幼き日々に | Osanaki Hibi ni | Manga Special 2
Natsume, Nishimura, Kitamoto and Sasada go to an art museum to celebrate finishing their summer exams. When Natsume returns home Touko reminisces about the fun days of her childhood and Natsume bitterly reflects that he has no such happy memories from his own prior to moving in with the Fujiwaras. As he considers his own memories he remembers a tree youkai that used to playfully jump out to scare him after realizing he could see it before one of its attempts scared him when he was finally starting to get along with some classmates and quickly alienated them.
Tropes associated with the episode:
- Flashback: Natsume recollects some memories from when he was temporarily living with some of his father's relatives.
- Hidden Eyes: The tree youkai wears a mask with a single centered eye painted on it over the top half of her face.
- My God, What Have I Done?: The Tree Yokai feels this way after her recent prank leads to Natsume accidentally knocking another boy into a puddle.
- Nature Spirit: The youkai from Natsume's past appears to be connected to a specific tree which he used to walk past on his way to and from school.
- No Name Given: The tree youkai's name is not revealed.
- Stalker without a Crush: After the Tree Yokai learns that Natsume can see her, she starts following him just to annoy him.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: The tree youkai turned itself into a cat so it could sit with and comfort Natsume incognito after it deeply upset him and accidentally pushed away the human friends he was trying to make.
- You Can See Me?: The tree youkai was incredibly excited to come across a human that could see it.
