In the backroom, Morgana Faye sprinkled magic powders into her scrying pool. It was time to contact Kyūri Sensei, the magical sumo trainer in far-away Kyoto. After muttering a few quick spells in Akkadian, Morgana saw an image appear on the surface of the scrying pool. It was the image of a stooped, corpulent turtle-man with a hollow, water-filled skull eating a cucumber: a kappa.
Morgana bowed slightly. "Greetings, Kyūri Sensei."
Kyūri did not return the bow for fear of spilling his precious head water. "Greetings, Morgana-san. What need do you have to call me at so late an hour?"
"I believe I have a pupil for you," said Morgana.
Kyūri puffed up crankily, his bloated gullet quivering. "You know my stance on admitting foreigners, Morgana-san! Not since 1603 in your calendar have I..."
"...'taken a foreign barbarian into my esteemed heya.' I know, you always tell me that. But tell me something else, old friend. How much profit are you turning these days? How many cucumbers are in your larder? How long before you have to close the doors of your esteemed, 1,200-year-old heya? Would that not be a terrible loss to the yokai community? Japan has opened up, Kyūri Sensei, and so should you."
Kyūri sighed defeatedly. "Well played, Morgana-san. You have bested me in this verbal spar. You may tell your friend that I shall accept him... or is it a shi?"
"It is indeed a shi, Kyūri," said Morgana. "Shi's a werehyena named Ellie Rubenstein. Shi desires a plumper physique and wishes to pursue the art of Sumo to achieve this."
Kyūri took another bite of his cucumber. "Right. I have two classes in my heya, one for males and one for shiyūdōtai... that would be hermaphrodites in your language. I'll naturally be putting Ellie-san in the shiyūdōtai class. I hope shi's got nothing against tanuki, because they'll make up almost two thirds of hir classmates. And shi'd better be willing to work hir backside off to get that girth!"
"Ms. Rubenstein swore to me that shi is," said Morgana. "I think the best way to get Ellie to you would be to set up an exchange student program between Stokerville Public High School and some of the Japanese schools that service yokai. A little magic and the school administrations will be very cooperative, I'm sure. Honestly I think we could all benefit from meeting magicals from the other side of the world. Most of the vampires, werewolves, merpeople, dragons, and demons around here have never seen a kitsune, an inugami, a kappa, an oni, a tanuki, a bakeneko, or a tengu. I think we can both agree that greater understanding between the different kinds of magicals can only lead to good."
"I suppose," Kyūri said as he bit into his cucumber again. "Now, let's talk pay. As nice as it would be if I could give knowledge freely, I've got bills the same as anyone else. I believe I'll take 25,600 JP¥ a month, plus two crates of fresh cucumbers. In American money, that should come to about $200... and two crates of fresh cucumbers."
"Ellie's got a friend who can pay," said Morgana. "Be sure to have plenty of your famous chankonabe waiting for hir. Oh, and Ellie'd really like to bring hir mate, Harper Browning, for company. Is that okay? Ellie's benefactor has the money for any additional accommodations."
"I suppose," groaned Kyūri. "I can't have the name of my heya associated with poor hospitality, can I? I reserve the right to ask Harper-san to do odd jobs for me, of course. If shi does, I may let hir stay for free."
"Perfect!" Morgana grinned. "Ellie'll be delighted to hear that Harper can come. I think that's all we need to work out. Goodbye, Kyūri. Always a pleasure."
"Farewell, Morgana-san," Kyūri said as his image faded from the scrying pool. That had gone very well. She really hadn't expected everything to be worked out in one sitting, and, frankly, little details might still come up as things got finalized. The exchange program in particular might take a bit. But at least she and Kyūri both knew what they wanted from this deal. Morgana felt proud of herself. Who knows? Maybe Ellie's attendance at Kyūri Sensei's heya would pave the way for other Western would-be sumos to study under him. Morgana could hardly wait to give Ellie the news!