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“Stop it!” Natsume heard a shout that brought him memories, not pretty ones. Who is that?! With an alarm bell ringing in his head, Natsume wondered.
"Stop it! Leave me alone!"
Though he had not been keen to investigate the ongoing proceedings before, he now felt obligated to interfere.
“Nyanko-sensei?” he asked, addressing his companion. “Can you please go check out what’s happening?”
“Bah. I’m not your servant brat,” grumbled Nyanko-sensei, but the cat still did as Natsume asked. With the clink-clunk of his Lucky Cat form, Nyanko-sensei moved forwards with a leap transformed into his wolf form, turning invisible to all but Natsume as he did so.
Peeking his head through the alleyway, Nyanko-sensei had noticed something going on. “Natsume, there’s a kid being hit by others over here,” he said.
At Nyanko-sensei’s words, Natsume’s hands clenched into tight fists to the point that his nails almost drew blood. Is he like me? Made to seem like a demon by those that don’t understand? I can’t let that go on.
“Oi, brat, you’re thinking about helping the other brat, aren’t you? He doesn’t have the sight…”
“Still, I can’t but want to help. I can’t let someone go through what I went through.” His voice cracking from the torrent of emotion he was experiencing.
Nyanko-sensei seemed to soften at Natsume’s words, but still acted in a platonic tsundere fashion “You always bring me so much trouble, but if you say so Natsume… I’ll help you.”
Becoming visible once more by transforming back into a Lucky Cat statue, he leapt in front of the blond-eyed boy. “Follow me,” he said, turning around.
Natsume did as he asked, moving forwards to the alleyway entrance. The sight was worse than he thought it would be.
Running into the dark alleyway, he was appalled at what he saw -- there, a young boy was crouched down, arms cradling his legs as though to protect them, bruises covering the areas of his body that Natsume could see.
But he was not alone, there were others there.
“Demon!”
“Monster!”
And so the boys’ shouts went, ruthlessly taunting him.
“Tsk.” Natsume clicked his tongue.
The boys surrounding the child startled. “Who's there?” They turned around.
Seeing it was an older child, they smiled. “Do you want to help us take care of the demon?” one of them asked.
At the child’s words, Natsume frowned. “What demon? All I see is a scared child!”
“He’s a demon!”
“No he’s not.”
“Everyone says he is!”
“Everyone can be wrong. And even if he was -- I’ve. Seen. Scarier. Nyanko-sensei,” Natsume called with a cheeky smile “can you please show yourself?”
“Fine, brat.” With those words, Nyanko-sensei became visible in his beautiful and imposing true form.
“Demon!” The children shouted, terrified.
“Do you see now why I don’t care? Now, why don’t you run?”
The tormentors of the unknown boy did exactly that.
“Nyanko-sensei, you can turn back now,” said Natsume.
“A-are you going to hurt me as well?” Blue eyes scared but fierce. This little boy was a fighter.
“Of course not. My name’s Natsume Takashi, what’s yours?” he asked with a sweet voice, trying to gain his trust.
“U-Uzumaki Naruto.”
“Well, Uzumaki-kun.” Natsume offered his hand up to pull him up. “Would you mind coming with me to get something to eat? You must be hungry.”
“Food, food! Get me food too Natsume!” Nyanko-sensei shouted, startling Naruto.
“I can’t,” he muttered. “They always kick me out.”
“Why don’t you come with me then? I may not be a great cook, but I can make something.”
“O-ok. If it’s not too much trouble, can you make ramen?” his big cerulean eyes illuminated with excitement.
“I can try”
“Itadakimasu.” The two of them gave thanks for the food.
“Uzumaki-kun, do you need to head home soon?”
“No. I don’t have a family and well, the orphanage kicked me out as well, saying I was a demon, a yokai,” Naruto mumbled quickly -- too fast to really hear.
But Natsume had heard enough of what Naruto said to get the gist of what he was saying, though he first wanted to confirm his suspicions. “I’m sorry, could you repeat yourself?” he asked, desperately hoping what he thought he heard was not, in fact, true.
“The orphanage kicked me out,” Naruto said again, but it came across louder and more shyly at the same time.
Natsume fumed at his words. The situation with Naruto reminded him too much of his own past -- being left alone and abandoned by his foster parents. At least I had people eventually… Maybe I can help him like the Fujiwara’s were there for me. Aloud he said “Well, if you want you can stay over tonight.”
“Really? You won’t kick me out?”
“Of course not!”
“Nyanko-sensei, can you watch over him as he sleeps? I’m going to see if I can get some paperwork sorted out.”
“You aren’t planning on adopting are you?”
“What sort of person would I be if I left him alone? He’s so lonely…”
“Just like Reiko was, huh.” Nyanko-sensei muttered.
“What was that?”
“Nothing.”
Meeting, fin