"WelltherampagingreptileswouldtakecareofitwhentheKingreleasesthem, butthatisn'tanidealresult."

There was a sound of something dashing along the path and a chorus of electronic yipping . . . both from the path and Izumi's pocket as FoxComm 210 and FoxNet 90210 were re-united.

"Ohcrap, IthoughtIpoweredyoudown?!?!?!"

Mumei sat up straight, and Hiroki fluffed in startlement at this new interloper. "What the? Is that your robot? From the competition?"

Laughing, she shakes her head. "It's got the blessings of Bishamon to make it out here with those little legs."

Dasshu was giving the new interloper a beady eye, and raised a crest of feathers in a display of dominance that FoxNet 90210 did not give a single untightened screw about.

"Yesthat'smyBot. IthoughtI'dturnedhimoffandlefthiminthehotelroom. Howdidhegetoutofthedoors?"

The Bot did not care and merely wandered about as if looking for something.

"One of the servants let it out? Or you designed it better than you guessed?" Mumei looks down at the little guy, leaning down with one arm looped securely around the Otori's neck. "It's really cute. Looks like it's trying to find something though."

Izumi sighed, guessing what was happening.

"Sorryfortheinterruption."

He fished FoxComm 210 out of his pockets and let the two electronic devices that now ruled his life . . . . network.

There was happy electronic yipping.

Mumei blinks, and starts laughing. "oh...dear. Best friends? Or do you need to worry about little commbots popping up if you give them an ounce of privacy?"

"Idon'tknowhowtheyevenknowabouteachother . . . "

He still hadn't made the connection between him enabling wireless network on FoxNet and FoxComm's never ending attempts to connect with every network it found.

"Themachinekamiinthemmustbesimilar."

"Far as I know it's either been handled or being handled. You just had me worried there was a bigger problem with them. Now I know it's an entirely different problem. I guess that's better?" He shrugged one thing at a time.

Inwardly he wondered if he should tell Eriko about this. She was probably in enough trouble right now, but cults seemed like a witch hunter thing....

The fox robot drew a grin. "Oh nice! My drone suffered ah...an unfortunate accident."

"Mine headed into the forest to...live out its little robot life among the mushrooms, I guess?" Mumei says with a small frown. That had been a less than successful experiment.

"I just definitely don't want to sit and wait to see what happens, because that seems like a very bad idea." Not that she could offer a better one just now, other than going up and starting to toss leaders of the sect off the rocky outcroppings up there.

"WecouldtalktotheLion. ThatshowweusuallydealwithproblemsbackinFoxlands."

Yes, point enough Matsu at a problem and it usually went away.

Shion followed all that had been said with a worried expression, but mostly quiet. She had heard stories about many different dangers, from old and modern times, and about heroes and how they dealt with unbelievable horrors.

She had never really imagined herself in the middle of something like this, though. Not that it made her afraid - she was a bit too phlegmatic for that, it seemed. But she was confused.

After the others had shared their stories and given their opinions, she kept looking at them blankly, petting Kurikoo and calling Stray closer from time to time.

"Um. So. Um..."

She tried to run all that had been said in her head.

"So... we.... do what? For now? We... expect Asako Chiruha-sama may do something about it, maybe? I mean... if there is something to be done, I'd be happy to help. Nakauchi-san..." she turns to Mumei "you mentioned some possible link to the Festival? I... was hoping for a chance to play, but I haven't really heard much about it yet. Maybe there's something we could do during the festival - or before it - to.... change things somehow?"

"I'm really not opposed to telling them all about it at this point. I mean...I'm rooming with one and can comm at Murame-sama."

She nods to Shion. "Yeah, not what I expected either. It kind of puts the 'almost eaten by a giant water lizard' thing in perspective. I'm hoping that the governor acts to put a stop to the ritual, but since we don't know it that will also lead to bad things from an angry spirit, I think I'm going to try doing some research on what it's possible to do with that scenario."

"Like...with a NavCom for channeling that kind of energy and a real Navigator here, that seems like you might be able to grab and redirect it? But we don't have either of those."

"Pointing the Lion at the problem might not be a bad idea... Then again, best not to piss off our hosts too much if we can avoid it." He patted Blinky who was getting a little too interested in Kurikoo. "This is starting to sound really bad though, so you've got my rifle if you need it."

He thought back to what they had seen of the Temple. "What's the festival about, do we know?"

Mumei wobbles her hand in a 'more or less' fashion. "The festival's one of those old ones from the homeworld. I've heard of it, but a lot of the seasonal ones aren't celebrated on ships and stations. But I don't know if being so old provides something that these folks could use with their ritual."

"They'repushingthesystemtoomuchasitis, nevermindwhatthey'redoingattheTemple. TheincreasedRakerattacksthatledtothehunt, theLurkerattackswhenpeoplegettooclosetothewater. Anecosystemisadelicatebalance. Yesitcanbealteredbutifyoupushittoofastthenitwillpushbackhard. I think this has been building for some time and if the Gilded King ritual completes then it will go off like a fire cracker."

For those that now knew him the slowed speech would be a signifier of the importance.

Her frown settles in with the last words, and only gets deeper as her brain slowly translates the rest. "More reason to stop it."

"Ok. So, Asako-sama's hopefully passing what I told her to the governor. Hopefully that means he pays attention. But...I couldn't tell him when and where other than our guesses. I can't imagine he'll find out just by asking them. Though I guess he has the power to just have the lot of them arrested for a week or something." Even saying the words, she's not sure anyone is going to do something like that just based on some reports from miai guests when their own shugenja and magistrates haven't done anything in all this time.*

"I'll see if the twins have heard anything more though, since at least Shiba Moriko-sama seems to get invited to their rituals," she finishes.

_______
*Expect a EA D8 message that indicates plenty of high level officials in the settlement have been, and probably still are, members of the sect. I just need time to type that.

"HassomeonewithmedicaltrainingexaminedShiba-san? Iexpectitwouldhavetobedonesoonafteraritualtoseeanyeffect. Ihavethetrainingrequiredbutnottheaccesstothediagnosticalequipment."

Shion does her best to follow what they're saying, and she seems sincerely concerned.... but no ways to help whatsoever occur to her so far. So she just keeps looking from one of them to the other, nodding and creasing her brow.

Mumei shakes here head. "Maybe? But not that has been mentioned to me. Would there be medical indications if something was tapping her connection to the Void as the air kami said?"

The shugenja _were_ kind of into that esoteric space they could wander into. Not quite talking shop, but definitely knocking on the shop's windows.

"Since she was present for at least that ritual, I'm going to try asking where it was held. Hopefully that kind of drain didn't affect that memory."

Izumi gave her that look.

"Iwouldn'tbesurprisedifithadeffectedhermemory. Ifit'sdrawingonherVoidthenitmaywellhavebeenformulatedtomakesureshedoesn'tremember."