James was woken by a knock on his door, heralding the delivery of a package. There was a jacket, five cream-coloured shirts, two pairs of slacks in a blue tartan, five pairs of socks in the same tartan, a tie and one pair of black shoes. A photocopied excerpt from the school handbook indicated that he was expected to wear the uniform whenever he was on school grounds unless he was participating in sports.

  He was still struggling with the tie when Mitsue woke up. He stumbled into the shared bathroom and splashed cold water on his face.

  “Are you okay? Did you get enough sleep last night?” James asked.

  “It’s fine, I am trained to go without sleep for three days,” Mitsue said.

  “Uh, that’s great, I guess. Can you help? I don’t really know how…” James gestured at the mess around his neck.

  Glancing in his direction, Mitsue effortlessly removed the half-done noose around James’s neck and swiftly tied the tie around his own. Then he did something with the knot that widened the loop and pulled the tie off over his head.

  “Here,” he said, handing it to James. “Hold the knot to prevent it from deforming, and then you can just tighten and loosen it as you need to. If you’re careful, you won’t need to tie it again.”

  “Thanks,” James said, looking at the tartan tie. Every part of his Californian upbringing rejected the notion of wearing it, but he was in Japan now.

  “I’ll teach you how to tie a proper knot, one that won’t get you strangled, later,” Mitsue said, and started brushing his teeth.

  When they came down for breakfast, James saw that Suki was already seated at a table with the rest of the girls. Mitsue sighed when he saw they were headed over to that table, but made no other protest.

  Suki, Matsuri and Harue had about half-finished their meals, but Kana had a massive pile of plates before her. She seemed to have picked up three of every dish that the cafeteria offered and was going through them at a fast pace.

  Suki smiled when she saw him. “Good morning, James!”

  “Good morning to you! And everyone else, of course,” James said, taking a seat next to Suki. Mitsue also made his greetings and sat down.

  “Your, uh, uniform looks good on you,” James said. All of the girls were wearing dress shirts and blue tartan skirts, as well as some girl's version of a tie. It looked like a bow, but James was pretty sure that wasn’t what a bow tie looked like.

  “Thank you! You look very dashing as well.” Suki smiled warmly at him, erasing what he was going to say next from his memory. Looking around the room, he tried to find something to say.

  “There are more people around today, huh?” he managed. Remembering that he was standing up, he quickly sat down and started eating.

  “There sure are!” Harue said brightly. “Only about a third of them so far, the rest will be arriving over the next two days. I’ve been introducing myself, but these girls—” she gestured to the others— “are a bit shy.”

  “Ah, right, introductions.” James didn’t normally consider himself a shy person, but the thought of going around and meeting people didn’t appeal right now.

  “Don’t worry,” Harue said gleefully. “First day of class, you’ll get to introduce yourself to everyone!”

  “Great…”

  Perhaps sensing James’ need for a change of subject, Mitsue spoke up.

  “Out of curiosity, Harue, to what god was your shrine dedicated?”

  “Hachiman-sama,” Harue said, glancing at him.

  “Interesting. Were you aware that there is a shrine to Hachiman at the highest point of this island?”

  “No,” Harue said, frowning. “That sounds like the sort of thing I should have been told about, but it also sounds like the sort of thing my sisters would think it funny to let me find out by myself.”

  “It's on the brochure,” Mitsue said mildly. “Is there no connection then, between your shrine and this one?”

  “Probably not. There are more than forty thousand Hachiman shrines across Japan,” Harue said thoughtfully. “But I should probably pay my respects, just in case.”

  She sighed. “Which means I have to get a gift, which means I have to go shopping today. What are the rest of you doing?”

  “I’m not sure…” Suki said thoughtfully. “What are you doing, James?”

  “I—ah—” Put on the spot, James desperately tried to think of what he had to do before school started. “I need to get a phone? So shopping might not be a bad idea?”

  “You don’t have a phone?” Matsuri said scornfully. “I thought America had those now?”

  “Of course we do… I had one,” James said defensively. “My parents thought it would be better to get a Japanese one and get a new contract, rather than transfer my existing one over.”

  “Oh,” Matsuri said. “I guess that’s not a stupid idea.”

  “I don’t have a phone either!” Suki announced. “I could go shopping with you as well!” She frowned. “I hope my allowance will cover it.”

  “I guess I could go with you, make sure you don’t get cheated with a bad model or a crooked contract,” Matsuri said. “There’s a phone shop in the village.”

  She looked at Harue. “If you’re looking for a gift though, I hope you don’t mind giving them tourist crap. There’s an outlet store for clothes, but there’s not much other than that.”

  “Oh, I’m sure I can find something nice,” Harue said airily.

  “This shopping…” Kana said, briefly pausing her ferocious consumption of breakfast. “Acquisition of goods, yes? I believe I will partake.”

  “Do you even… have money?” Harue asked doubtfully.

  Kana smiled triumphantly. “Of course. I, too, have been given an allowance. I was told that they also transferred my other assets… to this!”

  She brandished what looked like a credit card. Harue raised her eyebrows.

  “They gave you a debit card, did they? Do you know how much is on it?”

  “Numbers are beneath me,” Kana sneered. “If I require more, I will acquire it.”

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  “They'd better hope you’ve got enough then,” Harue said. She pulled out her mobile phone. “Mind if I check?”

  Kana frowned but tapped her card on the phone when Harue directed her to.

  “Oh yeah, you should be fine,” Harue said. “No need to acquire anything for now.”

  “Can you check mine as well?” Suki asked, holding out her card.

  “Sure,” Harue said. She held out the phone for Suki to see the balance. Matsuri looked over her shoulder.

  “That should be fine for a phone,” she said. “Do you know how much you’re getting each month?”

  “They told me, but it slipped my mind,” Suki said.

  Mitsue, meanwhile, was staring at Harue’s phone with a puzzled look. “That is not a normal function of Japanese phones,” he said.

  “It’s a shrine maiden thing,” Harue said. “We need to take money off the m—tourists, so we have a lot of merchant apps on our phones.”

  “I… see…” Mitsue said slowly.

  James was also confused. Don’t those kinds of apps need to be connected to an external device?

  “What brand is it?” he asked. It couldn’t hurt to learn what brands were popular.

  “I’m not sure,” Harue admitted. “I got given it by my Aunt.”

  “Nanamori-sensei?” James asked.

  “One of the other ones,” Harue said. She passed it over to him. “You can look if you like.”

  James took the phone gingerly. It felt warm, and the case felt soft, like real fur. He couldn’t see any branding on the visible parts of the phone. Just as he was about to ask if he could remove the case, the phone’s screen changed from a grid of icons to a fox’s face.

  “Arf! Arf!” it yipped at him. He almost dropped it in surprise.

  Harue giggled. “Cute, isn’t it?” she asked.

  “Very,” he said sourly. Discomfited, he handed it back without checking further.

  “So, group shopping trip!” Harue said. She looked at Mitsue. “Are you coming along?”

  “I don’t have any shopping to do,” Mitsue demurred, “But I think James might need my protection.”

  “The more, the merrier!” Harue declared. “We can set off as soon as… we… finish breakfast.”

  Everyone looked at Kana, who had resumed eating.

  “I will not be much longer,” she said and then stuffed an entire rice ball in her mouth.

  As Matsuri had said, the village was mainly geared towards the tourist trade.

  “For most things, you want to go online,” Matsuri told them. “Takes a while for delivery, but it takes forever to get anywhere else.”

  “They have an ice cream stand, though,” Harue noticed.

  “What’s that? Is it nice?” Suki asked. Harue stared at her.

  “James,” she said. “Offer to buy Suki some ice cream.”

  “You’ve never had it?” he asked in surprise. “I mean— would you like me to buy you some?”

  “If it’s nice, then yes, please,” she said, smiling at him. A shove from Harue reminded him to breathe.

  “Let—Let’s go and see what flavours they have, shall we?” he asked.

  “I, too, desire some of this ice cream,” Kana said, staring at Mitsue.

  “Then buy it yourself,” Mitsue said flatly. Kana’s eyes narrowed.

  “It won’t do you any good,” Harue said. “It’s sweet, but you won’t find it filling.”

  Something seemed off about the way that she said that, but by then, Suki had taken hold of his arm and was leading him to the ice cream stand. Harue said something else, but he wasn’t listening. He barely noticed Matsuri walking beside him.

  “I can buy my own ice cream,” she said sulkily. “If we’re going to buy phones after this, we shouldn’t split up.”

  James had heard that ice cream was different in Japan, and it proved to be true. He wasn’t daring enough to try the wasabi, but the matcha flavour was interesting. He got Suki a lavender cone. The look on her face when she tried it was sweeter than ice cream could ever be.

  He was in a daze as they moved on to the phone shop, blithely accepting Matsuri’s advice. The only thing that he paid attention to was adding Suki’s new number to his contact list. And Matsuri’s. Then he dug his parents’ phone numbers out of his wallet and added them. It was probably nighttime in California, so he just sent them a text letting them know this was his new number.

  Then Suki sent him a heart emoji, so he sent two right back. Then she sent him three, so he was debating whether he dared to send her a kiss emoji when they were interrupted.

  “You two are like three feet away from each other, you know you can talk normally, right?”

  James jerked his attention away from his phone to see Harue and the others approaching.

  “This is the place to acquire a phone, yes?” Kana asked haughtily.

  “Yeah, the assistant over there can help you,” James said. “Did you want some help with choosing? Matsuri really knows her stuff.”

  Kana waved dismissively. “I am aware of all my requirements,” she said, heading off to talk to the shop assistant.

  “Not entirely sure she knows what a phone is,” Harue muttered. “But as long as she can take calls, I guess. You guys all sorted?”

  She was carrying a heavily laden plastic bag with Aramara Island Newsagency printed on the side.

  “We’re all good,” James said. He looked at the bag. “Did you find something nice at the newsagent's?”

  “No, just some magazines and snacks. But I found this in the shop next door.”

  She reached into the bag as Mitsue sighed in frustration.

  “You weren’t in the shop next door,” he said.

  “Of course I was,” Harue said. “You think I could find this in a newsagent?”

  She pulled out a wooden box. It looked expensive, in that particular Japanese way where some ancient craftsman has spent half his life making what amounts to packing materials. Harue slid back the lid to reveal the bottle inside.

  “Koshu,” Mitsue said sourly. “The shop next door sold hats and T-shirts, you think they sold you koshu?”

  “Not that shop next door, the other one,” Harue said with a grin. She slid the box closed and placed it carefully back in the bag.

  “What’s koshu?” James asked. “And why was the label hand-painted?”

  “Aged sake,” Mitsue replied. “Like vintage wine. As for the label—”

  “It shows that it’s artisanal, Harue said. “None of this mass-produced crap!”

  “How did you buy it?” Matsuri asked. “You’re underaged, and in a school uniform at that!”

  “I have my ways,” Harue said loftily. “The important thing is, I’ve got my gift. I guess we can head back once Kana is—”

  “I have completed my task.” Kana interrupted. “I have a phone that is superior to all of yours. You may put your numbers in it.”

  Matsuri and Mitsue visibly winced at the sight. James wasn’t sure why; he didn’t think it was that bad.

  “Wow,” Harue said. “That sure is a shiny phone.”

  “Indeed, you are doubtless jealous, but put aside any notions of stealing it. Covetous glances are permitted, but no touching.”

  “What were you thinking?” Matsuri exclaimed, agast. “That thing looks like a Yakusa phone!”

  “Interesting. You will have to tell me more of these Yakusa at a later date. For now, we should return.”

  “But—” Matsuri stopped as Harue put a hand on her shoulder.

  “Forget about it,” she said. “You won’t convince her. For now, let’s just swap numbers!”

  It was only after she’d seen the others do it that Kana permitted her phone to be ‘bumped’ by the other phones to swap addresses. But aside from that, it all proceeded smoothly.

  Then they headed back to the school. The bus stop was equidistant from both dorms, so they agreed to split up and meet back at the cafeteria for dinner.

  They had barely made it into the boys’ dorm when they were accosted by a girl. She was wearing the blue tartan, but her shirt was half unbuttoned and her bow was missing. Even more strikingly, her dark hair was streaked with an electric blue dye. A few studded leather accessories completed the punk look.

  “Hey, gaijin,” she said. “I never had a gaijin phone before, give it to me.”

  “I’m sorry, what?” James asked. Confused and more than a little intimidated, he fell back on how he’d been told to socialise. “I’m James St John, and you are?”

  The girl rolled her eyes. “Fine, I’m Ozu Shion. Happy? Now, do you have a fancy gaijin phone or what?”

  “Actually, I just picked up a Japanese one—”

  Shion spat on the floor. James stopped, shocked. “Fine,” she said. “At least it’s new. Hand it over.”

  “I’m sorry?” James said. “I don’t understand—”

  “Oh, my bad,” the girl said mockingly. “I forgot to introduce myself.”

  Then she swung her fist at his head.

  She moved so quickly that James didn’t have time to react. She was not, however, too fast for Mitsue. His hand darted in front of James, redirecting Shion’s strike to the side.

  “I am sorry, Ozu-san, I will have to ask that you not assault my roommate,” Mitsue said calmly. “Also, spitting in the halls is forbidden.”

  Shion smiled a tight, vicious smile. Then it was on.

  James took a step back from the martial arts movie that had erupted in front of him. Both of them were throwing punches and positioning themselves in quick, dangerous spurts of motion.

  It ended as suddenly as it began. James didn’t see how it happened, but they stopped, Shion’s arm held in what looked like an uncomfortable position by Mitsue.

  “You are strong, Ozu-san. But skill trumps strength, and you have very little skill.” Mitsue was slightly out of breath, but he didn’t appear to have any trouble holding Shion, despite her efforts. “Since fighting is not allowed, shall we break and go our separate ways?”

  “Not. Just. Yet.” Shion grimaced and strained against Mitsue’s grip. With a final, convulsive effort, she broke free.

  Then she kissed him.

  Mitsue froze. James froze. Then Shion’s arm came around. There was something in her clenched fist. It slammed into Mitsue’s shoulder and blood spurted.

  Then Shion was gone.

  taught the Japanese how to be better warriors. So more like Athena than Ares if Greek gods are your thing. I'm sure it won't come up.