July 19th 2022, 8:10 PM

Well, I can’t really say things have gotten any better, unfortunately. Minato has been sadder than usual. Still quiet as ever. I told my friends as vaguely as possible that something happened and he may not be quite himself. We’ve all been frantically trying to think of some kind of surprise, but unfortunately, we couldn’t come up with anything. We’re probably all gonna write him letters or something. Everyone’s gonna get here by tomorrow so I have that to look forward to. And school is over for our summer break as well so that’s pretty fun! My parents were gonna take Minato out for dinner but something came up so we couldn't do it. Naoko had been meaning to take us out to dinner so we can all get to know each other a little bit more so we also had that to do for today.

Minato, Naoko and I decided to not go for ramen again, because we go a lot. Instead, we’re going to try out a sushi restaurant. We met up with Naoko in the woods again and walked to the restaurant with her. Oh, and obviously she was in her human form; she would not be served in her tenko form.

Slowly we made our way to the restaurant. The outside was black and white with the name plastered on the top. The parts of the building that were jutting out had circular lights floating off of it.

We opened the door, and a sushi conveyor belt greeted us, with sushi making it’s way towards us. Low lights and brown walls created a cozy atmosphere. Wooden chairs lined the conveyor belts while chefs cooked in the middle. Naoko guided us to three empty chairs in the back.

We took our seats, and barely had a moment to breathe before Naoko started asking us questions.

“So, uh… how’s school?” Naoko said. I didn’t realize she was this awkward when not talking about our work.

“Today was our last day.” I stared down the little orange plates of various types of Sushi I didn’t even know the name of. I wish google was a bit more helpful, looking up “salmon, something green wrapped in rice wrapped in seaweed what type of sushi is it” does NOT help.

“Oh. Uh…”

Geez, Naoko was pretty bad at small talk to be honest. Heck, she still is.

“Naoko, are you able to talk about your mission?” I asked.

“Oh! Well, not in full detail. But I can talk about it a little more. Me and nine others have been sent to different towns in Hokkaido for…” she paused, “classified business.”

“Nine others? What are they like?”

“Five of them are humans, four are yokai. I’ve never been close to the other four humans honestly. I’m specifically working with one girl, Kagami Hoshino. She’s… a lot, but super sweet and nice. She’s starting to get kinda antsy though, her boyfriend is busy with similar work and they haven’t seen each other. Calls and texts aren’t doing it for them, it seems.”

“What other yokai are you working with?”

“We have an Okon Gitsune, I’m trying to help her stop her trickery and all that. Our Baku is a nice man. We also have a Kawauso, he’s not too different from our Okon Gitsune, but he’s not dangerous. He keeps getting himself kicked out of bars though which is not good… Our Okiku is also very delightfu;, I feel bad for her though. We also have a Noppera-bō who can’t stop scaring the daylights out of everyone.”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

(Oh, and for the unacquainted, Okon Gitsune is a malicious troublemaker. mThere’s only one of her. Kawauso are alcohol-loving otters that are able to shapeshift as they get older. Okiku is a girl that formerly was a servant, but she lost some precious plate while working at the Himeji Castle. She died, and returned as a vengeful ghost. I guess technically she could count as one of the humans, but alas, I guess yokai rules make her a yokai now. And lastly, Noppera-bo are faceless ghosts that can look like humans, but not always. They can scare us humans but they’re generally pretty harmless besides their frightful pranks.)

“Do you think we could meet them?” I asked.

“Maybe. Right now, though, we’re all dealing with our own missions spread throughout other towns and cities in Hokkaido.”

As our conversation began to dry up, I looked over at Minato. He was quietly eating sushi with a frown. In the moment, I wished I could get him to cheer up, but I couldn’t think of anything, so I didn’t say anything.

“You know, though we are working together, I still don’t know that much about either of you. Why don’t you tell me more about yourselves?”

“Oh, good idea! Well, you know my name already. I’m biracial, my mom is Irish-American, and my dad is Japanese. He grew up in Hokkaido not too far from this town, I believe. My grandparents hated my mom for basically stealing their son out of Japan, so they agreed that someday I’d move back to Japan. Originally, we planned to move after elementary school and dad would teach me things about Japan before we moved there. But we ended up pushing it back because we weren’t quite ready to say goodbye, and I thought I’d probably get better when I got to Japan, so I made the mistake of not learning as much as I could’ve. Jia, Clay, Anne, Luke and Clara are my friends back home, and they’re coming very soon. Outside of that, I love gothic lolita fashion, purple is my favorite color, and I never really had a hobby before, but lately I really want to get into fashion design.”

“You left a lot back in America, huh?”

“Yeah… I think next summer we’re gonna try going to America. I have a big family on my mom’s side. I’m way more comfortable with. I haven’t even seen my dad’s side of the family in person ever… I’m a little intimidated by them.”

Naoko put head on her hand. “That’d be nice. I don’t usually leave Japan, but I’d like to maybe one day get out, just for the experience. Maybe take my family too.”

Minato speaks, the first peep I heard out of him since we got there, asking, “You have a family?”

“Yup… They’re all messengers of Inari. They’re busy with their messages, and I’m busy with my mission, so we don’t see each other all that often. It’s just been awhile since I saw my parents and grandparents.”

Minato mumbles to himself about wanting to write that down as he eats more pieces of sushi.

“What about you, Minato?” Naoko looks at him.

Minato looks back up, startled. “You know my name, you know about my parents. Outside of that, I just like history, reading, and learning about other cultures. I barely even have friends. I’m nothing special.”

“Oh come on kid, don’t say that. You have Keiko plus that other girl… Hotene, right?”

“I’m barely even friends with Hotene. We’re always paired together for group projects, so out of necessity we sort of got to know each other. We never voluntarily hang out outside of school work. She has her own main group of friends too, I’m just the backup plan, or something…”

“You still have me, right?” I chimed in.

“I guess…” Minato trails off.

“Listen kid, I’m not gonna pretend to know what exactly it feels like to be in your situation, but it’s not like you have nothing good in your life. I know it’s hard to appreciate things, but sometimes you need to take a moment and realize that.” Naoko said.

“Alright…” Minato said.

We couldn’t find much else to talk about afterwards. We kinda just silently finished up our sushi, paid, and then left.

Sorry if this entry isn’t all that interesting. I tried to memorize our conversation as best as possible, it felt important. I wouldn’t be surprised if I accidentally left something out or forgot though.