Cyberpunk Session 26

A View of Uragami

The following morning we check on Tharbin. His condition is improving although he is still out of it to a large degree.

Wakiya decides to explore the village while Shadow decides to head out down the track towards the sea. Nameraka, Spooky and Ricky, seeing a small fortification in the distance and on the hillside above the village decide to explore in that direction.

Tremen decides to remain at the hostel and gossip with the hostelkeeper. He reveals that the Gaijin are Portuguese and Tremen gets the impression that he (while being entirely proper and polite) doesn't like them. The hostelkeeper did mention the name of the prefecture which does exist in our original time and is not far from the location of what will be Kobe. The exit of the temple does seem to be in the exact same spot as the Warehouse (where we entered the temple).

Wakiya and Spooky wander down to the market. This is mainly occupied by the stalls of fisherman selling their catch of the day. However across a bridge there are rice farms and after buying a succulent looking fish they also buy some rice and seaweed. The only other stall is a small clothier's stall selling similar clothing to that we're already wearing. The overall mood of the villagers is that life is hard - but not uncomfortable - they are not starving for example. Again they are entirely proper and polite; but again the impression is gained that the Gaijin are annoying

Shadow heads down the track and, after ½ to ¾ of an hour he arrives at a bay. The only thing in the bay is the ship of the Gaijin. This is a two-masted vessel with sails furled and with a brown wooden hull¹. Shadow returns via a slightly circuitous route (to disguise the fact that he wanted to get eyes on that vessel). On that return he doesn't see anything unusual².

Ricky, Spooky and Nameraka head down the road and explore towards the fortification they can see on the hillside. They do get close enough after a mile or so to see some details before the trees surrounding the road encroach close enough to block the view. It's a small fortification with its site allowing it to overlook both the village of Uragami and the road leading away from the village. They can see that the fortification is occupied by at least a couple of people since they can spy those two in one of the corner watchtowers.

As it's getting late after all this exploration we regroup back at the hostel. Luckily there is a food preparation area out the back and we actually manage to have a half decent meal of sushi (Wakiya's preparation of the fish is excellent, the rice is boiled nicely by Spooky and the veg is, at least, somewhat cooked.

We all go to bed about an hour after sunset (the only light once the twilight is spent comes from a candle or two. However half way through the night the rest of us (apart from Ricky) are awoken by a loud male scream. In the male dormitory someone is thrashing around - Shadow is the first to react and finds that Ricky is the one causing the disturbance. Shadow tries to stop Ricky's convulsions and get a punch to the face as a reward. This does however wake up Ricky who denies having a nightmare or even a dream. Nameraka lights a candle so we can dimly see what is going on. Ricky is visibly shaking and sweating profusely despite his denials. His blanket is soaked with sweat and has a couple of big rips in it as if rent by some creature. Tremen calms Ricky down and Ricky now recalls that he felt as if he was being persued and there was something with hot breath around his neck - he doesn't have a good night's sleep!

The next morning Wakiya wakes up as fresh as a daisy having heard nothing during the night (Spooky did, but being in the ladies' dormitory was only disturbed by the noise). We check on Tharbin who also didn't hear anything overnight and is now well on the way to recovery.

The overseer we met when we left the temple visits us at the hostel to put our services on hold for at least today given that he needs those who dug out the tunnels to double check the stability of their work. He apologises but it could be a couple of days before those checks and fixes are completed. After we inquire he will allow us to visit the site if necessary - but would be much happier if we don't.

Reviewing our situation after he leaves we recall that Newport City is³ is in the Kansai region on the north side of Osaka Bay while the temple/warehouse is on the other side of the bay. Wakiya recounts that the carved mural was exactly where the portal was. The central area of the mural where the portal isn't carved and is painted red while the surrounding area is both carved and painted in different colours. Looking at the countryside we discern that the time of year matches up both here and in the future when we entered the portal (about august/september time).

We do notice a man armed with katana visit the temple - he looks like he may have come from the fortification. His visit also makes us pay more attention to the temple itself. It is more of a small shrine and doesn't have any monks in attendance. The carved Torii in front of the temple has the wooden effigy of a fox on its crossbeam indicating that the fox is the local spirit. We also recall that the word Kitsune (狐) means fox and can also refer to the fox spirit. We also note that (despite the construction of the underground complex) there is no visible sign of Christian activity within the village.

We continue our thoughts and discussions throughout that day⁴.