July 27th 2022, 9:13 PM

With my friends here now, trying to write or do anything else is really hard. Which, like, that’s a good thing, I really missed them and spending time with them and everything, but that just means I don’t get to update my diary as much as I want to.

But, of course, with Minato and I discovering our mission to talk to Kuchisake-Onna has changed, we needed to find time to talk to Naoko and Kagami to figure out our next move. Considering we’ve been planning to spend time with my American friends this summer, you can imagine how difficult it’s been.

Earlier today though, finally, all the stars aligned in our favor. I finished breakfast and didn’t have anything to do, Minato came over to eat with us, Hotene was busy today doing family stuff, and all my friends were still at their hotel eating and planning the day. This was our chance!

So Minato ran quickly to his house to get some stuff, I got my stuff together, and under the guise of just walking around for fun, we set out to get to Naoko’s house in the woods.

The walk there wasn’t really anything special, so I won’t say much about that, but when we finally got there Naoko and Kagami were sitting at a table with an opened manila folder, and papers spread across the table. When they looked up to see us they quickly scrambled to put all the papers in the folder. We took a seat right across from them.

“Hiding something from us?” Minato said, narrowing his eyes.

“No- well, yes, sort of. It’s classified work documents. In the future though, you’ll be able to look at these with us, I hope,” Kagami said.

Naoko cleared her throat. “Anyway, hello, you two. So Kagami was the Kuchisake-Onna you were looking for all along.”

Minato and I took a seat at the other end of the table. I said, “Yeah, but there’s still all the other Kuchisake-Onna haunting our town as well.”

“True. Well, we can still do that, but I fear there’s something that I need to do which I should’ve been doing in the first place…”

“What? What is it?” Minato said.

“Only recently did I realize that it’s protocol when involving minors in missions of this sort, to make their parents aware of what’s happening. I’ll be lucky to not get in trouble when my mentor hears about this. Unfortunately, when you're new to mentoring, this stuff just happens a lot.”

My eyes lit up. “You were mentored too?”

“Yes. Our mentors used to work for the province of Hokkaido, but they recently were promoted to be a regional… uh, thing.”

Minato furrowed his eyebrows. “What? But the region of Hokkaido is the exact same size as the province of Hokkaido! That’s barely a promotion.”

“Yeah, listen, I don’t make the rules, just follow them. Our mentors get to meet with other regions now though, so they meet new people at least. That’s good for some people.”

I took a moment to ponder how a meeting could go with my parents. I think they’re relatively reasonable, I don’t think they’ll get angry or anything. Though we probably need to get this done soon, so maybe they’ll meet my American friends. “Would you like to meet my American friends? That could be a fun dinner!”

Naoko waved her tails around, and despite her lack of eyebrows, still managed to furrow her… fur? I don’t know what to call it. “No. This needs to be limited as much as possible. Only your parents should attend, no others.”

I could guess talking about parents would sting for Minato , and I was right. At the mention of parents, I saw Minato's eyes go wide, and his gaze fell to the floor, like he was trying to not cry at the mention. Kagami upturned her eyebrows and frowned. She looked at him, then me.

Doing my best to not start a situation, I quickly waved my arms around rapidly. “Hey, uh, when should we do that dinner then?”

“As soon as possible, it's bad enough we broke protocol, we need to have the meeting soon so we don't get into more hot water.”

I thought of our plans for the week. I knew off the top of my head, that my friends were doing their own exploring with their families this upcoming Wednesday, but I had no idea what Minato would be up to.

I turned to face him. “I'm free Wednesday, what about you?”

He sniffled, and made some sobbing noises. “That should be fine.”

Kagami shifted closer to Minato, but I shook my head. I knew he wouldn't want us to make a big deal out of him crying, even though I felt guilty about it. Heck, I still do as I'm writing this.

Naoko nodded. “Should be fine for me. What about you?” she asked as she turned to Kagami.

“That’s fine for me.”

I clapped my hands. “Perfect! Do you guys have anything in particular you like eating? I'll ask my parents to try to make it!”

“I'm fine with anything.” Naoko said.

Minato nodded, biting his lower lip.

“Well, chicken katsu or ramen would be nice, but if you can't do it or something that'd be fine as well!” Kagami said.

“Noted,” I said with a nod. I rose from my seat. “Well then, I think that's all for now. See you next Wednesday at my house?”

The women nodded. Naoko waved with one of her tails, while Kagami waved with a smile. I rose from my seat first, then stared at Minato as he slowly got up. My heart shattered into a million pieces when I still heard him sniffling and wiping away a few tears. I didn’t want to bother him much though, so we just silently walked back to our homes. I kept managing to spare glances at him though, and he was still crying.

Well, that’s all. I have stuff with my friends to do and I also have to tell my parents about the dinner, that’s gonna be fun, yay…

I’ll write soon! I promise!

August 3rd, 2022, 10:11 PM

Geez it’s been pretty busy, sorry this took me so long to write in here again!

So, when I first told my parents about Naoko and Kagami’s visit, they kinda thought I was crazy. Even my dad, who’s more used to this kind of thing, was surprised to find out what Minato and I were up to with the yokai. So I’d say that’s a pretty fair assessment. My mom was totally confused though, she thought I was having hallucinations or something, so I had to talk my dad into just rolling with it. But, it happened, she reluctantly decided she’d go to dinner. Which is good, since it was at our house. (Normally I’d try to not just summarize but I was so swamped some of the finer details are lost to me now, sorry about that :( )

And that dinner was earlier tonight!

I took that as an opportunity to dress up in one of my favorite gothic lolita dresses; a black dress that was almost touching the floor, decorated in fake dark purple flowers, and white pearls. I paired it with my black wristicuffs, a flower headdress, a choker, and some blush underneath my eyes. I even re-dyed my hair with the purple streaks for it!

Okay maybe it was a little overkill, but I’ll never miss the opportunity to look nice and dress up if there is one!

Initially my parents were going to wear something casual, but I encouraged them to wear something a little fancier. Of course, not as fancy as me, lol. I wanted to outshine them. Still do honestly.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

Mom wore a green dress that was high in the front and long in the back. It was an emerald green, matching her eyes and complementing her curly red hair perfectly.

Dad dug out an old kimono, which I didn’t even realize he had! His kimono was black and white, nothing special but still very elegant nonetheless.

Then Minato came over. He was in a kimono of his own as well, but it was one of those fancy ones, I believe they’re called mofuku? They’re the ones that have five crests on the kimono. Everyone in Japan has a family crest apparently, and if you don’t you can choose one. Minato’s crest had a three sided… flower I believe? And on either side was a branch with some leaves on it. He also had a haori overtop. He still seemed kind of out of it though, but when my parents asked us to help set the table up he still was willing to help, so maybe not completely out of it?

Not too long after we finished getting ready, the doorbell rang. I jumped, ready to race for the door. But my mom stopped me.

“Not so fast Keiko, I want to see these women. I want to see if this is legit or if you’re hallucinating.”

I pouted a bit, I won’t lie, but I allowed her to be the first at the door. My dad joined her at her side.

As expected, when the door opened, there was Kagami and Naoko, standing there. I was only really able to briefly glance at their outfits. Naoko wore some bows on her ears, and around her neck, and Kagami a sleeveless blue dress that just covered her knees.

I could mostly focus on Naoko, who was in her fox form, and not her human one. I couldn’t see my mom’s eyes from where I was standing. She gasped dramatically, and fell backwards.

Papa gasped as well, and Minato and I gave each other a glance. Minato motioned for me to go to my mom, and I did. My heart began to race in my chest as my dad caught her. He put two fingers on her neck, and put a hand just above her nose and mouth. I tried to help out by attempting to bring her to the couch.

Naoko and Kagami looked on with wide eyes, standing there.

“I apologize, I don’t think she was expecting, well, all this. She’s fine, I think she just fainted. Just give her a minute. Kei-Chan, will you get your mom a water?”

I nodded profusely. Despite my father’s reassurance, my heart still raced and tears threatened to prick my eyes. I raced to the kitchen and shakily got a glass and filled it with water. Shuffling approached as the water filled the glass.

I turned to see Minato. Instead of looking out of it, he had upturned eyebrows and frowned slightly. Upon seeing his expression the tears threatened to spill and my lip quivered. Embarrassingly, I began sobbing, but I tried to muffle them. I felt guilty, usually he’s the one that’s upset lately and I don’t do much about it, yet here he is comforting me while I’m crying!

“Hey, it’s okay. She’s okay. Your dad’s got her,” Minato reassured me as he pulled me in for a hug. A hug! That never happens! Wow! He can still surprise me. Well, I’ve only known him for like a few months so of course we’re still learning about each other, so…

I pulled back and tried to compose myself before going back out into the front with the water.

When I entered, papa sat beside mom on the couch. Mom’s eyes fluttered open. I immediately rushed over and handed her the water.

“Thank you, Keiko,” she said, a little disoriented. She gulped it down.

Naoko and Kagami still stood awkwardly at the door.

“Maybe I should’ve not entered in my fox form…” Naoko mumbled. She transformed into her human form. Her ears became hair buns shaped like fox ears, and her fox body stood up as she turned into a slim, tall lady that towered even over Kagami. She had multicolored hair, with white hair with dark roots, and her left hair bun and ends of her hair taking on a gold color, while the right took on a french gray color. Her black bows were now around her hair buns, and a dress slowly appeared as she morphed into her human form. It was a slinky black dress that flowed to the floor, with off the shoulder sleeves.

“Oh come on! Really? A dress? Ugh, oh well.” Naoko complained.

“Maybe you should’ve picked out a human outfit before coming,” Kagami giggled.

“Yeah, can’t believe I didn’t think of that. Ugh.”

“You have a human form?” Mom interrupted. (Wow mom almost like you didn’t watch her transform into a human just then geez!)

Naoko shifted her eyes over to mom. “Oh, uh, yeah. All tenkos do.”

“What’s a tenko again?”

“We’re heavenly foxes that serve under the deity Inari. Well, mostly, I stepped away from serving Inari almost a hundred years ago to join the yokai organization.”

“Hey, sorry to butt in, but can we go sit down? I’m starving.” Papa said.

We all nodded. Papa held mom’s hand and sat her down at the head of the table, closest to the door. Normally, papa would be on the other head of the table if there were guests, but probably considering mom fainted like a few minutes before he opted to sit next to her, which made sense. I sat right across from mom, Minato was next to me, and Naoko and Kagami were at the seats near the other end of the table, with Naoko next to Minato, and Kagami next to Papa. Then, Naoko and my mom started up their conversation again.

“So, Inari? Yokai organization?”

“Inari is a deity in Japanese religion, and a very popular one at that. They have a ton of shrines everywhere, I always used to visit their shrines.” Papa chimed in.

Naoko nodded. “The yokai organization was formed at the beginning of the 20th century, as the founder is actually half-human, half-kitsune, and due to her mom being a kitsune, she faced a lot of discrimination for it. She created the organization to protect half-yokai, and try to protect all yokai, even the bad ones. I can’t say I fully agree with her initial goals, but I thought it stood for something decent, at the very least. It’s grown very large since then, now we have a team representing the entirety of Japan, down to almost every individual town.”

My eyes twinkled. I devoured the information Naoko was giving almost as much as I devoured my chicken katsu. This was the most she had told us about everything!

“What do the teams do?”

“Protect and fight yokai, as contradictory as it sounds. We assess which is the more ideal solution to yokai on a case-by-case basis. Town-based teams focus their efforts in a singular town, while a team like the one protecting the entirety of Japan would focus their efforts on things that affect most, if not all of Japan. They can have anywhere from three to ten members, and each member has a specific job title. My team is currently on a break since there’s no immediate threats, and we’ve been split up mentoring a bunch of new yokai teams. Kagami’s is a designated healer, and I’m the designated fighter, for example.”

“So what area does your team protect?”

“Well, my initial team has always been based in Hokkaido, but my team has unfortunately been plagued with a lot of individuals leaving and new people joining to fill in, so even when the organization grew big enough to be more like the modern organization is, we only got to protect a tiny town in the subprovince of Hiyama for the longest time. Eventually though, we finally got a solid and consistent lineup, and were eligible to get promotion for the subprovince of Hiyama. Very recently though, we were promoted to being the designated team for the Hokkaido providence, which was wonderful. Since we were now a province though, it was time we started mentoring new people to join the organization, and there’s a lot of teams we needed to get started. There’s been a lot of yokai stuff going down lately everywhere, not just this specific town..”

“How does this involve my daughter? And Minato, for that matter.”

Kagami chimed in. “Well, we think they’d be great to add to the Yokai Organization. It’s customary for members to do a yokai mission of sorts before joining. Since Minato and Keiko have been trying to investigate the Kuchisake-Onna problem in your town, that's what we’re considering their mission.”

“How is the progress on that going, by the way?” Dad asked.

“Well, they were looking for a specific Kuchisake-Onna, but it turns out they were trying to hunt me down without realizing. My scars unfortunately just look a lot like Kuchisake-Onna, which is very unfortunate, but not an unusual thing for me,” Kagami frowned.

“Oh, that’s unfortunate. I’m most concerned on how safe this job will be, especially with Kuchisake-Onna and her specific legends.” Dad said.

“Yeah, when dealing with yokai it can’t always be the safest thing in the world unfortunately. The Yokai Organization has a specific insurance plan due to that, though it’s a little bit different when we have minors. For that basically parents can decide whether they want their kids on their plan or on the company’s insurance plan.”

My mom and dad looked at each other and paused to think. Mom said, “We’ll have to come back to you on that.”

“Alright, that’s fine. How do you feel about Keiko, and I guess Minato too, working for the Yokai Organization?”

“Well, the safety thing concerns me a bit, but as long as you guys can step in if there’s a fight or something I think it’ll be okay. What about pay though?”

“Because we neglected to have this meeting much earlier, they haven’t been paid yet, but we’ll calculate their hours and pay them as soon as possible. Official members only get minimum wage, but if their mission is completed and they officially form a team, then it’ll be a living wage instead.”

My dad’s eyes lit up. “Living wage in high school? That’s awesome, I’m in!”

“Just stay safe you two. You guys can keep working with them. Can I have your contact information just in case of emergencies or something?” Mom asked.

Naoko and Kagami nodded. While the adults all exchanged their contact information, Minato and I cheered. We can keep working! And we learned a bunch of cool information too!

If my brain wasn’t so mushy trying to comprehend this I’d write out some more of what I remember from the conversations. I was really trying to remember everything so I can look back at this later. My parents, Naoko and Kagami did have some conversations more casually. Naoko is one of ten children apparently, and Kagami is trans. That’s why she got her scars that look like Kuchisake-Onna; her former employer wanted her to terrify everyone until the end of time. It’s kinda sad actually. I don’t want to dwell on it too much though, otherwise I’ll get too sad when I need to be sleeping.

That’s all, I’m tired, good night lol.