Yoshitakatomo Meets Gakutensoku

Discovery, Exploration

After a boat ride that lasted nearly twelve hourse, Hashinara Yoshitakatomo finally drew near to her* destination. The self-navigating vessel had taken her from the northern seas of Japan and through undergound waterways to this place, a slick black dock that must be near the center of the country. A brigade of white-masked karakuri merchants were being tended by flying blade wraiths, groomed to enter the very vessel Yoshitakatomo had rode in on. She* exited to make room, but with her spells of obfuscation, had no fear of being discovered.

The self-navigating vessel disembarked and began taking its load of now-cloaked merchants deeper into the caverns. As they left, Yoshitakatomo cast a detection mark upon one of them, then continued down the other tunnel, where the blade wraiths had vanished.   In short order, this led her* to a cavernous chamber. Massive, shrouded figures rose above, and the abyss below was unpierceable even to her* mystical eyes. Yoshitakatomo discovered that she* was standing upon the outstretched palm of a massive stone buddha, and that the other figures, barely visible in the darkness, represented the same. A sound rose up from the depths ahead, as of metal scraping on metal. Secure in her* undetectability, Yoshitakatomo descended.   The sound's source rose out the veil of darkness: a monkish figure, bent over a stone slab upon which an unfinished karakuri man rested immobile. The curious sound, scraping and scratching, came from the ascetic's stony hands meeting iron. As Yoshitakatomo approached, she* was surprised when the figure turned to look directly at her*, piercing her spells without apparent effort.   This same monk, formed of stone and iron in the vague shape of a woman, was the same that had met Aotsuki Tsukamoto and Tokku-hime not long previously. She remarked upon the preponderance of visitors, and Yoshitakatomo saw something else, primal and fiery, within the stone shell.   The two spoke then, as equals. Though she had unnerved the Aotsuki couple on their visit, Yoshitakatomo was not so easily shaken. The princess-daimyō asked, and the ascetic answered, freely sharing information without any sense of guile.   So it came to light that this creature was named "Gakutensoku," a phrase which literally meant "Learning From the Laws of Nature." It was by mimicking these laws that she created the karakuri merchants and the blade wraiths, imbuing them with something similar to a soul but formed of prayer and will. Gakutensoku's replies were direct as often as they were vague, and she gave puzzling answers when asked about her purpose.   Still, Yoshitakatomo carried on, learning that Gakutensoku now worked in service of the Black Ocean Society. She was assisting Muramasa, for whose arts of creation she had great respect. It was through this that Yoshitakatomo learned that Muramasa was in Yomi, and resided there with Izanami-no-Mikoto's permission. What's more, he could move between the two realms freely as, Gakutensoku claimed, there were more entrances, and closer than Yoshitakatomo might think. To say any more than that would be against the "Society's interests."   Then, the monk turned the conversation, asking Yoshitakatomo piercing questions about what her* true goal was, and whether she* would, in fact, be able to give up her power once Hashinara Yoshiyuki returned to life. Yoshitakatomo's measured answers appeared to mollify her, however. As the princess-daimyō was called back to Wakigami Castle by the return of General Baby Huey, they left on amicable terms. Gakutensoku extended permission to visit again, and Yoshitakatomo revealed the detection mark she* had cast earlier, stating that the monk could contact her* through that.