orry to intrude again, but I would be glad to," I answered with a smile and Mamizô responded in kind. Shô and Nazrin watched me even now, as if not entirely convinced of my identity, but I showed them a wide heartfelt grin. Neither reacted the way I had hoped they would and I felt too awkward to continue alone, turning back to the Bake-danuki. "Did I do something wrong?"

"Oh, don't mind them. They art of the quiet kind," She explained and signaled me to follow her towards the back of the temple. Looking back at the feline and mouse girls, wondering just how they could get along with those animals as their bases, I complied.

"I want to know what's happening to me," I murmured, thinking about what Mamizô said earlier about me being something other than human. While I was unnaturally calm, I knew that this question needed an explanation as soon as possible; Yukari had explained to me that things involving the soul was matter of life and death. "Do you know anything?" Even as I spoke those words I lacked any feeling of urgency; I knew that half of my soul must have been torn from me and even then there were no unpleasant side-effect, safe from the fact that apparently I was not classified under human anymore.

"I'm no expert on how souls work, Byakuren would be able to tell thee more. However, it would seem that thy soul is fragmented. Thy spiritual power is in constant fluctuation, so 'tis hard to determine anything for me," Mamizô explained as we left the main temple building and walked through the back garden towards the cemetery. "Maybe thou can find books on the subject if thou ask Byakuren for them. What I can see is that there is a faint hint of yôki surrounding you." Yôki was the energy unconsciously emanated by Yôkai, and the stronger the being, the stronger the aura surrounding it. Humans would subconsciously perceive it as chills running down their spines or feeling the temperature in the area seemingly rising or dropping by some degrees.

"Thank you very much, Mamizô-san," I thanked her for the explanation, earning me a chuckle from her. "Just call me Mamizô," She demanded as she produced a pipe from somewhere once again. I began to wonder whether she had hidden stashes in the cemetery, as she had done the same earlier when we met Kyôko here.

"It will be a little longer before dinner. With everything that happened, afternoon prayers are cancelled. Knowing those folks, they will be diligently meditate in their own rooms. Except for the two freeloaders, of course," The Bake-danuki mused as we once again walked through the rows of gravestones. I found two looking much newer than the others and apparently showed a questioning expression, as Mamizô began to explain.

"The daughter of a rather wealthy landlord and her handmaiden rest here. They died two days ago, one after another, due to unknown reasons. Rumors have it that the young lady's love went unrequited and the grief caused her to waste away. The handmaiden followed her due to sadness over the loss of her mistress. 'Tis a sad story," She said and took a puff from her pipe. A nagging feeling that I had heard a similar story somewhere before clung to me, as my eye came upon the peony lantern hanging at the grave.

"What is this? Isn't it too early for Obon?" I inquired about the peculiar lantern usually only put on display on the day of the homecoming festival of deceased spirits.

"This was the favorite lantern of the deceased lady and it was made by the handmaiden, so the family thought it a fitting gift to be put on the grave," Mamizô explained. I was unable to shake the feeling that something was amiss, but I could not pinpoint the exact reason. Ultimately, I was forced to give up thinking about it.

"It seems there was no point in worrying about Kyôko after all," My companion said and pointed between the rows of graves. The Yamabiko in question was squatting in front of a grave and appeared to be staring at something. "That's the real one." Mamizô, a proficient shapeshifter herself owing to the fact that she was a Bake-danuki, seemed to have the conviction to tell with one glance whether somebody was real or in disguise.

Kyôko did not hear us approach despite the sounds our geta made on the path made of gravel and continued to be engrossed in looking at the ground. I peeked over her shoulder to find an ant column marching from a hole in the ground towards a grassy area. When a bigger ant, judging by its bigger mandibles a soldier morph, approached the petite girl, she fixed her eyes on that particular individual, until she noticed that the column had split and a large group was following the soldier towards her. She panicked and tried to move back without standing up, falling on her bottom in the process and leaning against my legs. Surprised, she looked up right at me, as I returned her gaze, then moved my eyes towards the approaching column of worker ants.

"I'm sorry, I didn't hear you approach!" Kyôko squeaked and stood up quickly, paying attention not to step on any ants. She hid behind me, as the creeping black mandibled menace continued to approach.

"How long have thou been here?" Mamizô asked, her expression showing that she already knew what the answer would be.

"Ever since lunch. I hadn't finished sweeping and... oh," The Yamabiko responded before she recalled the fact that she had apparently left her task unfinished. Mamizô looked up to the sky to judge how much time had passed since they had lunch, once again reminding me of the conveniences of the modern times in which a clock was almost always readily available.

"So, thou have been loitering around here ever since lunch, almost two hours ago?" The Bake-danuki said, surprising me with how little time had passed. Then I remembered that here they were possibly using the traditional time system, in which one hour was around two standard hours, each assigned to one of the twelve zodiac signs. Then again, four standard hours seemed slightly excessive, or my inner clock was just that unreliable.

"Err... not exactly... I mean... yes," Kyôko stuttered to try and find an excuse, before quickly giving up before Mamizô, who was without a doubt much more experienced in fooling people and certainly knew when somebody was lying. Taking a puff from her pipe, the Bake-danuki gave a hearty laugh and looked to me. "Can you believe that she is older than you?" I was taken aback by this rhetorical question and turned my gaze to the belittled Yôkai in question. She returned it with what I could only describe as a bad poker-face; she was unable to look into my eyes directly and the edges of her mouth twitched slightly, as if unsure whether to smile or to look sad.

I reached out and pet her, realizing that by now all members of the temple were practically accounted for - disregarding the freeloading umbrella Yôkai. Just as before, she appeared to enjoy it, but I felt a certain apprehension in doing something so disrespectful to my senior, causing me to stop again soon after. And again, I earned a disappointed puppy-eyed look from the girl with the floppy ears. I did not dare to check whether a human set of ears were hidden under the patches of brown fur-like hair, or even take a look to see what it looked like below.

"Would I be able to speak to the other residents before dinner?" I asked Mamizô, in hope to meet Shô again and maybe finally talk to her directly. "That depends on the person, as they have different attention spans for meditation," She answered, explaining what I had already suspected when watching the various characteristics of the people present at lunch.

"And I assume Shô is the diligent type," I conjectured, evoking a knowing smile from my tailed companion. "So she is the one thou art interested in. Thou have high standards," She remarked with an amused expression. I could not deny it and simply gave a her a non-committal smile in response. "She will be meditating until dinner, now that she does not need to pose as the symbol of worship in the main hall," Mamizô continued.

"You don't seem to be very pious yourself, so what is your role in the temple?" I asked the Bake-danuki. She openly indulged in intoxicating enjoyments despite the Fifth Precept of Buddhism, so I already knew that she was not much of a believer. There must have been other reasons for her to be at the temple.

"I was called to this temple by Nue as a... special war potential," Was the response, surprising me with the strange choice of words. From folklore and mythology, Tanuki were always shown to be tricksters that could disguise themselves and would play pranks on humans. However, since they were still physically only raccoon dogs, and judging by stories involving them, I assumed that they would be weak in direct confrontations. "Kyôma-dono, thou seems to have a wrong impression of Tanuki." A dangerous glint appeared in her eyes as she grinned, showing her slightly elongated canines. "Well then, shall we go and play a round of Shôgi?"

Apparently having displayed my skepticism too openly, I could not deny Mamizô's coerciveness and agreed. Kyôko decided to ditch her work and followed us as the Bake-Danuki led me towards the living quarters of the temple. We left the cemetery and rounded the main hall along the engawa, past where I had first met the little umbrella Yôkai that had tried to surprise me. Out of a whim I looked up at the place where she had so clumsily greeted me from and found it, unsurprisingly, devoid of her presence. Obviously, she did not live in that particular place, despite being a freeloader; Nue was surely still searching for her.

When we entered through the front door, I was greeted with something soft and moist slapping directly into my face. The only surprise I felt was that there was still somebody who would play the Konjac prank in this day and age - before remembering that Gensôkyô followed different rules. I reached up to grab the piece of foodstuff and bit into it, trying to throw the perpetrator off through my mundane reaction. With a loud "Gyaah" from right above me, the thing that I had thought was Konjac was pulled upwards and in the next second Kogasa dropped to the floor in front of me, clutching the tip of the giant tongue on the umbrella she carried around. With mild surprise I was reminded of the nature of the being before me, who looked up at me with fearful eyes; she was a Yôkai and the umbrella was part of her body.

"You ah a monfta! How fould you bife my fongue like thif?" She exclaimed barely understandably. Apparently the tongue on the umbrella corresponded to her own tongue. I held back from making a face that said "you reap what you sow" and reached down towards her. Flinching at my gesture, she looked terrified at the possibility that I would finish what I had started and eat her completely, so she looked for help from Mamizô. The latter's face, showing the least sympathetic expression I had ever seen, seemed to say what I had prevented myself from. "Noooo! Haaaalf!"

Then my hand touched Kogasa's hair and I petted her, as she continued to tremble in fear, her eyes pressed firmly shut as if it was a means to escape from her situation. She jerked at the sudden feeling but opened her eyes in surprise, when she realized that I was not trying to harm her. "I'm glad you're alright," I said and smiled, as she looked up to me in a daze. Now every member of the temple was accounted for since the incident with the Futakuchi-onna, Senka, and the shapeshifter that had infiltrated the temple disguised as Nazrin.

Mamizô continued towards her room and I followed, with Kyôko right behind me, as we left the dazed Karakasa Yôkai behind at the entrance. When I turned around one more time, I saw Nue appearing next to Kogasa from a dark spot in the hallway and glancing in my direction once before proceeding to talk to her fellow Yôkai. Mamizô led us around a corner and I lost sight of the two.

"Thou seems to have a way with Yôkai that makes them get attached to thee easily. Normally Kogasa would give up after failing to surprise thee once," Mamizô explained when she opened the door to what appeared to be her room. "After all, a Yôkai who had its face seen once loses a little of the aura of fear it has due to its unidentified nature. 'tis also why Nue remains so effective."

"Am I really that special? I think that my behavior is quite normal," I stated, unsure of whether I had just been complimented or indirectly called a weirdo. At least I did feel somewhat happy to know that my presence affected Yôkai in a positive way and that I seemed to fit in. A theory formed in my head as to how my existence was approaching that of a Yôkai: Due to the fact that I was missing half of my soul, the other half was trying to replenish itself with whatever was available. Since the supernatural beings were mostly made of spiritual energy, little by little, my incomplete soul absorbed their energies and started to turn me into a human-Yôkai hybrid. At this point everything was still only conjecture using incomplete knowledge and many unknown factors.

Mamiz ô led us to her room, which overflowed with small trinkets, hanging scrolls and books. However, there was one tidy spot in the middle, where I assumed she laid out her futon whenever she went to sleep. The Bake-danuki sat down there and took out a beautifully carved Shôgi board from the oshiire, one that was equally stuffed with various items. In my high school days I had played Shôgi almost every other day, either with friends or my grandfather, so I was confident in my skills. Mamizô was evidently much older than me, so I had to consider her in the league of my grandfather, whom I only rarely managed to beat, and only when I caught him off-guard.

I did not expect it be so one-sided.

" 'tis thy third loss in a row. Young'uns these days just don't have what it takes anymore," Mamizô proclaimed as she set down a Silver General right in front of my King and declared checkmate. The games had all been very quick ones, completely unlike how Shôgi was usually played; it was the result of her fast and resolute moves, causing me to slowly panic and make more and more mistakes. Once again, as quickly as I could, I analyzed the board to find a way to get out of the predicament, but even with the restricted movement area of the Silver General on my doorstep, I could not escape it with my King due to my own misplaced Bishop. In fact, the Bishop had been captured from my opponent only three moves earlier, and was forced back onto the board to protect myself against a flanking move by her promoted Rook. I understood that the sacrificial move had all been part of her plan to wall in my King with my own pieces.

"I'm sorry, I got ahead of myself," I apologized and hung my head low, invoking laughter in Mamizô. "As long as thee realize it thyself," She began. "We still have time until dinner, so let us have at it a little more." I realized just then that the title "The Tanuki of Sado" could hold another, more obscene meaning, and shuddered but still complied. "Please teach me, master," Was all I could respond with.

Kyôko had fallen asleep and breathed lightly, lying right next to the Shôgi board, while the two freeloaders, Nue and Kogasa, had entered the room silently to watch as I was being figuratively beaten senseless by Mamizô. The atmosphere was relaxed and despite the fact that I could not get a single move on my opponent, I was enjoying my time with the supernatural beings that surrounded me.

At one point I found an opening in the Bake-danuki's defenses and with a triumphant "Ha!" I set down a Gold General inside her defenses, checking her King and threatening to capture her Rook at the same time. Previously we had been setting down the pieces quietly, but for once I did not mind abiding by the common convention of making an audible sound to put the newly placed piece into the center of my opponent's attention. However, it also caused Kyôko to jump up from her sleep in confusion as she looked around to identify the scoundrel that had so rudely shaken her from her dreams.

"Sorry, I woke you up, huh?" I said apologetically and stroked her slightly disheveled hair, upon which she made a low-pitched sound I found similar to purring and smiled blissfully.

"Thou art getting ahead of thyself again, Kyôma-dono," Mamizô said and pulled my mind back to the Shôgi board, where she pointed at her second Bishop, which had been lying in wait within my own camp since almost the very beginning of the game. It had been unable to capture my pieces and neither had mine been able to capture it, so after almost thirty moves later, I had completely forgotten about its presence.

"Oh..." Was all I could say as she moved her hand towards it and picked it up, moved it across the board and to my horror right on top of my Gold General. I had returned a previously so hard-won piece back to her for free, and found that with the now removed Bishop a most detrimental opening in my own defenses had been created. "I'm sorry..."

Only four moves later I was checkmated by the very Gold General I had delivered to her on a silver platter.

"I think a break is in order, Kyôma-dono. Thy concentration is slipping," Mamizô announced and produced a Sake bottle and two cups from somewhere, while I was looking at the board in despair. Nue and Kogasa had been unusually quiet throughout my games with the Bake-danuki, so I assumed that they knew the etiquette of remaining silent during a Shôgi game. I suspected that Byakuren was the one usually playing with Mamizô and that she had already taught the two freeloaders to remain quiet while they did, in one way or another.

"Won't Byakuren-san scold you if you drink before dinner?" I remarked, at which the Bake-danuki stopped short of pouring herself a cup. I was not opposed to drinking, considering that alcohol seemed to have no effect on me anymore, but I did not want to be scolded again in place of the real perpetrator, who had slyly escaped and left me as a scapegoat earlier. "We-well... she shan't notice if we only drink a little," She said, slightly flustered. I made a face at her that could only be described as skepticism mixed with criticism.

The two freeloaders, for the first time since they entered, spoke up and demanded Sake as well. Embracing the double standard that came with alcohol on so many occasions, Mamizô denied their demands on grounds of their lacking tolerance as well as inability to keep secrets. "Well, look on the bright side of things. You won't be scolded if we are found out," I said, knowing how unpersuasive I appeared to be as I somewhat reluctantly accepted the cup. Kyôko had laid back down but watched Mamizô and me as we wittingly broke the rules of Buddhism, while on the grounds of a temple, while denying it to two others.

Just as Mamizô poured the fourth cup, the little Yamabiko's ears twitched and she sat up from the floor. The Bake-danuki's face turned white as she quickly gulped down her cup of Sake, hid the evidence and looked towards the sliding door anxiously. Another second later it was opened without warning and Ichirin stood there, her eyes scanning the room. They stopped at me and the Sake cup I was still holding.

"Did sister not scold you just earlier?" She said, closed her eyes and sighed. "But I have to assume that it was Mamizô who forced you into this." Taken aback by that statement the person in question showed a shocked expression, as if she had been falsely accused. I was too amused to feign anger at the fact that she was trying to make me take the blame once again. "Sister will hear of this. Now, come eat. Dinner is ready."

"Who made it?" Kogasa asked in excitement. Forgotten was the fact that she would not get full from it.

"A laywoman who entered our temple recently. I do not know her name, but sister speaks highly of her," Ichirin responded and turned away, expressing that she wished for everybody to start moving toward the dining hall. We complied and followed her, in the direction where a strange smell wafted from.

As we entered the hall in which I had previously eaten lunch already, we were greeted with the smell of something burned. However, it was not just that, but rather something that must have been drowned, dried and left to rot for a few weeks before being directly thrown into a fire and scorched into half-raw and half-charcoal. Put in fewer words, it smelled ungodly.

"What happened here?" Mamizô asked as she held her nose, alternately shooting glances in the direction of Byakuren, who already sat in her place, and the kitchen. I was not sure if I only imagined it, but there seemed to be purple steam drifting from the latter's direction, through the open sliding door. The head priestess made a serene face and there was no indication that the smell bothered her. Shô and Nazrin both seemed to be deep in meditation and had their eyes closed, but Minamitsu clearly expressed her disgust. "How was she able to cook something that smells like it died and been forgotten from vegetables alone?" The captain pressed through her lips trying not to breathe in the foul stench. She then turned to Shô and Nazrin, since she did not dare to speak against Byakuren directly. "They are actually practicing endurance and haven't taken a single breath since starting to meditate!"

The two accused did not react at all and continued, while Minamitsu regretted that she spoke so much and had to take a breath. Ichirin remained expressionless as she walked into it, while Nue, Kogasa and Kyôko showed tortured faces as they crawled to their respective seats. Mamizô looked at me strangely, surely wondering if I had anything to do with the chain of strange events throughout the day. From her eyes I could tell that she did not mean it negatively or that she even suspected me, but maybe she half-jokingly considered me a bringer of misfortune.

"What did you do?" I heard Ichirin speak in the kitchen, but no audible answer reached me. Then there was the sound of plates clattering, before I heard the nun's voice again. "Wait, that's dangerous!"

"The meal is done!" Another female's voice, arguably belonging to a young girl, came from the same direction as the chemical weapon-grade fumes. Suddenly a swaying tower of stacked food trays came into view, carried by who I assumed to be the owner of the voice. I already expected the worst when the girl, with little regard for the dangerously heaped health hazards, skipped into the room and started to hand out trays one by one. Ichirin ran after her, taking care that nothing would be dropped; her worries were unfounded, as the girl skillfully dropped one tray in front of every person or the empty seat cushions thereof while sometimes randomly spinning around her own axis or hopping from place to place, without spilling anything.

When she was done, she walked up to me in a beeline without looking in the direction she was going, before coming to a stop on the tips of her toes a few inches in front of me, coming so close to me that our noses almost touched. A pair of strangely empty and eerily glowing green eyes stared into mine as I could make out a similarly empty smile under her nose - which was clamped shut with a clothespin. There were just too many things for me to make a retort at, but before I could decide what exactly, she spoke.

"Hey, you are a human!" She exclaimed. "Or are you?" Producing a black hat from somewhere, the girl spun a few steps away from me and put it on, before skipping past me back into the kitchen. All I could make out from her short appearance was a yellow long- and wide-sleeved top with a green collar, and a knee-length light green skirt. Then she disappeared through the open sliding door and more sounds of plates and tableware hitting each other emerged from the kitchen. Soon she came back, carrying a single tray for herself as she hopped into the middle of the room and sat down right in front of Byakuren. Ichirin, following the girl back into the dining room, showed a devastated expression at what I assumed to be what was left of the kitchen after creating something as dangerous as the unidentifiable matter on the plates in front of everyone. In fact, I felt as if my eyes were playing a trick on me, since for some reason the food of doom seemed to be actually covered by a mosaic. Maybe it was a natural preservation reflex of my brain, which activated to shield my sanity.

"Let's eat!" The girl said and picked up her chopsticks, when Byakuren finally spoke and interrupted her. "Koishi-chan, you cannot sit here. Your place is there, next to Kyôko. And you should not wear your hat indoors," She scolded the girl, whose name appeared to be Koishi. The latter looked up to the head priestess with an empty face for a longer period than I thought was necessary to process the information, before she took her tray and stood up wordlessly, spun around in place a few times and stopped when she fulfilled a turn of at least 1980 degrees, facing me. Once again, she made a beeline towards me, but passed me without even looking up, came to a stop right next to Kyôko and sat back down.

"But I won't take off my hat. It's my friend, it helps me relax!" She proclaimed and motioned to start eating, when Byakuren interrupted her again. "Please wait until everyone has taken a seat, Koishi-chan," The head priestess said patiently, and surprisingly, the chaotic little girl held herself in check until Ichirin, Mamizô and I had finally sat down, in the seats we had taken at lunch.

"Now, let us eat," Byakuren proclaimed and as if it was a race, Koishi instantly gorged herself on the unidentifiable biomass that filled her plate. Unsurprisingly, nobody else actually started and everybody just eyed what was on their trays with well-founded suspicion - except for Byakuren, who actually picked up her chopsticks, took a piece and ate it, wearing a serene expression that seemed to emulate Buddha at the moment he reached enlightenment. I assumed that she had to shed her worldly thoughts to be able to survive the relentless annihilation of her taste buds.

I looked down and had to tell myself that it was just my imagination when I thought I saw something move on the plate. Picking up the chopsticks, I wondered whether my current condition, what with the peacefulness in my mind, could help me withstand what I assumed would be pure torture to my senses. At least I was able to somewhat disregard the horrid smell, so maybe, just maybe, I would at least be able to leave with a full stomach.

Thus, I took my chopsticks and picked up a piece quickly, fearing that the content of my plate would retaliate against me if I stayed too close to it with my hand. Looking at it and suppressing the feeling that it was staring back, I motioned it to my mouth and finally put it in. For a moment, I thought that maybe the sorry excuse for food that Koishi had brought into existence did not taste as bad as expected, as there was not much of taste to it in the first place. When I finally bit into it, feeling the strange texture of an octopus mixed with that of a dry sponge, the taste finally settled in.

"That was really reckless of you, Kagami-san," Byakuren reprimanded me, as I came back to. I found myself in a lying position and when I looked up, found Koishi staring down at me very closely, her strangely empty green glowing eyes sparkling with curiosity. Then I noticed that this angle held a significant meaning and felt the softness of something other than a pillow under my head; I was resting in Koishi's lap.

"I must have blacked out for a moment there..." I murmured and got up quickly, startling the starry-eyed girl. I looked through the room to find that everybody was still present after this display. Some were watching me with curiosity, others with concern and a certain umbrella-toting freeloader was showing me a grin filled with malicious glee. I turned back to the head priestess, who was viewing me with patience as I regained all my senses, except for the feeling in and around my mouth. I remembered what happened and sighed, once again reminding myself of the clause concerning common sense. Koishi had been able to create lethal food from the same ingredients used in making vegetarian dishes and I had actually eaten it - some commendation was in place for both of us.

"I'm sorry, Koishi-chan, I don't mean to say that the meal you made is..." Byakuren started, but was interrupted by her opposite. "I know, it tastes awful! I was wondering why anybody even considered eating it." The head priestess was totally taken aback by that direct response and her face flushed red, while I watched Ichirin and Minamitsu dropping their chopsticks. I turned to look at Koishi, who showed an empty expression as if she was wondering why everybody reacted so strangely.

"She really got us there, huh?" I said and slapped my thigh, breaking out in laughter at the absurdity of the situation. The other members of the temple could not be angry at the young girl with the eerily emotionless smile, and followed my example. Mamizô looked in my direction with what I assumed to be a gaze of affection reserved for a likeable idiot, while Koishi stared at my face as if I was a rare curiosity.

"Hey, what are you? I'm a Satori," She suddenly asked and revealed her identity. I looked at her while trying to remember what exactly a Satori was, searching through all the knowledge I had at my disposal. The information in the outside world concerning Satori Yôkai was that they can read minds, and that this ability apparently shares a root with the power of Yamabiko to return sound in folklore. I glanced in Kyôko's direction before returning my attention to the girl before me. Then I finally found the indicator to her inhuman nature: A number of blue cords, which I had somehow not noticed all this time, was floating around her, attached to unseen places on her body, but all running towards the front of her chest, where they came together in a blue ball roughly the size of a closed fist. There was a slit in the middle of it, which had an alarmingly resemblance with a closed eye, including eyelashes.

"I have my third eye closed so I don't need to read minds anymore," Koishi explained and showed a smile devoid of any warmth, but not really cold either. My heart felt like it skipped a beat at this sight, but I was unsure what exactly it was that I had felt in that instant.

"She has sealed her consciousness and lives in the subconscious now. That's also why-" Byakuren began to explain, but was once again interrupted by Koishi. "I have no worries! Yaay!" She exclaimed and stood up, her empty eyes looking nowhere in particular, before she spun around towards the kitchen. "I'll go and remake dinner! I'm sure my second time will be much better!" I assumed that living in the subconscious came with the complete lack of an attention span.

Shô was the one to stop Koishi, by grabbing the blue cords attached to her closed third eye and pulling her back. The young girl almost fell on her bottom, spun around graciously and almost kicked Kogasa in the face in the same motion, before she stopped facing the disciple of Bishamonten. Her empty expression did not reveal if she was angry over the rude manner in which she had been stopped, but her words made clear that she understood annoyance.

"What are you doing? That's dangerous!" And with these words she twirled around to leave again, when she was once again stopped by Shô in the same manner. "Please, don't cook anymore." Was all the woman with the striped hair said, before she let go and returned to her seat beside Byakuren. Koishi stood there, her emotionless smile the same as before, seemingly contemplating Shô's words. Then she returned to her seat and sat down, eyeing the lethal weapon she had created for a moment. Everybody was watching her actions, unsure of when her attention deficit hyperactivity disorder would kick in again. Not even three seconds passed, when she suddenly stood up and stared into thin air, while apparently addressing nobody in particular.

"I'm hungry! I'll go make something!" With that said, she ran into the kitchen before anybody could do anything to stop her. Everybody in the room exchanged concerned glances, while I stared in the direction Koishi had disappeared to, wondering why a Satori Yôkai had willingly abandoned her ability to read minds. I decided that I would ask Byakuren after dinner, if we ever obtained something edible from the noisy rummaging in the kitchen that had set in.

Surprisingly, everybody was waiting patiently, despite the chance that the next creation Koishi was conjuring up had the real chance to cost their lives. Shô and Nazrin had returned to meditating, as the lingering foul stench of Koishi's previous meal was as persistent as a tomato sauce stain. Nue had decided to open all sliding doors and the cool evening breeze was doing its best to disperse what could only be described as a crime against the sense of smell.

I was greeted with another surprise, when the wind had finally been able to blow away any traces of Koishi's wrongdoings; the smell from the kitchen was not only suggesting that whatever she cooked was palatable, but it also gave me an image of something tasty. However, it also caused me to wonder how she made it smell like grilled meat all of a sudden, despite the ingredients still consisting of only vegetables. A while passed and I became too concerned at the mouth-watering smell that wafted into the dining room from the kitchen, that I decided to take a look. Byakuren had already begun to seek Nirvana again while emptying her thoughts of the possibility that meat would be served, while the others, besides Shô and Nazrin, clearly showed temptation in their eyes.

Before I could walk into the kitchen, Koishi came from the other side, carrying another haphazardly stacked pile of food trays. I barely dodged her as she twirled around me to deliver the food in the same manner as she had before. While before it had looked like it was created in a failed alchemy experiment, this meal looked normal - safe for the fact that it seemed to glow, much like its creator's eyes. I was still skeptical, but at least it smelled good.

When everybody had their tray before them, Byakuren finally opened her eyes again and looked down, to find that the food was not something that had lived before, and most certainly had not come to life inside the pot. Even if the smell was misleading, it looked like vegetables with sauces in various colors, normal white rice and an aromatic Miso soup with tofu cubes and seaweed. While I did not dare question what kind of vegetables had been used, when the head priestess initiated dinner, everybody picked up their chopsticks and cautiously tried a bite the same way I had previously.

When I came to, the plate before me had been wiped clean and when I let my gaze sway through the room, I found that the same kind of annihilation battle had happened on every other tray. Not a single trace of food was left and everybody looked beyond satisfied, despite the fact that the meal had been quite simple. I looked in Koishi's direction, who was staring into thin air again, not noticing that everybody was done.

"Now that was a glaring difference..." Minamitsu commented and earned a harsh look from Ichirin. Shô and Nazrin had their eyes closed and seemed to meditate again, possibly trying to seek forgiveness for having eaten in a most graceless manner. While Kogasa showed the same expression as she had after lunch, there was a hint of satisfaction that came with tasting something extraordinary in her eyes. Nue hid her emotions well, but surely she felt the same as her fellow freeloader, while Mamizô and Kyôko wore their thoughts on their faces.

"Some Sake would have-" The former said carelessly and was shot down by Byakuren's surging "punishment"-aura, as she smiled an Asura's smile. I turned to look at Koishi again, who puffed herself up haughtily, wearing a grin as emotionless as ever, and emulated an expression of triumph. The sight made me chuckle and resulted in me being rediscovered by the Satori Yôkai, as she snapped her head in my direction, still displaying her triumphant smile.

"So what are you? A human? What is a human doing here?" She suddenly inquired, taking me by surprise. I was unsure of whether I was still human or not, so my answer could only be as ambiguous as my nature had become. "I'm not sure what exactly I am, but it appears that I'm no longer human - at least not completely," I responded, knowing that it was an unsatisfactory answer. Koishi tilted her head and stared at me expressionlessly, before she blinked once and a glint I had not seen before appeared in her eyes. However, it only lasted until she blinked again, upon which she turned away from me as if she had completely forgotten about my existence.

"How was the food? I gave it my all again!" She exclaimed, and obviously did not expect an answer; she stood up from her cushion and carried her tray into the kitchen. Byakuren sighed and gave the signal that dinner had concluded; in the following everybody would get ready for evening practices, wash themselves and then go to sleep. Once again, Mamizô and the other not so diligent Yôkai remained in the room, while Koishi went back to rummaging in the kitchen; she seemed to be washing the dishes. I missed my chance to inquire about the circumstances surrounding the closing of the Satori Yôkai's third eye when Byakuren left, but maybe I could ask the person in question directly.

"Art thou interested in her, Kyôma-dono?" Mamizô, who sat next to me, stated without looking at me. She took out her pipe without lighting it, respecting the ban on drinks and tobacco inside the temple for once. "Her and her sister's story... 'tis the usual with Satori Yôkai who art born with human appearances. They can live with humans but soon their mind-reading powers surface and they are shunned and hated by everybody. Even with Yôkai, Satori are feared for they can discern thy innermost fears without even looking at thee. However, as their names suggest, they art very close to Buddhist enlightenment as all-seeing existences." The Bake-danuki took the time while Koishi was working in the kitchen to explain how her kind is viewed in the world of the supernatural. From the point of view of humans, mind-readers surely would not be welcome, as they would know everyone's deepest thoughts and maybe expose some secrets that are deemed unacceptable by society.

"It appears that Koishi and her sister have exiled themselves to the underground, to Former Hell. But Koishi went a step further and sealed her power to read minds by closing her third eye, which resulted in the sealing of her consciousness," Mamizô continued somberly. I understood that the two sisters had lived a tragic life and that the one currently working in the kitchen while humming without a care in the world had been willing to go as far as abandoning her very own nature to escape from having to continue living a life being constantly hated and feared. "Byakuren says that Koishi is very close to enlightenment even for a Satori Yôkai. According to Buddhist teachings, emptying one's conscious mind will open it for the truths of the world. Now she only needs to accept those truths, and she will be the first Yôkai to achieve what humans spend their whole lifetime to find."

"Accept what truths?" The voice of the person in question resounded from behind me and before I could turn around I felt a weight on my back; Koishi had thrown herself onto me from behind and was now resting her head on my right shoulder, with an arm slumped over the left. "I'm tired..." She was surprisingly light.

Mamizô lifted an eyebrow in surprise at the sudden physical intimacy. However, before I could comment on the situation, she already stood back up again, walked around me and sat down right in front of me. She closed in on my face with her own, staring at my one eye intently with her glowing green ones, once again with our noses almost touching.

"You're... strange... but interesting," She stated and retreated, stood back up and merrily skipped out of the room. Everybody left behind was stunned at just how arbitrary Koishi was, as they looked in the direction she had disappeared to. I could still see the lingering image of her intense but empty eyes before my own, stirring something I could not explain deep inside me. I decided to go after her, since I wanted to know more about her nature and why she behaved the way she did.

"Please, excuse me," I said to nobody in particular, stood up and followed Koishi out of the dining room. However, when I came to the corridor, there was no sign of the young girl, even though she could not have been so quick to round the corner of the hallway. I turned back around into the dining hall, then decided to just run after her, when a realization hit me.

"What was I doing again?" I spoke out loud and scratched my head.

Since I could not remember regardless of how much I tried, I returned to the dining hall and sat back down. Mamizô looked at me curiously before she returned to her usual self. Nue and Kogasa looked at each other for a moment and turned their attention to me, while Kyôko was staring at me with an expression I could not discern.

I knew that I would have to return to the Hieda estate before it became too late, lest Yôko chewed me out for it again. Considering the fact that the members of the temple were getting ready to sleep to wake up early in the morning, I could not stay much longer either. From Mamizô's behavior I assumed that she was the type to go out into the village at night, disguised as a human, and find some drinking buddies, while Nue and Kogasa would surely try to find a poor lone human to feed off of in the abandoned streets later.

"Care for another round of this, Kyôma-dono?" The Bake-danuki asked and waved the Sake bottle she seemed to carry with her in a hidden place at all times. Kyôko frowned, concerned about the very likely possibility that either Byakuren or Ichirin will find us indulging in the forbidden pleasure again. "And this?" She produced the Shôgi board from seemingly thin air, and set it down before her.