was walking in circles. I became aware of that fact when I came upon the same toppled tree on which I had sat down for a break before twice within an hour of walking. How I knew it was the same tree? I had marked it with a sharp rock and left my name in it, jokingly under an umbrella with Maribel. The fact that I had still been able to make such jokes an hour earlier seemed so much more foolish now that I became direly aware of my situation. Thus, I was left with no other options.

Climbing was mostly about being sure of the security of one's footing, which people oftentimes disregarded. Most falls resulted from carelessness in choosing the proper branches, but mostly due to over-confidence in one's own abilities to keep one's balance. I was a careful person and one of my greatest traits was humility, so I would not make such simple mistakes. Soon I found an acceptable tree I believed towered above others; the space between this one's trunk to others around it was exceptionally large and its width was nearly double that of any other I saw so far. Thus, I began to climb.

When I had reached a point where I could finally see above the tree line, I knew that I had made the right decision. The branches above me were still thick enough to support my weight and I climbed a little higher to get a better view, taking extra care not to break my footing or slip on a piece of loose bark. Soon enough I felt that the view would be acceptable and stopped, sitting down on the thickest branch I could find while shading my eyes against the dropping sun. Letting my gaze move over the scenery, I almost despaired at what lay before me. A seemingly endless ocean of green extended to the mist-covered horizon, from which a rugged mountain range met the blue sky. When I turned around, almost the same view greeted me, only served to dishearten me even more; the only difference was the lone mountain I had seen before from the place I had started out at towering in the distance.

However, I saw smoke rising not far from my position, right in the middle between the mountain range in the one direction and the tall single mountain in the other. I thought that I could make out a chimney through the swaying trees, when I realized that a strong gust had pushed them aside slightly. A strong gust that was clearly heading my way. Before I was even able to think of how to brace myself, the force of nature already reached the tree I sat on. The vibrations felt as if a giant had grabbed the trunk of the tree and tried to shake off a bug sitting on a little branch. And I felt like that bug, only that I had only four limbs, of which only two were made to grab onto something. Coupled with a bad reaction time and I felt my whole body hurled straight out of the tree and into freefall.

I found myself falling right into a gap between trees, where no branches would break my fall. It was a height that would surely end in at least broken bones, if not outright death. I had enough time to think that before I shut my eyes and felt the impact. However, it had not been as great as I had expected it to be and when I opened my eyes, I found myself sitting on the floor next to Maribel. Apparently I had fallen from the bench we had been sitting on and my hand had let go of hers. I stared at her, unbelieving of what had just happened, while she showed a similarly bewildered expression.

"Welcome back, you two," Renko greeted the two of us with a smile, as if we had just been gone. I stood up and sat back down on the bench before finally blurting out the questions swirling in my head.

"What did you do? Did you really send me to a different world?" That was the most obvious question, although I felt that the answer was just as absurd as self-evident. "Were the people I met there really... Yôkai?" I was reluctant to speak the word since I could still not be sure about their existence from what I had seen alone. It could all have been a hypnosis-induced dream, but I believed that dreams were not as vivid as what I had seen. On the other hand, I realized that I had basically woken up when I had fallen from the branch, maybe an extension of falling from the bench in reality. There had been a movie about vivid dreams, in which the people would always wake up when they felt the sensation of falling. With this coming to mind now, I could only think that maybe it had all been just a dream.

"The way you describe it, what you saw must have been real... However, I did not do anything," Maribel answered with a concerned expression on her face as she looked me deep in the eyes, as if to determine the truthfulness behind my statement. "Before I could bring us there, you already disappeared from my grasp. When I arrived on the other side, you were not with me." Renko turned her eyes to me, a worried expression on her face. I could only stare at my fellow club members in silence.

We cut our day trip short and talked to analyze what exactly had occurred. However, since Maribel was not sure about her ability to go to that other world herself, we came to no conclusion. On our train ride back we were tired from all the walking and nobody made an attempt to break the silence until we arrived at our station. We conversed normally until Maribel split from our group in the direction of her own home, when once again silence fell over us like a suffocating blanket. Unsurprisingly though, Renko had been the first to break it, asking me the question that I had felt Maribel was avoiding to ask.

"How did you get over there on your own?" She had walked a few steps forward, turned around and stopped before me, forcing me to do the same. Our home was only a few more steps away, but it seemed that Renko wanted her question answered before I had the chance to flee into my own apartment. However, the same question had been fermenting in my own head; how had I done it, considering that I had not even believed in supernatural powers until then moment. Therefore, the only answer I could give was unsatisfactory.

"I don't know... I really don't." I was seeking the answer to that question surely even more than Maribel and Renko were. I was aware of the fact that thinking about it alone would never bear a conclusive explanation. At the same time, I was not sure anybody could help me in this case. "I want to know, too."

It was enough to stop Renko from inquiring any further and soon we parted with common phrases as each of us entered their own apartment. Inside, the first thing I did was put my bag next to my desk and drop onto my bed, feeling dead tired. However, even then I had the presence of mind to gather some clothes and make myself a quick dinner while waiting for the water to fill the bath tub.

An hour and a half later, I dropped onto my bed again, this time with the intention to stay in it until the next morning. Intentions of such a kind were rarely shared by others, or at least it felt like there was something out to keep me from fulfilling my own. Not long after I had closed my eyes and only moments before I was about to fall asleep a sudden voice woke me from my drowsiness. It had been a female's and it did not resound in my head but rather in my very room, from the general direction of my desk. I opened my eyes and turned my head only slightly as to not expend any unnecessary energy, only to suddenly jolt up when I saw a blonde woman in a purple dress sit on my chair.

"Maribel? What are you doing here...?" Just when I asked that, I realized that the woman before me looked more mature than my fellow club member. Her overall appearance was stunningly similar to Maribel's but this person had longer hair and a more curvaceous figure. Her eyes were the most telling factor, showing an unfathomable depth I could lose myself in for eternity. She wore a bonnet tied with a thin red bow, a purple dress with an exceptionally wide cleavage laced with white frills and white gloves that extended up to the elbows, as well as white stockings. Even though she was in a - my - Tatami room, she wore purple high heels and a white folded umbrella rested next to her legs. A distinct atmosphere surrounded her that radiated wisdom, mischief and... danger.

"Good evening. When I woke up today I was told by my cute Shiki that a human had entered through the Great Barrier and that she had sent him to the human village. But when I went to search for him, I found evidence that not only did he never arrive in the human village, but he had even disappeared from our world without a trace." That had been more than enough information to deduce that she was clearly talking about me. But I was cautious as to why she used such a roundabout manner to address the matter of my sudden appearance and departure from what she called 'our world'. A neutral smile graced her face, into which I could not help but project my fears; thus, it appeared to be a coercive, almost intimidating expression. "So I was wondering, how exactly did he do that, hm?"

I forced myself not to flinch at the sound she added at the end, as I was overcome with a sudden surge of primal fear. I could feel that this person before me was not to be trifled with, somebody I certainly did not want to anger. However, I could not answer something I did not know the answer to; it was not only a simple but also dreadfully infallible logical conclusion. "I... don't know." I just hoped that she would not insist on getting a response, since I was sure my whole demeanor left no doubt in the truthfulness of my statement.

"I thought so much, that's why I am here." The blonde did not change her expression and simply proceeded to explain. "You somehow were able to cross the border between this world and ours, but you did it in a dangerous way. I can see a crack in your existence." At the last statement the smile disappeared from her lips and she continued. "If you ever cross the border again, it will be your last time."

I did not understand what she meant, but I felt that it was something regarding the very safety of my life. Thus I could do nothing but listen to the mysterious woman's following explanation. She told me that she saw a crack in my soul and that when I had traversed the dimensions to enter her world, it had torn at my existence to a point that it had been unable to withstand the strain and ripped open at one point. I imagined it like a thick rubber band being pulled, when some fibers started to give out and tore, resulting in an overall loss of strength in that section until soon the whole band would rip apart. I shuddered. Apparently I had been lucky to return to this world before it had broken apart completely. "You could have died."

My mind went blank at these words and I was unable to even think about anything other than the implications of that cruelly direct statement. However, a part of me still clung onto what I had seen in that world, an intriguing place of possibilities beyond my current understanding. "So this means I will never see that world again?"

"You could, but it would be the place where you die." The coldness in her voice upon making that statement left me in shock. "If you really want to, I could take you there. But you would have to live the rest of your life in my world, and would never be able to return to this one." She was leaving me with a choice, with the consequences being irreversible.

The mysterious woman stood up from my swiveling chair and paced through the room, leaving me to my thoughts as my body was frozen in place, my eyes seemingly staring into nothingness. "I do not want to force you into action, but it is better to make a decision now, as long as I am awake. If you were to make a mistake and cross the border again while I am asleep, the pull from your original world might compel you into returning, which would mean..." She did not have to finish the sentence to make an even greater impression than if she had gone into details. So, I had to make a choice now, which would result in two completely different paths for my future.

I felt that I could not decide on something so important on such short notice; I needed time to think things through, maybe speak to Maribel and Renko about it and hear their opinion on the matter. They were the only other people I knew who had crossed the border to the other world and pretty much the only two people in this world who would believe me, if I told them about my circumstances. Looking up at the blonde, I wished my eyes would be burning with determination for having reached a decision; however, I could only ask her to give me more time.

"I can't decide something so important right now... I just... shouldn't cross the border again, right? Then please let me think it through a little longer," I pleaded. The purple-clad woman remained silent for a moment, staring intently into my eyes as if to read my mind. She closed her eyes and sighed while turning away to look out the window, up into the sky.

"I understand. Then take this charm, it will prevent you from accidentally slipping through the cracks of the border again. Always keep it on you, even in your sleep. This charm also functions as a communications tool. Just put your mind into it and I will know about it... as long as I am awake," She finally spoke and handed me a little bag like the ones found in souvenir shops in Shinto shrines. It was an Omamori, a protective charm for various purposes, depending on what was written on the slip of paper inside it. I guessed that this one said something like "avoid dimensional rifts". The part about it being a communications tool left me skeptical, but I was not one to question a person with such an immense aura of the supernatural; if she said this charm could be used to communicate, it must be the truth.

"During your daytime I am usually asleep, although my sleep periods can take much longer than... a day or two. Even if you come to a decision and call me with the charm, I might not learn of it for a while. Be patient," The blonde explained, her expression adding that I should not do anything stupid if she did not answer immediately. "Well, if you decide that you want to stay in this world, there is no need to call me again. The easiest way would be for you to keep the charm and forget about the other side."

It was obviously not as easy as she put it, or else I would have already come to a decision. The woman looked me in the eyes to see whether I had understood her explanation and would be acting in compliance with her warnings. "Thank you," I said and was met with a slightly surprised expression, as her purple eyes widened slightly. Then she smiled with an inexplicable glint in her eyes, before swinging the umbrella through the air behind her. I was stunned at the sudden gesture, but it had not been a random one. Space ripped open and countless purple eyes stared at me from the colorful and psychedelic nothingness within. A searing pain shot through my temples and I averted my gaze and pressed my eyes shut. The shock soon subsided, but when I turned to look again, the woman had disappeared along with the tear in the fabric of space.

I was left alone in my room, with burning questions replacing the earlier headache; the blonde woman's appearance had served to completely shake me awake. "I don't think I'll be able to sleep tonight..."

A beam of light touched my face and woke me from my deep, dreamless slumber. I seemed to remember that the sun only shone into my room in the afternoon, and I was wide awake. The alarm-clock on the nightstand, which had not been set at all, showed that I had gloriously missed the last class of the day by two minutes. However, at the same time I felt no guilt for having skipped mandatory classes, as all of my thoughts were focused on one thing. I had to go to the Sealing Club and see Maribel and Renko to receive the answers to the questions that I thought would be keeping me awake all night. It seemed that the previous day's activities had been more exhausting than I had been aware of.

I quickly prepared myself to be presentable when stepping out of my home, was soon on my way to university, and confident steps led me towards the room of the Sealing Club shortly after entering campus. Not forgetting my manners, I knocked before opening the door, considering that aside from myself the only two other members in the club were females. Luckily, I did not comically walk into a situation that would have unforeseen consequences, as I forgot to wait for a response first; Renko was sitting behind the completely overloaded desk and seemed to be working on the computer, while Maribel was reading a book, as usual. The former stretched her neck to look over the monitor and greeted me with a grin that extended to her eyes - since they were the only features of her face that I could see . The latter did not even bother to look up and proceeded with reading her book.

"There is something I need to talk to you about," I began, making clear that I was talking to both of them by not looking at either one in particular. I tried not to sound too somber, but the topic was, if I could believe the mysterious woman from the previous night, certainly a serious one. "It has to do with the other side." This had their attention, as both stopped their respective activities and looked up to me. Suddenly, I felt pressured in their stares, but bracing myself, I proceeded to tell them about my experience from the night before.

"So I was wondering, what might have gone wrong," I concluded with an indirect question directed at Maribel, as she had been, in a way, the medium for my walk in wonderland. The person in question remained motionless and seemed deep in thought, making me wonder whether she had even heard my inquiry, but her eyes suddenly turned to stare into mine. For a split second, I felt like looking into the infinite wells of the blonde woman from the night before, but it passed so quickly that I dismissed it as an illusion.

"When I was about to take you with me you had already disappeared..." Maribel could only repeat what she had told me before, but then she continued. "I cannot explain it well, but it seems that you... have an innate affinity with the other side. It's like something over there pulled you in, the instant the opportunity arose for you to be able to cross the border." The implications of her statement left me speechless; I had an affinity with the supernatural and something on the other side had acted on that affinity and pulled me through?

I assumed that having spent so much time of my life on the research of the folklore about the indigenous supernatural beings and occurrences may have affected me beyond mere accumulation of knowledge. Maribel had made clear that she had a power like dimensional travelling, even if it did appear to be not as simple a matter as the words would suggest. Apparently she could not just travel to another dimension whenever she wanted to; there were many factors to be fulfilled, for which Renko's presence was, in most cases, of utmost importance. The two told me that the temple we had visited the previous day had been a place where Maribel's powers manifested in a stable enough state to be wielded. Usually, Renko would perform calculations of the present location, the exact time and the approximate destination on the other side before Maribel attempted anything. This suggested that the former held some kind of power that complemented the latter's.

"We cannot say for sure without testing it out, but considering what you were told... I would not try to do anything before we have certainty," Maribel proceeded and stopped my derailing train of thoughts. "Maybe Renko and I could head over there and try to meet that woman you told us about..." Her suggestion sounded like a plan, but I was not sure if they could find that mysterious woman so easily. We did not have a single clue about her whereabouts on the other side, so even if they crossed the border to look for her, it would be like a wild goose chase.

Suddenly I touched the charm the blonde had given me, when I put my hands in my pockets, and noticed that for some reason I had forgotten to tell my club-mates about it. She had told me that if I willed so, I would be able to communicate with her, even though I was reluctant to "call" her during the day; maybe I would disturb her sleep, and since I knew how some people were when they were disturbed from their slumber, I decided to wait until nightfall before activating it. However, I took it out to show it to Maribel and Renko, so that it may act as a clue to what the woman had meant with her explanation for my inexplicable condition. Just then, Maribel's face distorted in a grimace of pain and she held her temples, as if a hot needle had been driven through them. She managed to point at the charm in my hand and pressed out a few barely audible words. "That thing... I feel... something from it..."

I was unable to understand the situation, but Renko had the presence of mind to quickly take it out of my hand and throw it on the table. It appeared that this action removed whatever affected Maribel; she relaxed and breathed in deeply before opening her eyes again and looking at the now harmless charm on the table. Renko and I followed her example, staring at it as if it might grow legs at any time and run away if we were to leave it out of our sights. Finally, somebody broke the silence and I was astonished at the serious tone of the voice. "This thing is dangerous... where did you get it?" Maribel asked without averting her eyes from the charm. I told her that the mysterious woman had given it to me and that it would keep me from crossing the border again.

"Now I'm not too sure about her anymore..." I concluded and put a hand to my chin, sinking into my thoughts. She had appeared strangely trustworthy, despite the air of danger she had permeated, but now that the charm supposedly meant to protect me had caused harm, my trust in her was gone. "Maybe she was a Yôkai and simply played a prank on me..." I thought that maybe none of her words could be trusted and that there was actually no danger for me to cross the border again. I was aware that this was wishful thinking and that I should remain cautious, but my adventurous spirit had been awakened by the short trip into an unknown world.

"We cannot be too sure about this... if it was indeed a prank, then it was not directed at you but at me. Since neither Renko nor you were affected by it," Maribel brought up a valid argument, seeing as I had been holding onto the charm for a while already and felt nothing from it. "Maybe... it was a warning for me, to not go over there again and for some reason she could not tell me in person." Her speculations sounded plausible and since I was not versed in this area of the supernatural, I was unable to comment on her words.

"For now it might be dangerous for us to go to the other side, as we surely attracted the attention from somebody or... something over there," Renko argued and turned to look at me, finally removing her cautious gaze from the charm on the table. "Let me keep the charm, please. I will ask a friend of mine about it and see what it contains." I agreed to Renko's request, especially since surely I would not be crossing the border to the other world again for a while. I only needed to be careful not to tread on any grounds that could be spiritually connected to the other side, like a shrine or a temple.

Thus, the club was adjourned and each member went their own way; Renko went to meet a friend, Maribel wanted to buy something in the city and would go a different way, too. This left me to go home alone, with nothing to do for the rest of the day, making me decide to go and stock up on some groceries, especially snacks, and read some books on the spiritual world.

When I finally arrived home about an hour later, for some reason I felt strangely tired, as if I had missed a night's sleep. Maybe it would be better to take a nap, as I felt that it could impair my focus while reading. Then again, it was probably just the stress of the crazy things that had been happening these couple of days. I could disregard the signals my body sent me and try to stay awake until it was time to sleep, to maintain a healthy rhythm. After all, it was only late afternoon.