The Day of Thunder

[Canary]

"My questions and answers first," she laughed.

"First; why do you and your brothers and sisters the water kami linger here as a constant fog?"

That's not a good riddle, one complained, apparently already losing track that she was getting her answers first. Air kami. What could you do?

I know, I know! I know this one! We're sleepy, so we cuddle up and get thick.

[Togashi Satsuki]

I know, I know! I know this one! We're sleepy, so we cuddle up and get thick.

"You will get the riddle soon, almost there," she made sure to keep her tone light and playful with the kami, knowing the air ones usually liked that. "That sounds nice, to cuddle up."

"Why do people lose their sense of direction in the mist, ending up back where they started instead of going out?"

[Canary]

"You will get the riddle soon, almost there," she made sure to keep her tone light and playful with the kami, knowing the air ones usually liked that. "That sounds nice, to cuddle up."

"Why do people lose their sense of direction in the mist, ending up back where they started instead of going out?"

It's funny!

People wander around in circles in there.

Maybe they're sleepy, too!

[Togashi Satsuki]

It's funny!

People wander around in circles in there.

Maybe they're sleepy, too!

The answers weren't as helpful as she had hoped, but it would do, and the kami had done what she asked of them. "Thank you friends, then this riddle is for you; What can you hold in your right hand, but not in your left?"

[Canary]

The answers weren't as helpful as she had hoped, but it would do, and the kami had done what she asked of them. "Thank you friends, then this riddle is for you; What can you hold in your right hand, but not in your left?"

The spirits swirled around for a bit, whipping up her hair and playing with it.

Finally, one of them said, Is it your left hand?!

[Togashi Satsuki]

The spirits swirled around for a bit, whipping up her hair and playing with it.

Finally, one of them said, Is it your left hand?!

"Yes! Very good!" Satsuki clapped in delight for them.

[Canary]

The air kami cheer and proceed to thoroughly blow around her clothing and tangle her hair in delight before dispersing.

[Togashi Satsuki]

Satsuki laughed softly, trying to fix her hair and loose-fitting clothes as the kami departed.

"Well..." she cleared her throat to be more serious again, "so... the answers didn't really amount to much. I asked them why this fog was here, and they said they were, uh, snuggling up with the water kami because they were sleepy, and wanted to get thick."

Kami, am I right? she smiled with a 'what can you do'-attitude. "Second I asked them why people were losing their sense of direction in the fog, ending up back where they started, and the answer was; it's funny, people wander around in circles in there, maybe they're sleepy too."

She looked to Ohta and Otaku in case they had any input, but a few thoughts of her own were forming in her mind.

[Reiko Ohta]

"...I mean, what makes the elements sleepy I suppose? Or what COULD make the elements sleepy? Or is that something more common than I'm supposing?"

Ohta knew a little about magic, the elements, and all that. But not enough for that kind of knowledge. The daily habits of the Elements weren't usually considerations a samurai needed to worry about.

[Togashi Satsuki]

"The kami can sometimes act or seem sleepy, or sluggish even, if they've been dormant for a long time. Without anyone calling on them or appeasing them on the regular. You don't need a shugenja or a monk to do that though, as people have done this for generations with offerings to them."

Satsuki was chewing her lip in thought now that she had some more pieces of a puzzle. "... But if our enemy is disrupting the Realm of dreams and sleep, they could perhaps too be affected somehow. Or someone is doing this to them to keep them ignorant of what is actually going on."

[Otaku]

Otaku seems to be following this explanation somewhat better than the average non-shugenja, though at first she just listens and lets her own thoughts turn the problem over while the other two discuss Satsuki's findings.

"So could it be that..." her brows draw together as she considers a different possibility, "What if this fog is not what's making us lose our way? If it's only the kami losing their way along with us?"

She strokes the gray horse's neck as she thinks. "In places where the enemy touches too many people, for too long, we've seen land corrupted."

[Reiko Ohta]

"It certainly brings up a lot of good questions. With fewer answers. But some at least, neh? Though I doubt it's the land, here at least. Otherwise I don't think the well water or crops would be unaffected."

Ohta unslings her bag from her shoulder and starts putting things in it, her sketchpad and writing utensils mostly.

"I wish I had my mother's talent for that sort of thing though, Togashi-san; She is quite good at teasing answers from the Earth, so I've seen in the past."

[Togashi Satsuki]

"So could it be that..." her brows draw together as she considers a different possibility, "What if this fog is not what's making us lose our way? If it's only the kami losing their way along with us?"

She strokes the gray horse's neck as she thinks. "In places where the enemy touches too many people, for too long, we've seen land corrupted."

"That is a possibility. Well observed," she nodded to the woman with the beautiful horse.

"As for the Earth kami, I have a feeling that the answers will be similar... with this fog, I thought the air kami would be very active, but they felt sluggish and difficult to rouse. It makes me wonder if there is something keeping them like this?"

[Otaku]

"Do you think it's dangerous to stay?"

Not that they had much of a choice, since Shinsei believed the great defense must be mounted here, and no one could get out through the fog in any case. The thought of staging that confrontation--whatever form it might take--in the middle of a village's worth of children, old people, and ordinary farmers makes Otaku's lips press together unhappily.

"Are the land and water safe? The folk here think so. But they may be affected too."

[Togashi Satsuki]

"It is a possibility," she admitted with some grimness to her. "I need more answers before I can say for certain." Satsuki had a similar concern for the locals living here who didn't ask for an apocalypse on their doorstep.

Raising her arm, she studied her jade bracelet thoroughly. "I don't think the land here is corrupted, but it's hard to say... Yume-Do hides more easily the sinister nature of Jigoku. For all I know, maybe the kami are dreaming, or we are dreaming? Or maybe we sort of... sleepwalk, when we venture to deep into the fog?"

[Otaku]

"If..." Otaku hesitates, frowning. "If this whole place is a dream that has already trapped us, could we discover it?"

Or would it already be too late for them all?

She too reaches up to brush her fingers against a piece of jade--the piece stitched to the brow band of Tsubame's headstall--before scritching around the horse's ears. She has a piece tucked inside the collar of her own clothing, too, and had noticed nothing amiss with it this morning. But would there be anything to notice?

[Togashi Satsuki]

"I don't know... hmmm..."

With that in mind, Satsuki raised her hand and gave herself a thoroughly harsh slap. "Ow... if it's a dream though, it's very life-like. Because that hurt." Chewing her lower lip, she nursed her slapped face with a surprisingly contemplative expression.

The mystery was certainly occupying her mind more than the stinging cheek.

[Reiko Ohta]

"No, I don't think it's a dream. I've heard of lucid dreaming before, but not lucidly being in another's dream. Or, at least, if it's a dream, it's not the sort that one can tell from reality, so it makes no difference. As far as if it's dangerous to stay... that's why we must keep looking, no? And keep being vigilant."

[Otaku]

"Dreams aren't ordinary these days." Otaku says softly, shrugging one shoulder. "No one heard of dreams that could make a man change shape or a woman kill her children, until they did."

She sighs and, belatedly, remembers she hasn't introduced herself to these youngsters. "In case you're not dreams," the corners of her eyes crease a little with a smile that doesn't quite reach her lips, "I'm Otaku, by the way."

[Togashi Satsuki]

"Otaku?" A few blinks, then she bobbed a quick bow. "A pleasure, Lady Otaku. I'm Togashi Satsuki of the Dragon. And yeah! There's something to what you're saying in that dreams aren't just dreams these days... it's changed places and people in the past years, and we can't rule out that it's happened here."