I left the house with less of a spring in my step than I expected to have, but I already made a commitment to jog.

And so I did.

Very poorly, in fact.

I wasn’t very athletic if you couldn’t tell. I jogged with the grace of a penguin.  My lungs were begging for mercy, as I had no clue how to pace myself. My legs were already cramping although it felt like I had barely gotten anywhere.

Perhaps I should’ve stretched beforehand.

“Are you alright, young Kumagawa-sama? Do you need me to heal you?” my ring spoke.

“I-I’m alright…” I said in between shallow gasps.

“Are you sure? I do not want you to hurt yourself. You look like a steamed tomato right now, so I think you should take a break.”

“Yeah, I’ll do… just that.” I said as I leaned back onto the wall of some building.

I had actually gone quite far, or at least far enough that I didn’t immediately recognize where I was.

A long, straight strip of road stretched out into infinity before me. Likewise, this road was adorned on both sides by an endless sea of stores, each of different sizes and aesthetics. Spanning the width of the road, hung high between the stores on each side, were several lengths of rope with penguin-shaped lanterns and origami hanging from them.

Across from where I stood there was a music store with a gaudy neon sign in front of it which read “Konishi’s Jukebox”. There was, in fact, a jukebox inside.

To my right, the way I came from, a banner hung above the middle of the road, which said “Have a safe trip! See you soon!”, complemented by an illustration of a smiling penguin waving goodbye with its stubby right wing.

I headed towards the banner to read what was on the other side of it. It read “Welcome to Penguin Road Shopping District!” with four suited penguins crossing an all-too-familiar road, though curiously all of them were barefoot.

Right beside the entrance of the shopping district was a little bus stop with a mural painted onto the glass windows of a giant penguin holding an umbrella in the rain beside a little girl who too looked all-too-familiar.

You get it.

The municipal government appeared to be run by folks who actively seek out and get a kick out of animal videos on the internet. Personally, I thought that the obsession on a singular theme came across as more tacky than quirky, but I wouldn’t deny that the place needed a refurbishing.

My memories of this place were muddy at best, but I much preferred how it was now. Even the name was a lot catchier than Harusaki Shopping District. The last thing you’d want on a big old sign meant to attract folks would be a bunch of kanji.

I looked back at the store I was leaning on. The hand-carved sign on it read “Knowledge’s Window — New and Used Books”.

It was a quaint little shop with dark wooden walls. Looking through Knowledge’s Window’s faded window, displayed alongside several classic novels were various potted plants, from cacti to Aloe vera to evergreens. The whole place looked more like an antique shop than a bookstore, but I guess those two were kind of in the same ballpark.

“Shall we have a look, young Kumagawa-sama?”

“Yeah.” I said as I walked inside the store’s open glass doors.

The scent of oranges, cloves, and old paper greeted my nose.

The store looked even bigger on the inside. It was quite narrow, but extended far back.

And it was hot. Absolutely hot.

The store’s walls were adorned with bookshelves of various sizes, colors, and materials, though they were all wooden. I scanned the store’s walls and sure enough, there was an air conditioning unit, but taped on it was a sheet of paper that read “Out of Order”. There was no fan either, as a fan in a bookstore was just asking for trouble.

A display with various books stacked on top of it stood in the center of the room.

The store’s counter was at the very end of the long corridor. Sat in front of the counter was a girl with short, dark brown hair dressed in a plain white t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants. On the other side of the counter sat an older, bespectacled man, probably in his mid to late 40s, who had his face drowned in a book.

 “So hot…” I complained.

“Would you like me to give you a little breeze? It requires very little magic, so you need not worry about me.” Yuki-san said.

Huh.

“I’ll take you up on that.”

A pleasant breeze blew from my ring and the humidity of the store became a little easier to bear. It was amazing how there was even anyone here.

I focused my attention on the two denizens of the store. Unsurprisingly, the girl was sweating up a storm, to the point where I could, through her thin shirt, just make out the lining of her-

 “Young Kumagawa-sama, just what are you staring at?”

“N-nothing, nothing!” I shook my head.

Ahem.

She was reading a textbook while furtively tapping her foot to the rhythm of a song that played from the radio on the counter.

The man too was seemingly unaffected by the heat and continued to read. His glasses precariously perched right on the tip of his nose. I didn’t dare to see them fall.

“Ah, is that not The Blue Hearts?” Yuki-san asked.

“Why do you know these things? I thought youkai were supposed to be old-fashioned. In fact, shouldn’t you be speaking with thou’s and thy’s?”

“That is quite the horrid stereotype you hold, boy. I may be a youkai, but I am a 21st-century popular culture-savvy youkai. If anything, it is you who should get with the times and not be so shallow with your assumptions, boy. I may not look it, but I even know how to operate a facsimile machine too, you know?”

I guess she still was old-fashioned. Wait, that would mean my old man owned a fax machi. Good Lord.

“Brushing that aside, let us look for the books.”

I nodded.

Packed into the numerous shelves of the store were hundreds, if not thousands of books, all in various states of aging. It was a small store, but it was quite dense.

After a bit of searching, scanning through the countless reference books, novels, and illustrated field guides, I finally found a cookbook that hadn’t aged beyond legibility.

No matter how hard I looked, however, there wasn’t any sort of IO or Sports Illustrated or whatever.

“O Miss pop culture-savvy youkai, what’s a Sports Illustrated?”

“I have not a clue, young Kumagawa-sama. Although, judging by the title, I imagine that it would be a picture book showcasing the ins and outs of different sports.”

“Huh…”

Instead of leaving this as a mystery to be solved, I pulled out my phone and looked it up. Sports Illustrated was, in fact, not a picture book. I guess it was, as I’m sure you certainly wouldn’t be focusing on the articles, if you know what I’m saying. No, as it turned out, it was simply a magazine.

“So he wants a sports magazine? Why? Do ghosts work out?”

“Is that a rhetorical question?”

“But there isn’t an IO in Sports Illustrated, so I wonder what that’s all about…”

While rummaging through the various shelves of the store, a certain book caught my eye. I pulled it out to confirm what I saw. Let’s just say, for fear of getting slapped with a content warning, that the book’s cover was, as some would put it, not conducive to the healthy mental development of young people.

“Fufufu… Are you planning on purchasing that thing, young Kumagawa-sama? You dog.”

She was very much amused.

“No, I’m not buying it.”

But I had to check it out, you know. I just had to. When you see something like this in a place that you weren’t expecting, you just can’t help but sneak a peek. Come on, there’s no way I’m alone on this one.

“Besides, it’s the cyber age, Yuki-san. You can get that kind of stuff for free on the internet, although I’m sure a savvy youkai like yourself would know as much.”

I brought the cookbook to the counter.

“Excuse me…” I said to the old man.

“Hmm? That’ll be 5400 yen,” he spat out the absurd price with a matter-of-fact tone before returning to his book.

“Woah, that’s, umm… a lot…”

“There’s a big name attached to that cookbook, so the price is fair. 5400, take it or leave it,” he combed his greasy, receding hairline.

I pulled out my wallet. I didn’t even have that much on me. Oh, well, I guess I could find another bookstore or come back another day.

“Hey, onii-san.” The girl sat by the counter spoke.

“Pffft… she called you ‘onii-san’…” my ring snickered.

“Hmm, what is it?”

“This store has a student discount. Just show them your student ID and you’ll get 20% off.”

I guess the old guy wasn’t just a plain old miser.

“That so? Thanks.”

I pulled out my student ID and presented it to the cashier as a cop would his badge.

“Hmm? Hey, you’re not from around here. Wait a minute… Kumagawa?”

Crap.

“You related to Genzaburou, son?” a spark lit in his eyes.

“Y-yeah… I’m his, uhh… nephew. My dad’s Genzaburou-san’s younger brother.”

“Ha ha, that bastard’s an old buddy of mine. We go way back, you know? Then he up and got all serious about bein’ a priest and all! Honestly, I missed when he wasn’t out doing whatever it was those priest weirdos did. He got real uptight like he was constipated every single day! Word was he had a kid, but I ain’t ever seen him, so I thought maybe you were his son and all.”

“Umm, so sir, has Genzaburou-san ever gotten married? Have you ever met the kid’s mom?”

“Nope, not a sign of her either. Maybe the whole kid thing’s just a rumor, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t! Me and him, we used to chase some primetime tail back in the day! Ha ha!”

“I-is that so?” I glanced over at the girl beside me.

She didn’t seem to be listening and was fully immersed in her book and song.

 “Say, you’re his nephew, right? So your dad’s Kei-kun, ain’t he? Now that runt was something else. One hell of a bumbling tumbling moron he was, but a real card! One hell of a cook too! We never let him into the whole tail-chasing business though ‘cause he was just a kid and all, but now he’s up and actually became a dad. Come to think of it, you kinda look like him when he was younger, but you look a little older! Ha ha! Good to see he’s doing well for himself… while I’m here in this dump.”

“You don’t like books, sir?”

“Hell no!” He slammed the counter.

“W-weren’t you just immersed in one earlier?”

“This here’s porn, son.”

…

“Well, gotta thank you, son. Brought back a whole lotta memories. Not a whole lotta pleasant ones, but memories for sure! You know what, you can have that book for free. Stupid as they may be, memories are priceless! Reading’s important too, you know. Books are important, so you better read up, so you don’t end up like me. It’s too late for books to help me now, son, but that won’t be the case for you.” He said as he took the book from my hands and placed it into a paper bag.

“T-thank you, sir.” I took the bag.

“I see you wanna be like your old man, huh? Great for you, son. Don’t go followin’ me or Genzaburou’s path! You’ll either die a boring old heroic sod or live long enough to become just a boring old sod.” He placed his hand on my shoulder.

“H-huh… I’ll keep that in mind.”

I exited the store, paper bag in tow. Before leaving, I thanked the brown-haired girl once more, to which she responded with a nod, a smile, a “you’re welcome”, and an “onii-san”.

There wasn’t much reason to tarry on longer in this place, so I went straight home. Along the way, I got myself lost and had to rely on Google Maps to find my way back. It took about half an hour and two liters of sweat, but I made it back to my home, more or less in one piece.

I was greeted by my uncle, who was in the kitchen. He asked to see the spoils of my travels, so I pulled out the book from the paper bag and showed it to him.

He stood there silent before shaking his head and letting out a sigh.

“Blumenthal’s not gonna be much of a help for you, So-kun.” he took the book from my hand.

“Really now? I don’t know my chefs really well.”

“Where’d you get this anyway? It’s a great find,” he said as he scanned the contents with a gleam in his eye.

“Got it from the shopping district. Some place called ‘Knowledge’s Window’.”

“What? Chishiki-san’s place? Could’ve at least told me he was hiding such a gem in there. Mind if I take it off your hands, So-kun? I’ll find one that’s more up your alley.”

“All yours, uncle.”

“Now that old man didn’t cause you any trouble, right?” he whispered into my ear as if Chishiki-san was within earshot.

“Not at all. Actually, I think he misses you.” I said as I went upstairs to my room.

I sat on my old creaky bed.

“Damn, it’s really hot during the middle of the day, huh?”

“Would you like me to cool you down again?” Yuki-san asked.

“Nah, I’m good.”

The word “hot” triggered a recent memory to come rising to the top of my mind. The image of the girl at the bookstore’s soaked top had already ingrained itself into my memory, same with the… unwholesome book that was at the store.

The book aside, I couldn’t help but kick myself for objectifying a girl I didn’t even know, much less one whose only intention with me was to offer help. But hey, I’m a straight teenage boy, alright? I know you’ve all thought up way worse things.

Yeah, I’m talking about you there who’s recalling all the messed up things your pubescent or perhaps even mature mind has conjured up. There’s no shame here.

“Say, Yuki-san, umm… I feel like we need to talk about this, but it’s a little awkward…”

“Awkward? How so? You need not feel awkward around me. I am your familiar, but more than that, I am your elder. I believe that the years I have tacked on have made me worldlier. Do not hesitate to talk to me about anything, young Kumagawa-sama.”

“If you say so…” I sighed.

“I did say so.”

“So… I’m a straight teenage boy, right?”

“I assume so, yes.”

“So from time to time I get… urges, you know? I get a little hormonal.” There was no way to word this so that it wouldn’t be awkward.

“Yes, I do know that much at least. You displayed that quite a bit today too.” I could hear the cheek in her voice.

“And you’re gonna just be hanging around me, right? That’s gonna make things a little awkward, you know?” my face burned up.

“You need not worry about that. I will give you your privacy, whenever you desire. After all, did I not make myself scarce when you were bathing this morning? I perfectly understand and I shall not allow any awkwardness. I am not so prude to the erotic, I would have you know.”

It’s already plenty awkward, you know.

…

“Wait, say that word again.” A spark lit inside my brain.

“Which word?”

“Erotic.”

“Now I did say that I am no prude, but I must say that I am unwilling to participate in your erotic fantasies, as you are but a chi-“

“There it is. I’ve figured it out.” I said with a snap of my finger.

“What? What about the word?”

“Spell it out in katakana.”

“エロ”

Huh.