June 2022 Event

[jigokumods]

MAIN NAVIGATION

1. SWIMSUIT TROUBLES (1 POINT)

As the city goes through its daily motions, the heat bears down harder and harder while bringing out some increasingly overheated behavior from the local population. Summer is here and the natives are flocking to the shopping district: both as a respite from the scorching temperatures and to stock up on the needed supplies to beat the heat.

That means one noticeable problem: the bathing suits left on the racks aren’t the most fashionable at this point! Suits are scarce and what is left over are the skimpy, the oddly-patterned, a size too small, or all of the above. Then again, you are probably just feeling lucky you aren’t in the Shuten Clan, who have been provided their own precious supply of freshly laundered tiger stripe bikinis. And nothing else.

You may be able to borrow around within your own faction, where the pickings might not be so slim, but are still unlikely to match your personal style. Better hope you ran out to buy something nice when the Daitengu first announced the party.

2. BEACH GAMES (1 POINT)

The indoor beach facility that the Alliance has provided is extraordinary. It’s massive! It seems to extend to the size of an entire soccer field. With the combinations of Kappa tech and Tengu magic, the experience has been made as close to a natural one as anyone could ask for. The heat of the beach feels true to the real world, the sand is white and pure, and the waves rolling in and out are just like the mortal realm. Even the palm trees and beach scrub seem entirely authentic. The vibe is immaculate.

Each faction has their own area set up for meeting and mingling but everyone is welcome to let loose and interact among all the groups.

SHUTEN CLAN

The Shuten Clan has set up their beach fort with food and drinks. The drinks on offer are a particularly strong Oni beer and a few spirits (especially sake). These drinks have been mixed so that anyone who imbibes them will feel a heightened sense of competition and the need to prove themselves!

There are plenty of opportunities to show off:

• Learning surfing with a few knowledgeable Oni.
  
• Volleyball matches.
  
• Shoulder chicken tournaments.
  
• Beer pong.
  
• Drinking contests that never seem to stop.
  
• And friendly scuffles with some of the Shuten who are feeling more rowdy than usual.

In particular, the volleyball matches appear to be the Shuten Clan’s sport of choice. They’re taking these matches deathly serious. With all powers allowed in play, the game is truly deadly with how powerful, how fast, and how fierce those spikes and volleys are. Hold nothing back and leave it all in the ring!

Toraguma himself is here in his tiger striped best! He’s observing the games and taking note of which Shutens do well and which ones shame the clan with their defeat. He’ll give out rewards to those he thinks are exemplifying the pride of the clan. Don’t worry though, if you’re not up to snuff you won’t be punished; except with Toraguma’s obvious disappointment.

TAMAMO CLAN

The Tamamo Clan doesn't disappoint either. Their tiki bar is set up with a far greater variety in stock than the Shutens. Every drink seems to be made to that Lost Soul’s exact tastes. Watch out, this may compel you to pound them back more quickly than normal. The drinks will make you feel much closer to those around you — either in camaraderie, or something more intimate. The Tamamos have arranged a number of floats, inner tubes, and water wings lounging in the water. Enjoy your time together!

When you aren’t relaxing, the Tamamo Clan has also arranged huge buckets of water balloons and have filled their water guns. The instructions are clear: whether sniping from afar or going in on a full assault, go nuts. Especially against the Shutens. Lady Tenkohime herself has a high-caliber, sniper-grade water rifle with her at her lounge chair. She will occasionally pick some unlucky soul to fire off devastating rounds against. She is not soaking them in just water, of course. This is the Tamamo clan’s patented ‘perfume’, which inspires the most amorous feelings.

Finally, the Tamamo have also inspired a spicy wet t-shirt contest. It’s essentially a sexy beauty contest, but given the variety of bodies and hidden ‘talents’ tucked away under everyone’s clothes, it should prove interesting! Tenkohime has described the simple rules:

• One must wear the provided white shirt and only that shirt.
  
• The crowd will soak them down.
  
• And the crowd will judge how well they pull it off.

SUTOKU CLAN

The Sutoku Clan has been given free reign on a fleet of jet skis and paddle boats; perfect for two. There are boogie boards and larger inner tubes ready to be attached to different jet skis. Just be careful, ok?

A large snack bar has been provided with cheerful yokai behind the counter ready and willing to serve up your heart’s desire. There are some strange candies towards the end of the bar, they taste a bit funny but once you eat one you’re compelled to have a few more. These sweets will give you the power to breathe underwater. What is the meaning of this power? Well, you’re in the Alliance, after all, you figure out what’s under the waves.

Sutoku games include things like kan jam and frisbees, but Sutoku Souls are also very much encouraged to participate in the Shuten Clan’s volleyball tournament. Much to Toraguma’s frustration, the Alliance has planted a Tengu referee who seems to really favor the Alliance players over his own. Use your powers liberally.

The Daitengu is in attendance with sunscreen marks on their mask, for some reason. They’re being a total busybody, as usual. They’re really taking the time to chat up Tenkohime and Toraguma, even if the two want to rip each other’s throats out. Could a resolution to the turf war be on the way? One can only hope!

ENMA DEPARTMENT

The Enma is instructing the members of the Department to volunteer (aka voluntold) for lifeguard duty. The shifts are short — it is ultimately a party — and participation will net you both free food and drink from any of the vendors, as well as license to let loose for the rest of the party! The fare provided by the Enma vendors is pretty staid, but it does fill you with the odd need to run down the beach shallows in slow motion. Not sure what that’s about.

There is one further task that is expected of the Enma Department: suikawari. It is a big deal and to be taken seriously! This is the Enma’s favorite beach activity and the only diversion that he cares about. Your guess is as good as anyone’s, but it’s probably because the game resembles a form of execution. Regardless! Every officer is expected to do at least one round of the game as a form of initiation to the Department itself. Captain Shiki hosts the game in the absence of the Enma. Someone should tell her to chill out with that whistle, though.

3. BONFIRE (1 POINT)

As the hosts of the event, the Sutoku Alliance has set up a massive bonfire as the sun begins to set and stars light up the magical sky. There’s a romantic feeling in the air. Things seem as chill as they ever could be, there are no Haniwa in sight! Things feel peaceful for the first time in a while.

A final happy hour is declared, with free libations for everyone to close out the night. It’s time to finish this party in style. For anyone particularly watchful, they may spy the extraordinary sight of Toraguma and Tenkohime together. Off in the shadows while the party rages on, they are sitting together and watching the waves roll in. What could they be discussing? It will remain a mystery, getting any closer to them would be a deadly mistake.

The evening closes without any major incidents. Nothing seems like it could spoil the mood. It almost feels too good to be true.

4. AND THEN... (2 POINTS)

As all the party goers change back into their clothes and exit the facility, there is a rumble of thunder over Jigokucho. The stars are quickly swallowed by a darkening sky and the ground shakes. A minor earthquake? That’s not unheard of but the sky above is looking threatening. Evil. Darkness washes out over the entire city, none of its many bright lights able to cut through. Something is wrong. Something is happening.

A warm rain begins to fall, spattering across you and your surroundings. It becomes quickly apparent that you are not doused with water, but with blood.

The silence is shattered suddenly when a scream cuts across the whole of Jigokucho. An accursed miasma pours out from every direction. Then you see them: the Haniwa. They are everywhere, gazing from every direction, pressing in. Something has gone terribly wrong.

Captain Shiki is the first to act. She makes a call to Kaigo no Bou, but what she hears is enough to freeze her in her tracks.

The containment center deep beneath the tower where the Haniwa were being stored has been compromised. All of the cursed energy that was stored there has leaked out into the city from below. The guards below are dead. No one is answering their radio. It is not just the containment center that has been compromised, but all of Kaigo no Bou.

Captain Shiki struggles to remain calm as she gives out orders. Her entire command structure has been decimated, but she has to keep these people safe. She urges everyone to seek shelter, immediately. Everyone needs to partner up and stick together.

None of the faction leaders present arguments and they enforce this ruling with their Souls. They direct everyone to make their way back to their home base. Shuten to the Arena, Tamamo to Mizukume, and Sutoku to Konoha. There, their faction leaders can protect them.

As for the Enma officers: they are on rescue duty. You will be heading out into the city to rescue as many people as possible from the nightmarish effects of the cursed energy on the city. Captain Shiki will act as their point of command at the indoor beach.

Good luck, everyone.

5. IN THE CURSED NIGHT (2 POINTS)

A rain of blood is sprinkling all around you. It pings off sign posts and garbage bins, it splatters wetly onto the concrete and your face. The scent is pungent and thick; spoiling. It is soaking in to your hair, your clothes, your skin. It is driving you mad: your pulse spinning, breathing short.

There are noises in the impenetrable darkness. Fox feet on the pavement, crow wings shifting on a perch, a stranger's cruel laughter. The dark energy that has swallowed you is bemused by your smallness, is lurking at the edges and waiting for the moment to strike. Hold tight to your fellows, lest in the darkness another hand be placed in yours. Do you know who you walk with? What you walk with?

The Haniwa are watching you from every surface; crowded together as one with their empty eye sockets and open mouths. Their dark eyes turn to follow where you go as you stumble through your nightmares and your delusions. They breathe in your suffering on the air.

Beware the onibi, they will lead you astray.
Beware the grasping hands in the trees.
Beware the whispers in the distance.
Beware the slope to the river.
Beware. Beware.

Welcome to the June event!

• Art by astrono77153462
  
• Special shoutout to vandalisto for coming up with the meat of this event; the beach party. They approached us with this as a player plot, and it was good enough that we made it into the full event for the month. Excellent work, Vandal!
  
• If you have any questions about event content, please ask them here!
  
• If your character participated in the volleyball games, see here! If they participated in the wet t-shirt contest, see here!
  
• If you have questions about the game itself, please check out the premise, FAQ, and rules pages.

Comments

[watermemory]

[His head twitches to the side -- yes, he was expecting someone else, thank you; but one wouldn't need honed observational skills to tell the difference between his friend's manner of approach and a stranger's. Or-- not a stranger.]

Matoba-san.

[If he's thought at all about the exorcist over the last few weeks (and being fair, there's been a lot to occupy his attention in his first month in Hell), he's been quietly kicking himself for, to his mind, being rude at that first meeting. Not enough to actually seek the man out again, though. So he's... trying not to let his first impression colour his tone now.]

I think there was a misunderstanding when we met, before. [Maybe one or two.] My name is Suizenji Minato. "Minakami" is a nickname.

[He nods, imperceptibly, at the distant silhouettes of Toraguma and Tenkohime at the shoreline; he's not sure where the Daitengu is, he lost track of them at some point.]

...would it be overly paranoid to say I was waiting for the hammer to fall?

[worldbent]

[Matoba is dressed in very Western and very modern clothes, a far cry from his usual airs of tradition and near-inhuman quality. The brightness of the pink floral shirt stood out even in the light provided by the bonfire; he's chewing the end of a popsicle stick, having just the last sticky bits of it left.]

Oh? Is that right? [His visible eyebrow lofts with amusement; Tama had, indeed, not corrected that little detail in any of their conversations following. Perhaps it had simply slipped his mind, or... Perhaps he had a bit of mischief in him, after all. Matoba inclines his head with proper, apologetic modesty.]

My apologies for not referring you properly. Then, Suizenji-san.

[Minakami's attention is followed towards the unmissable presence of the leaders of the warring Shuten and Tamamo clans; indeed, one would hardly know they were at war, given the celebratory mood of this gathering. The fighting had been dragging on for weeks now with seemingly no end or give on either side; although, given the murmurs he'd heard in his own clan, that apparently wouldn't last for long... Hopefully.]

[Still.]

...I wonder if you are looking down the correct barrel.

[He instead turns his gaze towards the lifeguard stands, now mostly abandoned by their Enma owners since most of the swimming has concluded and the party had moved to the bonfire and beachfront. No Sutoku that was present for the Night Parade could have forgotten the declaration of their boss at the mandatory funeral they were all present for, and the gravity of that accusation hadn't yet been properly addressed.]

[....But that was not a matter to discuss with a Shuten. Matoba turns back again, and offers Minakami a placid smile.] No, I do not fault your caution. I think that when dealing with ayakashi, it is a good rule of thumb to always expect an attack from behind.

Ah, though you should know that already, hm?

[watermemory]

[......okay, that's not what he expected, considering Tama had been able to dig up clothes closer to their time period, while he'd wanted to see what people of this era wore. Minakami looks down at his just-as-garish shirt, then at Matoba's ensemble, in expressionless silence. Why. Of all things. Are they matchies.]

[Flatly:] Thank you.

[He wasn't thinking about the fourth but allegedly most powerful of the faction leaders being a no-show -- the Enma doesn't seem as real to him, compared to the Daitengu's... inimitable personality and the other two leaders' public feud, but...] It's hard to watch for a pointed gun when you can't find it.

["Ayakashi", right. He's momentarily puzzled at what Matoba means -- the hashihime was such an... everpresent fact of life, and yet she'd been inert for so long that he'd hoped it might never be a problem again, that it was difficult to think of the spirit as an active threat. But a threat she was, all the same.]

[Minakami resists the urge to sigh, shifting to sit crosslegged.]

What has Tama told you about it?

[worldbent]

[It just proves you are birds of a feather.... Minakami-kun............]

If you don't know where the shot will come from, then you would be correct to be wary. [And that was why Matoba was still suspicious of the Enma, suspicious of the Department's movements, even at this very party. Nothing had happened yet, and it was on Sutoku turf this time, but then... The sewers had been their turf, too.]

Oh, this and that. That it is meant for you; that you lost it by messing about with things you shouldn't have. That it activates in the rain. That puddles are the gates to its power over time.

...That you have been cleaning up after his messes, since your childhoods. [He didn't maybe directly tell him all of these things; Matoba read between the lines on his own, for some of it, but Tama hadn't exactly been tight-lipped, either.] Water as an activating factor... Ah, I suppose the eyes are both excellent portals and rather ...wet.

...Are you not in danger by being at this very event? [He's pretty sure he had seen Tama in the water, earlier?? That seems bad, but whatever, his boyfriend to drown.]

[watermemory]

[That's. A lot more than he'd expected. Tamamori... He does sigh this time, looking up at the "sky" with its false stars starting to come out. Night skies in this city still felt wrong; at first, he'd thought the lack of stars was something intrinsic to Hell, which had led him down a rabbit hole about smog and "light pollution". This projected space was more like the real thing to him, which was disorienting in itself.]

[He might be mostly sobered up by now from the Shuten revelries but also: Any amount of alcohol in the system is too much for this discussion, leaving him uncharacteristically frank:] If you're here to scold me for losing it, it's nothing I haven't said to myself for the last fifteen years.

You said it yourself -- bodies of water aren't a concern in itself, let alone this playground the Daitengu has made, only rainfall. Maybe the river of the bridge that she calls home, but... [He shrugs, like he didn't have his heart in his throat the first time Tama went to test out the water-breathing candy.] That's another world and a hundred years away from us. Perhaps Lord Enma's authority supercedes any hold she has over our fate.

Forgive me, but: Why are you so curious about this? If I'm not wrong, you have your own burden to bear, so why...?

[worldbent]

[Matoba simply smiles and watches the weight and exhaustion of dealing with Tama wash over Minakami, watches him turn to the sky-- does he pray to the gods, Matoba wonders?]

Haha, well, I don't know enough about your situation to say either way, but I can't imagine your clan would be very happy about it, hm? Perhaps we can find your ancestors here in the afterlife sometime, and you can answer to them, instead.

[He's not serious about this. He doesn't think any of them are dead anyway, and- increasingly- he wonders whether this is truly even Hell. But until he has a way to find the answers to those questions he has, there isn't much use in treating it seriously.]

[It's Matoba's turn to tilt his head back in thought, turning his single visible eye up towards the false sky and then into the dancing flames of the bonfire.] ...Perhaps it is because I am responsible for a similar burden that I am curious. About how your clan came into this curse, about what the hashihime's power means to your family and your place in the world. Since you are not practitioners and you don't seem to enjoy its benefits, it seems like quite the unnecessary thing to keep around.

...But then again, I suppose you have already taken care of that problem yourself, haven't you? [He smiles.]

[watermemory]

[He glances over at Matoba, an odd, almost wry expression on his face, before turning back to the fire. On his own part, Minakami's not fully sure if this is an afterlife or not -- maybe if it had only been Japanese people here, past and future, but he's not so arrogant to think foreigners or travellers from distant worlds would be drawn to their cosmology.]

Mm. I know what their opinions would be. But I doubt I'd find them here. Most of them should have returned to the cycle of rebirth, one way or another.

[Minakami rolls a bottle of mineral water between his hands, the repetition of the movement putting his thoughts in order. The memory from a decade ago, the older boy pleading with Minakami to go back in time despite all explanations why he couldn't, then getting more and more insistent, Minakami not realizing that he'd been backing up until he'd reached the wall -- until his father had intervened and made the boy leave. The boy had left the village soon after that.]

It's the first question anyone has, when they learn about it. "Why don't you use it?" Surely any "benefits" you enjoy don't come without strings attached.

[The smile reminds him, in a moment, why he'd been that close to just storming off at that first meeting. Maybe that (and the sake) is what breaks his reticence.]

What if I said that this isn't the first time the burden has passed to a Mizumori?

[worldbent]

You think so? No punishments, then.

[What clean hands the Suizenji clan must have. Matoba could wonder how long his ancestors had been made to toil in the Enma's punishments before rebirth, but he doesn't really think it matters.]

No... It isn't that, [Matoba corrects,] I understand why you would choose not to use it, however I can't imagine your clan doesn't have enough history with that hashihime inviting enemies and disaster upon you not to have failsafes in place.

[Surely... A bloodline with a curse that powerful would arrange itself around it, much like the Matoba had arranged themselves to protect the clanhead and the passing of their curse. Surely??]

[And so when his eye slides back towards Minakami, he says,] Then, the Mizumori are your "failsafe"?

[watermemory]

I wouldn't say that.

[Any resolution to be civil, any private joke he might have had at the line of thought, regarding where at least some of his ancestors had ended up -- all that comes to a halt instantly. Minakami spins around, one hand braced on the ground, the other half-raised and shaking like he'd been about to grab Matoba's collar and just barely stopped himself from that.]

Never say that ever again.

[The serene mask is gone: His eyes are wide open and furious.]

Is that how your family sees it? No allies, just someone to take the fall for you?

[worldbent]

[Oh, so there is a bit of Shuten hot-headedness in there, after all.]

[Minakami's abrupt half-lunge doesn't get much of a bodily reaction out of Matoba, but something suddenly appears behind the other man and towers itself over him with a long, shadowy arm- tall and dark and ready to stay his hand if he should try for it.]

[Luckily, it never comes. Matoba's eye, which is locked onto Minakami's in challenge, stays there for a good few moments and then waves off his shiki with a casual motion, which melts back into the ground.]

Of course we have allies. The Matoba clan persists through the partnership of all the families who have joined under us over the centuries. When a family has no one left with power to inherit it, and they fear the reprisal of the enemies they've made, we are a power that they can rely on to protect them from that harm. In exchange, we receive their knowledge, their manpower and their loyalty.

It is a mutually beneficial arrangement not dissimilar to the concept of the Sutoku Alliance, or indeed any of the clan structures this city survives on. Any large group can achieve more than what a small one, or singular actor can.

[In those opened eyes Matoba sees anger, but what Tamamori has told him is also something else. Those with power were always hunted. And the easiest way to get to someone with power was the indirect path.]

[...Always chasing after and saving, huh...?]

If someone has offered you their strength, then you should make use of that which is useful to you, Suizenji-san. Everyone is receiving something from such an arrangement. Do you think he isn't?

Is it [His eye flickers, half-lidded.] that you are the one who is blind to your arrangement?

[watermemory]

[He doesn't miss the shadow falling over him, too long and thin even in the distorted firelight to be human; hairs raising on the back of his neck. Even so, for a held breath, he keeps his eyes on Matoba's visible one; before deliberately settling his weight back on the ground, hands folded neatly on his lap.]

The structures you describe, I suspect... you have the wrong idea about my family, Matoba-san.

[Calm. He's calm. He can be calm, if it kills him.]

We've sought out other families who've borne this curse. What we provide is... mutual support. Someone else who can keep it secret. Who respects it more than an avenue for power, and the price you pay to use it. The Mizumoris... usually... don't bear it. But they've been a part of this for nearly as long as we have. [His eyes flicker away. The idea of Tama's family repeatedly taking the fall for his family's mistakes isn't one he wants digging into his head; having someone else voice it was salt in the wound.] ...Tama's grandfather disagreed.

[...He doesn't like that implication.] Think what you will. It's not always a transaction of strength.

[worldbent]

Whether you call it one or not doesn't change what it is.

[He says it dismissively, rather than with a tone of finality; as if he was casually shrugging off some comment.] Cooperation is arranged because it benefits both parties in some way. You never stopped to wonder what their ancestors got out of that agreement in the first place?

[Those who joined under the Matoba knew the cost. No one in the exorcist community didn't know about the Matoba and their curse; but some objectionable things could be swallowed if the benefits outweighed.]

[For the sake of one's family, some would make any concessions.]

[Matoba scans the crowd around the bonfire for any sight of a familiar pair of blue eyes, but his instinct already tells him that presence isn't nearby. If it was, he wouldn't have managed this space of time to chat.] Then again, I wouldn't exactly call him naive, but he certainly doesn't strike you as the type who would use people for his own purposes knowingly, does he?

[It's not quite that. Matoba thinks Tama strikes as the type who does it unknowingly. Not with any grand purpose in mind, but simply because it struck his fancy. That sort of chaotic person... Was it better or worse than having a goal?]

[watermemory]

[He shakes his head.] We will have to agree to disagree on that.

[Through the anger he'd managed to tamp back down, Minakami finally begins to wonder... what made this person. He knows what made him, carrying secrets and responsibilities compounded over generations, each bearer prepared to take the brunt of suffering if it meant someone else could live. But from this glimpse, not of a community of kindred spirits as he knows it, but an ever-shifting weighing of alliances and brokered power under one banner; is that what made Matoba?]

[Maybe it's that glimpse, that makes him want to explain.]

Do you remember what I said? That yokai live alongside us, and we respect their living spaces and their laws? The hashihime's laws are simple. They say she only possesses men... [He shakes his head again, this time at his own predecessors.] ...not really true, but that is the legend: A jealous lover, who'll give you the world if you only have eyes for her.

Live for yourself, and you'll hold her regard forever. Act on someone else's behalf, while the rain empowers her... [He falters, but carries on.] If you're lucky, she only leaves you for another. If you're unlucky, disaster falls. And if you save a life, she demands a life in return.

[He follows Matoba's gaze through the crowd. Tama's late, and he's glad of it now, that he missed this.]

...if he's lived unknowingly until now, it's only helped to keep him safe.

[worldbent]

...Such troublesome beings, ayakashi.

This is why you'd be better off exorcising that thing.

[Respecting their spaces; respecting their laws. It was how normal people made do under the threat of ayakashi's unreasonable whims, when they didn't have powerful exorcists to call upon and save them. He wasn't unaware, and he knew of plenty such communities who had been under such circumstances, until someone with power had taken note, and relieved them of their circumstances.]

[Perhaps their village was in need of intervention.]

[It was something Tama had already noticed in him, when he had come face to face with the ayakashi after the Matoba's right eye; but the loathing that Matoba Seiji felt for all ayakashi drove every decision, every part of his purpose.]

[Matoba thoughtfully glances sideways towards Minakami, pondering everything the other man is holding in, about his feelings towards the hashihime. For the sake of Tama, or... for the sake of his family.]

...Is there truly any reason not to? What purpose does it serve any of you to suffer her?

[It wasn't like his curse. It wasn't a necessary tool, something they needed in order to protect what little was left of the exorcist community in the dying era of the ayakashi world.]

[watermemory]

[There's a tiny, sad smile on his face.]

What would happen, do you think, if she came back, and chose a partner more suited to her personality?

[The thrumming anxiety that's settled in his gut and hasn't left for a moment, ever since he learned about the military's interest in the hashihime's powers. (The Russo-Japanese War when he was a child, and the Great War soon after; the Siberian intervention that seemed, gods willing, to be coming to a close before he was taken here. And even fifty years past, the Boshin War's bloody legacy hanging over Aizuwakamatsu. A childhood steeped in armed conflict after armed conflict. And how much worse it could still be, given a chance.)]

Matoba-san... think of the worst person you know. Someone who might even have a good reason, to turn back the clock. But they wouldn't care about the curse's collateral damage, so long as they got what they wanted in the name of some greater good.

...Our family is prepared to bear the consequences, if we have to use her powers. Otherwise... you could say we're holding her back from causing more harm than she already has.

[worldbent]

[Time travel sure is some bullshit. Matoba does take a moment to think about that; if, becoming aware of her own demise and taking her vengeance in hand, she jumped to a more suitable host in order to wipe out the possibility.]

[Ayakashi were certainly unreasonable beings. They would wipe out entire villages, entire mountainsides without blinking, if they were angered.]

...Haha, the worst person I know? Hmm. [He wouldn't allow her to obtain such a thing. He would keep it for himself, until he could pass it along, or destroy it. But that was the thinking with all of these clans, right?]

[Maybe he should be thankful with how straightforward his own curse is. What a headache.]

Well, rest peacefully; I am sure, if you pass down your teachings and histories dutifully to be studied by future generations, there will come a time when someone inherits who can discover a way to free your bloodline once and for all.

[Don't examine that weird observation too closely, thanks,]

Speaking of which.... When he dies, what do you think will happen with her? Are you all prepared to seek a suitable heir to act as the next host? You should think about that early, before it's too late.

[watermemory]

[It's not like the dispensation of the curse isn't something that's been on his mind before. He knows it could have passed out of his family, if his father hadn't married and had him. If things had gone differently, could Minakami have gone into ascetic solitude, and prayed that the spirit returned to her bridge on his natural death? Maybe. Maybe.]

[He murmurs:] Would that day come to pass. [Given he still doesn't have a clear idea what time Matoba comes from. jimmy buffet beach gear aside.] Do I wish the same for your clan, or would that be unwelcome?

[After all, he's seen some of what Matoba is capable of -- not least being that demonstration when he lost his cool -- and how he spoke of employing his curse, but surely it wasn't an equivalent exchange. How could it be?]

[...and then, appropriately enough for his earlier train of thought, the reference to heirs and what that implies. He blanches (not that stupid argument in the corridor please no just end him already):]

I-- really-- think that is none of your business, Matoba-san. Whatever concern you have for him as your faction junior or-- this is out of your purview.

[worldbent]

[He doesn't have to question whether Minakami has gone over such a thing before in his mind, but- unless he uses the hashihime's power, he supposes- there was nothing to be done now that it was no longer in his hands.]

[Although that does beg the question of just how it ended up with Tama in the first place...]

[Upon Mina's question, Matoba just turns to give him a meandering, playful grin.]

Hmmm. If that's what you'd like, Suizenji-san.

[Was he expecting a real answer?]

[Matoba had many plans, and many aims. Should any of those aims strike true, he would be very pleased, indeed.]

[Mina's face- and the accompanying, withering reply- earns a wider smile.]

I'm not too concerned with your fate. Simply take it as free advice. It's not a unique predicament that you are in.

[...Need of heir in general, or his specific situation? Matoba doesn't specify, rising from the log bench, and smiling down at the other man. He's ringed in the firelight, a black shadow and a glint off his smiling eye.] Well, this talk has been quite fruitful. I feel like I have learned a lot. I hope we'll be able to chat again, but I should get going before it gets much later.