Waking up, I was disoriented for just a moment before the previous day’s memories returned to me. If it weren’t for the bandages around my wounds, I would have almost believed that I had dreamed it all. The cat, sleeping soundly beside me in the nook of my knees, still twitched in his dreams.

I gazed at him fondly for a moment, marveling at how soft and fluffy his fur looked in the gentle light of morning and concluded that he needed a name. After all, for some reason he had followed me into this strange world and had apparently decided to stay by my side.

But naming could wait a little while at least.

I stretched vigorously and then, determined to look at the positive, smiled into the garden as I slid open the door. I was just in time to see a koi jump and splash, and a little giggle escaped me.

The sweet smell of syrup and pancakes wafted around my nose, and I couldn’t resist the temptation. Following its trail like a bloodhound, I found Kaoru working away in the kitchen, flipping pancakes in a pan with ease. When he noticed me, he grinned and gestured at the set table.

I didn’t need to be asked twice.

Only moments later, he veered around, his mood contagiously chipper, and placed a full plate of pancakes in front of me. “Good morning! Eat up.”

“And a good morning to you! Is this a normal breakfast for you? It smells divine!”

Kaoru chuckled, obviously pleased by the compliment. “I don’t usually eat breakfast, but I figured I have to give you a proper welcome meal to start your time here on a good note, y’know?”

“Last night wasn’t good enough?” I raised my eyebrows at him, wondering at how he was expecting to top the delicious meal he’d made me before.

He smirked and shrugged. “I figure I’ve got to show you some range.”

“Well… I appreciate it.” Without further ado, I dug in.

The first taste was an explosion of rich flavors in my mouth. The syrup was not only sweet, but full of woody aromas, mild, yet distinct, and the pancakes were crisp on the outside, yet fluffy and soft in the middle, without seeming mushy or runny. There was a saltiness to it, and the savory blended in with the sweet to create a truly confusing experience for my tastebuds.

I looked up at Kaoru with wide eyes. “This is amazing!”

He met me with a wide grin. “I know! Here, try this.”

He pushed a warm cup into my hands. I sipped at it carefully and the rich flavor of cocoa flowed into my mouth.

“What is this?” I tried to determine the taste, but it wasn’t quite the same as hot chocolate, though there were definite hints of dark chocolate in the flavor.

“It’s chocolate tea,” he grinned.

I peered at the brown liquid in my cup. It was already a step into the right direction, but the slight hint of bitterness made me yearn for coffee all the more. I wondered if coffee even existed in this realm, since the plants I’d seen outside in the forest were unlike any I’d ever seen before.

Suppressing a sigh, I instead focused on enjoying the delicious food Kaoru had prepared for me. Besides, the chocolate tea really was good, and complimented the flavors of the pancakes.

“Thank you,” I said and smiled over to him as he busied himself with his own plate of pancakes.

“Don’t mention it.”

We had barely finished our meal, when the doors blew open, and an icy gale whisked through the room, strong enough to knock pictures off the walls and a plate off the table. In the chaos, I instinctively lifted my arms to protect my face from any unexpected flying objects.  When the breeze died down just as suddenly as it had come in, I lowered them tentatively, and saw a red-haired woman in a lilac kimono standing in the doorway, hands on her hips. Her eyes were a blazing blue, deep and dark and striking. Scowling, she scanned the room until her gaze fell on Kaoru, and they narrowed. She strode forward decisively, moving a lot faster and more gracefully than I would have thought possible. It was almost as though she were floating. She stopped an inch away from Kaoru’s face, leaning forward.

“You!” she hissed and whacked him over the head. “Do you have any idea how worried I was?”

Cold emanated from her, spreading into the room at large. Startled, I noticed how crystals appeared in Kaoru’s tea, before the liquid froze solid a mere second later.

He grimaced. “Sorry, you know I would have left a message if I’d had more time.”

“Yes, but you didn’t!”

“I’m back now?”

Everything he said only seemed to agitate her more. Considering Kaoru’s tea, I thought it wise to put down my own cup, grab the trembling cat, and retreat as far away as was possible without either drawing attention to myself or appearing overly rude.

“That’s nice,” the woman scoffed. “But I was worried! You know what would have happened if she’d caught you? You would have been—”

“I know,” Kaoru’s voice was gentle, understanding, even though I noticed with a certain amount of shock that his arms and legs had been frozen to the floor and the ice was creeping up his entire body. I couldn’t even imagine the pain he must have been feeling. And yet, he didn’t seem like he minded, or like he thought he was in danger. Truly, it seemed as though his only concern was calming down the woman in front of him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think before I acted, and I was reckless.”

He managed to free one of his hands with a slight cracking sound that made me wince and lifted it up slowly, cupping the woman’s cheek.

Like lovers after a spat.

The thought had occurred to me before I knew it, and it resonated with me.

Finally, the woman’s breathing calmed down, and it seemed to me that the room was heating up again slowly.

“Okay.” She leaned back, her shoulders relaxing, and now I could actually watch the frost and ice thaw.

Kaoru’s smirk returned to his face, and he snapped his fingers, lighting up the entire floor with blue flames.

I jumped with a squeak, but I quickly realized that, while the flames were warm, they didn’t burn me or my clothes. All they did was thaw the ice quicker.

The woman stretched and let out a deep sigh, suddenly appearing much more content and no longer quite so emotional. Then her eyes flicked over to me as though she noticed me for the first time.

A smirk, both mischievous and curious, formed on her lips as she looked me up and down. “And who do we have here?”

The breath stuck in my throat. Even though she looked human, being here, and according to her ice trick a moment ago, she must be a yokai, right? Which meant that she’d be affected by my curse. Fearfully, I took a step back and glanced at Kaoru, pressing the cat on my arm closer to my chest.

Kaoru got to his feet, brushing off the last remaining ice crystals from his now wet t-shirt. “Natsu, this is Misaki. She’ll be staying here a while.”

Kaoru’s ordinary introduction did wonders to reassure me.

“It’s nice to meet you,” I said automatically.

Natsu didn’t respond. Instead, she stared at me for a moment, contemplating me with a frown, before she turned back to Kaoru, a stormy quality returning to her eyes.

“Kaoru?” she growled. “What did you do?”

Ice was forming once more underneath her soles.

“At least give me a chance to explain before you start turning my house into an ice-castle again, would you?” Before letting her respond, Kaoru bolted and fled toward the hallway to the garden. “It was an accident, okay?” he yelled back.

Immediately, Natsu gave chase, shouting all the way. “Of all the irresponsible, stupid nonsense to get into, you just had to drag someone else into it, didn’t you?”

Their voices faded as they reached the garden, and I was left behind alone with the cat in my arms. I only noticed now that he was pushing against my body, trying to wriggle out of my embrace without using his claws. I loosened my grip, and he jumped down before prancing away.

Okay. This was a new situation, and I didn’t know what to make of it. Tentatively, I peeked around the corner into the garden.

I couldn’t see them anywhere outside, but their path of destruction was clear. The koi pond’s surface had frozen over—though the fish were still happily swimming underneath—and some of the trees at the garden’s edge had icicles hanging from branches, while others were still aglow with blue flames.

Contemplating the carnage left in their wake, I decided against following them. As a human I didn’t want to be caught between fire and ice, magical or otherwise.

No, thank you.

One thing was clear to me based on their conversation—they must know each other very well, and be quite close, possibly even as close as lovers.

The thought brought an uncomfortable, queasy feeling to my stomach.

I wandered over to the pond. The ice was so clear, it almost seemed like glass. It even reflected my appearance back at me—long, straight black hair, and eyes so dark, they might as well be black. In Japan, I wouldn’t have stood out, but here, in this strange realm, I looked foreign. Not completely out of place, but different, at least if the two humanoid yokai I had met so far were anything to go by.

I caught a movement from the corner of my eyes and whirled to see what was there. But it wasn’t the monster I’d been secretly expecting. Instead, the cat was racing over from the house to the edge of the garden where it jumped into a small tree. In its crown sat a crow, watching me with deep black eyes, unbothered by the approaching cat. After holding my gaze for a moment, it calmly ruffled its feathers and took flight.