Title: There and Back Again
Rating/Genre: PG-13. Romance / Supernatural/Fantasy-AU
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Greece/fem!Japan. Also includes Pochi and a fat cat.
Warnings: None, unless you're allergic to cats and gender-bends.
Summary: In which Kiku discovers there is a grain a truth in stories, even if they were old wives' tales.

A/N: For Samiy, who requested for a Giripan fic with Japan as a geisha. The story is set in an AU-Kyoto at the dawn of the Meiji era. All the haiku verses before each scene are from Kobayashi Issa. And lastly, music that help inspired the overall tone of this story: Kimi ga Yobu Namae ~Yume no Tsuzuki~ from the Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou OST.

Act 1

.

ap·pa·ri·tion / noun / - a sudden or unusual sight

.

the shrine's bell
jingles, a morning-glory
blooms

~.*.~

There were stories about the forests of Sorayama, located at the outskirts of the city. Tales of strange creatures who turn up under the guise of an innocent young lady or a handsome man. The young lady or man almost always seemed confused and flustered. Having strayed far from the path, they seek their way back to the city. Mothers cautioned their children from approaching them, as these 'lost folk' were not human at all, but the obake – mischievous shape-shifting spirits who enjoyed playing tricks on naïve travellers. Some of the obake were even said to have developed a taste for human flesh.

As he tucked her into bed, her father often recited to her the story of the nekomata – a beast in the form of a huge cat with a forked tail. Kiku was fond of animals, particularly cute and furry ones. Cats were no exception. So she would lie curled in the warmth of her futon and listened intently to her father's story, fascinated. As a child, she had believed in these stories, that she was surrounded by all of these mythical creatures and spirits. She often told herself if she listened hard enough and observed her surroundings carefully enough, she might come across one of them someday, maybe even speak with them.

As she grew older, she learnt they were nothing more than that – old wives' tales and bedtime stories parents recited to their children in a bid to instill and impart some knowledge and wisdom.

She realised there is a grain of truth in some stories however, even if they were old wives' tales. Chiharu would probably laugh when she recounted this to her later. But when faced with a monstrous dog-like beast with glistening red eyes and saliva trailing from razor-sharp teeth, its snout barely inches away from her now – it was no laughing matter indeed.

Kiku stared at the terrible creature before her, lips half-parted in a soundless cry. She could feel her heart pounding within her chest; each beat hammering against her ribcage as her skin prickled with fear. The beast growled again, before it rushed at her, fangs bared.

The flash of teeth and the blur of dark-brown fur was enough to snap her out of her crippling fear. Kiku instinctively dodged to the side, stumbling to the ground. She felt the warm brush of the creature's breath over her, jaws snapping at thin air as it narrowly missed her arm. She scrambled back to her feet, dashing away just as the beast bellowed angrily and gave chase.

How had she managed to get herself into such a situation? She'd been running an errand that morning, helping Madam Sakaguchi to deliver a parcel to an old friend who lived further up north, across the river and away from the bustling city centre. Chiharu spoke of a shortcut through the forest once, but Madam Sakaguchi forbade the girls from straying from the main route and they had obediently heeded her warning each time. So why had she decided to take the shortcut today, she wasn't quite sure. Halfway through the forested area, she came across the dog-like beast – a creature so strange and horrifying, Kiku almost thought she had walked right into a dream… no, a nightmare.

She continued running, clutching the parcel closer her chest. She grew weary, the kimono she wore making her stumble more than once over broken pieces of dead branches littered across the forest floor. It was fear that gave her speed however, and ignoring the stitch in her side, she forced her way through the foliage, only catch her foot on something in the grass and–

–snap–

Kiku fell forward, tripping over a piece of thick rope tied to the trunks of two massive ginkgo trees looming over her. She gasped, feeling a painful sting around her ankles. She looked down and saw that she'd broken the rope. Not far from where she had fallen, at the foot of an abandoned torii arc, stood on old statue of a maneki neko. Its ears were chipped and there was a long crack running up its white and orange belly, but still, it held one paw upright, beckoning fortune its way.

The tiny bell on its collar chimed in the passing breeze; the cat blinked its amber eyes.

At the moment, the beast finally caught up with her, dashing forward at her with its jaws wide open. Kiku froze, ready for the crushing bite that would certainly mean the end of her.

There was a sharp hiss and then a pop, before she was surrounded by a thick cloud of smoke. She coughed, covering her nose and mouth with her sleeve and saw a blurred figure darting out from the plumes of smoke. A large white and orange cat-like beast with twin tails stood over her now, its fur bristling, its eyes flashing fire.

A nekomata, just like the ones her father had described to her in his stories.

Despite her fear, Kiku could not turn her eyes away from the cat-beast. It was terrifying and ferocious, but also beautiful – a strange but exhilarating sight to behold. And what made it even stranger still was a youth seated upon the nekomata's broad shoulders. His features looked foreign: his skin tan like polished bronze and his green eyes flecked with hazel. He wore his brown wavy hair slightly longer at the sides of his face than at the back.

The nekomata let out a bone-chilling roar, a challenge. Kiku wanted to call out, to warn the boy. But before she could find her voice, the nekomata lunged forward, easily pinning the other beast to the ground with a swipe of its paws. The brown beast growled, trashing its limbs about wildly, trying to break free. The boy leapt down from his steed's back to crouch beside it and placed two fingers to the beast's forehead.

"Stamatí̱sei af̱tó." His voice was deeper, calmer than Kiku had expected. He spoke a language she didn't understand. At his touch, the beast finally stilled and changed into the shape of small brown fox, crouching timidly in the tall grass. It gave a short, sharp yip before darting away into the bushes.

The nekomata swished its tails languidly and – again, the hiss and the pop – transformed into a tortoiseshell cat. It gave a wide yawn before clambering up the youth's outstretched arm to perch upon his shoulders.

"What took you so long, boy?" The cat abruptly hissed, nipping at his left ear, making him winced in discomfort. "If the girl over here didn't break the rope-seal, who knows how long I'd be trapped to that tree and stuck looking like a lucky charm!"

The youth chuckled, reaching up to stroke the cat's ears. "Sorry, I hadn't realized you'd gotten yourself sealed away. But I did tell you not to steal old Mamoru's sweet meats."

"Mamoru should be sharing them readily! Who does he think I am?!"

The boy's grin only grew wider. "A cat, of course."

The tortoiseshell snorted in disdain, turning its gaze away haughtily.

Kiku blinked, staring at the bushes where the fox had run off to, and then back to the boy and the talking cat.

"A… kitsune?" At the sound of her voice, the boy turned to glance at her. His green eyes glowed, as if he'd just only noticed her.

"Yes," he said. "The fox spirit means no harm – he was only teasing. But even so…"

He paused, slowly approaching her and kneeling to pick up the parcel she'd dropped. "You shouldn't be wandering around the forest alone. It's dangerous."

Kiku froze when the boy reached out to her, holding up her parcel.

She wondered why a boy live all alone in the forest (was he an orphan, or perhaps abandoned?)

She should thank him; he did just save her life, after all.

But her mind was still whirling from the shock of being chased, from the strangeness of all she'd just witnessed, and all she could manage was a clumsy nod as she took the parcel from him and a soft "T-Thank you."

And then she was scrambling back to her feet, before she turned and ran back up the path again, out of the forest.

That night, asleep in her bed, she dreamt of a boy and his cat, riding on the back of a giant carp and fighting off a monstrous beast of the sea.

~.*.~

:::

stamatí̱sei af̱tó (greek) – stop this

geisha ('geiko' in the Kyoto dialect) – professional entertainers who attend guests during meals, banquets and other occasions. They are trained in various traditional Japanese arts, such as dance and music, as well as in the art of communication

maiko – apprentice geiko. Maiko are usually aged 15 to 20 years old. In this story, Kiku is a 16-year-old maiko

okiya - the lodging house in which a maiko or geiko lives during the length of her contract or career. The proprietress of the okiya is called okā-san

obake – a class of yōkai, preternatural creatures in Japanese folklore

kitsune – a fox spirit with supernatural abilities

nekomata – a powerful cat-spirit with a forked tail and supernatural abilities

maneki neko – 'beckoning cat' , a good-luck totem in the shape of a calico cat believed to bring good fortune