Overthinking Things: Natsume Yuujinchou, a partial fanon confirmation (plus a tangent on Homestuck troll shipping).

Friday I finally got my hands on a copy of Volume 14 of Natsume's Book of Friends. And while, yes the first chapter involved about exactly what I thought it did (Takashi literally losing his voice) a bit from one of the other chapters inside was a surprise...and not in the bad way.



You see since it had been mentioned several times in series cannon that Reiko didn't get along with people due to her ability to see spirits (hence why she took her frustration out on myriad yokai, and therefor why the eponymous "Book of Friends" exists in the first place), so there's a "snowballs chance in hell" (not going into the word of Dante that claims that, effectively, a snowball 'can' survive in the "ninth circle of hell") of someone liking her enough to marry her. So, naturally, it's highly likely that Reiko's child (which has to exist, otherwise Takashi won't) was an illegitimate one. Cue a line of dialogue from our hero on page 98 of the aforementioned newly acquired manga...

"Reiko...My Grandmother...never married. She had my mother out of wedlock."

I knew it! But there's still a few questions I have involving in some way Takashi Natsume's family tree: "Was the conception of Takashi's mother consensual, or is she a child by rape?" and, more importantly in my opinion, "Who is Takashi's Grandfather?" or maybe that should be more 'what' rather than 'who'; seeing as the important part here is if Takashi's Grandfather (mothers side of course) is human, yokai, or a mix of the two.

My full fanon theory states that...

• Takashi's mother was an illegitimate child. (confirmed)
• Takashi's mother was also a child by rape.
• Reiko was raped by either a yokai or a human man that was evil in some way shape or form.
• Reiko herself was the child of a human and a yokai (maybe Madara?).

Speaking of relationships and Madara, although I do enjoy reading fan fictions of this type, the closest thing to a type of shipping that is cannon is a rather tsundere variant of moirallegiance between Takashi and Madara. Moirallegiance itself can be sort of described as "platonic soul mates" but then again Andrew Hussie himself said in a thread, "The purpose is to pacify a partner who is dangerous. It's not all about being platonic soul bros forever."

...So, "Platonic soul mates where one of them's a morality pet"...yeah, that's Takashi and Madara alright.

OK, tangent about troll shipping aside, I maybe accurately predicting plot twists in a shojo manga series because I read TV Tropes too much. Or I could be just...Overthinking Things!