I opened my eyes to find myself in an unfamiliar room. The humidity was high, and there was a distinct medicinal smell in the air. Three tengu were standing before me.
“Hello there. I’m Aya Shameimaru, the pure and trustworthy nurse,” said the one in the middle as she held up her pristine camera.
“I’m Hatate Himekaidou, a nurse with knowledge of all cutting-edge medicine,” said the one on the left.
She didn’t appear to be injured, but for some reason, she was wrapped in bandages.
“And I’m Momiji Inubashiri, the nurse who can see a thousand ri ahead,” said the one on the right as she clutched her enormous sword.
Ignoring my obvious confusion, the three of them said in unison, “Welcome to the Tengu Infirmary!”

“T-Tengu?! What’s going on?!” I screamed, which seemed to delight the three tengu.
“Oh no! The patient’s delirious. This is serious!”
“Hm, perhaps we better administer emergency treatment!”
“She doesn’t seem to be hurt, though.”
“We gotta get her to Eientei, stat!”
“Shouldn’t we spray her with disinfectant first?”
“There’s some on that shelf over there, but I’m not sure that’s a good idea…”
“Listen to what I’m saying!”
Despite being youkai, I didn’t get the sense they were trying to surprise me. It seemed they were legitimately arguing about what to do. As I listened to their increasingly absurd squabble, I started wondering if maybe I was delirious.

The tengu rule the Youkai Mountain, and despite being youkai themselves, they live together in a society not dissimilar to many human societies, complete with its own class system. For whatever reason, though, the three tengu before me were dressed as nurses…
“She just looks scared to me.”
“You think? …Hey there, don’t be scared. We’re tengu.”
“But you told me to scare her with this big sword…”
“Put that thing away already.”
“Yeah. That wouldn’t even fool a human child.”
“No way…”
With a dejected sigh, the white wolf tengu lowered her fake sword. Their rather comical exchange put me somewhat at ease.

It was then that I realized they were simply pretending to be nurses from the human world for a bit of fun.
“All right, time for your interview… I mean, your medical exam.”
“This is the part where we drain all her blood, right?”
“I heard it’s important to keep the patient subdued.”
It seemed like they all had different ideas of what exactly human nurses did. That reminds me. A doctor from Eientei once told me that those in the medical field believe in tiny gods called micros and that doctors use medicine and disinfectants to protect them from evil gods called pathogens. But I felt fine. Surely all of that had nothing to do with me…

I sat back and did exactly what I was told as I had a stethoscope planted directly on my forehead and bandages wrapped around all of the minor scrapes and cuts on my arms and legs.
“Hm… Her brain waves seem normal.”
“What do you do if they’re not normal?”
“Crack open the patient’s head and take a look.”
“Yikes…”
Before I had the chance to stop myself, I was laughing hysterically. That was when it all came back to me… I was hit during a battle of bullets and fainted. After that, I must’ve been transported here. The window blew open, and a cool breeze lifted the tengu feathers on the floor up into the air. We four are youkai. The amount of bandages wrapped around me may seem excessive, but if my injuries were worse, perhaps they would’ve saved my life.
“You’re OK to leave now. Just keep an eye out for the shrine maiden.”
I thanked the “nurses” for their help and flew out into the moonlit sky.