Just as she was getting ready to close up for the night and get some much-needed sleep, Morgana felt her scrying pool calling to her. Someone was trying to get in touch. Sighing with frustration, she headed for her back room and gazed into the scrying pool to see who had such urgent business at such a wretched hour.
In the pool was the face of Kyūri-sensei. The rotund kappa was chomping on a cucumber the way some humans might chomp on a cigar. He sat up a little straighter when he saw Morgana, his belly shaking as he did. "Ah, Morgana-san! There you are."
"Would you mind telling me what couldn't keep until tomorrow?!" Morgana moaned. "I was just about to go to bed, and I have an exhausting day ahead of me in the morning!"
Kyūri tapped his foot reprovingly. "Manners, Morgana! Is that any way to speak to a kappa sumo master many centuries your elder?"
"Maybe not," Morgana conceded, "but I hope you can forgive me on account of how tired I am. I have to keep the shop open late for the vampire crowd, and I have to set up the magic portal to your sumo heya tomorrow. That magic is DRAINING!"
"Ah, the portal," Kyūri nodded. "How does that work?"
"Not easily," said Morgana. "I'll have to paint runes that spell out a prayer to Janus and Hermes in the shape of a door, and then I anoint the door with a very tricky potion while reading the prayer aloud."
Kyūri had known Morgana long enough to know that there was more. "And?"
"And then it'll need a witch concentrating on keeping it open until it's no longer needed!" Morgana groaned. "My apprentices and I will need to take turns expending massive reserves of energy just to keep the portal open until everyone's crossed over, meaning the day AFTER tomorrow."
"I have faith that your shirikodama's up to the task," said Kyūri, his usual gruff expression turning almost grandfatherly.
"You mean the invisible organ near the anus that generates life force?" asked Morgana. "Western witches generally call it the anoglobulus."
"Yes, that," said Kyūri. "You know, some of the meaner kappas like to pull shirikodama out of human swimmers and eat it."
Morgana laughed. "Oh Kyūri, you do say the most charming things sometimes."
Kyūri chuckled back. "So I've been told. Anyway, I'm calling you to discuss that lottery I'm having to pick exchange students. Turns out it's such a popular idea that additional schools besides mine wish to participate. No idea why."
"Which schools?" asked Morgana.
"One's my sumo heya, obviously," said Kyūri. "I'm also including a slot for the high school of a tanuki village called Toyoda, one for the high school of a kitsune village named Inamura, and two for the celebrated Takarazuka Music School."
"You say Takarazuka Music School like I should have heard of it," said Morgana. "I assume it's a music school for yokai?"
"Not officially," said Kyūri. "But it has more undercover kitsune students than perhaps any other human-run school in Japan. You see, it's the training academy for the Takarazuka Revue, an all-female theater troupe that stages American and European-style musicals and revues. All the male roles are played by actresses in drag."
"I can certainly see how something like that could appeal to the archetypical kitsune mind," nodded Morgana, "between the performance and the gender-blurring."
"Indeed," said Kyūri. "Like I said, they're getting two slots. One's to represent the otokoyaku (the girls playing the male roles), and one's for the musumeyaku (the girls playing actual girls)."
"I see," said Morgana. "This town could certainly use some culture. The closest we've got is a nightclub run by succubi, and I'm not sure that counts. But I'm only counting five slots, and I'm sending SIX exchange students to you: Ellie, Beck, Kristi, and their three girlfriends."
"There's also a bonus slot open to every yokai student in Japan," Kyūri explained. "Whether you're a tanuki who's the lone yokai kid in your Tokyo high school or you're a tengu learning the art of Gejutsu in your clan's Shugendo monastery in the mountains, you can compete for this sixth slot. Seemed pretty fair to me."
"Absolutely," said Morgana.
"The lottery's tomorrow morning," said Kyūri. "Female and shiyūdōtai yokai from all over Japan will come streaming into the grounds of my heya. Anyone eligible for one of the slots will slip a piece of paper with their name written on it into an old chankonabe pot at the time of the appropriate drawing. Then I draw one paper from the pot, and the name on it's the name of that slot's exchange student. Then we repeat the process until we have all six exchange students ready to head for America the next day."
"Excellent," said Morgana. "We look forward to meeting some of Japan's magical youth here in Stokerville. I'm sure it'll be quite enriching."
"I wish I could say the same about the ones you're sending me, Morgana Faye," said Kyūri. "I'm not running a cosmetic service for people who want to be fat. I'm teaching sumo. I trust you've impressed on them that they'll have to put in the effort to learn sumo if they want their new, bigger bellies?"
"I have," said Morgana. "I've spelled it out in no uncertain terms, and they all seem very eager to learn."
"Remind me what their names are again," said Kyūri.
"Alright," said Morgana. "Ellie Rubenstein, her girlfriend Harper Browning, Beck Hamilton, her girlfriend Brianna Dixon, Kristi Wenzel, and her girlfriend Joelle Bowman. Only Ellie, Beck, and Kristi actually want to join your sumo class. The others just plan to do chores for you to be with their lovers."
"Understood," said Kyūri. "And the would-be rikishi are all shiyūdōtai, right?"
"Kristi might not be," said Morgana, "but I'm sure you can fix that with magic."
"I do know a witch," said Kyūri. "Odd lady. Lives in a cave and never wears anything but an oni mask."
"Yes, some of my kind can be fairly... eccentric," Morgana conceded. "I've always aimed to live in a civilized manner myself. So, how's your little granddaughter?"
"You mean Nariko-chan?" said Kyūri. "She's still a handful. Just tonight she went wandering in the forest outside the heya. Poor girl had a run-in with the chōchin-obake that live out there."
"It's been a while since I've been to Japan," said Morgana. "Remind me what those are."
"Phantom lanterns," said Kyūri. "A chōchin-obake's a paper lantern with a face. They're usually harmless, but they get bold in large groups. Then they try to swarm you and suck out your soul. I'm just relieved my Nariko got away."
"So am I," said Morgana. "Well, I'm off to bed now. Lots of magic ahead of me in the morning. Goodnight, Kyūri-sensei."
"And goodnight to you, Morgana-san," said Kyūri. "I'd better go prepare for the lottery." With that, the corpulent turtle-man's face faded from the scrying pool's water.