The day has come with the Sun showing through the clouds over Portland. The window in August's apartment has the light shine through in his room. August is still asleep at the computer desk with his monitor still on and the hum of the computer still going.

August's smart phone is ringing its tune, looping time and time again going unanswered. The ringing has finally roused him out of his slumber, slowly opening his eyes and sitting up on his computer desk and stretching. His eyes were half open, he hears his phone ringing and he looks at the monitor and sees the time in the corner of the screen; his eyes widened in shear horror of the time. It reads as Twelve Forty-Five PM on the computer's clock.

"Shit! I'm late!" August scolds himself; he's wide awake now and full of adrenaline. He makes a beeline to his phone to answer it, already anticipating Yuuko giving him grief for being late. To his surprise it was someone else.

"August?" a confused Nina spoke on the phone.

"Nina, you caught me at a very crummy time right now. Can you call me later?" August answers Nina.

"Have you heard at all from Markus?" Nina asks him with concern in her voice.

"Huh?" August mutters.

"I haven't heard from him all morning." Said Nina, concerned behind the phone. "I tried calling his parents; they told me he must have left for work or something. If that were the case I could have heard from him then."

August raises a brow; this was the first time he had heard Markus not responding to any calls to him from Nina. He scratches his chin deep in thought wondering how that could be.

"I'll tell you what; I'll look into it for Markus. He might still be reeling from that whole incident yesterday. If nothing turns up about him being at work, I'll investigate." Said August. He dresses himself in a clean set of clothes and combs his hair. "Right now, I am already late for my work."

"Did you oversleep?" Nina asks August.

"Not my proudest moment." August answers. "I'll touch base with you if anything changes."

"Okay, I'll do the same." Nina responds back before hanging up.

As the call ends, he makes his way out the door of his apartment and on his way to Yuuko's shop in a mad dash to make up for lost time. Along the way he gets a quick stop for food, Panda Express being the one place he can think of to get food fast that to him is at least dignified enough for her.

He exits the fast food place in a rush with the food bags. He grimaces after leaving the restaurant. "I hope she's okay with fast food." Said August. He was about to step forward only to meet his eyes on a small creature that stood in the middle of the road just looking at August. It looks like a rabbit with antlers. "Is that… a Jackalope?"

The small creature in question hops over to August, still looking at him. No one else around August sees the small rabbit creature that lopes towards him. He wasn't surprised anyone hasn't seen the Jackalope in the middle of the city.

The Jackalope stood on its hind legs and looks up at August with his front paws tugging on his jean leg. August steps back away from the rabbit creature only for him to hop to him again and have his paws on his jean leg again.

"You're lost aren't you?" August asks the Jackalope. He didn't get so much as a response from the Jackalope as the little invisible creature's nose twitches endlessly as he looks up at August. "I'm gonna take that as a yes then little guy."

A little while later, at the shop, the door opens slowly with August peaking in. He sees that she's wearing a simple kimono with yellow and orange patterns on her clothes. Yuuko is lying on her couch throne looking to be in pain.

"Do you know what time it is?" Yuuko groans weakly. "So starving… need to eat!"

"I am so sorry Yuuko." August slowly enters the room. He holds the lunch out for Yuuko to have. "It isn't exactly that good but I hope you're okay with Panda Express."

August shows Yuuko the bag of Chinese food to her and she stood up and came to the bag of food immediately on sight and snatches it out of his hands and marches to the dining room in her shop.

"Food! Glorious Food!" Maru and Moro sang as they follow behind Yuuko to the dining room table.

August sighs as he watches her disappear to the dining room with Maru and Moro following behind her still singing Food Glorious Food. "Guess she's too hungry to care right now." August said, wide eyed and surprised that she took the food with such speed.

"Food! Magical Food! Wonderful Food! Marvelous Food! Heavenly Food! Beautiful Food! Glorious Food!" Maru and Moro can still be heard singing from the dining room.

The Jackalope stood by his side the whole time still looking at the spectacle and August looks at him. "Eh, just give Yuuko a moment. I was very late for work today." Said August, then his stomach starts growling and he remembers he bought food for himself too. His eyes widened in terror at the prospect of not having anything to eat yet. He rushes to the dining room. "Wait! I got food for myself too!"

The Jackalope quietly hops along, following August to the dining room to see everything going on.

Later on in the dining room, Yuuko wipes her mouth clean with a napkin after gorging herself on the take out August had bought her. She sighs in satisfaction to having her fill of the Chinese food. August looks to Yuuko seeing that she's got food in her stomach after being hungry for so long.

"For the record, I'm still so sorry for keeping you waiting." August apologizes.

"It's not Fox made stew, but I am grateful all the same." Yuuko said as she smiles. "You've overslept, hm. You went looking for answers last night, did you not?"

August frowns and glances away. "Yeah." August confirms to her slowly. "I felt the need to investigate."

"You know you can't help Markus if you don't know exactly the full story, August." Yuuko said. "It will all unfold in time. For now, he is safe."

"Right…" August spoke then immediately paused remembering earlier. "Oh, that's right! Nina is wondering where he's at!"

"He's safe." Yuuko spoke plainly.

"Wait, you know where he's at?" August asks Yuuko with inquisitiveness.

"Want to know?" Yuuko coyly asks as she plays with her hair.

August was momentarily taken aback by her question. Of course he wants to know. "Why do you think I ask?"

"Are you positive you want to know?" She asks coyly again. "You might not like the answer."

"Correction; I need to know!" August now shouts.

"Well alright then, I'll give you your answer." Yuuko said serenely with a bit of playfulness to her response. "But first, if I recall you have some time to make up for being late."

"Dang it, but I saw that coming… I'll get on it." August said before sighing. Then he remembers a small thing he brought along. "Oh yeah, before I get started with work, this little guy followed me here. I'm assuming that he's lost as heck."

The Jackalope looks at August then glances at Yuuko, his nose twitching constantly.

Yuuko glances at the antlered rabbit that tilts his head as her red gaze looks at the horned lagomorph. Her playful smile never left her face seeing the rabbit as she looks to August. "He isn't a customer but he belongs to someone that is a customer of mine." Said Yuuko, now confirming August's suspicions.

"Well that makes it easier." August says with relief. "Is there a way we can contact the owner, this little guy's clearly a spirit so I can imagine that he belongs to another spirit."

"She is not so easy to reach." Yuuko stated plainly. "Ame Warashi more or less spends most of her time in the spirit world, only ever coming around a few times to this world unless it's raining in the area as that is when she's around most likely. In short, she's a Rain Sprite."

"So a fairy is what this Jackalope belongs to." Said August.

"Yes and no; she has been raising this little Jackalope since he was an infant. Aside from the rain, she has a very strong affinity to nature." Yuuko explains.

"So you want me to go into the forest where most of the other spooks are at?" August said with a raised brow and an annoyed tone in his voice. After saying that, a subtle tapping on the roof started with water droplets hit then followed by a gentle hum with the rain falling down in Portland comes down.

Yuuko smiles at August. "Looks like your search may have gotten a lot easier." Said Yuuko.

Later on in the rainy day that has come to Portland, August has brought along the Jackalope in his search for Ame Warashi with umbrella in hand to protect himself from getting drenched in the rain. The small rabbit creature follows close behind, hopping about with August with every step he makes. He looks around the groups of people that are running away out of the rain and going indoors, unfortunately they all looked the same as none of them seem to be seeing the small Jackalope next to him.

The small horned rabbit lopes about following August where ever he went. It was some brief hour into their search before the little lagomorph picks up a sound in his ear. He stood up and faces in the direction in the opposite direction of August.

August looked around a bit more before experiencing a lot of pain on the back of his head.

Thwack!

"Ow!" August screamed in pain and holds the back of his head stumbling forward and faces the person that has hit him so hard, with an umbrella. "What in the hell was that for?!"

Standing in front of him stood a youthful woman that appears to be in her late teens in a simple Victorian style black skirt with a black umbrella to match the style that would have been mistaken for her going goth if not for her rose colored red hair. Her hair is worn in short and tight curly pigtails with black ribbons holding them up. The girl in question looks angry up until she sees the Jackalope hopping towards her in rapid speed and going circles all around her. "Oh there you are! What were you doing in a city like this?" The red headed girl happily exclaims as she picks up the Jackalope.

"Excuse me?" August says, still rubbing his head, still very annoyed that she has hit him on the head with an umbrella and not having his pain be acknowledged. "Mary Poppins, did you just hit me?"

Upon being referred to as 'Mary Poppins' she hits August on his head again with her umbrella in annoyance. "First of all, I'm not Mary Poppins!" She angrily declares. "My name is Ame Warashi!"

Already feeling a couple of bumps forming on his head, he now understands that she's the one he was looking for. "Oh, so you're the rain sprite Yuuko was telling me about."

Taken aback by the name she smirks. "So you're the new worker." Ame Warashi said whilst holding the Jackalope in one arm. "I thought I'd sense Yuuko being around here, it was only a matter of time before she got herself a new worker."

"Yeah, that's me you clobbered. I was trying to get the little guy back to you." August said as he keeps rubbing the bumps on his head. "How in the world did he even get here in the first place?"

"He has no business being over here to begin with." Said Ame Warashi, she has a concerned look on her face looking at the Jackalope before facing August still with a small scowl on her face. "The energy around here, this poison, could have killed him slowly."

August looks towards the Jackalope that is in the arm of Ame Warashi, looking concerned for the little creature. "I honestly wouldn't have known." He said. The thoughts of seeing the smoke coming off of people, that noxious aura some people have emitted have come crawling into his mind. "Sad thing is I actually know what you mean."

"Well, that's one medium that gets it." She said, Ame Warashi was expressionless upon hearing August say it. She sighs then looks at August. "Yuuko has picked you for a very good reason, you know."

August looks at Ame Warashi, with his brow raised. "How does that make me special?" He asks.

"That's going to be for you to learn about." She replies. She slowly fades away into water droplets along with the Jackalope going to another place not in Portland. "But I think you'll catch on eventually."

"Catch on to what?" August asks now curious of the answer. But before he could get an answer from Ame Warashi, she and the Jackalope vanish in a sprinkle of water droplets. "And she never said thank you."

Not long after, August returns to the shop, still rubbing the bumps on his head. He sees that Yuuko with both the Mokonas sat casually at the veranda drinking sake in the rain. Yuuko sees him and waves at him. He comes into the cover avoiding any more rain falling on him.

"I see you've found Ame Warashi?" Yuuko said matter of factly.

"The bumps on my head gave it away didn't it?" August sheepishly said as he rubs his head, still feeling the umbrella's marks on him.

"Watanuki experienced her wrath like you." The Black Mokona said before taking a drink.

"Clearly." August replied. He has the thought of what Ame Warashi has said to him earlier but he knows that questions now just seem to cost him some effort. For the time being he just needs to figure out where Markus currently is at. "So Yuuko, want me to do anything before you lay it on me to where Markus is at?"

Yuuko brightens up with a smirk. "I've told you before, he's safe, but if you really needed to know so badly, I'll tell you." She answers August. "But first, my Treasure Room needs dusting again."

"I'll get on it." August said before heading off to the Treasure Room in Yuuko's Shop to dust everything in it off.