"Monsters... Bakemono..."

He took a heavy mouthful of the sweet whiskey, letting the word echo in his mind. The memories it stirred were not pleasant ones, but mercifully, they were cut short by a much more objective question.

"I am from Kyoto," He replied, taking a quick mental note of the red-haired girl who had taken the stool a few places down, "In Japan. My family has lived there since before the beginning of the Tokugawa Shogunate, which would have officially started in 1603." He had done the math a few times during his trek across Europe. He had heard the question often from the more curious of his fellow travelers, and by this point, he had memorized the answer.

"I had been traveling across Japan for several years," He continued, "Training and performing odd jobs. I have worked as a weapon smith, a carpenter, a fisherman... Anything to help pay for martial arts training and books. And then this letter found me." He motioned to the parchment on the table. "I do not know how, and truly I should have been skeptical, but I believe my wanderlust overcame me, and I started heading West."

Letting his own words settle now, he finished the last mouthful that had remained in his glass, and considered his next point.

"And now you say you wish me to hunt monsters with you. Perhaps I would have been right in being skeptical. Little girls can fly using wires, and men can disappear using trap doors, but coming face-to-face with a monster would be a much more convincing feat."

Finally, he leaned over the bar, directing his question to the redhead. He had been speaking loudly enough that she would have overheard his story, had she been inclined to listen.

"Speaking of which, what exactly was in the cage?"