he decision was not an easy one, as all of them were sites that held important meanings in folklore and mythology. I determined that the Hôryû-ji, allegedly the first temple in Japan, founded by Shôtoku-taishi, would be a good place to start. After a short while of pondering, I presented my response to Maribel and Renko, upon which they exchanged a look between themselves before turning to face me with vacuous smiles. Apparently the decision served no other purpose than to decide on the club's next destination. Any answer would have garnered me the same response and I felt stupid for having expected something more. Then I felt stupid for feeling stupid in the first place.

When we left the university building, we were greeted by the cool air of Kyôto nearing the evening hours. I watched, with a little frown, as both of my upperclassmen put on jackets, mostly due to the fact that I had not considered the cold that accompanied the sunset. I would have to make do with my short-sleeved shirt and the T-shirt I wore underneath. Luckily - or unluckily, depending on how you looked at it - classes of the day had started at an hour in which I had to seriously consider how much I would wear for the weather that had greeted me upon opening my room's window. If I had judged that day by the hours I later spent in a hot and steaming seminar with a broken air conditioner, I might have been walking around in clothes that were satisfying my rediscovered basic desire of keeping myself warm even less than the current ones did.

Putting my free hand into a pocket and holding my backpack with the other, I followed Maribel and Renko to the Demachiyanagi Station. At that point I learned that our trip to Hôryû-ji would not be until the next day, as the sun was already beginning to disappear behind the mountains. With a single train ride being over an hour long, I approved of that decision. Since I had submitted my university schedule along with the registration form, Maribel already knew that I was free the next day. I realized that my hopes had been unnecessarily high, although I also felt relief; I would not have to suffer in the cold much longer than the walk from the station to my single-room home.

Strangely, Maribel and Renko were getting off at the same station and seemed to follow me all the way home. My mind was drawing question marks until Maribel finally split from our group and went a different way, into a district of bigger houses in which people with proportionally bigger numbers in their bank accounts lived. My first impression of her had been that of a foreigner with a strange love for Japanese occult, but now I had to add the adjective "rich" before her undefined nationality. Even then, Renko was still with me and went all the way to my apartment. Finally I decided that it was time to ask what she was doing.

"Why did you follow me all the way home? Now don't tell me..." My mind could not finish the sentence, due to not wanting to sound rude, but more likely because of not knowing what to say exactly.

"I live here," Was the matter of fact answer from Renko and I blanked out for a moment. Then I thought that this kind of coincidence seemed too unlikely to be true, but it did not matter what I thought. A moment later, she had produced her keys and unlocked the door right next to mine, which earned her another unbelieving look from me.

"You have been living here..."

"Ever since I started university," Renko finished my question with her statement. "Tomorrow, I will wake you up, if you are sleeping in... but don't count on it." That was all she had to say before she spoke her good evening and vanished into her room with a wave of her hand.

I was left in front of her door with an empty look, while my brain sorted things out. Why had I never seen her before? The next moment I realized that I could answer that question myself: She simply had different class attendance times and we miraculously kept missing each other that way. Being a dorm-like building that housed mostly students, nobody felt the need to greet their neighbors. Thus, I had not seen any of them even once, although I knew that the one living on the other side of my room was a musical student playing the guitar.

Having Renko as a neighbor only meant that from now on we could walk home from club activities together and if she came over to bring me the latest news or wake me up for club meetings, it could only benefit me.

Or so I thought. Not only did I sleep in, but I even had to go and wake Renko up, who was still sleeping even though the meeting time was fast approaching. She seemed like a person who was weak in the mornings and I learned the reason why; since class usually started at least two hours later for her than for me, she could take her time getting ready, including sleeping and making coffee.

I had to bang on her door that I feared that all the other neighbors must have been awakened, until one of them actually opened his door and gave me a bloodshot glare. Luckily, Renko had, despite her sleepiness, the presence of mind to remember our appointment and when she came out half an hour later, she appeared, aside from a big yawn and drowsiness in her eyes, to be her usual self, albeit slightly toned down.

When we finally arrived at the Tôfuku-ji train station, we were an hour late. Maribel looked like she did not mind, or rather like she was used to such procedure with Renko, but the glances she shot at me, accompanied by an unidentifiable smile, made me feel uncomfortable. She could have yelled at me and it would have made me feel better than the silent looks. I pitied the fool who would make an enemy of her. We boarded the Nara line to the eponymous city.

However, all was well when we had finally found seats in the train. It would be a ride of about forty minutes to the Nara station before we would have to switch to the Kansai main line, which would take us directly to the Hôryû-ji station. From there the actual temple would be a half an hour walk away. Renko had regained her usual cheerfulness, thanks to the coffee she had bought at the station, and Maribel had stopped her sniping glances. I assumed that the train ride would be just as uneventful as the field trips in my old school had been, and I hated myself for being right, whenever it was better to be wrong. The only conversations we had were things one would forget within minutes after their conclusions.

It was almost noon when we finally arrived at the gate leading into the vast temple grounds of the Hôryû-ji. The first things to catch my attention were not the old buildings but the roaming deer. I had heard about the Shika deer in Nara, but had never seen them live before. Seeing as Renko simply went up to one and started to stroke its fur, I guessed that she was either used to them or just really proactive. Maribel did not seem too fond of the hoofed animals and took care to not approach them further than five meters. When I watched her getting distressed over a curious deer approaching her instead, I smiled. However, I made sure that she did not notice it, as I assumed that she did not like that trait about herself; her slightly embarrassed glances directed at people who were watching her were quite telling.

"So, what are we going to do here?" I asked and turned to Renko instead, leaving Maribel to her newfound four-legged friend. Maribel spoke and then gestured to show that she did not have any deer treats, but the luckily antler-less deer was persistent, as if to say that it did not believe that this surely kind-hearted foreigner would not go out of her way to buy any overpriced feed. The deer proceeded to follow her until we had to climb some stairs; Maribel hurried to reach the top, as if she feared that the deer would suddenly decide that she was worth the trouble. It did not and she could finally take a breather - or so she thought, when upon turning around she found that the path before us was practically paved with deer.

"I'm not sure myself, we'll have to ask Merry," Renko had answered and given the person in question a look of sympathy. We would not be able to ask her until we were safe from deer. I wondered why she had presented choices for temples and shrines in Nara in the first place, if she had a fear of deer. When my thoughts strayed in a direction that suggested a failure on Maribel's part, she suddenly turned around as if she had read my mind. The destructive force of her glare instantly wiped my mind of any such thoughts.

"We are here for sightseeing, nothing more." We had found our way inside the main temple grounds before Maribel was finally able to relax at the absence of four-legged monstrosities that tried to bereave her of all her food. They might as well have been Eldritch abominations; she could not have shown any more fear for them. "I have never been here before and felt that it would be nice to see a temple that defined Japanese culture."

I was unsure how to take the fact that she simply wanted to sightsee. Maribel had answered with a straightforward smile, which also seemed to suggest that any follow-up questions would be unwise. Surely enough, I had none to follow up with and left it at that. It was my first time in Nara, too, so I could not complain about walking around to take in the sights.

To any person studied in Japanese history, religion and mythology, Hôryû-ji held a special meaning. The temple was among the oldest Buddhist temple in Japan and had been erected as a monument to the up and coming Buddhism in a time when Shinto was the only accepted belief. This temple was also among the biggest temples in Japan and had remained untouched by the later Syncretism of Buddhism and Shinto.

"But really... you can't go into any of the temple buildings," Renko complained. "The sun will soon become unbearable." It was true that none of the buildings were accessible to the public, but I had a different reason to be dissatisfied with that fact. However, it seemed that Renko was less affected by the blazing sun than I was, so my mind, after the initial disapproval of my upperclassman's reason for complaint, leveled with it. I found that more than craving to be able to enter the temple buildings, I soon craved for any form of shade. That was only increased by Maribel suddenly producing a parasol from somewhere. Due to its design, I could not ask to join her under it with good conscience, even if my consciousness depended on it.

"We'll just have a look around and then find a place to sit down. I brought some lunch for all of us." Maribel pointed at the big bag she was carrying. I had wondered why she would bring such luggage on a trip that required plenty of walking, but now I scorned my previous self for thinking she should have brought less. "I think that when you have seen one Japanese temple, you have seen them all."

Maribel dared speak what I tried to suppress in my innermost self - that I felt disappointed. Even if this temple had been founded by Shôtoku-taishi and was among the first in Japan, it only proved that those that followed had taken the good example and built their temples in similar fashion. Thus uniqueness could only be found in details that were mostly inaccessible to the public, a fact not really helping the case. Even if the layout was different, the buildings were mostly built in the same shape and sometimes even size. The only interesting, but just as inaccessible, buildings were the private palace of Shôtoku-taishi himself and the pagoda, cited to be one of the oldest wooden buildings in existence. The latter stood before us and was awe-inspiring; the former was a good walk away from the main temple grounds, but it did not dampen my eagerness to visit it after lunch.

"Merry, are you not going to show him?" Renko asked when we finally found a place in the shade that also presented acceptable conditions to sit down and eat. I turned to Maribel with a questioning look, before returning my gaze to the one who had spoken first, wondering what she meant. "You showed me the first time we went out together, too." All kinds of questionable images popped up in my mind, but I mentally waved my arms to disperse them.

"I think we should wait until later, when it's darker," Maribel answered and took out the lunchboxes, handing one to Renko and another to me before settling down with her own. That statement immediately conjured the previously discarded images into my mind and they seemed dead set to stay this time, since the blonde did not elaborate on what she wanted to show me. On the one hand, I wanted to know badly, so I could finally settle down my mind; on the other I did not want to push Maribel and get an unfavorable result.

A few seconds passed without either of the two making any move to continue the topic, and my curiosity reached its peak. I just had to know, even if asking may come with a cost.

"What is it that you want to show me?" I asked, trying, unsuccessfully, not to sound as curious as I actually was. "And why does it have to wait until when it's darker?" When I spoke, I realized that it was not only limited to the inappropriate thoughts my mind had conjured up, but the possibilities also included shady business. I regretted bringing it up again immediately; however, the damage was done and nothing could reverse it.

"Well, we can't do it with people around and when we tell you about it, you wouldn't believe us," Renko said and showed me an uneasy smile, as if the topic was uncomfortable for her. Maribel's expression did not change when she proceeded to eat her boxed lunch. She had prepared sandwiches for all of us and somehow I had expected it already. Judging by her looks, she did not look like a person proficient in the art of cooking Japanese meals. I would have never dared to say it out loud though.

"You know you can tell me. I'm already a member of the Sealing Club," I argued and turned my gaze back at Renko. The way she had said it, I was convinced once more that under the normal-looking facade of the club lay a predictable facet of any student organization with a name like this. Namely that of a collection of grown people who had not graduated from their 8th-grade-syndrome, even upon graduation high school and entering university. "If you're going to show me later anyways, you could as well explain it now and leave the demonstration to later." My hopes were certainly not up.

"Eh... but," Renko started, but Maribel suddenly stuffed a sandwich in the former's mouth and proceeded to answer in her stead.

"Very well, there are no people around here on such a day anyway, so might as well do it now," Maribel spoke in a relaxed tone as she looked around. "Hold my hand."

Without waiting for my response or action, both delayed by my "huh?", Maribel took my hand and closed her eyes. Before I could even think that her hand was warm and soft, and whether I should close my eyes, too, I suddenly felt as if my seat had been pulled from under me. However, I did not drop onto the dusty floor but rather on soft grass. When I fell, I had blinked in shock and the surrounding scenery had already changed the moment my eyes had opened again.

I found myself on a lush pasture bordering on a forest in the distance, with the horizon mostly occupied by a single mountain that parted the sky. My body went slightly numb when my mind tried to explain what had just occurred to me with rationality. The rationality I had trained myself in ever since I had gained the realization that the supernatural could only be found in fiction. That same rationality was overwhelmed at the improbability of my current situation. Then I noticed that the feeling of Maribel's hand had disappeared from mine. I spun my head around frantically, but to no avail. I was alone.

Apparently I had just experienced some kind of space-displacement phenomenon, something people also simply called teleportation. At least that's what my mind calmly analyzed, abandoning the attempt to explain it with science; technology taught us that it was an impossibility, for now. There was no doubt that I had been teleported somewhere, or maybe it was more appropriate to call it "spirited away". Shaking my head to free myself from such idle thoughts, I proceeded to walk in a randomly selected direction. I had based my decision on a feeling, something I thought I would never do. With the little information I could procure from my surroundings, there was no way to rationalize my decision. In fact, maybe staying in place and waiting for the perpetrator of my current situation to come and get me would have been the better choice.

Of course, the better choice was not always the most interesting one, as curiosity won over rationality. If this was a dream in which I could consciously decide the next steps, a paradox in itself, I wanted to explore as much as possible. But if I had really been teleported to an unknown place, from the looks of the scenery somewhere in the Japanese Alps, returning to civilization was my primary goal.

"She said that it was around here somewhere..." Suddenly I heard the voice of a girl behind me, which compelled me to spin around on the spot to see the person it belonged to. I was relieved to find that I had not ended up in some uninhabited place that humans would not traverse for decades to come. Just when I turned around, the owner of the voice had reached the top of the hill from where I had walked down only moments earlier. One look told me that she was not normal.

She wore a red and white dress and had relatively short, black hair, but the real points of interest lay parallel to her red eyes. Her ears were especially large and elongated, and most of all, covered in brown hair. My eyes were fixated on them, as they seemed to move with a mind of their own, twitching from time to time, turning and perking up in response to the noises of nature. The pair of what I identified to be clearly animal ears approached, until they were right in front of me.

"Have you seen a human suddenly appear out of nowhere around here?" The girl asked me, unaware of the fact that I was the person in question. Only now that she was much closer did I realize that she had long crimson fingernails that looked like vicious claws and from behind her back two tails waved into my field of vision. Her choice of words led me to take a little time and consider how I would answer her.

In this moment my oftentimes superfluously crystal clear mind proceeded to gather the information provided into a profile and found the best match. I recognized the characteristics of the girl before me and associated them with a Yôkai from the library that was my extensive knowledge of the supernatural. This girl looked like what a Nekomata would if it existed, a black cat that lived so long that it turned into a Yôkai, featuring a split tail and human features. I just had to assume that this girl was a cosplayer, although why she would be here was not answered by this assessment.

"Hm... wait, could you be that human...?"

"Ah, yes. I think you're looking for me, but I'm not sure if I appeared out of nowhere," I said and looked the cat-ears girl in the eyes. She looked back up at me and there was a short moment of silence between us, leaving me to wonder if it had been a mistake to tell her the truth. Then her expression brightened and she turned around, ran up to the top of the hill and cupped her mouth with both hands.

"Ran-sama, I found him!" She yelled down the other side of the hill and pointed in my general direction without looking back. It did not take long for the person named Ran to appear next to the young girl with the two tails, which were swaying left and right in excitement. At first a strangely shaped bonnet covered with what seemed to be paper strips appeared at the top of the hill, followed by a face rimmed by blonde hair, featuring sharp eyes and a thin-lipped but wide mouth. She reminded me of a fox and once I saw the multiple fluffy tails sticking out from behind her blue and white robes, I felt something like certainty encroach on my mind.

"Well done, Chen. Yukari-sama is sleeping, so there is no way to send him back for now. At least he was lucky enough not to appear in the forest or somewhere where Yôkai lurk during the day," The woman named Ran said to the cat-girl while staring straight at me, seemingly to gauge me. From her aura I was convinced that she was not just a cosplayer who was unable to differentiate between fantasy and reality and who just happened to be able to make a really elaborate costume - several of her tails were moving seemingly independently.

"We don't have the time to deal with him and since Yukari-sama doesn't seem to be waking up anytime soon..." Ran considered, all within earshot for me, while narrowing her eyes to the point where her face truly resembled that of a fox as it was usually depicted in art. "Human, we will tell you where the human village is, but you will have to get there yourself."

Without waiting for my reaction, she turned to her right and parted her arms that had been crossed in front of her and hidden under wide sleeves, to reveal a slender hand with exquisite long nails. She pointed in the direction she was looking and explained that there was a human village about an hour away. Apparently her job was done with that, as she simply turned around and walked away, followed closely by the cat-girl named Chen. The pair of animal-like females walked up and over the hill, leaving a dazed me behind. When Ran's tails disappeared from view I finally woke up from my slightly disturbed state; however, it was already too late and when I ran up the hill to follow the two beings that were clearly not human, they had already vanished.

Looking around, left alone once again, I felt lost. Maybe the only choice I had was to go in the direction Ran had pointed towards, where supposedly a human village lay. Her words implied that humanity was not the only species that had created a society here, when one could speak of a human village, as if to differentiate from a Yôkai village. I started heading in the alleged direction of that village, watching my surroundings carefully and taking in all of the unfamiliar scenery. Even the air smelled differently from what I was used to, suggesting that I had at least travelled a great distance, away from the polluted air of urban regions, if not to a completely different world.

The most urgent issue at hand was the absence of Maribel, even though she had never said that she would be accompanying me; Renko and she had spoken about "showing" me something. It was indeed something unbelievable that one would only come to accept as reality when one had experienced it, but no matter how incredible it was, I felt anxious at the prospect that I had no control over when I would be able to return to anywhere familiar.

I found my direct path blocked by a forest - despite the fact that I had seen it from far away, I had delayed my decision regarding how to deal with it until it was unavoidable - that was less than inviting. Judging with my instincts, I did not even want to enter the shade of the trees before me, but from afar it had not looked like I would be able to round the forest that easily. Thus, the only way led straight through it and I decided that I would not stray from the direct path. Ran had said that the village was an hour away, so the forest surely could not be deep enough for me to get lost in so easily.

I was lost. I had to face that reality when clearly more than two hours had passed and I was still within the forest with no exit in sight. I did not need a watch to be able to guess the time fairly accurately, but that only added to my despair. Not only did I not cross through the forest, but I seemed to be walking deeper into it. My mind had reached the point where I seriously considered to climb the tallest tree to use it as a lookout. However, if I were to fall and hurt myself I might really meet my end in this foreign place. Thus I could only hope to come across somebody, no matter how unlikely the chance was for such a convenient thing to happen in the depths of the forest.

At this point I did not mind if one of the Yôkai Ran had spoken of were to appear before me. If they were all like her and Chen, I would not mind their company. Of course, I could still not completely believe that the two females I had met earlier were Yôkai; a part of me kept denying it. However, if they were indeed real, I would have to thank Maribel and Renko for giving me the chance to see something so amazing.

With such unrelated thoughts swirling around unchallenged in my head, I sat down on a tree that lay toppled over from a lightning strike or undermined roots and rested. I did not have water and food on me, so the longer I walked, the more unfavorable my situation would become.