(D1, EE, Open) Beery Good

[Shoji Haka]

"One hopes," she replies with a smile. "It would certainly surprise a few of the villagers. Being alone can be difficult."

She turns toward Jigutsuji. "None that this one has found. It cannot be killed, for it is dead. It just returns, again and again." Haka shrugs. "This one could perhaps trick it to follow another, but they would most likely be devoured, and then ghost would wander in search of more food. Others are safer if it is with this one."

[Nanzi]

"That is a hefty burden you have taken upon yourself. How have you managed with... your inability to see?" he asked.

[Miyako]

Another sip and she closed her eyes. "I ... should like to meet him one day. I admit that I'm curious what sort of man he is. I'm curious about them all, but the stories that Reiko shared about him interested me more than most."

At the Bayushi's response, Miyako was content to leave it at that: they were strangers, after all, and her trials and tribulations were her own. She picked up her cup again and took another sip of the strange liquid. It was tasting better and better as time went on, though still with much newness and an odd but not-uninviting bitterness to it compared to the berry-wines and sweetened things from the forest.

"Is that so? What did she have to say about him?" she asked Phi while swirling her cup a little in her hand.

[Nozomi]

"One of the stories that stuck with me most was the day when he entered the tournament and tore one of his own sleeves to cover his face. she said until that day you could barely tell he and Shiba apart, though they're supposed to be very different men." There'd probably been more, but the little she'd gleaned from her, and from the neighboring people's had melted. It was that story that stuck with her.

[Bayushi Umeno]

"Yeah, always wears a mask now. I'm supposed to too, but I haven't found one I like, or at least that's my excuse." She grinned a bit. "Got a mean mempo for battle though. I'm sure you'd be able to meet him some day if you wished Phi, though I don't think it'd be all that miraculous an event."

[Miyako]

"Mmm... it's not like my cousins came back to the village as if miracles had occurred before their very eyes. Nor was it like the moment one of them described when they spoke to their ancestors for the first time. It was... bah, how did they describe it..." Miyako trailed off, taking a sip of the booze as she thought about it for a moment.

"Like speaking to someone that really knew them, things they didn't know about themselves and things nobody else knew but them, the things they would not even tell anyone in their families, things they've said, things they've done that they wished nobody would ever know. But even after all that, that for one of the Kami, he did not speak to them as if they were wrong for those things or that he had some mystical guiding hand that would put them on some glorious path like some of the wandering shamans coming through our village over the years that have said and proclaimed similar things. They would not say what all they talked about subject-wise, only that in the end he talked to them as if he saw before him... well, them. Someone that understood them fully." A pause.

"If that makes any sense at all... whatever it all was, though, they came back wearing cloth of red," she added, skipping the sip for a longer swig of the drink.

[Nozomi]

She listened to them both over the lip of her drink or a moment, nodding to each in turn before setting it down. "I do not require miracles. I require a purpose, and a place. The Hikaru lurk and skulk on the verge of extinction. I would know my place. If I can find it in his ranks, good... if not, I will find it one way or another." She breathed in a little. "So... the mask is becoming common? I do not wish to cause confusion or be presumptuous. I just found it ... a good idea."

No, miracles weren't what she was looking for. She supposed she'd take them, but magic tricks were just as likely to leave you with stars in your eyes.

[Bayushi Umeno]

Though she addressed both women, her response was more to Miyako's words. "Mm, I can see that at least. I can't answer for any of the others, but Bayushi at least seems to have a way of looking at you and reading you just from a met gaze. If he was accepting of me and my faults, it's hardly surprising he wouldn't judge others for theirs. Like I said before, I think he's a bit more... cynical about everything than the others are, I expect. Cynicism can lead to greater acceptance, since you don't hold others to perfect standards."

Umeno gave Phi a slight smirk. "I imagine he'd even accept a masked Hikaru, flaws and all. Not that I suspect any in you."

[Shoji Haka]

"That is a hefty burden you have taken upon yourself. How have you managed with... your inability to see?" he asked.

"How have others managed to do things without speaking with spirits?" She shrugs and takes another drink.

[Nanzi]

Jigutsuji opened his mouth to reply and then stopped and then raised his hand to his mouth and tried to speak again but stopped as he was flummoxed at the idea that not being able to sense the spirits was somehow a detriment.

Finally he said, “I apologize, you are right, I should not have thought less of you. That was unkind of me to assume such.”

Nanzi chuckled and said, “This shaman is a fierce soul, we will need that fierce nature where we are headed. Though I am curious what drives you to go so far South. Assuming that is your path forward from here.”

[Shoji Haka]

"This one is traveling south, yes." She nods. "Great adventure? A chance to accomplish something grand?"

Haka smirks, then shrugs her shoulders. "Had this one remained in her village, she would have become a Kusabi. This seemed like a much more interesting way to die. Much less certain, if nothing else."

[Nanzi]

"What is Kusabi?" Nanzi asked. "There will be adventure and danger aplenty, physical and I am told spiritual as well."

[Shoji Haka]

"A sacrifice to keep the ghosts at bay." She takes a longer sip from her mug. "One with spiritual significance is chosen as the Kusabi. The shamans wrap them in sacred ropes and pull tightly until the ropes have stolen the last of the Kusabi's breath. Then the ropes are used to bind the world of ghosts closed for another decade."

[Nanzi]

Jigutsuji frowned and said, "That... that is horrific. Why do your people do this? If your people were not there the gateway was just opened? I just... such... I am sorry I do not understand."

[Nozomi]

Though she addressed both women, her response was more to Miyako's words. "Mm, I can see that at least. I can't answer for any of the others, but Bayushi at least seems to have a way of looking at you and reading you just from a met gaze. If he was accepting of me and my faults, it's hardly surprising he wouldn't judge others for theirs. Like I said before, I think he's a bit more... cynical about everything than the others are, I expect. Cynicism can lead to greater acceptance, since you don't hold others to perfect standards."

Umeno gave Phi a slight smirk. "I imagine he'd even accept a masked Hikaru, flaws and all. Not that I suspect any in you."

Phi wondered what he would see when he looked into her eyes, if that was true. To look in the pool's reflection, one never saw what the world saw, after all. "Anyone who tells you that they're perfect is blowing smoke up your skirt," she said, snickering. "I've got my flaws one way or another. And perhaps he would take me in."

But while she suspected he might, there was something to wanting to be noticed enough to be desirable to these kami. Which was a big part of why she was out here risking her neck.

[Miyako]

"Another plus is that with that face covering you're already one step ahead of everyone else coming by from all the other walks of life, I imagine," Miyako noted with a smirk as she picked up the cup and in a good gulp drank down what remained of the liquid. "Not bad. Certainly very different than berry-wine. Either of you want another?" She turned around for a moment to wave and get the attention of one of the servants, holding up a number of fingers for whoever else needed a refill before turning back to the table.

"So you're supposed to wear a mask? Because he tore his sleeve and wears one? I see..." she said, reconciling for herself Phi's story with Umeno's statement on mask-wearing. "My cousins appear to have done the same, torn a sleeve, tied it around, and called it a day. Practical, sure, but I could see how others would like something a little... less like one tore their one good shirt, I guess. Does most people do that?"

[Shoji Haka]

Jigutsuji frowned and said, "That... that is horrific. Why do your people do this? If your people were not there the gateway was just opened? I just... such... I am sorry I do not understand."

"That is how it has always been," Haka says in a matter-of-fact way. "If the Shoji did not have Kusabi, the ghosts would spill out and devour everyone. Better to sacrifice one than all."

[Bayushi Umeno]

Umeno nodded at the offer of another, especially since she took it perhaps it would be Miyako's treat, though she didn't say anything on it. Instead, she gave a shrug to the question. "There's some story behind it all, why he did so at the tournament, and why others are following him. Like I said, I'll likely end up doing so as well soon enough to not stick out like a sore thumb, but Fortune's if I know the story. Never been much for listening to 'em."

[Nozomi]

"Makes it harder to see your face, if you're the sort to not be good at holding back," she guessed, shrugging but then shaking her head. she wasn't going anywhere, but she was only halfway into her own drink at the moment. "Thank you, but I will pass on a second cup. One is fine for me. I prefer goat's milk properly fermented. Sweeter. It isn't bad... but not my style."

[Nanzi]

"That is how it has always been," Haka says in a matter-of-fact way. "If the Shoji did not have Kusabi, the ghosts would spill out and devour everyone. Better to sacrifice one than all."

Nanzi had his doubts but he respected their sacrifice and said, "That is a noble sacrifice of your people."