Chihiro couldn’t help thinking as she walked along the path to Shoko’s place, that it was more like entering another realm, than the time she had actually entered another realm! The bamboo forest grew all around them, sending tall stems up into the sky, to turn the sunlight emerald green as it filtered down through the leaves.

Shoko had met them, Chihiro and the newly named Sakura at the temple gate, they’d waited a bit until Haruko Isobe, nicknamed Usagai-chan by Shoko, had turned up. Then Shoko had shown them the pathway to her private home.

Chihiro wondered how many people had walked past the entrance to the semi-tunnel and not noticed it. It just looked like a small gap in the wall of bamboo that lined the steps up to the temple complex, but as you slipped through it the path twisted and turned onwards, winding it’s way along the steep slope snaking slowly upwards.

Chihiro wondered briefly who’d made the path, tamping the earth flat so it sat between little banks of untrodden forest floor. A small shiver ran down her spine as she realised that no-one had made the pathway… but eighty years worth of Shoko daily walking back and forth had created it.

No-one wanted to talk much, time and the forest seemed to press in upon them, diminishing them until no-one felt they dared break the silence. Chihiro thought that she’d gotten used to the idea of her best friend and informally adopted sister being a kitsune… but as she trailed along behind them, she could feel the strange otherworldliness of being in the company of yokai, as if the world was ever-so slightly off-kilter.

One by one the single file led by Shoko disappeared around a sharp bend, disappearing as they were obscured by the thick growth of bamboo and ferns bursting forth from the jutting outcrop of rock the path curled around.

Chihiro gasped silently as she followed them around, and found herself looking at a small clearing with an ancient thatched hut in the centre. The grey weathered wooden walls and the moss covered thatch blended in with the surrounding forest, making it look as though it had more been grown than made. Shoko was standing on the platform the hut was built on, at the top of the steps leading up.

“This is my place everyone, come on in.”

Chihiro hurried up to catch up with Sakura and Usagi-chan, her eyes widening as she took in the interior. From the outside it had looked like a rough woodsman’s hut, but the inside was very different. The honey coloured wooden floor and walls had been planed smooth and polished until they gleamed. There was a raised platform at the back, closed off by a heavy-looking tapestry full of rich jewel-like colours and sparkling with metallic threads. It took her a moment, but she realised it was embroidered with a scene of yokai courtiers and functionaries attending a nine-tailed fox lounging on a throne. Chihiro wondered if that was meant to be Inari at the Imperial court perhaps.

Shoko threw some more firewood onto the embers in the stone-lined pit that sat at the middle of the house, ringed by dark grey slate flags and sunken below the level of the timber floor. A black cast iron pot hung from long hook and bar mechanism above the fire, which Shoko swung down to be closer to the rekindled flames.

“Hope you like vegetable hotpot for dinner, and I’ve some onigiri rice balls if you’d like in the meantime.”

Chihiro added.

“I brought snacks for everyone too.”

There were murmurs of agreement as Chihiro and Usagi-chan sat down on the brightly coloured cushions. Sakura, full of the boundless energy of all small things, roamed around excitedly exclaiming over every new thing she found, causing Shoko to laugh.

Usagi-chan leaned towards Chihiro and whispered.

“We’ve seen houses like this before, on our field trip to that open air museum, remember? I wonder how old this place is? It has to be at least three or four centuries old…”

Shoko, with her sharp fox ears heard them and remarked.

“This place was originally built for the head miko of the temple when they built the outer temple and the temple walls, around three thousand years after the older Shrine and inner temple. So, it’s closer to a thousand years old according to Inari. Everything between the temple walls and the outer defensive wall, which was where the road is now, was cleared and held all the regular buildings that people lived in. Those buildings have all fallen apart as the bamboo and trees grew up, until this place is all that’s left.”

Usagi-chan sighed.

“This place must have been huge back then… but why was everyone living on the mountain side and not in the valley?”

“Inari said it was built this way when Minamoto Yoritomo was Shogune, and the new Buddhist sects were attacking all the old religions, so it was safer this way.”

Chihiro nodded.

“I remember that from history classes. There was a lot of temples that were fortified back then. But… wouldn’t the Kami protect people? Why would they need walls?”

Shoko shrugged.

“I don’t know...maybe because they thought it would be better if people didn’t depend on them too much. Perhaps some of the gods didn’t like fighting, Inari doesn’t really.”

Usagi-chan nodded.

“That makes sense. Too much dependency is unhealthy, or so I’m told.”

Shoko nodded.

“Well, that and Inari can be lazy sometimes. She wouldn’t want to be disturbed every time some bandit got a bit cocky!”

Chihiro scolded Shoko.

“You shouldn’t be disrespectful about her Shoko...she’s your mother!”

“But it’s true, and besides, I can be a bit because she is my mother! I still love her, even if I do know she has her failings!”

Chihiro considered that and shrugged.

“I suppose that’s fair, but still…”

Changing the subject rapidly, Chihiro asked;

“Anyway, what shall we do? I brought some cards with me if people want..”

Shoko grinned.

“We could play dress up? I have a whole store house full of old clothes left over from when the temple was more active, and I’ve never had friends over to do that!”

Usagi-chan frowned.

“Wouldn’t they be all dusty and rotten by now?”

Shoko shook her head.

“Nu-uh. Someone put a preservation spell on the store house ages ago, and I renewed it not that long ago, so they’re as fresh as when they were last laundered!”

Chihiro sighed.

“Wish I could do magic like that! I got my summer clothes out of storage last night and they smelt all stale. I had to wash them again.”

“I can make you a charm to go in your cupboard if you like Chihiro?”

“Oh yes! Thank you Shoko! That’d be helpful.”

Shoko giggled, nodding as she said.

“That’s me, the helpful little fox spirit!”

Chihiro laughed, although she couldn’t help wondering if perhaps the popular children’s book ‘The Helpful Little Fox Spirit’ might not have been inspired by Shoko… after all, the authoress was from their region!

The store house turned out to be as big as a barn, bigger than Shoko’s home, and full to the rafters with boxes. The sunlight slanted down though the narrow slot windows under the eaves, creating deep pools of shadows and bright sparking beams. Chihiro noticed that the boxes had yellow slips of paper listing their contents, with stamps on them saying who they belonged to and dates. Her eyes widened when she realised that the nearest boxes, and presumably the most recent, were from well over a hundred years ago!

It was Usagi-chan that asked the obvious question, although Chihiro had been thinking it to.

“Umm… Shoko? Is it really ok for us to play with these? I mean, they’re probably antiques. Shouldn’t they belong in a museum or something?”

Shoko shrugged.

“They’re just old clothes and things people left behind ages ago. They’re nothing special. All the really fancy stuff that was gifted to the temple is in a different storehouse. This is just things people would use daily, but for one reason or another they put them away. Spare robes and that sort of stuff, packed away and forgotten.”

Usagi-chan still hesitated, standing on the threshold of the storehouse.

“Still… these all belonged to someone once. Wouldn’t their spirits mind us going through their things?”

Shoko shrugged.

“I don’t think so, but you could always ask them yourself. They’re right behind you.”

Chihiro could almost see Haruko’s hair stand up, as her ears escaped the confines of her braids. Slowly, she turned around, her eyes wide… and then sagged in relief as she saw there was nothing there.

“That’s not funny Shoko! For a minute I believed you!”

Shoko laughed at Usagi-chan’s furious expression, but walked over and hugged her even as she stood in the doorway, arms crossed and pouting.

“S..sorry, sorry.. Usaki-chan, but it was too good a joke not to…”

“You’re terrible!”

“But you forgive me anyway Usagi-chan?”

Haruko sighed, and her posture softened as she leaned into the hug.

“I suppose I do….”

Meantime, Sakura had needed no second bidding, as she was already darting around the storehouse, lifting the lids on crates and examining the contents. Lifting a hair comb decorated in tiny cherry blossoms she exclaimed.

“Pretty!”

Shoko walked over and peered down into the crate.

“Oh, I remember this one… there should be a matching Yukata in there, would you like to try it on? It should fit you I think…”

“Yes please Auntie!”

Shoko blinked at the younger kitsune.

“Auntie? Me?”

“Mmhm! You’re like me, but older, and Chihiro calls you sister, so.. you’re my auntie!”

Chihiro laughed at Shoko’s expression of amused dismay.

“Well, you can’t fault her logic there… Auntie Shoko.”

“I guess not… alright then, auntie it is. Lets go find a corner where you can change shall we?”

As Shoko led Sakura off into a secluded corner, Chihiro noticed Haruko was staring into one of the larger crates. Coming up behind her, she peered over her shoulder, and saw that it contained a set of what she guessed to be samurai ‘s robes, with a sheathed sword on top.

“What’s up Usagi-chan? Fancy being a samurai?”

Haruko turned to look at Chihiro, shaking her head slightly.

“No.. that’s silly. I’m not brave enough.”

Chihiro shrugged.

“You could pretend to be couldn’t you? Just for fun… look, the crate even has your family name on it.”

Haruko nodded.

“I know, that’s why I looked in it. But… It has to be coincidence. It’s ridiculous to think one of my family was a samurai. We’ve always been farmers. ”

“As far as you know, you mean. Shoko said these crates have been here for a long, long time, I don’t know, maybe hundreds of years ago, there were warrior Usagi, and one of them was an ancestor of yours?”

Haruko stared down into the crate a for a moment, then, hesitantly, picked up the sheathed sword.

“I think I can pretend to be brave, although I’m going have to find a different kimono, whoever he was, he was tall! I wonder if there’s anything like a journal, or something to tell us who he was?”

Chihiro looked again at the robes, and shrugged.

“I don’t know about that, but he was a she, judging by the outfit.”

Haruko glanced back at the contents of the crate.

“A female samurai? Are you sure?”

“Pretty sure… the design of Kimono hasn’t changed much in the last thousand years, and I’m sure that one is meant for a woman. Lets see what else is in here, shall we?”

It took a little bit of creative use of the accompanying Obi or belt, to get the kimono to fit Haruko, and it still reached her ankles when it was meant to be waist length. However Haruko cut a fine figure as a samurai, the long sword and short dagger thrust through her belt at the waist, and her hair tied back in a high pony-tail with her ears standing up proud.

She and Chihiro were just trying to decipher the hand written book they’d found at the bottom of the crate, and between the densely cramped writing and archaic kanji they were making slow going of it, when Shoko emerged with Sakura.

“Announcing Princess Sakura!” Shoko proclaimed.

Chihiro looked up, and gasped. Shoko had found a pale pink and white cherry blossom pattern yukata that matched the hair comb that held Sakura’s tumbling russet tresses up in an elaborate hair style that had probably been all the rage at the Imperial court a century or two ago. They also evidently found a box of jewellery, as Sakura positively glittered with fancy gems and beads dangling from hair pins, and was draped at neck and wrists with a gold necklace and bangles.

“Ah.. Shoko?”

“It’s ok, it’s all brass and cut glass. Nothing valuable. It got put away when the Emperor decreed that ostentatious displays of wealth weren’t allowed. They’re baubles that people would wear when they wanted to look rich but weren’t really.”

“Ohhh… well they’re pretty anyway!”

Sakura, who had been parading up and down exclaimed.

“Look at me! I’m a princess! See how pretty I am!”

Chihiro nodded while Haruko strode forward to her, and kneeling, held out her sheathed sword.

“Princess Sakura, your faithful bodyguard stands ready to protect you!”

Sakura crowed with laughter, placing her hand on the old sword and motioning for Haruko to stand. Shoko took hold of Chihiro’s arm and dragged her off to one side as she whispered to her.

“C’mon Chihiro.. lets find you something. Fancy playing the villain?”

Tilting her head to look at Shoko, Chihiro raised an eyebrow.

“What’s got into your head? And where are you dragging me off to?”

Shoko grinned…

“Well…. You’re not Usagi-chan, so it’s not that if that’s what you were thinking of. I was just thinking maybe we could help Haruko pretend to be brave, by presenting her with a villain to defeat.”

A smile slowly slid across Chihiro’s face as she contemplated the idea.

“Yeahhhh…. I like that idea. Ok, I’m in. Which of us is going to be the bad guy?”

Shoko flashed a quick smile.

“It’ll have to be you, otherwise she’ll be conflicted too much. How do you like the idea of being a demon? With your red hair, and the fact you’re the tallest of us three, you’re a natural for it!”

Chihiro nodded abstractedly, looking around the store house and wondering what they could find to dress her up as a demon.

“Ok… lets see what we can find. Come to think of it, what would a demon wear anyway?”

Shoko shrugged.

“I don’t know… whatever they wanted to I guess?”

Chihiro groaned at the joke, covering her eyes with her hand as Shoko’s laughter peeled throughout the old store-house.

Shoko and Chihiro managed to put together a demon costume for Chihiro from odds and ends… mainly based around a brilliant fiery red kimono. Shoko even found a set of old kabuki masks, one of which was a truly scary looking demon. Which she carefully checked for any lingering magic or spirits, just in case.

So, while Shoko narrated, and took pictures at Haruko’s insistence, Chihiro menaced the ‘Sakura Princess’ while her faithful Usagi Samurai defended her all afternoon long until the golden sunlight slid sideways among the bamboo stems as the sun dawdled downwards towards the horizon, painting the sky in hues of rouge and marigold and gilding the edges of the leaves above them as the small group of friends happily went back to Shoko’s warmly inviting hut, following the fragrant smell of woodsmoke from the banked fire in the hearth as they filled the air with excited chatter, rehashing the days heroic deeds as they’d imagined them.