[Go Soul Natsume's Book of Friends] Guang Xia

Natsume Special Chapter [-]

In early February, Yahara's branches sprouted tiny, apple-green shoots.After breakfast, Aunt Tazi smiled and sent Uncle Zi and the boy in a white shirt to the door, and handed them two lunch boxes for the trip.

"Be careful all the way, call back when you arrive."

With the cool morning breeze blowing across his cheeks, Natsume took the bento under the early spring sun.He was carrying a backpack, and in addition to a change of clothes and "Book of Friends", there was also a fat beckoning cat lying on his stomach.

The boy smiled shyly at Aunt Tazi.

"Thank you, Aunt Tazi..."

The sound of a car starting not far away, Natsume was still warning Mr. Cat in a low voice just before opening the door: "Don't talk...don't cause trouble to Uncle Zi because of gluttony..."

Teacher Cat grunted and zipped up the inside of the luggage bag.

The scenery outside the window goes by with the car.Uncle Zi said while driving: "The last time I went to the porcelain workshop with you, Guizhi, seems like a long time ago!"

Natsume is a little sorry.He should spend more time with Uncle Zi and Aunt Tazi. "Does Uncle Zi still go to the porcelain workshop?"

"That's right. I was there last time to ask for Keicaga's flower vessel for Mr. Fujiwara!" Uncle Zi was in high spirits when he mentioned Zuowei.Mr. Cat rolled dissatisfiedly in the suitcase.Natsume and Tanuma once tied Keicho's flower vessel to it.

Natsume suddenly remembered something, and clapped his hands happily: "Maybe we can see the little fox!"

Natsume remembered that the little fox monster always wandered around the hill next to the porcelain workshop.It also sent itself a cute little china bowl.

"Huh? Kishi, do you have friends there?"

"Hmm!" The little fox demon is considered to be his best monster, "I just happened to see it."

<<

After settling in, Uncle Zi confessed that Natsume would return early, so he went to the workshop with his friends.Natsume walked towards the forest at the foot of the mountain with Mr. Kitty in his arms.

"It's been a long time since I've been here..." Natsume said with emotion, gently brushing away the dead branches that brushed against his shoulders.The fine snow fell with his movements.

Youkai seem to like being in the forest, Natsume thought.Qian Cong and Qinglan serve Mibu’s Isatsuki Forest, and Liuhua’s Eastern Forest; the little fox demon and the bull-headed green ghost also live in such a quiet forest; .

Heavy snow covered the mountains and forests.Tick... tick... There was a sound of dripping water coming from the depths of the forest, like an ethereal sigh.

"... Living in the forest, isn't it lonely?" Natsume murmured.

"Lonely? No." Unexpectedly, the cat teacher in Natsume's arms mumbled, "Isn't loneliness just because of unfulfilled expectations?"

Natsume was a little surprised, and couldn't react: "...Huh?"

"Only human beings are foolish enough to have empty expectations." Mr. Cat hiccupped, blushing, "We monsters...will not be lonely!" It waved its paw in a daze.

"Teacher, you are drunk, go back to the hotel and get some sleep." If I had known it earlier, I would not have brought light shochu to it.

"No! I'm your bodyguard!" Teacher Cat wanted to yell, but couldn't even pronounce clearly.

...Is there a bodyguard who is drunk like you?

Teacher Cat turned over in the boy's arms and narrowed his eyes.Natsume stopped talking, wanting it to sleep well.Mottled light spots fell on his shoulders, and the forest was so quiet that nothing could be heard except the sound of himself stepping on the leaves.

tick... tick...

The sound of raindrops became clearer, but Natsume felt that the forest was getting quieter.

Loneliness is having unfulfilled expectations?

Natsume felt that he seemed to be bluffed by Mr. Cat's sudden drunken words.When he was walking towards the top of the mountain, he actually kept thinking about this sentence.

Expectation is a human instinct.Human beings have all kinds of desires.Is the reason for being lonely really because of the disappointment of expectations?On the other hand, wouldn't you feel lonely if you had no expectations?

Natsume thinks back to his childhood.During the long years of loneliness, he has long since lost any expectations for the people and monsters around him—but why is he still lonely?

until that night...

Light hugged him and said, "I want to be your true friend."

Natsume caressed unconsciously the black scarf given by Hikari.

The tick-tock sound became clearer and clearer, like a villain crushing ice in a porcelain bowl, or like an actress with a heart plucking a zither string.

Natsume was surprised when he heard it, and felt that the sound of the beeping rain was really unusual.He quickly found the answer - the little fox demon was sitting next to a tree stump, and a small silver and white porcelain pot was placed on the tree stump, shaped like a lotus flower, and the sound of water dripping from the small hole at the bottom into the hollow porcelain bowl below , making a graceful and beautiful crisp sound.There is an arrow made of wood on the pot, which sinks leisurely.

The little fox demon found Natsume and immediately jumped up: "Ah! Natsume!" Then he threw himself into Natsume's arms, "You finally came to see me!"

Natsume hugged Mr. Kitty, and was bumped by it. However, the arc of his smile couldn't stop deepening: "Yes, little fox demon, I'm here to see you."

"I haven't seen it since the Autumn Night Banquet!" The little fox held her cheeks with love in her eyes, "Natsume, you look very happy!"

"Really," as if all the monsters around him said so, Natsume smiled, probably because of the light, "Are you doing well too?"

"Oh...it's okay. The problem is, I can't help but come back to look at this pot." The little fox demon pointed to the porcelain pot on the tree stump, looking a little lonely, and added to Xia Mu's puzzled gaze, "This It was the Leaky Pot given to me by Sister Qinglan. She said that she would come back to see me when the bottom of the pot was full of water."

"You know Qinglan?" Natsume was surprised at first, but then remembered that when he was in Tokyo, the little fox demon came to him and asked him to hand over the candy jar to Qinglan, and was almost attacked by Mr. Natori.

Qing Lan, she will not come back.Porcelain bowls will never be full, will they?

The little fox demon was still talking: "This seems to be a tool used by the nobles to calculate the time of playing chess thousands of years ago!" Yearning appeared in the bright eyes, "Sister Qinglan lived in a peaceful era..."

Natsume also sat down next to the little fox demon, looking at the silver-white more leaky pot curiously.What a beautiful porcelain pot, just listening to the sound of dripping water like ice and jade is refreshing, and it is many times more pleasant than modern alarm clocks and timers.

There was a slight snoring sound in his arms, and Teacher Cat fell asleep in his arms.Afraid of waking him up, Xia Mu simply sat there with the little fox demon, chatting and studying this more leaky pot carefully.

"Little fox demon, when did you and Qing Lan meet?"

"Well... It must have been several years. At that time, Sister Qinglan came with a girl. The girl was wearing a sailor suit and her eyes were very beautiful blue-purple... At the Autumn Night Banquet, the girl wearing Like a handsome boy with a tall hat!"

The little fox demon met Zuo Wei at the autumn night banquet.A girl with blue eyes?Natsume subconsciously thought of Xiangzi, but wearing a sailor suit?

"It's Kawasoe Mayu." Natsume understood.

"Huh?" The little fox demon tilted her head, "I thought her name was 'Xiangzi', but sister Qinglan's mouth looks like this."

"..." Qinglan mistook Chuantian for Xiangzi.However, they do look exactly alike.

For no reason, Natsume thought of Kawasoe who was staring blankly at the sky that day.A girl with moon-white long hair, wearing a mask with the word "mu", her blue-purple eyes reveal sadness.When Zuo Wei called her "Xiangzi", Chuan Tian turned his head suddenly, with deep irony and sadness in his eyes.

There must be a story between them, right?

"Looking at this pot for a long time, I will unconsciously count the sound of dripping water, a hundred times, a thousand times..." The little fox demon reached out and tapped the small hole at the bottom of the pot, and his voice gradually became softer, "The more you count, The lonelier it gets... When will Sister Qinglan fulfill her promise and come back to see me?"

Then he said cautiously, "She won't be accompanied by that girl, so forget about us?"

Xia Mu sighed inwardly.Reiko may have made too many promises to come back to watch the monsters back then, isn't it all in vain?

Natsume used to think Reiko was flippant.People who really value commitment are afraid of commitment, such as himself.But... Qing Lan, she is just thinking about the little fox demon, she doesn't want to make it too sad, right?

Natsume took out Murasaki Shikibu's ancient mirror from his backpack.He thought of Reiko's eyes that he had seen in the mirror, tender, vulnerable and compassionate.

The little fox demon patted Natsume on the shoulder: "That's right! Natsume, I made you another bowl before! I'll bring it to you right now!"

"Really... thank you, little fox demon."

"Then you wait here for me! I'll go get the bowl!"

"Well, okay."

The little fox demon was very happy, and immediately went back to get the small bowl he made for Natsume.

There were more leaks, and Mr. Cat was still asleep.Natsume touched the lotus-shaped notch with his hand for a while, and grabbed the wooden arrow with his hand for a while.The little fox demon was right, when there was no sound around, he found himself unconsciously counting the precise rhythm of the more leaking sounds.

Tick, tick, tick...

Whose time is that.

Condensed into water droplets that have remained unchanged for thousands of years.

The voice has been asking for thousands of years.

Natsume didn't know what he was thinking.In this dewy and leaky sound, there are so many, so many auspicious feathers flying across his mind.Love and attachment, love and shame, time, and life...

He put Murasaki Shikibu's ancient mirror on the stump in front of him.The mirror reflected the faint and white light of the Leaky Pot.

After a mirror, thousands of years of time and space flow back.Only the sound of water droplets and falling children remains unchanged.