Love-Love Umbrella by taiyakisoba

Note: 'Love-love umbrella' is a literal translation of the Japanese phrase aiaigasa, which refers to when a boy and girl share an umbrella together. Like an indirect-kiss, it's the sort of cute thing that is supposed to hint that the two are going to become a couple.

Even though you've lived in this little Japanese country town for almost two months now, you still haven't got used to the old Buddhist temple you have to walk past to get to your apartment. The cemetery attached to it is well-maintained by the locals who have relatives buried there, but the temple itself is pretty dilapidated and it's especially spooky on dark and stormy nights like tonight.

The road you're walking along is deserted, and not only because of the weather: it's later than usual for you to be coming home. Ordinarily, there are salary-men and schoolkids on the same train as you, but tonight you're alone.

You feel something wet strike the top of your head.

Rain?

You shift up the collar of your jacket. Just your luck - you left your umbrella on the train.

You walk faster. The street-lights are few and far between on this road and there are shadows everywhere. Some of them even look like people. I mean, look over there. There's an old plum-tree at the edge of the temple grounds and if you didn't know better, you might mistake the shadow at its base as someone standing there holding an umbrella.

Wait. Did that shadow just move?

You walk faster, your heart beating more rapidly. Stupid, being scared by a shadow. But maybe you should be a little careful. People are sometimes mugged in Japan, even if it is very rare.

As you pass by the tree you think hear someone say something but it's so soft it's hard to make out.

"Hello?" you call out.

"B-boo," comes the voice again. No mistaking it this time. It's coming from under the plum tree, and obviously belongs to the person standing there.

Probably just some stupid high school kid. You move closer, trying to decide on what you'll say to them to scold them, when a figure steps forward out of the shadows.

It's a girl, and she's holding an umbrella.

"Boo!" she says, opening and closing her umbrella like you would to scare off an animal. "Boo!"

"Excuse me?"

She pumps the umbrella at you another time, then lets it drop and gives a loud sigh.

"You're not scared, are you?"

"Uh," you reply, not really sure how you should respond. You tell her that you weren't really scared, but you were a bit startled.

"Really?" The girl's crestfallen face immediately lights up. She claps her hands together and gives a little hop. It's pretty adorable.

Even in the half-light you can tell she's young and pretty. She has short strikingly-coloured hair, turquoise you decide, the same colour as the vest she's wearing over her white blouse and matching the light blue of her skirt. It's some pretty weird getup, and not exactly what you'd call fashionable. You also notice that her eyes are different colours: one blue, the other red. Overall, she looks quite unusual, but there's something about the eager look on her face, the innocent and childlike delight, which makes her very attractive.

Her umbrella, however, is something else again. It's a weird looking thing, a peculiar purple colour and terribly out-of-date, the sort of discarded item you'd find in an abandoned storehouse, probably dating from the Edo period. It must have some sentimental value for the girl, though. I mean, why else would she be carrying around such an ugly thing?

"Oh, I must be getting better at this," says the girl. Clearly she's interested in starting up a conversation and despite the weirdness of the situation you're more than happy to go along with it. It's not every day that a pretty girl accosts you in a darkened street and tries to scare you, after all.

Wait, this couldn't be nanpa, could it? The Japanese tradition of coming up to someone on the street cold and asking them to go out with you?

You're amused by your unfounded optimism. She's probably just a crazy person.

You ask her why she's standing around in the dark trying to scare people and she replies that it's her job. She's a youkai, she says, a bakekasa, and scaring people is how she survives.

"I feed off their fear," says the girl, seeming happy to have someone to talk to.

You nod and smile at her and start to back away. So she is a icrazy/i person after all.

"Wait, where are you going?"

You tell her you have to go home since it looks like it's going to rain. It's a lame excuse, but she doesn't seem put off by it.

"Do you think I can scare you again sometime?" she asks, looking at you with sudden shyness.

You feel your heart melt. Maybe she is crazy, but aren't a lot of people? And she looks so harmless. Really, she's not much different from those strange girls who dress up in outlandish clothes and wander around Harajuku with their friends shopping and gossiping and eating crepes.

You tell her that you always walk along this road, although you usually do it a bit earlier. But you warn her that if she wants to scare you, she'll have to find another place to jump out of, since you'll expect her to be under the old plum tree.

"Oh, that's a great idea!" says the girl. "So I'll see you tomorrow night, then?"

You swallow and nod.

Surprise flashes on the girl's face and she blushes. "Oh, that's right. I haven't introduced myself yet, have I? I'm Tatara Kogasa." She gives a little bow which you reciprocate.

Kogasa? Cute name, and no way it's her real one. Oh well.

You introduce yourself and Kogasa finds the foreign pronunciation a bit difficult at first. She repeats your name as if trying to memorise it, which you find both cute and somewhat disturbing at the same time.

You decide you'd better go. You say your goodbyes and Kogasa waves to you cheerily as you walk away. She's still repeating your name under her breath.

As the sound of her voice fades behind you, you feel an odd mixture of relief and disappointment. Maybe you should have been a bit more forward with her. She was a very pretty girl, after all. And those eyes were beautiful, if a bit unusual. Heterochromia, you remember it being called. You wonder if she's ever been teased for it. It looks like the sort that thing that would attract unwanted attention.

You feel a few more droplets of rain on your head and start to walk faster. It's only a short way to your apartment, but since it's not long until the rainy season in Japan, you're worried that you'll end up in a downpour.

Right on cue, the heavens open up above you.

You break into a run. The rain is already pooling on the side of the road and it splashes up and onto your legs. You turn the corner into your street and decide whether you'll try and make it to your apartment or seek shelter in a shopfront nearby.

You're not paying attention and so you almost run straight into someone. You stop and apologise.

It's Kogasa. She's holding that weird umbrella, open now, and she swings it over your head to protect you from the rain.

You must look shocked since Kogasa stifles a giggle. "Oh, did I startle you again?"

You nod. Anybody would have been.

"How did you get ahead of me so quickly?" you ask.

"Oh," says the girl. "I just flew over here."

She flew. Of course she did. All youkai can fly, right?

You look at those wide, innocent eyes. Maybe she's not crazy, but just has an overactive imagination like a kid.

Kogasa suddenly blushes and you realise you've been staring at her. She looks away. "Is... is your apartment very far away?"

You tell her it isn't.

"I'll take you there, then. I don't want you getting wet and catching a cold. You might not be able to come outside and then I wouldn't have anyone to surprise."

You ask her if she often surprises people.

She nods at first, but then she tilts her head and brings a finger to her lips. "Well, I try to, anyway. I think I'm not very good at it. You're the first person I've surprised for a long time."

You tell her you're glad you could help out.

Kogasa walks beside you with the umbrella. It really is a tatty old thing. A strip of it is hanging down, wagging back and forth as you walk. You want to say something, but you're worried about offending her. Then you'd be stuck in the rain again, and there wouldn't be a pretty girl walking beside you.

Wait, isn't this what the Japanese call aiaigasa?

You smile to yourself and Kogasa notices. "Oh, did you just think of something nice?"

Startled, all you do is nod.

Kogasa smiles at your awkwardness. "I think I might have surprised you again. You're pretty easy to surprise, you know."

You make some lame excuse about being tired, but Kogasa just giggles.

"Well, I think it's cute. It's nice to meet someone who knows when to be surprised. Everyone seems to be so busy these days that I usually just get ignored."

You say that you find that very hard to believe.

Kogassa stares at you. "Oh, but it's the truth! Sometimes people don't even see me there."

Your attempt at giving her a compliment her seems to have failed utterly. And there, just ahead is your apartment.

Oh well.

You thank Kogasa for her help and tell her that you can make it the rest of the way. The rain does seem to have slackened off a little bit.

She seems disappointed somehow. "Oh, okay. I suppose I'll see you around then?"

You tell her that you'd like that.

You feel like a bit of a loser as you walk across the street. Somehow that whole situation could have gone a lot better. If only you were had more game.

When you reach your door you glance behind you as you fumble for your key. Kogasa isn't there anymore. Well, she certainly didn't waste any time, did she? Probably gone back to see if there's someone else she can surprise... What a strange hobby. It's probably for the best that nothing else happened. She did seem pretty weird.

But you can't help feeling disappointed. She was really pretty, in an odd and old-fashioned kind of way.

You finally find your key and turn to put it in the lock. As you do, you feel a hand on your shoulder and you swing around in alarm.

It's Kogasa, of course.

"Boo!" she says, thrusting that weird umbrella at you. In the front light of your apartment block you see for the first time that the thing has a weird face on it with a long, lolling tongue. Its single eye rolls back and forth and the tongue flicks out as she thrusts the umbrella at you.

You cry out and stumble backwards ass-first into a huge puddle that has collected in the gutter, splashing mud and water all over your pants.

As you get to your feet rubbing your ass, you realise that you not only soaked yourself, but Kogasa as well. The girl is staring down at her skirt and blouse, spattered with mud and water. The umbrella hangs limply in her hand at her side, the tongue still lolling about.

Oh shit.

Even despite the weirdness of the whole umbrella thing, social nicety kicks in and you start to babble an apology. You expect her to explode in anger, but instead she beams at you.

"Wow. That's the biggest reaction I've ever got!"

You apologise again and tell her to wait there and you'll get a towel from your apartment. Your pants are dripping and when you try to brush the worst of the mud from them barely any comes off. Your heart sinks. There's no way that a towel is going to be enough.

You turn back to her and as confidently as you can manage you invite her to come up to your apartment and clean herself off. There's a shared drier in the laundry so the whole thing shouldn't take too long.

You realise you're babbling again, mostly from nervousness. You don't want her to get the wrong idea. But it can't help but feel like one of those cheesy amateur plays at getting a girl to come to your room.

Kogasa, though, just nods and follows you inside the apartment block when you finally get the door unlocked and open. She doesn't really seem to care about the mud on her own clothes. She keeps looking at you, a strange half-smile on her face, seemingly pleased with herself.

"Was I really that scary?" she asks suddenly, with disarming shyness.

You don't really know what to say. It really looks like she enjoys scaring people, so if you tell her you weren't scared it will probably disappoint her. Luckily you reach the door to your apartment and you cover your confusion by getting inside.

You ask Kogasa to wait one second in the genkan while you change your own clothes. You do it in a hurry, leaving the cleaning of them until sometime later. You hurry back in your room clothes with a towel for her, but you stop dead when you see that she's already taken off her blouse and is in the middle of slipping off her skirt.

A turquoise bra. She must really like the colour. She probably wears the same colour panties as well.

Averting your eyes, you push the towel at her and she stops taking off her skirt to take it with a thank you. You open the door to your bathroom and suggest she'll be more comfortable changing in there. Kogasa blinks at you, but then she does what you say.

As the door closes and you hear the water start to run you sit back and try and calm your beating heart. What was she trying to do? Is she really that naïve, or is it just an act?

You notice the weird umbrella sitting up against the wall of your genkan and you wonder just what you've got yourself into. Its eye is no longer moving and its tongue is just hanging there. Maybe it was just a trick of the light.

Even so, you don't really feel like going anywhere near it.

You hear the water stop and you realise that she'll probably just walk straight out in her underwear or maybe even naked, so you grab a plain white shirt from your wardrobe. It's nothing special, but it will keep her body covered.

Although you would like to see more of it, you admit. That bra was pretty cute. Her breasts were not that big, but they seemed very shapely. She had a lovely flat stomach as well, and surprisingly pale skin for a Japanese girl.

The door begins to open and you plunge the shirt inside and tell Kogasa to wear it. She takes it from you and you tell her to give you her wet things so you can go and slip them in the drier. She does as you ask and you're glad that she seems to have kept her underwear on as it's just her blouse and skirt.

You heart probably wouldn't have been able to take it.

You throw the stuff in the drier. It looks like she was able to get the worst of the muddy water off. You set it for a quick cycle and return to your apartment. Your heart is beating rapidly as you step inside.

Kogasa is there, sitting on your couch. She's wearing the shirt, which she's buttoned up. She seems utterly at home.

You cover your nervousness by telling her it shouldn't take long to dry her clothes. She smiles at you. You apologise for not having anything better than a shirt to offer her.

You idiot. Stop apologising already!

But Kogasa just laughs. It's a cheerful sound. She really is different from a lot of other girls you've met here. She seems definitely more laid back.

"So you live alone here, then," she says. You nod. She looks around. "It really does look like a boy's house, doesn't it?"

You don't really know what she means by it but you agree that it does.

There's a moment of silence. You begin to feel awkward, but Kogasa doesn't seem to mind. You realise you should offer her something to drink. Tea, right?

She takes your offer and you busy yourself boiling the water.

When you return to the couch Kogasa is no longer sitting on it. She's at the genkan, talking to her umbrella.

"I know, but you'll get everything wet. Just wait here a little longer."

It's cute, in disturbing sort of way. You put the tea on your coffee table and Kogasa, hearing you, comes back.

"Oh, she's always complaining about something," says Kogasa by way of explanation. "For an umbrella, she really doesn't like getting wet."

You smile and nod. Well, at least she's got a very active imagination.

Small talk, small talk. Oh yeah...

You ask her whether she's studying or working.

"Oh, like I said, I'm a youkai, so my job is scaring people, I guess. Although I did used to work in childcare."

Childcare. It seems an appropriate job for such a cheerful and positive individual, even if she is a bit deranged. Probably playing with the kids day in, day out, makes you act a bit like one yourself.

You ask her if she'd like a snack, but she shakes her head. "Don't you remember? I scared you on your doorstep earlier, so I've already eaten. I guess you didn't notice." She drops her gaze suddenly and you detect a blush settling over her cheeks. "Y-you know, your fear was really delicious." She looks up at you through her dark lashes. "It's been a long time since I've been able to enjoy it."

So she's still on about being a youkai who eats fear. Well, you decide you don't really care that much. With her round face and its widely spaced and innocent-looking eyes, her slender body which is nicely curved in the right places, you find yourself enjoying her company.

You sit and talk about various things as you drink your tea. You fill Kogasa in with your life story, more or less, and she genuinely seems interested to hear about it. She's from a town called Gensoukyou or something like that, but she moved here to see if humans in this place were easier to scare. Until she met you, they didn't really seem all that different.

"I'm really happy to have met you, though," she says.

That blush again. Your heart skips another beat. She's going to give you a cuteness heart attack if this keeps up. Either that, or you're going to get so excited you explode. The way she's sitting on the couch next to you, with only a layer of cotton between you and the soft paleness of her body. She has the habit of kicking her legs when she talks, and you get glimpses of her thighs from under the hem of the shirt. It's a bit big for her, of course, and so the collar is quite open and her neck and the expanse of skin between her collarbone and the top of her breasts is on show.

To take your mind off it, you ask her about her umbrella, whether it's a family heirloom or something like that.

She laughs. "Oh, no. She's just part of me, I guess you could say. I started off just being an umbrella, and then one day I became a youkai. I was given this body, but I don't know if it's really all that scary." She pouts.

You tell her that the umbrella almost gave you a heart attack and she grins.

"Oh, was it the tongue or the eye?"

"A combination of both," you say.

Kogasa looks past you. "See? I told you the face was a good idea!"

You turn to follow her gaze. Next to the couch is the umbrella, hopping up and down on its own, its eye swivelling about and its tongue lolling.

This time your heart doesn't skip. It stops.

You turn back to Kogasa and try to say something, but you've been struck dumb by the shock.

Kogasa doesn't notice. "She was worried that the face was funny rather than scary, you know. Silly thing."

You shake your head. No, the face is not funny.

All of a sudden Kogasa leans closer and sniffs you.

You pull away in alarm. "What are you doing?"

The girl's eyes go wide as her lips curl in a delighted smile. "Are you scared?"

You nod. No point hiding it this time.

Wait, didn't she say she could smell your fear?

"It smells delicious," she says, as if answering your unspoken question. She leans forward and pouts, almost as if she's about to kiss you.

The strangest sensation settles over your body. It feels like something is getting sucked out of you. It's not an unpleasant sensation at all. Suddenly you don't feel all that scared anymore, even though that weird umbrella-thing is still close by. It's no longer bouncing but swivelling about on its handle, almost like it's a nervous habit.

At last Kogasa falls back, gasping, her chest heaving as she grips the arm of the sofa. Finally she turns to you, beaming.

"Ah! I'm so full now. But I couldn't resist. It just smelled too good."

You don't know whether you should be flattered or not. Even though you're no longer scared, the situation is still disturbing.

Kogasa notices you glancing in the direction of the umbrella. "Oh, don't mind her," she says. Then, to the umbrella, "Why don't you go relax in the genkan? I know you're feeling just as full as I am."

The umbrella seems to understand everything she says. It gives a single hop, almost as if nodding, and then bounds back towards the genkan where it settles down, leaning against the shoe-rack.

"You were really scared, weren't you?" asks Kogasa suddenly. She's lying back on the sofa, looking very relaxed. "Didn't you believe me when I told you I was a youkai?"

You explain that you've never met a youkai before and that people generally think that they're just fairy tales.

Kogasa chuckles. "Humans can be so silly. As you can see, I'm very real." She puts her hand on yours.

You swallow. The smile on her face has taken on a sultriness that wasn't there before.

"Are you getting scared again?" she asks, her voice teasing. "Trying to make me fat?" She scooshes closer, her eyes glistening as she looks you over. For a horrible moment you wonder if she's one of those youkai who eat human flesh and that she's planning to have that for dessert.

Her eyes are swimming now. "You have to stop being so nervous. If you keep smelling this good I'm afraid I'm going to get too worked up." She throws a leg over yours and swings herself onto your lap, settling her deliciously warm and soft weight on top of you. Her hands on either side of your head, she leans forwards, her lips pursed. You think she's going to drink your fear again, but this time she comes closer and brushes her lips across yours, feather-light. Her breath is warm and fragrant.

She leans back, having stopped just before kissing you. "Don't worry, I'm not going to tease you...much." Her hand drops to just below your waist and touches you. "I guess you're getting worked up, too? Have I scared you stiff, maybe?"

It's a terrible joke but you laugh, which pleases her. The she lowers her eyes, suddenly shy. "I hope I'm not being too forward." She raises her face again and directs those huge eyes at you. "But then again, we've already shared an umbrella, haven't we? That almost makes us a couple, doesn't it?"

She just looks so vulnerable at that moment that despite the weirdness of the whole situation you can't help but pull her closer to you. She nuzzles her face against your neck and you feel the wet heat of her tongue against your skin.

She looks at you again, embarrassed. "You just smell too good. It makes me want to lick you." Then her eyes take on a mischievous glint. "I wonder if your kisses taste as good." She throws her arms around your neck and leans forward, bringing her lips against yours, but this time it's no teasing brushing. She attacks your mouth, kissing you with surprising aggressiveness, and you find yourself struggling to keep up with her. Her tongue, hot and wet, slips past your teeth and you wrestle with it. It's long and agile and soon the deepness of her kiss has you quickly gasping with desire.

She pulls away, licking her lips. In the open her tongue is long, abnormally so. But you feel no fear. Maybe Kogasa ate it all up again while you were kissing.

Her arms along the backing of the sofa, she repositions herself on your lap. You squirm as the softness of her butt and thighs rub across you. She sees the agonised look on your face and she smiles. "I'm sorry. I usually like to take this slowly, but I'm just too worked up to wait. I... I hope you don't mind. It's been such a long time since I..." She drops her gaze, embarrassed.

Who the hell would mind? You shake your head.

She starts to fumble at your belt, but with your help it doesn't take long for you to get your pants and underwear off. She runs her fingers along you, her cheeks and neck flushing pink with her excitement. Raising her butt, she sits forward on her knees and lifts up the hem of the shirt.

Her panties are turquoise, just as you expected.

Kogasa reaches down and pulls them aside and guides you into her, her eyes closed. She gasps and you can't help gasping as well at the sudden pleasure that courses through you.

Kogasa edges forward gently, parting her lips, her long tongue flicking out as she tries to find the most comfortable and pleasurable position. Your hands fall on to her waist and you help her, eliciting little cries of delight as you do so.

Soon the two of you find the right spot. You quickly find your rhythm and soon it's as if the two of you have been making love for a long time. As your excitement grows, you're gripped with the need to feel her body against yours, so you reach up and unbutton the shirt, doing a pretty crappy job at it since waves of exquisite pleasure are jetting through you. Somehow you finally manage it and then Kogasa reaches back and unbuttons that turquoise bra you glimpsed earlier. Her breasts free, you cover them with your hands. The rest of her body is as pale as the parts you saw earlier, but the whole of her upper torso is peach-pink, flushed with her excitement.

Her nipples are hard against the palms of your hands as you massage those modest but perfectly shaped breasts. She seems to like having them played with, since the intensity of her grinding against you increases. Taking your right hand from her breast, she lifts it to her mouth and slips a finger inside, sucking at it.

She looks down at you then. Up till now she hasn't met your gaze, but now she locks her eyes with yours. They're glistening, her pupils huge with desire. Her mouth hangs open as she continues to pant softly .

She says nothing, but somehow that makes the situation all the more erotic. You can see the detail of every sensation she's feeling marked on her face: the parting of her lips as she pants, the opening of her mouth for a gasp, the squinting of her eyes and the biting of her lips as she's wracked with increasing tension.

Your heart melts with how adorable she is. You slip your finger from her mouth and sliding your hands around her sides you pull her on top of you to kiss her. The weight of her breasts, the hardness of her nipples, presses against your chest and you wish you'd had time to take off your shirt so you could feel the gorgeous softness of her skin across the rest of your body, not just your hands.

Her tongue, that strange, long tongue, delves deeply into your mouth while your hands cross the smoothness of her back. You feel yourself getting close to the point of no return, that excruciating but delightful agony building inside you. You regretfully break the kiss and warn her that you should probably stop.

Kogasa stares at you, bashful, and between pants she says, "You don't need to. It's okay. Today's a safe day."

The innocence of her face matched with the shy heat in her voice drives you over the edge. Your movements become feverish and Kogasa cries out at the sudden intensity. Her cries grow louder, less restrained, and soon you feel her start to shudder. Moments later your cries join hers in an explosion of incredible pleasure. It feels as if your life is flowing out of you and into her, and there seems no end to it. Kogasa, shivering, clings to you, as if trying to squeeze the last of your energy from you. Then she finally slumps forward, her face falling into the crook of your neck as the two of you cling to each other, your mutual delight still flowing through you.

"Oh god," she murmurs. "I forgot what that was like." She gazes up at you, her fingers drawing across the sweat on your chest. "Thank you."

Suddenly her eyes go wide with shock and she lifts herself off you.

You jerk upright, alarmed, asking what's wrong.

"I just remembered!" says Kogasa, horrified. "It's not my safe day at all!"

You feel an icy fear burst inside your chest. Shit, shit, shit! Wait. Can a human get a youkai pregnant? Idiot, where do you think all the youkai come from. Kogasa must know, and she's panicking. I mean, look at her face. She's...

Wait, she's smiling.

Kogasa laughs and throws herself across you. "Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I'm sorry for tricking you, but I just... I just had to taste that delicious fear again." She pokes out her tongue and licks your lips. "Oh, it just tastes too good."

She gets her fill and leans back. Then she looks suddenly ashamed. "I went too far that time, didn't I?" Her eyes start to glisten with the start of tears. "I'm such a glutton. You must hate me."

But you're so filled with joy and relief that you pull her down into another kiss. It's her time to be surprised, but she quickly melts into your arms. After you break it, you tell her you forgive her.

You lie back, exhausted not only from your lovemaking but also from the shock. Maybe this tiredness is also a side effect of her feeding off your fear. Whatever it is, you find it harder and harder to keep your eyes open. Kogasa settles herself down on the sofa, her head in your lap, staring up at you.

It seems forgiving her wasn't enough to stop the tears from flowing. The smile on her face, though, tells you that they're happy tears.

"I always knew something good would happen to me one day if I just waited long enough," she murmurs. Then she turns over and you run your fingers through her gorgeous turquoise hair. Soon her breathing grows slow and deep and you realise she's fallen asleep.

Your own body goes limp.

The next thing you know your hand feels wet and warm. Something is licking it.

Your eyelids feel like they're made of lead, but you manage somehow to open your eyes as you turn your head.

It's the umbrella, lying against the sofa. It must have got lonely and hopped over to the two of you while you were asleep. It's licking your hand like a dog.

It doesn't surprise you quite so much this time. Something makes you reach down and stroke it. It moves into your petting and closes its eye in pleasure.

The movement makes Kogasa stir, but she doesn't wake up.

Soon sleep takes hold of you again, and this time it doesn't let you escape.

When you wake up, there's no umbrella beside the sofa. Kogasa is gone, too.

You jerk upright, wondering if she's gone to the bathroom or something. But the door is open.

There's no one there.

You look at your coffee table. No tea, either.

So it was all a stupid dream.

You lie back and hope that sleep will strip you of the sudden despair you feel. It steadfastly refuses to come, so you swing yourself off the sofa to get some water.

You notice then that you're not wearing any pants. They're at the end of the sofa, neatly folded up. You never fold up your clothes. And there, beside the sink, are two cups and the teapot, washed and rinsed. You duck your head into the bathroom, and find your white shirt, dripping, on a hanger.

Was it a dream or not? You can't really be sure. Other from these items, there's no sign of Kogasa or her umbrella anywhere.

The next night you find your heart racing as you pass the old plum tree. The weather has cleared up, the stars brilliant overhead. You've come home late intentionally, hoping to see Kogasa again.

But she's not there. The plum tree is just a tree, with no beautiful turquoise-haired youkai lurking in the shadows at its feet.

You walk over and take a closer look. Nothing. You wait there, and soon one hour passes and then another. At last you feel ridiculous and cold and hungry and you go home.

The same thing happens the next day, and the day after that. Soon you no longer believe anything happened to you. A despair deeper than anything you've ever felt before settles over your heart. You stop looking for her and start taking an alternate, roundabout route back to your apartment. The darkness around the tree is just too cruel for you to deal with anymore.

And so your life, such as it is, returns to normal.

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Then one night, while you're fumbling for your key at the front door, you feel a hand drop onto your shoulder and a voice in your ear whisper:

"Boo!"

The End