"We have arrived at Akita Airport. Please depart the plane with care, and we hope to see you again!"

The airport was already bustling in the wee hours of morning. Throngs of people, both tourists and locals alike, streamed in and out of terminals at a steady rate, focused on only their destinations. Amongst this colourful assortment of people was a woman in her early twenties, dressed in warm winter clothing that seemed to hinder her more than help as she struggled to squeeze through the crowd with her bulky luggage in tow. It took her a good thirty minutes to navigate her way to the closest taxi stand, flag down a cab, stuff her luggage into the trunk and slip into the backseat with a weary sigh, but she managed to get there in the end.

"Good afternoon, sir. Please take me to this address," she said breathlessly, handing the reptilian driver a wrinkled slip of paper. He extended a scaly hand, pinching it between two talons with practised ease as he squinted at the messy scrawl. "Are you able to find the way?"

He gave a grunt of acknowledgement. Jerking the gear stick in place, he began to pull away from the taxi stand as the woman breathed a sigh of relief, leaning into the leather seats. Finally, she could rela—

Then there was a sudden bang from behind the vehicle.

A shriek of surprise caught in her throat, she shot up in her seat at the same time the taxi screeched to a halt, nearly catapulting her forward. The woman managed to catch herself in time, her heart thumping hard. "What was that?" she gasped. Did something hit the taxi? Or was it the taxi that had hit something. Or someone …

Unable to bear the thought any longer, the woman flew out of the backseat, nearly tripping head over heels in her haste to check out the situation. "Please, please, please be okay," she chanted under her breath. She reached the back of the taxi, already bracing herself for the worst as she faced… nothing?

The woman blinked in disbelief. It looked as though the trunk lid had been blasted open, and her luggage had somehow been opened with its contents strewn across the trunk interior and road. If she didn't know any better, she'd have assumed it was the work of a villain, but a quick glance around her confirmed that no one else was in sight, and that nothing was missing from her luggage. "What the hell happened?"

"Is everything alright, ma'am?" the driver asked gruffly, peering around to look at her.

"Um, yes! Yes, just give me a moment!" the woman yelped, dropping to her hands and knees as she scooped up her belongings.

The incident was definitely odd, but the woman was far more concerned with recovering her belongings and not inconveniencing the poor taxi driver. So concerned, in fact, that she completely missed a strange mass of what appeared to be twine slithering up the pavement, nor did she notice it beginning to take on a solid form behind a nearby tree as she slammed the trunk lid shut and returned to the backseat.

=0=

The humanoid swathe of threads stayed crouched behind the thick trunk until the vibrations of the massive metal machine faded into nothingness. When it was sure that no living thing was in its vicinity, it straightened into a standing position and began to shift, squirm, and meld into a more solid shape.

The silver threads coiled tightly together to form a child's body from the feet up. Once the general shape was set, the individual strands smoothed over to become skin, hair, and everything else that made up a human body (except for the arms). Eyes blinked open, and a little girl wound up standing where the sentient pile of string once was, naked except for a thin layer made of the same material from head to ankles.

The girl's face scrunched in concentration, and the layer rippled into a flimsy cloak that hung loosely from her frame. She gave herself a brief once-over, humming in satisfaction with her current state… before abruptly collapsing to her knees as a wave of exhaustion slammed into her.

"Ow," she whimpered.

Her head hurt. Her stomach growled fiercely. Her throat felt like it was scrubbed raw, allowing only hoarse squeaks to pass as the girl tried to steady her breathing. She just felt bad in general, not that she was surprised. She had spent about eleven hours in thread form in a suffocating luggage.

The hood of her cloak rustled, the strange threads lining the inside squirming in the air like a snake as it formed a disembodied mouth next to her ear. Any other person would have screamed bloody murder, but the girl barely reacted beyond flicking a glance at it.

After all, why would she fear her own friend?

"How do you feel, Maria?" the mouth whispered, lips brushing against her earlobe.

Her head swam as she tried to formulate her answer, but she somehow managed a faint, "Hungry. Tired."

"Figures. It seems that I made the right decision to get us out of that blasted luggage earlier than planned." More threads wriggled under her chin to form two slender fingers that gently tilted her head up. "Chin up, sweetheart. Hold on for a little while longer, and I can find some food and water for you."

Maria gave a tiny nod, but didn't move from her spot under the tree immediately. There was still one more thing she had to know; something that had been on her mind ever since they had snuck onto the plane. "Beatrice… Why did we come back to Japan?" she murmured hoarsely. "I thought you said it's too dangerous?"

"It was too dangerous," the mouth dubbed "Beatrice" said. "Until I've heard of his defeat at the hands of that blonde hero, whatever his name is." A breathy chuckle that tickled her ear and made Maria giggle. "We shouldn't let the fear of a dead man keep us out of our home country, don't you agree?"

Maria nodded without much thought. She didn't care much about the boogieman that her friend spouted about for years, anyway; her stomach was desperately calling for attention, and she didn't want to make it wait for any longer.

"Where can we find food?" she mumbled, wincing as she staggered to her feet.

"Ah, right, right. Let's see… If my memory serves well," The two fingers pointed northward, "there should be a neighbourhood in that direction. Go forth, and you can have all the food you can ever wish for."

Another weak nod, and Maria began her lopsided gait towards the indicated direction. It had been years since she and her friend had last set foot in their home country (all because of this "big, bad, evil villain"), casting any memory she had of it in a murky haze. Not all of it was lost, however, and she was eager to see how much had changed.

Oh, if only she knew just how hectic her life was going to be from here on out…