2.01: A New TomorrowSomething clicked inside me… but not fully. My eyes eased open, unfocused, as I stared up at a filmy fabric drifting across the ceiling. It looked like a golden veil made of ce. My brows scrunched.

  Where am I?

  Two different ceilings overpped in my vision. One was faintly cracked, dingy, familiar. My old television sat crooked in the corner, the balcony barely visible in my peripheral vision. I caught the stale funk of the room… weeks of sweat, old clothes and depression. The scent of someone who’d stopped taking care of themselves.

  Then, suddenly, it was gone. The air turned clean. Sweet.

  What is that?

  Before I could pce it, the sweetness shifted again… repced by the thick, savory scent of curry. My stomach grumbled. A dull pressure built in my abdomen. Not urgent yet, but soon. I reached up and scratched my head, rubbed at an itch along my hip, and yawned.

  As I started to push myself upright, the ceiling changed again. Darkness. Cement overhead. The rumble of a massive engine vibrated through the dark space. A loud ccking echoed in the distance. For a moment, lights flickered through a dim passageway beside me, hazy shapes moving in the illumination. The air smelled damp… also of oil and dust.

  The ccking grew louder, filling the room, until the lights vanished.

  Were there people in those lights?

  I yawned again, sitting up fully and rubbing my eyes.

  What was that?

  …Train.

  I blinked hard. Right. It was a train. A weak ugh slipped out. How was I forgetting something so basic? There wasn't a single Japanese person alive who wouldn’t recognize one.

  “Hah…”

  Was I remembering something?

  A shadowy figure fshed before me, its arms spread wide. Its face was a bnk mask… a gaping mouth, empty eyes staring at nothing and everything.

  “Welcome to… Yōkai …” it said.

  I flinched, but only stared back at it, half-asleep, and yawned.

  Wh…?

  The creature distorted, reshaping into a man with messy bck hair… no features at all. Just smooth nothingness. Somehow that bnk face was even more horrifying than the monster.

  He wants to take my… Nooooo!

  I clutched my head, groaning, squeezing my eyes shut.

  “Welcome to… Yōkai …” the voice repeated.

  But now it was my voice. I recognized it instantly. The faceless man changed again… angry eyes, a sunken expression, a face more terrifying because I knew it.

  I wailed and shook my head.

  Wait… that’s… that’s…

  A goril.

  A weak ugh escaped me. I shook my head firmly. Something tickled at my face.

  “That’s right… they always called me that… my family… and she…”

  I nodded to myself, satisfied. Wait… the ugly scary guy was me.

  But… who am I?

  A new image fshed: two kids dancing like idiots. One had that terrifying yakuza face… me… and the other, brown hair and brilliant green eyes. The most beautiful girl I’d ever seen.

  That’s me.

  I clutched my head again.

  But… but… I… who…

  Still crawling mindlessly across something soft, I slipped over an edge and thumped onto the floor. My head buzzed.

  The kids kept dancing in my mind. I couldn’t help smiling.

  Do-do-do-oo, yeah-yeah-yeah-yeahVi undrar ?r ni redo att vara medArmarna upp nu ska ni f? se—

  The lyrics looped perfectly in my head.

  Caramelldansen.

  I giggled. That’s right… It was our song. Our dance.

  The two kids vanished, repced by a much smaller, painfully cute girl with chocote-brown eyes and midlength bck hair. Her hair swayed side to side as she danced, her cheeks glowing cherry red with embarrassment. She looked like she wanted the floor to swallow her, but she kept dancing anyway… just for me.

  Warmth bloomed in my chest. I pressed a hand to my heart.

  “Rui-chan…”

  She danced so fiercely for me.

  My vision cleared. The strange room returned. I turned my head and realized I’d rolled off a massive king-sized bed draped in a golden veil. Everything around me looked very elegant and expensive.

  Where am I?… What’s my name?

  Why could I remember Rui’s name… but not my own?

  I staggered to my feet and wandered the spacious room.

  Something brushed against my ankle… soft fabric. I felt a cool breeze against bare skin. Whatever I was wearing tickled my thighs as I moved.

  Sunlight leaked through the blinds in soft stripes. If someone opened them, the whole room would be flooded with warm light.

  The rest of the room felt unreal… like a luxury hotel, a shrine, and a fashion boutique had combined forces just to confuse me.

  A soft, cream-colored rug cushioned each step, thick enough that my toes sank into it. The air held a faint floral warmth, elegant and expensive, like years of perfume that had soaked into the walls themselves.

  A row of delicate folding screens lined one side of the room, painted with sweeping ndscapes in gold and amber inks. A vanity table sat nearby, carved from pale wood, polished so smooth I could see a blurry reflection of my dazed face in its surface. Silky ribbons and brushes were arranged in neat little rows, far too tidy for anything I’d ever own. I knew that much for sure.

  The furniture was all curves and soft colors… peach, cream, gentle gold. Warm and inviting. Feminine in a way that made me feel out of pce. I knew that instinctively.

  A long wardrobe occupied the far wall, its sliding doors decorated with swirling patterns that reminded me vaguely of foxfire or drifting smoke.

  Something about the room felt… protective. Cozy. Like whoever lived here valued beauty, order, and comfort in equal measure.

  An itch crawled up my cheek. I scratched zily, yawning again as the pressure in my lower abdomen sharpened.

  I need a toilet. Quickly.

  The sensation came on weirdly fast… stronger than normal. I pressed my legs together, my teeth gritting.

  Even with my brain foggy, instinct kicked in. I scanned the room. Two doors. One rge and arched, the other smaller, sliding open.

  Probably that one.

  I nodded to myself and rushed forward and reached the small door, throwing it open…

  … and squeaked.

  The room inside was drenched in sunlight. My eyes burned. I recoiled like a vampire.

  Ugh…

  The sudden brightness made me think of a twin-tailed girl with deep red ribbons, pointy teeth, and a frilly bck-and-red dress. Ridiculously cute.

  “Ume…” I muttered.

  Instinctively, I clutched my neck, searching for bite marks. Nothing. Relief flooded me. I stumbled forward, my eyes adjusting, and spotted the toilet.

  It was gleaming in a perfect ray of sunshine coming from a skylight above.

  Wow… This pce is so nice.Much nicer than Mitsu’s.Although his tower was all polished gss and metal, his apartment was always so gloomy…

  …

  Who the hell is Mitsu?

  I muttered under my breath as I tugged awkwardly at my underwear. For some reason it was annoyingly hard to find where the fabric split… top here, bottoms there… my fingers weren’t cooperating. My brain wasn’t cooperating.

  Then the pressure in my abdomen surged past the limit.

  “Kyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!”

  A waterfall poured down my legs.

  I stared down at the growing puddle, my cheeks fming.

  What’s… going on?!

  A sudden image hit me. It was of a dark-skinned man with round spotted ears, soaked tail dripping, standing in a giant puddle of my…

  “Worst. Day. Ever.”

  I nodded, ughing weakly. “I get it now. Akuchi. I’m sorry.”

  “What are you doing, baka?! Are you okay?”

  A voice shrieked behind me… someone’s arms wrapped tight around my waist.

  After a moment the hands holding me twitched.

  “Oh… gross… Susu… You were right here in front of the toilet! What are you doing? You should have sat down!”

  “Ugh…” I groaned.

  “You ruined one of Natalia’s best nightgowns! How could you, Susu?!”

  “Why would I do that, baka?” I mumbled, my response deyed.

  “You’re the BAKA!” she snapped. “What’s wrong with you? Susu… you’re worrying me now.”

  I stared down at her with a bnk expression and slowly pointed a finger.“You… you’re… Rui-chan?”

  She spped a hand over her face. “Oh Kami…”

  “Kami?” I echoed dumbly. “But…”

  Her eyes sharpened like she’d leveled a bde at me. “Don’t ‘but’ me you.” She suddenly lunged upward and started smacking me across the cheeks. “BAKA! You know me! What is wrong with you?!”

  “No…no…stop!” I squealed as she kept swatting my face.

  My vision finally snapped into focus.

  “Sit down on the toilet, BAKA! Right now!” Rui barked.

  “Okay, okay… just stop hitting me, oni!” I gred weakly and almost automatically did as she said.

  SQUELCH

  “Not like that, idiot!!!” she shrieked.

  “But I did exactly what you said…”

  “Lift the seat, BAKA!” Rui pnted her hands on her hips. “Do I have to expin everything to you?”

  “But why…? I’m done, I think…” My head throbbed, but weirdly, her sps had cleared some of the fog. That pressure in my abdomen was gone. My legs were soaked.

  “Because you’re a girl, idiot.” Rui muttered fiercely. “How can you be this oblivious?!”

  “Huh?” I blinked at her. “What are you talking about? But I’m a—”

  She lunged at me with a sharp expression.

  “A GIRL, Susu!” Rui groaned and threw herself at me. I flinched and threw my hands over my head.

  SQUISH

  “Kyaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!” I squeaked, my cheeks burning.

  “Do you get it yet, baka?” she grumbled. “Move your hands. I’m not going to hit you anymore, I promise.”

  …

  “You promise?” I muttered, eyeing her suspiciously. Rui had a habit of hitting first and asking questions… never. Just like…

  Green eyes fshed in my mind. A fist smmed into my face. The sensation of flying backward through the shoji screen in my family’s genkan struck me with almost perfect physical crity.

  “You should be honored. Free training!” Reiko said, wagging her finger with that wicked grin.

  “I am honored, Reiko-sama…” I groaned.

  A strange, electric sensation rippled across my chest. Something tightened… and peaked…

  My nipples were suddenly rock hard and…

  “KYAAAAAAAAAAA!!!”I shrieked, jerking back instinctively.

  “You stink of pee, baka,” Rui scolded… but her face was red as she pressed herself against my chest and rubbed at it.

  I froze.

  She was touching…

  She was clutching…

  Two perfectly shaped orbs.

  ...

  On my...

  ...

  chest …

  “Ahhhhhhh! You little… oniiiiiii!!” I moaned.

  Rui burrowed her face between my breasts and kept rubbing and rubbing and rubbing until my legs trembled and I melted into a quivering puddle right there on the toilet.