A Big Girl comes into his life

by Claidheamh Mohr

An Investigator for the Museum of Cryptozoology gets lost in the Canadian woods and meets a girl. A frost giant's daughter, here are their adventures.

118. Chapter 118

A visit to Youkai island

The change in the pitch and vibrations of the engines woke Lorna Yamada from her slumber.

Rising from her bunk in the massive Martin Mariner she yawned, scratched and stretched a bit before leaving the sleeping berth the plane had come with.

Heading towards the front of the plane she glanced up at the flight deck and saw Roger and Freya at their stations, had they flown most of the day? She wondered.

Ducking underneath the flight deck she got up inside the former front machine gun turret where Lana was sitting and looked out through the clear dome of the plexiglas cover.

There dead ahead lay an island, a green jewel in the ocean's vastness, one of the many they had flown over since entering this part of the Pacific and the plane was headed straight towards it.

Was this Hahajima Island, where her cousin Mikura Amelia lived?

She hoped so.

Lana murmured, "I wonder if there's anyone like me there? It would be lovely to see after all the 'civilization' of Quezon City!"

Lorna glanced at the tiny menehune and muttered, "Don't remind me, that was too crazy for words!"

Leaving the front viewing station, she stood up between Roger and Freya and asked the age old question so often heard by travel weary parents, "Are we there yet?"

Roger chuckled and replied, "Almost there, now get back to your seat and buckle in, we're landing on water this time and it could get a little bumpy!"

As Lorna bent down to head back she heard Roger say, "And make sure Christina's up and buckled in, please!"

Grinning she replied, "Roger! Roger." and went to wake up Christina and get her buckled in.

Christina reluctantly got up and toddled to her seat still holding onto her blanket.

Strapping herself in, she drew the blanket over herself and closed her eyes once more. She was going to get her sleep no matter what!

They felt the sea plane sinking as it came closer to the water.

Lorna glanced out the small window on her right side and saw that the early morning sea was fairly smooth, a good morning for fishing as her uncle Tamatsu would attest while he readied his fishing gear.

She smiled to herself, he would be sooo jealous right now if he knew where she was!

The plane shuddered as it settled onto the ocean waters and rapidly scrubbed off speed.

Soon the plane was gently rocking on the water as it was being maneuvered closer to a mooring buoy.

Roger called out, "Lorna! Tie us off to the buoy please!"

Unable to resist, she replied, "Roger! Roger."

She laughed when she heard him mutter, "How much farther to Hokkaido?"

Opening up a small hatch near the dome, she deftly tied off the heavy sea plane to the colorful mooring buoy just inside the entrance to Oki harbor at Hahajima Island.

"We, are here!" Declared Roger, "Hahajima Island at last!"

Lorna laughed and said happily, "My cousin's gonna be sooo surprised to see me and to meet you guys!" she clapped a hand on Freya's shoulder as she sat in the co-pilot's seat.

Freya cheerfully remarked, "Ah've ne'er been tae Japan afore, thes oughtta be interestin'!"

Lorna grinned and said, "We've still gotta stop by Sapporo to drop me off remember? You'll get to see more of Japan up there."

Christina remarked, "I've been to Tokyo with my parents to go shopping, but that's about all I've seen of Japan. It's kinda hard to believe this little island is a part of Japan. Then again, the Philippines has seemingly thousands of islands too."

Roger laughed and said, "This isn't really Japan in a sense, these small islands make up only about two percent of the population and some have quite the ethnic mixing from the people that were already living there before getting annexed by the Japanese. This is real island living here!"

After a final check on all the systems and seeing all green, Roger shut the engines down and activated the post flight cool down system.

The auxiliary engine started up and supplied electrical power to charge the huge batteries, which power the starter motors, which periodically turned the engines over while small electric fans blew air over the top cylinders and cooled the oil.

When the engines had cooled down to the ambient temperature, it would shut itself off, thus extending the life of the eighteen cylinder Wright Cyclone R-3350 engines.

A small boat with a flashing blue strobe light on it and a placard proclaiming it to be the 'Hahajima Island Harbor Patrol' motored up and the fellow at the wheel waved and hollered in Japanese at the bikini clad Lorna, "*Welcome to Hahajima Island! Are you staying long?*"

Lorna grinned at him and hollered back. "*We're staying a few days, I'm here to visit my cousin, Mikura Amelia!*"

The harbor patrolman grinned and switched to English, "I can give you folks a lift, I'll pull alongside!"

Soon, he had pulled the boat alongside the Mariner and smiled as the side door opened up.

Lorna and Christina hopped into his boat and proceeded to catch the luggage as Roger handed it to them and they stowed the bags in the patrol boat.

Roger then hopped into the patrol boat and stood at the gunwale to take Freya's hand as she emerged from the bulky Martin Mariner.

The patrolman gaped as he realized that Freya wasn't just tall, she was impossibly tall at just under three meters in height.

He was so fascinated by her height and her looks that he completely missed seeing tiny Lana peering out of a messenger bag at Freya's hip.

She paused to lock the Mariner's door and gracefully stepped into the small boat before sitting down. Sitting down in his seat, the harbor patrolman gunned the engines and they settled in for a breezy ride to shore.

As they approached the ramshackle docks, a 1930's Fairey Swordfish torpedo bomber with 'Mikura Amelia air service' boldly emblazoned along its fuselage hove into view, the patrolman grinned at Lorna and said, "You're in luck, she's home!"

Roger grinned and said half to himself, "Now there's an aircraft with some history behind it! I wonder where it came from and who maintains it?"

Pulling alongside the dock, Roger climbed out and quickly tied the patrol boat off, then they all climbed onto the dock.

Lorna looked over at the float plane and after a few moments exclaimed, "There she is!"

She turned to the harbor patrolman, bowed and thanked him profusely.

He just smiled and said cheerfully, "It's all in a day's work for me, plucking fair damsels and giantesses out of the sea!"

Lorna grabbed up her suitcase's towing handle and pulling it behind her, scurried over to the float plane.

A tall, slender woman of predominately Japanese parentage was standing there gazing curiously out at the Martin Mariner tied off at the mooring buoy.

Lorna hollered, "Mikura! It's me, your cousin!"

Mikura's face gaped briefly and she hollered back, "Lorna?! What're you doing here?"

The two embraced and hugged each other while laughing gaily.

Separating again, Lorna turned towards the rest of them and said happily, "Mikura, these are my friends Freya Sigurdsdottir and Christina Aquino, Roger is Freya's companion. I grew up with Freya and knew her from when she was only 183 centimeters tall, now she's about 280 centimeters tall. Thankfully, she finally stopped growing, otherwise, she wouldn't be able to visit my parent's ramen shop any more!"

Mikura laughed while she looked Freya up and down before saying apologetically, "I don't mean to be rude, but I had no idea you were this tall. Lorna has mentioned you in letters she'd sent me, but seeing you in person is something else entirely!"

Freya shrugged and casually replied, "'Tis nae problem, Ah hardly notice th' stares any more. Lorna didnae tell me ye were a pilot an' had a float plane ay yer own."

Mikura grinned and replied, "I inherited it from my grandfather, Brian Amelia. I also got my height from him too. Is that your sea plane out there?"

Freya grinned and replied, "Ah don't own it but Ah dae fly it, Ah hae a pilot's license too."

At Mikura's big grin, Lorna commented drily to Christina, "Maybe letting them meet wasn't such a great idea after all, they could be talking airplanes for hours!"

Christina could only shrug, their towering mutual friend was an avid pilot who thought nothing of flying thousands of miles.

They had already visited Los Angeles, California, the Hawaiian islands, Wake island, Guam and the Philippines as part of an island hopping excursion and were next heading north to Sapporo, Japan and Lorna's aunt Meiko.

Stopping off at Hahajima island was sort an impulse stop.

"Come on up to my place, you can stay with me!" announced Mikura and they all trundled their luggage up the steps leading to her house, part way up the hill overlooking the Oki harbor of Hahajima island.

On their way, they climbed past a small inari shrine that featured a torii gate that stood by itself and seemed largely forgotten.

Her house was a study in organized chaos, with bookshelves overflowing with nautical and flying related titles.

A battered rolltop desk lay covered in various maps and tide charts while on the wall hung a large map covered with notes and map coordinates scribbled in pencil. Obviously, it was a work in progress and occupied a fair amount of Mikura's spare time.

A large, black cat greeted Mikura with a plaintive 'miaow' and Mikura stopped what she was doing to feed her cat.

The cat briefly paused at the sight of Freya and Lana and slowly began to eat.

Mikura smiled at her cat and said half apologetically, "She's not the friendliest cat I've known, but she is a good judge of character."

Freya said quietly to Roger, "Thaur's maur tae 'at cat than meits th' eye."

Mikura asked curiously, "What did you say?"

Freya smiled at her and said, "Yer cat is verra interestin', Ah was just sayin'."

When all had settled down, Lana emerged from the shoulder bag she had been riding in.

Standing at her full height of two feet, she stretched and said in her squeak of a voice, "It feels good to be standing on dry land again!"

The cat did the closest thing to a double take Roger had ever seen any cat do and Mikura gasped, "What, is that?!"

Lana bowed towards her unwitting hostess and said, "My name is Lana Llacuna and I am a menehune from O'ahu, Hawai'i, pleased to meet you!"

Mikura laughed and said gaily, "Of course you are and I am Mikura Amelia and it is a pleasure to meet you too! Although my disagreeable old cat might have something to say about that!"

The cat 'Merped!' and Roger chuckled before saying, "That's a feline version of 'as if!' if ever I heard one."

Once they had settled in, Mikura made some tea and served it in the living room as it was the only room with a high enough ceiling for Freya to stand up in.

With everyone sipping at their tea and noshing on a light snack, Mikura asked, "What brings you by here, of all places?"

Lorna smiled at her cousin and replied, "Actually, we've been flying about the pacific for the last three weeks. We left Portland, stopped in L.A. For a few days, flew to Hawaii, spent a few days there learning how to surf and met Lana. We started island hopping after leaving Hawaii. We stopped at Wake island, went skinny dipping in their lagoon and paid our respects to the ancestors in Guam. Next was Quezon City in the Philippines, where we stopped for a few days to visit Christina's grandmother who almost wouldn't let her leave!

"We left Manila in a hurry and flew here in one hop, I asked to stop here in case you were at home and was planning on stopping at Oshima island, if you were not."

Mikura grinned and replied, "You're lucky I was here y'know, I could've been anywhere among these islands from here to Oshima Island delivering packages and you would've missed me."

Roger shrugged and commented drily, "We kind of planned on stopping here for fuel anyway and got lucky!"

Mikura grinned and said, "And if I was out?"

"It wouldnae been th' first time we slept oan the water, th' waves can be verra soothing." Replied Freya with a smile.

Mikura rummaged around in her shambles of a kitchen and finally declared, "We're going out to eat, I haven't enough food to feed myself, let alone you all!"

With that, they trooped back down the hill and strolled along what passed for the main drag on the island.

Freya was the object of everyone's attention on an island where a six foot tall person was an oddity, her being nine feet two inches tall with red-gold hair twisted into two thick braids and her Norse goddess looks, certainly made the islanders stop and stare as she passed by.

For some reason, Lana attracted little notice, it was as if they looked right at her, yet couldn't see her.

Was she being mistaken for a doll? Thought Roger.

They soon found what passed for a restaurant and settled into some outside chairs.

Mikura smiled at the server when she came out to take their orders while managing to not stare at Freya.

After all, how many frost giants had visited their small group of islands?

They ate the local delicacy, battered and fried squid and tempura veggies and instead of soft drinks, a large bottle of sake helped to wash it all down.

After they had eaten their fill, they went for a stroll along the shore, away from the brightest part of town.

There, the night sky was truly dark, much like it had been at Wake Island and Mikura smiled as she pointed out a small constellation glittering in the starry vault, far above them.

"That's Lyra, the brightest star is Vega, in Japanese folk lore it represents Orihime the 'weaving princess', a deity who is allowed to see her lover known as Hikoboshi the 'cow man' AKA the star Altair, only once a year during the seventh day of the seventh month, the festival is known as Tanabata. The rest of the year they are separated by the sky river known as Amanogawa, or the Milky way."

Roger commented, "Lyra is also known as Orpheus' harp as it was placed in the sky after his death in memory of his music and songs."

Pausing, he continued, "In Celtic mythology Lyra is known as 'Talyn Arthur' or 'King Arthur's harp', it later became known as 'King David's harp' and is on the coat of arms for Ireland."

Freya squinted at them and remarked, "Amang me fowk, Lyra is kent as th' antlers ay Dainn, wi' Vega bein' Dainn's eye."

"Your folk?"

"Aye, me fowk, we call ourselves Jotuns, th' Skandis called us frost giants."

Mikura chuckled and said cheerfully, "Here in Japan, you would be thought of as an oni, which is another way of saying ogre. Only you lack the horns but do have the size!"

"That would explain why everyone is staring so much, Freya is like something out of your mythology." Muttered Roger.

He looked at Lana and said, "What I don't get is why no one seems to notice you, you're not even trying to hide but no one seems to have noticed you, is it something you're doing?"

Lana shrugged helplessly, she didn't get it either.

Freya simply shrugged and remarked pleasantly, "Noo Ah ken wa Japanese fowks at Lorna's ramen shop woods tak' pictures ay themselves standin' next tae me, tae prove 'at they had seen an 'oni'."

Mikura laughed and said gaily, "You'd be a real hit up in Hokkaido when they have that big snow festival. Dress you up as an oni, color your skin red and put some fake horns on you, charge five hundred yen a picture to pose for the tourists...You'd make some real money!"

Lorna chuckled and commented, "Shit, the cold wouldn't bother her any, it seems like the colder it gets, the better she likes it!"

Christina giggled and remarked, "Freya, I love you, you're one of my best friends, but most people do wear a jacket in the wintertime. Seeing you in only a long sleeve shirt and jeans even on the coldest days, makes me cold just looking at you!"

Freya just smiled at her friends.

They sat on the sand gazing up at the indigo sky, marveling at how starry it was.

Being several hundred miles from any large city, on an island amongst a group of islands, meant the night sky was very dark and shocklingly starry.

They heard giggles and childlike voices as a small group of children strolled by just behind them.

Roger glanced over at them and realized with a start that some of the children had what seemed to be, animal ears and tails.

He looked more closely and shook his head, the kids were just average kids without furry ears or tails.

He blinked a couple of times and thought, 'It has been a long flight and I am tired. I'm just seeing things'.

The kids had nearly passed them by when one of them noticed Freya sitting there on the sand, even sitting down, her size was apparent.

The kid stopped in his tracks and declared, "*Hey! Is that an oni I see?*"

The group stopped suddenly and peered at them closely.

The tallest, a boy, stepped forward and asked in halting English, "Please excuse rudeness...Are you an oni?"

Freya grinned at the stalwart boy and replied, "Ah'm nae oni but Ah am a Jotun, a frost giant. Ah'm frae Canada. Me name's Freya, Ah'm pleased tae meit yer!"

For emphasis Freya suddenly stood up straight, briefly towering over the wide eyed children.

She then hunkered down and knelt on the sand, extending her hand for the small boy to shake, he smiled and took her hand.

"Kawanichi, Keiichi" He said, "Most people call me K1 for short."

Freya grinned at him and said cheerfully, "K1 it is then."

Next, one of the girls stepped forward and introduced herself as "Kurona"

Mikura chuckled and remarked cheerfully, "I have a black cat I call Kurona, what a coincidence!"

The girl merely smiled at her remarks and replied, "Yes, it is a coincidence."

The girl glanced at Lana, but said nothing.

The rest of the children simply smiled shyly and waved.

Shortly after that Keiichi declared, "Well, it's been a pleasure meeting you ma'am, but I've got to get these kids back home."

The children all waved goodbye and headed off to the hills above the small town.

It was nearly ten when they climbed back up the hill to Mikura's house after arranging for a fuel delivery to the Martin Mariner in the morning.

Kurona the cat was waiting for Mikura to feed her and yowled noisily until she was fed.

Mikura smiled at her cat and said as she filled her bowl, "I met a girl named Kurona tonight, I guess you're not the only Kurona around here after all."

The cat gave the feline equivalent of a shrug and proceeded to daintily eat her food.

Mikura fired up the water tank heater and remarked, "The bath water will be ready in about twenty minutes."

She eyed Freya's long frame and commented, "I'm not sure if my bathtub is nearly big enough for you, even sitting all curled up."

Freya only shrugged and replied, "'Tis nae problem, Ah'll manage."

Mikura scratched her head and said apologetically, "I hope you don't mind sleeping in the living room, the ceilings are low in the rest of the house. It's an older house and people were smaller then."

Christina, who stood only four foot six giggled and said, "I can sleep anywhere and your bath tub will be like a swimming pool to me.!"

Freya grinned at her diminutive friend and retorted, "Ah'll remember that next time ye need a star placed atop th' Christmas tree."

While waiting for his turn in the bathroom, Roger stepped outside Mikura's ramshackle house and looked around.

Below him was the harbor where a few boats could be seen at their moorings.

To his left was a workshop where a spare Bristol Pegasus radial aircraft engine lurked beneath a protective tarpaulin.

Briefly, Roger wondered where Mikura got her parts from, then he remembered how scarce parts were for Moby Dick.

She undoubtedly had resources.

He became aware of a presence near him and when he looked, he saw Mikura's large cat Kurona scrutinizing him without comment.

He smiled at her and said softly, "It was you I saw down on the beach earlier tonight wasn't it?"

Kurona merely blinked in reply.

Roger chuckled slightly and said, "Freya and I have the 'sight', the other two girls don't, although they are aware of our 'neighbors', your secret is safe with us."

Moments later, the girl form of Kurona was standing there, only she hadn't quite finished transforming as her cat ears and tail were still showing.

Roger smiled at the naked cat girl and said, "If we get a chance, I'd like to talk to you before we leave, I'd love to hear your story."

Kurona merely smiled at him and reverted to her cat form before she went off in search of mice, her tail straight up.

Roger stood outside Mikura's house for a few minutes more before he went back inside to take his bath, thinking about his brief exchange with the young cat girl.

What else would he see before they left Hahajima Island?

That night he and Freya slept together as Mikura did not care about their 'sleeping arrangements' and back in Freya's wonderful arms once more, he slept quite well indeed.

The next morning Mikura had to deliver some packages and took Lorna with her.

Leaving Christina to fend for herself while they were gone.

She went for a walk and found the town's only laundromat was open for business.

Enlisting the aid of both Roger and Freya, she lugged their suitcases full of dirty laundry down to the laundromat and cheerfully declared, "If anybody needs me, I'll be right here!"

Leaving her to her devices, they borrowed a boat and took it out to where the Martin Mariner was moored.

There they met with the fuel boat Mikura got her aviation fuel from and while the operator was topping off Moby Dick's fuel reserves, Roger and Freya checked the oil and the fuel filters and sediment traps.

Seeing that fuel filters and sediment traps were clean, Roger looked into getting into the bomb bays.

The small boat they'd borrowed was too small to be stable while Roger was up on the ladder and trying to get at the reserve oil.

It turned out his idea worked fine on a hardstand, at sea it didn't work.

Getting oil jugs out of the bombays proved to be nearly impossible, so Roger got into the emergency oil jugs stashed in the passageway leading to the disused tail gunner's position.

Making a mental note to look into adding more jugs to the inside storage, Roger topped off the oil tanks while the plane took on fuel.

Having achieved their obligations to Moby Dick's care and feeding, they went to see how Christina was coming along with the laundry.

They found her cheerfully folding and piling up a surprisingly large pile of freshly washed and dried clothing.

Seeing the look on Roger's face she said defensively, "We're girls, we go through clothing 'cos we like wearing pretty things!"

"I gathered that." replied Roger with a grin.

"Any word from Lorna?"

"Nope, she said they were heading to another island to deliver some packages and should be back by late afternoon."

Roger thought for a moment and asked, "Did she say which island they were going to?"

Christina frowned slightly and said, "It sounded like Chichijima?"

Sighing, Roger commented, "We'll at least know where to start looking if they don't come back, then we'll kill them for scaring us!"

Having said that, Roger began helping Christina fold clothing while Freya watched over the laundry machines.

They made for quite the sight to the islanders, a towering young giantess with red-gold hair and Norse goddess looks, a tiny Filipina and a sunburnt white man, all sitting in the laundromat washing and folding their clothes.

By late afternoon, they had not returned and Roger began to worry.

A Fairey Swordfish was a small plane and if it was adrift on the ocean, it would be merely a speck of white against the deep blue-green of the ocean's vastness.

To take his mind off their situation, he fed Mikura's grouchy old cat Kurona and while he was feeding her he muttered, "Tomorrow, if she hasn't turned up, we're going to look for her, if you have a psychic connection to her and wish to come along, it would be appreciated."

Kurona merely 'Merped' in reply and chowed down on her food.

That night Roger lay in bed with Freya thinking about Lorna and her cousin Mikura somewhere out there, possibly lost at sea.

Having slept only fitfully, Roger rose before dawn and got dressed.

Leaving Mikura's house as the sun peeked over the horizon he walked briskly to the harbor patrol's station house near the docks.

Knocking on the station's door roused the patrolman they'd met the day they arrived.

He stood in the doorway blinking the residual sleep out of his eyes while Roger related his concerns about Lorna and her cousin.

The man nodded a couple of times, then briefly closed the door to undo the chain and opened the door to admit Roger.

The station's small office had the usual institutional and functional furnishings common in government offices the world over.

He excused himself to go and pound on a door as he shouted in Japanese.

Smiling at Roger he said drily, "The rest of my crew."

Roger nodded in sympathy and remarked, "I'm ex-military, I feel your pain."

Smiling at Roger's comment, the patrolman sat down at his communications terminal and began looking over the stream of data.

Before long he saw what he was looking for and said, "Mikura activated her plane's distress transponder some two hundred fifty kilometers north of here."

He paused, "Now why would she have done that?"

"Done what?" asked a very concerned Roger.

He looked over at Roger and said, "Flown north like that, there's pretty much nothing there, people wise."

"Unless..."

"Unless what?"

He swiveled in his chair, looked Roger in the eye and said, "Unless she's gone off looking for the wandering island again."

"What, wandering island?" demanded Roger.

The patrolman looked over at a large wall map showing the Bonin island chain and the Izu island chain.

He swept his arm over the map and said, "There have been numerous sightings of an island that wasn't on any charts going back decades, possibly longer."

Roger paused a moment then said, "Is this something like the legendary 'Anson archipelago' that appeared on maps up until the early twentieth century?"

The patrolman chuckled and replied, "Not quite, but it's similar..."

While he talked, the door he had pounded on opened and three other harbor patrolmen came into the room and took up their positions.

Shortly after that, a voice came over the radio and the day's radioman answered the call.

They talked back and forth for several minutes until the call ended and the radioman reported it to his boss.

After hearing the report, the chief harbor patrolman turned to Roger and said, "That was the Captain of the Akashi Maru."

He paused, "It seems his ship picked up the distress signal and went to respond. They've picked up two young women and one half sunk floatplane and are bringing them here for treatment."

"Any real injuries?"

"Cuts and bruises mostly, they were given emergency first aid and are resting at the moment."

"And the plane?"

"Recovered, although it will be needing lots of repairs."

Roger felt himself letting out his breath with a whoosh at the news.

He had a feeling they had really dodged a bullet and when he had a chance, he would sit them down and demand an accounting.

"When can we expect the ship?"

The chief glanced at his clock and said, "Sometime this afternoon, the Akashi Maru is a cargo vessel, speed is not one of its virtues."

Roger chuckled at his dry humor and said, "Sometimes carrying capacity outweighs speed."

Thanking the chief for his time, Roger plodded up the hill back to Mikura's house.

He came in and found Lana, Freya and Christina up and busy in Mikura's shambles of a kitchen.

Christina glanced up from her cooking and asked, "Any word on those two?"

Roger sighed and said, "It seems Mikura had activated her emergency distress signal sometime last night around two hundred and fifty kilometers north of here."

Pausing to let that sink in, he continued,"Early this morning, a captain Morita of the Akashi Maru radioed to announce his ship had recovered Mikura's airplane and two young women with cuts and bruises. They were treated for the cuts and bruises and are due in port sometime this afternoon."

"Whit's next?" asked Freya.

Roger said quietly, "We may be here a bit longer than we had planned waiting for Lorna to recover. The report said 'cuts and bruises' but that's only a preliminary report, a physician may find something else the ship's medic had missed."

Kurona's plaintive 'miaow' interrupted him and Roger smiled at the large cat.

He said, "They've found Mikura and are bringing her and the plane home, hopefully it is repairable and her injuries are fairly minor."

He smiled, "Although, I imagine you're more interested in food!"

"Merp!" replied Kurona and Roger set about feeding her.

The large cat followed him outside where he set down her food dish and as she began nomming hungrily, he said quietly, "You've probably heard what I said earlier, we're likely to be here a few more days while Lorna heals up. Please bear with us and if you feel like talking to me, I'm all ears."

"Merp!" replied Kurona as she continued noshing on her fish bits for her breakfast.

Having fed Kurona, Roger entered the cluttered workshop where he'd seen the Bristol radial engine under a tarp and began nosing around.

Cluttered the shop may have been, but it had a surprising amount of Bristol engine parts, carburetor and magneto bits, enough to keep the Fairey Swordfish flying for many years to come.

It also had quite the assortment of British standard aircraft fasteners, more than Roger had ever seen before.

He chuckled and thought of a few museums that would kill to have these fasteners in stock.

"Finding anything interesting?" spoke a voice behind him and when he turned around he saw the catgirl Kurona standing before him.

Roger smiled at his interrogator and replied, "I'm marveling at all the parts on hand to keep that old plane flying."

Kurona glanced around at the shelves laden with parts and commented, "Brian Amelia got them when he bought that airplane. It took him weeks to get it all up here and sorted out, I watched him during one of my earlier lives, before I became a bakeneko."

"How many more youkai live here besides you? What I thought I saw the other night wasn't a fluke, those were youkai I saw you with."

Kurona smiled and asked her own question, "Who exactly are you, you show up unannounced with a giantess and a foreign wood spirit. You have the sight and you saw me for what I am. Again, who exactly are you?"

Roger grinned and said, "Answer my question first and I'll tell you everything."

Kurona looked at him steadily and finally said, "I'm not sure exactly, they come in through the torii gate and stay for a few days or more, then they return to where they came from."

"During winter, cold air will come through the gate when some of them arrive, so I figure it's snowing where they live. Otherwise, I don't pry."

She gave him a cat got the canary look and said, "Now, you!"

Roger grinned and began talking.

He gave her a brief synopsis of what the museum's mission was and how he and Freya were now a part of that museum as she had donated her grandmother's extensive library in the Jotun language.

Kurona nodded at his remarks, then her catlike ears twitched and a moment later she was once again, a large, black cat placidly licking one of her paws.

Footsteps came around the corner and Freya appeared, "Ah, thaur ye ur, th' harbor patrol chief jist cawed, they'll be haur verra suin."

She noted Kurona's presence and said, "Ye can cam it noo, Ah ken yer a 'neighbor' e'en ef yer 'owner' doesnae ken th' truth, Ah dae."

Kurona merely blinked a couple of times as she mulled over her response, then a moment later, a naked cat girl stood in her place.

The girl gazed at Freya calmly and said, "Happy now?"

Freya smiled brightly and said, "Och aye, Ah am. Ah loch havin' things it in th' open when Ah gab tae someain Ah jist mit."

Roger cleared his throat for attention and asked, "What did they mean by ' very soon'?

Freya shrugged and replied, "Sometime in th' next hoor ur sae."

Nodding at her reply he glanced at Kurona and asked, "Do you know if there's any kind of medical care available here?"

Kurona smiled and replied, "There is a small medical clinic here for minor injuries or illnesses. Anything requiring a hospital stay will have to go to Tokyo for treatment."

She grinned, which revealed a bit of fang and said, "We're not that primitive here even if Mikura likes to rough it a bit, we're still in the modern age."

Roger mulled over Kurona's reply and said, "I suppose the Harbor Patrol will have a medically trained staffer on hand and they can make a determination of the extent of their injuries."

Christina suddenly appeared and announced, "Breakfast is ready!"

Then she saw the naked cat girl who had managed to hide her ears and tail the moment Christina arrived, and said, "Oh, hello...Do you live around here?"

Kurona nodded her head and said, "I live here with Mikura."

Christina nodded slowly and asked, "Do you need me to get you any clothes? I can lend you some of mine, I've got plenty of clothes!"

Kurona smiled slightly and replied, "I don't usually wear clothes, my fur protects me from getting chilly. I only look like this so I can talk to people that I choose to speak to."

At Christina's confused look, Roger said quietly, "She's never seen a bakeneko before, although she has seen many of our 'neighbors', even if she didn't remember seeing them the next day."

Kurona nodded at his remark and a moment later, her ears and tail had reappeared to Christina's delight.

Smiling brilliantly Christina said brightly, "Have you had breakfast yet? We made plenty!"

Kurona smiled slightly and said, "A second breakfast would be nice."

With that settled, they went inside Mikura's house and sat down at the kitchen table while Freya sat at an improvised table she'd put together.

Lana smiled at Kurona and said, "You make a pretty cute girl! You oughtta try that more often."

Kurona merely nodded and said, "If I do that, then humans will expect me to act like I'm one of them. I prefer being in my true form, that of a cat, it's easier that way."

Roger asked, "Would you be interested in telling your story? The museum I work for collects the stories of our 'neighbors' and researches the origins of many legendary beings, yourself being a prime example!"

Kurona looked at him skeptically and said, "What will you do with my 'story'?"

"Add it to our archives for scholars to study."

Gesturing at Freya he added, "We have the library her grandmother left her for starters, and we have added many other volumes of forgotten lore. Anything you tell us will be added to the archives where it will be safe."

He grinned, "For example, your remarks about the torii gate being used by youkai to come here from Japan, is not something I was aware of and it will be duly noted by me."

"It also makes me wonder if torii gates in other parts of the world can also be used for traveling purposes?"

Kurona merely shrugged and replied, "You'd have to ask the black kitsune who lives in the shrine, she would know."

Roger nodded and said, "I'll try to talk to her after Mikura and Lorna get back."

A short time later, a deep note was sounded by the ship's horn of the Akashi Maru as it arrived.

Leaving the house, they trooped down to the docks and watched anxiously as the ship's crane lifted the battered Fairey Swordfish from the ship's deck, swung it over the docks and eased it down where it could float safely.

Moments later, Lorna and Mikura came down the gangplank looking a bit worse for wear.

Lorna's eyes met Roger's and he said, "So, what happened out there?"

Lorna muttered, "Can we talk about this at the house?"

He smiled slightly and said, "You look better than I had imagined, better than you should look considering how Mikura's plane looks right now."

Lorna sighed and said quietly, "Can it wait? I'm still trying to process it myself."

"Sure thing, kiddo."

Mikura talked to the harbor patrol people as they were looking over her battered floatplane, while Roger and company waited for her to finish.

After several minutes, she signed off on some documents and took a copy for her personal records.

"What's going on?" asked Roger.

Mikura sighed and remarked, "The plane needs work obviously and right now? I need a drink!"

Roger smiled, "Sake, beer, wine or something stronger?"

Mikura muttered, "Sake I got, stronger? That will require stopping at the market's liquor section."

"We can do that."

Mikura smiled and set off towards the island's only market at as brisk a pace as she could manage, with her cuts and bruises hampering her mobility.

Arriving at the store, Mikura walked in while everyone else waited outside.

A few minutes later, she reappeared with a bottle of amber colored liquid wrapped in a label printed in Japanese.

Holding up the bottle she said, "Suntory, it's good stuff!"

Setting off again she headed towards her house up on the hill.

Once inside the house, she kicked off her shoes, unsealed the bottle and poured herself a very stiff drink.

Glancing over at Lorna she held up the bottle and waggled it, "Drink?"

Lorna shook her head in a no and said quietly, "I'm not much of a drinker, sorry."

Mikura looked at her cousin and remarked, "You're full blood Japanese and you don't drink?"

Lorna shrugged and replied, "Tried it, didn't like it, although I've had some beer now and again."

Mikura shrugged and muttered, "More for me then!"

And she downed most of her drink in one go, paused to catch her breath then finished the rest of her drink in short order.

Roger whistled softly and muttered, "Damn girl, you don't kid around do you!"

Mikura refilled her tumbler first then looked at Roger before saying, "I was so damn close! All the signs were there, radar picked up a large school of whales, there was a cloud moving against the wind and I could see the lights!"

She swallowed most of her second drink and belched loudly before resuming her narrative, albeit with slightly slurred speech as the Japanese 'Scotch' worked its magic.

"I started to circle it for a better look, it was like nothing I'd ever seen before. It reminded me of that town near France, that monastery Mont Saint-Michel, the one surrounded by water at high tide."

Finishing off her second drink she muttered, "This place was like that, only it was moving! It was freaking moving!"

The whiskey was starting to hit her pretty hard now and Roger quietly hid the bottle, to keep her from getting even more drunk.

Mikura began crying, "They shot at me! The freaking islanders shot at me when I only wanted to look! They hurt my poor plane!"

Her eyes lost their focus and she staggered outside where she threw up noisily.

Roger said to Lorna, "Give her as much water as she can stand, she'll thank you in the morning."

Nodding at his comment, Lorna filled a large drink cup with water and went outside to see to her cousin.

Freya looked over at Roger and asked, "Does th' museum ken ay thes, floatin' island?"

Roger replied, "It does now."

He stepped over to the large map covered with notes and sighting coordinates and looked at it with renewed interest.

Taking out his smartphone, he took several pictures of the map overall and a few more detailed photos before he spent a few moments texting some notes on what he was looking at.

Sending everything to himself in an email, he put his phone away and simply looked everything over.

Something out there had inspired all this laborious undertaking and unfortunately, the sole source of knowledge about this was heaving her guts out, just outside her ramshackle island home.

He'd ask her about it after she had recovered from her hangover.

After putting a very drunk Mikura Amelia to bed, Lorna came out of her bedroom and sat down with a deep sigh.

Staring up at the ceiling Lorna said, "We flew up to Chichijima Island to deliver a few packages and pick up a few more. Then we decided to fly up to Mukojima just to check it out."

She paused to collect her thoughts, "That's when Mikura got all excited over something she saw on her radar screen, she started going on about this place she called 'Electric Island'.

"Next thing I know is that we're headed out to sea looking for this electric island as she called it."

Lorna shivered slightly and Roger handed her a blanket to cover herself with.

After a few more moments of reflection, she said, "We saw this low hanging cloud ahead of us and Mikura flew towards it. As we got closer I could see lights through it like a misty curtain. Once we got through that there was this mountain of rock all covered with buildings, much like that place Mikura mentioned earlier."

Lorna paused, "Mikura began banking the plane to fly around this thing so we could get a better look at it, it was all pretty cool seeing this place in the middle of the ocean just drifting along."

She glanced at around at everyone and said, "Then they started shooting at us! The first shots were fired from old fashioned guns like you'd see on a pirate ship or something. So Mikura flew a bit higher to get out of their range even though they'd still fire at us.

"It was kinda funny seeing the gun fire and watching the cannon ball fly harmlessly below us. During our third time around the island they tried a more modern gun and that one nearly hit us!"

Lorna hugged herself and said, "Mikura dived to avoid that shot and came too close to the water, the plane got caught on a higher wave top and next thing I knew we'd crashed.

"The plane settled into the water about halfway and all we could do was watch while the island floated away from us like were nothing to them! The bastards didn't even check to see if we had survived or not."

Sighing, Lorna muttered, "Mikura activated her distress signal and we just sat there waiting until the Akashi Maru arrived and fished us out of the water."

She smiled slightly and quipped, "That's my story and I'm sticking to it!"

Roger let out his breath with a sigh and said, "You two, are very lucky, had any one of those shots hit that plane, it would've been all over for you guys."

Looking over at Mikura's bedroom door he said,"Once sleeping beauty in there wakes up and is coherent enough to make sense, I'm going to sit her down for a little chat about responsibility."

Roger looked over where Kurona in cat form sat quietly observing them.

He grinned and said, "While you two were out getting into very big trouble, we had an interesting encounter of our own."

Gesturing towards Kurona he said, "You can come out now, Lorna and Christina are a couple of the good guys, they can be trusted."

Christina simply looked puzzled while Lorna glanced over at Kurona with a baffled expression on her face and said, "Who can come out?"

A moment later she exclaimed, "What th..." as she watched Kurona transform into her cat girl form.

Christina merely gaped, she had already seen Kurona as the naked young girl who needed clothes and ate breakfast with them that morning.

"Who...Wha...How? How did you do that?" spluttered Lorna as she gaped at Kurona's cat girl form sitting across from her.

Kurona stood up and stretched much like a cat will do before she sat down like a human girl wearing cat ears and a cat's tail.

Lorna simply started laughing and Freya commented drily, "That's it, th' lass has gain a bampot, th' stress was too much fur 'er."

"Coming from the girl living in a house full of giant wolves and tiny sprites, with a fat lizard that lives in a fireplace and starts fires, that's rich!" muttered Lorna.

Lorna gestured at Kurona and said, "I'm looking at a youkai, a bakeneko from Japanese mythology and everything I've seen on this trip has been really out there and I'm not supposed to react? Puh, leeze!"

Lorna then stood up, bowed towards Kurona at the proper 15 degree angle and said, "My name is Yamada Lorna, I am Mikura's cousin through her mother, please excuse my rudeness in not introducing myself properly."

Taking that as a cue, Roger also said, "My name is Roger Tate, I work for the Museum of Cryptozoology as a field investigator."

He gestured towards Freya's towering form and said, "Freya here is my companion and is a Jotun from Canada, she works in the museum's research library. Her full name is Freya Sigurdsdottir."

Freya smiled and nodded at the cat girl as she said, "A pleasure tae meit ye!"

Christina bowed in her seat and said, "I am Christina Aquino, I was a class mate of both Lorna and Freya's. Pleased to meet you!"

Finally Lana stood up, bowed towards Kurona and said, "I am Lana Llacuna, I am a menehune from Hawai'i and a fellow traveler. Pleased to meet you Kurona!"

Kurona smiled at all of them and said, "I am Kurona, at the end of my ninth life, because I wished to stay near my family, I became a bakeneko."

She nodded and bowed slightly, "It is a pleasure to meet you all."

The next morning when Mikura returned from the dead and emerged from her room still bleary eyed, she found a bubbling fizzy seltzer waiting for her.

Mumbling her thanks she downed it in one go and grimaced.

After a paroxysm of belching, gut clenching and mere burping, she groaned and put the glass in her sink.

Freya murmured, "Noo woods be th' time fur one ay me mom's hango'wer teas, oanly Ah didnae bring onie."

Looking bleary eyed at everyone, she clapped her hands together, bowed deeply and said, "I humbly apologize for my stupidity, in my zeal I could have gotten myself and my cousin killed and ended up wrecking my grandfather's plane in the process."

She turned to Lorna and repeated her formal bow while saying, "Please forgive your stupid cousin who nearly got us killed by getting too close for our own good."

Straightening up again she noticed Kurona sitting quietly while wearing one of Christina's tee shirts and little else.

"Oh, hello, have we met? I'm Mikura."

She squinted at the girl and said, "I think I saw you the other night down on the beach, you were one of the kids we saw walking past us."

Kurona smiled and replied,"I was with those kids, yes."

Roger cleared his throat and said drily, "Kurona has something to tell you, but her inner cat can't resist toying with you like you were a mouse."

Mikura looked at Kurona again and asked, "Your name is Kurona? My cat is named Kurona."

Kurona grinned, which showed a hint of fang and said, "I know, you gave me that name when you were little."

Then her cat ears and tail emerged while her face became more cat like in appearance.

Mikura's eyes nearly bulged from her head, then they rolled back in her head and she fainted dead away, in a classic swoon only lacking a handy fainting couch, she collapsed to the floor.

In the ensuing silence Roger could be heard muttering, "Well, that could've ended better. Her fainting like that, I didn't expect!"

After a few moments Mikura recovered from her swoon and sat up looking a bit embarassed before she said, "Sorry about my fainting like that, with everything that's happened lately, I guess it was a delayed reaction?"

She glanced over at Kurona who had morphed into her girl form.

Hesitating a bit she said, "Just a few moments ago, I could've sworn you had cat ears and a tail...I was seeing things wasn't I?"

"Wasn't I?"

Kurona smiled and replied,"You weren't seeing things Mikura, I really do have cat ears and a tail when I'm half morphed."

For emphasis, she held out her right arm and everyone saw it morph into a cat's arm and paw, which she caressed Mikura's face with while smiling at her facial expression.

In a voice which was almost a purr, she said, "I am a bakeneko, and I became one because I couldn't bear to leave you after my ninth life had ended."

Kurona morphed into her true form and slipped into Mikura's lap, purring all the while.

Mikura held her closely and began weeping softly while Kurona purred quite loudly for her size.

The two snuggled together for a few moments until finally, Mikura looked at everyone there and said,"I never once thought Kurona was anything other than our old kitty, I never even questioned why she had lived so long, now I know why the Kurona of my childhood is the Kurona of my adulthood. She's a youkai, how cool is that?!"

Kurona slipped from Mikura's lap as she morphed into her cat girl form to sit beside her.

Mikura sighed and muttered, "This almost makes up for me crashing my granddad's plane, how'm I gonna fix it?"

Roger said quietly, "Perhaps Freya and I can help some? We share a hangar with a restored B-17 bomber, one that Freya has spent many hours working on."

Mikura said quietly, "Do you guys think you can fix it?"

"Let's take a look at it before we write it off as a loss, shall we?"

Roger glanced over at Freya and she smiled in agreement.

He grinned and said, "Might as well go look at it right now, maybe it simply looks worse than it is."

Mikura smiled and said, "After I've gotten some food in me, I'm starved!"

Roger grinned, "Forgot all about your hangover did we?"

Mikura smiled and said coyly, "Nothing like seeing something amazing to make one forget one's troubles!"

Minutes later, the sight of Mikura, Lorna and Christina all busily clattering about in Mikura's rough and tumble kitchen made Roger smile.

How many times had he seen a similar sight back at the their house in Portland?

Only those times had also involved a 260+ year old vampire, and a warrior of indeterminate age, several millenia at least.

A slightly built human girl partnered up with a beautiful northern wood nymph, not to be mistaken for a faun!

And of course, the ever silent silk clad house spirit who ran things.

He'd long since lost count.

The food was good and was gladly eaten by all concerned.

After the hastily assembled meal was finished, they trooped down to the dock where Mikura's battered Fairey Swordfish sat forlorn.

The wings had been folded back to make it easier to place on the rescue ship's scanty deck.

After looking it over, Roger and Freya extended the wings to better look them over.

He grinned, "These old warbirds certainly were built tough in those days!"

He sighted along the upper wing and said, "This one's straight, we can use it as a yardstick to check the lower wing."

He called out, "Freya, how do the floats look?"

"They swatch guid tae me!"

"They're straight?"

"Och, aye!"

Taking a measuring tape, they measured the wings to see if the lower one had been tweaked out of line with the upper wing.

Mikura in the meantime, had checked the packages she had picked up at Chichijima and found they had ridden out the crash quite safely in the watertight stowage compartment her grandfather had built into the floatplane's fuselage.

She said happily, "The packages are safe, if I hurry I can get them to the post office before it closes!"

She grabbed them all and trotted off to the island's post office, her long braids flying as she ran.

When she had gone, Freya called out, "Th' reit lower win' tip is tweaked abit a scuttle inches lower than it shoods be."

Roger pondered her comment and said, "How do the struts look on that side, any of them torn loose or broken?"

A few moments later he heard,"Och aye, th' front strut has a broken brackit at th' bottom end."

Leaving the left side wing, he stepped over to Freya's side and saw what she meant.

The bracket had fractured along a weld and had probably spared the wing further damage by yielding to the impact when the wing tip had dipped into the water.

Roger glanced at his towering companion and asked, "Do you think you can tweak that wing back into shape?"

Freya merely grinned at him, took hold of the wing's tip and twisted it back into place, "Loch thes?"

Roger laughed and said, "Yeah, something like that!"

Mikura came walking back with a receipt in her hand and she asked, "Any hope for my plane?"

Roger smiled at her and replied,"Actually, it's in better shape than we expected. The lower wing is tweaked a bit on the right side where it dipped into the water when you took evasive action."

Beckoning to her he pointed out the broken bracket and said, "This is what gave way when you hit the water. If you have any extras we can replace this after Freya has finished tweaking the wing back into alignment."

Mikura looked thoughtful and muttered, "I think we have some of these, I'd have to check to see. If not, can we get it fixed?"

"Yes, it's just a simple brazing job for someone with a welding torch."

Rounding up Lorna and Christina who were chatting happily with a couple of the local fishermen, that is Lorna did most of the talking while Christina merely looked adorable.

The fishermen laughed when Mikura asked them to return her wayward cousin and her friend and as they climbed the hill back to Mikura's house and workshop.

Mikura asked Roger, "This museum you work for...They collect people like Kurona?"

Roger chuckled and replied, "A zoo, it is not. We seek out the sources of the legends and folk tales from around the world. I can check with my own boss and have her contact our Japanese branch and they can get in touch with you and Kurona. I know they would love to see her and hear about that island you've been after."

Climbing past the small shrine with its torii gate, Roger got the distinct impression someone was looking at him from within the shrine even though it was too small to have an occupant.

He merely glanced over at it, nodded his head in acknowledgement and continued climbing, fixing Mikura's plane was more important at the moment.

He'd visit the shrine later on.

Arriving back at her house, Lorna and Christina went inside while Roger, Freya and Mikura entered her grandfather's workshop.

Roger stood looking over the many cabinets filled with spares for the Fairey Swordfish and commented, "There's enough parts in here to keep that bird flying for decades to come!"

Mikura looked around briefly while muttering to herself, then finally she said, "Ah,there it is!" and reached for a drawer labelled "Bracketry".

Pulling it open she took out a sealed package and opened it.

Moments later, she held up a brand new old stock bracket with a triumphant gleam in her eye.

Dropping the old bracket in its place, she closed the drawer and said, "Grab that tool bag, we're going back down!"

"Yes, ma'am!" said Roger and they trooped back down the hill to work on her plane.

Back at the plane, the lower wing bracket was replaced and the strut was moved out of the way so that Freya could apply her strength to straightening out the tweaked wing.

Using the measurement of the left side wing as a standard, the three of them put their backs into twisting the wing beyond its original position, so it would spring back to the correct dimensions.

Once that was accomplished, the strut was moved back into place and reconnected to the wing's bracket, then safety wired to secure the fasteners.

They turned their attention to the cosmetics end of things.

There were a few tears in the fabric along the fuselage and Mikura remarked, "I have some silk span, needles and threads and silver paint to repair this up in the shop."

She looked up at the sun and muttered, "It's a little late in the day to get started on a sewing project..."

Roger chuckled and remarked, "That's why they invented tomorrows!"

"But first!" he said as he unlocked the wing's hinge and swung the newly straightened right wing out of the way with ease.

Mikura clapped her hands and said cheerfully "Bravo!"

Roger grinned at her and said, "Barring unseen damage to the engine, we should have this bird back up in the air fairly soon."

Mikura remarked, "We'll take a look at the propeller before we go back up, I do have a spare propeller blade or two in stock."

With that in mind, they looked at the propeller and after finding it wasn't bent, they pulled the engine though a few times to make sure it was turning freely before trying to start the engine.

Roger grinned, "Looks good to me!"

Freya looked in the back seat where the gunner's position was and remarked, "Ah think Ah might fit in thes ef Ah sit aw hunched up!"

Mikura laughed and said, "I sometimes sleep back there if I'm out overnight."

Freya grinned at her remark and said, "Uir plane has a galley fur cookin' scran, a rest room an' fower bunks fur sleepin' in."

She smiled, "Ah sleep oan th' floor meself."

Mikura stared at Freya for a few moments before she said," I did hear you say your plane has a small galley for cooking, a restroom and four bunks, did I not?"

Freya smiled and nodded a yes.

"And you sleep on the floor?"

Freya nodded again.

Mikura looked up at Freya's towering height and said, "No bunks can fit you?"

Freya merely shrugged, "Mair room tae sleep oan th' fluir."

"Ah"

Taking one last look at the Fairey Swordfish still looking a bit the worse for wear, Mikura said, "Flying close to that floating island was the stupidest thing I could have done."

Shaking her head she muttered, "And I got my cousin involved to make it even worse."

She smiled at Roger and Freya, "You guys helping me out was a real God send as you both knew what to look for."

Freya grinned and remarked," Ah've bin helpin' it wi' restorin' a B-17 bomber an' we've done aw kinds a wark oan it, makin' noo pieces fur th' fuselage an' wings, paintin' them afore installin' them, ye name it we've done it."

Roger grinned, "Remind me to tell you about the time I helped 'liberate' an Anotonov AN 28 cargo plane right from under the noses of the Georgian army!"

Freya chuckled and remarked, "Whit abit th' time ye an' Henri helped get Moby Dick flyin' agin an' flew heem tae Texas, frae Brazil."

Looking again at Freya's height, Mikura commented, "It must've taken some doing to make room for you in that plane with you being as big as an oni and probably as strong, if what I saw you doing earlier was any indicator."

Freya chuckled and replied, "Ah'm nae as big as me cousins guidwife, she lochs tae wark it wi' weights an' sich tae build 'er muscles."

She smiled, "Ah'm considered tae scrawny fur birthin' healthy bairns, e'en though A'hm said tae be th' image ay me stoatin grandmother who gae birth tae me grandmother, an' stoatin ooncle Auld Harald."

Climbing past the small shrine once more, again Roger couldn't help feeling someone was looking at him.

Even Freya glanced over at it and nodded in respect.

Roger decided he'd ask Kurona about it when he had a chance.

Entering Mikura's ramshackle house, they found Lorna, Christina, Lana and Kurona all eating something the ladies had whomped up using whatever ingredients they found in the kitchen.

The concoction smelled delicious and there was plenty of it!

Serving themselves, the hungry trio were soon tucking into the nameless mishmash of ingredients and nodding their approvals of the culinary adventurism the girls had made.

Roger grinned at Lorna and the others and said, "You guys really put your feet into this, it's good!"

Christina chuckled, "It was mostly Lorna's doing, I just cut up the veggies and the meats as directed."

Lorna grinned, "Growing up in a ramen house, does teach you how to cook!"

"I can imagine!" replied Roger as he took another bite.

After dinner Roger asked Kurona to step outside the house, once they were out of earshot and prying eyes, he asked her, "That small shrine down the hill from here, every time I walk past it, I get the distinct feeling someone's in there looking at me."

"Am I being paranoid?"

Kurona's cat ears twitched slightly as if she was listening to something far away, then she smiled toothily and replied,"No, you're not paranoid, there is a black kitsune sealed inside there. Why? I have no idea, she was in there before I was born in my first life."

Roger mulled over her reply then asked, "Have you ever spoken to her?"

Kurona looked at him as if he'd gone bonkers and said bluntly, "Her kind eats my kind, why would I want to talk to someone who would likely eat me the first chance she got?"

"Point taken, would it be safe for me to talk to her?"

"Are you crazy?" Kurona cried in alarm, "What makes you think you, a mere mortal, would be safe from her charms? How arrogant of you!"

Roger sighed and pulled up the right sleeve of his tee shirt to reveal the dark circle around his upper bicep, a mark that only those with the sight could see.

"See that?" he said, "The goddess Pele put that there when we visited Hawai'i, Freya has a similar mark given to her by Maui himself."

He gestured towards the sea and said, "We are still within their demesne, I don't think Pele herself would appreciate any black kitsune messing with someone who's promised to come back and listen to her story."

Grinning at her, he said, "Besides, I still want to hear your story!"

Kurona sighed and said, "Give me your left arm."

Twisting himself around a bit, he held out his left arm as she had demanded.

Kurona took his left arm and looked at it briefly before she morphed into her cat girl form and bit down on his forearm just below the elbow.

Roger winced as he felt her needlelike fangs sink into his flesh, the girl was really biting him he realized.

Moments later she lifted her head from his arm and licked his wound with her cat's rasplike tongue.

When she was finished, the wound had closed up and there was no marks to show where she had bitten him.

Kurona smiled at him and said, "That's to show her you're under my protection while you're here."

Releasing his arm Kurona stood and stretched very catlike before she said with a grin, "I feel like going hunting!"

Moments later, she had morped into her true form and slipped away into the night.

Roger smiled at her retreating form and murmured, "Mice beware, Kurona's on the prowl and looking to dine on a plump mousie tonight."

Going back inside he smiled when Mikura asked him, "Did Kurona take off?"

"Yes, she's gone hunting and mice are on the menu!"

Mikura shook her head and said, "All these years I've known her and I never once thought she might be a youkai."

Glancing at him she asked, "May I ask what you two were talking about?"

"What do you know about that small shrine by the stairway, the one with the torii gate leading to it?" he replied.

"The shrine of the black kitsune?"

"Yes, that one."

Mikura looked thoughtful then replied,"I heard it was built by some early settlers here over a hundred years ago. Why do you ask?"

"I have reason to believe it is occupied."

"Whaaatt?!" spluttered Mikura, "What do you mean by occupied?"

Roger said quietly, "I have the sight, that was how I noticed Kurona wasn't just an ordinary temperamental old cat."

"And?"

"Everytime I've walked by that shrine, I had the feeling someone inside was looking at me. Freya's noticed it too."

Mikura looked at Roger sharply and asked, "Is that what you were talking to Kurona about? What did she have to say about it?"

Roger said quietly, "She pretty much said she wants nothing to do with it. Quote 'her kind eats my kind, why would I want to talk to someone who would likely eat me the first chance she got?' Unquote."

Mikura commented, "Well, there you have it. If Kurona wants nothing to do with that shrine, I suggest taking her seriously."

Roger sighed, "The problem is, seeking out the hidden among us is what I do. It's the reason for the museum's existence, I'm duty bound to at least try to talk to the occupant of that shrine."

Mikura raised an eyebrow and remarked, "You're assuming she will speak English, she's a Japanese youkai possibly centuries old, even I may not be able to speak with her because of changes in the language over the centuries."

Roger smiled, "You'd be amazed at how much information can be passed by the simple touch of a finger to my brow. That's how I communicate with the tree spirits at our home."

"Tree spirits?"

"We live on about 52 acres of land, and many of the trees have either a tree spirit living in them or are aware and capable of movement. I have not actually seen them moving, I admit but I have noticed that they have moved during the night. Not to worry though, they won't go past the boundary stones Freya put up."

Mikura looked at Roger for a long moment before she said,"What kind of a place do you live in?"

"You might say it's like a nexus between the worlds of men and the world of the spirits, or fae, or youkai, whatever term you prefer. We call them 'neighbors'."

He grinned at her, "If you ever come to Portland, pay us a visit and see for yourself, we'll introduce you to some of our residents."

She smiled and replied, "I'm still getting used to the idea that my cat is actually a bakeneko, but I'll consider it."

"You can bring Kurona if you like, that's if she's willing to travel."

Mikura chuckled and replied,"She has gone with me when I was making deliveries, but going all the way to the States might be a bit much for her."

Later that night while everyone else was sleeping, Roger was sitting outside the small shrine with the torii gate.

At the moment he was merely watching for any signs of life within the somewhat run down structure and pondering how he was going to approach the black kitsune sealed within.

He felt the approach of Kurona's aura as she drew near and a few moments later, the naked cat girl was sitting next to him, her eyes fixed on the ageing shrine.

A few moments later she purred, "What are you looking at?"

"I'm looking at a small shrine that could stand a bit of maintenance and a coat of paint."

He glanced at his night time visitor and asked, "Does anyone look after this place? Is there a visiting Shinto priest or anything like that around here?"

Kurona gave a catlike shrug and said,"Not that I'm aware of. I've never really given it much thought as I spent most of my lives as a cat, being a bakeneko is something I'm still getting used to."

Roger chuckled softly and remarked, "I can imagine it took some getting used to."

Kurona shivered slightly as a cool ocean breeze wafted across them and she muttered, "This form doesn't like the night breezes, not enough fur."

Roger asked, "Can you morph into a form that has more fur, yet you can still talk to me?"

Kurona thought about his question and Roger watched in fascination as her form became distinctly more catlike with a fine coating of black fur covering her body and whiskers sprouting from her catlike cheeks.

"How's this, niaow?" she asked.

Roger grinned, "Quite adorable, actually. Warmer now?"

"Yes, niaow."

"I'm guessing the 'niaow' will a part of the way you talk in this form, not that it matters, the main thing is you can still talk to humans."

"Merp?"

"Not that you'll be talking to a lot of humans, other than a select few I'm guessing."

"Merp!"

Roger chuckled and they lapsed into a companionable silence as they watched the small shrine with a torii gate.

Roger sitting up suddenly woke Kurona from her slumber, she sat up looking around, her cat ears twitching as he whispered, "Shhhh! I just saw something happening to that gate!"

The two stared at the torii gate and before long they saw a brief flicker of light within it, then several forms emerged from the gate before they took on human form and walked away into the night's gloom.

In that brief moment, Roger realized the true significance of torii gates, to youkai they were used as a means of travelling without being seen by humans.

Hahajima island was about as far south as one could get and still be within Japanese territory that was inhabited and therefore, civilized.

After the travellers had gone Roger muttered, "We've seen enough for one night, I'm hitting the sack."

Kurona nodded at him and she morphed into her true form and slunk away as he murmured, "Be careful out there."

Her soft 'Merp!' was her only reply as she slipped into the night.

Slipping into Mikura's house, Roger lay down beside Freya and as he settled in for the night she whispered, "It's abit time ye cam tae uir scratcher." and drew him closer to her considerably larger form.

The next morning right after breakfast, Roger, Freya and Mikura trooped down to the dock where her floatplane was kept.

They were carrying a bolt of silkspan fabric, a sewing kit for mending upholstery and a bucket of silver paint.

Once there Roger and Freya mostly assisted as Mikura measured and cut the silkspan as needed, then stretched it taut as she sewed it into place with precise, neat stitchery.

"I take it you've done this before?" commented Roger as he stirred the thick, silvery paint.

"A few times." she replied, "Every year, I have to patch a few holes here and there."

Mikura sighed and said, "If I had the money and the time, I'd like to get it all redone with new silkspan and fresher paint."

Roger nodded as he stirred the silvery glop and added a bit of lacquer thinner to it to thin it just a tad.

Mikura commented, "That silkspan and paint is from the war and I don't know where I could get any more, once it runs out."

Freya said, "We hae friends at th' Commemoratife Flecht Museum fa can dae th' wark oan yer plane."

She pointed at the bulk of Moby Dick bobbing on the gentle waves within the harbor and said, "They did aw th' wark oan Moby Dick it thaur. Ye oughtta see some ay th' planes they hae in their collection!"

Roger chuckled and remarked, "Colonel Sanders would flip if he saw this plane still in use, these are quite rare and only a few are still flying."

Mikura looked at him for a moment then said, "Colonel Sanders...You don't mean the chicken colonel?"

"Not the chicken colonel, a real colonel, U.S. Air force retired."

"Ah"

"He does get that a lot by the way."

Mikura grinned, "With a name like that, I can imagine."

With the patching and sewing finished, Roger began applying the silvery paint, with a fine camel's hair brush.

With long, smooth, strokes he painted the raw silken patches to match the rest of the fuselage.

Mikura remarked, "I see now why you added that lacquer thinner, it makes for a smoother finish."

"That, and using a camel's hair brush also helps. Of course having a paint sprayer would have speeded things up a bit, if you don't mind the clean up afterwards."

Having finished with the first coat, Roger replaced the lid on the paint and cleaned his brush while saying, "We'll let that dry for an hour or so, then apply a second coat to call it finished."

Straightening up again, Roger looked around and asked, "Where can we get a decent cup of coffee around here?"

Mikura grinned, "Follow me!" and she set out out with long legged strides while Roger and Freya fell in line behind her tall, slender form.

Striding past a small group of tourists who gaped at Freya's towering height and Norse goddess looks, Mikura called out, "There's a little mom and pop cafe up ahead, they make about the best coffee available on this island."

Stopping at a small building with a few tables and chairs in front, Mikura glanced at Freya and remarked, "We'll have to sit outside, inside the ceiling's too low for you to stand up...Sorry."

Freya merely shrugged and chose to sit on a stool instead of a chair, human sized furniture was a little too small for her lovely backside and stools were always a safer choice.

Less chance of getting stuck, she'd learned.

Moments later a tiny woman who was all smiles, came bustling out and Mikura spoke to her for a few moments, she nodded and bowed slightly before bustling back inside again.

"That was quick!" remarked Roger, "What did you order besides coffee?"

Mikura grinned and said, "I ordered omurice omelettes for us and coffee of course. They make a killer omurice omelette here!"

Freya grinned and said, "Ah loch omurice omelettes, Lorna's granny made verra guid omurice omelettes."

She sighed and murmured, "Ah miss Lorna's granny, she was me mukker!"

At Mikura's confused look, Roger muttered, "Mukker means friend in Freyaese."

Freya ignored Roger's comment and said, "Spikin ay Lorna, whit ur they up tae the-day?"

Mikura looked thoughtful and replied, "I think she and Christina are going hiking with Kurona, there's no shortage of hiking trails down here and lots of birds to see. Kurona knows all the trails and the cool places to see."

With Freya's towering form sitting outside to attract attention, the small cafe soon found itself filled with customers, all wanting food and drink and a chance to surreptitiously gawk at a giantess in real life.

Their order was served and the three of them gratefully tucked into the omurice omelettes while the small woman hurriedly took orders from other customers who were mostly tourists.

Once they were finished, Roger insisted on settling up with the small woman who happily took his money and the generous tip he gave her.

She smiled and spoke to Mikura in rapid fire Japanese.

Mikura nodded and said to them, "She would like to take a picture of you two with her and her husband, for their wall."

Roger chuckled and replied, "We'd be glad to!"

Moments later they were standing side by side with the proprietors of the cafe and smiling at the camera.

Naturally, the rest of the customers joined in and several group photos were taken to commemorate the day a pretty oni ate at their small cafe on Hahajima island.

Returning to Mikura's plane, Roger roughened up the fresh paint with a bit of scotchbrite pad and applied the second coat.

Cleaning everything up he said, "We'll give it an hour to dry, then you can take her for a spin."

Freya grinned and said, "Ah wish tae gae wi' 'er!"

"Do you think you'll fit in back?"

Freya grinned, "Ah awreddy tried, Ah fit!"

Mikura chuckled and said, "Just barely!"

Roger rolled his eyes and remarked, "Just be careful, okay?"

While waiting for the paint to dry, they checked the plane out pretty thoroughly at Roger's insistence.

When all looked good Mikura commented, "This bird is my livelihood, did you think I'd neglect it? As if!"

"Just making sure after your little stunt with that floating island, Freya is precious cargo to me and I don't want her all banged up."

Having said that, Roger stepped aside while Mikura and Freya climbed into the somewhat battered looking Fairey Swordfish and buckled in.

Mikura called out "Clear!" and started the engine.

A few moments later the Bristol Pegasus engine was purring as it warmed up, the triple bladed propeller a blur.

Mikura eased the biplane away from the dock and taxied out into the harbor.

Turning the plane into the wind, she throttled it up and with a roar, the Fairey Swordfish surged forward, quickly gaining speed until it broke free of the water's grasp and climbed into the cloud dappled sky over Hahajima island.

With his heart in his mouth, Roger watched the small floatplane fly out of sight and earshot.

The blast of a ship's horn caught his attention and Roger turned to watch the Ogasawaramaru as it pulled away from the Oki harbor's main dock.

The stately ship steamed past the gently bobbing Moby Dick and made its way towards the sea.

The ship was the main source of supply and visitors for the southernmost of Japan's inhabited islands.

Being a dual purpose ship, it carried shipping containers, mail and passengers to and fro between Tokyo metro and the various islands it served.

It seemed to Roger that the ship slowed as it passed Moby Dick so that its passengers could get a better look at an actual seaplane and perhaps take a few photos?

Shrugging, he returned his attention to the sky where he had last seen the Fairey Swordfish, how far was Mikura going to take the plane and his precious Freya, he wondered.

With a start, he realized his long suppressed feelings for her had grown steadily over the years.

He found he could no longer imagine a life without her in it.

He sighed when he thought about her upcoming coming of age ceremony in September, when she could declare her heart's desire, how would it turn out?

A tiny speck in the sky grew larger until it coalesced into a Fairey Swordfish with its two occupants grinning from ear to ear.

Somehow, the two had traded places and he watched with mixed emotions as Freya gently settled the 1930's torpedo bomber on the somewhat placid waters of Oki harbor and taxied up to the dock where it was kept.

When the triple bladed propeller had ceased its whirling, Freya grinned at him then stood up in the cramped (For her) confines of the plane's cockpit.

Stepping out of the cockpit, she set one foot down on the wing and cried, "Ah had a blast! Thes is real flyin'! None ay 'at settin' inside, oot ay th' wind flyin', it was aw wind in th' wires an' in me face."

Roger smiled at her as she reached out to him for one of her memorable hugs and said earnestly, "Please tell me you guys landed before trading places..."

Mikura smirked and replied coyly, "Then we won't tell you the stall speed on this thing is only 80 km/h and making the switch while flying into a stiff headwind, was a cinch!"

Roger groaned and muttered, "You two, are gonna be the death of me!"

After folding the wings back to leave room for other boats, they gathered up their things and trudged back to Mikura's house.

Once again as they trudged past the small shrine, Roger and Freya had the distinct impression that someone was inside, watching them walk past.

Once they got back to Mikura's house, Roger, on a whim took a small bowl and put some bits of cheese, some sliced meats and some nut meats in it.

Taking up a broom, he took it and the bowl of food down to the small shrine where he placed the bowl of food just inside the shrine's entrance then bowed in respect before he began sweeping away the windblown trash, dead leaves and twigs from the shrine's periphery.

Careful to avoid stepping through the torii gate, he swept up around most of the shrine creating a small pile of trash, dead leaves and small twigs.

Returning to the house, he found a dust pan and a bucket which he used to scoop up the pile of rubbish he'd swept up.

Having finished his chore, he bowed once more to the shrine and took away the rubbish to dispose of properly.

By the time he got back, the girls had returned from their hike and were knocking around in Mikura's kitchen, collaborating on a meal.

Emptying the rubbish into the burning waste can, Roger put bucket and broom back where he'd found them only to see Kurona smiling at him with a knowing look.

"Yes? Can I help you?" he said to the smiling cat girl.

Grinning like the fabled Cheshire cat, Kurona replied, "Did you meet her?"

Roger shrugged and replied, "No, but I cleaned the place up a little and left a bowl of food that I thought a kitsune might like. I was also careful not to step through the torii gate, just in case it was still working."

"And what made you think it might still be working?"

Roger looked at her in surprise and said, "You and I both saw someone, or something come through that torii gate, how do I know it is not triggered by somebody stepping through it and if it did work for me, how would I determine where I wound up?"

Kurona chuckled and remarked, "You are wiser than most mortals, some would have stepped through the gate just to see what would happen."

Roger smiled and replied,"I've seen too many strange things in my time to just go blundering about like a noob, when dealing with things I don't quite understand yet."

He grinned, "Unlike some, I listen to my inner prosimian."

"Inner prosimian?"

"A very distant tree dwelling relative from about 60 million years ago. In short, your ancestors hunted my ancestors."

"Ah"

"We survived by being very cautious, but not so cautious that we stayed in the trees forever, like our prosimian cousins."

Kurona smiled and remarked, "If it's all the same to you, I'd prefer to keep my respectful distance. Even if she is sealed within that shrine, she is still something to be feared."

Roger said quietly, "I will keep that in mind as I attempt to communicate with her. Having learned of her existence, I am almost duty bound to find out more about her and how she wound up so far from Japan itself."

Kurona smiled at him and said quietly, "Considering the sharpness of her hearing, she has likely heard our conversation as we are speaking.

Whether or not she understands English remains to be seen, this is a Japanese island after all."

Roger smiled and replied, "Depending on how many tails she has, she likely can understand me already. And if not, can I ask you to help me speak with her?"

Kurona grinned crookedly and replied coyly, "That depends..."

"Depends on what?"

"Depends on what you offer me in exchange."

Roger smiled at her, raised one eyebrow and said, "Just what sort of an exchange are you thinking of?"

Kurona morphed into her fully human form and stood naked before him, looking for all the world like an adolescent Japanese girl.

"Do I please you?" she asked.

Stepping closer she pressed herself against him and purred, "I am capable of pleasing you, if you want me to."

Roger became highly aware of her small, firm breasts and her supple body pressing against him and in a voice that was almost a groan, he said, "I can't."

Reluctantly, he gently eased himself back a step and with his hands upon her shoulders he said thickly, "What you are offering is something I cannot take. I cannot be with anyone right now, I'm sorry."

Kurona seemed to sag as she morphed into her cat girl form and said, "It's that giantess isn't it, you're saving yourself for her aren't you?"

She looked up at him and asked, "Why are you saving yourself for her? I can tell you've been with women before, you're no longer pure by anybody's standards. What difference would a dalliance with me make, why would it matter?"

Sitting down heavily on a crate, Roger said quietly,"It would matter to me and I think it would matter to Freya. We've been sleeping together since she was about twelve, she's nearly eighteen now. Yes, there have been a few times where our emotions nearly took over and I had to be the one to reel them in."

He looked up at her, "I live in a household full of women, all of them quite attractive, all of them rather casual about nudity and not all of them are human. I've been celibate because I choose to be, not because I lack the opportunity. Crazy I know, and you'd be right to think I've gone bonkers in that regard, but that's the way things have to be for now."

"Again, I am very sorry. Your offer flatters me greatly and I must be insane to turn you down, please try to understand."

Kurona looked at him for a few moments longer, then she shook her head and morphed into her true form before slipping away into the night.

Roger sat still, lost in thought as he pondered his recent encounter with Kurona.

Once again he had turned down an opportunity of a lifetime, before it had been Titania he had turned down, this time it was Kurona.

He'd known men who would have leapt at either opportunity, whether or not they survived either encounter, no one would ever know.

Feeling a presence, he looked up and saw a small woman clad in a vintage form of a kimono as she stood smiling at him.

Roger stood up and said hastily, "I'm sorry, I didn't see you until just now. I am Roger and you are?"

With a faint rustling of silks and a soft clacking of her geta, she stepped closer and replied, "I live in the inari shrine you cleaned up earlier today."

Roger couldn't help squinting at her and saying, "Forgive my asking, but shouldn't you look more vulpine in your appearance?"

She smiled and replied, "Disappointed are we? You were expecting fox ears and a tail perhaps? Why not ask how I got out instead."

Roger smiled and remarked, "That had crossed my mind, yes. It's just that your appearance is that of a young Japanese woman out for the evening, when I had thought to see a fox woman instead. Forgive my impertinence and ignorance."

"Oh, and just how did you get out? I was under the impression you were sealed inside that small shrine." He said with his trademark grin in place.

The small woman tittered in amusement and remarked,"To answer your second question, I was able to leave because you had cleaned up around my home and may have inadvertently removed a sutra or two. I appreciate your offering me food as a sign of respect. I haven't eaten in a long while.

"It seems that letting the windblown trash and weeds accumulate around the shrine and not leaving an offering, was thought to adequately confine me. To answer your first question, this is the form I can take to interact with humans who lack the sight."

Her outline became slightly hazy and moments later, her large fox ears and three luxurious, floofy black tails had appeared.

She grinned toothily and purred, "Is this more to your liking?"

Roger smiled and said, "Actually, it is. I prefer to see the truth when I encounter any 'neighbors', it keeps things honest."

"Is that what you call us? Neighbors?" she asked.

"It is what I was told your kind preferred to called, to be honest."

The fox woman tilted her head slightly in a very dog like manner and said, "Oh? Who told you that?"

Roger smiled and replied, "The queen of the night in old Albion, Titania, the Gealach of Tir na nOg."

The fox woman shrugged and remarked, "Never heard of her."

Shrugging, Roger replied, "Not surprising, her realm is on the other side of the world and there are no torii gates connected to her realm."

Her dark eyes narrowed briefly, "Are there no shrines in that part of the world?"

Smiling he replied, "Yes, there are shrines that were put up by the Japanese who immigrated to that part of the world, but their torii gates are merely decorative."

The fox woman muttered, "We shall have to do something about that!"

She paused in her muttering and asked no one in particular, "Are there no Shinto priests who could activate a torii gate any more?"

Roger raised his right hand and asked, "Does it have to be a torii gate? Would any sort of a gate like structure do?"

She paused in her musings and turned her full attention on him, for a moment Roger suddenly knew what a mouse felt like when it had caught a fox's attention.

It was not a good way to be he realized, under the sharp eyed scrutiny of a youkai fox woman.

After a very pregnant moment, she said, "Why do you ask? What did you mean by 'gate like' structure?"

Roger said quietly, "My companion Freya is a Jotun, a frost giant from Norse mythology and one of the things she likes to do is build Inukshuks out of locally sourced stone.

"Before you ask, an Inukshuk is a stone structure that can be used as a way marker and many of them were erected across Canada by her people to guide them in their travels.

"Freya has built several of them to commemorate places she has grown fond of to connect them to each other."

"Freya would be the oni lass I've seen of late?"

Roger suppressed a chuckle and replied with a grin, "I suppose she would seem like one to someone who's really pissed her off, she's certainly big enough to be one. No, she is not an oni, just a lovely young Jotun woman."

Mulling over his reply, the fox woman remarked, "I wish to meet this 'Freya' you're speaking of with such fondness."

Flushing slightly at her frank remark, Roger said, "If you'll come with me, I'll take you to her. Although it might be best if you took human form, not sure how the locals would react to seeing you as you are now."

The woman smiled and morphed into her human form once again.

"Happy now?" she grinned.

Roger chuckled and said, "I like you either way, to tell you the truth."

Beckoning for her to follow, he led her to Mikura's somewhat chaotic household just up the hill.

Entering Mikura's house, he saw the ladies all sitting around chatting amiably.

Clearing his throat, Roger said, "Ladies, I'd like you to meet..."

His face fell and he muttered to the fox woman, "I didn't get your name..."

She smiled crookedly, "I didn't give it to you."

He muttered back, "Work with me here!"

The fox woman smiled at the ladies and said, "I am Kuroshima Kitsune, as you would say nowadays."

Lorna and Mikura looked at each other, nodded, and Mikura asked,"I don't often hear a Japanese name like that, may I ask where it is from?"

Kuroshima smiled at her and replied coyly,"It is not so much a name as it is a description, after all, I am the black island fox, am I not?"

"That would mean you came out of that little shrine..." began Mikura then she fell silent.

Christina glanced over at her friends and said, "Wow! You two look like you've seen a ghost or something!"

"They did!" cried Kurona newly returned from her night's prowling.

Stepping between the ladies and Kuroshima, Kurona stood tall and declared, "What brings you here, to my home?"

Roger idly noted that Lana had slipped behind Freya's much larger form and was now peeking around her, as she watched the proceedings taking place.

Kuroshima smiled at the wary bakeneko and cooly replied,"I was invited little kitty, sheathe your claws and hide your fangs."

Kurona glared at Roger and said,"I'll be holding you responsible for her actions!"

That said, she stepped aside and sat near Mikura in a protective manner, her eyes fixed on Kuroshima, who merely smiled.

Mikura shook herself as if waking from a nap and blurted out, "Where're my manners?"

With that, she leapt to her feet and began scurrying about in her shambles of a kitchen, heating water and digging through various snack boxes as she hastily assembled a snack tray and tea service, of sorts.

Lorna, drawing on a lifetime's experience of playing hostess, swiftly laid out the tea cups and saucers on the low table in the living room, while Freya and Christina moved the western style furniture out of the way.

Lana made herself scarce.

Having completed their tasks, the ladies stepped back while Mikura bowed and said," Please forgive my rudeness of before and please accept my humble hospitality. I deeply apologize for not having a proper tea service and in my defense, I can only plead that I rarely entertain guests."

Kuroshima smiled at her and remarked graciously, "'Tis I who should be asking forgiveness for imposing myself upon you without proper notice, or introduction on my part."

"I am well aware of your solitary lifestyle and how busy you are. For you to have a proper tea set would have seemed an extravagance on your part."

Kuroshima directed her attention to Lorna, "You are of Japanese ancestry, yet you seem foreign. How is that possible?"

Lorna flushed, her antique ivory skin darkening slightly as she replied,"My family left Japan over a century ago, although we have strived to maintain our ties to our family's culture."

She smiled and remarked, "After we leave here they are going to take me to Hokkaido, where I will spend the rest of my summer with my auntie Meiko and my cousins."

Kuroshima smiled and remarked,"Hokkaido is very nice, I lived there when I was young, a long time ago."

Christina not knowing what she was talking to, asked,"How did you get here?"

Lorna cringed and was about to admonish the girl when Kuroshima replied,"I came through the gate, down at the shrine. I was young and curious, I stepped through the gate without thinking and so I ended up here, as far from Japan as I could get."

"Gate? What gate?" asked Christina.

"The torii gate at the small shrine just down the hill from here." replied Mikura.

Christina looked puzzled and said, "You mean that gate looking thingy? I always thought those were some kinda decoration, like a garden statue kind of decoration."

She looked over at Freya's towering form and said, "Aren't those gates kind of like the rock thingys you like to build?"

Freya thought for a moment then said, "Ah'm nae sure ay whit th' torii gates can dae, Ah build Inukshuks tae honur peoples an' places Ah've been tae."

At her comment, Kuroshima smiled and asked, "What exactly, is an Inukshuk?"

Freya smiled and replied,"Me fowk built them tae mark uir way athwart th' lain ay Canada. Th' wee red men learnt hoo tae build them frae us."

Roger had been fooling around with his cellphone and when he found what he was looking for, he cleared his throat and said,"Perhaps these images will help."

Handing his phone to Lorna, she stepped over to Kuroshima and showed her what he had found regarding Inukshuks.

The fox woman looked at the images with interest and commented,"Could these be used as 'gates'?"

Freya shrugged and replied, "Ah'm nae sure, Ah was tauld abit usin' them as a gateway tae th' 'back roads', but didnae ask hoo it coods be done."

She paused and said, "Frae whit Ah was tauld, Ah'm nae sure Ah'd wish tae use a 'back road', nae when Ah can fly tae get somewhaur."

Kuroshima asked, "What were you told about these 'back roads' as you called them?"

"Ah was tauld they can be verra dangerous tae take an' they hae guardians who demand a price, a blood price." replied the young giantess.

Roger jumped in with his own question, "What about the dangers of taking the torii gate way?"

Kuroshima chuckled softly and replied, "You may not end up where you wished to go or be able to return to where you came from."

She sighed and remarked, "How was I to know the gate way at the shrine required a secret phrase to reenter it for the return journey?"

In surprise Roger blurted out, "Did you ever think to ask any of the youkai who have used it to get here, for that 'secret phrase' as you put it?"

In a small voice she replied,"They're not allowed to give out their secret phrases and besides, the phrase only applies to them."

"Okaaay, so how did you enter the gate to begin with?"

"I just walked through it, much like I'd do with any gateway."

Lorna spoke up, "Did you bow before entering the gateway? I was told to always bow before entering a torii gate, even if I am a mortal."

Kuroshima's face darkened and she muttered, "I...Don't remember if I did or not."

"It was a long time ago, I was young and still had only one tail."

Lorna rolled her eyes and commented drily, "So much for the cleverness of foxes myths."

Kuroshima's eyes darkened and she growled, "Do not forget what I am young miss, I will not be disrespected!"

Lorna's face blanched and she bowed at the waist while saying, "My apologies, I meant no disrespect, it's just that I grew up hearing the stories of the cleverness of foxes."

"Don't believe everything you hear, even we foxes can make mistakes." muttered Kuroshima.

Mikura who had sat quietly through all this suddenly spoke up, "If you could utilize that gate, would you?"

Kuroshima smiled and after a few moments, replied,"Yes, I would, if only to see Hokkaido once again. I was born there as an average black fox and like most foxes, I would have lived out my life in the fields and woods of Japan and passed away after only a short lifetime."

"Circumstances beyond my control led me to become a black kitsune and it was while I was still learning about my abilities that I stepped through that torii gate, only to wind up here and unable to return home."

She looked around and said, "In many ways this is now my home and even if I could return to Hokkaido, would I wish to stay there? The climate here suits me now that I have attained three tails, and presumably the wisdom to go with those tails."

Christina had been sitting while the others had talked until finally she asked, "I don't mean to seem rude, but what exactly, are you? Evidently I'm not seeing what everyone else is seeing. To me, you are a small woman my size, who I could trade outfits with."

Kuroshima actually laughed, which sounded strangely like a fox's cries of pleasure when being caressed.

Smiling at Christina's question, she stood up and said, "Perhaps this will help."

Her outline became indistinct and moments later, she had morphed into her kuro kitsune form and stood there with her large, black furred ears and three floofy tails proudly displayed for all to see.

She smiled, which showed a hint of fang and said coyly, "Is this to your liking?"

Christina's eyes got very big and after she drew in a big breath, she squeeed and cried, "OMG! You're so cute! Those big fluffy tails and those velvety ears are to die for!"

Kurona stepped forward and declared, "The fox woman is not the only shapeshifter here!"

Seconds later, a cat girl stood in her place and not to be outdone by the fox woman, she called out, "Lana, niao, there's someone here you need to meet, niao!"

Kuroshima smiled as tiny Lana stepped out from behind Freya's gigantic form and bowed before them all.

"I had sensed you were there, I could hear your tiny heart beating and now that I can see you, I can see why you'd hide from my kind. Your kind would be on my menu!"

Lana smiled at the fox form of Kuroshima and said,"Where I come from, your kind doesn't exist, our only concern is with the mongooses and we can handle them easily."

Kuroshima looked over at Roger and he said, "There are no foxes in the Hawai'ian islands, the only predators are mongooses and even they came from somewhere else."

He smiled and continued, "Since I'm now able to butt in...You remarked earlier that you had not eaten in a long time, why would that be? If I may ask."

The black fox woman smiled at him and replied, "Being sealed inside that shrine, I had to rely on the charity of others who would leave food offerings for me.

"In recent years, the offerings have been far and few between and what food offerings I did get were the leavings of youkai who had used the gate to visit here."

"You were the first human to leave an offering in quite some time and for that, I thank you!"

Roger smiled at her reply and said cheerfully, "You are very welcome, it was my pleasure."

He grinned and asked, "Could I interest you in a nice meal in a nice restaurant, my treat?"

Kuroshima's face broadened into a warm smile and she said,"And what would you require of me in return?"

"Only your story, that's all I ask."

"Just my story? Seriously?!"

"Yep, just your story, nothing more."

At Kuroshima's puzzled look, Freya spoke up, "He works fur a museum 'at collects th' stories frae th' auld days. Ye gab he'll listen."

Roger smiled and said, "I'll record what ever you say for our archives and any books or scrolls you care to give us will be scanned and placed in a safe place."

He looked around and said, "Our museum does have a Japanese branch and I will be sharing whatever I hear or see here with them. They will likely send a representative for any further interviews or collecting of material."

"Any way, " he said, "Shall we go see what we can find, food wise?"

Kuroshima smiled and nodded her consent.

As one they rose and left Mikura's house to head down to the restaurant they had eaten at two days before.

They walked quietly with only the muted clacking of the fox woman's geta to mark their passing.

As they approached the restaurant, Mikura excused herself and sped up to get to the restaurant before them.

Moments later, she reappeared with one of the servers and they hastily set up a table large enough for eight guests out on the patio under the starry vault above.

Mikura and the server smiled and bowed as they entered the patio and took their seats.

Roger made sure to sit close to Kuroshima, where he could set up his small digital voice recorder to record any and all remarks she may make during the course of their meal.

She looked at him questioningly and he murmured, "This will record what ever you say, just speak in a normal manner, it will record it all."

Once settled in their seats, Mikura looked at everybody there and said, "This calls for the seafood feast with grilled tuna steaks and a shrimp tempura and veggies platter."

She glanced at Freya, and Lorna chimed in with "Better make that two platters, Freya can eat with the best of them!"

The server took their order with a smile, bowed slightly and slipped into the kitchen.

Moments later she came back out with pots of green tea and the small tea cups they seemed to prefer.

They sipped their tea and engaged in small talk until the server arrived with the first of their order, the fried shrimp and veggies tempura platters.

She laid them out and said she'd be right back with the rest before scurrying back inside the building for more.

Hardly had they began helping themselves to the food, when she reappeared with two more servers to help and they set the still sizzling tuna steaks, each on its own cast iron oval skillet set into a wooden platter.

The aromas rising from the food was delicious and Kuroshima almost moaned as she took in the scents from the food being presented to her.

She hadn't eaten like this in centuries!

There was a brief moment of the girls taking up their chop sticks, placing their hands together before closing their eyes and saying in unison "Itadakimasu!"

Kuroshima and Kurona exchanged glances at seeing Freya and Christina, both clearly foreigners saying this little giving of thanks before eating Japanese food.

Shrugging in unison, they too began digging in.

Why quibble over a small thing when there was plenty of food to be had!

Mikura ordered sake and a couple of large bottles were brought out along with the tiny cups traditionally used to drink sake with.

Roger poured sake for Kuroshima and Kurona while the others served themselves.

Forgetting about Roger's little digital recorder, the two youkais talked freely between themselves, their every utterance being faithfully recorded for posterity.

The Japanese branch of the museum would translate their gossipy exchange into English later on.

Roger was quietly amazed at just how much food and drink Kuroshima was putting away, then he recalled her earlier remarks about rarely getting fed via offerings and her appetite made sense.

This was likely her first real meal in many years and she was making up for lost time, food wise.

Eventually even Freya was sated, the food was all gone, as was the sake.

Roger asked for the check and gave the exhausted server a generous tip, as a thank you for all her hard work.

Afterward they walked Kuroshima to her small shrine where she thanked them for a wonderful evening and delicious meal.

Before she entered the shrine she paused, smiled at Roger and asked, "Did that little thingy of yours capture everything we said tonight?"

He smiled and replied, "Of course, and it will be handed over to the Japanese branch of the museum I work for, for their archives."

He grinned, "My own boss is gonna flip when I tell her about meeting you and Kurona and of course, I will be writing up a report about our meeting."

Kuroshima grinned as she stepped inside the small shrine and closed the door behind her.

That night Roger opened up his laptop and typed out his report on meeting not one, but two youkai. He described his encounters with both beings in detail and wrote of how the bakeneko had been a beloved family pet who couldn't bear to leave her family behind after completing her ninth life and so she became a youkai rather than departing the earthly plane.

He wrote of having the feeling of being watched as he walked by the neglected small inari shrine near Mikura Amelia's house.

His observation of youkai coming to visit the island via the torii gate and his cleaning up the trash from around the inari shrine and leaving a food offering in his efforts to meet with the Black Fox kitsune.

He described his meeting with the Black Fox kitsune woman, learning of her coming to Hahajima island as a young and naive youkai via the torii gate at the small shrine and of her ensealment in the shrine by a zealous Shinto priest.

He recommended the information he had gleaned be shared with the Japanese branch of the museum and any follow ups be conducted by them.

Lastly, he described Mikura Amelia's research regarding something called 'Electric island' and included as an attachment, the photos he took of her wall chart and notes.

Roger spent a few minutes looking over his report looking to see if the demon Titivillus had slipped any typos and grammatical errors into his efforts.

Satisfied that all looked good, he hit 'send' and off his report went to his boss' desk back in Arizona.

Having finished up his report, Roger stripped down to his undies and was soon fast asleep snuggled up against Freya's much larger form.

The next morning at breakfast Mikura asked, "When are you guys heading off to Hokkaido?"

Roger set down his coffee cup and replied,"We'll be heading up to Hokkaido in a day or so to drop off Lorna, so she can spend the rest of her summer with her aunt Meiko."

"Then what?"

"Back to the states via the Alieutian islands and finally to Portland."

Roger smiled, "That will be our longest part of the journey as it's mostly over water with nothing to see."

He grinned, "Our biggest challenge will be staying awake!"

Kurona in human form had listened quietly to this exchange, then she asked,"What will happen now that you are aware of Kuroshima and myself?"

Clearing his throat, Roger said, "I have already sent a report describing you two to my boss and a copy was sent to the Tokyo branch of our museum, no doubt they will be sending a representative to interview both of you for our archives."

He smiled, "Other than that, you will be pretty much left alone."

Glancing over at Kuroshima he commented, "Perhaps the museum could help you with the torii gates so you could travel if you so desire."

She smiled and remarked, "Perhaps I could visit your house by way of a torii gate, or perhaps through one of those stone gates you showed me yesterday?"

Roger mulled over her comment, glanced at Freya and said, "Doesn't Hazel use the one near your hamlet when he's making deliveries?"

She replied, "He'd hae tae use a back way tae gie his deliveries in guid time. Tae dae 'at he'd hae tae hae a pact wi' th' guardians ay th' back ways in order tae use them."

He glanced at Kuroshima, "Do you remember if the torii gateways have any sort of guardians like Freya mentioned?"

Shaking her head in a 'no' she replied, "I don't remember as I've been here a long time, I don't recall seeing any during my journey here."

Pondering her remarks, Roger said, "We'll have to look into getting a proper torii gate put up at the museum back home, one that can be used for traveling between here and Portland or other parts of Japan."

Lorna at that point cleared her throat and said, "Our family's temple back home has a torii gate on its grounds, wouldn't that work?"

Kuroshima asked her, "Does your family's temple have any inari statues along with the torii gates?"

Lorna's face clouded over and she muttered in embarassment, "I'm not sure to be honest, I didn't really go there all that frequently. It's not real kid friendly, my grandmother went regularly but I think it was more for being around older people like herself than actual worship."

Roger spoke up, "What if we took one of the smaller inari statues from here and maybe one of the mini torii gates to be installed at our museum's entrance to establish a connection?"

Mikura at this point spoke up, "I'm not sure that would be a good idea, that shrine has been there a long time and there would be problems if you guys took anything other than pictures."

Roger pondered her comment and said, "I guess we'll have to have one made specially for the museum and have it installed and blessed by a priest to make it official. Whether or not a youkai could use it as a gate, remains to be seen."

Kuroshima smiled, "A doll could be made using some of my hair as a lure, that way I could follow my own scent through the torii gate."

She grinned rather toothily and said, "I can make one up tonight and imbue it with my scent. I'll bring it here in the morning before you leave."

True to her word, the next morning Kuroshima appeared at Mikura's house while they were getting breakfast ready.

She handed Roger a small bundle wrapped in banana leaves and said, "Here is my doll. Do not open it until it is ready to be put up, otherwise you'll lessen its potency."

Taking the fox woman at her word, Roger thanked her and placed it inside a sturdy box before he taped it shut.

Mikura invited her to breakfast and they all sat down Japanese fashion to eat.

When Freya, Christina and Lorna placed their chopsticks across their hands and said, "Itadakimasu!"

Both Kuroshima and Kurona looked at each other, nodded in agreement and Kuroshima asked, "Why are all three of you saying that? I can readily understand Lorna saying it because she is of Japanese ancestry, but you two aren't Japanese."

Freya without batting a lash, replied,"Ah learnt it frae Lorna when Ah woods hae dinner at her hoose, Ah was tauld it is a way ay expressing gratitude afore a meal."

Christina smiled and said brightly, "I learned it from watching anime!"

Lorna said, "Freya is family, she and my late grandmother were very close. She would cook up traditional foods just for her because she appreciated them so much."

Both Kuroshima and Kurona shrugged and took up their own chopsticks before muttering, "Itadakimasu." and digging in.

After saying their goodbyes, Roger and company boarded the Harbor Patrol boat and settled in for the ride out to where Moby Dick sat gently bobbing at his mooring point.

While Roger opened the side door and took in the mooring line, Freya impulsively gave the patrol boat's pilot one of her memorable hugs, leaving the man looking goggle eyed and rather flustered.

Lorna and Christina were a bit more subdued in their thanks.

Once back inside they all waved at the pilot while he motored away.

Shutting the side door, Roger and Freya began their preflight routine while the girls made themselves comfortable and buckled themselves in.

Lana perched where she could watch the proceedings in the cockpit and since she seemed to enjoy being up there, Roger had rigged up a little seat complete with seat belt just for her.

After the usual coughing and clearing of its mechanical throat, the left engine was soon purring loudly as it warmed up.

Moments later, the right engine was joining in the noisy duet.

With a final wave to Mikura and their two new friends, Kurona a bakeneko and Kuroshima a Black Fox kitsune woman with three tails.

Roger closed his window while Freya eased Moby Dick's bulk away from the mooring bollard and brought the sea plane about, facing into the wind.

With a final scan of the engine monitoring systems and seeing all green, Freya throttled it up and held the engines at take off speed for thirty seconds, the nearly 7,000 horsepower straining to be released.

Engaging the variable pitch Hamilton standard propeller at maximum revs, Freya gripped her wheel as the heavy sea plane surged forward.

The plane bumped and bucked as it tried to free itself of Earth's gravity until suddenly, the bumping and rattling ended and the big Martin Mariner rose into the morning sky above Hahajima island.

Bringing the plane about, Freya flew it back over the harbor and waggled its wings as a farewell before banking into a northerly heading bound for Hokkaido, Japan.

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