"What are you doing! Let me go! I can walk!" I yelled as I was being dragged to her room. Damn. Whoever this girl is, she's pretty and she can run fast. Her black hair flowed as we ran up the flights of stairs to her room. It was pretty short as her speed made two flights seem like mere seconds. She kept her grip on me and gripped even tighter. I could feel the blood flow being constricted in my left hand as her grip tightened. Luckily, it wasn't for a long time as we soon arrived at her door. She quickly pulled on the door handle and charged in with me dangling behind.

Instantly slowing down, she propelled forward into the kitchen to the nearby fridge. The recoil from the sudden release of her grip knocked me back so I almost fell backwards onto my head. Again. Hearing the slam of the fridge, she runs out of the kitchen holding an ice pack in her hand and takes my left arm in her other hand.

I sigh in relief as my head hovered a mere foot above the ground. Thank God for this girl's reflexes. She led me over to the table in her kitchen and gestured for me to sit down in one of the chairs. I obliged, sitting down and resting my injured arm on the table. It was red and looked a bit swollen. She handed me the ice pack and I put it on my arm.

Holding the ice pack on my painfully throbbing arm, I felt bliss as the pain subsided from the cooling sensation of the ice pack. I sighed in relief. The girl, noticing me sighing, asked, "Are you alright now? You need anything?" I responded, "Not really." I looked around her apartment from one of the wooden chairs at her square dinner table.

The decor was modest. In fact, I only saw a few things out of the ordinary in her apartment such as a telescope out on the balcony and some books in a small bookshelf talking about youkai and the paranormal. Brushing it off as meaningless, I looked back at looked at me and then said, "I'm really sorry about earlier. Are you really sure you are okay now? Do you need something?"

Recalling the entire incident which ended up with me getting here by her pulling me up the stairs and shoving me into her apartment, I realized something. What the hell was up with that girl with the weird hairstyle running out of the apartment? I decided to ask her about it.

"So...", I tapped my index fingers, treading cautiously as I tried to figure out how to ask my question.

"What is it?", she said with great concern. She couldn't really look at me for too long as she blushed and turned away.

"Who was that girl? The one that ran out and bumped into me. Was she a friend of yours by any chance?"

She stared at me and I stared back. It seem I touched a nerve. Her eye twitched and her look of concern started turning into a look of anger. Dropping the ice pack on the table, I get up trying to avoid the awkwardness and the potential meltdown, and head toward the door to her apartment. As I put my hand on the door handle, she said,

"Wait." I stopped, took my hand off the doorknob, and turned my head to face her.

"What is it?"

"Do you believe in the supernatural?" As she finished that question, I froze. I instantly turned 180 degrees around and looked directly at her. Taken aback by the question, I responded, "What." The lady at the gas station had asked me that same question! Something was going on here. She then continued with a slight snarl for emphasis, "You heard me. Do you believe in the supernatural?" A bit infuriated, I shouted, "No. I don't believe in the supernatural. I bet you are going to ask me about the youkai." Looking shocked, she stood there speechless with her mouth agape. Meanwhile, I angrily continued, "Well. Let me get one thing straight with you people. I don't believe in that bullshit. I only believe in facts. I only believe in things you can actually prove and youkai aren't one of them and I don't give a rat's a-" She puts a hand up, shushing me. It grew silent for a minute as I waited to see what she had to say.

"The reason I asked that question was because... How should I put this." She paused, putting her index finger and thumb under her chin as she thought to herself." I went to the kitchen and sat back in the chair, holding the ice pack against my arm. The pain had mostly subsided, but there was a still a dull throb in my right forearm. It'll probably heal in a few days if not by tomorrow. I had the feeling that whatever she was going to say, it was going to take a while. She came over to the table and took a seat as well in the other chair. "That girl with the red hair ribbon." I nodded to show that I knew who she was referring to. "That girl was from another world."

Processing the statement she just said, I reacted. By laughing in her face. "That's the biggest load of bullshit I have ever heard. Another world. Please. Next, you'll be saying that I'm an alien.", I said. I looked at her and the serious expression made me realize that she wasn't joking or trying to pull anything. I instantly shut up and said, "I'm sorry, please continue.", in a meek voice. She continued, "That girl is a shrine maiden from a world called Gensokyo. I was chasing her to ask her questions." Thinking that this entire explanation was a farce as my suspension of disbelief could only take so much, I replied, "Are you sure that she wasn't trying to run away from you because you are stalking her? What the hell is this Gensokyo anyway? How do I even know that you aren't pulling my leg?"

She sighed, then said tiredly with great frustration, "I wasn't stalking her. I was trying to interview her, but she panicked and ran off. We don't really know much about Gensokyo other than the fact that it's a world that is inaccessible to most and that the paranormal resides there." I wasn't buying this nonsense. First of all, there was a lot wrong with what she just said.

"You do realize that I can't believe you right?", I pointed out. Bewildered, she huffed and indignantly replied. "Well why not?"

Rattling off points, I said, "Well. How do you know it exists if it's inaccessible to most? Surely that implies that next to no one has observed it, therefore even less evidence of its existence? Also, "we"? Who else is with you? And how do I know that girl is who you say she is? She could just be some harmless normal stranger." I looked at her with a smug grin on my face. "Got anything else to say?" She looked angry with her eyes having an aggressive squint to them… Then, she took a deep breath and sighed. "Well look. I can't prove it to you but my friend Maribel can."

I looked at her quizzically. "Who the hell is Maribel? Some sort of accomplice of yours? Actually, wait a second here. Who are you?" I especially emphasized the last word.

Looking at me, she sighed and said, "I'm Renko Usami and I'm a member of the Secret Sealing Club."

Author's Note: Another chapter of Sealing Club done! I'm amazed at the amount of progress that I've been doing these last few weeks with my fanfictions. I mean, when I first started, I never thought I would actually have decent readable stories. Can't get complacent now though. Gotta keep writing more! I'm excited to see what is next. By the way... I will try writing longer and longer chapters to get rid of the irksome layout. Please rate and review so I can get better. If you want more stuff, go check out my other stories. Operation Detachment needs some attachment!

-Kaito Sekozawa