Chapter 1

Laura sat down in the regional train that would be the final leg of her journey to Yamatanuki University, where she would be studying this semester. So far her travels had gone smoothly, although she did run out of things to do on her flight from Germany.

While she had packed a bunch of Light Novels to read and even spent some time tinkering around with the CAD plans of a model jet engine she wanted to build on her tablet, over the course of the flight to Japan both had run out of entertainment value long before the flight was over. After failing to start conversations with the people sitting close to her, the German student had decided to just close her hazel brown eyes and take a nap, which luckily lasted till shortly before the plane touched down in Tokyo.

Leaning back in her seat, Laura blew a loose strand of brown hair out of her view as she turned to watch the city rushing by outside the window. Pulling her hands out of the her red hoodie's pockets, she redid her ponytail, her reflection in the window showing her face with its small nose and thin eyebrows. Pulling her ponytail forward to drop over her shoulder and onto her chest again, she began to wonder what machinery would be available to engineering students like her. As the cityscape outside the window gave way to more suburban looking areas, she concluded that it would be good enough to do any assignments the professors may hand them, but probably not much beyond that. A bit disappointed that she would most likely have no way to tinker around with private projects, Laura lets out a sigh before she returns to watching the scenery speed by.

Slowly the buildings became even more sparse as well as further away from the tracks, and soon enough hills and a little later mountains had replaced the endless cityscape. Looking at the tree covered mountain sides, Laura smiles faintly, already making plans to hike through these mountains, which looked not unlike the alps back home at this distance.

A good while later the last stop of the train was announced on the speaker system, which prompted Laura to start getting ready to get off. She pulled her suitcase down from the overhead luggage storage first, then put her messenger bag and the sports bag full of spare clothes, which she had stuffed underneath her seat, over her shoulders as the train stopped.

Looking out to the platform as the train slowed down, the German could see a lot of people dressed for hiking still carrying their backpacks waiting for the train back to Tokyo. After stepping of the train, Laura made her way past the people returning home after their weekend trips to the mountains, and soon managed to leave the station.

Looking around, she noticed a plain looking hotel sitting across the street from the train station, a small cafe and a seemingly traditional Restaurant flanking it on either side. Pulling the map of the route to Campus she had printed out back home from her jeans pocket, the student began making her way out of the small town on the side of the road.

It took her about half an hour with all her luggage, but finally the Campus coming into view. The light gray buildings contrasted with both the cloudless blue sky above them, and the mountains surrounding the valley the university and small town had been built in. Walking along the wall standing next to the road, Laura spotted a small Tanuki lying close to the wall, enjoying the shade it threw over it while nibbling on what looked like a potato chip.

"Gaijin" Laura heard a shout as she approached the little racoon dog, the Japanese to fast and accented to let her make sense of it as she looked around to find the speaker. Finding no one nearby, she looked back to the cute animal she had observed earlier, but only caught sight of it's tail vanishing between some nearby bushes.

"That was weird." the student thought aloud in her native tongue before shacking her head. "Don't be stupid Laura, animals don't talk." The German mumbled as she moved on towards the front gate and soon enough she reached the main entrance of campus. Turning to step through it, Laura got a clear view of the University's main building, a mostly square looking facade and three stories tall, broken up only by a small fourth floor covering only the central third of the building adorned with a clock above a surprisingly big brass sign reading the Universities name.

"Let's see room 1.030, and I even got half an hour left until the meet and greet for the exchange students is supposed to start." The young woman thought aloud as she checked the mail telling her about all the appointments for exchange students over the first few days after their arrival. Finally setting foot on campus, Laura's black boots left dirty prints on the surprisingly clean white stones paving the path that led to the front doors.

In contrast to the rather bleak outside, the interior of the main building had light beige walls, with wood paneling covering the lowest third of every wall. With two more days until the official beginning of the semester, it was not too surprising that most of the halls were empty as the German went searching for a set of stairs leading up to the next floor to look for the room the exchange students were supposed to gather in.

After carrying her suitcase and bags up a flight of stairs, Laura took a short moment to catch her breath before beginning to look for room 1.003. A few moments of checking nearby door signs later, which went from 2.010 to 2.013, she let out a frustrated groan and headed back down to the first floor, grumbling about unintuitive ways of numbering floors in other countries.

Once she was on the correct floor, it didn't take long for Laura to find the correct room as well. Knocking on the door, she waited a couple moments for a reply that didn't come. Unsure what to make of this, she opened the door, to reveal a small room containing a trio of chairs and a table with snacks and some drinks, but no other people inside.

As checking her phones clock revealed she was still 15 minutes early, the German exchange student sat down on one of the chairs, dropping her bags on the floor behind it, and began to wait for someone else to show up.

~~~~~~

A dark room was illuminated by a bright blue flame for mere seconds, before a set of nine blue flames illuminated the fox tailed woman that had been sleeping in it. In her hands was a rectangular strip of paper covered in Kanji and runes. With her face hidden behind her long, grey hair the only sign of her excitement were the numerous tails flicking from side to side.

"It seems he found another candidate." Before she stood up, the Kitsune put on a white and red fox mask hiding all of her face, except for the flat grey eyes. "We'll see if Takeko can guide this one to the old shrine on the mountain."