‘How much things can change in just one week.’ Eva thought to herself as she closed the door behind herself. The package she had picked up was barely bigger than a normal letter. As she held it, the path to its recipient began to slowly unfurl in her mind.

The Kitsune quickly realized the red thread her sixth sense painted lead past her University. Thus Eva slipped it into her bag and left the Honden behind. Deciding she could afford to waste some time instead of rushing to catch the Subway, she slowly meandered through the bamboo growing around her. The bright yellow leaves above her cast shadows on the earth below creating an unique spectacle.

As she stepped next to the donation box, Eva saw a couple of the shrines regular visitors crossing the bridge. So she discreetly moved to the edge of the path rather than the center she had been headed for. The two visitors, Yujiro Mori and Hanako Unagi, often visited the shrine at this time. For Mr. Mori it was a short break after buying fresh fish to sell that day on the market. Where as Ms. Unagi made a habit of visiting at the same time on her way to her office.

“Good morning Mr. Mori, Ms. Unagi” Eva greeted the pair of locals visiting the shrine, a smile on her lips.

“Good morning Ms. Mayer.” Mr. Mori, the middle aged store owner replied with a polite bow.

“Ah Morning Ms. Mayer.” The woman greeted the German with a small wave. “Are you excited to be part of the Kitsune Matsuri[1] next week? I am so glad I could get the day off to help you all.”

“Yes, I am not sure what help I could be though.” Eva admitted, Her shoulders sagging down a bit and her eyes half closed. All she had been told by Komaki about her role in the festival had been to not worry about it.

“I am sure you will do well enough, if nothing else you can help us carry the palanquin around the neighbourhood.” Mr. Mori said with a wide smile as he gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder.

“Or cook with us.” the young office lady said and, misinterpreting the Kitsune’s expression, she continued.”And don’t worry what the older people around here think. It is great that people like you show such an interest in our culture.”

“Thank you.” Eva said, giving a short bow towards the two visitors before she began to move on. “Now if you excuse my, I do need to get to class.”

With that she moved past the pair. Ms. Unagi’s words had brought to mind again the many times the older people around, and even some of the younger ones with them, had given Eva displeased stares.

She could understand them to an extent, after all, she was a foreigner working at their sacred shrine. But then again, having her just living on the shrine grounds without any good reason would have been even stranger. And according to old Komaki, not living on the shrine she had inherited, for a lack of a better term, from her predecessor was not an option for now. Which she hoped to get sorted out sooner rather than later, even with this very strange stay in Japan so far, she should go back home in a year.

Crossing the wooden bridge for the second time that morning, Eva shook her head as if to banish her train of thought. Her three braids swayed a bit longer while she stepped up to the temples outermost Torii gate.

After looking around to make sure no one was paying her much attention, Eva stepped under the wooden gate and onto what she called the Foxroad. There was surely a more accurate name for this apparition of countless Torii forming an ethereal tunnel before her, but no one had told her yet. She couldn’t explain how she knew to navigate it either, because except for a few exceptions, like the rather iconic one legged Torii of Sannô-jinja in Nagasaki, the young Kitsune could not actually tell any of them apart.

As far as Eva had figured out by now, they were not arrayed in any fixed order. The distances between Torii she had traveled through multiple times already had never been the same twice. Whistling a tune to herself, she simply resolved herself to ask another messenger fox about these things once she met one.

It would be nice to spend an afternoon just sketching all the gates, though she probably wouldn’t be able to share it with many people, if any.

As her newly acquired sense of direction tore her from her musings, Eva stepped through the Torii leading to a small, nearly abandoned shrine only a few blocks from her university.

Stepping up to the donation box, she took a small pack of Cucumbers from her bag and dropped it into the Box. Smelling the Kappa living in the shrine nearby as last time, she let her fox ears show for a few seconds in the hopes of drawing the other spirit out of hiding. When that did not happen, she turned to leave.

Patting her head to make sure the ears were gone again, she stepped onto the boardwalk and made her way to class, preparing herself for another lecture only getting every student informed what they would need to be doing over the course of the Semester and what they would cover in it, rather than actually learning things.

As it had turned out, the young professor in charge of her second class that day had spent only the minimum of time needed on organizational baggage, before moving on to the actual topic of the class. While it wasn’t the most exciting of classes, the amount of information about grain that had been packed into the last 45 minutes was impressive.

Now she was waiting outside for Kurt so they could eat lunch together.

“Hey Fuchs.” Came the unexpected greeting after he had snuck up on her. Which was quite surprising with how much better her senses of hearing and smell had become. Not to mention he smelled of dog half the time.

“Hey Kurt, and stop calling me Fuchs.” Eva complained as she turned around to face him.

“Okay Fuchs.” He said before leading the way to the small Takoyaki stall, he had wanted to show her. The annoyed grumbling from behind him was simply ignored for the first leg of the walk.

“So where is this stall?” Eva inquired after they had moved a couple of blocks from the University through various back alleys. Poking him in the side to finally get a reaction, she continued. “I thought you said it was close by?”

“Yes yes, we are just about there.” He replied after sniffing the air. Kurt then stepped into an extremely narrow side alley that barely fit his wide frame. Eva had a much easier time fitting between the buildings, when suddenly a tantalizing smell filled her nose.

A moment later they stepped out of the alley and found themselves at the back of a mobile food stall selling Takoyaki. Once they had ordered half a dozen of the small balls of octopus filled dough, Eva realized the smell she had noticed in the alley had come from the food she was now chewing on.

“This is great.” She said between bites. “Though the route here was just a tad convoluted wouldn’t you say?”

“I mean we got here, and you said you had no more classes today, so you can’t be late for anything right?” He countered immediately before taking another ball. “Just hope I won’t grow tired of these to soon.”

“Agreed.” Eva mumbled through her Takoyaki filled mouth.