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vocab_drabblesTitle: As Day and Night
Fandom: Natsume’s Book of Friends
Author:elidelio
Rating: G
Word Count: 498
Summary: Natsume Takashi never expected he would be able to meet other people who could see yokai, much less those whose views were so completely opposite to his own.
As much as he tried seeing the best in people, Takashi was reminded of his dislike for the Matoba clan every time he ran across Seiji.
To be fair, it wasn’t so much dislike as it was the heavy weight of knowing the two of them would fundamentally never see eye-to-eye. Takashi liked giving people—and yokai—the benefit of the doubt, and he tended to be more lenient when it came to chalking things up to misunderstandings rather than outright malice, especially when it came to non-humans.
This was not so for Matoba Seiji, though Takashi wasn’t sure if he could put the blame for that entirely on him. The Matoba clan was an old family of exorcists that commanded respect from all, and one could see from Seiji’s patrician bearing and his well-honed skills that he had been raised under the strictest of standards to become the clan’s head. Perhaps due to this, Seiji did not regard yokai as anything other than tools to be used and problems to be eliminated. Takashi had observed this was a trait common amongst exorcists, though it was probably strongest in the Matoba clan due to their sordid history with yokai.
Takashi’s stance did soften a bit when he learnt more about the circumstances behind Seiji’s position, but only a bit. He’d always wondered about the reason behind Seiji’s salient eyepatch, he even briefly theorised that maybe a yokai had taken his eye and that was why he was so disdainful towards them, but he never would have imagined that a single piece of cloth would hide a decades-old grudge behind it. In truth, his eye had not been taken by a yokai—at least not yet—and the eyepatch actually marked Seiji as the bearer of a curse cast upon his family by a resentful yokai after one of his ancestors reneged on their deal.
While Takashi could understand the reasons behind Seiji’s actions a little better after learning all this, he still couldn’t agree with him. And neither could Seiji agree with Takashi, though the former had once invited him to become an exorcist for the Matoba clan. Takashi would never agree, of course. He had no interest in becoming an exorcist and, as the keeper of the Book of Friends, he felt it was his duty to protect it and become a sort of bridge between yokai and humans, a position which most exorcists would find questionable at best.
Still, while the two of them would never be in agreement, at least they had begun to understand each other. There were still many secrets and not-so-subtle hostilities between them, and Takashi had no expectations of ever being able to call Seiji a friend, but perhaps one day in the future they might be able to work alongside each other without having to use threats as a means to do so.
Fandom: Natsume’s Book of Friends
Author:
elidelioRating: G
Word Count: 498
Summary: Natsume Takashi never expected he would be able to meet other people who could see yokai, much less those whose views were so completely opposite to his own.
As much as he tried seeing the best in people, Takashi was reminded of his dislike for the Matoba clan every time he ran across Seiji.
To be fair, it wasn’t so much dislike as it was the heavy weight of knowing the two of them would fundamentally never see eye-to-eye. Takashi liked giving people—and yokai—the benefit of the doubt, and he tended to be more lenient when it came to chalking things up to misunderstandings rather than outright malice, especially when it came to non-humans.
This was not so for Matoba Seiji, though Takashi wasn’t sure if he could put the blame for that entirely on him. The Matoba clan was an old family of exorcists that commanded respect from all, and one could see from Seiji’s patrician bearing and his well-honed skills that he had been raised under the strictest of standards to become the clan’s head. Perhaps due to this, Seiji did not regard yokai as anything other than tools to be used and problems to be eliminated. Takashi had observed this was a trait common amongst exorcists, though it was probably strongest in the Matoba clan due to their sordid history with yokai.
Takashi’s stance did soften a bit when he learnt more about the circumstances behind Seiji’s position, but only a bit. He’d always wondered about the reason behind Seiji’s salient eyepatch, he even briefly theorised that maybe a yokai had taken his eye and that was why he was so disdainful towards them, but he never would have imagined that a single piece of cloth would hide a decades-old grudge behind it. In truth, his eye had not been taken by a yokai—at least not yet—and the eyepatch actually marked Seiji as the bearer of a curse cast upon his family by a resentful yokai after one of his ancestors reneged on their deal.
While Takashi could understand the reasons behind Seiji’s actions a little better after learning all this, he still couldn’t agree with him. And neither could Seiji agree with Takashi, though the former had once invited him to become an exorcist for the Matoba clan. Takashi would never agree, of course. He had no interest in becoming an exorcist and, as the keeper of the Book of Friends, he felt it was his duty to protect it and become a sort of bridge between yokai and humans, a position which most exorcists would find questionable at best.
Still, while the two of them would never be in agreement, at least they had begun to understand each other. There were still many secrets and not-so-subtle hostilities between them, and Takashi had no expectations of ever being able to call Seiji a friend, but perhaps one day in the future they might be able to work alongside each other without having to use threats as a means to do so.
