Kurt’s day had been off to a weird start with running into the distraught Karasuza during his morning walk. But when he reached his first class, barely in time, things began to settle into their normal routine.

While he listened with rabid interest as the lecturer told them about various facets of Inari worship, the werewolf wrote down a number of questions he’d like to ask the youkai living at Eva’s shrine. Maybe he could even ask Eva to introduce him to a more experienced Inari to talk about all of this. The history class after that was a bit on the boring side. Though that might have been due to Kurt not paying that much attention with his break coming up soon. Which luckily overlapped with prof. Yamanaka’s office hours.

After grabbing a yakisoba sandwich from a vending machine on his way, Kurt arrived at the professor’s office. And the surprisingly long queue of students looking to speak to him. Though when it would finally have been his time, prof. Yamanaka followed the leaving student out of his office.

“Ah Mr. Wagner wasn’t it?” he said a moment after he saw Kurt. “I am quite sorry, but I have to end my office hours early today. If it’s something urgent, would you mind waiting until after my history lecture?”

“Ah, sure.” the werewolf replied unsurely before the professor turned and walked down the corridor in a hurry, followed by the white dog he brought to class every day.

After finishing his sandwich and sending Eva a short message to let her know he had not managed to talk to the Professor yet, Kurt headed to his class on Japanese literature.

Though he quickly resigned himself to asking one of the other students to share their notes on this lecture, as he was much too distracted with worrying about Karasuza and if Prof. Yamanaka would help the three of them. The next few classes were much the same, until it was finally time for his last class that day, Modern history with prof. Yamanaka.

But when the class was supposed to start, the professor wasn’t actually there yet. He came a few minutes late, wheeling in an old fashioned dia projector.

“Please excuse my tardiness.” He addressed the students while setting up the projector. “Today’s lecture might make some of you feel ill or faint. In which case you may feel free to leave early. That said, I believe it is of utmost importance for everyone in this room to be aware of what we will cover in class today.” Finishing with the projector, he took a remote control with him to the front of the room, and turned to face the students.

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“The war crimes performed by imperial troops during the second world war. With a special focus on the exploits of Unit 731. Even though modern Japan does not deserve any blame for what these men did, we cannot simply forget it like some would like to do.”[1]

With that he began a rather gruesome lecture, punctuated by unnerving images of experiments, oppressed and exploited people, as well as of the perpetrators.[2] Through all of this, Kurt was glad for his less human nature. Because if he hadn’t been as used to the image of werewolves ripping into deer and other woodland critters, he would have lost his lunch for sure. Surprisingly, a slight majority of the other students stayed for the whole lecture, even though many of them looked ready to vomit any moment.

While the rest of the students left a bit more hastly than normal, Kurt stayed behind and instead made his way towards the professor.

“So what did you want to talk about earlier today?” prof. Yamanaka inquired as he slowly moved towards the dia projector. “After all, you have missed not a single one of my classes, and your Japanese is more than adequate to follow them fully.”

“It is not actually related to my studies.” Kurt admitted immediately, but he hesitated a bit trying to find the right words before continuing. “I heard you can help not quite normal students with special problems.”

“And who told you that?” The professor inquired, his eyes narrowing.

“ A friend of mine met your father and younger sister this weekend. He told her to contact you if she had any problems.” After taking a short breath, Kurt went on. “And as I am one of your students, she asked me to speak with you about the problem we are facing right now.”

As he listened, prof. Yamanaka seemed lost in thought a bit, stayed silent for a few moments more before responding. “Where did they meet? And may I ask for the name of your friend?”

“A weekend cruise in Osaka. And I am not sure if her name would tell you anything, it’s Eva Mayer.”

“I see.” The professor simply stated as he hastily unplugged the projector. “Then would you please open the door and follow me. I believe the rest of this conversation should happen somewhere more private than a public classroom.”

“Of course.” Kurt said as he opened the door and held it for the cart with the projector, the professor and the old dog. He then followed him through the corridors of the building until they reached an old and, judging by the cobwebs, rarely used storage room, which prof. Yamanaka locked behind them.

“Could you call Miss Mayer so we can have her involved in this as well?”

“Of course.” Kurt confirmed as he quickly pulled his phone from his pocket and started a call to Eva. And set the phone to speaker a moment later.

“Hi Kurt, how did it go?”

“Greetings Miss Mayer. We are just getting started.” Prof. Yamanaka said.