Considering they were going to be spending a considerable amount of time in Japan among yokai, the exchange students decided they need to bone up a bit on the different kinds of yokai they would be likely to meet there. For one thing, they needed to know what not to do in order to avoid accidentally insulting someone. Japanese customs are different enough from western customs, let alone the different rules that particular yokai may have.
Fortunately, Morgana lent them a book for just this purpose. The book was a fairly up-to-date guide regarding the different species of yokai. Some yokai's traditions have changed over the centuries, a few had apparently gone extinct. Those yokai were the nastier ones that no one would be missing, such as Orochi, the eight-headed serpent and Oomukade, the giant centipede.
"Huh, if these legends are true, some of these yokai became spirits in very unpleasant ways," said Beck, having read about the grim burial rituals involved in creating inugami, "No wonder some of them hate humans."
"So you're going to have to be careful with some of them," said Ellie to Harper. As the only human present, Ellie couldn't help but worry about Harper's vulnerability.
"If I have to become something non-human, I don't mind," said Harper, "I'm just not sure what I want to be yet."
"Can't go wrong with being a werehyena," said Brianna.
"It sounds tempting," said Harper, "But I don't even know if I want to be supernatural permanently or not."
"I'm find with whatever you want to be," said Ellie, "As long as you don't mind having my kits at some point." Part of joining the sumo school required Ellie to become a herm, which she found more exciting the longer she was with the werehyenas.
"I always did want kids someday, though I would have thought I'd have to adopt or go to a sperm bank," said Harper.
"Not that I don't find this a lovely subject, but maybe we should focus more on yokai research," said Beck.
After going over some of the basic mannerisms of the yokai they were likely to meet at the sumo heya, they decided to look up the worst of the yokai, the ones who didn't an excuse or a reason to torment or attack humans. One example was the kamaitachi, a weasel yokai with long sickle-like claws. They were known to invisibly ride the winds and leave shallow unbleeding cuts on humans that still stung like the dickens.
"Apparently most of them are just pickpockets and pranksters nowadays," said Beck, "They're apparently rather adept with their long claws."
Then there was the yuki-onna, the infamous snow woman. Thought beautiful, she has a rather nasty reputation of luring in young men and freezing them to death.
"I wonder how they feel about herms," said Brianna.
"Fortunately, most of them have mellowed out these days," said Beck, "So long as you don't do something like break your word to them, they can be rather nice. Not quite as common during the summer though."
The deadlier temptress was the jorogumo, the spider-woman. They were both literal and figurative black widows, luring in men who are so bespelled by their seemingly-human beauty that they don't notice that they are tangled in webs until it is far too late.
"Ew, gross, I hate spiders," said Harper with a shudder, "I am definitely not going to be a jorogumo, if that's even possible."
"Well, not every jorogumo is a man-eater these days," said Ellie, "Some of them have become more civilized and use their silks for more commercial purposes."
"Still too creepy," said Harper.
"Well, at least the predatory jorogumo only live in the mountains," said Ellie.
"Actually, not quite," said Brianna, "There's the Mizugumo clan, which are based on water spiders. They live in deep ponds with waterfalls. They cats their webs to snare travelers and drag them underwater."
"Kinda like a reverse fisherman," said Beck.
"Ok, no waterfalls for me," said Harper.
Possibly a worse spider than the jorogumo was the ushi-oni. Some ushi-oni appeared half-man/half-bull like a minotaur. But some of them were half-bull/half-spider. Ushi-oni tended to be vicious, brutal, and often have a taste for human flesh. They're often partnered with nure-onna, half-woman/half-serpent yokai who also likes to eat humans.
"I really hope they're not as nasty as their pictures look," said Ellie.
"I hope we don't meet them at all," said Harper, "I am not going to Japan to get eaten."
"Then you wouldn't want to meet the odokuro," said Beck, "Giant skeletons created from the combined grudges of people who have either died during a famine or on a battlefield. They can be invisible, only heralded by the sound of rattling bones and a terrible stench before they grab humans and bite off their-"
"Nope, I'm done," said Harper, "No more Japanese ghost stories."
"You don't think Kyūri-sensei would let any of these monsters near his students, do you?" asked Ellie.
"Maybe you shouldn't use the 'm' word," said Beck.
"Some of them deserve to be called that," said Ellie.
"Speaking of Kyūri-sensei, we each need to remember to bring him a bag of cucumbers," said Brianna.
"I don't think he'll be that easily bribed," said Ellie.
"It's not bribery, it's showing respect," said Brianna, "Like giving your teacher an apple."
"Who even does that anymore?" muttered Beck.
"Speaking of teachers, we probably ought to get to class," said Harper, "We still have one more school day before we go to Japan."
"And I'm sure they'll have plenty of homework for us to do while we're in Japan," said Ellie.