsume watches them leave, hand outstretched, mouth halfway into asking if they wanted to eat lunch on the roof together. “Oh, a-alright.”

Throughout the day, he can’t get Nishimura’s expression out of his head. It’s been awhile since he’s seen that kind of...

“Sorry about that, Natsume-kun,” says Sasada sympathetically, at the end of class. “I’m sure that they’re just being stupid again. I wouldn’t worry about it.”

Natsume nods slowly, feeling as if his head has not quite caught up with his body.

Even though his physical reflexes have rarely let him down, his gut-reaction when it comes to emotions is not so quick on its toes. He supposes that months of allowing himself to enjoy his time with others has made him accustomed to it, so much so that he has almost forgotten what it feels like to be left behind.

“You wouldn’t be able to handle this for another year.”

For the second time that day, he ignores the pit that grows ever-larger in his stomach. It’s probably nothing, he tells himself.

He tells himself this up until even Tanuma starts avoiding him, declining Natsume’s request to walk home together with a nervous laugh and a hasty excuse.

“Oh, it’s no problem,” Natsume says with a smile that nearly hurts his face. “Tell your dad I hope he gets better!” He walks away from the front gate as quickly as he can, hoping he hadn’t looked too dejected.

Nyanko-sensei follows him home though, singing about steamed buns and the fried shrimp that Touko-san said she would make for dinner tonight.

“Oi, Natsume!” he says once they’ve crossed the bridge for the second time. “Let’s go to that store, the one that sells those cookies that you bought the other day.”

“Not today, Sensei,” Natsume sighs. “Besides, you were the one who ate all of them in the first place.”

“That’s besides the point,” says Sensei haughtily. “We’re going, or I’m telling the mid-ranks that you’re hosting dinner at your place for the next two weeks.”

Natsume knows he’s joking, but figures he should indulge him, just this once. He thinks it’ll be a nice distraction. “Fine. But I only have so much allowance, and I’m not asking the Fujiwaras for anymore.”

By the time they exit the supermarket, Natsume’s pockets considerably lighter than before, the sun has already begun to set. Now, it is golden hour, the light like strands of fine silk against the greenness of the hills, slowly filtering into splashes and spots that dot the trees. Natsume wonders if he could reach out and touch the beams that slat across the forest floor; if he, too, would slip right through the cracks of this world, into the mysteries of the other one. It has given him so much grief already, caused him so much pain, would it really be so hard to become a permanent part of it?

(Although, he supposes, some of his encounters with youkai have also been nothing short of amazing).

Sensei is surprisingly quiet as they walk along the “shortcut” he found a couple weeks after they had met. Natsume figures it must be the cookies that rendered him speechless, and lets him be.

However, as they approach the Fujiwara’s, his feet seem to root themselves to the ground, and his pace slows. “Hey, Sensei.”

Sensei keeps walking, his stubby little feet only carrying him so far away from Natsume. “What do you want now?” he says, mouth full of sarcasm, and possibly cookies.

Natsume wonders if it’s possible to feel like the world is beginning and ending all at once. He lowers his eyes to the dirt path, unsure of where to look. “Do…do you think it’s been too long?”

Sensei scoffs. “You’ll have to be more specific.”

“Since I came here. I’ve never…”

He doesn’t finish his sentence.

“Natsume,” Sensei says, suddenly serious. He stops walking up to turn and look behind him, his black eyes narrowed to sits and the shadow of his true self stretching out behind him. It’s times like these that Natsume remembers what his bodyguard really is underneath all the fur and squabbling.

“Your existence is a mere blink of an eye for me. One year is nothing. I have existed for so long that I’ve seen things you wouldn’t even dream of, boy.”

He turns back around, his voice, if Natsume is not mistaken, a few hairs softer, maybe even begrudgingly fond. “You humans. Always measuring time by your own standards. Gimme a break.”

Natsume’s lips quirk up. “I suppose you’ll always be with me, no matter where I go, then?”

“Don’t kid yourself. I’m just here for the Book of Friends. When you die, it’s mine.”

Natsume figures that it’s a good enough answer, and looks up from the ground to glance behind him. He swears something is following him again, but all he sees are the trees a few paces from the foot of the hill. The forest waves back at him in a friendly manner, spring wind stirring up the branches, leaves whirling in little eddies, as if saying hello. Natsume allows himself another little smile. “Whatever you say, Sensei.”

With an unconcerned hmmph, Sensei continues on his trek towards Touko-san’s fried shrimp, and Natsume turns back around to follow him.

He slides open the front door, removes his shoes, hollers “I’m home!” as always.

Silence greets him.

“Touko-san? Shigeru-san? Hello? Is anyone here?”

No response.

Oh, no.

All the blood drains from his face. He can feel that pit grow in his stomach once more, clawing up to his throat and forcing his breath out in quick, uneven gasps. He looks around frantically, glancing in dark corners full shadows that could quickly turn into hands that grab, into teeth that tear--

“Sensei, do you sense anything--?”

There is no sign of Nyanko-sensei, either.

Natsume runs through each room of the house, tearing away doors, feet thumping against the wooden floor.

He should have known that his peaceful days here wouldn’t have lasted.

“You wouldn’t be able to handle this for another year.”

Natsume doesn’t know what he would do if something happened, if some particularly nasty youkai with a taste for cruel irony decided to destroy the little life he’s built here exactly one year after his arrival, but if that’s the case, then--

He bursts into the backyard, and promptly trips over his own feet, sending him sprawling.

“Natsume?!”

He looks up.

His eyes widen.

There, in the Fujiwara’s backyard, is everyone.

Touko, her hands clasped around her heart fondly; Shigeru, arms folded and a proud smile on his face. Tanuma, dark hair ruffled as he sheepishly runs his hands through it, Taki, beaming at him while also side-eyeing Nyanko-sensei, Kitamoto, flashing him an enthusiastic thumbs-up, Nishimura, asking him to hurry up and give him the lighter so he can begin lighting the sparklers, and Sasada, nudging Nishimura and hissing “he’s already here, you idiot!”

Natsume turns towards the more shadowed areas of the forest that resides behind the house, and sees the mid-ranks, cheering him on with bottles of sake swinging precariously between them, Hinoe raising her pipe in the barest of acknowledgment, Misuzu’s enormous form looming within the trees, Benio’s butterfly mask glinting in the evening sun, Chobihige’s hands folding and unfolding nervously in his robes, Kappa waving eagerly at him, and Nyanko-sensei, trying to pry the sake away from the mid-ranks with as much dignity as he can muster.

Everyone.

“Welcome home, Natsume!” they all cry in unison, their voices echoing across the grassy lawn just  as the sun hits the treeline, and for a moment, Natsume cannot see anything, just golden light, so bright he has to squint and raise a shaking hand to his face. He picks himself off the floor, nearly trembling, his emotions so much a whirling mess he can’t make sense of them. Relief tinged with the traces of fear, shock colored with awe, but most of all—

Happiness.

He is so happy it spills over his face, across his lips, bringing to life the small dimples around his cheeks that Touko-san likes to squeeze and sparking little prickles behind his eyes that he hopes won’t spill over, because it’ll just make them worry more. His next words, though, are pitched a little higher than normal, his voice cracking ever-so-slightly.

“I’m home,” he says, because he is.

It has been one year since Natsume first showed up at the Fujiwara’s doorstep with demons that no one could see behind him, glassy eyes facing towards nothing that anyone could see ahead.

One year later, the demons are still (mostly) invisible to others (and perhaps no longer demons), but Natsume is not invisible, or feared, or passed along to the next house of judgment and hardship, of locked doors and harsh whispers.

And his eyes, now more full of light than ever, have turned outward, not inward, to the rising sun that is his family, his friends, his future.

He is finally home.