“Oh no. It’s back there with that..thing??” Daiki put his hand on his head and slouched down on the bed, “Takashi do you really need your drone back?”

“What are you talking about?? Of course I do!”, Takashi snapped. 

“Wait wait wait wait wait. Hold on. Go back. ‘That thing’??? What thing Daiki??”, Botan demanded.

Daiki and Takashi exchanged looks.

“Alright sit down”, Daiki ordered and Asa and Botan reluctantly settled down on the bed. Takashi and Daiki spent the next few minutes explaining what had transpired in the Fujisakis’ backyard. Their friends sat frozen with their eyes wide. When they’ve finished listening to the story, Botan and Asa paused for a minute, speechless as the cicadas cried outside. The rain had long ceased. 

A few seconds passed in silence before Botan looked at Asa and snorted with laughter. She returned his glance and did the same. The two of them began to snicker and soon broke up in full on laughter. 

“Okay so you guys just happened to casually run into some mythical creature in their backyard?”, Botan said, gasping for air.

“Good prank but we know you pull this kinda crap on everyone, Daiki”, Asa wiped tears of mirth off her eyes.

Takashi stepped forward, “Listen, you two. I hate Daiki’s bullshit pranks more than anyone else in this world. Can’t you at least believe me??”

“Uh yeah, but apparently, you did use to prank people together back then”, Botan shrugged, still snickering.

“Hey, those days are long gone!”

Daiki got up and looked seriously at his friends, “Fine. Don’t trust me just yet. But come with me to look for the drone tomorrow morning, and we’ll ask Fujisaki herself.”

Asa and Botan went silent at the suggestion and finally shrugged and agreed. 

“You guys laugh now but if you weren’t looking at the ritual like it was some magic, you’d have seen it too”, he added as an afterthought, eliciting more laughter from his friends. The four of them then went to sleep. 

Takashi laid in his own futon on Daiki’s bedroom floor and thought about the bird creature in their kitchen. When he joined in on Daiki’s plan, he’d expected, almost hoped, to find out something about it. But now he was left with even more questions. What did they see at Fujisaki’s house? What connection does that thing have to the bird creature? What was unravelling in his hometown?? Asa and Botan’s reaction to their story completely put him off his idea of confessing his previous encounter to them. Should he at least tell Daiki? Would anyone believe him at all? Soon these thoughts drifted him off to sleep. 

Next morning, Daiki, Botan, Asa, and Takashi finished their breakfast of zaru soba with tsuyu and Kaede’s compulsory aojiru, and set off to go look for Takashi’s drone at the Fujisakis’ place. Before they left Kaede dealt them a serious interrogation into where they were headed and what time they planned to be back. When finally released, they walked, bowing at random townspeople, who only bowed and smiled with restraint. The streets were less crowded than you’d expect on a summer morning in a hardworking town. Some even had their doors still closed. Daiki looked at his friends and shrugged knowingly. 

When they, at last, reached the Fujisakis’ place, Daiki looked around and jumped over the short wooden fence into the side of the house. The absence of many people on the street and the presence of big enshrouding trees around the fence made it easier than they’d imagined. The thought of asking for the Fujisakis’ permission to look for the drone had crossed Daiki’s mind at first but the thought of coming up with excuses for being in the backyard and for why they had a drone with them in the first place, just appalled him. So they’d collectively agreed to do it Daiki’s way; even Takashi. 

“Guys come on, hurry up”, Daiki urged as his friends wobbled and struggled to jump. 

“Jeez you’ve got a lot of practice jumping over people’s fences”, Asa hissed as she jumped unsteadily. 

Once they were all in the Fujisakis’ backyard, They began searching every nook and cranny swiftly but quietly. Takashi walked straight over to where he fell the night before and searched around it but the drone was gone. Asa and Botan checked inside the pond, around it, and near the tree where Daiki first saw the creature hiding. Daiki looked everywhere else, around other trees, boulders, shrubs and bushes, near the fence. Then they switched the places they’ve checked and searched again. No sign of the drone. 

Takashi sighed heavily and squatted down. Daiki’s face softened when he saw his friend.

“Hey, don’t worry”, he said, walking over to where Takashi was squatting, “I’m sure we’ll find it”

Takashi scoffed, “That’s just stupid talk. Where are we gonna find it, Daiki? It should be here”

Daiki paused and glanced around the backyard again.

“Takashi”, he said.

“Mm”

“Don’t you notice something about this garden?”

Takashi looked around as well.

“No?”

“Look carefully, it’s been cleaned and raked.”

Takashi looked around again. Botan and Asa did too this time.

Daiki continued, “Remember the rain last night? After that this garden would have been easily messed up. Meaning somebody cleaned the garden after the rain. Maybe this morning.”, he paused and looked at everyone’s faces, “So let’s go! Let’s try to ask Yua Fujisaki about it”

“What happened to sneaking in and not letting anyone know about our drone mission?”, Asa pointed out matter-of-factly .

“Hey, that girl just saw the exact same thing we saw last night. If anything, she’ll even agree to help us. In the future.”, Daiki argued.

“Ten bucks, she’s gonna shut us out of the house as soon as you ask”, Botan replied.

They jumped over the fence once again, quietly, and walked over to the front of the gate, pretending to be walking in from another direction. The gate was locked so Daiki rang the bell. Yua’s mother soon appeared and greeted them formally and politely. 

“Fujisaki-san”, Daiki began, “We’re Yua-chan’s friends. We used to be in the same class”. He grinned stupidly to which the woman responded with silence and a stern look. “Ahem, anyways, we were here last night, and we heard about what Yua-chan went through. It must have been so horrific”, he gestured his hands in such dramatic ways to convey fake sympathy and concern, “We.. were wondering.. if we could uhhh pay her a visit and, you know, be there for her during this… difficult time?”

Asa rolled her eyes as Takashi brought his hands up to his face. Mrs. Fujisaki cleared her throat and said in a low concerned voice, “Yua-chan is not home”

Daiki’s expression dropped, “Huh? What, why? Where is she?”

“She left early in the morning to stay with a friend in the next town. I’m sorry but she won’t be back for a few days”

“I-is she okay?”, Takashi asked, reluctantly. Daiki smirked at him. 

“She will be. Yua-chan said she needed to get her mind off the incident. Now if you kids don’t mind, I have work to do”. She bowed to the four of them and turned to walk away, but Daiki stopped her, “F-Fujisaki-san, you didn’t happen to uhh, find something that didn’t belong to you when you uhhh… well, around the garden, you didn’t find anything odd, did you?”

Confused, she shook her head sincerely and said no. Then she bowed for a second time and walked away, closing the gate behind her. 

Dispirited by the unexpected response, Daiki and his friends began pacing back towards Daiki’s place. The breeze that blew from the mountains was soothing and calming. More people have come out into the streets than that morning. A few little kids ran about with tiny kites. Normally they would have been allowed to go right up to the foot of the mountains where there was more open space and less buildings. Now, an adult had to closely monitor them so that they wouldn’t mistakenly run off in their habitual direction for kite-flying. Teenagers huddled near vending machines in more tightly woven groups than before, and middle-schoolers walked briskly from sweet shops to their homes. 

Daiki smirked lightly for a second and glanced at Takashi, “Soooo I guess somebody’s still got a crush on Yua Fujisaki”.

“Shut up Daiki”, Takashi snapped and went red. 

Botan and Asa raised their eyebrows in utter confusion.

“Wait… the girl who got ritualled last night.. was your crush??”, Botan asked a fidgety Takashi.

“Hell yeah she was! Or still is, I think”, Daiki answered.

Takashi retorted, his ears too now burning red, “Seriously, how can you talk about such things when something crazy is going on in this town??”

Silence.

Daiki thought for a couple seconds and broke the ice, “I’ve been meaning to ask, what do you guys think was that thing Takashi and I saw last night?”

“I can’t believe you guys saw something like that”, Botan replied, “But I guess you guys did see something. Given that the drone was also missing.”

“See???”, Daiki jumped, “Thank you, Botan. My theory is that it was either a demon or an alien”

“Neither of them really exist, you idiot”, Takashi declared. 

Daiki’s eyes grew wide, “Are you serious right now?? YOU saw that thing too! Takashi, this isn’t the time to be logical or atheist or something. Are you really telling me that ALIENS can’t exist??”

“Even if they did, they’d be too far away to visit Earth. Otherwise they’d have visited ages ago.”, Takashi argued.

“Pfft that’s the stupidest argument I’ve ever heard”

“My theory is that it’s one of those urban legends”, Botan chimed in, “Like that one with the speakers or the megaphones… I forget the name-”

“Siren head. They’re sirens.”, Asa helped him out. 

“Yesss!! That one! Wow Asa, how do you know about urban legends??”

“What, can’t a girl have any personal interests around here?”

“Alright, alright, cool, cool. I thought you were just a wet blanket with a stick up her butt but damn you’re so much more than that”, Botan smirked.

“Shut up you moron”, Asa snapped at him. 

He smiled and winked, “As you wish, my lady”

Asa rolled her eyes, looking away, a tint of red slowly filling her cheeks. 

That night, Daiki, Botan, and Asa had dinner with the Nakamura family. Takashi had picked up his stuff and returned home in the afternoon, following lunch which Kaede had insisted that he stayed for. Dinner was eaten quietly without much talk until Daiki broke the silence. 

He cleared his throat and asked, “Mom, what do you think is lurking in the mountains and the town?”

Kaede hesitated.

“It’s obviously some serial murderer, Daiki.”, Kaito answered in her place, “I’ve seen documentaries. This is how it all starts.”

“Yes! It’s the bad man from Pankoman!”, the twins, Hiroko and Masako chirped, referring to an anime that they’ve been watching.

Kaede smiled and looked at Daiki, “Why don’t you ask your father? I think he can answer that question better than me”.

Everyone glanced inquisitively at Junichiro, eating silently in his chair. He had been awfully restrained during this whole ordeal so Daiki was surprised. 

“Whoa. Dad?? What do you think??”

Junichiro hesitated, then cleared his throat, “I don’t really want to talk about it, children.” 

“Whaaat come onnn tell usss”, Daiki begged to which Hiroko and Masako added loudly, “YES DAD TELL USSS”

He fell silent. Kaede answered instead, “Your dad thinks that a curse has befallen our town.”

“A curse??”, Daiki asked.

Kaede nodded, “Yes. About fifty years ago, when your dad was a child, he and his friend were camping in the mountains when they saw a yokai”.

“A yokai??”

“Yes. A yokai that looked like a giant bird” 

Everyone stared at Junichiro, hoping that he would continue the story. But instead, he chose to change the subject

“Kaede, please. You’re scaring the kids”, Junichiro said, “Lights out soon everyone, finish up and go to bed”.

He got up from the table and disappeared into the kitchen. The rest finished their food and headed to bed at 7 pm. 

Daiki tossed and turned on his bed, sleepless and deep in thought about what their mother had said. He wanted to know more. He’d heard of a yokai who looked like a bird creature; the kotengu, a vile yokai that enjoyed tricking and torturing humans. 

The sounds of the night – the cicadas and the wind circled his room with a haunting low howl. Daiki looked at his bedroom door and at his phone on the nightstand. How would he even approach his father to talk about something so specific? His parents didn’t know what he and his friends had been up to. If they did, they'd kill him. How did his father feel now about his encounter? Does he have trauma connected to it?

These thoughts flooded Daiki’s mind, until he was jerked back to reality by footsteps downstairs. Slow, steady footsteps. Then, a light went on in the living room. He knew from the glimpse of it that crept in from under his door. The TV went on next and the channel switched to sports. The J.League highlights were on. 

Dad?, Daiki thought. Memories of him and his brother watching football with Junichiro swept over him and gave him an idea. Grabbing a tshirt off the side of his bed, Daiki jumped off. He’d decided to have a chat with his old man.