The Day of Thunder

"Oh, it's not normally. We have to prepare the shrine for the last couple of days this week," she explained. "I have a miniature shrine to them here at the house if you feel so moved."

She nodded with a smile. "Certainly. The shrine is dedicated to Inari, the fortune of rice. The final part of the festival involves calling for a blessing on the land from them."

"I have a miniature shrine in my home if you wish to use it. Unfortunately, the shrine needs to be prepared the next few days for the last ritual," she replied with an apologetic frown and a deep bow. "I wish I could."

"Inari," she responded with a smile. "This is in preparation for planting, after all. They're the Fortune of Rice, but we're hoping they can bless us with clearing the fog so we can plant rice and get more than a meager harvest. The fog making things too cool here unless it's a very lucky year."

A beautiful young woman with soft and gentle eyes mounts the stairs of one of the homes. Some of those present already know her. Her dark brown hair falls in waves around her shoulders, drawing the eye to a hint of a tattoo going up her neck. Her eyes look over the crowd as if each person was a son ...

She chuckles softly at the comment, her warm smile never fading. She seems to consider something for a moment, then, with a vivid blush blooming on her cheeks, she leans forward and kisses his cheek lightly. "There is. Thank you for understanding... Visitors are sometimes nervous, what with everythi...

Chouri considers the idea, seeming to think it throughly deeply. She bites her lip briefly before finally nodding. "All right. Please don't place anything on the approach to the shrine, around my home, or in the markets of the village, though. We haven't tested what might disrupt the rituals, so it'...

"Well, we start with the celebration tonight, then tomorrow is the purification of the mind, which involves confronting one's fears to rid oneself of them," she explains. "Then the feast is the next night. The fourth day there's no specific event - it's a day for bonding with one's family and loved ...

Chouri burst into a laugh, smiling widely. "You're quite insightful, Wu-sama."

Chouri taps her chin thoughtfully with a small frown. "Well, I believe this small region may be sacred. I am starting to wonder if it is a place of spiritual testing as well, though. Before the purification of fear during the festival, people have spoken of hearing strange things in certain places a...

She bowed to the Dragon who walked in the room. “There are plenty of things that changed…” She nodded, “Was it like a diary or something that you found? What described the rituals?” "It seemed more like research notes," she said. "I've been doing my best to piece together what they were trying to a...

She nodded, setting aside her projects and opening a space for Soju to sit by her. "Please, join me. I would like to hear about these matters."

She smiled at that. "If there's one thing I've learned, it's that mutual support is important. We don't need to be truly alone. Even on journeys by yourself, you know the people you care about are out there and supporting you."

"I would worry if they left suddenly, or I found a bunch of mostly decayed corpses," she said with a slightly raised eyebrow. "A regular abandoned village? No, not really. The Empire is covered with them, the ones that didn't become villages and towns under the Kami."

"Generally, it's alone," she said. "The fears are personal, so the journey to cleanse oneself of them is, as well. I'm sorry I couldn't tell you something better."

"I don't think so... It looks like they left, and not suddenly that I can tell," she shook her head.

"Something from the previous tribe that used to live here. People were drawn here, and we uncovered it while we were cleaning up the area so people could build places to live," she explained. "I ran across one or two rumors saying that people used to live up here who had visions. I was trying to fin...

She shook her head. "I've seen many forms. The occasional nightmare, though not the same sort that people have arrived with. Unexpected encounters with their fear. People with existential fears often find themselves in thought spirals or something that brings them uncomfortably close to the idea of ...

The headwoman was in, working hard on preparations for the festival. She sat on the front veranda, tying together a... straw ball, it looked like? She smiled as she saw Haka. "Oh, hello! I'm Chouri, the village headwoman. Are you here for the festival?"

So the most profound philosopher in all the damn land calls all these idiots here for a...new year's festival? There is no karmic fucking way. "Anything else about it?" he cocked his head slightly. "You said sort of , so I assume there's more to it." If one guessed there was an implication Norikage...