I peeked into the lobby of Shin'yume-sou and saw that no one was by the front desk.

That meant Natsumi was probably sneaking a joint in the women's bathroom, so I carefully crept past the POS computer and snuck back into my room.

Yuki was there, waiting, by the window the moment I walked through the door.

"Oh, Ryu!" she said, trying to hug me.

For a second, it worked, and I wrapped my arms around her. Then she floated through me, and I felt like I was walking through a drafty room.

She sighed.

"Where've you been? I've been worried sick!"

I explained as much as I could.

And to her credit, she listened, nodded, and sighed when I finished.

"It was Murasaki who helped you get your wings?" she asked. "Gracious, Ryu! You're lucky she let you go after she attacked you!"

I thought of that.

"Yeah, I guess. I don't know." I shrugged. "It didn't seem like an attack at the time. It was more like she was being dramatic just to get my attention."

Yuki scoffed.

"She picked you up and carried you over tree-tops, Ryu. What if you'd fallen?" Her eyes were wide with concern.

"Okay. But I didn't."

Her eyes narrowed in anger.

"Ryu! I fell! And I died!" she pleaded.

I didn't know what to say.

"I'm sorry," she said at last. "That wasn't my place. You didn't expect to be grabbed from behind by some… thing."

"Yuki," I said.

She frowned and looked up at me.

"I should've been by your side. Instead, I was with Azuki watching something called Bushwacked with a man named Daniel Stern, who, Azuki assured me 'deserved better.'"

I winced, not having thought of Bushwacked in well over a decade.

"You didn't do anything wrong," I said. "I can't expect you to watch over me forever, and I'm glad you got to spend time with your friend."

Yuki floated beside me, and I felt her cooling presence as I sat at my desk.

"I'm glad you were able to help Shion. Kanae sounds like trouble with a capital T. Let me see your wrist."

I held out my wrist where I'd cut it against Shion's fangs. Yuki looked over it and helped me wrap it with bandages from the bathroom.

"Between the fights, Natsumi slashing you, Shion's fangs, and regular boyish nicks and scrapes, you're lucky there's much left of you," Yuki teased.

I let her have that one.

We watched the mist swirl outside the window. Neither of us needed to speak. The quiet moment of watching the steam form and dissolve beneath the night sky and full moon was enough.

"I'd love to sit and meditate with you, Yuki."

She smiled at me.

I don't remember falling asleep. But I remembered waking up with our entire room swallowed in darkness.

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And I was certain I'd heard something.

Then I heard it again.

A sharp tap against the window.

WHAP!

My heart lurched, and I scrambled upright, half-expecting another ghost or some cosmic terror to greet me.

"Ryu?" I heard Yuki ask.

"I heard it too," I said.

She floated to the window and peeked out as I climbed out of the futon.

"Oh my gosh, Ryu," Yuki exclaimed. "It's Azuki!"

I looked down and saw her standing in the moonlight, already waving.

She was grinning like she'd discovered the greatest secret in the universe.

"Ryu-sama! Yuki-kun! Come quickly! It's the full moon!"

Groggily, I looked at the alarm clock on my desk.

3:21 AM

I felt a flare of rage at the sleep I was losing. I pushed the window open, whisper-yelling into the night, "Azuki, what the hell? It's the middle of—"

But she wasn't having it.

"LOOK!" she insisted, eyes blazing. "Look at the sky!"

I sighed, rubbing sleep from my eyes, and looked up begrudgingly.

Nothing.

"Azuki," Yuki said. "What's gotten into you?"

She practically jumped when she turned back towards our window.

"Oh, it's amazing!" she said. "I told the other tanuki about Ryu-sama wanting to help us, and how he's helping me! And guess what?"

"This is crazy! It's just the moon," I began, annoyance edging into my voice. "What are you even—"

"No, Ryu-sama, you're NOT looking!" Azuki insisted. "You don't understand. Wait. This'll help."

I pushed the patio door open and stepped into the night air, Yuki floating beside me.

Beneath us, Azuki ruffled through her backpack. I could hear her innumerable bag clips and buttons clinking together like windchimes.

She pulled out a single leaf.

I could barely see it in the darkness.

"It's okay! You just can't see it yet. Let me show you. I'll show you with this!"

She took the leaf and pressed it against her forehead. For a moment, it stuck there, like a third eye. And with a triumphant gesture, she threw the leaf into the sky, where it was caught by the wind, and it flew away.

She danced in the moonlight.

Beside me, Yuki gasped.

"Ryu, she's glowing. I've never seen her like this."

Her body trembled with excitement and a hint of desperation, and something in me stirred awake.

My senses prickled. Something had shifted. Something was different.

"Look!" she insisted.

She pointed towards the moon, her voice almost reverent.

The night sky rippled.

My breath caught.

The air above wasn't just sky anymore—it was cosmos, vast and living.

Stars blossomed into kaleidoscopic bursts of ancient color, and I could hear them humming softly, harmonizing.

And in the onsen garden beneath us, a line of tanuki emerged from the shadows. They appeared, mimicking the stars at twilight. One at a time they formed a solemn circle around Azuki as she danced.

The tanuki began to hum, harmonizing with the sky above us.

The Moon, radiant and majestic, hung impossibly close. Not just close but aligned—perfectly aligned.

That's when I saw the cosmos.

"Azuki… what…"

"The seventh house!" she cried joyfully. "Look, Ryu-sama!"

And I looked. And I saw.

"Yes!" I said.

Azuki nodded, and she, Yuki, the tanuki, and I spoke together.

"The moon is in the seventh house," we said as one.

I took Yuki's hand, and the two of us stepped down from the patio onto the onsen beneath us as though we were climbing down a flight of stairs.

And when we joined the growing tanuki throng, they let out a chorus of cheers.

Around us, the lanterns began glowing, lighting the scene in kaleidoscopic color. The water from the onsen turned rainbow-colored as tanuki leapt in, swimming under the glowing sky..

"Jupiter has aligned with Mars!" sang Azuki.

Her voice echoed in my ears like music, and then I saw them: three more tanuki emerging from the shadows, each softly singing, their voices blending into perfect harmony.

"Harmony and understanding," sang one tanuki gloriously.

" Ryu… what is Azuki doing? Are those… actually tanuki?" she whispered, bewildered and entranced.

I looked down, but I didn't need to. I could feel her hand, our fingers lacing naturally as we stepped forward, together, off the stairs and onto the onsen's stone floor.

Azuki stood on a rock outcropping above the steaming onsen. One of the installed waterfalls bubbled beside her, pouring its mineral waters into the pool beneath. Above, the lanterns around cast an ethereal rainbow light around us.

"Sympathy and trust abounding," a tanuki sang to my right, arms outstretched.

The sky deepened, rippling like water, pulsing with ancient cosmic rhythm. I could feel it. I could read it.

It looked like an astrology poster had made out with a stoner's M. C. Escher poster, and maybe I should've laughed.

But I didn't. It felt right. Like I was finally reading the sky in a language meant for me.

Azuki's eyes shone like polished stones, reflecting galaxies.

She smiled and held something in her hand—long, rainbow-colored.

A Nerd rope, like a scepter.

She'd taken a bite out of it.

"Ryu-sama, we've come to thank you. You agreed to help us," she said.

Around us, the gathered tanuki let out a cheer.

"Do you understand?" Azuki asked. "You've opened the gate, and we've come to help you! Without any questions or judgement, you opened your heart!"

Yuki and I stood below, looking up at her.

"No more falsehoods or derisions," came another tanuki's voice, bright as moonbeams, echoing across the stone and water.

I stared as the water in the onsen shifted, turning impossibly vibrant, shimmering with every color imaginable.

My heart thudded, and I felt it.

I sang, my own voice joining with theirs, as one.

"Golden, living dreams and visions."

"This is the mind's true liberation," Yuki sang in awe.

I felt her beside me, squeezing my hand.

"Aquarius!" We all cried out together, voices soaring. "AQUARIUS!"

Then, the sky parted, and it was time to let the sunshine in.

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