A Few Needed Adjustments

Setting it Up

The first thing Natsume did when she got home march up to her bedroom, pick up one of her pillows, and screamed into it, pushing it closer to to her face as the volume rose before dropping it down when she was done.

School sucked that day. Not only was she trapped at home for another mcfriggin week, Saki had been sick with a flesh eating virus and literally could not come to school. It was pretty bad case, too. There was a big pit in her right leg where muscles should have been. Everyone had been on edge when some jackass spread a rumor that she caught it from someone else. Even though this made no sense and a simple Google search could show you it was complete bull, her classmates had been very distant from each other, avoiding contact to the point where almost no one talked to each other under fear it was airborne.

Natsume was left alone in her seat then, listening to the lessons while feeling alone.

It just sucked ass.

Well, at least she could still call Touma and Akinori. Her parents haven't taken away her phone rights, so she could still keep in touch with them. From what they told her, it seemed like people were dying without any grudges as there was literally no activity.

She was considering calling Touma to vent about another boring day, but decided doing her homework first would be a better idea. Natsume had been on the best behavior as she could muster as she thought this might convince her parents to release her on good behavior. Keisuke probably looked at her like she was a Brady Bunch kid, but she didn't care.

As she went over to the discarded, her phone began to buzz and flash. Digging it out of her bag, it showed that unknown number was calling her. Ugh, she thought, telemarketers. Natsume answered anyways just so she could hang up.

"Yes?"

"Hey, um...geez, I should I just call you by your name. It'd be weird to call you 'pumpkin'."

Now, Natsume was weirded out. Here she was, being called by Kyubi (she didn't feel comfortable calling him "Dad" yet), trying to call her a dad nickname.

Needless to say, it was surreal.

She plopped down on her bed before speaking much quieter.

"How did you get my number?"

"It's posted on your detective website."

Natsume mentally kicked herself for not reading the legal papers Akinori gave to her before she signed it. This also made her regret not reading the terms and conditions of various sites she's been on.

"Well...why are you calling me?"

"Oh...you don't like me then?"

"No!" Natsume covered her mouth after realizing how loud she was, "I mean, no. It's not that I don't like you, it's ju-just I don't know you very well. And I feel like...you aren't acting...very fatherly."

Both sides were silent for a moment. There was bit of... sniffling in the background?

"Well...why don't we try to connect over something? Like a father and daughter?"

His voice, void of it's usually proud and soft tone, seemed desperate and cracked on some of the vowels.

She regretted saying what she said, but it was true. It had only been a week since she and him found out and she had thankfully found out suppressing her emotions, mostly the stressful ones, made the new look recede her back into a normal girl.

But still.

That wasn't a healthy way to live.

And he was nowhere to be seen while this happened. Natsume didn't want to think or say that he was a shitty dad, but there weren't many positives to go on.

Actually, his proposal wasn't a bad idea. Natsume thought that if she didn't know him enough to see him as a father, this would be a chance to connect. Or, at the very least, kill some time.

"Well...I'd like to do that. But probably in a week or two, I'm grounded from leaving the house."

"Oh, don't worry about that; I can pull some strings in that."

His voice seemed to raise a pitch after she agreed to the meeting. Natsume raised an eyebrow at his statement, but shrugged it off. He was a master of illusions.

"Alright. Is there a specific place you want to go or, uh, where?"

He began to list down a location and she scrambled for a pen and paper before copying it down.

"Ok then. Tomorrow? Well, I could probably see you from 3 to 6, depending on how much work I've got. Alrighty then, see ya later, bye."

Hanging up the phone, Natsume heard the familiar pitter patter on paws against floor and her door opening. In came Jibanyan, looking ready to blackmail.

"So," he began slowly, "I see you've got meeting tomorrow."

"Cut the crap, Jibanyan. You just want me to get you some more liquor illegally. Ask Touma this time."

"But he banned me from his house."

"Ugh, fine. I'll pick some up tomorrow evening."

"Yas!"

A/N: Another short chapter, but i wanted to set up the next chapter's, which will be longer, events. Remember to leave your thoughts in the comments!