Mystery at Old Ōuchi Manor (Part 1)

Discovery, Exploration

Following the absurd morning he had at Yakisoba Yashiki, Ryūzaki Sanosuke was in need of some entertainment. He gathered a few members of his usual group who were not otherwise occupied and set off for the heart of Shimonoseki in search of levity. So it was that Sanosuke, Byakurei, Ryūzōji Ryōka, Takayama Ukon, Takenaka Hanbei, Tanegashima Shigetoki, came upon a packed mochi stand in the mercantile area that spread out from the town's port. Most of the customers appeared to be standard citizens or tournamentgoers, but among the throng, Sanosuke caught sight of a bobbing hilt. He recognized it immediately as the dreamcrafted greatsword carried by Randi Carter.

Sanosuke wasted no time in pushing his way through the crowd to greet the little Dreamer. Randi didn't recognize Sanosuke, but she understood the importance of the Hashinara Clan name when he dropped it. She'd been grabbing a snack, she said, but since he'd fatefully run into her, perhaps he could show her some interesting spots around town. Dreamers didn't often make it to the waking world, and Randi was more than curious to see what it had to offer. That explanation piqued a bit of Sanosuke's curiosity. How had she ended up in Japan. Fortunately, the pink-haired sprite was happy to explain.   It was commonly known in both Japan and the Dreamlands at this point that a great rift had erupted somewhere in the sea, linking the two worlds. On the Dream side, that passage was in the waters south of Dylath-Leen. That was a problem, because the Trade Guilds of Dylath-Leen and the artists of Celephaïs did not see eye to eye on most matters. Most objectionable was the guilds' willingness to engage in any form of trade; including ferrying slaves to and from the Dreamlands' Moon. Sanosuke had encountered some of these slavers in his own adventures, and hadn't liked what he'd seen on their ship, so he understood. What mattered most to Randi, however, was that people said the rift was now inaccessible. She didn't like being told she couldn't do something and so, trade blockade or no, she decided she was going to sneak through Dylath-Leen's fleet and into Earth. Apparently she had managed it and then come to the tournament out of pure curiosity. Randi was, by her own admission, however, probably going to be in quite a bit of trouble when she returned home.   After hearing her tale, Sanosuke surprised Randi by offering his own help in dealing with the slavers of Dylath-Leen. She seemed to have difficulty accepting that pure altruism would lead the Silver General to engage in a problem so far from and so unrelated to his home. Japan, indeed, was not in any fair state itself right now. Eventually, Randi's bubbly disposition returned from wherever it had fled and she accepted his proposition. She'd speak to some of the powerful in Celephaïs about it on his behalf once she returned.   On that point, Sanosuke had another question. He'd heard Randi mention the name Henry Holiday when she'd conjured that block of stained glass during her match. Back in a dream that might have been real, Sanosuke had also heard that name. He wanted to know if she had any information to offer about The Dodo, or perhaps the other names he'd heard, like Alice Hargreaves, Gertrude Chataway, or John Tenniel. Randi thought it over, but only one name stuck out to her: Alice. The exact association required a bit more explanation. Her father, Randolph Carter, was a figure of some renown in Celephaïs as a great adventurer. He'd used his connections to hire on Henry Holiday, a famous architect, as Randi's tutor. Finally, Holiday had often used a girl named Alice as an example in his word puzzles. By the end of her spiel, Sanosuke knew quite a bit more about Randi, but not much more about the Dodo situation. That tidbit about Holiday being a renowned architect who'd designed many stained-glass buildings in Celephaïs could be useful, at least.   With various yarns shared between them, Sanosuke, Randi, and the rest of their company proposed to finally check out the hot cultural spots of Shimonoseki. Sanosuke scoured his mind for points of interest and came up with a couple, despite his own relative unfamiliarity with the town. To start with, they headed off to the site of one of his previous adventures: The Old Ōuchi Manor.   Standing proud on a cliffside hill overlooking the town, the manor itself was not particularly old. Rather, it had belonged to the Ōuchi Clan, whose last member had vanished at about the same time Mōri Motonari claimed rule over Shimonoseki. While a fine residence, the lack of any kind of traffic going up or down the winding cliffside road seemed to indicate that none of the Mōri had chosen to claim it after the loss of its previous occupants. Takenaka Hanbei, at least, thought this was odd. The manor was a fine building, and if Motonari herself wasn't staying here, it would have been customary to offer it to one of her prominent retainers.   Indeed, Sanosuke's group reached the elegant building atop the hill without running into a single other traveler. He'd seen these heavy wooden doors on his previous visit, but they were now solidly shut. Soft light filtering through the space between showed a solid-looking bar on the other side preventing common entry. Randi, blithe or oblivious, wondered if Sanosuke knew how to pick locks. Instead, the Silver General asked a favor from Kanashibari, the lunar ghost who haunted his person. She was able to pass through the doors easily and, by becoming selectively tangible, slide the wooden bar out and allow the great doors to swing open.   Sanosuke entered to the sounds of Randi's appreciation. There was something else, though, something on the edge of his hearing. From below the floorboards and decorations, all as clean and immaculate as if the Ōuchi had never left, a subtle rhythm ran up through the soles of Sanosuke's feet. It was as though a great heart beat somewhere deep within the mansion's core.