The Late Bird's Tale: A Tale of the Floating World

Part 2 || 1 | Emma | Two Customers II, A Wayward Fox I

Quoted on 2/11/22. Winter Season, February 2022 edition.
Written on 5/23/22. Spring Season, May 2022 edition (1st scene).
Written on 5/27/22. Spring Season, May 2022 edition (2nd scene).
Emma Vasari (picture reference).

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Part 2 || A Girl's House

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[. . .] They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night. In their gray visions they obtain glimpses of eternity, and thrill, in awakening, to find that they have been upon the verge of the great secret. In snatches, they learn something of the wisdom which is of good, and more of the mere knowledge which is of evil. They penetrate, however, rudderless or compassless into the vast ocean of the "light ineffable," and again, like the adventures of the Nubian geographer, "agressi sunt mare tenebrarum, quid in eo esset exploraturi" [they went to the sea of ​​darkness, to find out what was in it].

—Edgar Allan Poe,
"Eleonora"

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Part 2 || 1 | Emma

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A Tale of Two Customers II

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Although Muse Bureau Chief Taiso Takagi was accustomed to walking everywhere he went, he knew his presence amongst the daytime staff and customers and especially the kids would cause a scene. So as soon as he appeared atop the roof of The Cake Fairy on his enormous eight-pointed seal of daffodils, he shrunk to his smaller fist-sized form in a sack suit, a trilby atop his head, and a big handlebar mustache hanging from his face down to the middle of his waistcoat. He listened to the hubbub of voices from the customers sitting on the curb beneath the shop's awning, of waiters and waitresses taking orders, of children complaining to their parents about how hungry they were, of their parents telling them to be patient, and decided it was safe to proceed.

He took out the preliminary witness statements from his bag and read through them, one by one, reading them over and over, till he knew the details almost by heart, which took him the better part of the morning. Except for Jane's report, the rest focused on the nine-tailed fox woman, but they all followed the same pattern of events. A few of the witnesses noted a young girl making a scene during their shifts, crying and eating the cakes and drinks she had ordered. The overall consensus they shared was that this girl was having boyfriend trouble, till their observations dovetailed towards the nine-tailed fox woman appearing by the girl's table. Only Jane's report went into further detail about the lone customer during her shift, in which she had asked the girl if she was okay, before the fox woman scared her off.

By 11:00 a.m., after memorizing the statements, Taiso walked to the center of the rooftop and stomped his foot three times, analogous to knocking on a door three times in the absence of a door, and said, "I'm here."

And a moment later, several ghosts of waitresses and a few trap yokai waiters all manifested around him in their maid uniforms, shimmering in the morning light of day. Several of them even gawked at his diminutive and mustachioed form, stars and hearts in their eyes, which made Taiso think that they wanted to tug at his handlebar mustache. In fact, one of the spectral waitresses had the audacity to say, "Can we tug at your cute mustache?"

"I'm not here to have my mustache tugged," Taiso said, "or my head patted, or my belly rubbed."

All the female ghosts and yokai traps sighed.