"Hana, we need you at table seven! Haruka came down with the flu. Can you cover for her?"

Tatsuhana, known far and wide simply as Hana, resisted the urge to sigh. Sighing would make it seem that she didn't want to do it, and then her manager would make that sad face she couldn't ignore. Mrs. Nakamura wasn't a bad boss by any means, but she had this super power of snagging waitresses into working extra shifts or covering for other people at the last minute. It wouldn't be so bad if she didn't frequently pick on Tatsuhana so often. Customers requested her so many times, it was a wonder they didn't slap her face on the sign outside next to the restaurant's name. Tatsuhana smiled.

"Sure, not a problem!" She answered.

Mrs. Nakamura ran over and hugged her tight around the waist and squeezed. Tatsuhana squeeked at the tiny woman's shocking strength. It was like getting hugged by an anaconda.

"You are just the best ever! That's why you get the good shifts!" Mrs. Nakamura released her. She pressed her finger to her pouty lips, "But don't tell the others that you're the favorite around here."

"It's really not that big of a deal. I could use the extra cash."

"You're not in any trouble are you?" Mrs. Nakamura asked.

Politely shaking her head, "No. I've got bills and, well, being an art student doesn't exactly pay them."

"Why don't you try for something more practical?"

"I've come this far. I might as well finish it. Besides," Tatsuhana laughed nervously, "I'm not very good at anything else."

"Nonsense. You're smart, beautiful, and I've never seen anybody more dishes than you. You're strong enough to be a bouncer, I'll bet."

Tatsuhana tried not to let her wince show. Violence always made her cringe despite the fact that on several occassions she could defend herself quite easily. Being a bouncer might require a bit of violence and that would never settle well with her.

"Oh, I wouldn't know about that."

"At any rate, you just let me know if there's anything I can do for you. Let's get you back to work!" Mrs. Nakamura sent her off with a big smile.

Working as a waitress wasn't the most glamorous job in the world, but it paid the insurmountable bills piling up. Tatsuhana nearly took Mrs. Nakamura's advice and debated on switching majors. Something more practical and one that guaranteed job offers beyond taking food orders and busing tables. She knew she couldn't work at a restaurant for her entire life. Day in and day out, in uniform and out of it. Sweating and toiling to earn minimum wage plus a few meager tips. It wasn't all hard work and her co-workers were really fun to hang around with. Her boss was pretty incredible too. However, it was still monotous work to suffer through every day. She couldn't do for the rest of her life. There had to be something more than this.

Tatsuhana took orders, assigned groups to tables, and cleared the area for the next guests. What customers liked about her the most, so she'd been told, was her alertness and dedication to making sure they had a good time. She wore a smile on her face and it never wavered. Tatsuhana seemingly had boundless energy. She had it by the truck loads, more than enough to spare. Nobody would ever know that all that energy came from never expending it elsewhere. All of that reserved fervor came from an aching heart.

Six months ago, her adopted parents died within days of each other. They were both in their late forties when they found her, so when it was their time to go, they were elderly. She had taken care of them despite going to university and working. It was a small mercy that they could pass away in their sleep, though she wished they could've stuck around a little longer. Just long enough to see her at her twenty-first birthday which was coming up in less than a week. She tried not to think about it; she didn't want people to worry about her. It was bad enough to be an orphan, she didn't want the pity of stranger's to haunt her as well.

Tatsuhana busied herself with clearing dinner plates off a table. Scraps of food, enough to fill up a couple of tupperware dishes, sat there half-eaten. She pouted, not understanding how people could so easily discard a perfectly good meal and not save the rest for later. Honestly, the thought of wasted food made her blood boil. Thousands starved and half the world could feed those people by sacrificing their leftovers. As an art student, she knew that conserving food was her most important task. If she made a batch of rice, she was going to stretch its supply for as long as possible. Those who came in here were often those who were wealthy enough that they could afford not to that. She didn't hate them but still found herself exasperated by the half-eaten food left on their plates.

"Hey!"

Tatsuhana whipped her head around to see one of her female co-workers fighting off a grabby costumer. Judging by the redness of his face and the half-empty bottle on his table, Mr. Can't Keep His Hands To Himself was good and drunk. Her co-worker, Aimi, used her plastic serving tray as a shield to keep the customer at bay. Aimi was small in stature and very shy. Having a grown man twice her size touch her against her will would terrify any woman, but Aimi's situation was made so much worse when none of the costumer's friends seemed too eager to stop his harrassment. They sat there and ignored the situation happening around them even as half the restaurant stopped in the middle of their meal to watch.

Aimi didn't just appear terrified. She was. Her face was scrunched up. Her large eyes looked pitifully at everyone aaround her, silently begging for help. She didn't want to make a scene, although that was already too late. Tatsuhana looked for any of the male wait staff but they seemed preoccupied with helping other people or just weren't there. Setting her serving tray down, Tatsuhana marched herself over.

She grabbed the costumer by the wrist when he tried to grab for Aimi's thigh. He seemed perplexed and half-expected one of the male staff to have stopped him. When he saw Tatsuhana's face, and her very feminine curves, he stopped himself short. He looked her up and down, sizing her up.

"Well, aren't you a c-cutie?" He slurred. "Are you on the dessert menu? Because if you are, I'd eat you..."

Tatsuhana didn't let him finish that train of thought. She hauled him out of his seat, tugging at his wrist until he stumbled out of the booth. He and his friends protested but she already started to pull him towards the nearest exit. When he put up too much of a fuss, Tatsuhana pulled his arm behind his back and twisted. She leaned towards his ear, cringing at the smell of him. His fetid breath nearly made her gag.

"You may leave with what's left of your dignity through the front door or I can take you out back and put you with the rest of the trash. Which do you prefer, sir?"

Grunting, he tried kicking his way out of his situation. He either already had poor aim or was too drunk to do anything useful. Tatsuhana decided for him. The customer kicked and hollered and swore his way through the restaurant. She felt nothing for this sorry excuse of a person. There were eyes on them every step of the way. His companions had lept from their seats to try and stop her but by this time, the staff had already directed them to the front where they could pay for their meal. The only embarrassment she felt was for restaurant's good name and for Aimi who had deal with this piece of trash. Another co-worker happily opened the door to the back for her. The customer was pushed out through the door. Swaying, he spun and tried to go back through the doorway only to have the heavy door slammed shut in his face. Tatsuhana dusted off her hands and nodded to herself.

"Good riddance to bad rubbish." She heard her co-worker laugh.

Everything died down after the incident. Aimi was allowed a few minutes to herself in the break room to keep her from having a melt down. Mrs. Nakamura made sure was comfortable and felt safe before dealing out damage control. She waited until the end of the shift to pull Tatsuhana aside. With the manager's office door closed, she had Tatsuhana sit down.

"How'd you like a vacation?"

Tatsuhana blinked. She expected something a bit more...not that.

"Excuse me?" She wondered aloud.

"I think you deserved it. You work late. You come in when we need a shift covered. The customers love you. You deserve a little break. Pick a day," Mrs. Nakamura pulled out a calender and handed it to her.

Tatsuhana glanced from the caldender to Mrs. Nakamura and then back to the calender. Her birthday landed on a Friday, the busiest day of the week. She grabbed a pen but hesitated to circle it.

"Is there something wrong?" Asked Mrs. Nakamura.

Shaking her head, "No. Nothing really, it's just that...I was wondering if it'd be alright for me to take next Friday off, on account of my birthday?"

"Absolutely!" Mrs. Nakamura beamed. "You've deserved it. You take that day off. My treat. I think we'll be able to manage for one night without you."

"A-are you sure?" Tatsuhana nervously asked.

Mrs. Nakamura smiled. It couldn't grow any bigger even if she tried. "You managed an unruly customer without resorting to much violence. You can pick any day you want. If you want your birthday off, take it before I change my mind."

Tatsuhana circled the date and handed the calender back to her manager.

"I'll see you tomorrow at lunch, right?"

Tatsuhana nodded. "Barring a traffic jam between here and the school."

"See you then!"

Tatsuhana clocked out just in time. Aimi waited for her by the restaurant's front door.

"H-Hana, I just want to say...thank you...for helping back there. I didn't know what to do. I was so scared. Thank you, from the the bottom of my heart." The poor girl bowed from the waist as if Tatsuhana deserved such an honor.

"Really, Aimi, it's not a big deal. You shouldn't than me for doing something that was the right thing to do in the first place." She talked the girl into standing up straight. "Can you walk home from here? I don't mind going with you."

"No thanks, my boyfriend should be here any minute." Not long after she said that, an old blue Honda pulled onto the side of the street. Aimi slid into the passenger seat, rolling down the window after she shut the door. "Thanks again, Hana! See you on my next shift!"

They waved at each other until the blue Honda disappeared entirely around the corner. Tatsuhana unlocked the bike that had been sitting untouched off to the side of the restaurant. She had changed from her uniform skirt to a pair of proper bicycle shorts and leggings. She layered up because she had a feeling that tonight would be chilly. She put on her helmet, adjusted her clip-on flashlights, and checked her reflectors before hopping into the seat. Mrs. Nakamura waved her off as she pedaled her way home.

Her evening trek took her past a shrine, the Higurashi Shrine to be exact. Whenever she rode past this shrine, Tatsuhana found herself slowing down or pausing just to get a good look at it. With the city lights glowing all around it, the shrine itself seemed to a piece of the history carved out of time and sat untouched. Perhaps the fact that it seemed set so far off from modern Tokyo that attracted her attention. At least, that's what she told herself. She couldn't help but feel strangely in awe of the simple yet well-kept shrine. She was drawn to it and couldn't think of a reason why. She wasn't a particularly religious person nor had she visited the shrine itself. Always at a distance.

She paused briefly to look at the shrine whose lights were dimmed as if the grounds were sleeping. Tatsuhana quickly sped along on her bike wanting to get home before it got too late. Her apartment was a small, cramped space decorated with family mementos and drawings done by her own hand. Portraits of her parents graced the walls. Their memorial shrine was a simple affair. A wooden box no bigger than shelf with a picture of them together with a tea light and some silk flowers in elegant bottles to make it look pretty. Not much could be spared for incense, so Tatsuhana used a little cone every now and then. Closing the door behind her, she removed her shoes by the door and discarded her bag on the hook on the wall.

Her first order of business was to take a shower and wash off the day's business from her skin. She changed into a comfortable pair of cotton pajama bottoms and a silken tank top. Braiding her hair, she climbed into bed. Slipping under the covers, she tossed and turned a little while before sitting up in bed. The lamp on her bedside table flickered on.

By her bed sat a large sketch book and some pencils. Tatsuhana grabbed these and started flipping through the pages. Some were sketches of things she saw in her room, a study of her lamp or her door. Some were things she drew at work. Mrs. Nakamura had a least two portraits done in here. There were some of her co-workers. She drew pictures of trees, flowers, city landscapes. They were all pretty typical things an artist would draw.

As she flipped through the pages trying to find a blank spot, her eyes glanced over some of her not-so-typical art. Fantasy work, that's what she prized. Re-imaginings of feudal pieces, demons and spirits, that sort of thing. With her fantasy work, there was a recurring theme. A face, a man's face, she kept picturing in her mind's eye. She would wake up at night from strange dreams and see him there as if he stood in the middle of her bedroom. Tatsuhana pictured him as clearly in her head as she could see herself in the reflection in the mirror.

It wasn't just his face she saw. Sometimes she saw a whole lot more than just his face. This figure, whoever or whatever he was, had a lean, muscular form. He was so beautiful in her dreams, Tatsuhana thought he was actually a woman for the longest time. High cheek bones, long white hair, and an almost feminine face, it was hard for her to comes to terms that he was, in fact, male. She remembered being very shocked when she drew his picture with a masculine body draped in nothing but loose robes and furs. Tatsuhana blushed at what she drew, hardly remembering when she did it. There were times she'd wake up sprawled on her bed with a pencil and her sketch pad in hand not knowing why or when she starting drawing in the middle of the night. Whoever this man might have been, she had the niggling feeling that he held some of the answers.

Finally finding a blank page, Tatsuhana set to work on a new idea. She could see it in her head. The composition took shape her mind and was translated onto the page. She worked on it for a good hour and a half before putting her stuff away. She climbed back under the covers for well deserved sleep.

School went by as usual as did work. Tatsuhana only had a four hour lunch shift but was dead tired by the end of it. She dreaded the ride home with her legs aching and feet barking. Tatsuhana got on her bike nevertheless. Once more, she found herself pausing in front of the Higurashi Shrine. She stood across the street from it but needed to get closer. Crossing the street, Tatsuhana left her bike outside the gate.

In the wash basin by the entrance, she washed her hands and mouth before entering the grounds proper. There was a bench off to one side of the courtyard, possibly for meditation purposes or rest. She sat down and pulled out her other sketch book that she rarely left the house without. A lonely well stood beneath a four-post roof much like a gazebo. Staining its gray stones with vibrant green, moss and ivy vines climbed around its walls and inside its mouth. Three little steps led up to the well. Paper streamers decorated the well's shrine on all sides. Tatsuhana envisioned a scene taking place here, not so long ago. She normally would chalk it up to her overactive imagination, but the scene was too vivid for her not to put it on paper. Setting to work, she grabbed a few pencils from their case and flipped to the first blank page.

The sun had been dying behind the cityscape when she paused to look at what had taken up so much of her afternoon. It wasn't a realistic portrait, nothing that would have been taken seriously. A ghostly centipede monster climbed out of the very same well she stared at all afternoon. Drawings like this always confused and scared Tatsuhana. She had no idea where such an idea came from. Certainly not from her imagination. She hated violence, and bugs even more. The more she stared at her drawing, the more concerned she became. Why would she draw such a thing?

"Can I help you with something?"

Tatsuhana jumped out of her seat. The woman had walked up to her barely made a sound. Tatsuhana looked at the person she assumed was the caretaker of the shrine.

"Sorry, sorry," Tatsuhana bowed sharply from the wiast. "I didn't mean to disturb anything. I-I just wanted something interesting to doodle. I hope I wasn't be disrespectful."

The caretaker bent over to pick the discarded sketchbook Tatsuhana threw to the ground. She hadn't realized that she knocked it over until the caretaker picked it off the ground and shook off the dust. Luckily, the page hadn't smudged. She glanced at the picture Tatsuhana had been working on. Her eyes flashed with recognition but nothing more on the matter. A small smile graced her lips as she closed the sketchbook and handed it over to Tatsuhana.

"Please. Come back any time. You're more than welcome."

Tatsuhana packed her stuff up and hurried back to her bike. Madly, she peddled her way home. Visiting the shrine was a mistake, she ranted to herself the whole way to her apartment. The caretaker took one look at her drawing and thought she was one of those weird horror manga artists. Because what else could that woman think? However, the more Tatsuhana thought about it, the look on the caretaker's face didn't appear disgusted or insulted. No, there was a deeper emotion than that. The light that had been in her eyes briefly wasn't that of horror, but of recognition. It seemed as though she remembered something. She hadn't said anything to Tatsuhana because perhaps the memory was too painful.

But the drawing Tatsuhana made was something out of horror story. Wasn't it? Monsters and demons weren't real. What kind of memories reawakened by a picture of giant centipede monster?

Shaking her head, Tatsuhana peddled her way home. She tried not to think about what it could all mean. Inside the safety of her apartment, she was safe. She could distract herself by prepping dinner and watching T.V. There was no need to think too hard on the events of the day. Yes, that's what she would do. She would eat, enjoy some mindless activity, shower, and go to bed. She would not think about anything else except her day at school tomorrow. Nothing else mattered. Nothing.

"Hana, Hana!"

Tatsuhana lifted her head from the book she was reading. Her school friend Maiko ran across the room to greet her.

"Good morning to you too," she giggled.

Maiko's face was shocked. There was something on her mind that she wanted to say. "How'd you do it?"

Tatsuhana's brows furrowed. "What do you mean?"

"Come with me!"

Before she could protest, Maiko grabbed Tatsuhana's wrist and dragged her out of her desk chair. Maiko pulled her into the hallway, dragged her past a couple of classrooms, and they came to an abrupt stop in front of the board where all the grades were posted. Maiko pointed to the sheet displaying all of the scores from the recent history exam. She pointed to the name at the very top of the list.

"Explain that!"

"So I passed a test. Big deal." Tatsuhana shrugged her shoulders. She didn't understand why Maiko would be so shocked over a high test score. It wasn't as if Tatsuhana failed in her classes.

"This is the test from Mr. Kaguwa's history exam! You got a perfect score!"

"And?"

"Nobody, nobody gets a perfect score on Kaguwa's tests. They're super hard. All of the upper classmen can verify that nobody's been able to pass his tests with a perfect score."

"I think you're overreacting," said Tatsuhana. "I studied and got a really good test score. You're making a mountain out of a mole hill. I studied and I liked the subject we were going over. Is it really such a big deal that I got a good grade?"

"Well," Maiko paused to think, "You do really like reading about all that feudal era stuff, don't you. I guess when you put it that way, how could you not get a good grade on a test?"

Maiko looped her arm around Tatsuhana's and they walked back to the classroom.

"I guess I really did overreact. I was just so surprised at first."

Tatsuhana shrugged again. "To be honest, I really didn't study that much. I just knew some of the stuff we went over. I just…really like that time period I guess."

"Sometimes I think you were born in the wrong century, Hana." Maiko giggled. "Not that it's a bad thing."

Tatsuhana was about to turn to Maiko when she felt the girl's arm slip away from her. The spot where Maiko should have been was filled with a dark shadow. As a matter of fact, the whole of the classroom and everything in it was consumed by a thick blackness. Tatsuhana turned and face the darkness surrounding her on all sides. A freezing chill ran down her spine as she stared into the shadows. Shivers ran down her spine. She held her arms tight to her chest. With every breath and every step, it seemed as though thousands were watching her. Goosebumps erupted all over her skin with the realization that the shadows stared back.

The world around her became a tunnel from which all light was sucked away. She strained her eyes in search of some speck that would grant her hope. Anything to save her from the cloying shadows threatening to choke her. She turned and sprinted through the shadows. She could feel those shadows spring to life and form clammy hands. They reached out to her and pulled at her hair and clothes. Tatsuhana ran and ran. Still, she could not get away. Hands seized her ankles. More hands grabbed her limbs. The shadows pulled her down, down, down.

Her stomach forced its way into her throat as if she were falling from a roller coaster ride. Freezing hands reached for her throat. The pressure made her gag. Tatsuhana tried to resist. She tried fighting but all her limbs were as dead weight to her. She couldn't so much a wriggle her fingers without the shadow-hands clenching her fingers tight in their grasp.

As she thought she was going to die, a burst of blue light erupted below her. Tatsuhana yelped at the sudden brightness. The shadows dispersed, allowing her to shield her eyes. A deafening roar pierced her ears. Just as she thought her brain might split inside her skull, Tatsuhana heard voices calling her. A man and a woman. She opened her eyes long enough to see the vague shape of a couple holding their hands out to her. They wore strange yet old fashioned clothes. A woman in red stood beside a man in silver, black and blue robes underneath a samurai's armor. Though she couldn't make out their faces, she couldn't help but feel she somehow knew them. Slowly, Tatsuhana reached out her hand towards them.

Tatsuhana bolted in bed. Sweat gleamed off her brow in the pale moonlight slipping through the crack in her curtain. She panted for breath. Eyes wide open, she glanced around her room. The only shadows there were created by the reflecting light from the moon and the city lights peering through her window.

"Just a dream," she told herself before climbing back under the safety of her blankets.

Tatsuhana repeated this mantra over and over again until she felt her eyes grow heavy. She slipped back into sleep, and thankfully this time there were no more dreams of shadow-hands and strangers who knew her name.

Tucked away beneath a mountain, a grand shrine cut away from the rock secured the last treasure of a great lord. A palace made from the mountain's very core assured that this treasure would be guarded from unworthy eyes. Two men dressed in garish robes and solid armor pressed their way up the flight of stairs into the shrine's inner sanctuary. Scrolls hung around the circular walls depicting those who have gone before. These scrolls depicted scenes of warriors challenging powerful dragons, but it wasn't the dull human creatures that were venerated here. All the veneration went to the dragons nobly depicted with brilliant hues of blue, black, and silver. Their names printed with as much care as the humans paid to their shogun.

Shide, the lightning-shaped paper talismans commonly found in shrines, lines the inner walls. In the very middle of the sanctuary, a rock sat untouched by the hands of craftsmen. Wrapped around it were more shide talismans tied to thick ropes. At the top of this rock, the shaft of a spear protruded from the ground as if struck from the heavens and embedded itself deep in the earth. The paper talismans rustled at the men's presence, or perhaps by something else.

They could taste it in the air. The energy within the shrine was building; it had been growing for some time. For years it had been stagnant to the point that they thought their purpose had been meaningless. In the last couple of years, the energy in the shrine steadily grew in strength. Within the last few months, it had increased to the point where none of them could ignore it. The shaft of the spear emitted a spiritual power that drew these brothers to inspect it for themselves.

"You feel it too, don't you, Daisuke?"

The elder brother nodded.

"Do you think it will be long now? Lord Noburu's spear has been silent for all these years. For it to be awakening now, it must mean something, right?"

"I doubt we'll be left waiting for much longer. Lord Noburu's true heir will return home shortly. We should make sure that everything is in order for her arrival," said Daisuke.

"How much longer?"

Daisuke sighed, annoyed. "You're too impatient, Hikaru. She'll arrive when the moment is right. Judging by the energy the spear is pouring out, it won't be too much longer. I suspect that she will return within a month."

"A-a month! That's not nearly enough time to get everything prepared!" Hikaru stammered.

The mental preparation was difficult enough to imagine without worrying about the physical work to put towards making Lord Noburu's only daughter welcome in her true home. There was still so much to do. The daunting task of preparing the whole household for her terrified him. Hikaru pulled himself together just long enough to start a mental list of all the things to do.

"It won't turn out so bad if you didn't panic, brother. We'll take care of everything in due time. Don't worry yourself."

"But what if she doesn't approve?"

"If she's anything like her father, she won't mind. All we must do is make sure she's comfortable in her own home. Until then, we wait. We've waited five hundred years for a sign, what's a little longer, eh?"