[Comprehensive] Natsume Reiko's trip

According to the information given by the cat, Seimei and Reiko came to a village close to the forest near Heiankyo. It is said that the Jiuming cat has appeared here recently.

Completely different from the extravagance and romance in Heian-kyo, the people in this village wear tattered clothes, their cheeks yellowed by hunger are skinny, and their eyes are mostly numb—this is a group of people who have no expectations for the future, It's a group of people who resign themselves to their fate.

Generally speaking, ghosts and monsters are rampant in troubled times, but the Heian era was clearly a peaceful and prosperous age, but there were ghost legends that stunned future generations. This is enough to show that this is not an era where people live and work in peace and contentment.

Corresponding to the extravagant life of the nobles are the numerous bones of ordinary people.In order to prevent the people from rebelling, the nobles attributed all their misfortunes to the monsters.

"It's too much..." Reiko couldn't help muttering to herself as she looked at the surrounding people who were avoiding them in fear after seeing them.

The people living at the bottom probably have never seen an Onmyoji in their entire lives. They only know that Reiko and Seimei, who are dressed in bright clothes in front of them, are nobles from Heian capital, and they are high-ranking figures who must not be provoked.

"This is the case in this era. I am unable to save those miserable souls from the hands of humans, but at least I can protect them from the hands of monsters. This is also one of the missions of Onmyoji." Qingming said flatly, but there was a trace of compassion in his eyes .

"In the era that Reiko lived in, there must be no such scene anymore."

Reiko thought of those people in Yayuan. Although they couldn't say how rich they were, at least everyone lived and worked in peace and contentment.Those who like a simple and idle life can stay in Yayuan and be with the mountains; those who have ambitions and want to make a living will go to big cities to fight hard.

Even an unpopular child like himself doesn't seem to lack anything materially.Even if the Taharas don't prepare bento for themselves, they still give themselves enough money every month, and it's beyond Reiko's imagination to starve to skin and bones.

Even when he arrived in Heianjing, he directly met such a good person as Qingming. Every item of clothing, food, housing and transportation, Qingming would be carefully arranged for him.

Thinking about it this way, I am really very, very lucky.

"What are you thinking, Reiko? If it's inconvenient for you to mention the past, you don't have to." Seeing Reiko's silence for a long time, Qingming was worried that her question would involve Reiko's sad memories.

"No, it's nothing." Reiko shook her head, then looked into Qingming's eyes sincerely, "I just think it's really great to meet a nice person like Qingming once you come here!"

Seimei looked at the smile on Reiko's face, for some reason those jokes of Baoxian Kamo suddenly flashed into his mind, and turned his face away a little uncomfortably: "I may not be as good as you think."

Yes, Abe Seimei never thinks that he is a good person. He helps humans and monsters solve various problems, just to complete the work of Onmyoji.

He has killed monsters, and he has also killed people, even before killing monsters.

Reiko looked at the trembling people around, and said with emotion: "Don't say that, if there is no Seimei, I'm afraid I would have died in an unknown place, besides, I want to learn onmyoji such a willful request, you can agree to it, I really appreciate you."

"I hope that one day, I can become a great onmyoji like Qingming and do something for this world... Am I talking too much? Well, let's hurry up and find the Nine-Life Cat!"

As Reiko spoke, she turned around, took out a portrait of the so-called Nine Lives Cat that the cat gave them again from her sleeve, and lowered her head to study it carefully.

Seimei looked at Reiko's slender back and her somewhat disheveled hair in the wind, and clapped her palms again and again with a fan, but the frequency of clapping was a little faster than usual.

Reiko looked at the portrait of Mao Mata, and the expression on her face was distorted for a moment - that's right, what can you expect a cat to draw?Even if that cat can take human form.

I don't know if it's because the cat looks like its owner, but the human figure of Maoyou is so similar to Kamo Baoxian: the same is wearing a black kimono, and the same wild black hair is loose, but Maoyou's eyes are golden vertical Hitomi, that face is also more aggressive.

But no matter how attractive Mao Mata's human form is, it has nothing to do with its drawing skills.

Reiko couldn't imagine that the so-called Nine Lives Cat would really be this thing on the paper: two triangles were drawn on a circle, which should be the so-called face and ears; Twice, maybe I wanted to draw the hair, but unfortunately the whole face was smeared into an ink blob; the lower body is an oval shape with four vertical lines, probably to express the body and limbs; finally, draw behind Two long antenna-like things, the cat said that this is the most noble tail...

In short, about a hundred people will not think that this thing is a cat after reading 99 times.

Reiko finally gave up the idea of ​​relying on this painting to find the Nine-Life Cat. No wonder Seimei never took this thing from the beginning: "Seimei, what can you do?"

"First ask the people around you if any strange things have happened recently. Usually, where there are monsters, there will be some unreasonable things."

In this way, Qingming revealed her identity as an onmyoji, and began to ask people around her in the name of eliminating demons. For these ordinary people, onmyoji is simply a legendary profession, let alone helping them eliminate evil spirits. Demonic.They uttered all the abnormal things they could think of in fear and fear, even if it was some trivial things.

"Speaking of which, some strange things did happen in Xiaodoulang's house." Among the messy news, the words of an old woman on crutches caught Qingming and Reiko's attention.

Because Xiaodoulang's family mainly grows beans, people in the village call their father Doulang and their son Xiaodoulang.

Since about a week ago, some strange things will appear at the door of Xiaodoulang's house every morning: sometimes it is a mouse that has been bitten to death, sometimes it is a dead pheasant, and sometimes there are birds Eggs or chicks or something like that.

The lives of poor people are mostly difficult. Xiaodoulang was very vigilant at first, but later he accepted the gift after he found out that there was not much danger, and cooked the food to his sick old father to replenish his body.

It wasn't until Qingming came here that Xiaodoulang realized that he was afraid.

Qingming thought for a while: "Then do you still remember the shape of the wounds on those things?"

The dark-skinned Xiaodoulang, who looked to be in his 20s, scratched his head: "It looks like a torn claw, and I can't say anything else. Master Onmyoji, is there any danger in eating those things?"

"I need to see your father before I can draw conclusions."

If there are no other monsters nearby, then these weird things are probably left by the Nine Lives Cat.As for why Jiuming Mao did this, I can only ask this family.

Xiaodoulang's house is very simple, with a few simple boards and thatch for shelter from wind and rain, it is a house for living.

Xiaodoulang's father, that is, Doulang, lay on the straw mat and let out a low cough, looking very bad.

"Xiao Doulang, who are these two adults?" Doulang struggled to kneel down to salute, and Xiao Doulang hurried to help his old father.

"It's fine for the old man to lie down. This time I came here mainly to ask, is there any relationship between your family and cats?" Qingming looked at Dou Lang, and after finding that there was no bad smell on him, he went straight to the point.

Doulang's eyes revealed a confused look, and he shook his head: "These days, you can't even support people, so how can you keep cats?"

Qingming pondered for a while, then stretched out his hand and handed some talismans to Xiaodoulang: "This is the guiding talisman I use to track monsters, just light it up and put it at the door in the middle of the night tonight, and I'll send you a healing talisman as a reward." medicine."

In the gratitude of Doulang and his son, Qingming and Reiko gradually left the village. By the next morning, they could trace the scent left by the spell on Jiumingmao and find the location of Jiumingmao.

"So, Qingming, you are really a good person." Although he didn't say anything, he still did his best to help those in need, right?

Seimei felt a little helpless: "It's just that everyone takes what they need." If you think too well about him, you will probably be disappointed when you find out the darkness hidden deep in his heart, Reiko.

However, at this moment, let Reiko and the good guy Seimei continue to get along happily!

At dawn the next day, Seimei and Reiko came to the vicinity of the village again.

Seimei throws a paper figurine. After landing, the paper figurine bends down and seems to be smelling something. After a while, it starts to run in a certain direction. Seimei and Reiko naturally follow closely behind.

In the early morning, the forest was still covered with a layer of mist, and the scattered water vapor covered Seimei and Reiko, and even the clothes became a little heavy.

However, Reiko's mood was not affected in the slightest. Dew dripped from the petals, the birds began to wake up, and the scent of green grass settled in the air.These are all scenery that Reiko has never seen before. She is used to seeing the beautiful scenery at dusk, but it is the first time for her to run in the forest in the early morning like this.

The paper figurine gradually slowed down and finally stopped somewhere in the forest. In front of it was a girl with black cat ears and two tails.

If Reiko has experienced the era of information explosion, she must have blurted out the word "cat girl" at this time.

It's a pity that she didn't, so she could only secretly slander Maoyou's painting level, while despising Maoyou's beastly behavior that even such a young girl would not let go.

Although, the Jiuming cat in front of me is at least 80 years old.

The author has something to say:

In fact, the cat has not been transformed into a human form for too long, so it retains many cat habits.Maoyou's human form imitated Kamo Baoxian, and Jiumingmao's human form naturally imitated its former owner.

Nine Lives Cat's human form = elementary school student, Mao Mata's human form = adult, so...