First Evening at Yokai Academy

[Evening - 1 April, Mon.]

As accorded between the girls, after the work was done, they went to the mall, where they would find the local café, still open. Inside, the sight of numerous delicacies could be sem through the glass, inside the showcases. The first to beam at them being Katsuya, presumably not alone. "Waaa!! They look so yummy!! I want to try them all!!"

---

The small bell above the Café Céleste’s entrance chimes as the girls step inside, the scent of fresh cakes and coffee washing over them. The café is cozy, lined with warm wooden furniture and softly glowing lanterns. The atmosphere is elegant yet casual, the kind of place that feels effortlessly charming.

Standing behind the counter is a petite girl with brown hair and warm eyes. She barely speaks above a whisper as she records orders in a neat, precise handwriting, glancing up only to offer a polite bow before handing receipts to customers.

She clutches the register as if it’s a lifeline, shifting her weight nervously whenever someone raises their voice. Someone behind the staff-door constantly yells about something, making her visibly tense each time—but she keeps her focus, her fingers typing prices like clockwork.

She takes a deep breath before softly announcing: "Please enjoy your meal… um… thank you for coming to Café Céleste." Her hands twitch slightly.

---

As they all find a nice place to sit, suddenly, Aika comes running through the entrance; and while panting, she looks around, until she finds Hanamil, darting at her then. Ban- I mean, Hanami!!! She says, coming and squeezing her between her athletic arms, then shaking her madly. "Where have you been?!! I waited for you to come borrow my phone, but you never showed up!!"

She looks at the other girls, specially at Sumeryu, her eyes squinting a little bit, as she rubs her knuckles, suddenly feeling a bit sore. "Oh... Uh... You guys are having some snacks?? W-well, don't mind if I join!"

---

While their order is about to come, they overhear another maid, itting at a small side counter, with her sharp blue eyes and silver-white bob, pushes up her thin-framed glasses as she scans through a ledger, murmuring to herself. She taps a perfectly manicured nail on the paper, sighing.

"Too much wasted inventory this week," she mutters before turning her gaze toward another maid coming from the kitchen, bringing orders, with blue hair and yellow eyes, her tone dripping with disapproval. "I’m deducting the cost of broken dishes from your paycheck."

When the yelling inside restarts, She mumbles without looking up: "You’re too loud."

She sounds bored, unimpressed by everything and everyone, yet her sharp eyes are constantly watching, calculating.

---

"Aww... Not again... I-If you do that, I won't have any money next mon-" Can be heard, as loud CRASH rings through the café as the girl stumbles, sending a tray of drinks flying. A customer gasps as tea spills onto their lap, and before anyone can react, she is already on her knees, bowing frantically.

"I’M SO SORRY! I-I’LL FIX IT RIGHT AWAY!"

She scrambles to clean the mess, but in doing so, she knocks over another tray on a nearby table, sending cakes toppling.

Finally, a redheaded girl, presumably the source of the yelling, comes from the kitchen. She then practically explodes at her: "Reika! Are you actually blind?! That’s the FOURTH time today!"

Reika winces but keeps trying to clean up, only for the silver-haired girl to sigh and adjust her glasses. "Hopeless," she mutters under her breath.

A blonde maid in a blue blue dress, who also came out, quickly kneels next to Reika, patting her head. "It’s okay, don’t rush. Accidents happen!"

Reika sniffles, nodding quickly before standing back up with comical determination, as if vowing to be less clumsy—until she immediately trips again...

---

When Reika stumbles yet again, The blonde maid quickly steps in, catching a teacup mid-fall with a fluid motion. "Oops! Close call, huh? Don’t worry, Reika-chan, I got it."

"Why don't you go to the lounge and regain your breath, while I take care of the customers, uh?" She says kindly, dismissing the girl and leaving for the kitchen. After a very short while, she comes back with a new tray, going swiftly to the girls' table and precisely handing out orders. "I'm so sorry for the inconvenience." She gives Konomi a warm smile. "I hope the cake is to your liking." She adds, with a chuckle.

"Reika! Do you have butter on your hands, or do you just enjoy making my life miserable?!"

The loud maid utters, finally revealing herself. She slams her hands on the counter, flaring up at the inconvenience. Which prompts the blonde maid: "Oops, I better go!" She says chuckling, sticking her tongue out. As she comes near the counter, she swiftly pulls the redheaded maid away inside the kitchen, giving cheerfully flustered looks at the customers.

---

Finally, the girls have some peace to enjoy their meal. After some time, an elegant and charming woman leaves the staff-area, she studies the café with a smile. She then glides across the room, setting down a beautifully arranged platter of cakes and tea before the girls.

"Thank you for waiting, my dears~." Her pale lilac eyes shimmer mysteriously as she studies the guests with an intensity that doesn’t quite match the warm café atmosphere. "I'm Irina... Irina Yukiha, the owner of this café... A pleasure to meet you..." She then chuckles modestly "Heh, You seem like an interesting bunch... Please, enjoy yourselves…"

Katsuya's order is scandalously large, made exclusively of sweets. Her already sweet scent combed with that could be to much to the faint on the ways of sweetness.

She sits between Sumeryu and Luna this time. And when she's distracted, Luna suddenly catches herself being sniffed by her! "Oh, hey!! Y-you're like me!! You, fluffy and all!! Aren't you?? Eh? Eh?" She says, apparently very joyful at that.

"My, my... Sumeryu, is it?? What an impressive looking girl~" SHE Says, giggling, her hand on her cheek. "Oh, this os courtesy from the house~" She chuckles at Hanami, dropping some more plates with macaroons and cookies. "It isn't always that we've got such a lively bunch coming into our little café!"

"Well then, eat your fill and enjoy the meal!" She rhymes, "We'll keep in touch~" Irina says, turning back and leaving for the staff area.

---

Moments later, while the group finishes the cookies she left, Ibuki feels something fibrous and dry inside her cookie as she bites it. At closer inspection, there was a piece of paper inside the cookie!!

After studying it, it was clearly a map of the campus, or at least the northwestern part of it, displaying the shopping district (here) at the bottom and the chapel at the right corner, the rest presumably filled by the forest. Somewhat on the center of the little page, I. e. at the north of the shopping district and west of the chapel, there is a red X marked on it.

Ibuki's question goes at the clumsy and shy made from before, who came to take some empty dishes from the table, startling her.. "Eh?! Uh... I- I think these cookies were made... Hmm... M-maybe by Lady Yukiha? She helps with the cooking sometimes... Oh, she already left..."

---

"Waa!! A kitsune?? Yay!! I'm a Kitsune too!! Nice to meetcha! C-can we be friends then??" Katsuya asks, unaware of the reaction she caused on Luna. "Where is your ears??" She asks, tugging at her big fox ears. "A-and, your tail??" She adds, bringing hers over the table (almost knocking some plates) and right next to Luna's face.

"Gaah!!" She gasps at Luna's remark. "Y-you're right... Oh... I'm not very good at this, sorry..." She says, shamefully.

---

"Ah! Miss, wait!" The blond maid said, extending her hand towards the leaving Sumeryu, "Your exchange..." But Sumeryu already left.

---

And thus, the girls who decided on it, go back outside, the red sun now a mere stripe of light on the horizon, skies filled with deep purples and oranges.

Their goal lead them back to the chapel, as deserted as before, though now the front door is half-opened, giving a peek of the neo-gothic interior, now darkened, as it seems to not have artificial lighting and relying completely on sunlight to be illuminated.

Through there, they, following the markings on the map, find an entrance to the forest deep; the place seeming to connect with the overall direction Hanami could scry from her spell, when looking for the source of corruption. Though the search-area is still broad.

"Oh... Uh, yes, I want to go with you guys!!" She says, cheerily. "No way I'm not hanging out with friends now that I have them!!" She says, brightly.

As for Luna, she says. "Oh, indeed! I've saw lots of people using their monster powers today!" She says, counting on her mind. Then a grin sprouts on her face. "Hey... Why don't you reveal you tail and ears too, eh?? I'm sure they're so fluffy!! Oh, and white! Like fluffy snow!!"

---

Thus the girls go, finding an opening through the forest, a trail it seemed, joining with the chapel. Sumeryu could see the trail was used recently, with footprints still visible to her, looking like leather shoes, number 9, with wooden soles and rubber-lined heels, old-fashioned stuff. The individual also seemed to wear a long-hemmed dress, judging by how lowly bushes and thickets were swept and dragged. Overall, he seamed taller than the average Japanese adult, but seemed to move with lots of grace and dexterity.

Despite that, she could also still see the chapel behind, along with the school grounds through the murk, helping her guide the group, as the Earth now sank in darkness.

---

"Hello?!! Who's there??" The group suddenly hears, the voice from a male adult it seems, though it had a light, pleasant tone, even in distress. They also find a hat lying on the ground. The hat is all black, very wide brimmed, lined with a velvety material and with a round top, a chord tied around it, with a pompom of black thread in its end.

"Oh dear, I hope, whatever you are, that you came to help, not to uh... Devour me... hick." He adds.

As the party turns at a curve, they finally see it, Sumeryu first, of course, but the oil lamp at his feet helped everyone else at that:
Wearing a long black cassock with a black sash, stood a man with long dark hair and green, there were a pair of glasses thrown at the ground next to his feet, as he was tied around a tree trunk by eerie looking vines, releasing a dark miasma, just like the mushrooms and trees the girls fought before. They seemed to coil around him, tightening their grasp little by little.

"Oh... A-are you students?? A-am I saved? Oh, good heavens, I can't see a thing..." He says, his voice still whimsical despite his predicament.

"Gaah!! F-father Tsuji?!! W-what are you doing here?? Aren't you too old to clim trees??" She asks, full of genuine worry.

"Ah! M-miss Momochichi??, is that you?? Phew... What a relief!! I thought it was another monster! Oh... Can you help me here? I was here, gathering herbs and then, alas! I was attack by these vines! Hmm... I'm afraid they're an inch away from crushing my bones..." He says, calmly.

On closer inspection, he seemed to be the author to those footprints, there was a basket full of herbs next to the tree, and he had a rosario fastened on his wrist.

"Oh, uh... Thank you, young miss..." He says, trying to hide his startlement at the deadly claws cutting through the previously impenetrable vines.

As Hanami pulls the cast saw he loses it though. "Gah! Uh... Be careful with that, okay?" He says, chuckling nervously.

The two of them make quick work of the vines, quickly freeing him.

After he dusts and straightens his cassock, he let's out a relieved sigh. "Oh, thank you very much! As I said, I came to pick herbs at sundown, but was instead picked by them!" He laughs loudly at his own pun, grabbing the casket with herbs.

"Uh... Were you girls looking for something around here? Coincidence? What do you mean?" He asks, his curiosity peacked.

"Oh, and where's my manners! I'm Father Rhuohan Tsuji, Yokai Academy's chaplain, among other things..." He adds, with an amused tone.

---

Meanwhile, Luna exerts her mystic sense, her eyes glowing eerily as she can clearly see the source of the corruption now, just ahead, from where the vines retreated when were cut. She can clearly distinguish the dark aura coming from a wet place, maybe a pond or small lake up ahead. Also, that it was growing stronger as the twilight sun rays quickly vanished.

---

Then, Ling Jing appears from the shadows, in the company of some guy!
"Uh?" He looks around, studying everyone with keen and charming eyes, despite the darkness, it seemed to glow around him.

He approaches the group, arms linked with Ling Jing's, chivalrously.

But then quickly detaches, "Tell, o priest, if I'm not in heaven, surrounded by all these angels?" He says, dancing around, trying to osculate every girl's hand he can (his grasp strangely lacked the agility and firmness to be expected from such a figure).

"Oh, Café Céleste, eh?" He repeats, chuckling childishly while covering his mouth with his fist. "I see... Well, you may as well go check it, who knows? Everything has a meaning!"

He returns the bow on Luna. "Nice to meet your bunch! Though I already knew good Katsuya, of course! Such a wonderful soul!"

He approaches Sumeryu, being quite a tall man himself, he doesn't stand that much below her, but his slightly frail appearance certainly contrasts with hers. "Unfortunately I have some... commitments I must attend right now, so best of luck to you young people!" He produces a golden metal cylinder from a previously hidden pocket on his cassock. "Have this at least, it's filled with holy water, may be useful!"

If Sumeryu picks it, she notices it's actually plastic coated with gold paint, the lad being but a bottle-cap.

---

The boy answers Hanami's hostility with a warm smile. "Oh, my precious Hanami, can't you recognize me?" He says, adjusting his glasses.

"My, my... You're so cute when you're confused, Hanami-chan!" He says, slowly savoring every syllable of her name.

"I'm Rikishi, of course!"

---

"Uch! Look at the hour!!" He says, by only looking up at the starred sky. "Anyways, I must be going now, good luck to you guys!"

"Hmm..." She ponders at Ibuki's question, "Oh! He was picking herbs, I think! I've heard he saying it!" She answers, excitedly.

At the suspicious eyebrow-raises multiplying towards him, she pouts, "Hey; he may be a bit, uh... carefree... But he isn't evil! katsuya swears it!" She nods at herself.

---

"Heh... This is my true form, you see?" His voice almost a whisper, "You know, I'm a shy guy, I don't want to attract too much attention, so I hide my true appearance from others... But I had to make a special exception to YOU, Hanami-chan!"

"Heh~ So fiery! How adorable~" Rikishi snarks, as Hanami releases him.

---

Finding the way forward was easy enough, even the magically uninclined could feel a heavy presence ahead.

After some more walking on the trail, they reach a lake, around 25 meters (or 80 feet) in diameter; well, it's a pretty marshy lake, one having to be careful not to sink on the mud around it, even if it's covered by grass.

The crescent moon shines eerily over the still water, and old willows' shadows added to the ominous tone.

---

But then, the water's stillness is broken!

---

A great frog bursts out of the water! It measures around 10 meters (or 30 feet) in height!

As he does, he opens his big mouth, and a sticky tongue sprouts out! Finding Luna! Maybe she looks yummier or something... And so, (unless her defense roll is higher than 8) pulls her by the leg towards his gaping mouth!

With his front legs, he also throws a big ball of mud at the remaining girls!

You may roll to avoid it with a roll, DN 6; otherwise, receive a -1 to all physical rolls.