>Proceed forward with caution and examine it more closely.
>Taking care, you walk forwards towards the shrine. The going is slow, as you keep your eyes on the ground, or on the trees around you, moreso than the shrine itself. Never know what might be crawling around on the ground or on the bark around you. The snow leopard pads off to the west.
>As you draw closer to the shrine, you can see that the grounds are populated by a handful of shrine maidens, standing about halfway between the stairs and the shrine entrance. Two of them you met before, the overly emotional squirrel youkai and the miko with the long black hair and matching tail. The squirrel, whom you believe was named Risa, is carrying a homemade sign with lettering much like that on the banner. The figure on the roof is the short miko with dragonfly wings you exchanged a few words with before.
>Risa and the other shrine maiden are conversing with a very tall woman with a thick head of very long dark blonde hair. She seems to be wearing an odd cloak of gold and brown over her blue leggings, but you recognize it instead as a pair of wings, wrapped around her torso. Some youkai do that sometimes to keep their wings clean, or to keep warm or keep their wings from bumping into things.
>The writing on the banner is a hand-painted message in big black letters that reads "Welcome home, Kiku onee-sama!"
