Far Away

On my first night in the 15th century, I woke up countless times, and every time I went back to sleep, I wished I could be freed from this nightmare. But it never happened, and I always rose in this unfamiliar place again. 

I missed the warmth of my bed, the messy desk full of stick-it notes in my room, and staying up until late texting my best friend. The people were what I missed the most, and the thought I could never see them again haunted me all the time.

There was a knock on the door, and a few instants later, Mina and a shorter girl came inside. She had long dark hair, and her kimono was more embellished than Mina's simple hakama.

"So this is the girl you were talking about?" She asked, seeming excited and smiling brightly at me. "You never told me she was this pretty, Mina!"

"Hm, you think she's pretty?" Mina replied, seeming disinterested. I've known her for no more than hours, and she was already starting to get on my nerves.

"I know I'm pretty," I replied snarkily, swinging away the bed sheet and getting up. "I don't need your validation."

"I like you already," the other girl said, and the feeling was mutual because she was a lot more pleasant than Mina. "My name is Yabuki Nako, nice to meet you!"

"It's good to meet you too. My name is Nayeon," I smiled at her and replied. "What brings you here?"

"How come you can remember your name if you lost your memory?" Nako asked curiously, seeming interested.

I blushed, not having thought about that before, and replied, "O-Oh, I lost only a part of my memory... I can still remember stuff from my childhood, including my name."

"Nako is the imperial princess," Mina replied monotonously. "She found out that I brought a girl with memory loss to the castle and became curious to meet you."

"P-Princess? Oh my god, I've been so rude," I said, immediately bowing to Nako. "I'm sorry, Your Highness. It's an honor to meet you!"

"Why'd you tell her that? It was much more fun when she didn't know who I was," Nako pouted. 

"There's no point in hiding who you are, Your Highness," Mina shrugged and then turned to me.

"I told you not to call me that," Nako continued sulking, crossing her arms.

"As your retainer, it's the only way I can refer to you," Mina simply replied before turning to face me. "Get ready, we'll be having breakfast soon." 

"Can I have breakfast with you?" Nako asked, clinging to Mina's sleeve. Surprisingly, her features softened, and she smiled at the younger girl, patting her head. 

"I'm sorry, but you know you need to have breakfast with the royal family," she replied, sounding apologetic. "You should be going now, you know how they get when you're late."

"Aw... okay, I guess," Nako replied desolated, giving Mina a quick hug and waving goodbye at me before leaving the room. "It was nice to meet you, Nayeon! I hope we can talk more later!"

The elegant beauty of the castle's garden made me glad that my phone still had a bit of battery left to take pictures of it. Mina, of course, was terrified when the phone camera's flashed, and I couldn't help laughing at how a samurai was afraid of such a harmless device.

I could only hope I'd be able to see the pictures again when I return to the 21st century and plug it in a charger. But today, we would hopefully be close to finding some clues about what happened.

"I hope this family of priests will be there this time," I nervously said, as we walked underneath the seasonal cherry blossoms, approaching the same cobblestone path from yesterday.

I stepped on a stone that seemed out of place. It was different from the cobblestones, but the most shocking thing was that it made a small yelping sound when I touched it. 

"Is it just me or did this rock just-," I started saying, stopping when it moved on its own, and I screamed, clasping on Mina's sleeve. "WHY IS THIS THING MOVING AND MAKING SOUNDS?!" 

I grabbed a nearby tree stick and began hitting it repeatedly. After a few strikes, the rock surrounded itself in smoke and transformed into a bipedal raccoon-like creature.

"That's Bunta," Mina explained, seeming unimpressed and grabbing him by the fur. "He's a tanuki... one who's always trying to invade the castle to steal food and liquor."

"Get your hands away from me, human!" He screeched, trying to untangle himself from Mina's grasp. Unable to do so by strength, there was another smokescreen, and he changed into a balloon, managing to escape by flying away.

"T-Tanukis aren't supposed to speak... or transform themselves into other things," I argued, still shocked by what happened.

"What do you mean?" Mina asked, turning to face me. "Of course they do, they always have... that's what they're known for."

"Not in my time!" I responded. "Tanukis that can transform and speak are only present in folklore about yokai." 

"Folklore? Yokai are very much a real thing here," she said, as we continued moving. "That's why we must always be careful. Many of these monsters love pranking humans... others are much more dangerous and can seriously harm you."

I remember reading about yokai when I first came to Japan. Supernatural creatures that are present in ancient mythology. I could never have imagined they were actually real.

"They don't seem to exist anymore in the future, though," I said pensively. "I wonder what happened to them."

Mina seemed lost in thought until she whispered, "Your world sounds very strange."

"I could say the same about yours," I replied, and we both stayed silent until arriving on the shrine.

I noticed a small red fox on the top of the temple's roof. It seemed to be taking a nap before, but once we approached the place, it awoke and observed us. 

As we entered, there was a girl with black hair, straight bangs in a hime cut, and a traditional priestess outfit, which consisted of red hakama with a white kosode.

She was kneeling next to the statue pieces and seemed troubled. Guilt struck me when I realized it was my fault. The girl turned around when she heard footsteps.

 "Mina... what are you doing here?" She questioned, before sighing. "I'm kind of busy right now. Some vandal barged inside the temple and destroyed the sacred statue."

I could feel my face burning in shame, as Mina put her hand on my shoulder and said, "Ah, about said vandal... this girl is the one responsible for it."

"T-The way you say it makes it sound like I did it on purpose!" I argued embarrassedly.

"What?!" The priestess exclaimed, turning to face me instead." Do you have any idea of how serious of an offense this is?"

"I d-didn't do it on purpose!" I defended myself, grabbing Mina's wrist. "Explain it to her!"

"It's a dubious story, but bear with me, Momo," Mina began saying, and I rolled her eyes when she said 'dubious.' "Yesterday morning, I came to see you, but you weren't home, and instead, I found this girl unconscious."

"We were out of town," the girl, apparently named Momo, explained. "What was she doing here?"

"Here comes the dubious part," Mina wearily said. "She's from the future... according to her, she came inside this same temple for shelter from a storm, and accidentally bumped into the sacred statue. When she woke up, she was here."

Momo didn't say a word for a while, analyzing the situation. She then glanced at me, speaking, "I think you're probably cursed... breaking a sacred object, even if accidentally, is an offense to the goddess."

I tried not to panic, but that was practically impossible at this point, and I could feel tears threatening to pour. 

"Isn't there anything we can do to help her?" Mina asked, glancing in my direction.

"We'll prepare a ritual to speak with the goddess, Inari," said the voice of an elderly woman who just entered the temple. She wore the same outfit as Momo but was shorter, and her hair was already white.

"Grandmother, you were listening?" Momo asked as the old lady approached us. 

She nodded and replied, "Can you sense it too, Momo? This child doesn't have a sinister aura around her, I think we can trust her when she said it was an accident."

Momo glanced at me and replied, "I did... in fact, I can sense an unusually strong spiritual energy in her."

Utterly oblivious to what they were referring to, I timidly said, "Does that mean you'll be able to help me?"

"Yes, child, we will do whatever we can," Momo's grandmother said, making me feel more relieved. "It'll take a day to prepare the ritual, so you two should return tomorrow, at this time."

"Thank you, I really appreciate this," I firmly said, approaching her and taking her hands into mine.

Anxiety took over me as I would have to wait an entire day to have some answers about how I could return to my time. Mina said she would practice sword fighting and let me watched her without complaining. An improvement, I guess.

Although I did not know the subject, I had to admit that she seemed quite skilled at it. It was hard not to admire her swift movements. Mina looked so graceful, twirling that wooden practice sword, that it almost seemed like she was dancing.

"She's pretty cool, right?" Asked Nako, who I didn't notice was already sitting down by my side.

"Your Highness, I didn't even see you!" I exclaimed surprised. 

Nako rolled her eyes and said, "Please don't call me that, I hate it. Since you have memory loss, please at least pretend you forgot your manners."

I couldn't help but giggle at her and replied, "All right, for your sake, I can do that, Nako."

"Yes! You're much nicer than Mina, she would never agree on that," Nako laughed. 

"You seem pretty close to Mina though," I replied.

"We are close. I grew up with her as my retainer, so she's almost like an older sister to me," Nako explained. "She may seem pretty strict... well, she is. But she's also kind and caring. I hope you don't misunderstand her ways."

The fond way Nako spoke of Mina touched me. And I believed her because even despite her blunt nature, the samurai girl was doing her best to help me even though we were strangers.

"Your Highness!" Mina exclaimed once she noticed Nako was around, moving towards us. "Aren't you supposed to be having lessons now?"

"I take back every single good thing I said about her," Nako replied, pouting at the older girl. "I gotta go; otherwise, she'll force me to return to my lessons! Bye!" Nako added before running off. 

"That girl is such a handful sometimes," Mina grumbled, wiping off her forehead's sweat, and I giggled.

"I think she seems a bit lonely... she's probably full of obligations and has little time for herself," I commented. 

"It's only natural that the imperial princess has such responsibilities," Mina replied, seeming lost in thought. "When you're born, your role is already decided for you. She is a princess, and I am a samurai. My duty is to guarantee the safeness of the future empress." 

"I think that kind of logic is nonsense though," I debated, and she immediately glanced at me, surprised. "You should be the one to decide your own future. No one should choose your life for you. Don't you think so?"

She stared at me silently, her eyes slightly widened, before she finally responded, "I never thought about that... ever since I was born, the one thing I knew is that I would grow up to continue meeting my family's obligations. A different fate is unimaginable."

I smiled sadly at her. It was hard for me to imagine living without being able to make your own decisions. "Perhaps you should give it some thought then," I said.

"I'm afraid that's not possible. Thinking about it won't change my fate," she replied. "I also don't know if I would want to change it. I'm proud of who I am. This might be something you won't be able to understand, but everyone in society has a role to fulfill, and I'm happy to do mine."

I wondered if she was actually happy, or if she just accepted that this is all that life has to offer her because she can't imagine another reality. But I decided I shouldn't push her about this anymore. At least not now. 

Suddenly grabbing her arm, I lightly spoke, "C'mon, you haven't shown me around the castle yet." 

"W-What?" She seemed surprised by my actions, and her face grew slightly redder. "I have to practice."

"If I'm stuck in the 15th century, I might as well experience it fully!" I explained, dragging her. "And you, Mina, happened to be stuck as my guide."