Dark Edge Village

OOC: Waiting, but it's a free world.

The previous night had changed the tone of the already ominous miai. A massive dragon had fallen from the skies, attacking the the gathered samurai. Two had been severely injured and one laid dead, wrapped in thick cloth of wool to hide her hideous injuries. Dong-Ha had tended to her body, and while he had seen dead before, none of them had bore the kind of gruesome injuries the battle maiden had suffered. It seemed so... unfair. Yet life rarely was. The sogged ground added to the sense of misery, even if the Lady Sun slowly slowly creeping over the horizon hold promise of a nicer day.

There wasn't much left of the so called shrine, no images of Fortunes to pray to, no candles to lit. On the other hand there wasn't much left of Otaku Chi-Pu either. In a way, it seemed fitting. Dong-Ha leaned against one of the stone pillars that made up the torii and dug out an amulet from his pocket, rolling it between his fingers, lost in his thoughts.

A tiny female in green and red robes came in the morning to greet the lady sun. Yet the damage of the water dragon phase her since she didn't expect such thing at a Miai. Maybe the heaven's were giving a sign that they disprove of this marriage setting. The Centipede shook her head dismissing such notion. She paid her respect to the dead saying a prayer for them. She looked at the man lost in thoughts. "Anooo, Unicorn sama?"

"Uh?" shaken from his reverie, Dong-Ha turned to regard the petite woman. He had thought that Hotaru and Tomoe had been small, but somehow even smaller samurai-ko had appeared before his eyes. "Uh... good morning." he tried to squint to recognize her family mon. "Uhh samurai-san." He was pretty sure that nightmare-bug was not a clan.

Recovering his senses, Dong-Ha offered the newcomer a bow. "Good morning. Iuchi Dong-Ha at your... disposal." Don't the locals feed their girls?

"Blessings of the Lady Sun be with you this ... dreary morning." She gave the man a bow. "This one is Moshi Asakiko form the Centipede clan. It is an honor to meet you Iuchi san."

"Uh.. as with you?" he had no idea on how to answer to such a greeting, and did his best to improvise, offering the Centipede a sheepish smile as if to show that he wasn't sure what to say. "Moshi Asakiko-san... oh, I think I have heard your name... first from Isawa Nonin-san and then mentioned. A diviner, right?" her name had popped up in the camp several times. "Honor is all mine." Dong-Ha quipped, figuring that the nightmare-bug was actually a centipede.

"What kind of an omen... would an angry dragon be?" his eyes drifted towards the western fields where the heavenly being had fell.

"It is a mixed blessing Iuchi San. For the fields needed the water but not the rage." She shook her head and sighed. "It is quite sad that such destruction could be a blessing yet one has to wonder what really set this rage."

"So the omens are mixed?" he found it hard to believe, but on the other hand she was the presumed expert. "That is... interesting. One would expect a downpour accompanied by a wrath of heavens be more a dire warning." Dong-Ha mused as he softly scratched his chin. He had an idea what could have caused such an dire open but did not quite want to voice his thoughts. "Has Moshi-san looked into portents? Was there anything that could have predicted this?"

Udo arrives at the shrine early in the morning. Seeing the other two, he gives them plenty of space and sits a good bit away from them to offer his prayers and meditate on the night before.

"Iuchi sama the fortunes have mysterious was of telling us things. I have not done a general reading about this place. We were guided here by a greater power." Or so I think... haven't had any fortune dream in a while. "We are never certain of what we change might trigger what it was meant to happen." She nodded.

Hotaru began her morning at the shrine, as she usually did. She meandered in, dressed in an outfit that hinted very much her vocation as a miko. Much of the rain had undone most of her work from yesterday, as she noticed that the rain and the winds had done a rather good job of ripping out the paper charms that she hung up there. It shouldn't have been surprising, given how fierce the winds were yesterday. Such a mess! I guess I'll just have to do this all over again!

She bowed politely to both Asakiko and Dong-Ha as she gave them a respectable distance for their conversation, working on picking up the bits of rice paper and whatever remains of her charms.

During her chores, she was brought over to where Udo was praying and bowed politely to greet him, whether or not he would notice her from his mediation.

Moshi Asakiko wrote:"Iuchi sama the fortunes have mysterious was of telling us things. I have not done a general reading about this place. We were guided here by a greater power." Or so I think... haven't had any fortune dream in a while. "We are never certain of what we change might trigger what it was meant to happen." She nodded.

"Well... you did say that it was a mixed blessing, so I thought you had some idea..." This wasn't going as he had expected. Perhaps this was why Hotaru had warned him of the others. "Greater power?" he frowned. "Is that good... or a bad thing, Moshi-san?" Dong-Ha had a bad habit of being too curious for his own good.

The Moshi gave it some thought as she greeted the Bayushi and motioned the Togashi to join in. "One never know, good or bad is a relative term. In life things that once were bad changed us to be better which is good." The Moshi pondered once more.

"That is... rather philosophical." Dong-Ha nodded. He would have been fine conversing just with the Centipede, but seeing that she wanted to include others, he too moved to give space for them. Hotaru got a brief nod. He knew her after all.

Turning back to Asakiko, he added. "Moshi-san, by the way, do you perhaps know Isawa Nonin-san?"

"Hai I read his fortune some days ago and yesterday we greeted lady Amaterasu together." She nodded. "It is the duty of a priest be philosophical from time to time."

"Ha." Dong-Ha nodded. "So, Isawa-san suggested an experiment, and he mentioned that you might be able to help. An esoteric experiment, if you may. Matters beyond the mundane." the young Unicorn swung his hand as he was reaching for something that was beyond their immediate grasp.

"Would you be interested?"