[School Repeat Investigation Log]

[sweetdeath]

Who: Tsuzuki Asato and all other planned participants!
Where: The school from the April 5th ayakashi attack
When: April 18th
What: Log for Tsuzuki's planned school investigation. There are still questions he'd like to see answered. Here is where they'll go work it out!
Warnings: None at the moment; will update if this changes!

[It's a normal-looking Monday morning at the school... so normal that it's as if the events of a week and a half ago never happened. It seems like there are more students here than before, and the rest of the teachers have returned from their sick leave and can be seen in the classrooms or keeping order in the halls.

The school year is winding swiftly down towards its end, as the last of the Near Shore cherry blossoms fall and tulips bloom in the flowerbeds on the school grounds.

But what really did happen here? And why?

There are a few new faces here, ready to find out....]

Comments

[noli_oblivisci]

I see. Well, it sounds like that should be a fair number to cover ground.

[And make sure the food doesn't go to waste. Or at least, Psyche isn't, as she mostly devours the chocolate doughnut she's holding within a few bites before washing it down with slow slips of tea (mostly to prevent her from burning her tongue). Once the initial rush of sugar and caffeine goes through her]

Yeah, I am. I actually came her when things at the school was going on. [Sip, followed by a slightly curious] You were there too I think, right?

[sweetdeath]

Yeah! I thought I saw you around there. That was your first day, huh?

... I guess at least it was just one ayakashi to get you started. [He grins, a little sheepishly, and grabs a napkin to collect one of the donuts for himself.]

[noli_oblivisci]

I guess. It wasn't that...terrible, until then. I mean, there's probably worse places for people to end up.

[As she'd told Sheryl, she was sure there was worse 'afterlives'. Or at least, those of the flame and damnation kind. She fiddled with a strand of her hair in thought]

From what I heard though, the ayakashi at the school was different from other ones, though.

[sweetdeath]

Yeah, a lot different. I mean, they all look different.

[He shakes his head, frowning.] But it seemed like that one was being controlled... or maybe controlling somebody. Like there was a plan to it, anyway.

I just want to make sure we've really gotten rid of the problem. Last I saw that principal guy, he was still alive.

[noli_oblivisci]

Maybe...The voice on the intercom seemed pretty purposefully in who he was aiming for.

[Not to mention it just felt odd the teachers had all gotten sick before then. However, they didn't have enough information to make a strong theory yet. Hence the reason they were going back anyway. She looked up from her doughnut]

I didn't see much about the principal. What happened? Do you think he was behind it?

[sweetdeath]

Yeah, that voice on the intercom sounded a little like him... I don't know for sure, though.

[He sighs, and takes another big bite of the donut.]

That's one of the things I want to figure out. A lot of the weirdest stuff sounds like it was in his office.

[noli_oblivisci]

Really?

[She asked, genuinely curious and a bit concerned. She hadn't been able to explore the office while she'd been there, at least not enough to pick up on those things. If those things were still there...Then, more gravely]

You have to wonder then. What do we do if it turns out he was behind it? Or if it looked like he'd be capable of doing it again?

[Granted, the Heavens hadn't sent them back so she doubted they considered it their problem anymore. However, it seemed like a dangerous thread to be left running around to Psyche if it was still a problem.]

[sweetdeath]

Let's figure out if it really was him first.

[He might need watching. If it turns out he was being manipulated by an ayakashi, that's one thing, but if he's really a clever sorcerer who'd done most of that himself....

Then it's going to be tough to deal with him without killing him. Tsuzuki really doesn't like that idea.]

[noli_oblivisci]

Yeah. I mean, rationally speaking, it could be a lot of things at this point.

[She tried to sound a bit lighter, more normal, at that. After all, they really didn't know enough right now. However, the thought of 'what if' still chewed a part of her mind. For now, though, she finished downing her tea and said]

And there's still other things to find out. Like, those charms that were in the faculty lounge and if the students remember anything.

[sweetdeath]

Yeah. You should see if any of those charms are still there -- I don't know what they look like, but if you can find one, I can pull it apart and see what kind of magic went into it.

[The ayakashi manipulation is something that's not familiar to him, but there's parts of it that are close enough to ofuda magic. Maybe he can bring it to Bishamon and Kazuma, too. They'd asked about masks. They know something -- there's no questions about that.]

[noli_oblivisci]

I will. I'm just sorry I didn't think to pick one up when we were there. At the time, I was just trying to limit my presence...

[Also, because she felt an instinctive shirking at the idea of simply taking something without a good reason. She started grabbing more tea, before stopping herself - there still had to be some for others, after all.]

Is there anything else you think should be checked while we're there?

[sweetdeath]

If there's anything left of all those occult items that were lying around the place, I want to get a closer look at them. I didn't find anything but books myself, and there weren't any spells on those.

[He shakes his head.]

I mean, it might not do any more good having the charms on hand, but at least we'd have more of a chance of guessing what they do!

[noli_oblivisci]

Yeah. At the very least, it doesn't hurt to have something to refer back to then not at all.

[She fiddled with a strand of her hair as she thought over it. The more she thought about it, she couldn't help but comment]

You seem pretty familiar with these sorts of things. I'm guessing it's a lot more common-place from where you're from?

[From what she 'knew', there was fantastical things in Prism City but charms and the supernatural were just plain nonsense. There, at least.]

[sweetdeath]

What, you mean supernatural stuff? I think it's commonplace everywhere! Most people just don't run across it.

I was a god of death for a pretty long time, so yeah, I've seen plenty.

[He filches another donut and takes a bite that leaves powdered sugar dusted over one cheek.]

[noli_oblivisci]

[Psyche blinked. Once. Twice.]

Sorry...what do you mean by 'god of death'?

[Tsuzuki was one of the 'new' people too, right?]

[sweetdeath]

God of death. The Summons department hired me after I died -- that's where they pick up their employees, the recently dead with some kind of reason to hang around and enough spiritual power to make them a useful worker.

[He shrugs, working his way through the donut bite by bite. He's really going to have to do something about the powdered sugar explosion on his face before the rest of the investigators get there.]

[noli_oblivisci]

[Psyche blinked again, absorbing that. However, after a few moments of turning that around in her head, she said slowly]

Really? So something different than what's going on here, then? I mean, I haven't heard of anything like a 'Summons department' while I've been here...so that'd make it sound like you died before, became a god already, then got called to be a different god?

[As she talked, she absently slipped Tsuzuki a napkin. Paying more attention to his words than the mess on his face.]

[sweetdeath]

Yeah. A god of death's not the same thing as the real gods here, though. You can think of us more like... more like shinki, really. Dead spirits that get recruited by Lord Enma to, well, make sure spirits show up on time.

[That's exactly as unpleasant as it sounds. He's grateful for the distraction of the napkin; he pops the last bite of donut into his mouth and accepts it, trying to clean up around his mouth. It's more or less effective.]

-- Thanks. Anyway, yeah, you've got the idea! That's exactly what happened.

[noli_oblivisci]

I see...And it's not problem, just watch the powder intake.

[She said, with a small smile. She didn't know anything about 'Lord Enma' but the context was similar enough to the current situation it made some sense to her. Not to mention grim reaper stories. It did make her curious, though. She fiddled the napkin she had on hand, rubbing off bits of chocolate crumbs from her fingers]

Then...um, when you died...was it the same way as here too?

[sweetdeath]

[Tsuzuki smiles, sadly, and glances away.]

Not exactly. We didn't forget anything.

[noli_oblivisci]

Oh- [She shifted, the flash of awareness flicking across her eyes almost immediately.] Sorry. I should've thought about that.

[When she thought about it, it made some sense. Yumi had said they all came from different worlds and times. Different planes of the afterlife had to be possible, then.]

It's...easy to forget that possibility, with how it works with shinki, here.

[sweetdeath]

... Yeah. That really worried me at first, but I've started thinking it's just how being a shinki on this plane works. Shinigami are a little different, because we've started to move on before they hit us with the recruiting offer, as far as I can tell. Shinki are a little more like ghosts.

[At least, the normal shinki. The ones who come here spontaneously... there's a lot more questions with them. Tsuzuki clears his throat and glances away.]

Anyway, I've got some experience with the supernatural!

[noli_oblivisci]

I guess....Referring to myself as a 'ghost' sounds better than something like a 'lich', at least.

[She said, with a small, amused smile. It was equally easy just to say she could see dead people, in certain contexts. She allowed herself to relax a little more...and furtively took another cup of tea (well, no one else had shown up yet, she supposed) to go with her second doughnut. ]

More than some of us. Where I'm from, I don't think the supernatural was much of a thing. So someone with any experience would help a lot.

[sweetdeath]

Oh, you mean, a dead soul animating a dead body? These aren't our actual mortal bodies, don't worry about that!

[By now, that'd have gotten really gross.

Besides, mortal bodies don't spontaneously transform into weapons and clothes no matter how good your spell is. Tsuzuki figures shinki bodies are similar to Shinigami, if maybe a little slower to heal.]

Yeah, a lot of the shinki here don't have much experience with the supernatural, but that makes sense. There are gods that don't, though, too! That surprised me.

[noli_oblivisci]

Well, most gods here were human so it makes sense. And becoming gods doesn't seem like it's given people omnipotence or power over everything, compared to what I think most people would expect.

[Based on stories...and an unconscious internal sense.]