"Hey. Do you have any idea where this place is?" Nesu asked politely, hoping the man would stop staring and answer. It's not like she'd ever been much to look at.

"You can speak? That makes things simpler, I guess." Ginko smiled his usual lopsided smirk. "This place is the koumyoku, the light flow."

"Gee, I wonder how they came up with that name?" She asked sarcastically, rolling her eyes at the glowing river.

"At least it's descriptive." He tried to hide his grin by taking a pull from his cigarette. Okay, what she is, she was definitely human. But what a strange accent! Where could she be from?

"Still doesn't answer the question of where this is. I have no idea how long I've been down here or what I'll find when I leave."

"Well, this isn't a place in the proper sense of the word so where doesn't really apply. As for what you find when you leave, I can only say for certain what you'd find if you came with me."

"And that would be?" She stood and approached him, trying to keep her tattered clothes covering the important bits. She hadn't noticed them becoming damaged.

"A forested mountain, not far from the sea. I was on my way to visit a friend who lives by the shore." He grinned at her. "Did I hear you laugh awhile back?"

"Oh, that." She smiled. "I was remembering a fish that couldn't mind its own business."

"Fish? In the koumyoku?" He was extremely curious.

"Are there normally fish there?" She evaded the question.

"Well, I haven't heard of any . . . "

"Then it might not have been a fish at all." She looked passed him, and then out into the dark. "So, how do I get out of here?"

"Hm. If you were human I'd suggest opening your eyes, since humans usually find the koumyoku by closing their second eyelids. For an ordinary mushi, it isn't an issue: they can find their way instinctively."

"So how about for someone who was recently human and seems to have changed into something else?" She raised an eyebrow at the man.

"Ah, I thought you must have been previously human." He nodded as if making a mental note. "Well, I've never met anyone here who couldn't find their way out so I'm not sure what you should do. I could say 'follow me' but all I have to do is open my eyes to leave."

"Guess, then." She rolled her eyes again.

"I've got one idea." He grinned as he offered her his hand.

She took it cautiously, not entirely sure what would happen. His hand felt perfectly normal, like any other human hand, and she relaxed. To him, her hand caused a tingling sensation in his skin. It wasn't unpleasant, but was definitely inhuman.

"Here goes nothing." He took another puff of his cigarette and closed his eyes.

As he opened his second eyelid she felt a very strange sensation. The light from the koumyoku faded and the darkness seemed to blur. When he opened his eyes normally, she found herself standing next to him in a forest. Between the trees, in the distance, she could see the sparkle of sunset on the ocean waves.

"That . . . was weird." She stated as she exhaled a breath she hadn't needed and hadn't realized she was holding.

"Welcome back to the world." He grinned at her. "Do you have a name?"

"Nesu. You?"

"Ginko."

"Another descriptive name, if it's Japanese."

"Of course it is, we're in Japan aren't we?"

She blinked several times, and then sat down hard on the ground.

"Are you alright?" He asked.

"Definitely not." She pulled up her knees and buried her head. "I wasn't in Japan when I fell . . . "

"The koumyoku must have carried you far, then." He sat down next to her. Fell? That might explain the scream, but how could I have heard it if she wasn't even in the country when it happened?

"You're not speaking English are you? You're speaking Japanese?" I can't speak Japanese! Not fluently anyway . . . did Nui think in Japanese? Could I have picked it up from her?

"I think I've heard a few words in English, but we're speaking Japanese right now." What an odd question for her to ask . . .

She groaned. "I think I liked things better when I thought I was dead or insane. This doesn't make any sense."

"If everything made sense, I'd probably be out of a job." He grinned clearly trying to cheer her up.

She looked up, an eyebrow raised.

"I'm a mushishi," he explained, "I work with things normal people can't see, hear, or feel on a daily basis. I study the mushi and help people deal with them when necessary."

"What exactly is a mushi? Doesn't the word usually mean bug?"

"Ah, the kanji is different when talking about insects. A square above a horizontal line, the two connected by a short vertical line." He quickly sketched the symbol in the dirt. "For the creatures I deal with, the kanji is a trio of these with one above two others." He added two more symbols below the first but next to each other. "This kanji is older than the simpler one, and refers to an order of organism far older than ordinary insects."

"Okay, so they aren't bugs. What are they?"

"A form of life close to the source of life itself." He held out a hand where she could see it. "Say that my four fingers represent animal life and the thumb plant life. Humans would be here," he touched the tip of his middle finger, "the point furthest from the heart. As you move down the fingers to the palm, the animals and plants get less complex." He traced the path as he spoke. "Down at the wrist, the line between animal and plant blurs and you find fungi. Further, near the elbow, you'd find bacteria. Up at the shoulder things are hard to identify. But here," his hand rested near his heart, "is where you find the mushi. So ancient and so close to the essence of life that most of them don't even have material forms."

"Interesting. So where do I fit in?"

Ginko was at a loss for a moment. "For as far back as there exist records of mushi, there have been incidents where humans have become mushi. Usually it is through what we call the mushi banquet. In a forest filled with mushi, the mushi will choose a human. They draw this human deep into the forest where the mushi then take on a human-like form. They then offer the human a sake cup filled to the brim with kouki, the light wine, the distilled essence of life. When the human drinks, they shed their humanity and become a mushi that retains their shape, memories, and often their personality. There are other circumstances where a human can take on the characteristics of a mushi, but I don't recall ever hearing about someone falling into the koumyoku and surviving to become a mushi like you."

"So I'm a freak then?" Her sudden laugh startled him. "I think I can live with that, for now anyway."

"You are a very strange person." Ginko grinned at her.

I might just end up liking this world after all, you meddling catfish. Nesu thought to herself.