dominatriarch | (no subject)

Name the time and place. We're doing a brief sweep of the city before the fiendish hour at the moment but I can try to answer whatever questions you might have.

[ Hey, if he wants to talk now, that's fine too. Besides, she's eager to hear what Tsuzuki's found. ]

Ueno Park in half an hour? I'll be by the zoo entrance.

[He doesn't mind asking over text message, he just doesn't know cell phones well enough to know how easy it might be for someone to read those texts. Meeting up in a place swarming with mortals to talk face to face just seems safer.

Tsuzuki's increasingly convinced that he's not immune to whatever might've taken out his predecessor.]

That sounds fine. I'll see you in half an hour.

[ She's gotta take the kids home with the family cat. Though she's actually considered taking Kazuma but... this sounds like the kind of conversation that would have him worrying on the way home so... she'll go alone. ]

I'll see you then!

[True to his word, Tsuzuki heads straight for the park, buys an ice cream cone from one of the vendors hanging out around the zoo entrance selling sweets to families out for the afternoon, and leans against a wall to finish it while he waits. The crows seem to be better at spotting him than the mortal humans, and one particularly stubborn one keeps hopping up and aiming for his soft serve.

At four-thirty, he's just taking the last bite of cone and flapping his arms at the ominously approaching crow. It's trying to bite his hand.]

They're notorious for wanting more than a fair share of whatever it is you're eating.

[ Her warning is only because the first thing she spots is Tsuzuki trying to fend off his unwanted companion. There's a story she has involving ningyoyaki and crows but she'll save that for another day.

Surprisingly, none of her shinki are with her. Not even the familiar cherry blossom shaped earring Tsuzuki probably saw her with the few times they've met. She looks like an ordinary office lady, strangely enough. ]

I take it you found something interesting, apart from the soft serve?

Well, too bad for him, it's all mine!

[The amusement fades from Tsuzuki's expression as he straightens up to look at her. They could be any two office workers blending in with the crowd: even if someone happened to have enough spiritual sensitivity to notice them, they won't stand out. It makes him feel safer.]

The day I found myself here, Tajimamori's presence disappeared from his main temple in Toyooka, and all of his devoted followers stopped showing up.

[He casts a nervous glance at her.] And, on top of that, I got the names of some of those followers, and the ones I could track down don't even remember going to the temple.

It's like someone wiped him out of their memories.

[ The look on her face is clearly surprise. And not the pleasant sort of surprise either. Sure, Tajimamori is a minor god. Certainly not one in the same level as she or Kagutsuchi or Amaterasu but he's still a god.

She needs to sit down after that and thankfully there's a bench within reach.

She takes her time to think this over, legs crossed and hand resting under her chin as she stares into the crowd. One can only imagine the impression she'd be giving if any mortal did notice them. ]

He momentarily disappeared from their memory... I'd assume until your arrival.

[ It's the only clear conclusion she could draw. But then she looks up at Tsuzuki. ]

Has anyone told you what happens when a god dies?

No.

[But that doesn't sound like a good lead-in. Tsuzuki sits on the other end of the bench, crossing his own legs and folding his hands on his knee.

Well, shit. So Tajimamori really is dead?]

Even after I talked to those followers, they didn't remember having been to the temple often. It's only the priest who recalled it.

-- But he said the presence was back in the temple after I visited, and... [He trails off and checks his text messages.] And it's still there now.

[ Her frown only deepens. None of this is adding up. But even if she's mentally taken note of that, she doesn't quite comment on it if only for the fact that she's still mulling over what he's said.

So instead, she'll just lead in to what she asked him. ]

...those gods who are fortunate enough to have believers don't die. Not literally. They are reborn after death without memory of their previous lives as gods.

[ And at this, she'll turn her attention to him because she can only guess what he's thinking. ]

But not like you are. They appear as children.

[ Don't worry, Tsu. She has a point in telling you this. ]

Not even death can cause a god to be forgotten, no matter how brief. The lesser ones who have no temples can be forgotten but not gods as established as Tajimamori. I can only assume Tsukiyomi and Susano'o's followers could have experienced the same lapse in memory.

Wait a minute, that's not the old Susano'o?

[Shit, two new gods fooled him?! This new Susano'o sure has the dangerous temper down, though. He runs a hand through his hair, thinking.]

Anyway. So if you want to get rid of a god, you've got to get rid of their believers.

Like, say, by making those believers forget about him first, then taking him out. Tajimamori's one thing, but who could do something like that to Susano'o?

[And why bring new people in to replace them, once they've been destroyed?]

I'm afraid so. Though right now, I'm more concerned with making sure not to raise suspicion unless whoever is responsible catches wind of an investigation.

[ There's a click of her tongue at that. ]

As... absurd... as this Susano'o is, he seems benign. He told me he knew the boy who called himself Tsukiyomi and that Tsukiyomi was some kind of minor god from Shibuya.

[ That's what she understood from when they spoke, after all. Can't blame her. It was all a haze of alcohol that day. ]

Sound as your theory is, it does beg the question of who would do this, why... and how is he manipulating so many people in such little time?

Oh yeah? He seemed like he had some kind of weird issue with Tsukiyomi, but I thought he meant the real one.

[Tsuzuki shakes his head, leaning back to stare with unfocused eyes up at the flowery branches overhead.]

Anyway, if he's new, he's not part of this.

A bunch of those new gods are ones I've never heard of, old Western gods -- you know, ones who couldn't have had more than a handful of worshipers in Japan to begin with, if that.

So either this is about finding a way to bring new gods in, or most of us are camouflage for the actual targets. I mean, who'd go to this much trouble to get rid of the old Freyja in Japan?

It didn't sound that way to me. It seemed... personal. As if he'd known that Tsukiyomi before they came here.

[ But yes, she isn't quite sure if that's a piece of the puzzle they're looking for but it's still something that bugs her.

Though Tsuzuki's question does grab her attention. ]

But why those gods? Why gods who had long lost their followers? Why not target more powerful gods if control was what they wanted?

[ And a shake of her head after. ]

Even if we've managed to find some answers, we've only uncovered more questions in their wake.

Yeah. I think we've got to be here for camouflage.

Either the whole idea is they wanted to get rid of just one or two of their targets -- like Susano'o, or Tsukiyomi -- and all the rest of us got dragged in because it's a lot easier to do something like that to a god with hardly any followers around, or there's something else this guy's planning, and we're all here to distract Heaven.

[He leans back, propping his elbows on the back of the bench and thinking hard.]

... Forget Tajimamori. I don't think he could've been in a position to threaten anyone so much that he'd be the main target. I think we've got to look at the major gods for this.

Possibly.

[ But this makes her think. ]

I can't help but wonder if Susano'o and Tsukiyomi were just a test. They... whoever they are... haven't tried to raise their hand against the higher ups. Amaterasu's still here, as are Takemikazuchi and the rest of the seven gods of fortune, myself included.

[ There's actually a frustrated exhale from her as she slumps forward. ]

We should probably start with trying to identify who they're after. That might be easier than a why or a how.

[Tsuzuki chews on his lower lip, thinking.]

Susano'o and Tsukiyomi are the biggest they've gone for so far, though. It's got to take a lot of work to catch a fish that big, no matter how they're doing it.

... Do you have any way to ask about what they were doing before they disappeared?

Maybe they got too close to whoever's doing this.

It would make sense as to why they're going after smaller fry first, so the speak.

[ Not that Susano'o or Tsukiyomi are small fry but they're certainly not Amaterasu.

His question though... that gives her pause to think. The rest of the Fortune Gods, maybe? Kofuku might know something... maybe. ]

I could ask the other gods. Perhaps they heard something.

-- Thanks, Bishamon. [His smile at her is bright with relief. He doesn't know the gods that well, he doesn't have a lot of leverage with them, and, importantly, he doesn't know which ones are and aren't safe to pursue for answers... but she does.

Man, he's lucky he wound up talking to her.]

I'll let you know if I find anything else out.