arranged them by class before the statue so that he could take their picture. As they jostled into position, David noticed one of the gray uniformed girls staring at him. Instead of disappearing when he looked, she held his gaze. With long black hair, almond eyes, and an intense expression she was both beautiful and somehow different at the same time. Before he knew it, the camera flashed and she was gone.
‘Great, I’m going to be staring off into space on the photo,’ David thought as they finished. A few classmates away, he caught Rie give him a look that made him feel oddly guilty. ‘She must have seen me staring.’
‘Of course she did,’ growled Kou. His inner tiger provided mental images of Rie’s curious glance. It was as if Kou was his personal TiVo, playing back every twitch of her features in exacting detail. Despite her neutral features, thanks to Kou David saw the muscle movements that marked her emotions shift from concern, to surprise, and then annoyance.
Rie left him alone as their teachers herded them en masse to the waiting buses. During the hour ride, David thought about the intriguing girl and wondered why she had stared at him with such intensity. It took a little persuasion, but as he had with Rie’s reaction, Kou recalled the strange girl’s face for him. The memory evoked a strange sensation in him, and he puzzled at it as the bus pulled away from an underground parking lot.
Later, their tour buses pulled off a scenic coastal road to the Kastella Cake Factory so they could shop for souvenirs.
“Kastella is supposed to be really good,” Takumi said from the seat beside him. “I hope they let us taste-test.”
“Let’s go find out,” David replied, sure they’d be safe enough in the rural tourist trap.
Inside there was a whole range of snacks and novelties from Nagasaki prefecture. Most items were individually wrapped snacks, a convenient way to buy for a group. Their teachers and tour guides followed a Kastella worker into a back room, leaving the students to browse and buy on their own.
“The teachers get samples and coffee,” Rie said as she and Natsuki appeared next to David. “Come on. Let’s go find something for mom and dad.”
Together, they tried the different varieties, all of them delicious, even when they strayed from the more ordinary flavors. With Takumi, they picked a few cakes while Natsuki bought her own for her parents and friends.
“Ryohei is going to be seriously frustrated,” David whispered as they sampled a lime cake. The family’s ghost always looked on with a sense of loss when they ate in his presence.
“So lime or honey for the badminton team,” Natsuki asked coming over with two medium sized boxes. Rie turned to consult with her, and David returned to trying the various mini-squares of cake.
David rolled his eyes as Naoto walked by, his cheeks stuffed with cake. The gesture was lost on his classmate so he headed over to join Takumi as he followed Natsuki and Rie through a section of crafts.
“You’re not going to buy that, are you?” Mizuki asked from the next aisle over in a casually cruel tone. David peered around his host-brother and saw Hidemi holding a small fox. The quick look of anger that shot across the calm demeanor of his classmate shocked him. Kou played back the exchange for him again. She had indeed been at least interested in the little statue. Ahead, Natsuki started yelling at Mizuki for making fun of Hidemi. They got so loud, so fast, that Takumi had to drag Natsuki outside so that the shop employees would not kick them out.
David selected and paid for two items for his sister and dad, since food would not survive the post, and then hurried after his friends. Outside, David saw Natsuki’s temper was fading as she talked with Takumi a bit away from the buses. David started walking over, but the look on Takumi’s face made a half-formed thought whole. David covered his shock by turning and walking to the end of the lot, where a fenced observation point overlooked the sea. Kou purred as the sun began to fall below the horizon.
‘You finally put together all that tension between them. We’ve known for a while that they like each other.’
‘But it’s more than that isn’t it? Takumi does like her. All their awkwardness… We should get them to date.’
‘And you think you won’t still be stuck in the middle?’ As they pondered the issue of Takumi and Natsuki, David felt Kou’s animal instincts strain against their prolonged need to stay human. They had to fight to remain in human form as their instincts drove them to transform and run free as a tiger.
“Snap out of it. Your eyes are orange,” Rie whispered from beside him. “Sure, someone might just think it’s a trick of the light but you can’t transform with the whole class around you.”
“Thanks,” David said with a smile and a wink. “We needed a distraction.”
“Oh, you mean aside from your new Okinawan friend?” Rie asked with a quiet voice. Before he could answer, she turned, leaving him alone above the sea. He turned to call her, but felt a tug on his collar. In an instant, he was over the railing, falling toward the rocks beneath.
“Stupid owl statue,” David grumbled as their bus rode up a mountain road. Both buses of students had watched as Moriyama scolded him for playing on the railing. His uniform was full of dust and two rips. The little statue he had bought for Jessica had somehow scrambled up his back and tried to pull him to his death. It took more than a miniature owl to kill him, though from its screeches of ‘Die! Human, Die!’ he was sure it thought it had the upper hand. Still, he had to summon his Seikaku and smash the crazy little bird, no easy task among the pillars supporting the overlook where his classmates had been.
By the time he had destroyed the possessed souvenir, Moriyama had already started a search for him. Ashamed at the surprise attack, and angry at having to pretend he had lost his balance, he sulked all the way through their entry ceremony at the next hotel.
Unlike the last hotel, this one had an open tatami mat area like the flooring in the Matsumoto Estate. Instead of beds, there was a futon in the closet for each student. Like large quilts, the futons were little more than a layer of padding over the firm rush mats beneath. Since none of the rooms had their own showers, everyone had half an hour scheduled just for bathing at the community baths before dinner.
“There’s only the public bath here,” Daiki said after David failed to find more than a toilet in their room. He had new roommates this time, and they all looked like they would have preferred a non-dusty roommate. “Umm. You’ll want to make sure you shower off well before you get in.”
“I’m looking forward to it. The hot springs baths are supposed to have healing properties from the minerals in the water,” Kenta added.
David had grown accustomed to the Japanese style of bathing while living with the Matsumotos. He was fine with showering outside the tub, then sitting in the warm relaxing water. It was nice after his long training sessions with the Matsumotos. The Plateau Hotel’s bath, however, was a bit of a shock.
There were two giant baths for the men and women, separated in different rooms. A long row of showerheads was against one wall complete with stools and soap so that each person could shower before going over into the pool-size hot tub. Although more than a little embarrassed, David soon realized that his other classmates ignored everything else around them, and that it was his western upbringing that made the experience awkward. Thick steaming fog made the whole process easier and the hot water was relaxing after the long day walking Nagasaki’s streets.
‘Let’s just hope kappa don’t live in hot springs.
