The end of class came quickly, and Hazel was no closer to Tomoko than when she’d first walked into the classroom. A huge reason was that Hazel was more shy than a city fox. But Tomoko herself wasn’t the type to strike up conversations either, despite how often she was throwing curious glances at Hazel.

It also didn’t help that she practically ignored any other attempts from her classmates to talk to her. After a few dozen attempts to try and get the new pretty Japanese girl to join their clique, the students finally gave up and left her to navigate this supposedly foreign world by herself.

Hazel was no exception.

It was nearly five in the evening when Hazel found herself facing the worn-out doors to the journalism club room. She wasn’t staying late because of her club activities, no. None of the club members cared about her presence anyway.

It was because she didn’t really enjoy staying at home.

Hazel wasn’t a foster child, but she never knew her parents—other than from the photos in her house. Her grandfather raised her, and he was the only relative she had left.

She loved him deeply, of course. But he spent the days sleeping for long hours, leaving Hazel to bask in the silence of her house by herself. It wasn’t exactly the best way to foster a proper relationship with a grandchild.

And so Hazel spent the rest of her time in school doing homework or reading more articles about Yokai. She didn’t have anyone to accompany her, but the chattering around the school made her feel much less alone than she did in her practically empty house.

Metal jingled lightly in her hands as Hazel fished out the key to the Journalism Club Room. She pushed the door open and walked in—

“Uwah!”

The bespectacled girl fell on her back as she bumped into something soft. She blinked groggily, reaching for her journal as she put her glasses back on her face. Since when did the journalism club put up a blockage behind the door?

“Wow, this book looks so detailed!” A breathy voice drifted to Hazel’s ears. She grasped the empty floor for a few more seconds, before quickly realising what had just happened.

“Tomoko Sanada? What— Huh— How did you get in here?” she sputtered, staring at the Japanese exchange student flipping through her Yokai journal excitedly. “Give that back!”

Tomoko jumped a little, startled by the sudden sharpness in her tone. Her lips quivered as she backed away slightly.

“I… I’m sorry for raising my voice.” Hazel dropped her voice immediately, seeing how crestfallen the girl looked. “I was just startled, and— I’m sorry, what are you here for?”

“I wanted to speak with you!” Tomoko squeaked excitedly.

Hazel blinked. That was a rare thing to hear.

“Right,” she replied, her voice soaked in scepticism. “Is there something you need from the journalism club?”

“I want to be friends.”

Hazel froze again but shook her head with a small laugh.

“The Journalism Club isn’t open on Thursdays. If you want to make friends, the other members will be here tomorrow—”

“No, may we be friends?”

Hazel furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. “Why me?”

“Because I like Yokai too.” Tomoko waved Hazel’s journal with a shy smile on her face. “I heard you talking about Kitsune from outside our class. You are a very knowledgeable and playful girl. Why do you isolate yourself like so?”

Hazel stepped back at the intrusive question, suddenly feeling slightly light-headed for some reason.

“I… I wasn’t always like this. When I was in middle school, I loved playing pranks on my classmates. It was all very funny to me. But one day, I made a mistake. I lied to a classmate that her father was involved in an accident. She rushed out of school before I could clarify the joke with her, and she ended up missing an important exam.”

Her eyes welled up in tears. What are you doing? She’s just a stranger; why are you telling her all this?

“After I was found out, I was expelled for my behaviour and transferred here. I never really fitted in, but it’s better this way. My idea of fun isn’t funny to everyone else.”

Hazel sucked in a deep breath as though she had just been underwater for several minutes. She shook her head groggily, wondering what on Earth had just come over her to spill her worst memories like that.

“Oh? Well, in my opinion, there’s nothing wrong with having a little fun,” Tomoko said sweetly. “But how did you come to know so much about Yokai?”

“To ‘tame’ my playful nature, my grandfather also suggested that I get interested in knowledge instead.” Hazel’s lips moved before she could stop them. “There were many books about the supernatural world around my house, so those were naturally the first books I read. That’s how I found out about the occult world.”

She had to physically cover her mouth this time. Tomoko, on the other hand, only giggled and flipped the journal again.

“What’s with these addresses?” she asked, pointing to the long list of scrawlings on the first page.

“Yokai… hotspots.” Hazel flushed red and looked away, anticipating the mocking laughter that never failed to follow every time she said something like that.

But it never came.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Instead, the girl widened her eyes in surprise and flipped the journal again. Hazel stared at her strange behaviour. No one else in school was ever that curious about the supernatural world, let alone Japanese occult research.

“You have seen them before?” Tomoko closed the book and handed it back to her. “Please bring me there; I want to see them too!”

Hazel shook her hands in front of her frantically. “W— Wait! What are you talking about? Do you really believe that they exist? Hold on…”

Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Someone put you up to this, didn’t they? Was it Chester? Oh, I’ll get that little—”

“No, no!” Tomoko exclaimed before her voice dropped considerably. “I’m sorry. Do you… not like me?”

Hazel stepped back in shock at the girl’s demeanour, but not before catching a familiar look in her eyes. It was the same look that stared back at her in the mirror before going to school. It was the same look that remained on her face when she wandered Starlight High on her first day of school, desperately looking for a place to belong.

“I’m sorry for bothering you, Hazel.” Tomoko turned for the door. “I’ll see you in class tomorrow—”

A small hand pulled on her arm.

“Are you free tonight?” Hazel smiled warmly at her. “I’ll bring you to my favourite spot.”

A pregnant pause hung in the air.

“R— Really?” Tomoko piped, her chestnut brown eyes so bright they could’ve blinded a deer. “Oh, thank you! I’m so glad you’re my friend!”

Hazel nodded vigorously, as though it could hide her rapidly blushing face. “No guarantees, though. I’ve never really seen a Yokai in the flesh, only hints of their presence. This is America, after all.”

“Does it matter?” Tomoko tilted her head curiously, making her already sharp features look all the more foxy. “All Yokai are borne of Izanagi’s celestial energy. But since our world already has natural energy, it can give rise to Yokai if the energy is focused enough. So Yokai can live anywhere in the world, can’t they?”

Hazel’s look of incredulity gave way to surprise. Tomoko was surprisingly knowledgeable about Yokai as well. Although that was probably a lot less strange, considering that she was already Japanese, to begin with.

“Yes, but that’s an extremely obscure school of thought,” Hazel spoke slowly as she racked her memories. “It has something to do with how every living being is borne of the same energy. Eh, don’t worry about that. It’s all probably just fairytale nonsense.”

Tomoko frowned slightly as if Hazel was the one who had just uttered something that made absolutely no sense.

Hazel glanced at the worn-out clock at the front of the classroom. “School closes at six. We should get going.”

The two girls left the room.

----------------------------------------

The warm and dry summer night quickly descended on Oklahoma City, smothering it like a prickly fleece blanket. Unfortunately, the forested outskirt of the town was no exception to the parched weather.

Dried leaves crunched under their feet as two girls trekked halfway up a hill. A rest stop was smoothened onto the soil and a bench was conveniently planted into the ground, facing an ominous, yawning forest.

Hazel plopped herself onto the seat, fanning herself rapidly. Sure, this was her favourite spot to relax after yet another pointless attempt at looking for Yokai, but she never visited this place during the summer. She wasn’t exactly the type of girl who enjoyed being outdoors in this heat.

Tomoko, on the other hand, sat down gently beside her without a hint of exhaustion or discomfort on her face.

“You come here to look for Yokai?” The Japanese girl frowned slightly. “How do you know there are Yokai here?”

“For one, this is a hotspot for other supernatural creatures,” Hazel replied. “And for another, my grandfather used to carry out his rituals in this forest, so this place is definitely rich with supernatural energy. I’ve been sensing something these few weeks.”

Tomoko stared at her quizzically.

“I suppose there’s no harm in telling you. Just promise not to laugh at me, alright?” Hazel said sheepishly. “I have this… How do I put it— Sixth sense, of sorts. My grandfather told me it was my body’s natural way of protecting itself from the spiritual world.”

Once again, Hazel waited for her friend to laugh. Or scoff. Or roll her eyes. But she did none of that sort.

“Well, he used to be a popular medium who frequently dealt with the supernatural world,” Hazel continued hesitantly. “He’s retired now, of course. But he taught me how to focus and control this sense so that it doesn’t get in the way of my normal life.”

Tomoko tilted her head curiously. “You know magic?”

“Oh! No, not at all! I’m not saying that magic is real,” Hazel exclaimed. “But I really wasn’t lying when I said I can detect supernatural presences. I usually come here to relax, but I have been getting unusual spikes in this forest for the past few weeks. Not like I ever managed to spot anything, though.”

“Well, do you sense something now?” Tomoko was wearing a strange smile on her face.

“I— Wait.”

Hazel interrupted herself mid-sentence, turning slowly at the forest again. The sensation was unmistakable. She sucked in a deep breath to steady herself, only to feel the gentle tug in her mind get stronger by the second.

There it was again.

“C’mon, let’s check it out!” Tomoko’s excited voice brought her back to the present. It took Hazel a few more seconds to notice that the girl had already stood up and was practically pulling her into the forest.

“H— How did you know I just sensed something?” Hazel asked.

“The look on your face was obvious enough!” Tomoko piped as she ran into the forest. “Look, there are scratch marks on that tree!”

Hazel stared at the three claw marks scratched into the bark of the oak tree, feeling the scent of supernatural energy overwhelm her senses. Her sixth sense had never flared so strongly in her whole life before. Was there really a supernatural presence nearby?

Her breath caught with suspicion as she traced the ‘wounds’ in the tree. Those claw marks should have been huge enough to be visible even from outside the forest. Why didn’t she notice that earlier?

“Look, and on this one too!”

Tomoko was practically darting from tree to tree now, completely oblivious to the danger she might be in. Hazel rushed to her friend in alarm, finally realising how deep they had ventured into the forest.

“Tomoko, something is seriously wrong.” Hazel grabbed the girl’s hand, pulling her away from an unusually huge tree. “We have to get out of here before anything happens—”

A strange crunching noise stopped her mid-sentence. Hazel looked down, praying that she had not just stepped on the eggs of some predatory reptile. She lifted her foot slowly and her heart flew to her throat. It wasn’t an egg that she stepped on.

It was a human skull.

“Hazel?” Tomoko’s voice had dropped to a whisper all of a sudden.

Hazel swung her head towards her friend, terror dancing in her eyes. “What?”

“Duck.”

“Huh—”

Her scream rang through the forest as a huge tree branch crashed at her feet.