783/Nezu You Mind

Nezu You Mind
Date of Scene:	17 November 2023
Location:	Nezu Shrine
Synopsis:	Naru and Kazuo go to investigate Nezu Shrine in light of the ghost battle there in September.
Cast of Characters:	Mamoru Chiba, Naru Osaka, Kazuo Saitou, Pyrite

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Mamoru Chiba has posed:
It's an overcast day, dim and promising to be soggy later, that opens up in front of Naru and Kazuo at Nezu Jinja. The red torii paths are bright despite the lack of sun, and the leaves on so many of the trees are turned-- some of the trees are already bare. The gardens are always beautiful, with something for every season, but the riot of color is understated in the grey, impersonal light.

The paths framed by those hundreds of red gates are all well swept, and there, close to the gardens, are the stairs going up that Takuto had said had sooooo many skeletons. The place feels like it forgot to hold its breath a while ago and has spent the intervening time wishing it had remembered. There's nothing widely, broadly, actively wrong so far.

Naru Osaka has posed:
Grey and dim days do not make going on dark energy hunts any less ominous. They certainly make the shrines feel heavy and ponderous, closer to the spirits than not. The description of SOOOO Many skeletons doens't help the feel, even if it's not actively teeming with undead at the moment.

Naru walks the path slowly, letting the sense of the place wash over here, even if she has no real abilities beyond the most basic and mundane to sense anything. "It feels sacreligious to wander shrines looking for how things are wrong."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
Kazuo keeps Naru company, a lazy meander beside her. "Yes," he says. "That greatest blasphemy of all. Maintenance. It's a wonder that all the janitors, gardeners, and housecleaners in the world aren't hauled up on charges of heresy." He gives her that grin for a moment, before returning to an easy observation of the place at large. "I've always liked this place. My mother used to tease me about wanting to visit the koi, but that was her excuse, not mine."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Soooo many skeletons, and her hair was dragging us down into the mud, but this was still on the path with the torii, the stairs-- Takuto had said.

Even on this overcast day, there's no stopping the tourists. Many people here have actually come to visit the koi, or to make requests, or to buy charms, or even just to wander the garden paths.

Odds are good none of them can feel the echoes of unrest, or the traces through the ground of the massive stream of slow-moving energy, like a magma tunnel, under part of the path. It's possible, of course, that there are people here who can sense magic; it's possible that this passive energy leads to what they're looking for.

And then she sank into the ground and-- um, the cracks that were all over everything? Did I mention the cracks? They were in everything and they were LOOKING at me--

There are still the ghosts of presence, here, but they're barely perceptible.

Naru Osaka has posed:
"I mean.. visiting the koi is an excellent excuse." Naru points out as they walk slowly. She's watching the tourists almost as much as the shrine itself. "And tidying up is different than the level of wrong we're looking for."

"Not that I want to right now." Naru points out as she moves along with what she remembers of Takuto's explinations. "It's probably way too busy for what we're looking for. Although hidden in plain sight is a thing."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
"And definitely was a thing last time." Kazuo considers the gates, rather than the tourists. Maybe he's calling upon the fraternity of tall skinny things.

There is a notable lack of nudging Naru back toward a path, or of noting that they've left the flow of the ley line. Possibly it's just that it is under part of the path. Possibly he's considering to see where she goes.

Possibly he's just observing whether any cracks try to drag her under the ground now. He does not speak of this possibility. It might hear him.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Following the path under the torii, and connected to it, will eventually lead to the shrine.

The ley line leads directly to it -- under part of the path, part of the stairs, but not all. Some of it's under plain concrete, some under plain swept hard-packed dirt, some under grass, some under azalea bushes.

Naru Osaka has posed:
Naru wanders, taking her time as she walks with Kazuo towards the shrine itself. "There's more tourists here, granted we came at a more crowded time too. It will make it harder for you to check on things." She comments up to him. She doesn't quite follow the ley lines exactly, not aiming to trample any azalea bushes, for example. She's got too much respect for the azaleas!

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
Observing the azaleas, mind, is another thing altogether. Living things reflect energy, sometimes. They might be stronger where the ley line flows ... or might have something subtly wrong with them, if the ley line's been tainted, instead of the latent thing left at Asakusa-jinja. Or they might just be sulking because it's November, which is not an unreasonable thing for azaleas to do under any circumstances.

"We can always come back if we need to," Kazuo says easily. "We're just here to look around, aren't we?" Obviously there's no rush. Just looking. Touristy. No potential interdimensional apocalypses here, sir.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Closer and closer to the shrine, past azaleas that are maybe?? a little more lush than their neighbors, but it's terribly difficult ro discern any kind of pattern. Closer, at the shrine's immediate steps--

--the leyline continues, but odds are pretty good that this is where Naru stops. A little off to one side of where those apparent skeleton stairs finally led up to, and close to but not in the way of the actual steps onto the platform, there's just... a place that's maybe a little tiny bit more uncomfortable to be.

The vaguest hint of oppression, like a particularly thick cloud has passed in front of the sun to make the day darker and chillier for a moment, or like there's going to be ozone-smelling fog in the heat of summer, making it harder to breathe, or like the sun will never shine in the houses of the dead and it's easier to give up and wait with them there--

--it's gone the moment one steps away, a passing thing, easily dismissed.

Naru Osaka has posed:
Naru pauses at just THAT spot, turning to look to Kazuo. It's that vague sense of unease, of extra heaviness. Almost akin to only realizing that you've been poking at a bruise for the last few minutes just to realize that it really does actually hurt without fully processing that it hurts.

"Do you think we should go visit the koi?" Naru asks, just faint goosebumps rising on her arms without her noticing.

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
Kazuo's hand settles on Naru's arm, gentle, as if to quell a fraction of the goosebumps. "Now you're getting it," he says quietly. "Mark where we are." In her head, presumably. Graffiti on a shrine is very, very not a good idea.

His smile flickers up, and that it's as bright and laughing as usual says a great deal about how much he sometimes uses it to cover. "We can go visit the koi whenever you want," he adds, in a more normally conversational tone. "Do you want to look around here a little more first, or visit and then come back later?"

Naru Osaka has posed:
"Hmm?" Naru blinks up at him, taking a moment to consider what exactly she's getting. And then her subconscious tosses out a shiver, as if it just noticed all at once the psychic chill that she's standing in.

Naru smiles just as easily as he does. "Perhaps we should look around here a little more?"

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
"We can do that," Kazuo agrees, and takes out his phone. Framing pictures is an excellent excuse for small movements, and for putting hands near specific places. Hunting for a center.

... last time the thing they were looking for turned out to be in the middle of a piece of solid wood. He's a little wary about what it might be this time.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
'Like a bruise' is a good way to describe it. Fading out at the edges, growing into a more concentrated pain toward the center-- and it's a bit like a game of hotter-colder.

Ghosts, Takuto had stressed. GHOSTS.

It's just that the center, when they find it, is the coldest instead of the warmest. It's a surprise breeze, that chill, that almost sepulchral air-- and it smells of dust and silent dry decay, the breaking down of all things, the unmoving staleness air of a mausoleum.

Ghosts, in this place of spirits.

And yet still, it's something so very easily dismissed -- it's the kind of thing ghost-hunting shows are famous for. People gaslighting themselves into believing or disbelieving on the strength of suggestion and heightened alertness and discomfort. It could just be out of the path of warm breath and warm bodies in the cool November air.

Naru Osaka has posed:
Naru pauses, letting her eyes close lightly as she just settles into the chill. The stale air. The shivers that want to settle up and down her spine, but haven't quite found their full form.

"I suspect you should look here. It's probably nothing." Naru comments to Kazuo as she opens her eyes and looks up at him. "If you can get away with not looking like a random cosplayer."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
"Should I look like a very specifically intentional cosplayer instead?" Kazuo asks, tilting his head and renewing his smile. "I'll see what I can do about finding a quiet spot. If you could keep an eye on the place, and let me know if anything happens...?"

Eyes on it don't have to mean standing in it. Naru might do that out of sheer stubbornness. At least if he asks her to let him know, he might get a phone call and an overheard yelp if anything tries to eat her.

He detaches with a little bow toward her, and starts back down the path, putting his phone away as he does. Fewer photos, more fetching something forgotten, presumably. If all goes well, in a few minutes a deeply overdressed figure in white might wander back, asserting I-belong-here-clearly firmly enough to help people not notice exactly what he's wearing. Perhaps he's on some weird modern pilgrimage or something. People wear white for those sometimes, don't they? (Shhhh.)

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
It's strange, the further Kazuo gets from that spot, the more spots he'll notice. None so strong as that one, unless one were to climb the stairs where Takuto said Pyrite was. They're dull little pockets, unnoticeable before, but more easily picked up now that they both know what they're looking for.

People... definitely notice the outfit, but the combination of his sheer confidence and the public tendency to collectively ignore anything that could lead to someone making a scene ensures that no one actually says anything to Kazuo.

The negative energy of the place that Naru's standing isn't doing anything so gauche as draining energy-- it just gently encourages giving up, sinking down, drowning, covering oneself over with earth...

Naru Osaka has posed:
If Naru was prone to giving up, her life would look far far different right now. "I'll be right here." Naru assures Kazuo before he takes his leave.

And stubbornly, she really is Right There when he returns. She looks right at him, even if most other people are very politely Not Noticing. Because that would be Impolite.

"And? Any brilliant enlightenment on the walk back?" Naru asks of Kazuo as he returns.

Pyrite has posed:
    Subtle suggestions of giving up. Occasional moments of passing through a place that isn't quite wholly detached from the land of the dead, and getting hard-to-define feelings or impressions of places Other. Cold spots, as one might find in a haunted house. There are plenty of things that a normal person might hurry to get away from, try to convince themselves was nothing, and eventually succeed at erasing from their memory.
    Even those sensitive to such things could easily overlook what exactly they just stepped in. It's very shallow, after all. Not the huge Dark Energy auras of monsters and men who might as well be monsters. It's an older, more patient sort of darkness. The one that does not need to aggressively pursue, only wait.
    Time will do the rest.
    All it takes is one of the investigators stepping in the wrong place up near the actual physical shrine itself (or the right place, for their investigatory purposes), and suddenly they are in a dark and forgotten place, with shelves upon shelves of mummified corpses, piles of skulls, more dust than air in every breath, skittering bone-insects made of fingers and whole hands running about on stones that are not stones, somewhere that the dead sit and wait forever, because they will not be found, and--A cloud finishes passing in front of the Sun.
    Everything is at it was, but the impression remains.
    This might be the place.

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
"Enlightenment, no. More traces, yes. You might pick up on them on the way back out. Just a little extra numbness." Kazuo-as-phantom is not in fact a ghost. But he's a little worried about interacting with things that might be ghost-related. He takes a deeper breath, and glances one way and another, before taking advantage of a cloud passing over the sun to let a trace of shadow seep where it won't be noticed. To look for the nature of the energies, to see whether they're death alone, or the Dark, or that latent refraction from the other shrine --

Naru Osaka has posed:
"At least there's more traces." Naru comments to Kazuo as she loiters in the Darkness. Poking at the bruise. "Come stand just.. here and see what.. you.."

Naru shifts a little in the spot of chill she'd been in and then her voice trails off.

Corpses and skulls. Dust and bone-white insects. The sense of deep dark forgotten, but waiting. Always waiting.

Naru gasps softly, as if she's just remembered that she should be breathing.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
The little trace of shadow seeps down into the cracks and crevices--

--wait, there weren't any of the cracks that Takuto was talking about were visible in Zero Time? But it looks for all the world like it did go into a little crack in the ground.

The energies it tastes are Death and Dark both, and the Death is stronger than the Dark -- the dark energy can't be any more than there was at the other shrine, where it was buried in wood.

This is deep. Deeper still. The ley line itself is deeper and deeper still, but this obscures it. Below, below, under the earth where everything eventually becomes earth, deep in the heart of this sacred ground, like a silent infection. Is it causing the other unusual spots? Or are they merely side effects of the battle that took place here a month and more ago?

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
There are ways to guess. Look off the ley line, into the area around it. See whether they follow the energy path, or were spattered about. But those are not for now.

"Osaka-san?" Kazuo puts out a gloved hand toward her again, but this time does not touch. Does not risk touching, not on his own part. Because of the gasp. Because it might close a circuit. Because --

Because it's Naru, and she stopped midsentence, and stopping is just something she doesn't do.

Naru Osaka has posed:
"Right, sorry." Naru blinks at him a moment or two, or three. "The world went dead for a moment or two there."

Because that's a normal comment to make. Possibly just here.

"Did you see it too?" She doesn't seem to want to move, just in case it returns, or by moving, she might disturb something.

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
"I saw -- there's a direction I don't entirely understand, and a connection that way. Underground. There's ... something down there. It's not the same as the other place, except that it's hidden in both." Kazuo hesitates, and then adds, very carefully, "I didn't see anything around you. But I was concentrating on that. If it's reassuring at all, neither the world nor you turned skeletal from my perspective."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"So.. dark energy as well as ghost energy?" Naru speculates, a question in her tone. "Cause it feels like there's a lot going on here. Or just ghost energy and nothing dark?"

It is, perhaps surprisingly, reassuring. "So probalby a vision more than actually happening. Very much a crypt, or something of that ilk." Naru mmms softly. "So clearly this place has some issues."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
"Both, or at least death, but mostly death. Dark as a spice." He should probably not say things like that. Kazuo risks a step, coming closer to Naru, watching the space between them closely. Watching for cracks that aren't there. "It might be something completely different. Or it might be a different twist in the same pattern - one refracting, one directing. It's not leaking too much. The azaleas are all right."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
The harder Kazuo looks for cracks, the harder those cracks aren't there. Maybe in his peripheral vision, where the mask blocks; maybe they're not there at all; maybe where they aren't being, with such effort, is in fact where they are.

Naru Osaka has posed:
"Okay.. so dark AND death." Naru pulls that much out of Kazuo's commentary on what energies he can see. She might be able to shiver, but it's not the same as actually looking.

"Probably with some sort of crypt or .. something.. something.. ghostly something?" Naru offers and shakes her head a little. "That stuff is new to me, or at least didn't feel like the other shrine, but it /is/ a different shrine."

"At least the azaleas will be fine." The leyline azaleas are clearly important here.