“Damn! If I’d had more of my powers left I could track it. Only having a fourth of a mask doesn’t allow for almost anything…”

“It’s ok, let’s just go see to the Youkai that it knocked out.”

Once they had helped the Youkai, which looked like a bipedal cow, he stood up and thanked them.

“That darn spirit attacked me fur no reason! Stole my friends whip!”

“Wait your friends whip? You didn’t take it or find it or something?”

“No way! That’n was my friend river spirits whip ‘n it’s been stolen by that fiend!”

“So what was a harmless borrowing is now a theft… Lawrence shouldn’t we just go tell the river spirit it’s gone?”

“I’d rather keep to my word Hato. So um… sir? Did you see what the Youkai looked like that stole the whip from you?”

“Well that’s the damnedest thing. It’n looked like a river spirit!”

Hato and Lawrence looked at each other. There was no way another river spirit would have taken the whip… nor could it be that the river spirit they knew had stolen it back in such a rude fashion from his friend.

“I think we’re going to need Oku for this Lawrence.”

“Why?”

“She still has all her powers, so she can sense Youkai. If we bring this Youkai to her she might be able to sense the other river spirit.”

“Ah, good idea. Sir would you mind coming with us?”

“Mmm? Well I best get the whip back’n ol’ Totsunyu. Sure A’ll come.”

When they got back to the dorm they were less than astonished to find Oku on Lawrence’s bed with snack bags and sake bottles strewn all over. Not to mention that it looked like she had failed at trying to change into his pajamas… If it was a real girl he might have been happy to see her like this.

But this was different.

“Oku…”

Her eyes fluttered open and she groggily smiled at them.

“Hey guysss!”

“W-”

“Wassup Lawry?”

“WHERE DO YOU GET ALL THE SAKE!!!”

Knocking her on the head, her body transferred back to Lawrence and he took an energy drink with him.

“It appears that she will need a little bit of time to recover. We’ll go back to the field and I’ll… summon her.”

Hato looked a little distressed.

“But Oku is a very powerful Youkai… Why would she be so lazy and undignified?”

“I’m sure you’ll get to know her quite well soon Hato.”

After he’d said that Lawrence thought about it. He didn’t know Oku all that well either. She’d been alive for a perhaps millenia. She’d seen quite a lot. Laziness wasn’t her personality… Wait what was he thinking? He was going to be rid of all this pretty soon… He wouldn’t even be able to see Youkai soon…

Did he want that?

To go back to life as it was before?

“Lawrence? We’re back, you should drink that summoning juice.”

“Wha- Oh right. Yeah.”

He drank the energy drink, and after a few minutes Oku was back with the world of the living.

“Ugh, I hate that my buzz is gone every time I go back to you Lawrence. Well, what is it.”

“It’s a long story, but this Youkai was robbed by what we think was a water spirit. Can you sense it?”

“I’m not a bloodhound you know!”

“Obviously! Hato just said you might be able to track him since she can’t!”

“Oh Hato asked? I may be able to then.”

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“So you’ll do it if she asks…”

Soon they were on the trail of what Oku believed to be the river spirit. If they didn’t have someone to track it, they’d probably have been looking for a long time. Definitely longer than five days.

Finally, they came upon a small creek. It was half the size of the river spirit’s but still nice. There was a tree growing over the creek, and on it’s branches Lawrence could make out a figure.

“There! He must have the whip.”

Hato turned into a dove and flew over to the branches. Then she quietly turned back into a Youkai, and jumped on the river spirit. They fell out of the tree and hit the ground, river spirit struggling. The rest of the group ran over and sure enough the spirit was holding a blue translucent whip in his hand. Lawrence picked it up. It was cold in his hands, just like how he thought solid water would feel. Inside, the water rushed quickly back and forth, like the waters of a river.

“Hey! I need that!”

The river spirit struggled out of Hato’s grip and jumped to Lawrence, but with a simple outstretched hand Oku caught him around the neck.

“Not today little guy.”

“Little guy!!! Let me down and I’ll show you how little I am!”

Lawrence just walked over to the spirit caught in Oku’s hand.

“If you just tell us why you took this whip, everything will be fine.”

“Took it?! I was taking it back from the bugger over there that stole it from me!”

“Wait… what? I didn’ do no such thing. That’n ain’t your whip, it’s my friend Totsunyu’s!”

Did every river spirit have a water whip? It seemed like it might be likely. Which meant that both Totsunyu and this river spirit’s whips were missing. As they argued over whose whip was whose, Lawrence thought about it. Perhaps there was a fourth party they were missing in all this. Could someone else have taken this spirit’s whip? There was no motive that he could think of, but the cow Youkai seemed like a decent one. Lawrence didn’t think that it would defend itself like this if it had simply stolen this river spirit’s whip and lied. After all, it had known Totsunyu without them mentioning him by name. In that case…

“Alright I think I know what’s going on.”

They all stopped arguing to look at him.

“This is his whip.”

“It is?”

“Yes Oku. I think I’ve got a good idea of exactly what happened. Cow, you must have sat the whip down somewhere for a while didn’t you.”

“Well… Me ‘n a few others ‘njoyed a few bottles o sake earlier but…”

“Where exactly did you set the whip down.”

“Sat down the whip on a tree stump only a coupl’o feet away from where’n we were drinkin’.”

“Could you please lead us to that exact stump.”

“Well yeah I spose.”

After leading them to an area near the field, the cow Youkai pointed to an old stump.

“Sat it right here.”

Lawrence looked at the stump, and rapped his knuckles on the top. A deep noise echoed from the stump. It was hollow.

“Yep, the stump being hollow was a long shot but it worked out.”

Lawrence looked around the sides of the stump and found a hole in the dirt next to it. Reaching his hand into it, he found it was a straight shot right into the middle of the stump. Inside he felt something cold. There it was. He pulled it out and showed it to the Youkai, much to their amazement.

“I’m impressed Lawrence, maybe college really is teaching you something!”

“Shut up Oku I’ve always been a genius.”

“Wait, then who hid the whip there? They must have also switched out Totsunyu’s whip with the other river spirit’s.”

“You’re right Hato. That’s the only part I have no idea about. And it wasn’t the other spirit either since I don’t see it giving up it’s own water whip. Well, we should just return Totsunyu’s whip first of all.”

“An I should go ‘pologize to him. He musta forgot’n I had it!”

When they returned to the river, Lawrence called out his name and the river spirit came to him.

“Have you retrieved mine whip of water!”

“I have, but this cow Youkai says that you lent it to him.”

“Ushi? Did I say you could borrow the whip?”

“Yes’m. I remember explicitly Totsunyu.”

“Oh! Of course! Is that all then?!”

“No actually, you see, Ushi here set down the whip for a few minutes and it was switched out, by an unknown culprit, with another river spirit’s whip. We saw Ushi get robbed of “your whip” and followed the river spirit. Next, we ambushed him and he told us that the whip he had was definitely his. Once we doubled back to where Ushi set down his whip, we found a hole in the hollow stump where your real whip had been hidden. Now we can finally return it to you…”

“Mmm! It appears you really did go through a tribulation returning my whip! In that case, I shall give you the wish I promised! What would you like?!”

“Well… I thought about that as well. Would you be ok with me coming back here sometime and using the wish?”

“Of course! Take all the time you need in making your wish! I thank you for bringing back my whip to me young human! However now, I must return to fertilizing the fields of man! Thank you!”

With that the spirit flowed back into the water and was gone. After this, the cow Youkai turned to them.

“Be look’n like I’ll need somethin’ else to cut the grass in that field there. But that’s alright, a’ll find somethin’. Thanks for helpin’ out with the confusion though.”

“It was no problem at all, besides, I got that wish.”

“Speakin’ uh that, heres some wiseness.”

The cow brought his finger out and touched Lawrence’s forehead. His mind filled with a grassy field, endless. There were only a couple small trees around a large one where the cow lay. The tree was enormous, and other Youkai were strewn about it’s branches as well.

“These days were long ago young human, before the forest was even started round here. My lesson is a simple one, feel free to stretch your legs e’ry once in a while and relax. Peace ‘n quiet does you a lotta good. Without the content quiet in ya life you might forget that there’s a world fulla fun out there, and in my experience fun ain’t quiet, ‘specially if it’s with others.”

With that the cow was gone, and Lawrence was left with Oku and Hato.

“The cow showed you something didn’t he?”

“Yes he did.”

“Was it nice?”

“Very.”

With that they started home, talking as they went. Lawrence thought to himself that the cow was right. He’d always been what some may even harshly call a loser. It wasn’t as if he got bad grades, or did drugs or hung out with the “bad kids”. He didn’t think he was incredibly ugly, though always a little under weight. He’d just never fit. He was the last jigsaw piece of a puzzle that had gotten into the wrong box. It had always been his idea that there wasn’t a spot for him. But ever since he had met Oku things had changed. He could call her and Hato friends, albeit dysfunctional, and go to either of them for help whenever he needed it.

He was surprised.

Friends huh.

He was the only one that could see them anyways.

And soon he would lose that too…