Yukari Quest, continued... Again?!

[Dormio Ergo Sum]

> Load save.

>You wonder what you should do. As you ponder, strange visions of the past begin to enter your mind. You see images of key points of your journey. In fact, you feel as though you could reach out and simply dive into one of the images. You don't really know where, or rather when, you would travel to and so you decide to stay in the present. As you make this decision, the images fade away. You get the distinct feeling that this will never happen again.

>_

[qMyon]

I'm not sure what to do, either. Maybe we should hope that Shikieiki becomes a little more tractable once the border is fixed?

Suggest asking this:
"Just a couple of quick questions. How long will the paperwork take to process, and is there any way I can familiarise myself with the appeals process?"

Maybe we can go about this through the system again, given Shikieiki's penchant for sticking to the rules, or do you all think we'd be better off trying to persuade Shikieiki to change her mind? Given how convinced she is of the accuracy of her judgment, the latter might be pretty difficult.

[GuyYouMetOnline]

>Could we gap a soul out of Hell in our current state (after fixing Higan so we can gap at all, of course)? If not, could we do it when at full power?
>"I fully intend to file an appeal, but your are correct that my business here should be handled first."
>Exit the courtroom with Shiki.

[Shadoweh]

> Don't leave yet.
> "Actually, can I file this appeal with you now then? You're going to be in your office anyways."

[Darkoda]

>Leave the room with her. We can't file for an appeal in here anyway and she just might become marginally more reasonable if the courtroom stops screwing with her.
>Do ask about the whole appeal process though, and make sure that she leaves first in case the memory wipe thing occurs when we leave.

[GuyYouMetOnline]

*Agrees with Darkoda*

[Dormio Ergo Sum]

>Could we gap a soul out of Hell in our current state (after fixing Higan so we can gap at all, of course)? If not, could we do it when at full power?

>In your current state, you doubt that you could. If at full power, you could, but you wonder if you would be able to endure the conditions of hell long enough to carry out whatever it is that you want to.

>"I fully intend to file an appeal, but your are correct that my business here should be handled first."
>Exit the courtroom with Shiki.

> Don't leave yet.
> "Actually, can I file this appeal with you now then? You're going to be in your office anyways."

>You decide not to leave the courtroom quite yet.
>"If you must, but understand that I will not be able to process it for quite some time."

>Leave the room with her. We can't file for an appeal in here anyway and she just might become marginally more reasonable if the courtroom stops screwing with her.
>Do ask about the whole appeal process though, and make sure that she leaves first in case the memory wipe thing occurs when we leave.

>You leave the courtroom with Shikieiki, who looks around the reception hall as soon as she enters it.
>"Where is everyone?"
>"One lodges an appeal. If there is no good reason for there to be an appeal, then it shall be ignored. If the appeal is not rejected, then a different judge will review the case and determine whether or not a new trial is required. Understand that appeals are rarely accepted, and a successful appeal is rarer still."

>_

[Darkoda]

>Oh boy. Did Utsuho do all those charges that Shikieki listed off?

>Would Rin be able to handle it, being used to the Hell of Blazing Fires and all?
>"The only ones here were you, Komachi and Utsuho's soul - and I'm not sure how she got here either. Well outside of that invisible audience in your courtroom."
>Are things fixed yet? If not ask her if she knows anything about the distorted sky.
>Also ask her if she's aware that she was in that courtroom with Utsuho for *insert how long its been since she died*.

[GuyYouMetOnline]

>And follow the Utsuho information with: "That is one of the reasons I believe settling her case as you did was an error; the circumstances of the trial are highly unusual."

[Dormio Ergo Sum]

>Oh boy. Did Utsuho do all those charges that Shikieki listed off?

>Would Rin be able to handle it, being used to the Hell of Blazing Fires and all?
>"The only ones here were you, Komachi and Utsuho's soul - and I'm not sure how she got here either. Well outside of that invisible audience in your courtroom."
>Are things fixed yet? If not ask her if she knows anything about the distorted sky.
>Also ask her if she's aware that she was in that courtroom with Utsuho for *insert how long its been since she died*.

>You don't know.
>You have no idea.
>"Invisible audience?"
>"Distorted sky?"
>Shikieiki walks over to the entrance of the courthouse and opens the main doors.
>"Strange, it is never night here."
>In the sky, you can see stars and the moon. It is rather different to the complete darkness that was there before.
>"You must be quite mistaken. There is no way that I would have that much time to spend on a single case."

>And follow the Utsuho information with: "That is one of the reasons I believe settling her case as you did was an error; the circumstances of the trial are highly unusual."

>"That is of no importance. She is guilty of various crimes and must be punished appropriately."

>_

[GuyYouMetOnline]

>"And what about the fact that she's the only soul to enter Higan in the last two years? Does that not make you think this is an unusual case? Because what it tells me is that she might be important to restoring Higan. If we can find out why she could enter when no other soul seems able to, we may be able to make use of that information."

[Dormio Ergo Sum]

>"And what about the fact that she's the only soul to enter Higan in the last two years? Does that not make you think this is an unusual case? Because what it tells me is that she might be important to restoring Higan. If we can find out why she could enter when no other soul seems able to, we may be able to make use of that information."

>"That cannot possibly be correct. And even if that were the case, it does not change the fact that she has had her trial and that the verdict has been announced."
>"As for figuring out why, would that not be your responsibility? I have already done what you have asked of me."
>"Now, regardless of the oddities, I must still attend to my duties."
>"If you do not mind, I shall take my leave then."
>Shikieiki begins to walk in the direction of the offices.

>_

[GuyYouMetOnline]

>"Your duties do not include keeping Higan as it should be? And even if they don't, with Higan as it is now, you cannot judge souls, because they cannot reach Higan. And if one does, you'll likely get stuck in another loop as soon as you enter the courtroom again. You cannot do your duty with Higan as it is, and I cannot restore Higan without your help."
>If she still objects: "Shikieiki Yamaxanadu, your actions are in direct contridiction of your duties, and you show no signs of realizing this. If you have strayed this far from the responsibilities of your position, then I have no choice but to go before the other judges and argue for your removal from the position of Yama."

[qMyon]

>Hold off on the second bit.
>Can we detect any differences between Shikieiki's behaviour now and the last times we encountered her/what we know of her?

Is the second part a bluff or do we have anything planned? I'm not sure this would be too good to do, given that it is pretty antagonistic. Do you think we could try convincing her that a lot of time has passed by comparing dates? Or maybe we can bargain with her by letting her file the paperwork, but not without extracting a promise to come out and help us after that. We'd better check how long the paperwork would take. Given how little we know about Higan's structure compared to the other two scenarios, I'm not sure how much we can assume.

About getting Utsuho back, we might be able to make a bit more progress once the border is fixed and we can get help from Orin and Satori. At least we'd have backup if it came to a showdown.

[GuyYouMetOnline]

Shiki's pretty clearly being deliberately unhelpful (the line about having done what we'd asked being the strongest indicator, since it's pretty damn obvious that we wanted more than just her leaving the courtroom), and I would suspect that the apparent lack of concern for Higan's state that she's showing runs contradictory to the duties of a Yama. Given all of that, my intent was basically to deliver a verbal wake-up slap, try to provoke some sort of response, the response we get likely telling us a good deal about the normality or abnormality of her current mental state. And given that Yuyuko, Kanako, and Suwako were all mentallly affected somehow (Yuyuko by posession and the other two through memory alteration) it's fairly safe to bet that Shiki isn't exactly herself at the moment. My intent is to take measure of Shiki's current state through deliberate provocation, then reenter the courtroom, which seems to be the center of Higan's abnormal state. If you all want to skip the provocation part, though, then whatever. We can go straight back into the courtroom and look for clues as to just what the hell is going on.

[Darkoda]

I vote for holding off on challenging the Yama right now. Something is off here, but every time the cause was really something else; with Yuyuko it was that tree. With Suwako simply pointing out to Kanako the oddity of the world snapped her out of it. We know that Komachi is effectively useless since she's too lazy to do anything that needs effort, and that courtroom kept messing with her on top of that invisible audience. We should investigate that first at least; we can always confront her whenever after all.

But we should make her aware a bit more how badly she was messed up.

>"Your courtroom at least had some sort of stable time loop; everytime I left, you were right back where I'd left you before and it was filled with an invisible audience and guards. From what I gathered from Komachi, you've been in there since Utsuho's soul arrived. From your words, I take it that the invisible beings were not normal?"

>Do we have any idea where the door Utsuho got carted through leads? If not, that would be as good a place as any to explore as a place we haven't been yet.

[Dormio Ergo Sum]

>"Your duties do not include keeping Higan as it should be? And even if they don't, with Higan as it is now, you cannot judge souls, because they cannot reach Higan. And if one does, you'll likely get stuck in another loop as soon as you enter the courtroom again. You cannot do your duty with Higan as it is, and I cannot restore Higan without your help.""

>"I fail to see the relevance of that statement. Of course it is, but I know not what to do. You have asked me to leave the courtroom, and I have done so. You have not specified anything else that is required of me."
>"You claim to have experience in fixing whatever has occurred here, and so I am expecting you to fix it."
>"And it matters not what circumstances surround myself, if there is work to be done, then that work must be done."
>"I know not what you speak of. What do you mean by 'stuck in another loop'."

>If she still objects: "Shikieiki Yamaxanadu, your actions are in direct contridiction of your duties, and you show no signs of realizing this. If you have strayed this far from the responsibilities of your position, then I have no choice but to go before the other judges and argue for your removal from the position of Yama."

>Hold off on the second bit.
>Can we detect any differences between Shikieiki's behaviour now and the last times we encountered her/what we know of her?

>You decide to refrain from directly confronting her.
>You aren't sure, you don't know her well enough to judge whether or not she is being different to what you know of her. She, at least, doesn't seem to be too different to what you've heard.

>"Your courtroom at least had some sort of stable time loop; everytime I left, you were right back where I'd left you before and it was filled with an invisible audience and guards. From what I gathered from Komachi, you've been in there since Utsuho's soul arrived. From your words, I take it that the invisible beings were not normal?"

>Do we have any idea where the door Utsuho got carted through leads? If not, that would be as good a place as any to explore as a place we haven't been yet.

>"Nothing should be hidden in this place. This is a place where the truth is revealed."
>"Strange, whilst in the courtroom, I could see everyone else. And from what you are saying, it seems as though Komachi has been unaffected by whatever events have transpired here."
>You do not know. It could be somewhere to start.

>_

[qMyon]

Okay, based on what she said, seems like she is more or less as stumped as we are, but it's also clear that she doesn't quite realise the problem besides the lack of staff and the sky. The fact that she could see the court audience and realise the time could be things we could point out. Seems like we have two options. First, confront her now, and prove the inconsistencies in her account. Second, we could let her go after convincing her to help once we've figured out something. In this case, it might be worthwhile to see if there is something in Hell that is making the situation worse, like the Saigyou Ayakashi in Hakugyokurou.

>"If you are not convinced of the fact that no soul has entered for two years, you may check with Komachi. Anyways, I think she might need a lecture, given how reticent she was towards doing work of any kind."
>"About the audience and guards in the court, could you still perceive them once you had exited the courtroom? If not, I do think you must agree that something is wrong."
>"Furthermore, what was the date and time that your trial of Utsuho Reiuji began? What time and date do you believe it is?"
>Compare this with the current date as we know it.
>"Forgive me for this delay, but convincing the entities within each affected area of each rift was at least partly responsible for my being able to solve the problem"
>"Given that it is your responsibility to watch over Higan, may I at least count on your further assistance once I have gotten a proper idea of any further action to take?"

Okay guys, if anyone has any objections to these entries, go ahead and voice them.

[GuyYouMetOnline]

No objections.

[Dormio Ergo Sum]

>"If you are not convinced of the fact that no soul has entered for two years, you may check with Komachi. Anyways, I think she might need a lecture, given how reticent she was towards doing work of any kind."
>"About the audience and guards in the court, could you still perceive them once you had exited the courtroom? If not, I do think you must agree that something is wrong."
>"Furthermore, what was the date and time that your trial of Utsuho Reiuji began? What time and date do you believe it is?"
>Compare this with the current date as we know it.
>"Forgive me for this delay, but convincing the entities within each affected area of each rift was at least partly responsible for my being able to solve the problem"
>"Given that it is your responsibility to watch over Higan, may I at least count on your further assistance once I have gotten a proper idea of any further action to take?"

>"I am inclined to believe you at this point, though how such an event could occur is beyond myself. It pains me to think of how much work would have built up during this time."
>"Perhaps, where is Komachi at the present?"
>"No, I could not, which is indeed strange."
>"As far as I am concerned, the previous trial began approximately half an hour ago. Of course, if what you are saying is true, then my perception of time would be inaccurate."
>Shikieiki gives you a date one year and three months into the past.
>"Though I still do not know how I would help, if it is within my power I shall do what I can."
>"For now though, I still need to process the latest case."

>_

[qMyon]

>"Komachi should still be at the bank of the Sanzu River. Try not to be too harsh on her, since it was due to her help that I finally got you to hear me out."
>One year and three months? Weren't we still trapped in the boundary then? How did Utsuho get through in that case?
>"The time you started the trial was one year and three months before I entered Higan. As you say, your sense of time, or the rate at which time flowed within the courtroom, would be inaccurate."
>"How long would you take to process the case?"
>Take a piece of paper from the notebook and the pen.
>"Before you leave, I would like you to write a quick note to yourself and sign it, in order to avoid a repeat of the previous situation."
>"Whenever I entered the courtroom, you would have forgotten who I was and what I had said to you previously. I hope that a note from yourself would help smooth things over more expediently in such a case."
>"I will be able to find you in one of the offices, I take it?"

Okay guys, I really hope I'm not hijacking this or anything. I'm planning on letting Shikieiki go do her stuff, and take a look inside that door Utsuho went through. It might be worthwile talking to her, given that she was the only one who made it through to Higan while the barrier was still busted. Please, if any of you want to do anything with Shikieiki, go right ahead.

[Dormio Ergo Sum]

>"Komachi should still be at the bank of the Sanzu River. Try not to be too harsh on her, since it was due to her help that I finally got you to hear me out."
>One year and three months? Weren't we still trapped in the boundary then? How did Utsuho get through in that case?
>"The time you started the trial was one year and three months before I entered Higan. As you say, your sense of time, or the rate at which time flowed within the courtroom, would be inaccurate."
>"How long would you take to process the case?"
>Take a piece of paper from the notebook and the pen.
>"Before you leave, I would like you to write a quick note to yourself and sign it, in order to avoid a repeat of the previous situation."
>"Whenever I entered the courtroom, you would have forgotten who I was and what I had said to you previously. I hope that a note from yourself would help smooth things over more expediently in such a case."
>"I will be able to find you in one of the offices, I take it?"

>"I see. I shall see to her once I am done with this case."
>You were indeed still trapped then. You have no idea.
>"And Komachi was aware of this?"
>Shikieiki frowns.
>"An hour at most. It is but simple paperwork."
>"I suppose that sounds sensible enough."
>You watch as Shikieiki writes a quick memo to herself detailing what you have told her.
>"I see..."
>"My office is where I will usually be, yes."

>_

[Darkoda]

I agree. Besides, if we find Utsuho and toss her out of Higan, we don't need to go through Shikeki now, do we? Actually, she might very well be part of the problem here since she really shouldn't have been able to enter.

>"Then I'm off to investigate further. Hopefully it shouldn't be long before things return to some level of normal."
>If that's it, to the door that Utsuho went through.

[Dormio Ergo Sum]

>"Then I'm off to investigate further. Hopefully it shouldn't be long before things return to some level of normal."
>If that's it, to the door that Utsuho went through.

>"Very well then, best of luck."
>The two of you take your separate paths, Shikieiki towards the corridor to the right side of the reception hall and you back into the courtroom.
>The courtroom is now silent.
>You head over to the door that you saw the blurry figure go towards. There are several locks on the door.

>_

[Darkoda]

>Can we pick the lock? If not can we break the lock with our umbrella?

[Dormio Ergo Sum]

>Can we pick the lock? If not can we break the lock with our umbrella?

>Picking the locks would likely be beyond your abilities.
>Provided that there are no enchantments on the locks, breaking them would be simple.

>_

[GuyYouMetOnline]

>Then try breaking them.

[Dormio Ergo Sum]

>Then try breaking them.

>You try kicking down the door to find that trying such a feat is much like kicking down a rather solid wall.
>You try poking at a few of the locks with your parasol to find that you are having very little effect on them.

>_

[GuyYouMetOnline]

>Do so minor damage in the room. Scratch up a few pews or something.
>Exit and reenter the room; is the damage still there?

[Dormio Ergo Sum]

>Do so minor damage in the room. Scratch up a few pews or something.
>Exit and reenter the room; is the damage still there?

>You decide to knock over one of the pews in the aisles before leaving the courtroom.
>When you reenter, you notice that the pew remains as you left it.

>_