Tamiko screamed and backed up several steps before falling down into the sand again.

“Such bothersome creatures,” Shitoro commented before turning to face Kisaki again. “You are in a great deal of trouble, young mistress.”

Kisaki sighed dejectedly. She’d known this would eventually happen, had been anticipating it ever since she’d stepped foot from her mother’s chambers. Yet, following the last few wonderful days, she’d begun to entertain the fantasy that perhaps she’d be allowed to stay with Tamiko. She now saw what a fool she was to think that.

“Do not ignore me, young lady!”

“I wasn’t ignoring you,” Kisaki replied.

“Don’t take that tone with me. A few days on Earth and the entire concept of respect is lost upon you, I see.”

“I haven’t lost my...”

Hands grabbed Kisaki beneath her shoulders and began dragging her away. When she looked up, she saw it was Tamiko.

Her friend’s eyes were as wide as the full moon. Finally, after about ten feet, she stopped and then dropped to her knees in front of Kisaki, continually glancing back over her shoulder to where Shitoro sat looking quite annoyed. “How are you not freaked out by the fact that a cat is talking to us?!”

“I will have you know, human,” Shitoro said with a sniff, “I am a tiger. I hunted prey before your kind had even discovered fire, which I might add was quite by accident.”

“Tiger?” Tamiko cried, turning and facing him. “I hate to break it to you, but tigers are big and ... and now I’m talking with the cat. I don’t know what was in that taco rice, but we are never going there again.”

“Tigers also have claws, which I will be happy to show you if...”

“That’s enough, Shitoro.” Kisaki stood up and brushed herself off. “Even you have to admit, you’re somewhat ... small for a tiger.”

“Small in stature but large in spirit, as your mother would say. That is, if you ever stopped disrespecting her long enough to listen.”

“Shitoro?” Tamiko asked. “This is Shitoro?!”

“Yes,” Kisaki said calmly, not entirely sure why her friend was reacting this way. Certainly Shitoro was a bit on the diminutive side, but nothing that should have alarmed her to that degree.

“I thought you said Shitoro was your stepdad.”

“I said he was my guardian, which he is.”

“Your guardian is a cat?”

“Tiger!” Shitoro snarled.

Tamiko spun toward him again. “I’ve seen tigers in the zoo. They didn’t talk.”

“Of course not,” Shitoro replied. “Regular tigers are dumb animals. Like present company, I might add. I am a tiger demon.”

“Demons aren’t real.”

“How your species managed to survive the last ice age is beyond me.”

“Enough!” Kisaki said, stepping between the two. “Shitoro, can you please assume your regular form?”

“I am in disguise, as per your mother’s orders. Do you know what happens to youkai who disobey one such as she?”

“There’s no one else here. It’s just us.”

“Fine,” Shitoro replied. “If it will cease this human’s prattling, so be it.” His yellow eyes began to glow and, a moment later, so too did the rest of him. There came a flash of light, and then Shitoro adopted the bipedal form he most typically took in the celestial palace. “Better?”

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“Not really,” Tamiko replied, dumbfounded. She turned to Kisaki. “Now he’s a two-foot-tall talking cat standing on his hind legs and wearing a kimono.”

“How many times do I have to say it? I am a tiger.”

“Should I get a ball of yarn so we can find out for sure?”

“Yarn? I don’t understand what...”

“How did you find me?” Kisaki asked, tired of their bickering. She was relatively certain that if she tried, she would be able to get up in the morning, go to work, and then come back to find these two still arguing.

“Huh?” both of them asked.

“How did you find me, Shitoro?” Kisaki repeated.

“Find you? I have been searching this accursed island for two days now. You have no idea the indignities I have had to endure. Children throwing rocks at me. Mongrels chasing me. At one point, a fat human female grabbed hold of me while I was unawares and tried to put a collar around my neck.”

“Seen many tigers wearing collars?” Tamiko asked. “Like I said, cat.”

Before Shitoro could start in again with her friend, Kisaki asked, “But how did you even know to look here, on this island?”

“Perhaps if you had paid better attention to your studies, that would be self-evident,” he chided. “You used your mother’s crystal to come here. I don’t know how you knew to do so, but you were a foolish child if you thought she couldn’t trace her own power.”

“My mother’s crystal?”

“In the sending chamber.”

Kisaki remembered what had happened, how she’d been standing in the middle of that room, thinking of Earth, then suddenly found herself on the beach. “The black crystal?”

“Of course. As if you did not know.”

“What’s he talking about?” Tamiko asked.

“I am not entirely certain myself.”

Shitoro walked up to them, ignoring how Tamiko flinched away, then poked a clawed finger at Kisaki. “A likely story. I will warn you, child, that your lies will not get you out of this. Your mother will most likely order you chained to your study desk from here on out.”

“Hey!” Tamiko cried. “She can’t do that. It’s illegal.”

“You would presume to tell the great Lady Midnite what she can and cannot do?”

“Lady Midnite...” Tamiko turned to Kisaki. “Your mom. She’s not like...” She inclined her head toward Shitoro.

“Lady Midnite is like nothing your feeble human mind could comprehend,” Shitoro said. “And be thankful for that. Should you ever find yourself standing before her divine grace, you would do well to cut that tongue from your mouth before letting it flap incessantly.”

“She sent you, didn’t she?” Kisaki asked.

The little demon rounded on her. “Of course she sent me, and I was glad to heed her command. Unlike some, I am both loyal and respectful to my mistress, even willing to break our laws at her command ... at great personal risk to myself, I might add.”

“What laws?” Tamiko asked.

“Such as the one forbidding passage to Earth.”

“There’s a law forbidding passage?” Kisaki asked.

“Yes. There is.”

“How come I never heard you talk of it?”

“Because you were not meant to. You were never meant to venture forth from your chambers, as such there was no need for you to know of such matters.”

Tamiko stepped in front of Kisaki, having seemingly gotten over her shock, and stared down at the tiger youkai. “Well, I hope there's a law against anyone leaving Earth, because she’s not going back.”

“What?”

“You heard me, cat.”

“You won’t find that so funny once I turn you into a mouse.”

Kisaki slapped a hand against her forehead. These two couldn’t seem to help themselves. Even so, she found her heart warmed that Tamiko, a mere human, would stand up to a youkai for her. Despite her first instinct to do as she was told, she began to realize she didn’t want to give up her friend. And if Tamiko was that fierce of a friend, then perhaps she was worth fighting for. “What if I don’t wish to leave?”

“Preposterous!” Shitoro cried. “You truly have been ruined by this savage place. Over sixty years of routine and discipline gone in the space of a few days. The great daimao should have put their edict in place for that reason alone.”

“Sixty years?” Tamiko turned to Kisaki. “So you were telling the truth?”

“Yes.”

“Whoa! You’re like, old enough to be my grandmother.”

Kisaki chuckled, not entirely certain what a grandmother was. “Perhaps...”

“I want to drink from whatever fountain of youth you have up there.”

“Do not be foolish, human,” Shitoro said.

“My name is Tamiko!”

“Oh, so you do not like it when the sandal is upon the other foot? Nevertheless, it is impossible. Your feeble human mind simply couldn’t handle the glorious wonders of the celestial palace. And, even if you could, I dare say some of my less tolerant cousins would be more than happy to enjoy making a meal out of you.”

“I ask again,” Kisaki said, interrupting the bickering, “what if I do not wish to leave?”

“That is out of the question. Besides, why would you even want to stay in this barbaric land? The stench alone is enough to singe my whiskers.”

“You’re going to be smelling like wet cat in about three seconds,” Tamiko warned.

“As I said, barbaric.”

“I haven’t found it to be that way,” Kisaki said. “I’ve actually enjoyed staying here at the resort, working for Yoshida-san.”

“Working?”

“Yes. I have been performing odd jobs and receiving payment for it.”

“You, a daughter of the mighty Midnite, have been serving a human? What have they done to you? Is this Yoshida a wizard? Has he bewitched your mind?”

Kisaki laughed. “Of course not. He’s Tamiko’s ... father.” She looked toward her friend questioningly. Tamiko gave her a small nod of approval, so she turned back, intent on continuing her argument, but then hesitated as a thought suddenly popped into her mind. “Shitoro?”

“Yes, Lady Kisaki? Have you come to your senses yet?”

“May I ask a question?”

“Very well.”

“Are you my father?”