Mingmei university

((I believe Sam put the ofuda in his wallet for safe keeping))

The priest's aura waivers, apparently unaccustomed to work associates suddenly crying on him. He says, "It is unbecoming of one of our own to give such a public display of emotion. If you need some time, there is a restroom just to the left. We can continue to discuss this matter once you have properly composed yourself."

He gestures towards a doorway that reads, "Toilet".

Chougou puts a note in noodlegangchat that we need Sam to bring the ofuda

He also tries to comfort KingFisher by patting her leg

Sato gives a wan, apologetic smile to the priest.  
 
"As you can see, we are quite desperate for aid and our righteous fervor sometimes overflows.  Kingfisher is a noble woman, and is passionate about protecting the poor and downtrodden of our beloved city."

"As you requested, momentarily my associate will bring the ofuda and the glyphs the Professor gave us for your inspection.  We would appreciate your learned guidance and council in this matter."  

He notices Chougou's Noodlechat message, gives a small sigh and replies-all with a message of his own : ((AR via his trodes))  
    "Sam, let me convert this to gaijin-speak so you clearly understand : 'if you are quite done masturbating to Matrix porn on the park bench over there, please come deliver the ofuda and glyphs that Chougou requested.'"

Sam is up to about 840 moves. Barely a drop in the bucket in his 20 disc game. He pauses it to compose a thoughtful message in the NoodleGangChat:
"Hey, Stao-c0ck. Fuck u. Is th@t l@ngu@ge you can fucking comprehend u s@nctim0nius fuckin c0cksuker? it was a bad enuff idea 4 u @ssh0les 2 Dclare ur intent about teh tree teh day b4 we mite have 2 steal it, but now u want to burn my ID 2? Go take ur cheesy expensive-@$$ soot and fuck directly the fuck off. Who teh fuck do u think u R ordering me the fuck around newayz??? U guyz better hope teh others get b4ck with peach w00d. Cuz U dun fucked this lead."
The NoodleGangChat closes.
Sam goes back to his game.

KingFisher sobs a little more then wipes her face with the back of hands.
Glistening snot, tears, black mascara and white face paint are smeared across the back of her hands.

She throws her hands in the air and makes a pitiful snorting sound like she's sucking snot back down her throat.

"what's the point? You've already decided what you're going to do. You already knew the moment the letter was presented. I have much to do and little time to get it all done in. I'm not thirty winters old, my peers are daydreaming about gorgeous lovelies to fall in love with, weddings to plan and perform in their dreams, babies to be born and raised.
In less then two days I'm going to march to my almost certain death. All I can do is pray I am slain in battle for the alternative is to be consumed and unmade.
So sit in comfort, ruffle my hair like I'm a silly girl.
I have my will to organise, my death poem to write, my funeral to request. And Death to face in the morning.
I don't have time to bow and scrape. To pander to your ego and dance around the formal courtesies.
Either equipment me with the weapons I need to save my community from becoming a graveyard, or pray I have a swift warriors death in battle. All else is pointless and a waste of words. Make your judgement known so I can complete my final duties. "
**No dice rolls I can't think of anything to roll against.
**

On the Astral her reflection is becoming very strange.
She radiates a warrior preparing for certain death.
Her spirit looks at the priest with a disappointed expression. She appears to be waiting for the priest to invent yet another reason why she should march to war without even a shred of hope.

Chougou sighs and walks over to Sam to ask if he can have the ofuda

Sent from Topic'it App

The priest gives Kingfisher the same look one might get if they just played hacky sack with a puppy in the middle of a funeral. He quickly regains himself to maintain his professional composure and says to Kingfisher, "Miss, if you do not wish to be treated like a little girl, perhaps you should stop acting as though you are one. Crying about your personal life to people you barely know is very undignified."

To Sato he says, "I understand that it may be urgent, but one cannot go to a bank and demand money simply because they have an urgent need of money. We have a sworn duty to protect these trees as we try to find a way to replenish the world's devastated population. It is not that I do not believe your urgency or even that I want to say no, but we only have a single tree, and it is very valuable both as a natural treasure as well as a black market item so we cannot have the tree damaged on hearsay.

"Also as I said, an offering must be made to the kami of nature or they will grow disgruntled were we to remove a large branch from the tree. The kami must be respected for it is through them that life flourishes." He adds to Kingfisher, "As a priestess, you should know this, though it is understandable that the hands of man are often at odds with the hands of nature."

"If you do not wish to listen to me, then you can listen to the kami. Return with a suitable offering to the kami and you may ask them for permission personally. However, do try to keep your conversation on topic. The kami have little patience for tears and theatrics."

Sam pauses his game (906 moves in). He looks up and Chougou and shakes his head, sadly.
"S-s-sorry Ch-ch-chougou," he stutters. "You, um, you can't let bullies, um, get their way. Then they'll, they'll never learn."
He stands up from the bench and leaves the temple, walking past Sato and KingFisher outside the gate as he makes his way to a bus stop.

Sato inclines his head to the priest in gratitude.
"Thank you for your guidance. We will consider your advice and return."

"In addition, it appears there's some problem with your Matrix access today.  My colleague's communication become completely garbled and then he dropped off without warning.  Highly unusual."

Sam walks by and Sato turns his head to watch him pass...with a mystified expression on his face.

"Alternatively, he may be having a stroke."

The priest says, "We try to have a stable connection around the temple grounds, but the surrounding area is hit or miss, I am afraid. It sometimes affects our own service. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. "

"I understand Sam," Chougou says again patting his other friend on the leg "they must be upset that you have matrix skills while they only have the meat world and some spirits. You are right to stand up for yourself, but if you let them get to you then they win."

Chougou follows Sam as he starts to walk out and asks if Sam would mind if Chougou went and showed the ofuda to the priest, but seeing that the priest has ended the conversation with the others (without hearing the conclusion) he comms to the two of them.

"Did the priest say what we could offer the spirit as a gift for the branch? Do we still need the ofuda?"

Sent from Topic'it App

“Honorable priest, what would be an appropriate offering for the plant spirits for a quantity of wood which we could use as a stake?”

The priest says, "An offering of purified food is custom. Fresh fruit, in particular. Strawberries and watermelon are excellent choices. About a half kilo or so should satisfy them."

((in mechanics terms, Shinto reagents. 1 unit of reagents is about 5 grams, so roughly 100 units. 1 unit is about 20 nuyen, though they can be foraged for if you go outside the city and have the alchemy skill.))

KingFisher looks at the priest with all the respect a high ranking corporate treats dog mess on its new boots.
"That's the most pathetic response I've ever heard in my life. Do I need to get sock puppets out and explain this again in small words in case you're in your second childhood. Fine."

KingFisher once again summons the Trid Phantasm spell.

"Ahem. We" points at herself and the boys nearby.
"go Fight" here she mimes shadow boxing.
"monster."
Here she curls her fingers like claws and does a mock imitation of a beast growling.
"Spell no work"
Waves hands in the air.
"Weapons no work"
Waves hands in the air.
"Fire no work"
Waves hands in the air.
"Peach tree"
Makes mime of a tree.
"only thing to work."
"We fight"
Mimes boxing
"No wood, we eaten"
Makes hands into a crude imitation of Jaws and snaps them several times.

Pauses
"No tree"
Waves hands
"No shrine"
Waves hands
"No city"
Waves hands
"All consumed"
Waves hand.
"You"
Points at priest
"Under"
Pauses
"Stand?"

KingFisher blatantly thinks the priest is either in his second childhood or too stupid to follow her point.
Thinking even this summary is too hard to follow.
"We get wood or shrine dead."
Pointing at the priest
"You"
Pointing at priest
"Follow?"

Giving the priest a look like she expects him to need help writing his name let alone making a judgement.

Her Astral form is dressed for burial. Clearly she's not expecting to survive very long.

As Kingfisher enters the inner temple, Sato stands outside the gate, silhouetted against the setting sun. He lights a cigarette and motionlessly watches her ply her “charms” inside.

He wasn’t sure if this group of allies was going to work out. They seemed so foreign, so...direct.

They were unpredictable and exciting...maybe that would be the element that he lacked...maybe....

Chougou waits to see what happens with his mouth slightly agape in confusion at the speed that things are moving but then turns and asks Sam if he can show the seals ((I forgot the correct word for them)) to the priest because Chougou doesn't understand what's going on and can only think that that's was what he (the priest) had asked to see before.

Maybe it would help out in this situation, or maybe things had gone off the deep end and they were going to have to prepare to run...or fight the monks? Chougou activates the attack drones in his van and tells them to run diagnostics on themselves and prepare for deployment.

Sent from Topic'it App

Realizing that Sam isn't around him, Chougou comms him and presumably then would learn he is at the bus stop I expect? Chougou looks for Sato and the priest and tries to see where KingFisher has gone.

((will be clipping the ooc posts to clear clutter and the spirit post because Kingfisher can't get to the tree in general because it is sealed off from the public, and even if it was not, this would happen before she could get there))

The priest, now completely irritated with Kingfisher's complete lack of manners, says, "If you think I would allow someone as unhinged as you have demonstrated yourself to be anywhere near our inner sanctum, you are quite mistaken. In fact, you can just leave the temple grounds entirely. I don't care who you are or who has introduced you, but if you are this disrespectful to me, I can only imagine how disrespectful you will be to the kami or our sacred trees. It is completely baffling that anyone would vouch for you and quite frankly I will be checking to see if you even are who you say you are. Consider yourself fortunate if you still have your job by morning."

He turns to the miko who has been sitting patiently next to him and says, "See that she leaves the grounds. I will send some others to help you momentarily, in case she chooses to cause you further trouble."

To Sato he says, "It would be in the best interest of your friend that you make sure she leaves safely. She is apparently having a bad day and we would not want that day to get any worse."

The priest then vanishes and the miko steps out from behind her counter and says, "With the greatest respect, honored guests, if you would be so kind as to follow me, I would be most happy to escort you back to your vehicle." The miko uses the exceptionally polite form of Desian that is either used for people well above your status, or those from whom you wish to distance yourself from.

Sato and Kingfisher notice that a crowd of tourists who were partially waiting to get tickets and partially morbidly fascinated by the train wreck of a spectacle playing out before them, have gathered around the area, though when the pair turn around, the crowd pretends as though they were not paying attention in unison.

Nearby, Sam waits at the bus stop for the next bus, which according to the posted schedule should arrive in about 30 minutes, with another one coming about every 2 hours. Chougou finds Sam at the bus stop, looking very uncomfortable.

KingFisher shrugs in sheer boredom and trots off to wait for the bus.

Swinging her backpack off one shoulder drops heavily into the seat. She begins to remove the respectable priestly garb. In a few minutes the clothing is back in the backpack, the pins holding her hair are gone and she sits there in her action jumpsuit.
Her hand automatically finds a bottle of cheap vodka in the backpack. Breaking the seal with practised ease she unscrews the bottle and takes a generous mouthful.
The cheap spirit burns down her throat and slowly makes her feel numb.
Two more mouthfuls follow in quick succession.
She looks at the others.
"Anyone else want a drink?"

Waving the small half empty bottle at each of the team.
"Wonder if the others did any better?
Don't forget to make your wills tonight boys. I don't expect to be alive tomorrow night, probably neither will you."

KingFisher ripples in the Astral and goes to present her report to Rosa.
"Well Rosa looks like the serial killer is some kind of ancient beast. It drains the Qi or life force from its prey and gets stronger. The prey is supposed to rise a few days later as a slave to its creator.
We've manages to get a handful or two of the only stuff that can effect it. Peach wood.
No spells, spirits, weapons, prayers or aanything else can even scratch it. Oh and it can drain your life force with a single touch so fighting it is going to be fun.
We might just have a slim chance if we can wrap the wood around our physical adepts fists. Otherwise we're pretty much sunk.
I'll return my room keys in the morning.
For now I need as many grenades as you can get.
If we fail I'd like to bury the thing under concrete till someone else has another go at fighting it.
I'm going to make my final arrangements when I get back to the city. Will see if the temple will give me a funeral while I'm still alive. Been nice running the shadows with you. Fifteen minutes after we enter the sewer to fight the fiend if we're either going to have stumbled on a way to effect it or become paste under a blast of explosives.
I really don't want to become a mindless slave to an ageless beast. KingFisher out. "

Sato sits in the bus stop seat facing Kingfisher.  For a full minute, he sits with his face in his hands, motionless.  

He aspirates a small sigh (as if to say "fuck it") and leans forward to take the vodka bottle.  He takes a long drink.
 
"We have to learn to trust each other...communicate...work as a team.  We each have much to teach and much to learn but we must do it quickly.  In a more dangerous circumstances, we would have died there, all of us."

He looks at Sam.

"Sunmahen, Sam-san ((I apologize)).  I let the tension of the situation boil over into frustration directed at you.  It was uncalled for."

A few moments pass.

"Let us agree ahead of time on one plan and work to support each other.  We have the following :

• A way to stun the creature (the ofuda which our priest can activate and I or one of the other adepts can apply to its forehead)
  
• A way to trap the creature after it is stunned (the glyphs the professor provided)  
  
• We know a way to kill it, but it will require money for an offering, which I can loan the group."  
  

"We will also need to inform the police about this and seek to qualify ourselves for the reward."

"However, before we spend the money, we should first check in with our colleagues if they found the something useful at the old orchard."  

"Let us discuss everyone's thoughts and formulate a plan that we all agree to."

((I'm way in to this burying the hatchet angle Sato is going for. But I just need to stress, we need to work within the fiction. Sam is waiting for the bus, which will get here in a half hour. So, maybe you two are sitting next to each other on a bus stop bench? We're definitely not on a bus.))

Sam regards Sato.
"It's not... Not about game plan. I'll, I'll back your... Your plays. Just don't be a. Don't be a dick"

KingFisher smiles and nods slowly.
"Always a good idea that. Do you have any smokes?
I feel like I need one."

Looking at Sam,giving a weary nod.
"Sam, you have any suggestions?"

She draws a series of kanji in the air with her finger.
In the Astral it appears floating in the air.

Kara o dani
ukiyo no naka ni
todomezuba
izuku o haka to
kimi mo uramin

If I leave no trace behind
In this fleeting world
What then could you reproach?