Claire looked over her shoulder with eyes turned a silvery white, suddenly engulfed by a clairvoyant premonition. It was unlike any she had experienced before. This apparition appeared in a street lantern behind her. The frenetic nature of the Borough of Ghosts Parade and the experiences that she had been struck by so far dissipated in a snap as she locked on to the painting. It was warm, depicting a kind looking clown holding an ice blue paper crane in his outstretched hand, offering it to a shokuen. The ancient dragon god seemed delighted to see this symbol of peace. In dry grasslands, at the base of a red clay mountain, cherry blossoms floated by them. As cheerful as it looked, something seemed askew. Claire had never experienced a warm or uplifting premonition before. They were always ominous or dim, clear cut and more in line with her sense of reality. This one though, looked like a fairytale. The characters looked like caricatures. Oddly enough, the great divide was visibly splitting with undulating color shifts and glistening oblong stars. This could be happening because of that temporal slap I just endured, she thought. Through these separations, Claire could see sections of the borough, where she had yet to go but knew she was soon to be. Her extrasensory acuity was now in the first estate. In accessing her premortal abilities, she was able to see her present, a bit of the future as indicated by the Japanese roof shingles, the green lantern and velvet white tipped turquoise blossoms floating down around her. She could also ascertain that this painting of the two jolly characters was of some historical significance. She knew this piece depicted the past, not the future this time. Was this an origin story for the two characters? Why was it so warm in a cold place?
     The crackle of fireworks burst in the black distance behind neon signs. The nose on her headdress sneezed to alert her to the presence of funky pheromones. She looked past the premonition to see the flowers of her headdress reflected in a broken window. The tongue hissed to tell her this all tasted “falssssss”. The eyeball opened wide and darted about, signaling threatening sights. Distracted again by the warm fable, Claire never turned her head to see the monsters looming behind her.