Today was shaping up to be the weirdest day of Hanako’s life, and she had yet to have her morning chat with Yujiro after his prayers.

First she had found Eva slumped over asleep or unconscious while heading towards the shrine’s donation box. While she was used to seeing colleagues asleep at their workplace after a night shift or deathmarch, seeing the exchange student on the ground prompted a more concerned reaction. This wasn’t a heated office afterall. Luckily the younger woman had woken up quickly.

Just in time to save the both of them from an angry bird-monsters medieval weapon. After the two of them had finished their argument, Eva led both the monster and Hanako to the small house where most of the shrine’s employee’s lived.

After calling for the old priest to take care of the bird, Eva had taken her to the tatami room and asked her to sit down before her.

Letting out a deep exasperated sigh, Eva began to talk. “I am sure what just happened caused a lot of questions for you. So I’ll keep to the cliff notes explanation for now before I’ll answer those.

“You know all those folk tales about strange things that go bump in the night? Just like the Tengu that nearly impaled us earlier, many, if not all of them are actually true. And you’ve been tackled right into this stranger side of our world.”

Before she could elaborate, Touya slid open the door and dropped a tablet with two cups between the two women inside and whispered something to Eva. Turning towards Hanako, the new arrival just said “Good luck” and left again.

“So is this going to be some kind of red tea blue tea scenario?” Hanako asked, eyeing the cups uncertainly.

“Huh?” Eva replied surprised, until she finally catched on. “Ah, no. Don’t think anyone I know would be able to let you just forget what happened this morning. It’s just some tea Touya made for everyone.” Taking a sip from her cup, the German continues. “So as said, many of the things just deemed old wive’s tale or myth by the uninitiated are actually true. And usually they do a better job than the guy that attacked us in keeping it that way.”

“But why stay hidden? Why wouldn’t Mumei make regular appearances if she is actually real?”

As she pondered her response, the German took another sip from her cup. “Well it depends a lot, some just want to live their lives quietly and not be hunted by humans. Others have been threatened into staying hidden because they’d try to harm humans.” As she took a short pause, Hanako noticed the younger woman’s gaze wander for a bit. “ And many others, including Mumei, want to help people but don’t like being exploited, so they keep to themselves.”

“Why would they be scared of humans? Wouldn’t they have superhuman powers? And maybe even magic?” Hanako asked before picking up the warm cup of tea before her.

“I can’t speak for all of them, but I’d assume with what humans did to each other in the past they’d rather not risk it. I mean even for those that didn’t reach that conclusion until then, there were the two World Wars.”

There was a heavy silence between the two of them as that sunk in for Hanako, before she managed to formulate her next question.

“If secrecy is so important, why are you taking the time to explain everything to me?”

“Because I hope it’ll lead to less issues in the long run if you know you can come to us and ask about things, rather than letting you run around and poke a hornet’s nest you weren’t aware of while looking for answers on your own.”

“I see.” She replied before picking up her cup of tea and taking a sip as well. ”If you don’t mind me asking, are you some kind of German monster? Like a Werewolf or something?”

“Ah no. I just managed to stumble into something I wasn’t supposed to. After getting a similar talk to this one, Komaki convinced me that staying close for now would be for the best in case that comes back to bite me somehow.”

“Then why are you talking to me right now? Isn’t there anyone better suited to this here?”

“Not really. Komaki is much better suited to dealing with the Tengu that is apparently way out of date. Touya isn’t really comfortable with important conversations like this. And Yukiko isn’t here this morning.” Eva finished, seemingly holding back a sigh.

“What about Mumei then? Wouldn’t she -” before she could finish her question, Hanako was interrupted by her phone alerting her to a new message from Yujiro. As she went to check what it was about, she noticed the time. Which was nearly half an hour later than when she normally leaves the shrine to hurry to catch her train.

“Oh no, I’m going to be late.”

“How long do you have until you need to be in the office?” Eva inquired calmly. “And how close is the closest shrine to your office building?”

“About half an hour. Which the train ride to the nearest station takes on its own.” She replied before quickly finishing the cup of tea she had been served. “And we have a tiny shrine on the roof of our building, but why do you ask about that?”

“In that case we might be able to help. Let me see if one of Mumei’s messengers is available to take you there.” With that Eva left her alone. Unsure what Eva was on about, Hanako grabbed her purse and made her way outside. When she heard a ‘yip’ behind her, she turned around to face the snow white fox stepping out of the door behind her. As it closed the door with one of its tails it flicked another towards her hand. Assuming it wanted her to take a hold of it for some reason, Hanako placed her hand around it.

A Moment later, the air around the fox began to shimmer until it seemingly disappeared. If not for the fact she could still feel the fluffy tail in her hand, she’d have assumed it did indeed vanish. Following in the direction the tail was tugging her, they soon reached the torii leading out of the shrine grounds. A strange tingling sensation spread from the hand holding on to the fox all over Hanako’s body. Then they stepped through the torii and into a different world. This strange world seemed to consist solely of a cobblestone road lined with countless torii gates of all kinds of makes.

As they walked along, Hanako thought she recognized some torii from famous shrines, until she was suddenly standing on the roof of her company’s office building, seeing the skyline of Tokyo with the Fuji behind it. That moment of surprise seemed to have been enough for the fox to slip from her grip and leave her presence.