《Keiko Kuromiya: The Cut-Faced Woman》 A Whole New World… Erm, I Mean Country March 20th, 2022, 12:19 AM Well, from the bad news I learned today at least I got a new diary, which I¡¯ve been needing for a month. I suppose you and I should get acquainted, new diary. I¡¯m Keiko Kuromiya, how are you? Yes, I know treating my diary like a sentient being seems a little weird, but I¡¯ve made a name for myself for being weird. Maybe this diary will end up somewhere when I¡¯m older, those readers should at least know my name. I¡¯ll get into the bad part of today now, it¡¯ll probably be the most interesting thing to happen for THIS, diary #37. And yes, I¡¯ve had 36 previous diaries. It all started during spring break. I was hyped because who doesn¡¯t love a break? I started planning outfits and stuff while talking to my friends but then my parents dropped the bomb on me just earlier today. We¡¯re moving to Japan the 25th. Despite the sound of my name and my physical appearance (which is very east asian looking, except for the fact I have freckles from my mom), I¡¯m Japanese-Irish. Papa grew up in Japan and was there all his life until college. He went abroad to study, where he met my mom. All of a sudden, his priorities changed. My Japanese grandparents weren¡¯t happy for him wanting to leave, but he refused to stay. It would be easier for him to move to America where he already knew the language and was already familiar with everything there, compared to my mom, who would have to start learning and becoming familiar. To appease them, he did promise that someday we would move back to Japan. Originally the plan was to move when I was eleven, but we kept pushing it off for another year, then saying to let me finish middle school first. Would there ever really be a good time though? I knew it had to happen eventually, my paternal grandparents were too stubborn to ever let it go. So earlier today we were sitting around the dinner table at home, the very small and brown one. We were eating miso ramen, which Papa grew up eating. Some of the ingredients we can¡¯t find around here though, not even at any of the asian supermarkets which annoys him to no end. I¡¯m just sitting there, enjoying my ramen, when my mom starts to ask me a question. ¡°Keiko, you know how your grandparents always wanted us to move to Japan?¡± ¡°Oh no, is that happening soon?¡± I shrank in my seat. ¡°Yes. We debated whether to tell you in advance or closer to the moving day. We couldn¡¯t decide in the end so unfortunately we could only tell you now. I¡¯m sorry Keiko.¡± Papa apologized, bowing in his seat. ¡°Couldn¡¯t we have waited until I was older?¡± I protested. ¡°We¡¯re sorry, but we already bought a house and everything, it¡¯s too late to back out now.¡± Mom apologized again. I was already close to tears, so I went to my room. I was sobbing for hours and hours. I stayed in bed for a good couple of hours, overthinking everything, which is what I do every day of my life, so that¡¯s not very unusual. I¡¯m kind of annoyed they waited THIS long. Not just kind of, extremely, EXTREMELY annoyed. No, not annoyed, upset and angry. I knew this was happened at some point, but why do I have to find out this on my spring break, and it¡¯s happening in four days? I think it might¡¯ve been fun to buy a house with them if they just told me earlier! I did suspect this though, because I was looking at a few colleges just for fun (listen, you can never be too prepared for college) and they were quiet and kept staring back at each other. Anyway, at like, 9 PM my mom knocked at the door. ¡°Keiko, are you awake?¡± She whispered. ¡°Yes.¡± I sat up in my bed, revealing myself from the covers. ¡°Your father and I were talking. What if during holidays your friends can fly out to Japan or we can go visit them. I know that doesn¡¯t fix us moving but I know how important it is you keep seeing them and everything.¡± Mom said. ¡°Please, I want to keep seeing them in Japan.¡± ¡°Alright. We¡¯re leaving the 25th. Maybe we can have one last big hurrah before then?¡± ¡°That¡¯s a good idea. I¡¯ll tell them tomorrow.¡± ¡°Oh, and one more thing. We finally got you a new diary! Sorry it took so long. Okay, goodnight Keiko.¡± Mom handed me my new diary before closing the door. In darkness I come make out a black composition notebook. Obviously, I wrote in my diary first before actually going to sleep. Which I guess I¡¯ll be doing right now. Goodnight. March 21th, 2022, 5:29 PM Four Days Until The Move Time is limited so I will be updating this diary after dinner, which I just finished. Today I had to break the news to my freinds. I also recorded the entire text chat. In the future my diaries may be fine literature and I¡¯d like to look back at them if anything does happen to them. But also sometimes I can write conversations into my diary while bored and trying to think of something to write about. Me Guys I have important news I learned last night 10:48 AM Clay ?? How are you awake so early Anyway what¡¯s up that doesn¡¯t sound good 10:48 AM Me You guys know how I¡¯ve talked about how I¡¯ll probably move to Japan someday We¡¯re moving there on the 25th 10:49 AM Clay ?? WHAT YOU DIDN¡¯T THINK TO TELL US 10:49 AM Me IF IT WAS UP TO ME I WOULD¡¯VE KNOWN WAY EARLIER MY PARENTS TOOK TOO LONG TO DECIDE ON IF THEY SHOULD¡¯VE TOLD ME WAY IN ADVANCE OR CLOSER TO THE MOVING DAY BUT THEY DEBATED FOR SO LONG THEY ONLY THOUGHT TO TELL ME LAST NIGHT 10:51 AM Lukey Boy Your parents are a little stupid tbh 10:51 AM Anneville THEY WHAT? Am I legally allowed to throw hands 10:52 AM Me No. So like are you guys free between now and the 25th? Would you guys also wanna like come to the airport and see me one last time before I go to Japan. 10:53 AM CLEAR SHEPARD I just woke up what the heck I didn¡¯t wanna be hit with you moving away 10:54 AM Lukey Boy You should¡¯ve tried not staying awake until 3 in the morning 10:55 AM CLEAR SHEPARD Whatever I¡¯m not getting into a fight right now Anyway Keiko I¡¯m free today maybe we can do something? :D I don¡¯t care what my parents say though I WILL be there on the 25th. Just tell me what time 10:56 AM Clay ?? I¡¯m free the 25th too 10:56 AM Lukey Boy Me too! This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. 10:57 AM Anneville Me as well! I¡¯m gonna be on vacation until that day unfortunately so I won¡¯t see you until the 25th but we¡¯ll make the best of it! 10:58 AM Me Okay okay good Let me ask my parents what time we¡¯re leaving 10:59 AM Me Okay so they said the 25th at 5 PM We¡¯re basically gonna spend the morning going to places I grew up and doing like a last goodbye We¡¯re getting up at 8 AM to pack and everything You guys can either come to the airport in the afternoon just for the send off part or join us in the morning too. The car is getting taken by a friend so we can drive you guys in the morning but after we leave for Japan you¡¯re gonna need a ride sorted out because obviously we won¡¯t be there to drive you back home This is the schedule mom and dad set up 8:00 - 8:30 Pack away stuff, put in the car 8:30 - 9:30 Eat breakfast at IHOP 9:30 - 10:00 Go to the playground at the elementary school 10:00 - 10:10 Drive past the middle and high school 10:10 - 11:00 Visit my mom¡¯s side of the family 11:05 - 2:00 Drive to the airport 2:00 - 3:00 Bag checks 3:00 - 4:00 Lunch? 4:00 - 5:00 Wait until it¡¯s time 5:00 Time. 11:10 AM CLEAR SHEPARD Do you know where you¡¯re moving to? How long is the flight? 11:11 AM Me Somewhere in Hokkaido The actual flight itself is like 30 hours We¡¯re doing like 2 layovers Gonna be a very long flight I¡¯ll be texting you in between landings I¡¯m gonna have to get a new phone though so I may need to like write a letter sending you my new number or something Anyway we¡¯ve been talking about this way too long Clara what should we do Anyone else that¡¯s free can tag along 11:12 AM CLEAR SHEPARD I can! :D! Let¡¯s hang out at 2 Maybe at the ice cream shop or something 11:13 AM Clay ?? I¡¯m bored I¡¯m gonna tag along 11:14 AM Me Kk see y¡¯all in a bit! 11:14 AM And then nothing else exciting happened until we met up. Oh, I didn¡¯t properly introduce my friends! Clay is Clayton Van Der Veen, Clear Shepard is Clara Shepard, Lukey boy is Lucas Slater and Anneville is Annika Granville. Don¡¯t mind the joke names that¡¯s just how I name people in my contacts. Okay moving on. I cannot possibly explain and write all the conversations we had. I think the memories of today is better through the videos and quotes I took. But yeah we had fun getting ice cream and reminiscing the past years of our lives. Eleven years of friendship and in four days it could fizzle out. Or we could become more bonded than we¡¯ve ever been. I¡¯m terrified, honestly. My friends have a better time staying close with people when they can interact with them. Personally I don¡¯t, but our group has had people come and go. There was once a girl Clara, Luke, Annika and I knew for a really long time. Her name was Jia Xun. She was one of the other few Asian kids in the school. Screw it, honestly, maybe even in the entire district. We met in 2nd grade. But a year ago on the summer before we were starting highschool she had to move away. Things went on kind of normally for like six months. We still talked constantly, we¡¯d visit whenever we could. But after that six month honeymoon period slowly everyone else started to distance away from her. We made a new group chat just for the four of us. A group chat of the people that live in town, they said. I still talk to her quite a lot, she doesn¡¯t respond much. And sometimes I wonder, did I contribute to all that by accident? Is that why she doesn¡¯t respond to me a lot of the time? What if I become the next Jia? Clay was essentially Jia¡¯s ¡°replacement¡±. We met him quite literally the day after Jia moved away. What if they ditch me and I get replaced? It¡¯s getting late. Tomorrow I guess I¡¯ll bring it up to whoever can hang out with me. March 22nd, 2022, 6:05 PM Three Days Until The Move I rushed through dinner to update my diary tonight. Literally shoving down chicken and rice down my throat. I almost choked, that was pretty fun. Mom and Papa tried to have a little conversation with me but I could only respond with my mouth full of food. Anyway, hopefully I can properly log everything that happened today. Me Who can hang out today Kinda wanna talk about something important Besides Annika Mom and Papa are out doing important moving stuff so I have the house to myself for awhile 1:49 PM CLEAR SHEPARD I WOKE UP EARLY FOR THIS YES Do your parents know how to make coffee by any chance by the way 1:50 PM Me Yes Also oh my god the prophecy has been fufilled 1:50 PM Lukey Boy Yes Anybody wanna play some video games I can bring some 1:50 PM Clay ?? I¡¯m also free 1:51 PM Me You guys can come over like right now if you want 1:52 PM Lukey Boy Kk! 1:53 PM They came over in like twenty minutes. Maybe thirty minutes of them beng over, we¡¯re in the tv room, gaming together, and having a great time. I¡¯ve agonized over how and when to bring up the topic of moving, so I bring up Jia. ¡°Do you guys still talk to Jia at all? She doesn¡¯t respond to me anymore.¡± ¡°Occassionally, yeah. She seems busy most of the time.¡± Clara said. ¡°Is that why we all stopped talking to her regularly?¡± ¡°Yeah, I think she¡¯s very involved in new extracurriculars and she has friends in North Woods that she naturally got closer to since she probably sees them often.¡± Clay sighed. ¡°That makes sense. Do you think that¡­ when I move to Japan we won¡¯t be friends anymore?¡± I asked. I slowly breathed, biting my lip. I can¡¯t cry here. Not in front of them. I hate crying in front of other people. ¡°Who knows for sure? We¡¯ll do our best to make it work. Believe me, I felt the same when I moved away from my hometown.¡± Luke reassured me. ¡°Even if it does happen we promise our friendship wouldn¡¯t end on a sour note.¡± Said Clay. I was so relieved. I always was suspicious about Jia slowly getting pushed out of the group but it does make sense when I think about it. After that it was mostly just. More dumb stupid shenaniganery, including but not limited to: Clara drinks so much coffee she starts shaking, Clay hates hiveswap, and Luke commits crimes in pokemon. Another day better recorded with videos than in my diary. I wonder if they¡¯d ever consider making videos playable in books or something. Anyway, goodnight. March 25nd, 2022, 8:05 PM 3 Hours and 5 Minutes After Boarding Okay, usually I am obsessed with my diary and recording my day but I was . get to do much else. Gotta be honest, I¡¯m a little tuckered out and sad so I¡¯m gonna do a summary of today rather then a full detailed run down. I woke up at like 6:30 to pack super early so I could dedicate some time to texting my friends. And to cry. This is something people do right? I thought if I cried in the morning I would have no tears to shed¡­ but that didn¡¯t do much I cried like every part of the day. Then at 9 we went for breakfast at IHOP. We made a reservation since there was 15 of us. Us kids all sat at one end of the table while the adults were at the other end. We laughed, we all cried, we got a dessert. I also got gifts from Clara, Clay, Luke and Annika for some reason. Another diary from Clara, a new dress from Annika, what I can assume to only be a years¡¯ worth of hair dye from Clay and some books about Japan from Luke. Luke¡¯s been preparing for this since the day we met for some reason and he read up on Japan a long time ago and it was only fitting he pass them on to me. I never told Luke that someday I would move to Japan immediately so I don¡¯t know why he had them since the day we met. At 9:30 we hit up the playground at the elementary school. Luke never visited so we ended up recording a video like we¡¯re doing an MTV house tour. Yeah don¡¯t ask we don¡¯t know either we thought it was funny. At 10 we drove past the high school and middle school. We all reminisced about our middle school adventures and high school adventures. Then my friends all went to the airport since traffic was bad and my parents and I went to my maternal grandparents¡¯ house. We got there at 10:10. It wasn¡¯t really a drive since my grandparents live right by the elementary school. I said hello and goodbye to a bunch of my relatives, though in all honesty I was more focused on talking to my friends. Grandpa and Grandma were bawling to my Mom and Papa. They love dad so dearly, since Mom grew up in a house of like, her and six other sisters. Then at 11:05 we made our way to the airport. Traffic was bad, as usual. We got there at 2 for bag checks then met up with my friends for lunch. This was when it was really hitting me. I mean we¡¯re all in a position where we can visit each other no problem. Okay with some problems but those problems aren¡¯t money. We¡¯re not gonna be able to see each other regularly. I can¡¯t tour my new school, talk about the teacher feuds and drama that the upper or underclassman have with them like I used to. I was bawling the entire time. We finished by 4 and by then we basically had to play the waiting game. I was stressed out of my mind. I was too embarrassed to talk and let my friends hear my crying voice but I felt a little peace being surrounded by them. At 4:50 we went to wait in line, my friends all joined us despite them not boarding so we could soak up as much interaction as possible. By then all of us were in tears and our parents were all starting to get sappy too. We started all saying goodbye. Then, it was the dreaded boarding. They waved all in tears, I waved back, and I stepped down my gate, tears streaming down my face. My parents comforted me as we found our seat. I got the window seat and looked over and over at my gifts and my friends encouraging words. I wasn¡¯t sure if I could be okay without them in Japan. I still feel that way. I¡¯m terrified. I can speak Japanese well. Papa has taught me the reading and I know katakana and hiragana fine, but I¡¯m so bad at kanji. My grandparents in Japan wrote letters to me growing up so I could practice my writing, and though I have done my best to learn kanji I still need Papa to help me translate and read it. Thinking about this is starting to make me feel more upset so I¡¯m going to try to calm down, maybe read one of the books Luke gave me. The yokai seems interesting so I¡¯ll tackle that one first. Later, diary. A New Friend! March 28th, 2022, 5:30 PM After three days of doing layovers, we FINALLY made it to Japan. Those airports were crowded labyrinths, and we lost and almost missed our second flight. I had to get a new phone and everything but I can¡¯t understand most of what my phone says. Papa says having my phone be in Japanese might help me learn it. Maybe it will but definitely not for apps I already recognize the icons. At least I could transfer everything over to my new phone for the most part, but still. Rip to the old phone. Since Mom and Papa have a bunch of legal stuff to do, like getting a new car, getting new passports, and all that stuff, we stopped at our new home. We got a taxi to drive us over there. We still needed to set everything up, after all. We have a pretty nice house in a small neighborhood. It¡¯s smaller than our old home, but it¡¯s kinda quaint. The outside was a light tan and it had black roofing. Our neighbors across the street noticed my mom, and the neighbors went over to papa since he, you know, was born and raised in Japan and spoke Japanese and everything. Plus, he looks Japanese while Mom looks much like a foreigner, so they assumed. Kinda weird that Mr. and Mrs. Sato were outside on a Monday. You¡¯d think they¡¯d be at work on these days. Not sure what that was about, but anyway. He needed to translate everything the neighbor and my mom said. I already knew what they were saying, so They also mentioned they had a son my age too! Their son opened the door, saw me, walked up to me, and greeted me in English. ¡°Hi.¡± ¡°Hi!¡± I greeted him in Japanese. ¡°I¡¯m Sato Minato.¡± He introduced himself in the most elegant voice to ever speak Japanese. ¡°Nice to meet you!¡± I said, noticing how much my voice wavered as I said it. It¡¯s different speaking Japanese to the people that use it daily. The same would happen whenever I spoke to Ojiisan and Obaachan in Japanese over the phone. (Or grandpa and grandma if you don¡¯t know what that means. Or maybe you are a Japanese diary. I can¡¯t believe I just said that.) I¡¯ve never spoken to them in person before, but we¡¯ll probably meet them soon. That¡¯ll be fun. Anyway, that was a tangent on something not really related; moving on. ¡°How much DO you know?¡± Minato asked. ¡°I can speak it pretty well, I just get nervous around Japanese speakers in Japan, and I have a hard time reading kanji. I do know katakana and hiragana.¡± I explained. ¡°Perfect, I won¡¯t have to speak much English. Luckily for you, I can write it pretty well.¡± Minato smirked. Silence washed over us for a moment. Talk about awkwardness. ¡°So, uh, what now?¡± ¡°Mother and Father asked me to help you unpack.¡± He said. To be honest, his calling his parents ¡®Mother¡¯ and ¡®Father¡¯ seemed so¡­ off. And super formal! Obaachan and Ojiisan are kind of strict and formal with Papa. Still, even he doesn¡¯t need to call them ¡®mother¡¯ and ¡®father¡¯. I brushed it off since I had just met him. We unloaded the truck of our packages onto the sidewalk. I separated my stuff from everything else. My pile of boxes wasn¡¯t as big as Papa and Mom¡¯s, so it was quick to do that. I walked inside without anything, though. ¡°Wait, you forgot your stuff!¡± Minato ran after me. ¡°I haven¡¯t even gotten to take a look at my new home yet,¡± I said. ¡°Oh.¡± The entrance was a sliding door, and the first room was freezing. I hugged myself, shivering in one of my long-sleeved dresses, with stockings. It was a boring, blinding, white little room with a shelf and key holder on the sides. I know in Japan, people don¡¯t wear shoes inside, so this must be where we¡¯d put our shoes! My family is already accustomed to this, so I took off my shoes on instinct. My demonias would ruin the floors, most likely anyway. The tiny room had another door leading inside. We opened it, and there was a light blue room with brown tiled floors and¡­ almost nothing yet again, except for a not-so-great fireplace. Man, we need to go shopping for some furniture. There were also windows on either side of the entrance to the house. They had long sweeping curtains that were opened to show the outside street. Left of the living room, I assume, were the kitchen and dining room, except there wasn¡¯t even a table. Better put that on the list of furniture to buy. Blinding white cabinets lined the walls. There wasn¡¯t even an oven or stove. Man, the sellers were really cheap about this. At least we got a little treat¡­ a sink. Back in the dining room, there was a staircase to the right. Minato and I ran up the stairs in socks while my parents yelled at us not to trip as they had just entered with their boxes of stuff. Top ten Kuromiya-core moments. There were four doors, two on either side of the banisters. Of course, the floor was its usual brown tiles, and everything else was still blindingly light. I mentally swore to whatever gods out there that are listening that my parents would shop for some paint supplies. The first door to the left was a tiny bathroom. Just a toilet and a built-in bathtub/shower hybrid. But gasp! No sink! The floors were black and white checkerboards. So basically, nothing special. The next room was a very large empty room. Would-be the master bedroom, I assume. I¡¯d claim it for myself, but I highly doubt Mom and Papa would let me. So to the doors on the right! The second door opened to another empty, blindingly white room. White is my least favorite color right now. Surprisingly, it was a decently sized room. I claimed this one for myself. But what about the last one? We opened the last door. Still empty. Still hurting my eyes. It was the same size as the room I¡¯d claimed for myself. What would we even need this for, though? An extra bedroom? An office for dad? The possibilities buzzed around in my head as Minato and I headed back downstairs, and we started hauling boxes upstairs. ¡°Is there even anywhere to put all this stuff?¡± Minato panted while hauling half of my boxes upstairs. ¡°Besides in my room, not really. While my parents are out doing fun legal stuff, I¡¯m hoping they¡¯ll get new furniture too.¡± I collapsed on the floor after placing everything in my room. I checked the boxes. Clothes, old diaries, a bunch of photos from home¡­ Unless I wanted to decorate with those photos, I didn¡¯t have places to put these. But I still want to paint my room. The white hurts my eyes. I heard Papa and Mr. Sato walking up the stairs and talking together in Japanese. I guess they¡¯re best friends now. Huh. ¡°Keiko, the Satos, your mom and I are gonna go get passports and a car and all that. We¡¯re also hoping to buy a bunch of new furniture. Do you wanna come with us or wanna stay home?¡± Papa asked. ¡°Actually, could me and Minato hang out?¡± I said, looking at Minato first. ¡°That¡¯d be fun, sure.¡± Minato said. ¡°Mr. Sato, would you be okay with Minato and Keiko hanging out for the day?¡± Papa asked Mr. Sato in Japanese. Oh wait, I said that in English. I could¡¯ve done it myself, but thanks anyway, Papa. ¡°Sure.¡± Mr. Sato said. ¡°Okay, he said yes. I¡¯ll call you when I get back. Oh, here.¡± Papa gave me some yen before he and Mr. Sato descended the stairs. I smiled as I turned to face my new friend. ¡°I¡¯m kinda surprised you wanna hang out with me. This isn¡¯t a prank or anything, right?¡± he asked. ¡°No, of course not! Is that bad or something?¡± ¡°That¡¯s never happened before¡­¡± Minato mumbled. Damn, has he ever had friends? Guess I can be the first! Since I was new and didn¡¯t know about that town, I¡¯d let him lead the way. I rummaged through my box of shoes and grabbed my walking sneakers. I¡¯m not ruining my nice demonias for this. Before leaving the house, Minato put his walking shoes on, and I put on my sneakers before we left. ¡°Are there any cool places we can check out?¡± I said, closing the door behind me. ¡°There¡¯s a nice small ramen restaurant and there¡¯s a local Shinto shrine. That¡¯s probably all the interesting stuff around here. I can just show you where everything is in general too, if you want.¡± ¡°Shinto shrine? Are those the shrines everywhere?¡± ¡°Pretty much.¡± Since I¡¯ve never been to one but wanted to visit, I convinced Minato to take us there before anything else. Turns out Minato and his parents consider themselves Shintoists, whereas most people in Japan don¡¯t. Many Japanese people practice Shinto traditions but don¡¯t call themselves Shintoists. My dad considers himself an atheist too, but he and my grandparents went to shrines for new years when he was still living in Japan. Shoot, I probably should¡¯ve gone to one with my dad instead. Ah, whatever. I can just pretend I¡¯ve never visited one before if he does end up taking me. We saw one of those big Torii gates as we walked down the path. Minato told me to bow while passing through. We came up to a pavilion of water. There were a bunch of wooden bowls with sticks attached to them. We used those to wash our mouths and hands. We walked on the sides of the open space of the shrine. Minato says deities pass through in the middle. I was curious, and I looked up the local shrine. Shinto shrines enshrine certain deities at certain shrines, and this particular one enshrined Okunitama, Okuninushi, Sukunahikona, and the soul of Emperor Meiji. That¡¯s a lot of shrines, I¡¯m sorry. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. Okuninushi seems to be the head of the gods of earth, as well as a god of nation-building, agriculture, medicine, and protective magic. Sukunahikona is a god of healing and brewing sake and is also associated with hot springs. Emperor Meiji was the emperor of Japan during Meiji Restoration. Apparently, early explorers of Hokkaido are also enshrined here too? I couldn¡¯t find anything on Okunitama unfortunately, aw :(. I went too long rambling about the info about this shrine oops. Anyway, we made it to the offering hall. Minato told me to get a coin and throw it into the offering box, bow twice, clap my hands twice, and make a quick prayer, then bow again. Tedious, but hey, I already knew what I wanted to pray about. ¡®I wish I can fit into Japan like Papa wants me to.¡¯ I bowed again then we started making our way back. We never ended up going to the main hall, which usually has a sacred object. Still, whatever, I can go back another day. ¡°Do shinto gods grant your wishes?¡± I asked as we were on the shrine exit path, walking. ¡°Most of them for me, yes. They can never grant the one that means the most to me though. Doesn¡¯t matter how many times I¡¯ve visited the shrine.¡± Minato frowned angrily. ¡°Are shrine prayers kinda like how when you blow out the candles on the cake but your not supposed to say what you wish?¡± ¡°Are you trying to ask what my special prayers are about? Because that¡¯ll be a no.¡± Minato crossed his arms. ¡°Yes. Sorry, I didn¡¯t think the prayers were super special.¡± ¡°Not necessarily. To me, they are. Most of the time, at least.¡± I¡¯m still curious about it, though. We just met, and I have time to figure that out. I¡¯m probably not leaving Japan anytime soon. After we left the shrine area, we went into town to do some shopping. ¡°What are we here for?¡± I asked, standing in front of a costume store. ¡°Do you know about how Japanese schools can be strict?¡± Minato walked inside. ¡°Yeah, must not be that strict if you wanna buy a costume for it.¡± I followed him inside. ¡°I¡¯m not talking about getting a costume. I mean a wig.¡± ¡°A wig?¡± ¡°Yeah. In many schools they want you to have shoulder-length hair, if not that short maybe down to mid back? Your hair is pretty long and dyed too, and that wouldn¡¯t fly in a lot of schools. I thought you¡¯d rather wear a wig than be forced to cut it.¡± He leads me to the aisle of wigs. There were some wigs with crazy colors, but I skipped past them and looked at the black and brown colored wigs. ¡°Your hair is mid-back length, do you wear your natural hair length to school?¡± I picked a wig package off the shelf. ¡°No, I have to wear a wig, long hair on boys isn¡¯t allowed at my school.¡± Those words shook me to the core. In the US, that¡¯s probably the last thing they¡¯d care about. Catholic schools just be like that though sometimes. ¡°Seriously? Have you never thought of protesting that rule?¡± ¡°No? Nobody does that to rules they don¡¯t like. The most they¡¯ll do is find a loophole.¡± ¡°Huh. What school are you going to?¡± I finally chose a wig that was long and straight, something not too different from my hair right now, just shorter and dye-less. ¡°Jade Hearts¡¯ High School. Oh, you probably want a wig cap too to hide your normal hair too. And maybe a few of the same wig in case one of the wigs get messed up or something¡± Minato grabbed a wig cap and a few more packages of the wig I chose and handed it to me. We walked to the counter, and I paid for the wigs and wig caps. I nervously thanked them, my voice wavering in Japanese. It was awkward this morning, but I felt more comfortable the more I hung around Minato. Why do I have to get nervous around the clerk person? Grrr. I grabbed the bag of stuff, and we walked out of the store. It was still relatively warm out, and checking my phone, it had only been two hours. ¡°Where to next?¡± ¡°There¡¯s a ramen place nearby. Please tell me you¡¯ve had ramen before.¡± Minato made a praying motion. ¡°Of course I¡¯ve had ramen before!¡± I said. But I was not yet aware of what I was about to experience. When I ordered miso ramen and tasted it, it was nothing I¡¯d ever had. Okay, well, I did have it before, but you know what I mean. Noodles in a golden brown broth, paired with a runny boiled egg. Five pork bellies stacked on top of each other. It looked amazing, but did the taste live up to the looks? Absolutely. As soon as I raised the noodles to my mouth with my chopsticks, I was in heaven. Japanese heaven? What¡¯s Japanese heaven called if that¡¯s a thing? Okay looking it up it¡¯s Yomi-no-kuni. So yeah, I was there while Minato was eating his ramen in confusion. I spaced out because it was so good, so he looked at me. After that, I forced him to go clothing shopping with me. He was such a good sport, carrying my clothes and stuff. Unfortunately, Hot Topic isn¡¯t a thing in Japan, where I get a good portion of my clothes. Still, the good thing is there¡¯s a local store that has gothic lolita stuff, so I know where I¡¯m convincing my parents to take me! We went home at around four, and my parents were home while Mr. and Mrs. Satos were helping my parents move furniture inside. It seemed they were finishing up as Minato¡¯s parents waved and went back inside. ¡°Oh hey, Keiko.¡± My mom greeted me as she panted, walking down the stairs. ¡°Did you get furniture for everything?¡± ¡°Yup! Go take a look.¡± I glanced at Minato and encouraged him to come to see my room. I raced upstairs, and he hesitantly followed. The room was still white. From my bedroom entrance, right across from me, was a black bed frame with black sheets and pillows with a purple comforter pushed up against the wall. On the left of the bed was a black night table with a lamp. In the opposite corner was a black dresser, and in the corner opposite my doorway was a black desk and a spinny chair. There was nothing on it. Mom and Papa were letting me take the reins from here. ¡°It¡¯s perfect.¡± ¡°It¡¯s very black.¡± ¡°Listen, it¡¯s easier to get furniture in black than in purple.¡± I flung myself onto my bed and jumped on it. ¡°Do you eat dinner around this time?¡± ¡°At five, yeah. Why?¡± ¡°I mean obviously since you could hang out with me for a good while today you don¡¯t have anything else to do. Do you wanna stay for dinner? Assuming your free past four that is.¡± ¡°I¡¯d say yes but you heard my English, it¡¯s terrible and my accent is so thick I don¡¯t know if your mom would understand me.¡± ¡°Oh, you¡¯re fine! Papa would translate conversations between my Japanese grandparents and mom ALL the time, he¡¯d have no problem doing it!¡± ¡°Oh thank the kami. So uh, what should we do before then?¡± And then we ended up not doing anything before dinnertime except sitting in my room, chilling, and talking about random topics. As Mom and Papa called us downstairs, I raced downstairs while Minato lagged behind. ¡°Oh, Minato¡¯s staying over too?¡± Papa asked. ¡°Yeah, probably should¡¯ve mentioned that.¡± ¡°It¡¯s alright. Hope your folks are okay with you missing out on dinner at your house.¡± ¡°Eh, it¡¯s fine, I¡¯m the one that reminds them to make dinner anyway.¡± Minato chimed in. Something doesn¡¯t seem right about that, though¡­ Hm. I just met him today it¡¯s too early to press for that sort of thing right away. We each grabbed some food and put it on our plates, and sat down. ¡°So Minato, what school do you go to?¡± Mom asked in English. Minato froze up. ¡°Jade Hearts¡¯ High School.¡± ¡°Yes! I told you I had a good feeling about that one for a reason!¡± Papa cheered in a mixture of Japanese and English. Englanese? Minato and I looked at each other, then at him. ¡°Oh, uh, Keiko, we signed you up for Jade Hearts¡¯.¡± ¡°Oh! That¡¯s perfect. Would you show me around on the first day?¡± I asked Minato. ¡°Sure.¡± ¡°Now, Minato, when I lived in Japan as a kid I know you bought uniforms from a local tailor that were crazy expensive, is that still true?¡± Papa asked in Japanese. ¡°Yup. This neighborhood has a pretty equal mix of kids in lower income and higher income families. It sucks to overhear certain kids talk about how they can¡¯t afford new uniforms and saying they have to work to afford new ones.¡± ¡°Is it fuku and gakuran style uniforms or more catholic styled uniforms?¡± ¡°Fukus and gakurans for the middle school and I think Jade Hearts¡¯ High School switched to catholic uniforms recently?¡± And then, for the rest of dinner, Papa went into a rant about school uniforms, and I literally didn¡¯t catch anything. I want to wrap up tonight¡¯s entry anyway. When I got home, I didn¡¯t really get to look at the rest of the house. The living room now had a tv and probably the best couch I¡¯ve ever felt. The kitchen had a cute dining room table. The mysterious third room is still empty, though. Guess I¡¯ll ask them about it later. Anyway, when we finished dinner, Minato and Papa become¡­ friends? And Minato tried to use some English with my mom. She was very encouraging to him. When we finished, it seemed he didn¡¯t want to leave. Very suspicious. Anyway, my parents enjoy Minato as much as I do. And we¡¯re gonna hang out tomorrow, too, probably! He said his parents aren¡¯t home until late again tomorrow, so we can hang out all day long without worrying about the housekeeping we needed to do today. I also have something amazing to share! I think he left with a smile on his face! He hasn¡¯t smiled at all today up until that moment. He¡¯s got like a resting :| face most of the time. Anyway, I still have to put my room together, so I¡¯m gonna go do that. I¡¯ll write here later. Bye Tanya! Oh God, Not School April 1st 2022, 7:30 AM Today was the first day of school. It¡¯s currently morning and I¡¯m getting in some writing. I really wanted to introduce Minato to my friends back in the US in between my last entry and yesterday, but he¡¯s extremely hesitant, which fair enough. Maybe he¡¯s had bad experience with making friends in the past. If we get closer I hope to know more. Turns out, Minato and I are going to the same high school! It¡¯s called Jade Hearts¡¯ High School. Minato grew up in this specific area in Hokkaido and there might be some differences between what Papa did growing up, so he wanted to meet me early so he could show me the route to school and to make sure I didn¡¯t get lost. By early I mean extremely early. At 6:30 in the morning. I was still under the sheets of my bed, and groggily got up thanks to my alarm. While still being half asleep I got a call from Minato. ¡°Hello?¡± I yawned. ¡°I¡¯m here to take you to school.¡± ¡°I just woke up, hold on.¡± I said. Carefully I tip-toed downstairs and opened the door. He looked like a completely different person. He had his wig on, which was black and extremely short, which felt so cursed, Minato was practically born to have long gorgeous hair. He wore red plaid jeans, a white button up shirt with a black coat and of course, a red tie. Oh, and I can¡¯t forget those iconic Minato glasses. ¡°What are you wearing?¡± I asked, still half asleep. ¡°My uniform for school. Where¡¯s yours?¡± He peered into my house behind me, narrowing his eyes and adjusting his glasses. ¡°Ah, I forgot! Is it gonna be cold today?¡± ¡°It is now, but it¡¯s supposed to get warmer. You might wanna bring a jacket or something. You have the shoes you need to change into with you, right?¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah. I haven¡¯t even gotten ready. Come inside, it¡¯s cold. You can watch TV or steal something from the kitchen.¡± I said. Minato walked inside and sat on the couch, setting his side bag on the couch and he grabbed the remote. I raced to my room and put on my uniform. I wish I could stylize this more, do you know how cute it would look if it were a gothic lolita outfit? It was a white button-up shirt with a black coat over it with a red tie around my neck and a long red plaid skirt. I put on some thin stockings and some outdoor shoes. Still needed to put on the wig. I spent like ten minutes pinning my hair down as flat as possible and put a wig cap on and then the actual wig. It looked a lot like my normal hair when I was younger, actually. Pretty straight and black that went down to my mid back. I grabbed my bag and headed downstairs, careful not to fall down the stairs in my stockings. I grabbed an apple and ate it while I quickly made some rice and chicken teriyaki. I randomly threw in some strawberries because, I don¡¯t know I guess I felt like strawberries. I closed my bento box and put it in my bag. Finally putting on my shoes I called Minato over. ¡°We¡¯re going to school!¡± I yelled as I was opening the door to my parents. They¡¯re probably still asleep. Ah whatever. I put on my jacket and we started walking to school. ¡°Is there anything I should know about Japanese school?¡± I asked. I mostly avoided talking about school whenever we were hanging out so better to ask about it now then in the middle of class! ¡°Number one, don¡¯t be surprised when you see test scores posted up outside classrooms, not just something kept private between you and your teacher. Number two, you don¡¯t switch classrooms, the teachers do. Number three, while not a rule by the school it is an expectation for you to join a club, otherwise you¡¯ll be considered an outsider.¡± ¡°Really? ¡°Uh-huh.¡± The rest of our walk was silent. Nothing much else to talk about. By like seven fifteen we got to school. Minato showed me the little piece of paper that had everyone¡¯s name on it. I recognized my name immediately of course but man, I could barely read the rest of the kanji. This is going to be a fun school year¡­ Not! There was a piece of paper right in front of the shoe locker area that had a list of our classes. I was in class 3-B with Mrs. Hashimoto, which is with Minato! Yay! ¡°What now?¡± ¡°Did you go to orientation a couple days ago?¡± Minato asked. ¡°We missed it ¡± ¡°That¡¯s annoying. We have more than an hour before class, why don¡¯t I show you around?¡± ¡°Sure.¡± To the left and right of the shoe locker area were the two classrooms for the first years. The outside was a courtyard with a fountain and a bunch of seating areas. According to Minato, most people don¡¯t go outside because most people eat in their classrooms. From the left first year classroom, which is class 1-A, there was another hallway were the two second year classrooms where. There was one closer to class 1-A and another down the very end of that hallway. In between those two were the bathrooms. Ah, so that¡¯s where they were. Noted. From the right first year classroom, 2-A there was another hallway with two third year classrooms, one nearby 2-A and one all the way at the other end yet again. The middle classroom was a home economics classroom, which confused me. ¡°I thought you wouldn¡¯t switch classes in Japan?¡± I asked Minato. ¡°For the most part. During home economics and gym you move around, at least at Jade Hearts.¡± The one all the way at the end was our classroom, and it wasn¡¯t anything special like the others. Brown tiling, brown desks all in neat rows, and a desk at the front. The thing that stood out the most to me was the chalkboard. I was already shocked when we went school shopping a few days ago and there was nothing about a computer, but still. ¡°You still use a chalkboard?¡± ¡°Yeah? What else?¡± ¡°Well, back in America, or at least in my school, a lot of the chalkboards were slowly being converted into whiteboards, and by the time I hit high school it was all whiteboards.¡± ¡°Interesting¡­¡± ¡°Is there a seating chart or anything? I don¡¯t know if we should just sit down where ever or not.¡± ¡°Yup. They have seating charts hanging around since people get to school super early on these days.¡± There was one last hall that was the farthest, on the first floor, at least. There was the faculty room, guidance counselor¡¯s office and principal¡¯s office. The faculty room had a bunch of seated teachers doing paperwork. I wanted to peak inside more but some teachers kept glaring at me so we figured it would be better off looking later. If there even IS a way to. ¡°Is there something out there?¡± ¡°Outside is the gym, but that¡¯s not open in the mornings unless you have some special reason to be there. There¡¯s a whole other sets of classrooms upstairs as well.¡± Since we still had time, we decided, why not, and we walked upstairs. There was a set of staircases near the corridors, so we ended up taking the left one. Near the staircase we came out of there was an ominous single door and two rooms. All the rooms I saw so far had some kind of sign indicating what they were, but there was nothing. They were completely empty, just brown tiled floors and windows. The rest of the hallways had more classrooms, two more for each year. There orwas also another room that was basically deserted, but it had furniture in the classroom areas in case the school needed to accept new students from what Minato heard. Since our tour was basically over, we just walked back to our new classroom. Somehow in the time since we¡¯d left there was some other students sitting down in their seats. We checked the seating chart and yes! Luck again was on our side since we sat in the same row. I was seated in the very back on the same wall as the entrance, with Minato in front of me. Right in front of Minato was another girl. I debated saying something but I just wanted to finally write in my diary a bit. So we got settled and Minato was reading a book and I was writing, quietly waiting for our teacher to come. It was seven thirty at this point, guess it¡¯s too early for her to come in. Out of the corner of my eye the girl in front of Minato turns around and looks at Minato. She had dark brown messy hair that fell down to her shoulders and a handband-like cloth wrapped around her forehead with interesting patterns, they were sorta like lines, randomly scribbled. Argh, my description sucks, just look up Ainu and you¡¯ll see what I mean! (I say to whomever is reading this. If you are, do you know who I am? Or is it just myself? Okay, sorry, off topic). Her uniform was a little sloppy on her, the buttons on her shirt were unbuttoned showing her collarbones and she wore straight up leggings underneath her skirt. ¡°Hey, in the same class for the 10th year in a row. Ready to be forcibly assigned to be partners for something again?¡± She greeted loudly in Japanese. ¡°Yes, hi, Anchikar-san.¡± He greeted back. ¡°Who¡¯s the new girl?¡± She pointed at me, as I jumped in my seat a bit. ¡°Hi. I¡¯m Kuromiya Keiko. ¡± My voice wavered in Japanese. ¡°I¡¯m Anchikar Hotene.¡± ¡°Anchikar doesn¡¯t sound very Japanese¡­¡± I commented. Thinking on it now I probably shouldn¡¯t have mentioned that out loud, shoot. ¡°It¡¯s ¡®cause I¡¯m not Japanese, I¡¯m Ainu!¡± ¡°Oh! Minato, why didn¡¯t you tell me you had friends after all?¡± ¡°It¡¯s really not, we¡¯re acquitances at best. Achikar-san has her own group of friends and I don¡¯t really have any friends at all, we¡¯ve just been in the same classes for so long when there¡¯s partners made we¡¯re usually forced to work together, and even if we get to choose, we end up working together anyway, her friends are usually in different classes.¡± ¡°Wow, you¡¯re so mean.¡± Hotene dramatically flopped on her desk. Minato rolled his eyes. Hotene made a few more attempts at conversing with us but I think we just wanted to hang out before class begins for real. Oh, Mrs. Hashimoto is in now, I¡¯m gonna end this here and write some more later. April 1st 2022, 12:39 PM This schedule is throwing me off, hold on let me jot it down real quick before I actually talk about stuff.
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
1st Period 8:40 - 9:30 Japanese English English Science Math
2nd Period 9:40 - 10:30 Math Japanese Music English Health & Fitness
3rd Period 10:40 - 11:30 Music Math Math English Social Studies
4th Period 11:40 - 12:30 Science English Social Studies Japanese Japanese
Afternoon Recess/Lunch 12:30 - 1:20
5th Period 1:30 - 2:10 Science Home Economics Fine Arts Social Studies English
6th Period 2:20 - 3:10 Social Studies Home Economics Health & Fitness Japanese Math
Okay there we go. So when I stopped Mrs. Hashimoto just came in. She had straight brown hair in a side ponytail and wore black jeans with a black blazer. It¡¯s a thing for teachers to have students do little tasks, only in elementary school would my teachers want me to do that. She made Hotene and Minato get some papers from the printer and then sat down near me. I was a little spooked at first, afraid I somehow did something wrong. I stiffened when she sat near me, and she noticed that. ¡°Oh, I¡¯m sorry, your not in trouble, I just wanted to talk to you and help you get familiar with anything you needed.¡± She apologized. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. ¡°Oh, good.¡± I sighed in relief. ¡°Obviously, you¡¯re new to this school. You immigrated here, right?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Where from?¡± ¡°The US.¡± ¡°You seem to speak it fine, how good are you at writing Japanese?¡± ¡°I know hiragana and katakana, I struggle with kanji though.¡± ¡°You should consider getting a tutor or something.¡± ¡°I probably will. I¡¯ll talk with my parents later.¡± ¡°How about school so far? Adjusting well?¡± ¡°It¡¯s very different compared to school back in the US, but yes.¡± ¡°Alright, if you have any questions feel free to ask me.¡± She said. She got up from Minato¡¯s seat and stretched before returning to the front of the classroom. Minato and Hotene returned with stacks of paper that they handed to her. They walked back over to their seats. ¡°How come you didn¡¯t get assigned anything to do?¡± Hotene said. ¡°Since I¡¯m the new kid I guess she wanted to know about me.¡± The teacher sent the three of us on an errand to find the rest of our classmates that hadn¡¯t showed up yet, that wasn¡¯t really eventful. The rest of the morning was mostly just us setting up for our classes. Luckily our first day of school fell on a Friday, so we have another break tomorrow. We started with a test for that hour for Mrs. Hashimoto to see where we¡¯re at in math. You know what¡¯s even worse then math? Math in Japanese. Some of the questions I could take a good guess at but some others I had zero idea since there was no instructions. For Health and Fitness our gym teacher came in and gave us some papers to fill out. Basically it¡¯s gym and health, that¡¯s very fun. At least this class will be more discussion based then reading based. Social studies, one of my favorite subjects. If only I could read. I really need to set up a tutor like immediately. Let me text my parents real quick, actually. Okay, what actually happened in social studies, apparently we barely learn anything about Japan, just world history. At least it¡¯s world history, but man, they don¡¯t even learn their own history? WE don¡¯t learn our own history? I hate that. Then Japanese class. The teacher did a little demo on how hold and use the bamboo brush and she showed a huge list of kanji we¡¯d be learning. The teacher herself was pretty charming, this will be a super helpful class. And then lunch, which I¡¯m at right now! Once again, I shoveled food into my mouth as fast as possible, despite Minato telling me that I¡¯ll probably choke and Hotene telling me to slow down. That doesn¡¯t matter when I have stuff to catch up on my diary now. I wish today was a little more eventful but it really isn¡¯t. At least I have a new friend! Hotene is very cool. I think I¡¯m gonna stop writing a little early now, I¡¯ve covered everything up until now. April 1st 2022, 10:38 PM Oh man what a day! I got my wish, today got more interesting. Okay, school recap first. Right after lunch was English class with Mrs. Hashimoto. We did a little activity where we write something in english on the board, she let us have free reign, some people just wrote some really simple sentence, but me, feeling a little extra, wrote an entire paragraph about myself, because I felt like that. As I placed the chalk down I turned to see the rest of the class wowed, jaws dropped. I thought everyone knew I was from America at this point but I guess not. So that was cool. If only I could have that kind of performance in any of my other classes. Mrs. Hashimoto and I talked back and forth in English, that was pretty cool, but it also confused the rest of my other classmates. Then, last class of the day was another period of math. Already Mrs. Hashimoto had our tests graded. She definitely wrote some comments, but, say it with me now, I couldn¡¯t read it! ¡°I can¡¯t read this, help.¡± I begged Minato, leaning over to his desk. ¡°She says she¡¯s always willing to help you in Math and in Japanese if I need.¡± Shout out to Mrs. Hashimoto. Then we discussed and went over the test. That took the whole period so that was basically everything. Three minutes towards the end of class we were allowed to pack up and walk around. Hotene walked right up to me. ¡°Keiko, can I have your phone number? Maybe we can do something this weekend.¡± ¡°Sure!¡± We swapped phones and entered in our respective phone numbers. ¡°Oh, also, where do you live?¡± Hotene asked. ¡°Isn¡¯t that a little invasive for someone you only met and talked to today?¡± Minato said. ¡°Eh, I don¡¯t care. I live right across from Minato. Do you know where that is or¡­?¡± I said. ¡°I do, been there for projects sometimes. It¡¯s always very empty. Is it still empty almost all the time?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± Minato almost growled. His response made me wonder why him being reminded of an empty house made him angry. ¡°Geez, calm down, it was just a question! Anyway, got any plans this weekend?¡± Hotene said. ¡°Besides getting me a tutor to teach me kanji, probably not. What about you, Minato?¡± ¡°I got nothing. Where would we go anyway?¡± ¡°We don¡¯t have to go anywhere, maybe we can just chill at my house. I have a few games you might like.¡± ¡°Perfect! Can I walk home with you guys too?¡± Hotene begged. ¡°If you feel like making the trek to the southern part of town, sure.¡± Minato said. ¡°Agh, your right, never mind. Text me what day you¡¯re not busy!¡± Hotene waved goodbye, starting to make her way out the classroom as soon as the bell rung. I started to leave, but then Minato reminded me that we still have our fifteen minutes to clean up. It sucked to remmeber this was a thing right as I¡¯m about to leave, but hey! Fifteen minutes is better than an hour! Minato was sweeping our classroom floor while I wiped the desks and Hotene cleaned the chalkboard. Thank the Japanese gods I didn¡¯t get assigned to clean the bathrooms. I¡¯m gonna have to do that eventually. ¡°Can we take these off yet?¡± I asked, starting to peel off my wig ¡°Not yet, wait until we get to your house. Are you parents usually home at this time?¡± ¡°Papa takes off on Fridays, he said he¡¯ll take today off too if he can, and it seems like he was able to do that today. What about yours?¡± ¡°Uh, they usually work late. I doubt they¡¯ll be home earlier than eight.¡± ¡°Oh geez, is that normal?¡± ¡°Overtime. That¡¯s normal.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± The rest of our walk was silent. Nothing much else to stay. Finally we arrived home, and we took off our shoes and dropped everything on the floor. Dad was watching tv on the couch, sprawled out. ¡°Hey guys, how was your first day of school?¡± ¡°A little tiring, but otherwise fine. I¡¯ll be right back, let me drop off my wig at home.¡± Minato quickly ran off. I took this as an opportunity to finally take my wig off, putting it on the wig stand in my room. (Did I mention I got a wig stand?) I also changed out of my uniform into something comfortable, I¡¯m not in the mood to wear gothic lolita stuff that¡¯s too much work right now. I want back on the top of the stairs and peered over the railing to see Minato again. ¡°Is it considered cheating to do homework together?¡± I asked. ¡°Uh, if the answers are the same but we don¡¯t know more about this kind of thing in class, then yeah. Doesn¡¯t matter for today though, we just have the introduction homework then that¡¯s about it.¡± Minato walked up the stairs. I opened the door to my room and I sat in my desk. Minato sat in the middle of my floor with crossed legs. ¡°You want a chair or something? We can sit at my desk together.¡± ¡°If it¡¯s not too much trouble or anything, than sure.¡± I ran downstairs and grabbed a table from the dining room and brought it back up. I placed it on the ground in front of the desk, right beside my chair. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s get homework done and then we can do¡­ something fun, I don¡¯t know.¡± Homework was nothing special so I don¡¯t think I should go over that. When we finished I raced downstairs to grab a snack, we were both getting hungry but Minato tried to refused getting something from my kitchen since he already planned on staying for dinner. Me, being stubborn, I shoved pocky into his mouth and he had to hesitantly accept it. ¡°Alright, what now?¡± I asked. ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± And soon after Minato said that, my phone rang. Imagine my surprise when I saw it was my friends calling! I accepted, and I saw everyones¡¯ faces again. It looked pretty dark where they all were, except for Lucas who was sitting in his desk in his gaming chair, with his head set on. ¡°Hi Keiko!¡± Everyone said. ¡°I know we haven¡¯t called you but we¡¯ve been meaning to. We have a surprise for you, also.¡± Clara said. On the screen I saw Jia¡¯s name and face flash on screen. ¡°Oh my god hi!¡± I screamed out in excitement, hurting Minato¡¯s ears. ¡°Hi! You didn¡¯t tell me you moved.¡± Jia said. ¡°I¡¯m sorry I meant to but I forgot! What time is it for you? It looks late.¡± ¡°Two in the morning. We wanted to call you earlier but it was still school for you so we had to eat.¡± Annika yawned. ¡°But why is Lucas gaming?¡± I asked. ¡°Because I don¡¯t care if I wreck my sleeping schedule, I have people on COD to kill.¡± Lucas said. ¡°Who¡¯s the person standing behind you?¡± Clay asked. ¡°Oh yeah, this is my new friend in Japan, Minato!¡± I moved my phone to show him. I could see in his eyes how uncomfortable he is. Oops. My friends all greeted him back, but Minato didn¡¯t respond ¡°Why isn¡¯t he saying hi back?¡± Clay asked. ¡°He¡¯s shy. He¡¯s embarrassed about his heavy Japanese accent when he speaks English. He understands what your saying though. He¡¯s good at writing in English though¡± I explained. ¡°If it helps, I grew up in America and my Chinese was terrible when I visited my other family in China. I hated visiting them because my other relatives were always barking at my parents about how my Chinese was horrible. It made me insecure but it never helped me get better, so I¡¯d just practice Chinese with my parents since I knew they weren¡¯t gonna berate me for not learning. Though, that¡¯s kinda different.¡± Jia said. ¡°Can you give us a house tour?¡± Clay asked. ¡°Sure!¡± I said. Okay, you kinda get what happened. Facetimed my friends, Minato met them and was very shy and quiet at first but slowly got out of his shell a little and tried talking to them. Eventually, we ended up going outside to walk the street and go to Minato¡¯s because by then Minato felt comfortable also showing his house and speaking to them a little more. I have yet to actually go in because he mostly just visits my house so I guess this is a nice opportunity to write about it. The front room was a fancy brown, with fancy shoes and coats lining the walls. The front had a ridiculously huge tv on the wall, with a super long couch around it with an equally long table. On the left, there was a little hallway with three doors, where their bathrooms were. Yes, bathrooms. Their bathroom was split into three, with one room with a sink, another with a tub, and another with a toilet, each with dark blue walls and all made of white porcelain. It surprised me for sure but my friends were all screaming about how inconvenient it would be to have to use the bathroom, wash your hands and jump in the shower. Moving on, to the right were the bedrooms. The master bedroom was Minato¡¯s parents, so we obviously didn¡¯t go in there, but we saw Minato¡¯s. His was still quite ridiculously huge, with a huge bed that I¡¯m pretty sure would be classified as a California king (in Japan they should call those Tokyo king honestly). He still had plenty of empty space for a really long desk in the corner that stretched from where the door was to his bed with a spinny chair. On the opposite side of the door was a hamper and right next to it a decently-sized dresser. I guess something had to be small in this room. Oh yeah, he also had two computer screens with a really nice PC setup. I was pretty sure it was a gaming computer but no! It¡¯s just a really expensive computer that he thought he might need for high school that he doesn¡¯t even use. Lucas is still trying to convince him to get into gaming, but it seems like Minato refuses to even budge. I thought that would be the last of it but in the front, there was another door with stairs. The hallway was short with two rooms, one had boxes and stuff and the other had two computers, probably for Minato¡¯s parents, both with two computer screens and fancy desks each. Okay, I don¡¯t want to speculate too much, but why does Minato live in a middle-class neighborhood when he¡¯s probably, like lower upper class at the least? Now I wish Minato would let me come over, it¡¯s really nice, and so were his parents that one day! I¡¯d like to get friendly with them like how Minato has with my parents. Maybe they¡¯re just really busy a lot. Still! Anyway, by the time we ended, it was about like, five and my friends were starting to fall asleep so we were heading across the street, they wanted to say hi to my dad before they went to bed so we did that, greeted my mom when she got home and ate dinner. Now here¡¯s where things started to get weird. So it¡¯s like seven and Minato was gonna hang at home before his parents came home. I opened the door and looked outside, it was kinda foggy and difficult to see, and the night lights outside really didn¡¯t help all that much. In fact, they were barely working, and were blinking, probably about to go out. Minato¡¯s house is like, a thirty second walk, but I walk him over to his house anyway. We hear walking and we look both ways on the street, really not seeing anything. We keep walking, and suddenly a woman jumps in front of us. She had hair like a geisha, with a high bun and many little accessories decorating her hair. Her face was white, like she were a ghost. Actually, she probably was. She wore a mostly black kimono with gold and orange little details, and a red and golden obi. There was blood dripping from her face mask onto her kimono. ¡°Watashi, kirei?¡± She asked. (She¡¯s basically asking us if we think she¡¯s beautiful if you have no idea what she means.) ¡°Yeah, of course!¡± I answered nervously. The woman pulled down her mask to reveal a deep bloodied gash in her mouth. From her ear to the corners of her mouth, there was a cut, I think that was called a glasgow smile? ¡°Kore demo?¡± She asked us again, leaning in closer and grinning. Minato and I end up screaming instead of properly answering her and we both raced into our houses. I swore I heard her footsteps as we ran. I slammed the door and locked it, panting as I do so. I can only assume Minato did the same. (Okay that¡¯s a stupid sentence there¡¯s no way he wouldn¡¯t.) I slid open the front door and hesitantly opened my phone, my hands quivering. ¡°What¡¯s happening?¡± My mom yelled from the kitchen. ¡°Oh, you know, saw a woman with a cut mouth, she asked Minato and I if she were pretty on a foggy night, just normal stuff.¡± I explained, somewhat laughing. ¡°You sure? Maybe you¡¯re just seeing stuff in the dark.¡± My mom walked up to me. ¡°I heard her voice clearly, and I saw her face up close. It can¡¯t be some hallucination. I know what I saw.¡± ¡°Woman with a cut mouth? Sounds like Kuchisake-Onna to me.¡± My dad said, his voice echoing from the stairs he was currently heading down. ¡°Isn¡¯t she just a local myth?¡± My mom asked. ¡°No. Growing up I¡¯d see her every now and then and encounter her. Usually to get away I¡¯d either say she¡¯s just average or throw candy behind her. Did you do either of those?¡± ¡°Nope. We just ran away screaming¡± ¡°Shoot. I¡¯ll go lock the upstairs windows.¡± ¡°Why do you need to do that?¡± My mom asked. ¡°They say if you do that she¡¯ll just slash your face to look like her. I mean, sure, she¡¯s not gonna murder us but that¡¯d still hurt. Happened to a friend when I was a kid.¡± Dad explained. ¡°That¡¯s not really reassuring.¡± I growled. I wanted to make sure Minato was okay too, so I ended up calling him on facetime. ¡°Did you lock everything?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes. Can you see her?¡± He asked. ¡°I haven¡¯t even looked at her yet. I¡¯m not sure it¡¯s such a great idea. Maybe a little peak won¡¯t hurt¡­¡± I stand up and approach the curtain, lightly grasping onto it. I pull it back slightly, and guess who¡¯s there, staring right back at me? Kuchisake-Onna. I immediately put the curtain back and laid on the couch. I raced upstairs to look for the book on yokai Luke gave me. I doubt I¡¯ll find anything on how opening the curtain to look out your windows will agitate Kuchisake-Onna, but you never know, maybe there¡¯s some person that just moved to Japan and encountered her by accident, I don¡¯t know. I flipped to her info pages, but I saw nothing, as expected. The rest was basically an echo of what dad told, except for the fact that she¡¯s the spirit of women that murdered and are doing all that instead of resting properly. That sucks. Then I remembered Minato¡¯s parents! His parents should at least know about Kuchisake-Onna or at least be home, I thought. ¡°Did you call your parents and ask them to come home? Are they even home yet?¡± I asked. ¡°No, but I can take care of myself. I think they wouldn¡¯t be able to come home at this point anyway.¡± ¡°Not even for something like this?¡± ¡°Doubt it. They¡¯re busy.¡± ¡°Do their bosses have the compassion to let them go home for something serious as this?¡± ¡°They¡¯re both the bosses, they have their own company, Father is the CEO and Mother is the CFO and they¡¯re busy getting their co-workers to do stuff and all that, some big project, you know.¡± ¡°Man¡­ When they get home you¡¯ll at least tell them about this, right?¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± ¡°Good.¡± We were still super scared and a little on edge, so I barricaded the door and locked my window, hiding under the covers. And that¡¯s where I¡¯m at right now! It¡¯s like, almost twelve. Minato is like half-asleep, half-awake. He still wants to chat about whatever else but I¡¯m trying to get him to go to sleep. He looks cute right now. Okay it does seem weird I¡¯m like sorta watching him sleep uh oops pretend I didn¡¯t say that. Anyway this recap got really long and I¡¯d like to sleep now. Goodnight! The Project Trio April 5th 2022, 7:10 PM I didn¡¯t think that having the first day of school on a Friday would mess me up, but it did. Earlier this morning I thought it was the weekend. Alright, so weekend recap! Not super exciting. Mom and Papa set me up with a kanji tutor. They¡¯re pretty cool, they¡¯re fluent in English and Japanese. Mom and Papa asked for them for that reason, so I struggle with Japanese a little less. On saturday we just talked about some very basic kanji. They set me up with this app called Wanikani that helps me learn, and they told me I should spend an hour everyday on the app and we¡¯ll meet on Saturdays to review. Then on Sunday I was bored so I ended up spending the whole day on Wanikani to cram some kanji. Everyone was busy so I didn¡¯t have anything better to do. It was definitely not the ideal but I felt like I¡¯ve started to memorize and learn my kanji I also completely put out of my mind the Kuchisake-Onna situation. So, we turned out fine, she kept trying to break in, but the door was barricaded. We put whatever we could in front of windows, Mom was freaking out about them being broken, but thankfully Kuchisake-Onna didn¡¯t break in. Saturday I was really tired when I met with my tutor. Minato says this stuff has never happened in our specific part of town, even when it¡¯s the right conditions for Kuchisake-Onna to appear. I expected to ease into actually doing stuff in school very slowly, it¡¯s still the first few days of school after all, but nope! Today we got a project dropped onto us already! For Home Economics we have to make an instructional video on something related to Home Ec. Oh, I keep saying we, guess who I was paired up with? Minato and Hotene! We got those two hours to draft and plan in class. ¡°Yay, we¡¯re reunited to work on this project! And now Keiko-Chan is with us too! We should be the Project Trio.¡± Hotene cheered in Japanese. I¡¯m Keiko-Chan already too? Nice. ¡°We just started school last Friday, is this normal?¡± I wondered. I mean I feel like I should¡¯ve expected this from Japan but I didn¡¯t. ¡°Projects used to be pretty sparse, and if we had one it¡¯d be an end-of-the-year thing, not an almost-right-at-the-beginning-of-the-school-year kind of thing. Anyway, what should we do?¡± Minato asked. ¡°You seem like the type of dude to genuinely want to show us how to do taxes, should we do that?¡± Hotene joked. That¡¯s what I thought too! ¡°Absolutely not, I don¡¯t even know how to do taxes. Let¡¯s not do anything we don¡¯t already know how to do.¡± Minato said. Why are you booing her though I think if he learned he¡¯d be a great¡­ tax person? (What are those called?) He¡¯d be a great tax whatever. Okay this has nothing to with what was happening. Anyway, sorry, moving on. ¡°That immediately takes gardening off the list, for me at least. And how to take care of a baby.¡± I said, crossing them of the literal list they gave us. ¡°I don¡¯t get budgeting, nor do I know how I¡¯d care for my sick loved ones. Maybe I should learn though¡­¡± Hotene said. ¡°So that leaves cooking and sewing.¡± Minato said. ¡°I don¡¯t have any sewing supplies at my house. Do either of you have sewing stuff at home?¡± They both shook their heads. So cooking it is! Then we were doing project stuff. I¡¯m more okay with holding off on recording but Minato really wanted to just get it done today, so I thought, why not. We debated awhile on who¡¯s house to go to, Hotene really wanted to see my house, I really wanted to see hers, and Minato doesn¡¯t want us at his because he says ¡®It¡¯ll feel like I¡¯m showing off,¡¯ even though we¡¯ve both been to his at this point. Minato logic is very weird logic I gotta say. Eventually, we narrowed it down to Hotene¡¯s and ours. Hotene didn¡¯t want me over because her grandma and great-grandma according to her are a lot, but are you kidding? Ainu grandparents and great-grandparents probably have a lot of cool stories to tell! I guess that convinced her so we decided to go to hers¡¯ in the end. We all went to our respective houses for an hour after school to relax a bit, yadda yadda. Hotene doesn¡¯t go to cram schools or clubs, which surprised me. Cram schools she¡¯s not interested in, but she seemed like she did a bunch of extracurriculars. Don¡¯t ask where I got that idea from, it was literally just vibes. I asked after today and she said it¡¯s so she can hang out with her other friends from school. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Since neither of my parents are home at this point and Minato¡¯s are actually almost never at their house except that one day we moved in, Hotene was gonna pick us up. An hour later I was ready, and I looked out the window to see a car. I text Hotene and ask if it¡¯s her, and she¡¯s all like, yes! Get in the car! I ran downstairs with my things and entered the car. Hotene was wearing her usual headband, and was in a dark blue shirt with short but flowy sleeves. Her shirt had patterning and lines like on her headband, all with matching flared leggings. Hotene¡¯s mom was in the front seat and she looked a lot like Hotene, similar straight hair, similar clothes but more colorful. She also had a triangle shaped black tattoo that covered her mouth. ¡°Hi, Anchikar-san. I like your tattoo.¡± I greeted. ¡°Thank you, it¡¯s a traditional Ainu tattoo. You can just call me Kimyo. Hotene has been talking about you a lot.¡± Kimyo smiled at me and looked at Hotene. ¡°I thought wearing tattoos in Japan makes you, like unhireable or something?¡± I asked ¡°I own my own business, so hireability isn¡¯t a concern to me really. All the girls I work with are Ainu and have tattoos like me, I¡¯m really accepting of anything as long as you can do the work.¡± Just then, Minato opened the car door and entered. He was wearing a hoodie and sweatpants, sorta unusual for him but whatever. ¡°And hello again Minato! Hotene hasn¡¯t seen you over the summer, you look like you¡¯ve grown so much.¡± Kimyo said. ¡°Hi Anchikar-San, and yes, I did grow, but it really wasn¡¯t all that much. Doctor said I¡¯m basically done growing.¡± Minato played with his hair while averting eye contact. Kimyo started driving us down the road, while we all discussed the project. Finally, we arrived at the house, which was a very brown and tall building. ¡°Alright, before you get started, Keiko¡¯s never been here before so here¡¯s the rules. Don¡¯t bother grandma or great-grandma, don¡¯t go into their rooms or my room. I¡¯m happy to let you stay awhile, but if you want to stay after ten you have to let me know ahead of time.¡± Kimyo said as we all exited. I nodded and we all went to the kitchen, putting our stuff on the dining room table. The table was long, with a woody dark brown coloring to it. There were matching wooden chairs, all looking handmade. To the left side of the table was a blue curtain. The right had an entrance to the kitchen. The kitchen had dark red linoleum floors, dark brown cabinets at the higher parts of the wall and below the stove and oven. To the left was a kitchen counter, freezing for some reason, and a dishwasher next to it. Then we went to work doing the project, it was pretty fun! Minato was responsible for showing kitchen safety, Hotene taught a recipe and I showed cleaning dishes. Okay, do we really need a tutorial on that? Technically, no but I have tips on washing dishes stocked away that I learned from my dad. The video turned out pretty nice though, nothing special enough for me to describe to you though if I¡¯m gonna be honest. We ended staying for dinner, since it was already five by the time we ended. When it was time, we took a seat at the side of the table facing the curtains. This side of the table is for guests, and the one away from the window was for the Anchikar family. Kimyo was seated at the right head of the table, and I was right by her, Minato to my left. Across from me was Mr. Anchikar, who came home right as dinner was finished. Hotene was to his left, then Hotene¡¯s grandma, then to the left Hotene¡¯s great-grandma. I really wanted to ask them about something, I don¡¯t even know, but I literally blanked out. But then I thought, I have the opportunity to ask them about yokai! ¡°I have a question. Has yokai ever made their way to this part of town?¡± I asked out of nowhere. This was the first thing I brought up during dinner, actually, more like the first thing I said during dinner. ¡°Never, actually. Might have something to do with the fact that yokai aren¡¯t really part of traditional religion¡­¡± Kimyo said. ¡°They always show up to my work though.¡± Hotene¡¯s dad said. ¡°What yokai particularly?¡± I asked ¡°A lot of kuchisake-onnas, actually. A few of my co-workers died to them. They¡¯ve never targeted me, though, but they¡¯ve been ramping up so much I¡¯ve started carrying candy.¡± He said. ¡°There¡¯s more than one?¡± I said. ¡°I guess, the ones that¡¯ve survived seem to say she looked different each time.¡± You know, I didn¡¯t think of this before, but I¡¯m wondering if we should try to investigate Kuchisake-Onna. Or the Kuchisake-Onnas? Whatever. I know it¡¯s said she¡¯s dangerous but I¡¯m wondering if there¡¯s a way we can get just one to properly lay to rest. Let me ask Minato! Just texted him, but that¡¯s a hard no from him. But I know how to protect myself from Kuchisake-Onna, so maybe I can find a way to do it on my own¡­ And I know the first places to try to talk to her! I think I¡¯m gonna wrap this one up, I¡¯ve got some weekend plans! P.S Nothing else of note really happened today, we just had average conversations if you were wondering. Or me? I don¡¯t know, I¡¯m gonna stop myself before I question everything because of this diary. Satos and The Yokai Woods April 10th 2022, 7:10 AM Weekend time yay! Yesterday I hung out with Minato and Hotene at his house after I went to my tutor. I haven¡¯t seen Minato¡¯s parents in a while. Guess they¡¯re still busy. I also have some amazing news, I introduced my friends to Hotene, and we made another group chat so now my friends from America and my friends and Japan can be friends together! Today I wanted to finally investigate Kuchisake-Onna. Yes, I know Minato didn¡¯t want to do it with me, but who says I can¡¯t do it on my own? I can protect myself since I know all about her know! (At least, I¡¯m pretty sure I do now.) I wonder if Hotene could join me though, she seems immune since she¡¯s Ainu. Okay that sounds more stupid when I write it down. Anyway, I still need to pick my places to check out. I haven¡¯t even had breakfast yet, I¡¯ll write in here again in a little bit! April 10th, 2022, 8:52 PM After breakfast I ended up researching Kuchisake-Onna in the area a bit to see if I could find out more. I found out that there¡¯s been been many Kuchisake-onna sightings and deaths related to her lately. People have been staying away from the area where I live and the area where Hotene¡¯s dad works the most. Investigators aren¡¯t sure why though. Wonder if there were just a lot of women that didn¡¯t die peacefully around here? That would make this town feel not so safe, hah. There¡¯s also a forest with abandoned buildings that people are so deathly afraid of they wouldn¡¯t dare go near it, and there¡¯s a local belief that this building in the forest houses Kuchisake-onna among other yokai. That¡¯s speculation I¡¯ve read though, nobody has dared to find out whether that¡¯s a legitimate thing, except for me! At least, I¡¯m pretty sure. After breakfast, I was going to set out and explore but then I realized she literally doesn¡¯t come out until it¡¯s darker, and it doesn¡¯t get dark until it¡¯s six. So now my plans were totally ruined! I still wanted to head to where Hotene¡¯s dad works though, that¡¯s kind of a walk though so I decided I¡¯d go at five thirty, so it¡¯ll be six when I get there and hopefully the perfect conditions for Kuchisake-Onna. Finally, after dinner, I set out at about five-thirty. I put on a more casual gothic lolita outfit, which was a very simple black and red sailor-style outfit, with long sleeves, a skirt going down to my knees and black leggings underneath. I tied my hair in a side ponytail and wore sneakers, of course, if anything happens I want to be able to run. I know, probably weird for me to get dressed up a touch while trying to investigate the Kuchisake-Onnas but it¡¯s been a while since I got dressed up but it also works¡­ sorta. Sue me! The path to Anchikar-san¡¯s building wasn¡¯t anything crazy, just stick on the road and keep going straight until you get to the blue-window building to the left. And the views weren¡¯t anything special, just one house, another house, house but kinda fancy¡­ Yeah the details are kinda of a blur, but that¡¯s not really important. Fifteen minutes in, the houses abruptly stopped. I made it to another shopping district, apparently. There were two in town, the one from the first day I got here was the first. This made me question why they¡¯d put office buildings in a shopping district but to each their own, I guess. It was six when I arrived by the office building. The air had become super foggy. Perfect, now there had to be a Kuchisake-Onna here! I get closer to the office building and forced my way into the fog. I made my way in front of the door without even realizing because of the fog. Then boom, there she was, a Kuchisake-Onna. But it was clearly a different one this time, this Kuchisake-Onna was dressed very modern, in a pencil skirt and a blouse. Her hair was in a bun that was loose, like her hair would fall out at any sudden movement. Maybe she worked here before she died? Now maybe your thinking, maybe she just changed clothes? But her face was completely different as well! This Kuchisake-Onna had completely blacked eyes dripping black tears, a wider nose, and pronounced cheekbones. The one Minato and I encountered had a much rounder face. ¡°Watashi, kirei?¡± She began. Instead of answering, I took the hard candies I had stored in my backpack and threw them over her shoulder so they¡¯d end up behind her. The candies ended up opposite to the office building, in front of some other shop. I glanced around. I wanted to duck into some building, though seeing much of anything might be difficult, the only one nearby was the office Mr. Anchikar worked at, so I definitely couldn¡¯t go in there. I know she was definitely down the left street, so I could only slowly go down the right, but I felt a hand touch my shoulder, and I screamed. I turned around, but it was Minato. ¡°What are you doing here?¡± I asked. ¡°I could ask you the same. Get in here, it¡¯s too dangerous to be near Kuchisake-Onna.¡± Minato motioned for me to come inside. I followed him in and saw a huge first floor with brown tiled floors and dark blue walls. To the left, there was a little cafe, with a few sets of chairs and tables. Right in front of me was the front desk, an unnecessarily huge and fancy front desk that wrapped around the receptionist. You know, one of those with the really bulky sides and decorative wood carvings etched into the front and sides. To the right were a few elevators and a door to the one and only staircase. I was surprised at how huge it was and yet there was only the three of us. ¡°So why are you here?¡± I asked again while standing in front of the door. ¡°My parents work here. I uh¡­¡± Minato trailed off, never really answering my question. Oh well, I guess him simply being at his parents¡¯ office is a reason enough. ¡°Doesn¡¯t Mr. Anchikar work here too?¡± ¡°Oh yeah, he does. What are you doing here though?¡± Minato asked me. ¡°I¡¯m trying to investigate Kuchisake-Onna, I want to see if there¡¯s a possibility to properly get them to rest. Oh, do you know about any deaths that occurred around here?¡± ¡°No, if there was it¡¯d be on the news. I really don¡¯t think purposely interacting with any Kuchisake-Onna is such a good idea though, even if you bring hard candy it can still end in disaster.¡± ¡°Aw, do you care about me?¡± ¡°Wh- no¡­¡± Minato mumbled something else, whatever it was I couldn¡¯t decipher, while he blushed. He does care! Our conversation was interrupted by an elevator ding and the sound of shoes on the floor. I jumped at the sudden noise as it was practically silent before. From the elevator, the area came¡­ Minato¡¯s parents? ¡°Minato, you brought your friend here?¡± Mrs. Sato asked us in Japanese. ¡°Hi Mrs. Sato. I came here myself, I was investigating Kuchisake-Onna.¡± ¡°You shouldn¡¯t be out there by yourself. Why don¡¯t you stay here until the fog clears up.¡± Mr. Sato handed us some money, continuing in Japanese, ¡°If you get hungry, you can buy something from the vending machine.¡± ¡°Alright, sure. Thanks.¡± I said. Minato and I took a seat at one of the cafe tables while Mr. and Mrs. Sato went back upstairs, probably to call my parents or something. ¡°Dang, I haven¡¯t seen your parents since I first moved here. Still nice as ever.¡± I said, mostly to myself. I glanced over to Minato and saw him look annoyed. Shoot, what did I say, I thought. ¡°Anyway, why don¡¯t we decide on what to get from the vending machine?¡± I said. Minato got up and we walked over to the vending machine together. There was a vending machine purely for pocky, one for drinks which included ramune, coffee, some tea making vending machine, one with American snacks and a even a ramen vending machine. I would love a taste of home but I only have so much money so I can¡¯t just buy everything¡­ Minato immediately went to use some of the money on green tea. Yeah that makes sense for him. I don¡¯t get the appeal of green tea, tastes like grass. Papa loves it though. Maybe this is just my American taste buds talking¡­ My eyes were fixated on the pocky machine. But which flavor? Hm¡­ ¡°Everyone and their moms loves pocky, but have you ever had konpeito?¡± Minato suggested, point at a package of colorful star shaped candies. I happened to look right next to the konpeito and saw mochi. ¡°Okay, idea, konpeito, pocky, mochi, and a ramune.¡± ¡°Do you need all of that though?¡± Minato said as he got himself some konpeito ¡°Why not? I already had dinner, this is just my desert!¡± I said as I got all the snacks and carried them over. ¡°You look ridiculous.¡± Minato sighed. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°Your just jealous I¡¯m the snack queen.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t need to be the snack king, I¡¯m the king of tea. Every tea you can think of, I have it¡­ at home.¡± ¡°Whatever, I don¡¯t even like tea.¡± I said, starting with the mochi. ¡°What?¡± Minato said in shock. ¡°Yeah, I said it. It¡¯s flavored water leaves basically.¡± ¡°Coffee¡¯s basically flavored water beans.¡± ¡°What¡¯s soda then?¡± ¡°Kola nut water?¡± ¡°Amazing.¡± Minato commented. A comfortable silence washed over us. ¡°So, about the Kuchisake-Onna investigation-¡± I said suddenly. ¡°Don¡¯t even think about it.¡± ¡°I think I¡¯ve learned all there is to know about her in the books, I know the ways to stop her from getting murdered.¡± ¡°But what if something happened like on Monday?¡± ¡°Just run home, lock the doors. It worked out then, it could work again.¡± ¡°But your not always near home. I have an idea, I don¡¯t think investigating Kuchisake-Onna is safe at all, especially over here. Have you heard about the woods by our side of town that supposedly have buildings housing other yokai?¡± Minato said. ¡°Yeah, why? ¡°Maybe it¡¯ll be a little safer over there, are you doing anything after school tomorrow?¡± ¡°Nope, I¡¯m free.¡± ¡°Alright then, after homework that¡¯s what we¡¯re doing Monday. And if we don¡¯t finish homework by then, I guess we can come back to finish homework.¡± Afterward, we kinda chilled until the fog cleared up and the Satos very graciously drove me home. Minato was suspiciously quiet. Okay, Minato is a very quiet person in general but he¡¯s never completely silent around me at least. I finally saw Mr. and Mrs. Sato after a while, and they were very nice! I think I¡¯m gonna stop writing here for tonight, Clay wants to play Call of Duty with me, I¡¯ve never played before so I¡¯m a little nervous¡­ April 11th, 2022, 7:59 PM Alright finally able to write about today! I couldn¡¯t care less about school today it was just simply a day of school. After school though, Minato and I literally ran home and rushed through our homework together, also not too exciting so no point in me writing about that. Minato came to my house as usual. Not that I¡¯m complaining, that¡¯s perfectly fine. Anyway, we had like one hour between finishing our homework and dinnertime so we quickly set out. I changed out of my blazer and button-up shirt and threw on one of my shirts from hot topic. I didn''t even bother to change out of my school skirt. I also quickly braided my hair, but because I was rushing it was frumpy and didn''t look too good. Whatever, we were there just for yokai today, I didn¡¯t feel like getting dressed up again. With my bag, I went outside to meet Minato. He was wearing his hair in a high ponytail, and he had on sweatpants and a hoodie. It was simple, but he still looked very pretty. He should put his hair up more honestly. I even said so to Minato! Anyway, into the woods! (Please don''t sue me Stephen Sondheim :() Though the woods nearby us are close, it¡¯? still like a five-minute walk, we just have to go to the end of our part of town, on the eastern part of our street. It''s actually on the same path I took to go to where I found Kuchisake-Onna, believe it or not. The path near the street wasn''t as woodsy as I thought it would be, honestly. There were very few trees or flowers, but the deeper we went into the woods, the more nature we saw. I wish the woods weren¡¯t so green. There was also the smell of grass. And too many bugs! Anyway, Finally, we ended up in a part of the woods that wasn¡¯t just nature that prevented us from steering off the path. Trees were more sporadically placed and you could actually see the grass. There was a small bridge across a pond, and there were four tiny houses. They honestly reminded me of shrines. Before I had no fear, but when we got into the woods? My bones were starting to shake. Minato pulled out a dagger. ¡°You brought a kunai?¡± I wondered. ¡°You didn¡¯t?¡± Minato retorted. I should¡¯ve though, argh! Cautiously, we approached the closest house, which was just to the left of the bridge. As soon as we made it over the bridge and onto the grass, something showed itself. A fox with nine tails stood in front of us, seemingly out of nowhere. The fox had orange fur with black feet and their tails had a black tip fading to white then orange. The fox¡¯s eyes seemed to almost glow yellow. If it weren¡¯t for the glowing eyes, the extra tails, and the fact we were in the yokai woods I¡¯d think this fox was normal, but the fox was anything but that. ¡°Is that a kitsune? Should I run?¡± I whispered in Minato¡¯s ear. ¡°Maybe not? They don¡¯t have glowy eyes, usually. Can¡¯t tell the difference when they¡¯re in the fox form¡­¡± Minato mumbled back ¡°Ugh, I knew this was a terrible form to take¡­¡± The fox groaned. Minato and I jumped at hearing the fox¡¯s voice. We definitely thought at that point it was a yokai, but we didn¡¯t expect them to talk. I instinctively grabbed Minato, but I let ago when I realized I was holding onto him. The fox shifted into a more humanoid look, their orange fur becoming olive skin and her fox snout retracting inwards to form a human mouth and nose. A loose kimono wrapped around their body as they turned human. The fur around the top of their head turned to hair and almost wrapped itself to make a bun, but the fox forcefully tore out the hair band. Like the fox¡¯s¡­ well, fox form, they had orange hair with some white and black highlights. They had fox ears on the top of their head and spilling out from their kimono was their tails. Minato and I panicked even more at the sight, we thought they were a nogitsune or yako. You know, those kitsune you hear about that are malicious. Well, Minato knew the names, I just knew Kitsunes are bad news. ¡°Why are you scared? Oh, wait, you think I¡¯m a yako still? Ugh, first mission and I¡¯m already failing¡­¡± The fox growled at themself. Don¡¯t ask me what they meant by a mission, zero ideas by the way. ¡°Can you prove that you¡¯re not a yako?¡± Minato asked as we stepped back a few paces just in case something bad happened. ¡°I can, here, seal of Inari.¡± The fox woman handed us a paper, and I could actually read the kanji this time! Not all of it, but enough to know what it said, which was basically that the fox woman had achieved her thousandth year of life and received her ninth tail in the presence of Inari. The document looked very old. If I had to assign an age to the document it¡¯d probably be like two thousand something years old. ¡°I thought you became white when you got your ninth tail though.¡± Minato pointed out. ¡°Happened to some of my family members, doesn¡¯t happen to every kitsune though. It¡¯d be nice if they changed their databases to be less confusing.¡± The fox woman growled. ¡°What kind of a fox are you, then?¡± I asked. ¡°A tenko, a kinko type tenko specifically.¡± ¡°Why are you a random small town though?¡± Minato asked. ¡°I have a classified mission that involves your town, that¡¯s all I can say.¡± ¡°I thought heavenly foxes were messengers of Inari? Does your mission not involve some kind of message?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t work for Inari anymore. Not because of anything bad, just needed something different. Anyway, I digress, this isn¡¯t a safe part of town, you really shouldn¡¯t be here.¡± ¡°Is there other yokai in this forest?¡± I asked excitedly, peering my head around trying to catch some glance of another yokai in the houses. But nope, nothing. Sad. ¡°Yes, until I can accomplish my mission I need to keep them in here. Have any escaped from here?¡± ¡°There have been Kuchisake-Onna sightings a lot lately, and a few people have died,¡± Minato said. ¡°Shi- Shoot, ugh, thank you for letting me know. I have to call Kagami¡­ Anyway, you should leave now in case something else escapes from here.¡± The fox¡¯s head fell into their head. I wonder who Kagami is¡­ Another fox like the tenko? ¡°Wait, can we at least know your name? And pronouns?¡± I asked. ¡°Naoko, she/her.¡± She told us. Satisfied with her answer we said our goodbyes and we started leaving on the same path we entered. ¡°Does it count if another yokai tells us there¡¯s yokai in the yokai forest or should we come back another day and see them for ourselves?¡± I asked. ¡°Let¡¯s not do that, please. I hope your curiosity has been quelled.¡± ¡°Not really, I still have many questions I have yet to answer.¡± ¡°Maybe one day we can ask Naoko more herself if we catch her outside of the forest¡­ For now, let¡¯s just go home.¡± ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m starving! You coming with?¡± ¡°If it¡¯s alright with you.¡± ¡°Yeah, our home is always open to you!¡± ¡°Alright then.¡± Minato slightly smiled, what is this the second time he¡¯s smiled like ever? Okay, a few things I¡¯ve learned thus far before I close up for tonight. Is that it? Did I get everything? I think so. Alright, time to do something else, later diary! I’m Concerned… April 16th, 2022, 6:49 AM Another weekend is upon me. What am I to do? Hang out with Minato and Hotene, like always We decided, you know what, it¡¯s ramen time. After I had my tutoring session, we went out for lunch afterward. We went to the same ramen place the first day I came to Japan. We took a booth seat near the¡­ ramen bar I guess you could call it? Minato was in the corner side, I sat next to him, and Hotene got the entire booth across from us. Hotene was stylish as ever, wearing hoop earrings and a choker with similar patterning to her large headband that was absent today, while Minato wore¡­ a hoodie and leggings! ¡°Has anything interesting happened this week?¡± Hotene asked, sipping on some blue marble soda. ¡°Not really.¡± Minato said as a waiter handed him a cup of tea. ¡°Not you either?¡± Hotene asked me. ¡°Wait, he¡¯s lying.¡± I shouted a little too loud, recalling the tenko. ¡°What do you mean? School has been normal all week.¡± Minato said. ¡°The tenko in the woods, Minato!¡± I said. ¡°Oh, yeah.¡± ¡°The what?¡± Hotene got up from her seat on instinct. ¡°You know, the heavenly messengers of Inari.¡± Minato said. ¡°Oh. I wouldn¡¯t know, not my god.¡± ¡°But Naoko wasn¡¯t a messenger of Inari anymore, isn¡¯t that what she said?¡± Minato said. ¡°You¡¯re on a first name basis with the tenko now? And they¡¯re not all messengers of Inari, whoever that is? Then what¡¯s a tenko like her doing in this town of all towns?¡± Hotene¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t say that so much as I¡¯d say she just gave us her name,¡± Minato explained, ¡°And obviously she¡¯s not a messenger anymore, she seems to be doing her own thing. Seems like she¡¯s here to protect the people in the town.¡± Minato explained. ¡°She¡¯s certainly not doing a good job at it if there¡¯s all the Kuchisake-Onna sightings everywhere¡­¡± Hotene grumbled. ¡°We let her know about it though! I think she¡¯s gonna do something, so that¡¯s good.¡± I added. ¡°I sure hope so, dad is starting to get nervous about them popping out near his office building.¡± Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. Our conversation was momentarily interrupted by the arrival of our bowls of ramen. Okay, I say momentarily but we were so distracted that our conversation practically ended thanks to ramen. I got tonkotsu ramen, the classic, Minato got miso and Hotene got kimchi ramen. After eating we decided, let¡¯s actually go to Minato¡¯s for once. Wow, I know, shocking. Even more shocking was that the Satos were actually at home for once. You should¡¯ve seen our faces when we saw them as soon as we opened the door. I swear Minato was even more shocked than Hotene and I thought. ¡°Oh! Hello Hotene and Keiko!¡± Mrs. Sato greeted us cheerfully. ¡°Hi, Mrs. Sato!¡± I greeted back. Hotene and I eyed Minato in a way that says ¡®wait, your parents are actually home for once?¡¯ Well, I think that¡¯s what I was saying. With my eyes. I don¡¯t know about Hotene. Sounds stupid when I write it out though¡­ ¡°You guys can go up to my room. Mom, what are we having for dinner?¡± Minato said. Hotene and I went down the hallway to his room. I know I really shouldn¡¯t have, but I may have¡­ listened to their conversation. While Hotene actually waited in his room I stayed on the steps, watching them slightly, trying not to poke my head out too far so they don¡¯t see me. ¡°No.¡± Mrs. Sato said. I thought it was weird, maybe she just has bad hearing or something. ¡°You¡¯re not answering me, mom. What¡¯s for dinner later?¡± Minato tried again as he tapped his foot. It was hard to see his face but I think he was frowning like he was disappointed. Instead of answering, Mrs. Sato just walked away. I heard Minato sigh as he went up the stairs. I panicked and went up the stairs and bolted into his room. He probably heard my footsteps anyway, but I tried to make it look like I was in his room the whole time by just¡­ sitting? Listen I don¡¯t know I guess I thought that would make him absolutely convinced. ¡°How bad is your mom¡¯s hearing, Minato?¡± Hotene asked, spinning rapidly in his chair while he opened the door. My stomach dropped upon seeing him while I hoped he wouldn¡¯t ask or somehow didn¡¯t hear me. ¡°Bad¡­¡± Minato said like he was hesitating. I really don¡¯t like this¡­ Well didn¡¯t then, I still don¡¯t as I¡¯m writing this. ¡°Anyway, what now?¡± Hotene asked. ¡°I don¡¯t know, whatever you want, I guess.¡± ¡°Do you still have that apples to apples game?¡± ¡°Apples to apples? I thought that was just an American game?¡± I asked. ¡°They have it here too. Let me go get it.¡± Minato got up. Again, because apparently, I have weird judgment, I watched him go downstairs. I waited for him to descend fully, then I went onto the stairs. I saw his dad walking around downstairs. He looked kinda disheveled, with very messy hair, eyebags, the whole shebang. ¡°Dad, do you know where Apples to Apples is?¡± Minato asked. ¡°Don¡¯t ask me again.¡± His dad grumbled in response. ¡°What? All I asked is where the game is? You can¡¯t do one simple thing for once?¡± Minato protested. His dad just turned around and walked away. Minato made an aggravated noise, but somewhat silenced Do you see what I mean though? Something is not right. He did come upstairs, and I retreated back yet again. He had a scowl on his face, but as soon as we started talking he tried to soften his face. I could tell he wasn¡¯t happy though. We did have a nice time but I¡¯m concerned. I mean counting today I¡¯ve seen them a total of three times in the span of three weeks. To be fair, this could be a temporary thing, but Minato constantly being home alone all the time? Even on weekends? Even on Sundays which are the bare minimum of days, people don¡¯t have to work? I don¡¯t want to make Minato uncomfortable asking him, I¡¯ve only known him for like three weeks but I feel like this is my duty. He¡¯s been my first friend in Japan and has been helping me with everything. I want to help him. I just don¡¯t know how yet. Maybe alongside the Yokai investigation, I can also try to investigate this. It¡¯s been almost two hours straight of writing. I¡¯m gonna shower and formulate a plan for this. I¡¯ll update you on this later. Is This A Kuchisake-Onna? April 22nd, 2022, 8:00 PM Alright, let me update you on what I¡¯ve tried to figure out about Minato¡¯s parents. My parents say they barely talk to the Satos. Hotene says she¡¯s rarely seen them. I¡¯ve asked some neighbors and they say he¡¯s home alone a lot. I don¡¯t know, this isn¡¯t really looking too good¡­ I¡¯m not really sure where to go from here. It upsets me to think about this anymore so I guess I¡¯ll talk about the other thing that happened today. Earlier as we were getting out of school we saw another Kuchisake-Onna. This one was definitely not one we¡¯d seen before. She had a sorta formal look to her, wearing a one piece dress with tights and a jacket. She had a mask on her chin, you know, one of those you see many people in Japan wearing over their mouth. She also had scarf around her neck like some sort of extra protection. Her eyes stood out to me, something about them seemed more energetic. All of the other Kuchisake-Onnas I¡¯ve seen have such dead and empty eyes. The one we encountered felt more human-like. Minato and I stopped dead in our tracks. She was right in the middle of the street, headed straight in our direction. ¡°Do you have candy? It¡¯d be a better distraction than just saying so-so.¡± Minato whispered in my ear. I checked my bag and¡­ nope! Thinking back now I¡¯m just really annoyed I didn¡¯t think of this before, but whatever! ¡°No, what do we do?¡± I asked. ¡°On the count of three, we¡¯ll run to your house. One, two-¡± Minato was cut off by the new Kuchisake-Onna. Instead of the usual we¡¯d heard, she said, ¡°Hello there!¡± all cheerfully. Minato and I glanced at each other, then dashed inside. I slammed the door and locked it as fast as my shaking hands could manage, while Minato pulled down the curtains. We rushed up to my room and slammed open the door. As I slumped into my spinning chair, Minato flopped onto the floor beside me. For a moment, we remained silent, too stunned to speak. ¡°What just happened?¡± Minato broke the silence with a shout, the loudest I¡¯ve ever heard him talk. ¡°I don¡¯t know! Has that ever happened?¡± ¡°To us, obviously not. To someone else, I don¡¯t know. Can you give me your book on yokai?¡± ¡°Sure.¡± I went up to my book shelf and pull it from the corner it was stuck in. I sit on the floor with Minato and place it. Together we flip through the table of contents and stop at seeing Kuchisake-Onna¡¯s name, then flip to her page. I glanced at the various pictures of different Kuchisake-Onnas, each dressed in unique clothes. There was even a Kuchisake-Onna that looked very 80s, with the big hair. Immediately though, Minato and I read her entry together out loud. ¡°The only things a Kuchisake-Onna ever says is ¡®Watashi kire?¡¯ or ¡®Kore demo?¡¯...¡± Minato remarked. ¡°Never in any recorded history has she ever said ¡®Hello there!¡± I finished. ¡°What¡¯s the possibility of her not being a Kuchisake-Onna?¡± Minato asked. ¡°I don¡¯t know¡­ She looks the part but she doesn¡¯t act the part. Do people dress up as her or something?¡± ¡°Yeah, for halloween, and maybe for conventions.¡± If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. ¡°So why did she talk to us?¡± ¡°No idea. Maybe Naoko might have an idea though¡­¡± I look outside my window, it was as foggy as ever and she¡¯s moved, but she¡¯s begun walking down the street. Minato got up and joined me as we look outside. ¡°Yeah that¡¯s not happening right now. Even if she is completely gone, there may be a chance Naoko isn¡¯t in the forest. Plus, look at all this homework¡­¡± Minato pulled his folder from his bag and dumped out a bunch of papers to prove my point. I thought back to when we first met Naoko. It was the 10th of April, so maybe she¡¯ll be working again and I¡¯ll be free that day? ¡°Maybe we should try this Sunday, I have a feeling tomorrow and Saturday we¡¯ll have other stuff to do.¡± ¡°Sure, why don¡¯t we get started on this mountain of homework already then?¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± Annndddd now I don¡¯t have anything left to talk about so I guess that¡¯s it for today! April 24th 2022, 8:00 PM Here we go again. You know, I actually brought something to defend myself today. I took a knife from the kitchen very slowly while mom and papa were in the tv room. I haven¡¯t talked about them in a thousand years huh? In case you (or, future me or whoever¡¯s reading this) were wondering they¡¯re doing good, nothing crazy with them lately. Anyway, moving on. Minato and I met outside of our houses and walked to the forest and down the familiar route. When we arrived to the part of the forest with all the houses we saw¡­ nothing. Of course she wasn¡¯t even gonna be there. ¡°Now what? Where does a messenger of Inari go when she¡¯s not in the yokai forest? Erm, former I mean, in Naokos case.¡± Minato paced. ¡°Do tenko eat?¡± I asked. ¡°Nope.¡± So there was yet another bump in our plan. The road? Rip in our plan? I don¡¯t know, you get the metaphor though. Probably. But as we turned back down the path yet again, there she was. Naoko, in the flesh. Or the fur? Anyway, she was standing there with¡­ bags of groceries? In the moment I thought, maybe she does eat. Or she got food for other yokai. ¡°What are you doing here?¡± Naoko put a hand on her hip as she shifted her grocery bag to her other hand. ¡°There was another Kuchisake-Onna sighting!¡± I said. ¡°Oh. You knew what to do, right?¡± Naoko asked. ¡°Yes.¡± I said. ¡°It was more than that though. She talked! She greeted us, ¡®Hello there!¡¯ all smiley and happy.¡± Minato pointed out. ¡°That¡¯s unusual. Kuchisake-Onna never talk like that to humans. Are you sure it was a Kuchisake-Onna?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± Minato and I shouted together. Not in an angry way just in a please-believe-us way. ¡°She had the face scars and everything. I know We should¡¯ve taken a picture at the time but unfortunately we didn¡¯t think of it, so¡­¡± I trailed off. ¡°Hmm, talking to a Kuchisake-Onna that¡¯s friendlier could be the key to stopping their appearances in town¡­ Alright, I have an idea. Whenever you are free and it¡¯s foggy, text me, I¡¯ll give you my number and I¡¯ll come as fast as I can. You see if you can draw her out, and if it¡¯s the one, I¡¯ll talk to her. Getting a specific Kuchisake-Onna is no easy process, they go wherever, but if we keep trying to draw them out we¡¯ll have to encounter her again, eventually. You in?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± We cheered. We handed her our phones and she entered her number in them, and we made a group chat. ¡°Bye Naoko-San!¡± I waved off as Minato and I left. ¡°Bye.¡± Naoko smiled slightly before entering one of the weird forest houses. I don¡¯t know how long this will take but I think any normal diary entries will have to be on halt for a bit. I¡¯ll be logging the same stuff for a bit, I hope you don¡¯t mind. I don¡¯t know why I keep saying you but it feels weird to be like ¡°I hope I don¡¯t mind.¡± Anyway, that¡¯s it for today. The Kuchisake-Onnas Are Calling About My Extended Warranty (And They Stole My Non-Existant Car) April 29nd 2022, 8:00 PM That date is misleading actually, I¡¯m just gonna be keeping a few empty pages to give details about every encounter we have. This is just the time I¡¯m writing this little opening note. Don¡¯t miss me too much!
Date Place Encounter Details
4/29/23 Outside of School While trying to leave school after our fifteen minutes of clean up time, there was literally a Kuchisake-Onna outside. We almost texted Naoko but because it was outside the school it¡¯d be pretty weird
5/11/23 In a Tree (Yes, really.) Hotene was coming after school to just hang with us and there was literally a Kuchisake-Onna in a tree. I don¡¯t understand HOW this happened. It¡¯s been awhile since the last sighting but she literally was just chilling in a tree, body sticking out. She even yelled out to us and we started running. Oh, oh, and THEN she started chasing after us and we booked it to my house and we¡¯re like out of breath. Minato and I wonder if we should let Hotene in about the stuff going on but when we ask Naoko she says that what we¡¯re doing might be better if it was a secret for now so. It was NOT the one we were looking for unfortunately.
5/12/23 Stealing A Car Okay it¡¯s only been a day later but we saw another Kuchisake-Onna, and this time she literally was stealing someone¡¯s car in the neighborhood while also driving up to people and saying the questions?. I can¡¯t even make this stuff up. Minato and I went to the neighbor that got their car stolen (and it was a very sweet old lady, so I felt super bad) and also called Naoko. The woman didn¡¯t really want to call the police since Japanese police aren¡¯t the greatest. Naoko dealt with the Kuchisake-Onna and got her out of the car, and then went into her human form and then posed as our friend to give it back. I just hope the woman doesn¡¯t come asking about Naoko in the future¡­
5/25/23 School Okay, yes, another Kuchisake-Onna at school, but this time inside the school because someone must¡¯ve let her in! I swear we live in a horror movie, she was literally banging on doors while we screamed and we had to wait for her to disappear it was a whole thing.
6/14/23 Beach Okay so my dad took me, my mom and Minato to the beach he grew up going to all the time, and I kid you not, there was Kuchisake-Onna! Minato and I needed to keep our distance but it was clear, it was not the one we were looking for. These Kuchisake-Onna sightings are making me nuts honestly
6/28/23 The Roof You read that right, it gets worse. There was literally one on the roof! Just chilling there! I locked everything to make sure she couldn¡¯t get in, and then threw furniture in front of the windows just for good measure! Also I¡¯ve noticed slowly overtime that the fog just¡­ doesn¡¯t matter anymore. She just started showing up to show up in a way almost? Kinda weird.
Since I¡¯m definitely also not gonna be able to write normal diary entries I guess I¡¯ll also reserve some space to write about some other non-yokai related stuff, nothing crazy just out of context stuff.
Things I can¡¯t write about in full detail because of the Kuchisake-Onna encounters
  • Everyone got married while I was asleep, apparently. And then they divorced in the morning day. (4/29/23, 3:29 AM JST - 9:49 AM JST)
  • Meeting Jia¡¯s boyfriend and then Minato calls him a ¡°pathetic white boy¡± (4/29/23, 2:48 PM JST)
  • Lucas goes on a rant on why Captain Price from Call of Duty is actually the protagonist for 3 hours straight (don¡¯t ask I wasn¡¯t there) (5/2/23, 7:20 AM - 10:20 AM JST)
  • Learning that my old school back in the US caught on fire apparently, pretty sad to hear about from my United Statesian friends :( (5/25/23, 9:39 PM - 10:29 PM JST)
July 4th 2022, 3:10 PM Wow, it¡¯s been four months since I could write a proper diary entry about literally anything except Kuchisake-Onna. Except that¡¯s a lie, because I want to write an important update to the Kuchisake-Onna situation. So earlier today, Minato and I were just hanging out, walking around, bored. We were also silently hoping to NOT see Kuchisake-Onna because if I¡¯m being honest, I¡¯m kinda sick and tired of it at this point! But anyway, I guess my luck is bad because we did see one. In the garbage can of all things! No, I¡¯m not making that up. It¡¯s true. Just ask Minato, he was there. That was the final straw for us, because we ended up seeking out Naoko. We¡¯d seen quite a number of Kuchisake-Onna, all different, none the ones we were looking for. So we went back to the yokai forest, but not without having something to defend ourselves with. As we got to the end of the path, we saw Naoko pacing on the bridge. As she turned to face us she jumped upon seeing us. ¡°Keiko! Minato! What can I do for you?¡± She raced up to us. ¡°I¡¯m losing my mind, Naoko. We literally saw a Kuchisake-Onna in the trash ccan.¡± I ran my hands through my hair. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. ¡°I assume it wasn¡¯t the one you¡¯re looking for?¡± ¡°Nope,¡± Said Minato. ¡°Well, like I said, it¡¯s hard to find one specific one, so-¡± Naoko tried to begin explaining the same thing she said when we started, but I already knew that. So I cut her off. ¡°I think waiting for us to happen to find her is like a one in a million thing. If we could get more people to help us out, we¡¯ll definitely have a higher chance of actually finding the one specific Kuchisake-Onna. We¡¯ll need a website, ask people to upload images, the date, address and time.¡± I proposed. ¡°Good idea. I know nothing about that kinda stuff, I can barely figure out how to use my phone. Would you know how to make a website?¡± Naoko asked. ¡°Yes!¡± I said. We waved goodbye and made our way out of the forest. ¡°Okay boomer.¡± Minato mumbled on the way out. Oh, did I mention that my friends are really starting to rub off on him? I happened to linger on his face and he had very visible eyebags. Not looking great for Mrs. and Mr. Sato when they have such weird treatment of their son already¡­ ¡°Are you alright?¡± I asked. ¡°Huh? Yeah, just tired.¡± Minato rubbed his eyes, somewhat frowning. Minato normally has a resting mean face (yes, I know there¡¯s another word that they use for that but I¡¯m not gonna say it!) but that was not his resting mean face. I could¡¯ve sworn I saw the tears for a second in his eyes. I felt guilty on the way to my house. I think I might¡¯ve touched a nerve. I didn¡¯t bother saying anything else, I feel somewhat responsible for this. He¡¯s done so much yet I haven¡¯t been able to do much for him in return. Anyway funny website time! When we got back home we got to work making the website. I don¡¯t know if you really want the itty bitty details of me saying ¡°I opened wix and pressed this button, then that button, blah blah blah,¡± but the website turned out to be pretty cool in my opinion. We set it up so that people can submit photos in a submission box with details and we can manually review it! We also have a homepage describing this, a tab of the submissions, and a contact page. I don¡¯t have much to advertise on the contact page but maybe I will later on. I almost made the layout bright colors but Minato had to convince me to make it so we weren¡¯t going ot make people¡¯s eyes bleed just to submit pictures. I also decided to make a tumblr for it too as well, tumblr¡¯s format just works for this type of thing. Me NAOKO-SAN! THE WEBSITE! www.hokkaidoyokaisightings.com WE ALSO MADE A TUMBLR TOO! https://www.tumblr.com/hokkaidoyokaisightings 2:12 PM Naoko-San Nice 2:12 AM Me Now what? 2:12 PM Naoko-San It¡¯ll be hard to get the community¡¯s help without them knowing the website even exists. Make posters, tell some friends about it, whatever you must make sure more people besides us knows it exists. 3:48 PM (Not related to the Kuchisake-Onna situation but as I¡¯m writing this Minato is wondering why I¡¯m transcribing my texts messages into my diary, and I told him about me keeping this for the future, whatever will happen then. He still doesn¡¯t get it. Future me, or future¡­ whoevers may understand. Maybe.) Anyway, back to earlier today. Minato and I had accepted the challenge to get the word out there. I know my friends back in the United States would help but they can¡¯t do much, no yokai out there. Unless¡­ No, it can¡¯t be. We don¡¯t know many people so the only person we could talk to directly was Hotene. Me Hotene-chan 2:15 PM Hotene! ? 2:15 PM Me You know about all the Kuchisake-Onna sightings and all that right? Minato and I made a website We want everyone in town to help us out and give their own sightings Then we can try to get to the bottom of this! If you or any of your friends or anyone else you know sees a Kuchisake-Onna (or yokai in general, really. That¡¯s fine too) Can you tell them to take a picture and submit to either the website or the tumblr? www.hokkaidoyokaisightings.com https://www.tumblr.com/hokkaidoyokaisightings 2:16 PM Hotene! Of course! One problem though I wanna help! 2:16 AM Me It¡¯s a lot more complicated than what you think Plus don¡¯t you not really believe in yokai? 2:16 PM Hotene! Not really, but still! I live in this town too and they¡¯ve been affected my family and other ainu people in town! 2:16 AM Me Hm 2:16 PM I was unsure whether Naoko would be okay with another person fully on board with this type of thing. I didn¡¯t know if she should get fully involved, and still I don¡¯t think so either. So I asked Naoko her thoughts. Me One of our friends wants to get involved I understand her but I don¡¯t know if she should be like full on involved Would maybe having her help moderate submissions be alright? 2:17 PM Naoko-San Yes. I think if you can focus on seeing whether submissions have the Kuchisake-Onna you¡¯ve been looking for then having someone accept and post submissions would be great. 2:17 AM Me Yay! I¡¯ll let her know 2:17 PM Now with Naoko¡¯s blessing we had someone else on board! Yippie! Me Okay sure why not! Just give me an email and your tumblr so I can give you editing permission on the tumblr and website. 2:18 PM Hotene! Yay! 2:18 AM Me You¡¯ll basically just review submissions, post them and stuff. Minato and I will keep doing what we¡¯ve been planning. 2:18 PM Alright, I think that¡¯s about it for today. Minato, Hotene and I still have to make posters and find places to hang them up, after all. I hope I can write about something not Kuchisake-Onna related very soon, because this stuff is tiring. I¡¯m hopeful this will mean we can find the one Kuchisake-Onna we¡¯ve been looking for soon. He’s Not Okay July 9th 2022, 3:10 PM I have good news! The website has been a success! While we haven¡¯t been able to find the specific Kuchisake-Onna we¡¯ve been looking for still, we¡¯ve gotten a lot of submissions both on the tumblr and the website! Bringing on Hotene was actually a really good idea. She¡¯s been very good with uploading submissions which means Minato and I have been able to focus most of our efforts on seeing if any of them give us what we want. Someone actually encountered Naoko in her tenko form and submitted her, which was funny. Naoko was not that amused. That one submission led to more submissions, and she¡¯s all on the website and we can¡¯t really do anything about it. Since she¡¯s a familiar face to the ones that contribute she¡¯s been dubbed kitsune-chan. Nobody else has been able to identify she¡¯s a tenko but we¡¯ve been plotting ways to make it seem like we found it out without us actually being friendly with Naoko. We also made some posters. They were quite awful if I¡¯m being honest, but I guess most people who saw them were more interested in the site than our art and graphic design skills. We still have to play a very long waiting game. Since the entire thing doesn¡¯t rest on us, we can basically just go about our lives more normally. We still spot Kuchisake-Onna and put her on the website, but it¡¯s not so annoying anymore. Now we just have to hope someone manages to find the Kuchisake-Onna we¡¯ve been looking for¡­ If not I will actually combust. In case of the worst, this diary will go to Minato. I trust him. Oh, I guess a general life update might be good. I¡¯m slowly getting better at Japanese as a whole. My speaking has become much better and I¡¯m much more confident. I can actually understand my homework¡­ for the most part. I feel super close with all my friends. In fact, my friends from the United States, including Jia, are gonna come visit us when summer break hits, which is from July 20th to August 31st! We haven¡¯t worked out all the little details but the plan right now is that we¡¯ll all probably spend the first few weeks together. Some of them may leave after, some may stick around, until the 31st when the last person staying will leave. Maybe. I honestly don''t know how many of them will spend that long in Japan. Would be nice though. It¡¯ll be fun to see them all again plus my new friends in Japan. Life is going on an upwards trajectory in general. Nothing bad can happen now! I think Minato, Hotene and I are gonna go hang out now, later! July 10th 2022, 3:10 PM Wow, remind me to never be that hopeful again. Before I write this, I must say that what I¡¯m about to say is classified. This is for my eyes only. If you aren¡¯t me, then you need to close this diary and stop reading. Did we get that out of the way? Good. Also, I¡¯m sorry if my energy isn¡¯t great today. I¡¯m upset right now, and you¡¯ll see why. Recently, Naoko pitched an idea of having monthly meetings to talk about our progress, which I forgot to mention in earlier entries. This meeting was at around two so at one-thirty, I went over to start setting up. We decided the front room would be our meeting room as it was best suited for the job. ¡°Should I make snacks for Naoko?¡± Minato asked from the kitchen. ¡°We still don¡¯t know if she eats!¡± I pointed out as I cleared the table. ¡°Maybe we should be snack hoarders instead.¡± Minato said as I texted Naoko. Now as I write that I realize I may never hear him joke like that again¡­ Me Important question. Do you eat food. 2:12 PM Naoko-San Yes 2:12 AM Me FINALLY WE HAVE THE ANSWER TO THE AGE OLD QUESTION! What do you like to eat 2:12 PM Naoko-San Fruits and candies I¡¯m vegetarian 2:12 AM This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. New Naoko lore then, I guess. (Unrelated, but to hold on to old texts I¡¯ve been printing them out. Way easier than transcribing them.) So fast forward to when Naoko gets here. Minato opens the door and greets her and leads her to his couch. Naoko was in her human form when we opened the door. It was a very modern one, with a long black sleeve shirt and those baggy pants with the pockets. She also had on some piece of fabric off her back that mimicked her fox form¡¯s tails. Immediately, she went back into her fox form after she stepped inside. I was excited because I had actually felt like dressing up today. I put my hair into a braid, wore a black shirt with batwing sleeves and a poofy skirt. I thought it was businessy for whatever reason but thinking back it was not business at all. I actually wrote a little report too. ¡°Wow, you really¡­ made a lot of stuff and brought so many snacks just for a meeting.¡± Naoko¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°We bought too many snacks and I prepared too much. Will you help us eat everything? We got a bunch of fruit, and we also have pocky, konpeto and botan rice candy.¡± Minato smiled a bit. ¡°Maybe¡­ Anyway, let¡¯s start this meeting.¡± ¡°Alright, so overall sightings of yokai on the website for this month was three hundred seventy one. Of the yokai seen, two hundred and one were of Kuchisake-Onna. Of the Kuchisake-Onna sightings there has been yet to be a sighting of the one we¡¯ve been looking for still.¡± I said, looking at a clipboard I brought to look smart, I guess. ¡°Maybe a sorting system would be good to implement¡­¡± Naoko suggested. ¡°I wanna do that, we have to figure out how we¡¯d do it on the website first though. The system would be much smoother on Tumblr.¡± Minato said. Then, in the middle of our website discussion, we heard the turn of a doorknob. We looked at Minato, all of us with widened eyes. The door opened to Minato¡¯s parents. They weren¡¯t supposed to be here, Minato said they¡¯d be busy with something related to their business and they weren¡¯t going to be back as usual. We all began to collectively panic, I could see it in their eyes, but we tried to keep calm expressions. ¡°Hi Keiko! Sorry, we forgot something, just give us a second.¡± Mrs. Sato cheerfully greeted me. Not her son. Not the dang fox that¡¯s just sitting on her couch like a cat would. Me. We sat in silence as we waited for them to grab their things. And as they left, once again, they said goodbye to me. They didn¡¯t even address Minato at all, much less mention the fox in their house. When the door closed, Minato¡¯s shock turned to anger. He aggressively tugged on his hair and he was almost growling. ¡°What? They don¡¯t even talk about Naoko? Did they notice her?¡± I said. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t be surprised. It¡¯s a miracle they notice you. They barely even notice me. I¡¯m lucky to be getting dinner, the nights they actually make it home.¡± Minato mumbles. ¡°Wait, what?¡± Naoko and I asked. ¡°Ever since I was five, I guess I wasn¡¯t a cute enough child, or something. I don¡¯t really even know their reasoning. They¡¯ve gotten more neglectful over the years. When I was really young they took care of me like they would for any other child, but after my fifth birthday? They¡¯d forget to feed me. I¡¯d have to remind them. I chalked it up to forgetfulness. As I got older they¡¯d forget to feed me more, and they started leaving me home alone. Once when I was eight I was home alone for a week, and when they got back they acted like it was nothing. By ten they¡¯d make me meals maybe once every few months. I had to learn how to cook, I couldn¡¯t survive on the lessening number of snacks we had laying around. I felt like the only time they¡¯d pay attention to me then was the burns and cuts I¡¯d give myself by accident. I became addicted to purposely getting myself hurt. But again, once I was twelve, that didn¡¯t work anymore. Nothing I do works. They¡¯ll only acknowledge me on random days when they¡¯re home. If they¡¯re even home. I still don¡¯t even know what they¡¯re doing half the time. Being overworked? Vacationing all the time? I just don¡¯t know what to do at this point.¡± Minato explained his life story. Everything made more sense now. ¡°Have you tried telling your teachers or the police?¡± I asked. ¡°I¡¯ve told the police, but they¡¯re pathetic, they don¡¯t do anything. You know what, maybe you guys should just go now.¡± Minato rose from the couch. His face was cold, neutral, with no emotions present. Naoko and I glanced at each other, then got up. ¡°Um, do you still wanna come over for dinner again?¡± I asked. ¡°We¡¯ll see. Just leave me be. Please¡± Minato mumbled, sniffling. I opened the door and Naoko and I left Minato¡¯s house in silence. She transformed into her human form again on the way out. ¡°If I ever see the Satos I¡¯m gonna give them a piece of my mind.¡± Naoko growled. ¡°I don¡¯t think that would help anyone. Maybe what Minato needs is to be made aware of how much people care for him.¡± ¡°Good point, Keiko. I may have a new goal worthy of accomplishing now. I¡¯ll see you later.¡± Naoko nodded, then turned to go home I was still upset over everything. The thought of Minato¡¯s mistreatment and his loneliness made me want to cry, but I was still standing in front of his house. I immediately ran across the street, into my house. My parents, who were sitting on the couch, looked over at me. ¡°Kei? What¡¯s up?¡± Papa asked me. The events of just a few minutes earlier spilled out of my mouth, all at once. I don¡¯t even know if that was a smart idea, like is that gonna make things worse for Minato? Am I even gonna get him the help he deserves? Mom and Papa¡¯s eyes widened, as they looked at each other. ¡°Does he still want to come over?¡± Mom asked. ¡°I think so.¡± I said. ¡°Ugh, and to think we befriended those people! If I see them I might say something.¡± Papa put a hand to his forehead. ¡°You should ask Minato if he wants that. I don¡¯t think this was easy for him, and if they ignore him so much I wonder if they¡¯ll just ignore you as well.¡± ¡°True¡­¡± Our conversation awkwardly stopped from there. I went upstairs to think, and my parents went back to watching tv. The rest of the night wasn¡¯t anything too eventful I¡¯d say. Surprisingly, Minato did come for dinner. He silently frowned throughout dinner. At least he enjoyed the chicken katsu. My parents did try to ask him about his parents more after dinner, but I don¡¯t think he was willing to talk much more about it, so they just let him head straight home after dinner. Sorry for rushing through the last part. I think I need to stop thinking about this for a little while as well. I hope the next entry ends up much happier. Getting to Know Each Other 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-b¨­ who can¡¯t stop scaring the daylights out of everyone.¡± This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. (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. What Happens In Front of The House Stays In Front of The House July 20th 2022, 11:42 PM THEY¡¯RE HERE!!! I¡¯M SO EXCITED AHHHH!!! Let¡¯s ignore how I¡¯m awake writing in my diary so late. So so so! Earlier today I woke my parents up at five in the morning like a kid on christmas morning. I mean, what do they expect? I hadn¡¯t seen my friends in four months! Anyway, after I woke them up, my friends and I schemed in the group chat altogether. Me GUYS GUYS GUYS GUYS 5:05 AM Hotene I KNOW!!!! 5:05 AM Me I doubt they can see this right now but if you do Hi guys! We¡¯re gonna snatch you from the airport soon. Minato if you¡¯re awake your coming with us right? 5:05 AM Minato Yeah 5:05 AM Me Hotene you¡¯re ready too? 5:05 AM Hotene Yes! Got my whole family army to help out to 5:05 AM Me Yay! We¡¯re coming for you guys! 5:06 AM I rushed through getting ready and went over to Minato¡¯s house. I knocked on his door and shifted the weight on my feet as I waited for him to open the door. Once he came out of the house I noticed how horrible of a state he was in. His hair was a mess, his eyes were red and puffy like he was crying, and he had eyebags. Not really surprised, he¡¯s still not really himself, but I did wonder for a split second if it had anything to do with my friends. I took his hand in mine, making him jump. ¡°Are you okay?¡± I mumbled. ¡°Yeah¡­¡± He wiped his eyes. ¡°Let¡¯s get in the car. My parents will be there in a bit, they¡¯re gonna eat breakfast in the car and bring us something too.¡± I led him to the car. We took seats in the back, me near the left side and him in the middle. After a few minutes, my parents entered the car, and handed us some onigiri, or rice balls. The car ride itself was filled with conflicting energies, me being upset at Minato still being upset, but also me being excited enough to bounce out of my seat. I¡¯ll admit, maybe it wasn¡¯t the best idea to bring Minato, when he was upset, to meet my friends, who were otherwise happy to see us, but whatever. They wanted to meet him so of course I couldn¡¯t say no! Plus he came with me too, so¡­ Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. Finally, we arrived at the pick-up area at the airport. We got Clara, while the rest of Hotene¡¯s family picked up or sent taxis to get the rest of my friends. We sentenced Clara¡¯s parents to the back back of the car, while Clara climbed in next to Minato. Clara looked as tired and disheveled as usual, that flight probably made it worse for her to be honest, but she was smiley and everything as she greeted us. ¡°Kei!!!¡± She yelled as she climbed in next to Minato. ¡°Clara!!!¡± I yelled back at her in a similar fashion. I stretched out my arms to her while she did the same, making Minato awkwardly serve as a weird middleman I guess? ¡°So, how have you been?¡± I asked. ¡°Same old really, what about you guys? And hi Minato, nice to meet you in person.¡± Minato¡¯s eyes widened as he turned to her, speaking in monotone English, very deliberately and slowly. ¡°Oh, uh, yeah, nice to meet you too.¡± We chatted the rest of the way, Minato only chiming in occasionally. When she arrived, we showed her the spare room she¡¯d be sleeping in for the night. My friends and I all had a sleepover at my house while their parents went to their hotels. As Clay, Luke, Anne and Jia all arrived, one by one, I greeted them happily, and things felt exactly how they did four months ago. Hotene started acting like someone part of my American friend group immediately, while Minato was still pretty quiet and shy among them. I can tell my other friends were pretty understanding of what I¡¯d told them earlier so they were¡­ gentle I guess I¡¯ll call it? Anyway, we had a pretty fun time for the rest of the day. I think jet lag caught up to my friends finally as at around nine-thirty at night they passed out, which was surprising because back in America that¡¯d be like nine in the morning. I guess that¡¯s a good thing, they¡¯ll be used to the timezone in Japan a lot quicker. Anne, Luke and Clay were in the spare room in sleeping bags, Clara got the one actual bed in the spare room, while Hotene, Minato and Jia were in mine. Minato and I tried to fall asleep, but we just couldn¡¯t sleep for whatever reason. I sat up on my bed and looked down at Minato, who was awake, sprawled out on his futon. ¡°Yeah, this isn¡¯t working. Maybe we should just go downstairs for a bit or something.¡± Minato mumbled. I agreed and I followed him downstairs. He jumped on the couch and I joined him at the opposite end. We sat in silence for a couple of minutes. ¡°I¡¯m kinda hungry still, I¡¯m gonna get a snack.¡± I stood up. Trying to be as quiet as possible, I tip toed over to the kitchen. My ears picked up on the sounds of shuffling, but I thought nothing of it at the time, assuming it was probably just Minato. As I reach for a box of pocky, I hear from Minato, ¡°Keiko! Get over here!¡± Behind me Minato waved his arms towards himself by the window. I rushed over with a pocky box in hand. ¡°What?¡± I asked. ¡°Look!¡± Minato pointed outside. There she was, Kuchisake-Onna with the mask and scarf. Aka, the Kuchisake-Onna we¡¯ve been looking for. A fire lit inside of me. A fire of determination, that is. ¡°What do we do?¡± Minato whispers. ¡°Let¡¯s try talking to her, I have the candy.¡± ¡°Alright, I hope this isn¡¯t a bad idea¡­¡± Minato mumbled. We slipped on our shoes as we slowly opened the door. Cool air greeted us as we slowly made our way over to Kuchisake-Onna, who walked on the sidewalk. She turned to us as we open the door. My heart quickened. ¡°Uh¡­ Kuchisake-Onna!¡± I call out, way louder then I should¡¯ve. ¡°Kuchisake-Onna? Oh no, I¡¯m a human! I just happen to look a lot like one.¡± I paused. I looked at her, then at Minato. ¡®Are you kidding me? Was I wasting my time looking for a supposed Kuchisake-Onna when it was a human all along? Seriously?¡¯ I thought. But I managed to not let my annoyance slip. I asked, ¡°Wait, so, you¡¯re human?¡± ¡°Of course! Wait, are you the humans Naoko-chan has been talking about?¡± Minato and I widen our eyes and glance over at each other. ¡°Yes!¡± ¡°Naoko-chan said you guys were looking for a Kuchisake-Onna that spoke words any regular Kuchisake-Onna would never say, how¡¯s that going?¡± ¡°We just solved it!¡± Minato turned to me with a rare smile. ¡°Wait, how? Oh¡­ that would be me. Naoko-chan¡¯s gonna be so annoyed, she wasted all this time on this, urgh!¡± She facepalmed. ¡°Have you figured out what¡¯s with the regular Kuchisake-Onna appearances?¡± I asked. ¡°Nope.¡± ¡°Well, now that we¡¯ve finished that mission, maybe that could be our next mission?¡± ¡°Of course! I¡¯ll inform Naoko-chan right away! Oh, by the way, what are your names?¡± ¡°I¡¯m Keiko, and this is Minato.¡± ¡°Nice to meet you two, I¡¯m Kagami! You should probably go back to bed now, sorry for the trouble,¡± she bowed before racing down the street and disappearing. We slowly made our way back inside. I heard voices upstairs and my heart sank. ¡°Shoot, I hope we didn¡¯t wake anyone up,¡± I mumbled to Minato as we made our way back up the stairs. ¡°Keiko, Minato! What was that?¡± Mom ran up to us in her pajamas. ¡°We just stepped outside the house for a sec, couldn¡¯t fall asleep, no biggie,¡± the lie smoothly fell out of my mouth. Mom breathed a sigh of relief and went back to her room, while Papa joined her soon after. Minato and I gave a knowing look to each other before we headed back into my room, where all my friends sat in a circle, waiting for me. And then, this part isn¡¯t anything special, we chatted quietly until everyone felt tired again and headed back to bed. I didn¡¯t bring up what Minato and I were doing, but they definitely heard the door. No mention of Kagami-san or anything. Shoot, thinking about it, I didn¡¯t even catch her last name. She seemed very sweet and cool. And pretty young, how old is she anyway? Lore Dinner 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. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. 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.