1:23 AM

The mysterious voice on the radio gave fairly precise instructions on how to move through Edo and where to find him. Despite serious interference, the voice could be identified without much doubt as male. According to Aya, he spoke modern Japanese, though with a strange, foreign accent. Aya quickly jotted down the directions in the small notebook where she normally wrote down tsukemono ingredients for orders.

“So what are we supposed to think about all of this?” Asagi asked aloud.

“I don’t think we have much of a choice,” Kaguya summarized calmly. “For now we have some time. No one is chasing us, no one is attacking us. We’ll simply go there—but we must be careful.”

“I understand that we’re about to set off,” Robert spoke up, “but you still haven’t told everyone about yourself. And I haven’t either…”

“That… can wait,” Kaguya replied evasively. “Right now we need to focus on getting there safely.”

“One more question,” Aya interjected into the enthusiastic stream of directions. “What year is it?”

“Ah yes, essential information for every time traveler!” the voice on the radio laughed. “The third year of the Keian era—Anno Domini 1650! Watch out for the Tokugawa shogunate, hehe!”

The voice laughed heartily, but no one in the group found it amusing.

The remark made them realize that they had landed in a potentially dangerous place and time where they very clearly did not belong. It was night, and there were far fewer people on the streets usually, but Edo was a port city, and not everyone necessarily went to sleep politely after dark.

Kaguya quickly came up with the idea of using magic to create the illusion of period-appropriate clothing. Robert and Mr. Harada became police officers, wearing chainmail beneath their kimono, metal forehead protectors, and carrying long sasumata as weapons. Kaguya herself became an obedient wife in a traditional kimono, walking three steps behind her wealthy husband, a role played by Suzuki. Aya’s outfit barely changed at all, retaining the appearance of a traditional miko. Asagi’s appearance, however, underwent the most dramatic transformation: her hair was full of ornaments, and her dazzlingly colorful kimono bore a pattern of intertwined dragons writhing across a blue sky. On her feet were shoes thirty centimeters high. She looked stunning.

“Why did I end up as an oiran?!” Asagi protested.

“I’m… not entirely sure,” Kaguya admitted, scratching her head awkwardly. “I’ve seen drawings and photos in books, so I thought it might fit here too… Did they even use the term ‘oiran’ back then?”

“I don’t know, but won’t our procession attract a lot of attention?”

“We’ll see. Either way, we look like we belong to this era, and no one should try to bother us. Let’s go.”

They walked along the wide streets of Edo, passing neat rows of wooden houses with tiled roofs. Robert was beside himself with excitement, and if taking out his camera hadn’t disrupted the illusion maintained by Kaguya’s magic, he would surely have taken as many photos as possible. Sometimes, when visiting historical districts, Robert would briefly feel as though he had truly stepped into another era and was experiencing life as it had been centuries ago. This time, he really was in the past.

The only thing that felt wrong was the complete emptiness of the streets. They could have paraded around in their twenty-first-century clothes and it would have made no difference.

“I can barely walk in these shoes!” Asagi complained as she nearly stumbled again.

“It’s just a matter of getting used to them—it should get better soon,” Aya tried to reassure her.

“Maybe you could help Asagi with your magic? Or maybe I could try—”

“You are absolutely forbidden from using magic unless I explicitly tell you to,” Kaguya snapped.

“An obedient wife shouldn’t speak like that…”

Kaguya’s icy glare immediately told Robert that he should not pursue that line of thought any further.

They continued for some time, guided by Aya, who was able to read her notes by the light of Asagi’s phone—freshly charged, as Asagi assured them. Mr. Harada proudly carried his sasumata, while Robert felt far less confident wielding the long pole ending in a fork used to restrain suspects.

Eventually, Aya led them off the main thoroughfare into narrower side streets, and finally into a maze of small huts that looked hastily thrown together. They stopped in front of crooked wooden doors, and Aya knocked in the agreed-upon pattern.

“Oh, it’s you!” replied a male voice, slightly muffled, clearly belonging to an older person but still full of energy and vigor. “Robert is with you, right?”

“Is he talking about me?” Robert asked in English when he heard his name.

“My boy!” the voice replied in Robert’s native language—Dutch. “How are you? Are you well?”

“Yes, I’m doing great—this is an amazing adventure,” Robert answered honestly, surprised. “Though I’m worried about using that power…” he added without thinking, revealing a potentially important secret to a stranger.

Kaguya didn’t understand Dutch, but she whispered a warning to Robert anyway.

“Be careful what you tell him!”

It was probably already too late.

“You mean the power of the kami, don’t you?” the elderly voice replied. “Don’t worry, young man! Everything will work itself out in the end. You’ll see—it’ll be fine! Enjoy what’s happening now; these will be wonderful memories no travel agency could ever give you! Ha ha!”

“Well, thank you, although just recently our lives were in danger—a demon was trying to tear us apart…”

“That’s the least of your worries right now. Your real troubles are only just beginning! I mean—” The mysterious speaker realized he had said too much. “Listen, your companions are probably uncomfortable with us speaking a language only you and I understand. I should say something to them in Japanese now!”

“All right…” Robert leaned his sasumata against the wall—it had started to feel rather heavy.

The rest of the group waited politely for the conversation in the unknown language to end.

“So what did he say?” Kaguya asked quietly.

“Nothing important, really. He’s going to speak Japanese now.”

After a moment of silence, the voice continued.

“Ahem! I see you even chose period-appropriate outfits—very nice! Especially you, young lady…” Everyone knew he meant Asagi. Everyone except Asagi herself. “Not every detail is perfect, but it’s still very good. I’m very glad I managed to meet you. Time travel can cause serious problems if one isn’t careful, and there are no one-hundred-percent guarantees of success. I want to give you some advice so that your future travels… go more smoothly.”

“How did you know we’d end up here?” Kaguya asked sharply.

“How best to explain it… Imagine time as a fabric. Time travel creates dents in that surface, so if something moves nearby, it will naturally slide into the same point. Simple, right?”

“Yes, very simple. And who are you, exactly?” Kaguya pressed on.

“If I wanted to reveal who I am to everyone, I would have come to you myself, wouldn’t I?” The voice laughed again. “I respect your curiosity and determination, young lady, but now please listen carefully. I knew you would arrive here, and I wish you well—there’s no other way it could be. But you’ve also drawn the attention of other time travelers, and they may not have good intentions. To put it bluntly, they are bandits who prey on inexperienced, accidental travelers, stealing the items they use—whether magical or technological—and leaving them at the mercy of fate in whatever era they end up in. I try to help such unfortunate souls…”

“Are these bandits strong?” Mr. Harada straightened.

“Some of them are truly powerful, and I advise extreme caution. Magic doesn’t work on most of them… I try to avoid them like the plague—which they are—and now I want to warn you. You are strong, but they may be much stronger. I don’t know exactly who you’ll encounter, but you almost certainly will. I summoned you here to give you some time to prepare.”

The voice had lost the last remnants of its earlier cheerfulness.

“They are a vile random element of fate—one I can no longer predict.”

A shiver ran through the entire group. They had barely escaped a supernatural threat, and now they were being hunted by bandits wielding powerful and potentially deadly abilities.

“Thank you very much, sir,” Aya bowed toward the crooked wooden doors. “I just wanted to ask… Edo, even at this hour, should have people on the streets. We haven’t met anyone. Is that… normal?”

The voice fell silent for a long moment.

“Be very, very careful. It seems the Brothers themselves have decided to hunt you.”

“What brothers?” Asagi asked, sensing another fight.

“The Steel Brothers. They must have spread an aura over the city that creates, so to speak, two layers: one containing only time travelers, and another with the normal inhabitants of the area. It makes hunting easier for them and allows them—as they put it—to have some fun… You know what, I think I’ll be leaving now! I know you’ll manage. Good luck! Perhaps we’ll meet again someday!”

Footsteps could be heard, followed by the slam of another door somewhere behind the hut, and then silence.

“I think he really left,” Aya concluded.

“If only he’d given us some tips on how to travel through time more precisely,” Kaguya said, irritated, hands on her hips.

“Yes, that was rather disappointing. It seems we’re back at square one—or worse, since now we’re being hunted by some Steel Brothers. That sounds dangerous.”

“We have no choice but to return to the harbor,” Mr. Harada announced. “There we’ll finish our stories and ask Robert to try to take us back to our present.”

Once again, the group walked through the wide yet empty districts of Edo. They glanced around nervously, watching for danger. Asagi kicked off her uncomfortable thirty-centimeter-high shoes, which dissolved into glowing powder before they could touch the ground.

“It’ll be easier for me to fight like this,” she explained in response to Kaguya’s look. She planted her feet, ready for battle.

At that moment, something heavy slammed into the ground, kicking up clouds of dust. A second later, a metal arm struck Asagi squarely under the chin, knocking her unconscious.