I spent the rest of the day following Kaoru around as she showed me the entire grounds. They were larger than they had appeared at first—a mansion comprising more rooms than I cared to count, obviously the koi pond and the rock garden, but also a fully equipped hot spring, an orchard, and even a guest house that currently remained empty. The western and southern border to the grounds were marked by a small river weaving its way around the forest.

As long as I remained within the grounds, Kaoru assured me I’d be safe. It was reassuring to hear those words spoken with such confidence, but I couldn’t help but wonder—what made Kaoru so certain she wouldn’t succumb to this “scent” of mine and attack me as well?

I wasn’t quite sure I was mentally prepared for the answer however, so I kept the question to myself.

Eventually, we settled down once more in the living room, this time with the cat joining us.

“You look pale. Are you feeling alright?” Kaoru asked, studying my face.

I nodded. “It’s all a little much,” I admitted. My head’s persistent throbbing was competing with the pain in my arm and feet to remind me with every painful twinge that this wasn’t just a dream. “To think yokai are real… It’s not that easy to just accept, you know? At the same time, I’ve seen it now, I know it to be true, and it’s just all giving me a headache.”

I kneaded my hands.

“Pbrrrt?” The cat on my lap asked, looking up at me.

“And a stomachache,” I added after a moment’s thought. “And then, why just Japanese folktales? Why not, I don’t know, Icelandic ones?”

A smirk appeared on Kaoru’s lips. “They’re real too. Well, some of them. Not all Japanese folktales are true either, you know, and some are massively contorted and changed. You just happen to be in Japan, or rather, the part of our realm that has a gate into your Japan.”

“Gate?” I repeated. “So you mean, we’re really in a different world—a different dimension?”

Kaoru nodded and shrugged at the same time. “There are plenty of gates. Sometimes people wander in here accidentally, but usually we manage to send them back before any harm comes to them, and we can pass it off as a dream. Some of us actually have jobs in your realm, too.”

Legions of anime, manga, books, and video games covering creatures from myths flooded through my mind. “And… that’s allowed?”

“Sure. Though there are some rules, of course. We can’t expose ourselves to humans intentionally, for example. We can’t use our powers to gain the advantage in human affairs, either. There are plenty of things like that. Though I can’t claim that everyone actually sticks to those rules.”

“So, do you have a job?”

Kaoru flashed me a wicked grin that reminded me just how stunning she was. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

Flustered, I took a sip from my tea instead before changing the subject. “Are there gates all over the world?”

Kaoru shook her head. “Not anymore. More and more gates are forcibly closed. Japan just happens to be a place where folktales are more alive still, more in people’s consciousness. That’s why there are more gates. Other places with a lot of gates would be Brazil, Ireland, Bhutan, Iceland… you know, countries where stories continue to be told, and people remember.”

Brazil.

I gulped and thought about the stories I’d been taught growing up. The giant fire snake Boitatá, the Bóto, or the Mapinguari, or even the Iara. Never mind the millions of ghost stories.

“I’ve become a Brazilian folktale.” I chuckled to myself, feeling giddy with the conviction that I was slowly losing my mind. “I’m an Encantada!”

“Oh? How is that?”

“An Encantada is someone magically trapped in another world. Which is me!” I beamed at Kaoru, though I wasn’t sure why I was so happy about the revelation. Perhaps it was that I was finally figuring out how I was fitting in with this strange place.

Kaoru watched me pensively for a moment. “Do you enjoy adventure stories?”

“Quite a bit,” I admitted, leaving out the any information on the piles of adventure games and novels I had absorbed in the past.

Kaoru nodded. “Then think of your time here as being stuck inside an adventure. Make friends and live your life as true to yourself as you can. I’ll deal with the rest. Sound good?”

She made it sound so easy.

“Not everyone in this realm wants to eat you, you know,” she continued with an amused raise of an eyebrow. Apparently, my doubts were written all across my face. “And this whole thing starts off weak. While it is going to get stronger, right now, you’ll be mostly safe. It should take about six months to fully take effect.”

Six months. I could barely suppress a shudder. That wasn’t a lot of time. In fact, it was an awful lot less time than I had expected.

“And after that,” I said, looking straight at Kaoru, “will you come after me as well?”

She met my gaze without reserve. “Never.”

After Kaoru cooked us a delicious meal of yakisoba and tempura for dinner, I asked to have some time to myself to process everything.

“Of course,” she smiled at me with compassion. “Take all the time you need.”

She was about to leave me alone in the living room, when she stopped in the doorway and looked back. “Just stay on the grounds. Nothing will come for you here, but I can’t guarantee that in the forest.”

I let my torso go limp across the table.

What a mess.

At least Kaoru was nice. Things could have ended up a lot worse, really. That being said, I was stuck here for the foreseeable future and possibly doomed to die.

My optimism could only take so much, so I decided to go for a walk. Familiarizing myself with the grounds some more seemed like a good idea, and I needed that fresh air. That decided, I slipped on the sandals Kaoru had given me, and walked out into the sunset-flooded garden. The world tinted in oranges and purples, it appeared leagues more ethereal and unreal. It hadn’t even been twenty-four hours yet, but here I was, believing in fairytales. How long before I’d meet a dragon, I wondered cynically. Too many civilizations had stories about them for them to not be real in a fantasy world like this.

I pulled my phone from my pocket. Even if it had had power left, there would have been no chance for signal, I figured. Even in the human realm getting reception in the middle of nowhere would have been questionable. Maybe I should figure out if I could charge it here anyways, not that I had anyone to call. I could officially quit my job, I supposed.

Putting it away again, I turned my attention toward the forest’s edge. There was no street leading away from the mansion anywhere, I’d learned that from Kaoru’s tour earlier, but the forest didn’t seem so bad right now. It was pretty in the fading light. Almost inviting.

I walked up to the edge but stopped just before stepping into the first tree’s shade, peering into the darkness of the woods. The light wasn’t strong enough to penetrate the thick cover anymore, so all I perceived were some strange sounds, some of which might have been made by ordinary animals, some of which might not. My skin crawled when I considered what could be lurking in the darkness. Just then, I saw a flash of yellow eyes, staring right back at me, and I stumbled back, almost tripping over my own feet. A snarl and a growl resounded through the night, but nothing came for me in Kaoru’s garden, against my frightened expectations.

Okay.

No random walks in the forest.

I headed back to the house rather quickly, constantly peeking over my shoulder in concern. I felt like I was six again and racing the imaginary monsters to my bed after turning off the lights.

Under the covers, I was safe.

Beside Kaoru, I was safe.

I found him sitting in the living room, playing a video game.

While I’d noticed the TV earlier, I hadn’t quite expected video games to exist in this realm as well.

“Oh, hey, Misaki,” he said cheerfully when I came in rather hurriedly.

“Hey,” I said, approaching gingerly. The warmth and light of the house was enough to reassure me a little, to make me feel safer again, but it was still a stranger’s house. Anything could lurk just around the next corner.

I hated feeling like this.

Determined to get past it, and ignore and push away my stupid fears, I sat down beside Kaoru, looking at the screen. I recognized the game. It was a normal racing game, but you could also play it to work in teams, helping each other out and winning or losing together. It was popular enough that most people I knew had played it at one point or another, myself included.

“Wanna play?” Kaoru asked, tilting his head to the side as he offered me a controller. “Think it might help you take your mind off things for a while.”

Gratefully, I accepted the controller and watched silently as he set us up for the game.

“It’s not good to obsess about these things, you know,” he continued. “Fretting won’t change a thing. And I will keep you safe. In real life, at least. In this game, I’m going to totally destroy you though!”

He winked at me as he selected the vs player mode, and I mustered up the energy to smirk back at him. “We’ll see about that.”