I started writing this around the time I finished Makai Shopping Trip. It proceeded to languish in various media for years. Now with a whole lot more writing Momiji and Sanae under my belt I think I finally have a story. I've completed most of it, so I'm going to see about updating in small daily chunks. While I wrote it as a follow up to Makai Shopping Trip, it's pretty much unrelated.

Sanae tossed in some pocket change and rang the bell at the shrine before praying. Or rather not praying. It seemed weird to offer prayers at a shrine that had no gods. Even if it was mostly the same shrine that she grew up in, it was cold and empty now.

Having played the part of the tourist, Sanae walked back towards the two girls waiting for her. The blond simply nodded in greeting, while the white haired girl let out a sigh that almost seemed like a growl.

"I have no idea how you convinced the Great Tengu to put me on this assignment," Momiji muttered, "but I'd like to get it over with quick."

Sanae sighed herself. "Well then talk to Alice. I don't even know what we're doing here. Heck, I don't even know how this is allowed. Wasn't the spellcard system supposed to make it so you couldn't just beat people up and then order them to do whatever you wanted?"

Alice shrugged. "Well, they aren't rules so much as guidelines. Besides your gods seemed okay with it."

"I suppose that's true. Though I have no idea why," Sanae readjusted her dufflebag. "So, where are we going anyway? And why?"

Seeing Sanae preparing to move out, Alice checked to make sure Shanghai was attached properly to her book bag. "My mother reminded me of something I wanted to do in the outside world. As to where we're going..." Alice paused and thought for a moment, "Hiroshima. We're going to Hiroshima."

Momiji growled again. "Oh great. A journey of discovery. This could take months..."

"A few days at most," Alice replied. "But it will take days."

Sanae laughed weakly. "Well consider it a free vacation... Anyway we better get a move on. If we miss the bus we'll be stuck in the city for another two hours."

Momiji simply nodded grimly and looked towards the stairs down. She had never loosened the straps on her bag and the "kendo" sleeve that concealed her blade. The wolf tengu had refused to leave that behind, and given how bitterly she'd fought to try to keep her shield Sanae decided it wasn't worth the trouble.

At least the two hadn't complained about changing into more appropriate clothing for this trip. Alice had just ditched some of the frills on her dresses, and Momiji had actually liked the concept of jeans. The wolf tengu had also agreed to wearing a hat to hide her ears, though Sanae wished that the girl could hide them completely. Unfortunately it seemed that was against some rule of magic.

Sanae began walking away from the other shrine when she caught an older miko staring at her. She blinked then looked away desperately trying to school her face into a mask of impassiveness. She failed utterly at that, so she instead switched to vapid schoolgirl. *Keep walking, keep walking...*

"Ah excuse me miss."

Sanae's heart twisted, but she managed to turn and respond normally. "Yeah?"

The elderly woman bowed apologetically. "You wouldn't happen to have any relatives in the area would you miss?"

"Not in any family records," Sanae said politely.

The old woman shook her head. "Ah, I see. It's just you look like the head priest's wife did at your age. I'm sorry to have bothered you over this."

She felt like someone had stabbed her, but Sanae managed to force a smile. "Really? That's so totally weird. But I'm afraid I'm from really far away."

"I see. Please excuse me." The old woman bowed and took her leave.

Sanae turned and rapidly walked down the stairs before the woman looked back. She made it down to the second flight of steps before tears broke through.

"Hey!" Alice was by her side in a second. "Are you alright?"

Sanae took a few deep breaths. "Yeah. I'm sorry... Miki was... just one of the people that took care of me when mother and father were away."

The two other girls frowned. "Then why didn't she recognize you?" Alice asked. "It hasn't been that long since you moved to Gensoukyo."

Sanae took a few more breaths to steady herself. "Because when Lady Kanako took us to Gensoukyo she used up all the outside world's belief in us. As far as the outside world is concerned, we never existed. My parents never had a daughter, my caretakers never spent their summers looking after me, my old group of friends was only four people, not five."

Sanae forced a smile again. "I guess she doesn't remember when I broke that vase. I wonder how her memories covered those gaps..."

A hand gently rested on her shoulders. Sanae looked up to find Momiji looking at her with sympathy. "It's hard leaving your family. You don't have to hide your feelings here."

Sanae felt a little better at the words. "No, it's okay. I did most of my crying early on. It's just... hard to be reminded that no one remembers me." The young woman stood up a little straighter and began walking down the stairs again. "Anyway, we still have to hurry to catch the bus."

Momiji nodded slightly to herself and quickly filled in the number that had been locking up the whole grid. With the 3 in place she quickly solved the Sudoku puzzle. The white wolf tengu flipped the page, then grumbled when she realized she'd come to the end of the book. Apparently she'd made a mistake in selecting the "hard" difficulty one. Human minds just weren't comparable to that of a tengu who'd been trained in strategic thinking since birth. She should have grabbed the "impossible" one, or maybe one of the books that used more numbers.

Momiji closed the book and looked over at her companions. Sanae was reading a manga magazine, while Alice was staring out the window, having wandered the train twice already.

Momiji wasn't sure what to think of them. Magicians were always trouble, simply because they were all obsessed with magic to some degree. And Momiji had little use for gods. They seemed a worthless lot, asking for attention and then screwing you over when you gave it to them.

However, the two across from her seemed different to Momiji's trained eyes. Alice's obsession seemed fairly focused on craftsmanship, and almost understandable. And Sanae just seemed like a teenage girl. Odd, but far better than some of the young crow tengu that bothered her on patrol all the time.

Momiji mentally shrugged, then looked out the window herself. The scenery here was at least nicer than in the cities. The mountains still seemed to have some of nature's spirit left. On a whim she opened herself up to her power and reached out her mind.

The silence that returned was expected, but still somewhat painful. She couldn't help but sigh.

"Is something wrong? Do you want to borrow my magazine?"

Momiji blinked as her mind snapped back into her body. "Eh?" She turned towards Sanae. "Sorry. I was just looking to see if any wolves had returned."

Sanae looked at her in confusion for a bit. Then her eyes opened wide and she covered her face. "Um... I, I'm sorry to tell you this, but there are no wolves in Japan anymore."

"Ah." Momiji sighed again and closed her eyes. "Not even in menageries, or zoos, or whatever you humans call them?"

Sanae shook her head sadly. "No. At least not Honshu wolves. Um, I think people at the time were actually trying to wipe them out. They went extinct about the same time Gensoukyo was made. But it's always really hard to be sure something's extinct! I mean there might be some in remote areas!"

"Maybe." Momiji opened her eyes and stared out the window. "But probably not. We wolves don't do well in small numbers after all."

"Huh?" Now both the other women were looking at her.

Momiji shook her head. "Nothing." She just kept staring out the window.

She'd said a bit too much, and she knew her companions were curious, but she wasn't going to spill her issues to those two. Wolves also did not show weakness to outsiders. No matter how friendly.

Alice looked around the room curiously. It was amazingly tiny, especially given the exorbitant price listed on it. But it was also very clean. The futons were neatly folded to the side of the room, and each came with a complementary yukata. Finally there was a small table and a television, which Sanae was using to check the weather. Momiji was peering over her shoulder with great intensity, to Alice's amusement.

"That's awfully bold of them, to claim it will rain Friday. How can they know the weather five days in advance?" the tengu asked.

Sanae laughed. "Well they look at the cloud formations with satellites and make guesses from there. It's not always right, I mean guessing what time it'll rain is really hard, but they usually can give us some idea about what's coming up."

"But if some youkai changes the air pressure in an area, or a magician decides to summon rain, what then?" Momiji asked.

"Uh..." Sanae looked up at the tengu. "Well that doesn't really happen in the outside realm anymore..."

Alice coughed lightly to interrupt. "So Sanae, I'm assuming the door with the figure in a dress on it that we passed is the bathroom. Where's the bath?"

"Oh, the public bath is downstairs. Women's is on the right. The place has free internet too, but that's not really useful to us," Sanae said with a smile.

Alice of course immediately saw the problem. From the look on Momiji's face the tengu had realized it as well. Momiji lifted her hat revealing her ears. "There's a slight problem with public baths you know."

"Um, well maybe you could hide them?" Sanae replied meekly. "I mean, you still have the hat?"

Momiji's eyes narrowed. "Who wears their hat into a bathhouse?"

"Well, Raidou did..."

Alice shook her head when Momiji turned to her. She had no idea what Sanae was talking about. Still, she did have a solution. "Come on, let's go shopping. I'm sure we can find a shower cap somewhere." She tossed on her bag and checked to make sure Shanghai was still with her. "Besides, we need to buy dinner and omiage anyways."