As time resumed, the knives hit her side. Her mask changed to one of surprise as the knives entered her side and she clutched where they hit. "You win! I give up! No fair..." She muttered the last sentence as she straightened up. "What do you want?"

The woman looked confused at his mention of missing people. "Is someone missing? I don't know anything about it. Oh, but they might know! Come on, i'll take you there!" She flew over and picked him up with surprising strength before flying off into the night. Around daylight they arrived at a gate with a long path behind it and a temple at the end. "We're here! Bye!" The woman said as she set him down and flew away. Someone was standing beside the gate but didn't seem to have noticed him.

At first glance she looked like a relatively normal 17-year old, wearing a pale pink coat with a black and white dress emerging underneath. However, any chance of passing as a human disappeared as he noticed her two brown dog-like ears that stuck out from underneath her teal hair. She was humming a tune as she turned and noticed Joseph. "Hey! Who are- You look terrible!!" He would come to realize she spoke incredibly loudly. In fact, she was almost yelling. "Stay here! I'll get some water!" She said before running off. A minute or two later she returned with a ceramic flask which she handed to Joseph. "Here! This ought to help!" Behind her came someone else, a girl clad in a blue, white and gold robe with blue hair and eyes. She looked tired. "Kyouko, please, calm down. You'll disturb the others- What? A human? Go tell Byakuren, i'll take care of it." She diverted her attention to Joseph. "Drink up, you look like you've seen a ghost."

The girl smiled at him as she retrieved the flask. "Oh, it's no big deal. Now, Byakuren should be getting ready for the arrival of a human any second now. Follow me. Oh, and by the way, i'm Ichirin Kumoi."

She nodded and began walking through the temple courtyard until they eventually got to the main building. It was buzzing with activity and many strange people could be seen. Someone looking like a sailor leaned up against a wall, an anchor doing the same beside her. A tall woman in black and white robes was talking to relatively normal looking person, save for, again, her ears, which were based on a cat of some kind. Close by them, another person was lounging around. She was quite obviously not human, as evidenced by her mouse ears and tail, the latter carrying a basket in which several normal mice were relaxing along with her. Another noteworthy person would be the the woman on the edge of the temple grounds sitting on a large, brown, furry object that, upon closer inspection, was actually her tail. She also had a pair of small brown ears. Talking to her was... For a second he glimpsed someone, but they were replaced with the thing he thought most likely to be at a place such as this, down to the tiniest detail. Suddenly, Joseph heard something. A faint whisper coming from somewhere, a nagging feeling someone was watching him. Ichirin seemed to not notice, though. "I've got to get back to my guard duty. If you need anything, talk to Byakuren. She's the tall one in the black and white clothing."