me tell you, the sights that I've seen before never compared to this.

I remember one time, Loraine took me to a beach resort when we had a break. It was somewhere in North Carolina, I think. Since we got out of the car, my immediate reaction was to swim regardless of my clothes. Just keep swimming and swimming and not look back at my responsibilities. But I soon realized after a small surfing session, scuba diving, and a stomach ache from too much shaved ice, it was a time for me to go back to my mundane life.

But what I'm seeing now made me wonder why I wasn't chosen sooner.

It was an entire city. Buildings of medieval Tokyo stood next to each other like in those old samurai movies. Some were on the sides of hills, some were out in the open. To my left was a completely open area, devoid of people. It still had buildings complete with one big castle like in Japan. If I had to guess, it looked like a mini-town. Weirdly, there were high wooden walls surrounding the mini-town. On my right were a bunch of people milling around some buildings. From the aroma coming from it, I could tell they were cooking food. Good food. From afar, I could make out the outline of a giant castle. The morning sun was just behind the castle, casting a feeling of warmth in me.

"Keep that mouth open and you'll catch a haimushi." Rudo told me from behind. I quickly closed my mouth and stood up, dusting off dirt from my person.

"Is this... Okayama?" I asked. Rhetorical, but I wanted to make sure.

Rudo clapped my back and I staggered, completely forgetting about his build. "Yep. Beautiful, isn't it? A safe haven for Japanese demigods from yokai. Complete with a market street, a mock city for training, and an entire dojo to train demigods."

"It must be packed." I said, never taking my eyes off the scenery.

"It is." From the colors of his voice, it looked like he had contempt when he spoke. "Ah, that's right. Follow me." He walked toward the dirt path. I caught up to him, taking in the sights of the city at the same time. We went to a large workshop-I'm guessing-with smoke immediately coming out of the sliding door and into my nostrils in which I coughed at that. It was as big as a Starbucks store with racks of Japanese weapons on display. As soon as Rudo opened the sliding doors, an unkempt boy stumbled out, dropping near my feet.

From the heavy bag strapped on his back, I would've mistaken him to leave early. His orange, curly hair was dusted in soot and dirt. His semi-tanned skin having the same predicament, only having cartoon bandages on nearly every part of his arms. His black, high-neck, skin-tight shirt was dripping in sweat and more soot. He wore camouflage pants tucked inside shin-high army boots.

It took a few second for him to speak. "Rudo? That you mun?" He spoke in a Scottish accent, the color green flashed in my eyes.

"Nope," Rudo popped the 'p'. "it's your fairy godmother."

The redhead groaned and pushed himself from the ground and I could properly see his face: big caramel brown eyes that steadied their gaze at me, a small nose, and a mouth shaping a perfect 'o'. Freckles completely covered adorned his cheeks, bridge of his nose, and forehead which matched up with the dirt covering his face. One bandage was taped at his right cheek. His fringe almost covered his eyes which made me wonder if that was the reason why he tripped.

With grace of a hippo, he stood up, his bag clunking with extra items. "N-Nice meetin' ya, lass!"

I nodded my head, eyes still wide from before. "Likewise. And what's your name Scottish boy?"

I yelped when Rudo pinched my shoulder. "He's Welsh, Lizard Breath."

"Ah, nothing to worry about it, lass! Common mistake, it is!" The redhead defended, waving his hands. "But anythin' else, Rudo! Youer a sly fox, ain't ya! Didn't tell me you were already planning to go out, did you!"

Rudo crossed his arms. "If I had, your voice alone would've woken up Amaterasu-sama if she was still hibernating."

The ginger choked on air, his face slowly becoming red. "Why you-"

"Anyway," Rudo interrupted, patting the both of our shoulders. "Kasumi, this is Owain Vaughan, child of Ebisu. Owain, this is Kasumi Fujiwara, child of Ryuujin." He then pushed us inside the smithy, taking care of Owain's bag by throwing it at a random corner. "If you could be so helpful, Owain... Go find us a pair of hearing aids, I'll be right here trying to find our special guest new clothes."

Owain stumbled to a stop, turning completely to Rudo. "Flipping heck? Youer not the boss of me-"

He got cut off when Rudo threw a wooden staff at him. "Get on it, loot hoarder."

Once Owain walked somewhere else, grumbling from time to time, Rudo went to a nearby dresser and started searching from each drawer. I took the time to get to memorize the place. It was a lot more spacious than it was outside. It was designed much like a Japanese house, complete with a genkan, wagoya, and even an engawa (I research a lot. Shut up). Where we're standing is a wide entryway filled with wooden dressers that almost took up each wall. Farther back is an open area where it was divided into three paths. I wanted to go further but Rudo stopped me,

"Clothing for the princess."

I huffed and took the neatly folded clothes. Weirdly, they were my size and were the same as Owain.

"Did you expect anything less?" Rudo inquired.

I shrugged a shoulder. "Not exactly. More of like... training gear or something."

"We'll get there eventually. So for now... any new questions you want to ask now?"

He led me to the leftmost of the three pathways. It branched into two paths, one path had a blue cloth hung on the ceiling and the other pink. Strange characters were written on both of them. He pushed me inside the one with the pink cloth and the smell of air freshener hit my nose. The wooden floor disappeared as tiles were underneath my shoes. A long, tiled wall divided half of the room, each side with shower heads and small chairs were evenly placed. Farther back was a large, tiled tub that looked clean. Heck the entire room was clean which surprised me.

"Welcome to the legendary bathroom of Japan," Rudo explained from behind me. "now hurry up and change there, I don't have all day."

"E-excuse me!?" I sputtered.

He pointed at the farthest corner of the room. "You heard me. Go change there at the corner."

I whimpered, but complied anyway. With clean clothes in my arms, I went to the corner and placed the pile on the elevated tub.

"I'm not even looking, Lizard Breath. Go on with it." I heard Rudo yell from the other side.

"Okay, mom!" I replied back. I began stripping as fast as I could, grimacing at how mucky my skin became.

"Should I clean myself at least?"

"Nope. You're doing something later."

I gave out an aggravated sigh and put on the clothes. The tight shirt was the same one in my dreams with those people as the green cargo-pants slid in easily. As soon as I slipped on my shoes, a loud explosion and later a crash sounded outside.

"Knickers!" The voice of Owain echoed out.

"Owain!" Rudo screeched, his glasses starting to fall out. "Could it kill you not to explode everything you touch!"

"Oh! Blame the klutz now, en't it? Why don't you get over here and help me!?"

Without even trying to look decent, I ran up to Rudo. "What was that about!?"

Without breaking a sweat, he guided me once again by my shoulder outside. "Sometimes we get kids who's chromesthesia is out of their control. That's why we make hearing aids for them to adjust."

"Chromesthesia?" I asked, the word foreign to me.

"A sound-to-color synesthesia where you can hear colors. A neurological phenomenon if you will." He continued to march up until the center pathway where the smell of smoke was strong. "It's a very useful ability. Because of our blood, we can hear ghosts that are loitering about everywhere."

"E-everywhere?" I muttered.

"And the dead, of course. Anyway..." He stopped once he saw Owain, hunched over and coughing. "What did you do, fugu?"

We were inside the heart of the house, I think. Various tools to make weapons were scattered everywhere on the barren ground. Heavy powered machinery that I couldn't describe were situated neatly on corners and other sections of the space. One of them was smoking however, which worried me immensely.

"Great to see youer face out here, Mam." Owain chocked out, face even more sootier than ever.

Rudo clicked his tongue and pushed past him. "Honestly, how could you even forget about where those hearing aids are!? I mean, we always keep them in a safe and most memorable place!"

"Not my fault, mun! I'm not the one with the problem or the one living here, ain't I?" Owain challenged back, following Rudo to a secluded area. Work desks that were slightly burnt were placed to look like a long picnic table. He slid out a drawer from one and took out two hearing aids. They looked like the normal hearing aids that you see everywhere except the one, tiny symbol of the shirt I was wearing was marked on each one.

Rudo placed them in my hands. "Here you are. Guaranteed to make you hear better."

"My hearing is fine." I rebutted back.

"Not for long," He mused. "Now put those on before you pass out."

I sighed and placed each one inside my ear respectively and immediately screamed at the horrible screeching inside my ear canals. I couldn't even hear Owain and Rudo argue.

After a few agonizing seconds, the screeching stopped as my ears were given mercy. I breathed in and out, afraid of what might come next.

"I'm sorry about that." Rudo said and I gasped at the fact that no color was flashed. "They do that when they adapt. I promise you that these are good."

My fingers brushed over my right ear. "I... could hear, ah, see that."

A tap on my shoulder made me look at Owain, who looked regretful at what happened. "Sorry about that lass, I am. Didn't know that would happen."

I gave a nervous smile. "Nothing to worry about, Owain. I'm fine."

"Sorry to ruin this tender moment but-" Rudo interjected, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. "Lizard Breath here needs to train and toughen up." He then guided me away once more to the outside. "And Owain, do clean up the evidence that you were here. It's very obvious."

I could practically hear Owain fume. "Oi! What's that supposed to-"

Another explosion rang out, making our pace faster.

"Aw, knickers!"