Jeremiah motioned them with his head to exit the elevator, and he wormed quickly over to the bookshelf with the number 18902 on it. Out came another of the most pristine books she had ever seen, which was set on the table and opened at the middle.

“Oku… fox… ah here she is! A detailed history on Oku the Orchid.”

“Orchid?”

Mark looked skeptical, but Jeremiah appeared to make some sort of shrugging motion and looked back at the book.

“First time she was seen… 378 BC… Next sighting by a Youkai was not for another two hundred years it seems.”

“She’s that old?!”

“Mmm, she took part in the war it appears.”

“War? What war?”

“This is not extremely that well known, but there was a time in which spiritual energy was extremely abundant. So much so that Youkai were able to gorge themselves on it, and be powerful enough for all humans to see them. When powerful gods such as Fujin and Hachiman chose sides in human politics there was bound to be a war. And most humans and Youkai were caught up in their petty power struggle. Many of them did not want to fight, but to not fight would have seen them killed by the major god in their area at that point in time.”

He looked onto the next page, where there was more information.

“She fought at many of the major battles under Inari it seems. Fitting, considering her fox look. She killed many.”

“W-what about after the war?”

“After the war she moved herself to this country it appears. She wanted to escape the persecution of Hachiman. Very little is noted about her during this time. She mostly kept to herself. Once the cloud of spiritual energy stopped allowing humans to see us, she had almost no encounters with humans nor Youkai. About three hundred years ago one of my scholars notes that she began to have an uncaring attitude about the outside world. Perhaps she truly enjoyed the forest?”

“I think that it is more that she no longer trusted humans nor Youkai.”

“Yes I’m afraid of that as well. Many of the Youkai from the time of the war were scarred by it, some of them becoming isolationists. Ah I’m beginning to tell too much. I like to tell the truth, but not too much of it without the other parties consent. I’ve told you all I can about her. Oh, but I will also tell you the name and location of her forest, I wouldn’t waste your time like this!”

A pen and paper floated to him and a name was written. Kazha forest, in Stuggard. It was fairly far away to be honest…

They zipped back down to the main floor, and a portal was opened to their world by the owl once again. Jeremiah bid them farewell and asked them to visit again. They gave him their thanks and stepped forward, back to the human world.

“Kazha forest… The real question is how we’re getting to Stuggard in the first place.”

“Mark, you have a job right?”

“Well yes but-”

“I’m sure you have the money then!”

“I have it but I’d rather not spend it all at-”

“Great! I know how much friends matter to you, so you’ll definitely help us out right!”

Mark sighed and put his head in his hands at the thought of losing money like that. But she was right. He had finally found someone he could call a friend, but he might lose that friend if he couldn’t see Youkai. They decided one last time to try and bring Lawrence with them, but they were surprised to find that not only was his roommate actually there for once, Lawrence had been gone for hours. He’d gone home for the break it seemed, as it started today. So strange that he was avoiding this situation so fervently…

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Hato wasn’t deterred however, she still had Mark to mooch from and he would get her to Stuggard just as well as Lawrence could have.

“Well that’s it isn’t it.”

“Yep, looks like we’d better get started to Stuggard!”

“Ugh… these tickets better not bankrupt me.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine!”

In the next few hours Mark was able to acquire some bus tickets to take them at least halfway there, to a town named Thurnax. He didn’t especially love riding on busses, but he would grit his teeth in order to avoid plane tickets. The bus was relatively cheap anyways.

Bad part was that it left in fifteen minutes.

“Hato! We have to go!”

He looked around the room for her as he stuffed clothes in his bag. After throwing in some toiletries, he ran into the front side of his apartment and found Hato sleeping at his table. He looked slightly annoyed but simply touched her shoulder. Instead of waking up she turned back into a dove.

“Mmm… whatever.”

He took dove Hato in his hands and ran out the door, realizing he only had about ten minutes left.

Thank god he had been a runner for a while, or he might have keeled over halfway through, but he was able to make it to the stop with two minutes to spare. Once he had arrived and sat down Hato came back from her slumber.

“What… whoa where are we!”

“We’re at the bus stop. You wouldn’t wake up so I had to carry you all the way here.”

“Wait I turned back into a dove?”

“Yeah why is that?”

Once he had said that the bus sputtered into the stop. An old man looked down at Mark and took his ticket, unable to see Hato of course.

Normally Mark wasn’t able to sleep on bus rides, but this was the exception. Back in school he’d always been scared of the Youkai that might scare him at any time and he rarely was able to sleep, but here, with a kind Youkai, he could.

Damn strange.

He awoke in the dead of night, and looked out at the road passing by at blinding speed. Looking down at Hato, he wondered why she had been sleeping so much all of the sudden. In fact, he hadn’t gotten an answer to his question… the bus had interrupted…

Maybe it was something she didn’t want to talk about?

Was she sick?

Wait… why did he care. He hated Youkai. For all they had done to him, one good Youkai couldn’t change his mind about a group of individuals that used him like a wet rag then threw it back in the bucket.

He peered towards the driver, barely visible past his seat, and the old man looked wise and attentive. Like one of those old men that goes into bars and gets multiple shots, then smokes a full pack of cigarettes.

At least they’d gotten a good driver and the road was smooth. The road to this Kazha forest, to Oku’s home.

To be honest Mark liked Hato, even if she was a Youkai. The one that he was skeptical of was Oku. She was the epitome of Youkai in his mind.

Cynical.

Uncaring.

Only looking out for themselves.

Yet Lawrence felt so much for her. That isn’t to say he didn’t love Hato as much, but Oku was most literally a piece of him. It was strange of him to get angry enough to use his wish on sending her back.

Lawrence was his polar opposite, he adored the Youkai and everything they brought to the world, whereas Mark wished he couldn’t see them at all. Yet he was the one that gave up his ability by giving up Oku? It was impossible.

He’d be asking him all this bullshit once he dragged Oku back to him of course.

Mark thought about getting up and stretching his legs, but Hato was holding him down by the shoulder, and he didn’t really want to wake her up until he needed to.

The only light on the bus was a small sign near the front that stated the next stop. Thurnax was only twenty miles away, but they’d have to get a hotel…

Nope!

This was a quest to get that cynical ass forest spirit back. They would be going there as soon as they could.

When he’d finished that thought Hato snuggled in closer, which caused Mark to feel a tingle up his body. His ass was going to sleep, he was hungry, he was tired. And in the end he would be getting a hotel room for one.

For one.

Everything was against him today.

“Thurnax!”

The grizzled bus driver yelped out the name of their stop, and Mark realized he must have been complaining in his head for the past twenty miles straight. He attempted to get Hato up, to which she groggily did, and they headed off the bus. Once they were off Mark heard a voice.

“Boy!”

“Wha-”

“Take care of the girl, willya?”

With that he winked and drove towards the country.

“He could see her!?”

Not including Lawrence’s miraculous ability due to Oku’s spirit energy, the only other person that he’d known with the power to see Youkai was his uncle. Maybe there were more than he’d thought.

But he didn’t want to think about that right now, and damn the pillow was nice.

“He didn’t even charge for the extra ticket…”