(D8 EM-closed) Klose Enkounters of the Kitsu Kind

[Kitsu Shintaro]

"Mhm...certainly possible that this is the same individual." He produced a small journal.

"The events of last night
Objective: contact Hantei Retsuhime for her choice of heir.
Results: Negative on contact with Hantei Retsuhime. Positive on contact with *a* Hantei. Posit that presence of spirit in Ningen-do interfered with ritual. Troubling! Further research required!
Events:
1) Introduced concept of ritual.
2) Pushback on legal position from Shiba--overcome by Togashi
3) Ritual commenced, contact made.
4) Spirit: At lat, you lot finally got up the gumption to make contact.
5) Doji: "Blessed ancestor, do we have the honor to be speaking to the spirit of Hantei Retsuhime?"
6) Spirit: [Creepy laugh]. I am afraid my dear descendant had no interest in speaking with your medium. Something about spending time with her mother. Meaningless, of course. Time, that is. Grudges. Mothers, too, come to think of it.
7) Spirit: "Well? Had you no questions? Seek you no answers? [Derisive Laugh] Speak, oh shepherdless ones, and know my wisdom."
8) Otomo: Ah, Tenno-heika, this is Otomo Tooru speaking. Can you...
9) Spirit: Yes, I can hear you. OUT WITH IT! I taste your fear, little child of my grandfather's blood, and I find it boring. If you will not grovel as you ought, then stand as a man does! Speak from your diaphragm as you were trained by that sniveling little worm you called a sensei. Damned fool, has my grandfather's blood run so thin that you've nearly thrown it all away? Is this all that is left to our posterity?
10) Seppun: Tenno-heika, please. We need to ask of Hantei Retsuhime who should...
11) Spirit: Ah! Yes, that is the question, isn't it? [Disturbing Laugh] Which of my scions is the one, yes? Who should get to enjoy the Empire I made my own? And each of you too stupid to see the answer right in front of you. Blind! Blind and stupid! [Extended Creepy Laugh]
12) Akodo: Enough. Give me my vassal, Hantei Ningi.
13) Attempted to end the ritual. Unsuccessful.
14) Spirit: [Derisive Laugh] Your vassal? The Empire is mine! I named it so! And all your fathers did was bow and scrape. There is nothing of strength in you, Akodo, as there is nothing of strength in all my scions. They are pale copies of the real thing! Now do as your fathers did, little Lion. Kneel and beg for the crumbs from my mouth.
15) Ningi attempts to leave ritual circle in Kitsu's body.
16) Altercation. Doji, Bayushi, Shiba restrain Kitsu. Akodo slaps Kitsu.
17) Akodo: Enough!
18) Spirit departs.

"Do you see any context clues that may assist us in identifying the nature of this spirit?" He was brimming with excitement. Socratic method!!!

[Asahina Hoshiko]

Hoshiko's worried frown deepens as she reads. "The tone is much the same. Vast contempt. Claims to belong and own everything. The opinion that everything is meaningless" Having heard Retsuhime in court, she knew that a ruler might not speak as they did in plays and tales, so certainly they might hold contempt for subjects. "No real threats here, but that's earlier. Maybe the spirit has made plans since. But why bother if time, everything is actually meaningless to it? What does have meaning? That seems like it might be key to what it...he is seeking."

Glancing to Shinnosuke, Hoshiko nods. "Certainly sounds vengeful though, doesn't he? Angry and upset. Well...look at the mess made in the previous generation and the fruit of it now...even a benevolent emperor's spirit may have grown angry watching that from other realms."

*********************************
Is this a spot for a roll? Either spirit-based to assess the type, connected realm, etc. or history for Ningi's context, who he means by 'grandfather' etc.?

[Cearnach]

Throw some rolls at me! I've got the lore!

Spirit Realms, History both make sense. There may be others!!

[Doji Shinnosuke]

"How awful. Have we really made such a mess of things that a noble Emperor should turn against us?" Shinnosuke maintains his Crane composure, but this is really a rather alarming conversation.

((Have 1 rank in both Lore: History and Lore: Theology, if you can believe it! In case Shin can assist with Hoshiko's analysis.))

[Asahina Hoshiko]

(Dropping a roll quickly before getting otherwise caught up D8 EM: Thinking 'bout Theology: VP (why not?) TN uncertain | 7k4 ⇒ 45. No history lore on this end!)

Hoshiko aims to soothe. "It's possible that the spirit is lying about who or what it is. That is the whole reason we can't use spiritual communication as legal testimony."

[Cearnach]

It is just possible that the assumption of Imperial infallibility is just that: an assumption. An emperor may not be taken directly to Yomi or Tengoku on their death, but rather face judgment like any other mortal. And if their soul was found wanting...

Of course, it would be much easier to believe that this is simply a lying spirit of some kind, but what if...

[Doji Shinnosuke]

Shinnosuke--not entirely and always the airheaded artist some people mistake him for--tries to remember whether he's read (in a play or otherwise) something about Hantei Ningi or unlikely vengeful spirits.


--
D8 EM--Lore:History, toss a VP! TN unknown. | 5k4 ⇒ 34

Well, okay then!

[Asahina Hoshiko]

Slowly, Hoshiko asks, as her thoughts move through the logic, "Kitsu-sama...is it known, the exact process by which the souls of Emperors and Empresses travel from this realm into the others? We enact all the same rites to guide the soul, but I think there is a great assumption that of course so divine a soul simply transfers to...well perhaps Yomi if you hoped to find one there, or Tengoku even. A sense that the rites are there out of respect and not need."

"I was, in fact, trying to see if I could detect signs of that passage through realms I am familiar with, when this," she shakes her notes slightly, "happened."

[Cearnach]

Shinnosuke--not entirely and always the airheaded artist some people mistake him for--tries to remember whether he's read (in a play or otherwise) something about Hantei Ningi or unlikely vengeful spirits.

Hantei Ningi is famous as the Emperor that declared that the whole Empire belonged to him not just metaphorically, but as personal property. Shinnosuke is also aware that he ordered the execution of Togashi Kaze for refusing to provide instruction in Kaze-do to samurai.

[Kitsu Shintaro]

Slowly, Hoshiko asks, as her thoughts move through the logic, "Kitsu-sama...is it known, the exact process by which the souls of Emperors and Empresses travel from this realm into the others? We enact all the same rites to guide the soul, but I think there is a great assumption that of course so divine a soul simply transfers to...well perhaps Yomi if you hoped to find one there, or Tengoku even. A sense that the rites are there out of respect and not need."

"I was, in fact, trying to see if I could detect signs of that passage through realms I am familiar with, when this," she shakes her notes slightly, "happened."

"Oh, there is nothing in all my experience to suggest that those rituals are anything but extremely necessary for all mortals; Hantei's children just as much as Hida's or Akodo's. More specifically, I have chatted with other Emperors in Yomi, but I cannot say that I have ever seen Hantei Ningi there. But it is a big place."

[Doji Shinnosuke]

Shinnosuke has drawn his closed fan out of his sleeve and is turning it around in his hands. "It was Emperor Ningi who had Togashi Kaze executed, wasn't it?" he asks. "How does that line go again? 'For I who defied an Emperor, no rest in this life,'" the tip of his fan traces a slow, deliberate arc across space, clearly recalling stage choreography. "'But if thou release me, peacefully I go to the next!' In the play, of course, it's a tragic conflict of necessities."

He chews his lower lip for a moment. "But I must confess, the first time I read it, before I saw it actually played, I did think Emperor Ningi rather a harsh lord. 'All Rokugan is mine,/from the soil beneath your feet/to the blood beneath your skin' is quite an extreme way of putting it."

[Asahina Hoshiko]

The way actors can just suddenly be someone else never ceases to amaze Hoshiko.

"Well that last bit certainly fits the words from both encounters. So it fits him enough that we may as well assume that he's telling the truth. Since even if he isn't, he's trying to act as that late emperor."

Hoshiko nods slowly at Shintaro's words, absorbing them. "Too mortal now for Tengoku, I suppose. That should mean there are records in the courts of Meido of their passage and judgement, yes?" That was an exciting thought. Maybe she didn't need to look for odd signs of passage, just work with one of the clerks she'd done favors for to review those records!

"I'd never thought to ask, but I could? What if Emperor Ningi was judged...." Her mood shifts from excitement to a troubled sort of shock. It seemed sacrilegious to actually say an emperor might be judged unworthy of Yomi.

"I think that might be unusual enough for some clerk to recall all these years later if I went to ask them. Records take time to find, but memories are swift."

[Kitsu Shintaro]

Kitsu Shintaro nods very rapidly. "Hai, precisely!! We must do our utmost to get to the bottom of this!!!! But we must be certain of our ritual conditions. Oh, yes, because our subject is a cagey one, and has interfered with us twice!!"

[Doji Shinnosuke]

"Can we... erm... protect ourselves from this spirit in the meanwhile?" Shinnosuke asks. "Ought we to? If he is, well, on the loose in Ningen-do and interfering with the court's affairs, whoever he really is." A new thought occurs and his eyes widen. "Could this have something to do with the earthquake, too?"

[Kitsu Shintaro]

"Possibly, but I think not. I think that was a result of Kyufoki being angry that the succession was unresolved. But you never know until you look! As for protecting yourself...good luck! Gaki are nasty things. There are some here who should be able to tangle with an everyday Gaki."

He paused, eyes wide. "HA! Everyday Gaki! Because they are not encountered every day in Ningen-do, thank goodness, but it is amusing to think about haha! But more seriously, you would want to discuss things with a good range of priests, particularly if the Crab brought any Kuni around, and Lady Seppun, of course. Oh, yes, she will need to be informed so as to protect the Tenshu...and all of us!"

He looked at each of them. "Did Lady Doji bring her sword? Yasuragi's work has always been very sought-after in these matters. Oh, wait!"

He turned and ran out of the room.

After a moment, he ran back in, holding two Ofuda. "These will make you feel better!"

[Asahina Hoshiko]

Hoshiko nodded, and took one of the emotional support Ofuda. "I will ask Lady Doji about the sword. Gaki are horrifying. And dangerous."

"Would there be more information in the library here? About.. gaki, or this particular one and, well I have research project to convince Lady Sadako of the probable causes of some of the spiritual issues so I've been meaning to try petitioning for permission in any case." She pauses, one eyebrow lifted. "I don't suppose you've any pull on Ikoma-sama regarding such privileges?"

[Kitsu Shintaro]

"I have the authority to give you access to the library myself! I have near-unimpeachable powers granted to me by my birth, because that is the system we live in. This is one of the perks! Go, go to the library and discover the secrets of the Spirit Realms!"

[Asahina Hoshiko]

Despite all the grim information, Hoshiko looks to Shinnosuke with undisguised glee. "One of the great libraries in the Empire! I've always wanted to see it, though I'm a bit sorry it's due to such a terrible plague on the court."

"One last question, I think. I'd like to call upon both air and earth spirits to see what they might tell me of the disturbances. But I defer to you as these are Lion lands and I wouldn't want to disturb them in these circumstances against your will. I would also like to ask the clerks of Meido what they recall of our visiting spirit emperor." She still really doesn't want to call it emperor gaki. "I normally would not expect that to affect anything here...but this spirit upends many expectations."

***************
(dies laughing at Shintaro)

[Doji Shinnosuke]

Shin accepts the ofuda with a grateful bow. It does make him feel a little better!

"Do you need anything special to do all that?" He turns to Hoshiko solicitously. "It all sounds quite taxing. If the other Crane and I can help in any way..."

[Asahina Hoshiko]

Shin accepts the ofuda with a grateful bow. It does make him feel a little better!

"Do you need anything special to do all that?" He turns to Hoshiko solicitously. "It all sounds quite taxing. If the other Crane and I can help in any way..."

"Research can always use more eyes. I'm solid on where to look for the mystical topics, but you seem to have a better grasp of the history." She looks to Shintaro with 'may I have one extra permission slip?' written in the lift of her eyebrows.