Keine Quest (Part 3): Broken History

[Hello Purvis]

>Check the map. Perhaps it will mention some surroundings.

[DracoOmega]

>Check the map. Perhaps it will mention some surroundings.

>You have a look at the trail guide. It is a close zoom on the park area, and outside of a map of the trails themselves, there is very little geographic detail. However, you do see a note in the corner saying "Partially subsidized by the Kyoto Municipal Government."

[Hello Purvis]

>Mutter: "Haven't they done well since the Restoration?"
>Find the nearest proper exit on the map, and head for it.
>If no one is watching us, trying hovering, just for a moment, to see if it works.

[DracoOmega]

>Mutter: "Haven't they done well since the Restoration?"
>Find the nearest proper exit on the map, and head for it.
>If no one is watching us, trying hovering, just for a moment, to see if it works.

>If this really is Kyoto, it's certainly changed an awful lot....
>You seem to be at the edge of the park at the moment. Beyond here, there are roads and residential areas, little of which is indicated on the map in any detail
>You wait to be reasonably sure no one is looking directly at you and try hovering briefly. It still seems to work as you'd expect.

[Hello Purvis]

>Can we find the spot where the portal is on the map? If so, make a note of it so we can approach it from different ways.
>Start  walking down the road a bit, along the edge of the park. See what there is to see.

[DracoOmega]

>Can we find the spot where the portal is on the map? If so, make a note of it so we can approach it from different ways.
>Start  walking down the road a bit, along the edge of the park. See what there is to see.

>With a little effort, you locate where you believe your entry point is on the map, and then try to internalize how to reach it from different directions. You think you may have a decent idea of how to get back there from other sides of the park.
>You walk out to the road, and since either direction seems as good as the other choose left. The sight and feel of all those metal objects barreling down the road beside you is... unsettling to say the least. After a moment, you realize you can see people inside them. Are they.... cars? You think you've heard reference to that before. How does anyone feel safe walking so close to them? Especially people without a youkai's endurance. Aren't they worried about getting hit? And all the noise.... It's certainly a very different world than the one you're used to. Still, at least nothing is shooting at you, or trying to put you to sleep at the moment.
>Moving down the road, you still continue to see mostly houses. You eventually reach an intersection. Fortunately, there seems to be some sort of system where the cars stop to let people pass by them intermittently. Is appears to happen in time with some bright lights near the street, as far as you can tell.
>Look down the roads to either side, you still see mostly houses. There is a brightly colored sign of some sort down the road to your left, however. Some sort of convenience store.

[Hello Purvis]

>Convenience sounds convenient! Head for that store.
>If the road is in the way, wait for a little bit, and see if we can figure out this guidance system. There has to be an allowance for people on foot.

[DracoOmega]

>Convenience sounds convenient! Head for that store.
>If the road is in the way, wait for a little bit, and see if we can figure out this guidance system. There has to be an allowance for people on foot.

>You turn and head towards the store
>You do not need to cross the road to do this, although you see some other people crossing. You don't think it's a complicated system.
>After a short time, you reach the store. It's brightly lit, and you can see some people walking in and out of it. Through the window you see a variety of items, many of which you don't recognize. There seem to be a few identifiable foodstuffs among them, however.

[Hello Purvis]

>Walk inside! Have a look around.

[DracoOmega]

>Walk inside! Have a look around.

>You enter the shop, the shopkeeper greeting you as you do so.
>You examine the contents of the shop. The place is brightly lit by many lights built into the ceiling. They remind you of the kappa-engineered lights that you saw in the new human village. Browsing the shelves, you find that many of the items you could not identify seem to be packaged foods of various varieties; you see candies and other items you do not recognize but which you assume are edible.
>There seem to be a small number of other customers shopping

[Hello Purvis]

>Does the place seem to deal in purely groceries, or are there other things that may be interesting?

[DracoOmega]

>Does the place seem to deal in purely groceries, or are there other things that may be interesting?

>It appears to be primarily food, although you also see cigarettes, and a few household supplies, like bleach or laundry detergent.

[Hello Purvis]

>Idly note a few of these, then leave the store and return to circumnavigating the park.
>Try to recall some significant structures we know existed in Kyoto back in the day. Perhaps there might be something there?

[DracoOmega]

>Idly note a few of these, then leave the store and return to circumnavigating the park.

>You take another look at the store's inventory, then exit and head back towards the park

>Try to recall some significant structures we know existed in Kyoto back in the day. Perhaps there might be something there?

>You can think of any number of important and historic structures from old Kyoto. You assume many of them are still in existence, although none of them seems to have an obvious connection to the current problem.

[Hello Purvis]

>Once we get back to the edge of the park, continue to walk around it the outer edge of it, noting what is there.

[DracoOmega]

>Once we get back to the edge of the park, continue to walk around it the outer edge of it, noting what is there.

>You return to the park, and continue forward, trying to walk around the edge of it. Judging from the trail map, it's fairly large, and you don't think it's accessible from the road on all sides. The north side ends in a hilly area and you think at least part of the western border backs onto a small river, with housing on the other side.
>Continuing to the south, you pass more people, and more houses. Eventually you reach a turn-off to the right that you think leads along another side of the park eventually. You don't see any obvious points of interest along it either, though.

[Hello Purvis]

>Let's head for those northern hills.
>Ponder if they have news papers here, like in Gensokyo. That would be terribly useful.

[DracoOmega]

>Let's head for those northern hills.
>Ponder if they have news papers here, like in Gensokyo. That would be terribly useful.

>You turn around and head all the way back up the street, turning left along the road with the corner store again. After some time on the road, the road begins to slope up; you can see the density of building rapidly fading in the distance as the terrain becomes more hilly. Eventually, several roads split off into the hills; you can see some of them curving around relatively flat portions, where some dwellings exist, although few in number.
>You would imagine they must. It's probably just a matter of finding a place that sells them.

[Hello Purvis]

>Sigh with the realization that our chances of finding someone in this are practically nil. Even if they are a strange Youkai.
>Make way back toward one of the residential areas. Perhaps someone there deals in newspapers?
>Ponder recruiting Sanae's assistance.

[DracoOmega]

>Sigh with the realization that our chances of finding someone in this are practically nil. Even if they are a strange Youkai.
>Make way back toward one of the residential areas. Perhaps someone there deals in newspapers?
>Ponder recruiting Sanae's assistance.

>You've covered a fair bit of ground without seeing or sensing anything obviously magic or youkai-related. And there's no way you can cover a city this size on foot in.... well, maybe in a decade, even. If something was really hiding, it might be able to hide here forever, unless you had a better way to locate it than stumbling around hoping to bump into it
>You're still in a largely residential area at the moment. You could try spending some time searching other streets for a place that sells one, if you wanted.
>Sanae would certainly have a much better idea of how to operate out here, and might have some useful suggestions to make.

[Hello Purvis]

>Search around for a place with newspapers. Even seeing the headlines would help.

[DracoOmega]

>Search around for a place with newspapers. Even seeing the headlines would help.

>You spend some more time wandering the streets, and eventually come across another corner store; this one seems to stock newspapers. Having a quick glance at the headlines, you see such things as:
?Tanigawa slams opposition budget proposal."
"Democractic Party of Japan widens lead over Liberal Democratic Party."
"Citizen's groups protest closure of Moriyoshi Memorial Stadium."

[Hello Purvis]

>Consider our monetary resources. Are they coins with a possible mineral value, or paper?

[DracoOmega]

>Consider our monetary resources. Are they coins with a possible mineral value, or paper?

>Your money is mostly in coin form; you don't know that the metal in them is particularly intrinsically valuable, however.

[Hello Purvis]

>Take the proper amount of yen and a paper, and approach the corner store merchant.
>Just lay them on the counter like nothing's wrong.

[DracoOmega]

>Take the proper amount of yen and a paper, and approach the corner store merchant.
>Just lay them on the counter like nothing's wrong.

>You take a newspaper, and 250 yen, and lay them on the counter. The attendant pick the money up idly, and then looks at it oddly. Followed by looking at you oddly.
>"You realize this isn't proper modern currency," she says.

[Hello Purvis]

>"It's antique. It's all I have...my grandma just died and, well...those were her savings. It's still good, we checked."

[DracoOmega]

>"It's antique. It's all I have...my grandma just died and, well...those were her savings. It's still good, we checked."

>The attendant frowns. "I... I'm sure this is worth much more than face value. Surely you can find some place that could give you a fair exchange for it. If... things really are that tight."

[Hello Purvis]

>Wave it off.
>"Don't worry about it. And, not really. We checked... Maybe you'll get lucky, though, and find a collector. We sure couldn't. Thanks for understanding, though."
>Depart back in the direction of the park.

[DracoOmega]

>Wave it off.
>"Don't worry about it. And, not really. We checked... Maybe you'll get lucky, though, and find a collector. We sure couldn't. Thanks for understanding, though."
>Depart back in the direction of the park.

>The attendant frowns again, and considers the money in front of her. "I'm really not supposed to do this, but..." She takes the money and hands you the paper. "I hope you find yourself in better circumstances soon."
>You exit the shop and return to the main park entrance.