about

[natzoom]

ABOUT PERSONALITY ABILITIES BACKSTORY CODING

ABOUT

natsume takashi

name

16/17 - born july 1st

age

157cm/5'1

height

student

occupation

kumamoto prefecture (rural japan)

location

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

A slight, unassuming boy in his mid-teens, with golden-brown hair and catlike amber eyes. Usually dressed in a school uniform or something similarly simple -- slacks, jeans, button-down or sweatshirts in muted colors. Often accompanied by a very round cat, who he has frequent whispered conversations with. Very polite and respectful when spoken to, especially by adults, usually with a careful smile on his face that notably doesn't reach his eyes. Frequently bruised or dirty in some way, prone to staring off into corners or at things nobody else can see, even mid-conversation.

To those who can tell such things, he's absolutely overflowing with spiritual energy and power, exuding it constantly and seemingly without his own awareness. Demons, spirits and other creatures are often drawn to this, with it seeming "delicious" or "irresistible" to them.

PERSONALITY

At first meeting, Natsume is a very polite and accommodating person, but it's very easy to tell that he's simply trying his best to be as easy to deal with as possible. He's kind and can be warm, but he rarely expresses his own opinions or desires, even when prompted, and tends to defer to what others want to do in almost any situation. Overall, his attempts at not causing problems usually end up forcing him to hide his own wants and needs even deeper.

When he relaxes a bit more, Natsume is surprisingly strong-willed and stubborn. He tends to reveal this side more with people who get under his skin -- those who are careless, arrogant or cavalier, which often end up being the yokai or exorcists he encounters -- and can be downright blunt when he's properly irritated. He isn't afraid to be bossy to these sorts of people, despite his relative physical weakness. Natsume can also be incredibly reckless, putting himself in harm's way and pushing himself far beyond his own limits, if he believes it's in the service of doing the right thing.

At his heart, Natsume is a very compassionate, soft-hearted person, who puts up a prickly exterior as a defense mechanism. He's very susceptible to the causes of those who are smaller or weaker, and doesn't believe in ever hurting someone or something to get what he wants. Despite a life made more complicated by yokai, he never tries to severely injure or kill any of them, choosing to exorcise or otherwise bind them if they're causing problems and simply talking it out doesn't work. He's ferociously loyal, and constantly hovers between wanting to accept the love other's try to show him and hold them at arm's length so he doesn't hurt them more.

ABILITIES

SPIRITUAL SIGHT

The most passive of Natsume's abilities is that of being able to see, speak with and otherwise tangibly interact with strange beings that the average human cannot perceive. These are specifically designated as "yokai", a class of supernatural beings that include spirits of items, plants or animals, creatures such as mermaids or kappa, deities like gods and goddesses and other monsters common in Japanese folklore. Regardless of the power level of the yokai, Natsume is able to see them, and can even sense their presence if they've deliberately hidden themselves. He can also feel on some level if anyone he encounters has similar abilities.

SPIRITUAL POWER

A bit more vague, this is described as a sort of energy source that constantly emanates from Natsume and is more or less tied to his normal energy and stamina. It's sort of like a well he can draw from and use for other abilities (see below), which naturally refills itself without him needing to do more than sleep or otherwise rest. Despite being physically on the weaker side, if Natsume attacks a yokai, he draws automatically from this spiritual power, and his attacks possess a severe amount of force, enough to defeat even high-class yokai with one blow. This power also makes him extremely appealing to spirits, who are drawn to it like a magnet, and compelled to consume Natsume in some manner to obtain his energy.

TAKING/RETURNING NAMES

Directly tied to the Book of Friends his grandmother Reiko left him, Natsume is also capable of returning the names in it to the yokai they were taken from. If a yokai writes their name in said book -- usually after being defeated in a fight or game or otherwise tricked by Reiko -- they are bound to the owner of the book, and must obey them without question. Presumably Natsume is also capable of compelling yokai to write their names, but he chooses instead to return them, restoring dignity and autonomy to the spirit. This is done by selecting the page with the name, placing it in his mouth, clapping his hands together and exhaling. This often results in Natsume having a vision of how the name was taken in the first place, and thoroughly severs the control he has over that yokai.

SPELL CIRCLES

Spell circles are a learned skill in canon, rather than an inherent one, as they are simply designs drawn or carved into things to create a specific effect. However, since Natsume has such tremendous spiritual power, learning these circles is second nature to him, and he's able to perform very powerful spells on his first try. The main ones he's learned are summoning, warding, locating, binding and visibility spells, all gleaned from friends he's met. These aren't a common practice, as Natsume vastly prefers simply talking and negotiating with the spirits he meets, but he is capable of them.

EXORCISMS

This is more of a potential ability -- Natsume's world has several clans of exorcists who live and work in Japan, using a variety of spells and their own natural power to bind and control the yokai around them. Some are able to create shiki spirits specifically as bodyguards or lackeys, while others can kill yokai with regular weapons like arrows or knives. A major conflict in-series is Natsume's refusal to ally himself with any of these clans, despite being the single most naturally talented person any of them have ever met. Presumably, if he chose to become an exorcist, he would be unspeakably powerful, but his natural kindness and compassion has him continuing to resist.

BACKSTORY

Natsume Takashi was the only child of two very loving parents. His mother died soon after he was born, and his father soon followed, when Natsume was three or four. Since he had no immediate relatives, Natsume began a pattern: he would be taken in by a set of relatives, spend a couple months with them, then be sent away. He changed schools countless times, went from well-meaning but hapless relatives to cruel, abusive ones and back again, and even spent a length of time in an orphanage. He was a polite, sweet-tempered, obedient child, but he simply couldn't stay in one place very long.

The reason for this was simple: Natsume was able to see things. From a very young age, he would react or talk to creatures that only he could see, which was unsettling enough. He would try to show his relatives what he was seeing, pointing into empty corners or yelling at thin air, and growing increasingly panicked when nobody else could see what he could. The monsters weren't passive either -- when they realized the boy could see them, they would often torment him, chasing or attacking him, leaving injuries that Natsume couldn't explain. Bad luck seemed to follow him too: items would be broken, strange messes that could only be blamed on the strange, erratic child, outbursts that didn't make sense to anyone else. It only made sense that eventually every guardian would give up and send him away.

When Natsume was sixteen, he moved in with a new set of relatives, the Fujiwara's, and started school in the small local village. The area was full of yokai, but Natsume was used to that by now. He knew how to run and hide and try to keep it a secret. He knew how to be polite and accommodating to try and keep his place in this home -- the kindest he'd ever been in -- as long as he could. It was one day, when running from yet another malevolent spirit, that Natsume accidentally broke a seal on a small shrine containing a lucky cat statue, and released a powerful mountain spirit named Madara. The spirit could sense Natsume's incredible power, and was about to devour him -- when Natsume punched it in the face and turned it back into lucky cat form.

Madara -- or "Nyanko-sensei", as Natsume nicknamed him -- then revealed that generations before, Natsume Reiko -- Natsume's maternal grandmother -- lived in the same village, and was also capable of seeing yokai. She was a formidable force, who made a game of battling as many spirits as she could and taking their names to keep in a handmade book. Holding their names was akin to holding complete power over the spirits, making the book (titled the "Book of Friends") a valuable item. Natsume Takashi was no Reiko, though, and he decided to try and return as many of the names as he could. Nyanko-sensei begrudgingly agreed to be his guardian, in exchange for whatever remained of the Book of Friends once Natsume died. Having a cranky, alcoholic cat bodyguard wasn't exactly what Natsume had envisioned for his life, but it ended up being a good thing as soon as word began to get around that Reiko's grandson was in possession of the Book of Friends...