With the ritual only a day away, it was time to decide what should be done about the Shinri, and Saneyuki. Moriko was sitting on the upper balcony, in front of her apartment, waiting for the other Shibas to arrive. She was tense, uncertain, Ten standing next to her, picking up on her anxiety.

Hoshiko waved as she walked up to the building. Ren ran around her feet, barking excitedly.

Atsumori checked the address coordinates on his comm again. This must be it? His loose gait as he strolled toward the building betrayed little of the concern he felt after his odd conversation with Kitsune Izumi; keeping his body movements calm and un-alarming was second nature. This did not, however, apply to his facial expressions--a puzzled, slightly tense one, in this case.

"Hullo there?"


--

Am assuming Izumi probably gave Moriko's contact code to Atsumori, or maybe he already had Hoshiko's from back on day 1... but it sounds like very little else could be conveyed that way!

"Hai," Moriko trotted down to greet her sister, Ten running to his own sibling as well. A moment later she spotted Atsumori, they hadn't really spoken at the meeting of eligible young Phoenix, but she'd seen him at a number of the planned events. "Shiba-san, thank you for coming, come in, have something cold to drink," she indicated to the downstairs common room.

"Shiba Moriko-san, Hoshiko-san." Atsumori made a casualish bow of the sort that made his grandmother throw up her hands, with an extra 'hey there buddy!' wave for the two dogs. "Sure, thanks awfully. Uh..." He glanced around. Disaster didn't look imminent here. "Kitsune-sama made this sound fair urgent. Whatever it is."

His brows scrunched a bit; it was clear he was trying to piece together 'need to talk to you urgently' and 'favour the Kitsune really need right now' with this peaceful scene and offers of cold drinks.

It was brutally hot, though. With the back of his hand, Atsumori swiped away a drop of perspiration right above his eye. "A drink would go down pretty well right now, though, if I'm honest."

Moriko hadn’t had the pleasure of meeting the Kitsune, “not boots and saddles urgent,” she explained, “but things are happening tomorrow that need to be stopped. At least that’s my understanding of it,” she looked to Hoshiko for confirmation, her sister was the one in tune with the kami. To Atsumori, “you may as well call me Mori, we’re all family here,” she offered.

"It definitely sounds like something that needs to be addressed." Hoshi nodded. "I am not as aligned with the natural world as either of you, but something feels off about the shrine and what they are doing."

Atsumori broke into a grin at that. "Funny thing, Mori-san, that's what my sisters call me!" Shaking his head a little, the corners of his eyes still crinkling from the smile, he made to follow the sisters inside.

"You mean that place out in the forest?" he asked Hoshiko, running a hand through his hair as he thought. "Weird spot, but not the weirdest, I thought. You think they're up to something... not, uh, prudent?"

By reflex, a Shiba who came out of a family in an Elemental Master's service didn't readily characterize the activities of priests and monks as 'stupid' or 'suicidal' or 'you blithering fool, you'll kill us all!' But such a Shiba also knew at a bone-deep level that shugenja were often imprudent.

Inside the common room, the old and strained air conditioning taking the edge off the uncomfortable heat, Moriko invited the others to sit, fetching a jug of iced green tea with sliced cherries floating within and some glasses. The dogs had followed the group as well. Ten had had a long morning and the impromptu meeting had interrupted his nap, the shiba inu eager to go back to sleep. “Well, if Hoshi-chan should call, she’ll get both of us, then,” the younger twin laughed.

"Mori-chan, you may want to tell Mori-san about the ritual." Hoshi suggested.

"Right," Moriko was pouring the tea, "so, I was invited to participate in one of their rituals as the Shrine, and I'm pretty fuzzy about the details, but there was this portal-thing." She looked uncertainly to her sister again, "I was feeling a little, well, drained the next day and I believe that Kitsune-san has posited that the Shinri have been summoning an entity that consumes Void?" The bushi wasn't entirely familiar with the metaphysical side of things.

"Oh. Cripes." Atsumori had flopped down on a cushion, leaning comfortably on one elbow, but now sat up straighter again and scrubbed a hand through his hair. "Entities, is it? So Kitsune-sama thinks this is somethin' dangerous? Any idea how?"

Portals weren't necessarily bad--though always chancy for the unwary, of course--but if anybody other than an Isawa would know the difference between safe and dangerous ones, it was probably a Kitsune.

Moriko vacillated, “rip open the dimensions and flood Asakaze with spirit-things dangerous?” She wasn’t sure how much was legitimate concern and how much was hyperbole. “I guess the concern is if the thing they’ve been calling the Gilded King becomes powerful enough, then the portal will just stay open, and, well, fuck me if I know where that portal leads. It could be anywhere.”

"Regardless, it sounded like the elders were planning something nefarious for one of their members." Hoshi added. "That should be looked into, at the least."

"Oof, yeah." Atsumori had to agree with that. "So the Gilded King they've got enshrined up there... that's not a Fortune, theologically speakin'? It's something else." He reached for a glass of tea with an abbreviated nod of thanks as he considered this. "Worshiping things that aren't properly from Tengoku or Yomi, that almost never leads anywhere good. And if somebody's in danger, imminently..." About to take a sip of tea, he paused. "This sect is fair important around here, isn't it? How'd things get this far without somebody noticing?"

“Well, for a vampire, this thing they’re feeding is damned polite,” Moriko offered, “during the ritual I felt hazy, like I was drunk, and afterwards I just felt really content, like I’d had a good day. I could see people wanting to participate just cause it feels good.”

"It seems like they'd prefer not to have much attention." the other twin explained. "I don't think they're comfortable with the number of outsiders the miai has brought."