Yomi: Teach me, Rena-sensei!

[Sierra]

<El-Cideon> Suzume leads everyone back out into the village, to a pair of unoccupied huts. They're quite plain and empty on the inside, simple one-room hovels with a pair of futons each. Rena winds up opposite you in your hut. Sleep comes quickly, what with the extensive afternoon's hike. (more)
<El-Cideon> Sometime later--it's hard to tell how long--you find yourself aware and somewhere else. You still find yourself on a pallet in a traditional Japanese dwelling, but the room is larger and...familiar. Is this home? But no one else is around now, and you hear no signs of life.
* Yomi reflexively feels for her sword. While not quite so paranoid as to sleep with one in the past, she had always kept one within easy reach of her mattress.
<El-Cideon> Your belongings are with you, you find. Everything you're accustomed to traveling with (except your friends).
<Yomi> Not a dream of the past, then, Yomi decides. A sword is all she needs; the first order of business is to find out what lies on the outside of the room.
<El-Cideon> Outside of your room is a hallway. Everything's laid out just as you remember it, more bedrooms to the left, common room to the right, kitchen/laundry next to the front door. The front door is open. You can see bright blue outside, and clouds. Moving horizontally.
* Yomi hasn't been to this house ever since getting evicted by her uncle after her father's death. Even in this weird situation, she finds herself wishing to see his room once more.
<El-Cideon> His door is easily opened. The room is unoccupied. It hardly looks like it's been touched since you left, really.
<Yomi> Then, it might still be there! His late wife's kimono, the one he bequested to her on the day of his death-- Even if a part of her knows this can't be real, Yomi still searches for that link to her adoptive parents.
<El-Cideon> It takes some searching, but--yes, there it is, kept safe and pristine in its own box in a corner of the closet, alongside a row of your father's shoes.
* Yomi stares at her find happily for several long moments, before she lets her robe slip, changing into it. The strangeness is outside, and she would meet it properly after this delay.
<El-Cideon> You look much more striking, now! It's black silk, with an eyecatching floral pattern around the waist. Superb craftsmanship and style! One should look good and feel comfortable while exploring the unreal, after all.
<Yomi> And it should have been hers! Like this house, like Shishio, like leading the Isayama family into the future. Pushing such thoughts away with an effort, Yomi returns to the open front door, taking it as an invitation to her.
<El-Cideon> Your home is now on a mountaintop, your doorstep providing a splendid and breathtaking view of an array of peaks poking up through a thick mist. Stray wisps of cloud drift above and before you as well. It's impossible to say how far up you are.
<Yomi> "Am I still dreaming?" Yomi asks, halfway expecting an answer.
<El-Cideon> You don't get a response. Not a verbal one, at least. Several of the further off wisps of clouds take on human form as you watch, great fluffy samurai warriors sparring in the heavens! It's also easy to notice that there are buildings around your house that weren't originally there, or perhaps familiar ones taken on a new shape. (more)
<El-Cideon> In the center of the village is an audience hall where your father used to receive visitors. That much is unchanged. The building is much larger now, however, distorted out of proportion with its surrounding, looming like a fortress. There is also a low, squat building with gold trim a ways behind it that you don't recognize at all.
<Yomi> The familiar building is closer, and it is the one Yomi investigates first.
<El-Cideon> The doors are closed, but evidently not locked. Layered in metal and rivets, they look more forbidding than ever in the past. You can hear a voice inside, a woman's, but the details are muffled out here.
* Yomi gets the doors open, no longer beholden to the worries and awe of the past.
<El-Cideon> There is a great throne inside, illuminated by flickering torchlight. Your cousin Mei sits upon it, looking down from her raised perch, dressed in a blinding white yukata somewhere between royal vestments and bridal gown. Two armored men, easily eight feet tall each, stand by her listening, but she pauses when you enter. (more)
<El-Cideon> She's a pretty girl, with straight hair cut uniformly at her shoulders. She has the kind of face that seems meant to radiate innocence and naivete...but only when she's not provoked by some offense. The scowl she fastens on you suggests she is not in one of her better moods. "So. You return."
<Yomi> "So it seems, Elder Sister," Yomi responds in deference. "Do you know where we are?"
<El-Cideon> "We are home. Where you should not be. You have *not* completed your task, Yomi. Why do you insult Us by returning without that which was entrusted to you?"
<Yomi> "Because chasing Elgin was a fool's errand. The Shishio is in Japan, Elder Sister Mei. I believe it to be in the hands of Ichirou Fukui."
<El-Cideon> "Hmph. On what do you base this accusation? Shishio was stolen by a filthy foreigner. Ichirou Fukui is a respected citizen of the empire!"
<Yomi> "As he died, Elgin confessed to selling the sacred blade in Japan before he even left. My search has brought me over to Fukui Armaments. Did you not assign such a task to me because you believed in my ability to track Shishio down? I have done so."
<El-Cideon> "Selling it?! Disgraceful, even for a foreigner, to trade such an object for mere material gain! But *his* sins are not the subject of discussion here. You were told to retrieve the Shishio, not return when you had merely secondhand news of it!" (more)
<El-Cideon> She stands up, imperiously drawing herself to her full height--she's not tall, but the throne does make her loom so. "I spoke on your behalf, insisting you could retrieve the sword, and here you are without it! You make me a liar and yourself a disappointment. Can you not accomplish this task on your own? Do you come here begging Us for aid in what you cannot achieve alone?"
<Yomi> "The main house has had dealings with Ichirou Fukui recently," Yomi responds, unwilling to admit that her first thought was indeed to offer Mei to join forces. "If, once more, you could provide me the information I need to succeed in my task...."
<El-Cideon> "We have been gracious enough in allowing you to redeem yourself with this task, and you ask for more? Hmph. What is that you need? Our patience grows thin!"
<Yomi> "If I don't succeed in my first attempt to retrieve Shishio, security would no doubt be raised. Anything that would increase my chances -- a place the company's head keeps his most valuable possessions, the whereabouts of his rumored weapon collection, an employee in on the company's secrets -- anything that runs along similar lines would prove most helpful, Elder Sister!"
<El-Cideon> OOC: roll will
<Yomi> roll 1d20+4
* Hatbot --> "Yomi rolls 1d20+4 and gets 16."12 [1d20=12]
<El-Cideon> There's a long pause while she observes you with a very calculating expression. "You suggest misdeeds on Fukui's part, then suggest that We have had dealings with him, thus impugning our honor as well. We resent the implication...But acknowledge your spirit and commitment to your assigned duties." (more)
<El-Cideon> "We have visited the residence of Ichirou Fukui in an official capacity and know that his most prized weapons are collected in a hall adjacent to his office, although We have not had opportunity to examine this closely. If you insist on maligning him as part of your investigation, you may wish to search there, on the second floor of his house in Tokyo."
* Yomi bows in gratitude. "Thank you for your aid, Elder Sister Mei."
<El-Cideon> "Be grateful for this assistance--go, and do not trouble Us again until you have accomplished your mission!" She points to the door behind you. The masked warriors hold long spears at the ready, making it quite apparent your audience is at an end.
* Yomi knows it quite well herself, and retreats with her eyes upon the enormous warriors, closing the doors behind her.
<El-Cideon> The door clangs shut heavily. The sound of locks slamming closed can be heard from the other side, then the building itself changes, transmogrifying into a solid block of black glass before your eyes.
<El-Cideon> There is a gray cat here, sitting outside as you exit the audience hall. It rubs against you, purring--and shedding all over your nice kimono.
* Yomi isn't certain what to make of it, but if the ancestral home she woke up in represented her past, and this conversation in the audience hall the present, the building past it which she had never before might hold a clue for her future. Picking the cat and holding it in her arms along with her wrapped bundle, Yomi proceeds towards her next destination.
<El-Cideon> The cat seems quite content to be carried in your arms, curling up into a ball. As you approach the second building, you can hear voices inside this one as well. Chanting, droning. Male this time. There is elaborate scrollwork all over the front of the building, but no obvious sign of its function.
* Yomi observes it for several moments of study, before she decides to enter the premises.
<El-Cideon> It's a theater of some sort, a very traditional Japanese one. Noh drama, you believe. Yes, that becomes even more apparent when you get a look at the stage. All the performers are clothed in the most elaborate and colorful kimonos, as well as masked. The chorus at the right of the stage wear slate-gray masks without facial features; the performer at the center is the main draw. (more)
<El-Cideon> His garb is black shot through with jets of red; his mask is Roscoe Elgin's face, contorted as if in some grotesque torment. He pauses mid-line and points at you as you enter. "The villain arrives!" he announces.
<Yomi> "I beg your pardon, for you deserve that moniker far better," Yomi responds calmly, letting the gray cat slip down to the ground. "What else would I call the one who wishes to destroy the world?"
<El-Cideon> The cat walks up to the edge of the stage and begins to use it as a scratching post. You notice that it has two tails. Noh Elgin pauses just slightly to watch it, as if in annoyance, before continuing. "But what would you know of my desires? Did you ask of them? Did you speak to me?" Without any perceptible physical change, the mask blares mad defiance.
<Yomi> "I've read your diary, the accounts of your ally Doctor Ivo, and judged you by your actions," Yomi tells him, advancing towards the stage. "You also had the chance to surrender. What more can you possibly wish?"
<El-Cideon> "To exercise my own will within my own body! Is that so difficult to understand? Isn't it your job to protect humanity? Have you never encountered the possessed before? What did you do to free this innocent from its tormentor, hm?"
<El-Cideon> The cat hops up on the stage, walks to Noh Elgin and bats at the tassels at the foot of his robe.
<Yomi> "Spend what might have been my last moments paralyzed in terror before a demonic blob," Yomi says, hopping onto the stage to face her accuser. "Once you stopped fighting the possession you ceased being an innocent. How many deaths were you responsible for? How many could have been avoided if you had fought desperately, however futile it might have been, to allow them to escape?
<Yomi> You can't absolve yourself from the responsibility your inaction brought on!"
<El-Cideon> "I fought!" he protests, the mask suddenly a twist of rage. "You do not know how I fought! When it finds you, perhaps you will know, yes? I--confounded creature!" He shoves the cat away with his foot.
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+3
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+3 and gets 10."12 [1d20=7]
<El-Cideon> The cat hisses, then vanishes with an audible *pop*.
<Yomi> "But then you stopped!" Yomi accuses him. "I will never give in, not for as long as I live! More than my duty, that's my pride as a human being!"
<El-Cideon> OOC: will again.
<Yomi> roll 1d20+4
* Hatbot --> "Yomi rolls 1d20+4 and gets 15."12 [1d20=11]
<Yomi> roll 2d6 might as well
* Hatbot --> "Yomi rolls 2d6 might as well and gets 7."12 [2d6=5, 2]
<El-Cideon> The mask tilts downwards, awash with sorrow. "Perhaps you will not give up, at that. Perhaps you will fight on where I failed? Look on and see what you oppose!" He reaches up, removes the mask. (more)
<El-Cideon> Beneath is a twisted tangle of flesh, eyes of all colors set haphazard, fanged maws slicing through at odd angles. As one they screech, and a vision clouds your perception: a cave, a great cave with a glowing ravine before you. Bone-white figure chant, circled before a black altar. There is a terrible ripping sound, of the universe being rent in two. Above the altar, space blurs in distortion.
* Yomi staggers at the suddenness of that terrible image, not expecting anything like it, and then anew at the image of the world coming to an end so horrifically!
<El-Cideon> As if echoing your thoughts: "An end and a beginning!" The figures fall to the ground, writhe, bleeding from every orifice as the uncertain, monstrous shape shrieks with a hundred discordant voices and then jets upwards, through a great hole in the roof of the cavern, flying out of sight. The glow goes out in the ravine, leaving you mercifully in darkness.
<El-Cideon> You are in darkness for a time. Then you hear someone calling your name. "Yomi? Yomi!" Something stiff raps your knuckles painfully.
* Yomi feels a moment of doubt. Can you really fight such a thing? But, forewarned... perhaps she can stop this from taking place.
<Yomi> As something wraps her knuckles, bringing her back to the present, Yomi's hand strikes out to catch her assailant.
<El-Cideon> OOC: haha. Reflex, sure.
<Yomi> roll 1d20+5
* Hatbot --> "Yomi rolls 1d20+5 and gets 8."12 [1d20=3]
<Yomi> roll 2d6 dammit
* Hatbot --> "Yomi rolls 2d6 dammit and gets 3."12 [2d6=2, 1]
<El-Cideon> Whoever it is is a little too fast for you--and deals you a whap on the head in retaliation! "How dare you sleep during class? How dare you strike at your teacher?! Wake up and pay attention!" You know the voice, though the cadence is...unusual for it. It's Rena.
<Yomi> "Just what are you teaching me?!" Yomi exclaims indignantly.
<El-Cideon> You can see now. Rena's dressed in a most conservative fashion, for her. A long dress, blouse buttoned up to her neck, plain earth tones. She wears spectacles and her hair has been wrangled into a bun. "What else do you need to know about, Yomi? Monsters!" She smacks the ruler against a blackboard--you're in a classroom, you see--on which several such beasts are finely drawn in chalk,.
<Yomi> Though it is ridiculous, Yomi decides to pay attention to the blackboard and the beasts detailed upon it.
<El-Cideon> Some look familiar to you, youkai you've grown up hearing about (and more recently meeting)--kitsune, kappa, tengu, oni--as well as some western ones. You recognize a fairy, innocent and cherubic with gossamer wings. For some reason the fairy has a red X slashed through it. "It is important to know the weakness of all monsters you face!" Rena says, her accent much more pronounced than usual, even exaggerated. (more)
<El-Cideon> Rena says, her accent much more pronounced than usual, even exaggerated. (more)
<El-Cideon> "Pop quiz, Yomi! What is the weakness of...a kappa?!"
<El-Cideon> OOC: feel free to K:A it up.
<Yomi> roll 1d20+8
* Hatbot --> "Yomi rolls 1d20+8 and gets 11."12 [1d20=3]
<Yomi> "Proper manners?" Yomi volunteers uncertainly. That's why support staff exists, dammit! "Why is the fairy crossed out?"
<El-Cideon> "That is correct! You bow to the kappa, the kappa will bow, the kappa will lose his water and his strength." Rena *smacks* the fairy with her ruler. "Because fairies are deceptive and you cannot trust their charming exterior! There is popular rubbish about them being serene and innocent girls with butterfly wings. Nonsense!"
<Yomi> "I somewhat expected that," Yomi admits. "There's just something off about tiny flying humanlike creatures."
<El-Cideon> "Yes! Some of them may have wings when they want to, some of them may look just like you and I! Although most of them do not look like you, you do not share a common habitat. But you must remain vigilant if ever you are around one! It is ever difficult to discern what they truly want. They may help you, they may perpetrate devilish mischief on a whim! But today's lesson does not concern them specifically."
<Yomi> "What is it that you want me to learn?"
<El-Cideon> Rena sits down on the desk, ruler across her knees. "What can be done when you find a monster that you cannot dispatch with your sword? What if your monster has no weakness whatsoever?"
<Yomi> "Decapitation always works," Yomi answers instantly.
<El-Cideon> "But what if it has no head?!"
* Yomi is shocked by such a freakish creature existing. "Maybe if you chop it up in really small pieces?"
<El-Cideon> Rena tsks. "Sometimes, Yomi, you must think...bigger. You must think sideways! Some monsters are too much for even you and your sword, at least alone."
<Yomi> "A proper sword is all I ever need!" Yomi insists. "With Shishio... with that blade, Ranguuren would burn away even the most terrible of monsters! Then, even if the worst happens, I can face it on my own!"
<El-Cideon> Rena stands up, abruptly, and whaps the ruler on a nearby desk. "Violence, Yomi! Is it your solution to every problem?!"
<Yomi> "Well excuse me for being too stupid for anything else!" Yomi snaps back at Rena, likewise getting to her feet. "I tried learning this stuff, but I never got anywhere past the basics! What next, you'll be asking me why I never learned healing magic?"
<El-Cideon> "I only insist that you know your enemy first, Yomi! Do not charge in! Take your time!" She points to a simple drawing at the far edge of the board. It's a great circle, filled with question marks. "Sometimes, burning is not enough. Sometimes, it has been tried before!"
<Yomi> "All this talk about relying on your friends and allies would've sounded a lot better if the previous ones hadn't just up and left!" Yomi exclaims crossly. "Well, I left. Eventually. But you know what I mean!" she accuses Rena.
<El-Cideon> "Then do not leave the ones you have! Do not repeat your mistakes!"
* Yomi forces herself to calm down. "Who is my enemy? What is their weakness?" she asks Rena.
<El-Cideon> OOC: will
<Yomi> roll 1d20+4
* Hatbot --> "Yomi rolls 1d20+4 and gets 19."12 [1d20=15]
<El-Cideon> "Mmhm, that is better. Be calm! Pursue the answers rationally and carefully. Your questions are somewhat askew, however--who for what and what for who!" Outside the classroom windows, the light starts to fade. Stars come out, suddenly. "I can only tell you for now that, when you find the horned servant of a fallen god, your conduct will be of importance to your success. The rest you must find on your own!"
* Yomi doesn't understand. She just doesn't know enough of the lore for it to be useful. "What's the point of telling me something I can't put to use?" Yomi gives voice to those thoughts. "I don't know who the servant or the god are! I don't know if they are to be my enemy or ally! Without any of that, how am I supposed to know how to behave?"
<El-Cideon> Rena taps you on the forehead with the ruler, lightly. "Use your brain, Yomi!" A bell rings, shrill and metallic. "Ah, class, it is being over," Rena says. Vision fades, then sound as Rena says, "Auf wiedersehen!" (more)
<El-Cideon> Blackness again, then you wake up in the village hut just in time to see the first light of dawn creep through the windows.
<El-Cideon> ~