For as long as he can remember Takashi Natsume has the ability to see spirits, or youkai and have constantly been chased by them. It is a power that had been inherited from his grandmother Reiko, and he also finds he has inherited her Book of Friends – a book containing the names, and thus servitude of the spirits she had defeated. Setting out to release these contracts, he is plagued constantly by hostile spirits who desire the book. He is joined by Madara, another spirit with ulterior motives of his own and taking the form of a maneki-neko (beckoning cat).