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My leg stopped bouncing immediately and I
clenched my hands tighter, my sense of unease being over taken by
another, more familiar and comforting emotion. Irritation.

“I did not,” I said through gritted teeth,
“Stare at you like I thought you were going to ‘drag me to the
floor’. I figured you’d be far more civilized than that.”

Akira snorted and started to laugh, his
entire face undergoing a transformation as his eyes lit up and
crinkled at the corners. I took a brief moment to study him and try
to find anything that would trigger my unease. His laugh revealed a
dimple that hid in the corner of his right cheek, and while that
helped me relax a little, I still felt like a part of me was on
guard against something. He was tall by American standards, hence
why he was recruited hard core for the basketball team when he
first arrived, but he once said that by Japanese standards he was
considered a giant. He kept his hair long and pulled back in a
ponytail, and a small gold hoop gleamed from his right ear. There
were girls who thought him incredibly handsome and exotic, and I
suppose he was with his almond shaped eyes, tanned skin and lanky,
athletic build, but whatever it was that set off my red flags had
kept me determined to keep him beyond arms length away from me. I
knew it was going to drive me crazy until I figured out what “it”
was, but Akira seemed determined to befriend me despite my frosty,
irritated demeanor towards him.

He grinned at me and reached out to poke a
single, long finger against my cheek before I could pull away. I
glared at him and swatted at his hand while I silently promised
myself that if he tried to reach for me again I was going to bite
his finger off. Akira seemed to get the hint, because his grin only
got wider.

“I’m looking forward to working with you,
Alexander, and finding out just why it is you don’t like me.”

“Who says I don’t like you?!” I demanded.
Sure, the guy made me uneasy and I was happiest when he kept his
distance, but I hated it when people tried to put words into my
mouth without me being aware that I had spoken them.

“No one, it’s plain from the way you flinch
or draw back whenever I’m near you that there’s something you don’t
like, and I’m curious to know what it is. You remind me of Hunter’s
hedgehog when it’s feeling threatened, all curled up with nothing
but spines facing the world.”

He didn’t seem particularly bothered by this
revelation. He had leaned back in his chair with his hands linked
behind his head, the perfect picture of casual, easy going
nonchalance. I snorted, and wanted to use one of my so called
“spines” to poke a hole in what had to be an ego the size of Alaska
(I mean, really, only someone with a huge, over inflated sense of
their own wonderfulness would be able to state that someone didn’t
like them and yet seem completely unbothered by it), but was
prevented when Mr. Miller cleared his throat to get our
attention.

“All right, now that everyone is paired up,
I’m going to go over what this project is about. Just a reminder,
this is going to be 75% of your semester grade and will involve a
paper and a Power Point presentation. I will be passing out a
packet that will contain all the information that you will require.
Since we have been discussing mythology and folk tales in some of
the more mainstream literature, I would like for you to choose four
different mythological or fantasy creatures from two different
cultural backgrounds and compare them. It helps if you choose
beings that resemble each other. For example, everyone is familiar
with the traditional Transylvanian vampire thanks to Mr. Stoker and
the rise of vampires in popular culture, but were you aware that
the Chinese, Japanese and Korean people had their own vampire
legends? They’re known as the jiang shi, or hopping vampires, but
instead of sucking blood to survive, they drain the living of their
chi, or life force. Choosing individuals that are similar to each
other makes the comparison much easier, and no, you may not compare
unicorns with Pegasus. I want to see you stretch your knowledge
around the globe, try and choose one culture, pick two mythological
beings from them, and find their counterparts elsewhere. I want you
to use both print and electronic sources, no wikipedia unless you
want to gather ideas for a starting point, and I shouldn’t have to
remind you that your electronic sources must be legitimate sites
and not some random fan page that you run across.”

“Oh, now this is fascinating,” Akira said as
his eyes lit up with interest.

“You will be given at least one class day per
week to work together on your projects, otherwise the project needs
to be worked on during your own free time. I fully expect at least
twenty pages for the written report, and the Power Point
presentation needs to have several visual representations and
background information on the cultures that you choose from. I’m
now going to pass out the assignment outline. Please feel free to
use the rest of your class time to talk with your partner and think
about which mythological creatures you want to examine and
explore.”

Huh
.

“Sooooooo,” Akira said beside me, and I
jerked my attention back to him.

“What?”

“You look interested. The spines seem to have
retracted a little.”

I shrugged and deliberately ignored the
comment about my “spines”. “I like folklore and mythology, and I
had an obsession with the Greek Myths when I was younger.”

He cocked his head a little and eyeballed me
as his grin softened into a deeper, more genuine smile that caused
his dimple to slash across his cheek.

“Well,” he said, “I think we’re both in luck
then. I enjoy mythology, too, I think we should compare two of
Japan’s better-known mythological beings with a Western
counterpart. What do you think?”

I thought about it, but really, there wasn’t
much to debate. We were both in a rather unique position, one that
was enviable compared to everyone else who were all trying to come
up with ideas of their own and having problems being original with
their suggestions until someone wisely commented that they should
go and check out the mythology section of the school library. What
followed was a minor exodus as over half of the class got up and
vanished out the door, words such as “goblins” and “boogeymen”
being bandied back and forth. I saw a few individuals who were
lucky enough to own a computer tablet of one type or another log
into the school’s WiFi in order to start searching the web. I
envied them. My parents refused to spend extra to get me a cell
phone that had web surfing capabilities (hard to believe that not
all cell phones were created equal, but that was the cold, hard,
and very bitter truth), so I had to rely on my home computer or do
bloody battle to obtain a terminal at the school’s computer lab.
Considering how many of our classmates were no longer in the
classroom, I knew the chances of snagging an empty terminal without
having to kill someone first was slim, so Akira’s suggestion was
rather brilliant.

“Ok,” I said, “But which folktale should we
use?”

“Well, there’s the
Kappa
, a water
goblin type who haunts rivers, creeks and streams and are blamed
for doing everything from loudly passing gas in public to killing
people who visit their watery homes. Then there’s the
Oni
,
an ogre like being with wild hair, two horns poking from its head
and sharp teeth. They’re sort of like ogres.”

I thought for a moment and asked, “Is the
majority of Japanese mythology natured based?”

“Nature based?” he asked and cocked his head
to the side. For a brief second I was reminded about how a raven
eyes something shiny just before it pounces.

“Yeah, you know, like how the Greeks had a
different god, goddess, or minor immortal being to explain away
natural phenomena like the seasons or the sun moving across the sky
or how floods were caused by pissed off river nymphs,” I said.

“Oh. We do have a bunch of stories and such
that are probably similar as far as explaining things, such as the
giant catfish in Lake Biwa that’s said to cause earthquakes.”

“Really?” I asked, intrigued.

“Yep. I’ll tell you the story sometime if you
want,” he said and winked. “But I think that isn’t quite what
you’re getting at, is it?”

“No,” I said. “The giant catfish almost
sounds like an immortal of some sort instead of a river spirit the
way the
Kappa
is. I’m thinking it might be interesting to
compare Japanese myths and legendary animals with those from a
Native American Tribe, maybe the Cherokee since they’re local to
the mountains here.”

“Sounds like a good place to start,” Akira
nodded and made a note in his notebook while I did the same.

“What else?” I asked. “Think we can get away
with comparing the different gods?”

“Nah, I think it’ll be more interesting if we
stick with the folktales and such. I have a feeling a few of the
other pairs will be comparing the different gods and goddesses
since they’re a little easier to find information on.”

“True. What else do you suggest?”

“There’s the
Tengu
,” he said, and a
strange gleam appeared in his eyes that, for some reason, sent an
icy shiver down my back.

“
Tengu
?”

“They’re mountain forest spirits that used to
have a really bad reputation for stealing children, only the
perception has changed in modern times and they’re more benevolent
in the current stories. People tend to call on them if they’re
moving through the mountains or if they’re hunting for a lost
child. The
Tengu
have become rather helpful and popular in
the child hunting business over the last several hundred
years.”

I thought for a moment and sighed. “I think
we need to make a trip to the library ourselves pretty soon, I
can’t think of anything off the top of my head that would be a good
comparison, though what about tricksters?”

“We have several, the
kitsune
and the
tanuki
are probably the most well known.”

“I do know that rabbit is a well known
trickster in Cherokee lore, maybe we can compare him with someone
else. And I think I remember reading a story about a being that
sounded like some kind of dragon . . . “

“I think,” Akira smiled, “that we have a good
start. I’m looking forward to working with you on this, it’s going
to be rather enlightening.”

“Enlightening how?”

“I feel that I am going to learn a lot about
a people that I know very little about, and I’m hoping to learn
more about you.”

I hated the fact that I flushed at his words,
but I couldn’t prevent the sudden increase of heat on my cheeks
that told me they were most likely a deep shade of crimson. I would
be lying if I didn’t acknowledge the small flush of pleasure at the
thought of him wanting to get to know me a little, and he was
rather good looking and charming if I over looked the weird little
icy patch in the middle of my forehead that whispered something
still wasn’t right about him. I guess I wasn’t as immune to
hormones as I liked to think I was. Great.

“Do you want to continue working on this
after school today? I have a little time before basketball practice
and we can do a little more information hunting.”

“Sorry, I can’t,” I said, not feeling sorry
at all but manners dictating that I should at least apologize for .
. . something, though I have no idea what for or why. Just
something Mom always harped on a little more often than I thought
was healthy. “I have to go straight to my job tonight, I’m working
the closing shift.”

“Where do you work?” he asked.

“Baker’s Bookstore,” I replied and stuffed my
books and things into my bag after I glanced at the wall clock and
noticed that we only had a few minutes left before the final bell
rang.

“Do you have a mythology section or anything
on the Cherokee?”

I looked at him and my stomach gave a strange
little lurch, like a hundred butterflies had all decided to pass
gas at the same time in that small, confined space at the thought
that maybe he had read my mind. I had planned to check out what we
had in the store tonight, but I quickly squashed that little quiver
with harsh logic. It made sense that he would ask, as we would most
likely be pulling a lot of our information from books instead of
online resources for now. “Yeah, though it’s kind of small.”

“I’ll swing by after practice and take a
look. I can also recommend a few books on Japanese mythology that
you can get in that will help give us some good references as far
as background is concerned.”

I couldn’t really argue with his logic, it
did make sense to go ahead and get some more books in, and since I
was in a good position to do so, I nodded in agreement just as the
final bell rang. He stuck his hand out at me, and I stared rather
stupidly at it before I glanced back to his eyes.

“Isn’t it customary in America to shake hands
over a deal or agreement of some sort?” he asked as that strange
glint appeared in his eyes again.

My own eyes narrowed as I reached out and
tentatively grasped his hand. My palm felt overly warm as icy hot
chills chased their way up my arm as his long fingers closed over
mine in a firm, yet at the same time gentle, grip. He shook my hand
twice, but instead of letting go he peered at me. It almost seemed
like he was searching for something in my own gaze. Nonplussed, I
suddenly clenched my fingers and ground his knuckles together. He
quickly released me and rubbed his abused hand lightly. I wasn’t
the designated pickle jar opener in my family for nothing, and my
lips stretched into a smile that most likely wasn’t on the friendly
side.

“Oh yes,” he said, his lips quirked in a
maddening smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “This is
certainly going to be enlightening.”