There is a blink as Koten tries to grasp the concept of what Satoshi is explaining, but cannot quite make it work. The best he could do is spread his hands in a shrug, unable to picture it, or even approach what might be needed to get something to do that. Kichiro finding memories that may or may not be his was something that they took in stride with effort. "That is a lot to consider, in both cases. I do not possess the knowledge to even begin Alchemy... My calling is here. However, for your brother—" at that, he turned to Kichiro, his expression a bit more serious.
"If you are influenced, or otherwise seeing places and doing things that you are certain that you have not done, it is possible that you have been possessed or inherited something?" Finishing his thought, his eyes look up and over to the edge of the shrine grounds. "Your familiar seems to be waiting for you."
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"Familiar?" Kichiro asks, confused.
He follows Koten's gaze and blinks, confused. "Oh... is that why you were asking about snakes?" he mutters. "What is that? What do you mean by my familiar? And..." he shudders, "...I might be... possessed?"
"Ah... I was under the impression that it was yours, since it seemed to be following you. It left when you did, and returned with you." The alternatives to why something like that would be around Kichiro sobered his expression. "Are you aware of someone following you? An ancestor spirit, or something similar?"
Whatever the creature was, there did not seem to be any malice in it watching. It does not appear to be any kind of snake that Kichiro can easily recognize, and while it may be colored white, its eyes are not red. Additionally, anything that color should not be this far south, since it stands out against the normal colors of the area. If it was a natural thing, it was not a creature native to this region at all.
Kichiro shakes his head. "Not that I know of..."
He starts cautiously walking towards the creature. "Just... what are you? I've never seen a snake that looks anything like you," he murmurs as he approaches it.
At Kichiro looking directly at it and starting to approach, the snake gathers itself and springs off of the top of the low wall. It seems to flatten somewhat as line of sight is blocked by the wall, and it is out of sight. Whatever that was, it was not animal behavior.
Koten looks on in surprise, not having expected such a reaction from something that was thought to be a familiar. "It is not a familiar, then?" He seemed to be considering the two of you and then the spot where the snake was.
"I guess not?" Kichiro replies, confused. "So... what does that mean? I have some kind of... snake spirit following me?"
Satoshi looked back and forth, somewhat questioningly.
"Well... at least it didn't seem to be doing anything bad? Maybe... it might be helpful sometime? At least it's not attacking or anything..."
Kichiro shrugs, looking to Koten as if he could answer. "Maybe? I don't really know anything about all this... So... what should we do now?"
Koten is thoughtful, but seems a bit uncertain. "If— and only if– that is truly a familiar, then finding its Master may let you get answers..." A shrug gave the level of confidence he had inthat option. "If they are hostile, then that may not end well. If this is the first time seeing it, then it may just be a new familiar for someone. Did it seem like a spirit? There was something not quite normal about it." His robes shift in the brief cool breeze, but the direct sun feels good, even if the chill has yet to break until the almost noon.
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??
"Well, I don't know if it was a spirit or not..." Kichiro says, then pauses. Hasn't his sense of smell been picking up things like that of late?
He sniffs at the air, trying to ignore the scent of his brother and Koten and focus on anything out of the ordinary...
With the Hunger, it was always like some creature that listened when it felt like it, but always had the danger of turning around and biting you. Like a shred of self-preservation was the only thing keeping it in line, and even when metaphorically restrained in a cage, it would still test the bars every now and again. Everything sharpened as Kichiro leaned on it to gain some insight, the proximity of Koten and Satoshi so warm— warm like they would be if his jaws were ripping into their abdomen, coating them in delicious red, the tasty treats just underneath– It is a work of effort to wrench his attention to where it needs to be, the remnant of the presence of the snake fading, much like its existence, half in this plane, half out of it, a piece of something that felt known.
Kichiro grits his teeth as he yanks his focus back. "Whatever it was, it's gone now," he says, even as he wonders just why it felt like it was familiar...
Satoshi shifted nervously.
"...Do you need one of the potions? You looked a bit worrisome for a moment there...."
Kichiro shakes his head. "I was... trying to use my, uh, sense of smell. I should be fine now."
He looks back over to Koten. "There was definitely something strange about it. It seemed almost... familiar?" He shrugs. "I couldn't really tell what it was. So if it was a familiar, how could we track down whose it is?"
Satoshi thought for a moment.
"Well, it feeling 'familiar' is more of a lead that we have on much of anything else at the moment, and it didn't seem hostile? So trying to follow is... not something I'm sure I can help with much. Not really the best with these spirit things..."
More and more, the Keeper was coming to regard the two of you as a puzzle. Kichiro mentioning something about it feeling "familiar"raised his eyebrows slightly, but he could offer little more. "A physical thing is able to be tracked, if you are good at it. There are magic spells that can track also, but they cost gold if you are not capable. If there are other methods, I do not know."
Something about this situation jogs a memory that Satoshi had while traveling. This was not the first odd snake they have seen.
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"I suppose I could maybe track it, but it's hard in a town..." Kichiro admits. "But if we're going to try we should do it now, before the trail has a chance to get cold."
Assuming there's no objections, he heads out the way it disappeared, surreptitiously sniffing around to see if he can't pick up its scent again.
Satoshi looked off thoughtfully.
"...Didn't you say you ran into a mist snake of some kind on the way here? I think it might be following us for some reason..."
Kichiro frowns for a moment. "You know, I'd forgotten about that. I guess it is following us for some reason. All the more reason to see if we can't figure out why."
Koten smiles at the exchange, radiating approval. "It is good that you have a plan. It will certainly be able to save you confusion later on. If you can follow them and find their caster, they may be able to remove some of your uncertainty, yes?" Still smiling, he waves at some visitors to the shrine in greeting, and politely excuses himself to go talk to them.
The scent is difficult to find normally, but Kichiro can find something to follow, but after the top of the wall, the scent disappears. Did the snake not touch anything else but the top of the wall?
Now that he's been reminded of the earlier encounter, Kichiro thinks he recalls the snake... flying? Gliding? Something like that.
Of course, that was going to make it really hard to track...
Well... maybe instead of tracking it... it would probably want to stay out of sight? Where could a flying snake have gone from here that people wouldn't see it? He looks around for anything that matches that constraint.
Kichiro has to move a short ways away from where they were having the conversation, to pull himself up to the top of the low wall and see over it. While he is not able to see the snake specifically, there are several people that are looking in one direction with some curiosity. It looks like the creature was moving away, though in this part of the city, there could be a number of places that it could hide. There was no telling where it could have gotten to without immediately following it.
Koten appears to be exchanging pleasantries with the visitors, their manner indicating that they are all known to each other.
Kichiro hurries in the way that it seemed like the snake had gone, based on where people were looking.
It is not difficult to find the trail for Kichiro, catching sight of the creature not too far away, and moving in the direction of the outer level of Shuryo. Keeping up with it is a challenge, as it has the advantage of being able to travel upwards and over things that a land-bound creature would have to find another way around. It is a curious sight for some of the people out and about in the town— for those that notice it– more so the person sprinting like a man on a mission trying to follow something that few other people could.
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Satoshi hesitates for a moment, then hurries off after Kichiro.
"It.. was nice to talk goodbye!"
He then does his best to keep up with his usually faster-moving brother.
Neither of you could keep up with the pace the spirit was keeping in its return to wherever it was going. That did not mean that the trail was lost, but Kichiro was going to have to take more time to follow the trail wherever it might lead. There was a wake of people who were looking in your direction, wondering what would cause two men to race across the town how you did. The trail got lost when you reached the wall separating the inner and outer sections of Shuryo. Scaling a wall like that was a tall order, and whatever kind of snake-spirit-thing that might be, it had no issues climbing the wall at a speed that was difficult to match.
Kichiro quickly looks back and forth, trying to determine if it would be faster to go to a gate or try to scale the wall... and if scaling the wall would get them in trouble.
At least as far as you have gathered by living in the town for these few days, climbing the wall might not be frowned upon. Not that many people attempt to climb the wall via irregular means, you only know that loitering in the areas of access is quickly moved away. The gate might be nearer, but it is a short distance off of the direct trail. Kichiro is not without the means to climb up the wall, but it is relatively difficult.
Satoshi just could not manage to keep up. From the delay in noticing that Kichiro took off after the snake, to trying to navigate the people that had turned to watch him speed by, he was already a street or more over and sight had been lost. If the turned heads and murmurings were any indication, it was not too hard to figure out what direction he went, though.
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Kichiro considers the wall, deciding that he really doesn't have much chance of scaling it quickly, instead sprinting towards the gate.
Still set on pursuing the snake, Kichiro sprints for the gate access to the outer section of Shuryo, and makes good time even if it is out of the way. He is still drawing stares from the people that pass by, but they are not important right now. Finding the section that the snake went over was a little harder, since the layout of the city changed, and reaching that same point was not the same as it was on the inside. Once that point was found, the traces of the snake were gone. The only thing that you have is the knowledge of the direction it went, but there is still a lot of the town from that point— assuming it stopped somewhere in the town.
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Kichiro looks around, and not seeing any signs of the snake, looks for anyone who might have seen it. If he finds someone, he asks them, "You wouldn't have happened to see a weird-looking snake recently, would you? Flatter and broader than it should be? Did you see where it went?"
Satoshi... attempts to keep up.
But he's falling behind.
"Maybe need to work on something that would help. Some kind of grapple launcher maybe?"
Kichiro takes a while to inquire in the area that the snake should have passed through, it is enough to determine that the snake— or maybe its owner is not in town. Everyone that he asked about it with saw it continue to move in the direction he was chasing it. The closer he came to the edge of town, the more uncertain the witnesses got. It might have been a bit of steam, or fog? It was hard to say. Who chases a snake, anyway?
Satoshi got the general gist of the direction that Kichiro went, but somewhere between looking for a quicker way and a momentary thought, a vague "this direction" is all he can garner.
Kichiro goes to the edge of town in the direction indicated and looks around. He's not quite sure if he really expects to find anything, but... maybe whoever it is wants to talk with them? Outside town?
...Maybe he should wait for Satoshi in case there's a fight.
The rushed inquires with the people at least gave him a direction, but following the trail of the snake would be somewhat difficult. The last uncertain statement pointed him out of town, but there any certainty ended as there was no one within eyesight to help confirm the proper direction. As far as tracks went, it seemed like it could climb reasonably well— if this was the same snake. The last one could do some sort of glide, and at that point one might as well be trying to track a bird in flight.
The onsen town is not without some sights, and the trees that were cut back a reasonable distance from the current edge were maintained in the sense that they were used for the town itself, but there was also a careful eye on the cutting so as to prevent overuse. There was a lot of this town that was curated, now that he was looking with a careful eye...
Satoshi focuses and hustles along, worried that he might have lost the trail... though at least the general disruption should help him keep on track to find his brother. So he keeps an eye out for Kichiro to try to link back up.
"Huff... Did... did you see where it went?"
Satoshi finds Kichiro at the edge of town staring out beyond the borders. He jumps slightly when his brother speaks.
After taking a moment to collect himself, Kichiro shakes his head. "I lost track of it. People say it went that way, and it seemed to be going in a straight line... we could maybe just try to go that direction for a while?"
Satoshi caught his breath for a moment, then shrugged. "Well... I suppose we can follow it for a while, but I think it'll outrun us in the wild. If it didn't stop somewhere nearby I don't think I can keep up long enough to catch it..."
Satoshi shrink in on himself a bit when thinking about how in this situation he was probably just slowing Kichiro down. He should have thought to grab his vehicle or something...
Kichiro shrugs slightly. "I was just thinking that maybe it was trying to lead us out here? Or at least maybe whoever sent it would be willing to talk if we came out here? But then I got thinking they might be hostile... but let's go out and see?"
If Satoshi doesn't say otherwise, he'll start walking in the direction the snake went.
"Umm... maybe? The only way to know will be to see if it lets us catch up to it I guess."
Satoshi follows after Kichiro, having had a moment to catch his breath.
Kichiro doesn't particularly expect to find anything, but he does look around carefully. He decides not to risk his odd sense of smell, however.
Kichiro’s careful survey of the terrain finds little, his trained eyes unable detect any tracks or clear signs of the creature. The land around them, still fresh into the early days of spring, reveals little, adding a layer of frustration to their search. Despite his skill, all Kichiro and Satoshi have to go on is another brief sighting of the elusive creature and a rough direction of where it might have come from, that being the same general direction of the road that they came in on.
This flying, spirit-serpent-shaped oddity is puzzling, raising more questions than it answers. Its unique appearance suggests it isn’t a common presence in the region, or it would likely be more recognizable. The strange nature of the creature, combined with its fleeting sightings, only adds to the mystery, leaving the two of you with the uneasy sense of certainty that you are dealing with something beyond the ordinary.
Kichiro sighs. "Well, I didn't think we'd find much of anything..."
He looks to his brother. "So... spend a bit more time in town saving up some money, then move on?"
Satoshi stared off after the snake in thought.
"I... suppose? Maybe I should think about making something so we can try to catch up to it next time? I wonder what it wants..."
"Well, it seems to mean someone's watching us, but why?" Kichiro responds with a sigh. "Well, let's get back and see about some work for the rest of the day. I knew traveling was expensive, but I never thought I'd be having to pay for it myself so soon."
The two of you return to your day, taking some relaxation in the normalcy of work, whether manual or chemical, and evening has you returning to your inn. The number of people curious about the traveling creation that Satoshi made has dwindled some, but there are some individuals that seem to be studying it and the design. There is even someone with a piece of parchment and charcoal, sketching what they could see of the design.
Once back in their room, Kichiro unrolls the map they'd purchased nearer the beginning of their journey and studies it. "Let's see, if we keep going the way we were going, the next stop would be..."
Kichiro traces a few routes on the map with his finger. "Well... assuming we don't want to go through this forest to get to Sakakabe, we'll end up going around the edge like this and then up the coast... it looks like it's fairly well settled, so we shouldn't have to worry too much about supplies..."
Kichiro's stomach grumbles slightly, so he grabs some dried meats and gobbles them down before continuing. "...though probably best to stock up, just in case. We'll probably see other people more, though, so... maybe be careful with your invention?"