[Post here first!] Main Gate

Zu Fu walked up to the door carrying just his simple back pack and a friendly smile as he approached the two guards after glancing back at Kazue and winking.
"Good morning honorable samurai. My name is Zu Fu and I am a spiritual envoy having traveled all the way from The Temple of The Wind singer up north to Kiyonai to offer my service to the Hizashi." he said with as much politeness as possible in his voice.

"I ask only to speak to your lord. Of course the spirits have already told me about the unfortunate state in which lord Genji finds himself, so I am of course talking about the young lord who is currently in charge of the clan." Zu Fu said, thinking that though he preferred to speak of things as they were, a little bit of awe could grease the wheel. "I hope of course my acolyte here can accompany me as I am an old man and need someone to assist me up the stairs." He said and gestured towards Kazue, thinking his 'spy spirit' might prove to come in handy later for other reasons than supporting him up the stairs.

The guard, Onishi listened with half-lidded eyes to Zu Fu's introduction. "Sorry, granddad, but you'll need papers to get in. Security you see," he said, not completely un-charmed by Zu Fu's demeanour, but at the same time seemingly rather bored from saying the same thing to everyone. He then passed his gaze towards the young girl accompanying him, then looked back to Zu Fu again. He weighed up whether it would be worth the tongue-lashing he would later get from Yamazaki who was starting to get irritable at being "disturbed for every little thing". Ultimately, the old man looked so inoffensive that he felt obliged to go and fetch the Senior Bureaucrat.

Yamazaki was in the middle of some very important paperwork when Onishi attracted his attention. "You are the guards, yet it is always I who has to deal with visitors? If they can't be admitted, send them away! What's wrong with you?" The guard looked shifty as he replied, "He's some kind of spiritual envoy he says. Looks the part too. He wants to see Lord Kojuro."

"Well, he can't! If you're too incompetent to deal with one simple old man, I suppose I must," he sighed irritably and put away the scrolls he had been working at. Onishi proceeded him out to the Main Gate. The look he gave both Zu Fu and Kazue was cold. “I believe you have been told that it is necessary to have certain documents to enter the mansion,” he said, scrutinising the unlikely pair. “If you do, please present them now and I will check them.” He held out his hand, expecting that either some paperwork would be put in them or the people would leave.

Kazue would shift her eyes back and forth between Yamazaki and Zu Fu. Her temper had already been slightly peaked by the way they had spoken to her. As a spirit she certainly wasn’t used to be looked down upon. But she decided she had to behave, at least until they had found acces to the mansion. But she sure wasn’t going to sit idly. She knew that they would expect Zu Fu to be the spiritual convoy and she was just a servant, but they couldn’t be more wrong.

She would take a few steps towards Yamazaki and look him straight in his eyes, the gold in her irisses more visible then ever. “I hope you know that the spirits don’t care about documentation. However they do care about the message that has to be delivered to the young lord, Junichiro Yamazaki-san.” She said his name slowly and pronounce every silible with the best of care. There was no way she would have known his name and Yamazaki would know this too.

It was one of her abilities. To be able to look into a persons eye and learn their name. She would know the name that they were given at birth by their parents, but she would also know the name that they had received from the spiritual mother. The name that they were unaware of, a name that rested within the depth of their soul. Knowing such a name gave her the posibility to wield great power over the soul that owned the name, control them even. Even though she had never done such a thing as it was considered a taboo among the Kitsune.

Zu Fu looked at Kazue with a wry smile - he knew that she was somehow entering the mind of the samurai. It was a Kizune 'trick', that he was well aware of, but still seeing it action was something new to even him. These mind controlling techniques the kitsune possessed were powerful indeed and not a small number had fallen prey to its darker sides and since turned to something... very different than a benevolent trickster. However Zu Fu saw great control in what she exhibited and his soft smile broadened with the feeling of pride over this gifted Kitsune.

Zu Fu would let Yamazaki spit out his words in vain before addressing him again.
"We are neither visitors who will lay claim to the lord's time nor disturbers of his peace." Zu Fu said softly. "Like his servant brings him water and food - which is sustenance of the earth - we bring him spiritual sustenance of equal importance." Zu Fu said as his demeanor very quickly turned serious - almost ominous - as he gazed at Yamazaki.

"I am also an adviser in all things magical, advise that you are not entitled to refuse on his behalf." Zu Fu said and would suddenly appear very different than the old man he normally took the image of. Nothing seemed to be different with his features, but now he looked as if he was heavy... heavy as the core of the earth, grounded like the largest mountains and yet reaching high into the sky with a timeless aura around him that made him seem as if he was living all ages at the same time. Yamazaki was being granted a short and rare view of the extend of the man called Zu Fu.

Yamazaki's eyes seemed to bulge as he tried to restrain himself from giving in to the sheer spiritual pressure these two evoked. Yamazaki was not a cowardly man, but he found a coil of fear unravelling within him – or perhaps not fear but something greater: awe. Their power was unlike that of any mortal human. He summoned all his willpower to be able to reply to Zu Fu, “I do not answer to you, spirit or no, only Lord Hizashi!” but the old man's presence, combined with the woman's unearthly wiles had their effect on him. The anti magic barrier, however, prevented the kitsune from using any more of her spiritual abilities. “You will wait here, I will … ask Lord Hizashi personally if he wishes to see you. Give me your name, and your reason for visiting.” It was the only compromise he could make, and the sooner he left the presence of these two the better. He would of course, inform Lord Hizashi of their strange powers. “If these two try anything while I am gone, kill them both,” he snapped an order to the guards, none of whom looked particularly eager to mess with Zu Fu.

Kazue would turn around on her heels pleased as soon as Yamazaki gave in. The shine in her eyes would leave and she would release Yamazaki's name from her mind, no longer keeping any pressure upon him. "That's how we do that." she said in a hushed whisper to Zu Fu, before she took a stance next to him again. "My name does not matter, I am just here to accompany Zu Fu." she said feeling confident that he would not dare ask her any further.

Once he left she would simply rest herself again one of the walls, the long black hair of her form falling around her shoulders. "And now we wait to see if this Lord truly wants to see you. If not, this is all I can do to help you."

An figure came walking up the road which lead to the gates, the sun reflecting upon the top of his crystalline head causing him to be quite noticeable upon the otherwise unremarkable mountainous terrain. He looks up and down the wall protecting the estate as if sizing up it up, and focuses on his destination, the gate. As he approached his size became evident, the crystal giant eight feet tall, and with a width that nearly matched his height.

Ísjakanum looked the samurai up and down, as if judging if it was worth to crush the insect in front of him. He shook his head and sighed, before responding. “I am Ísjakanum of Ískaldur.” He fishes through his cloak for a moment before pulling out a crumbled paper, and walks towards the guard who addressed him. “This paper was given to me by one of your comrades should this situation call for it.” He hands over the paper for the guard to check, continuing after a brief pause. “I’m searching for a priest, whose name I heard is Zu Fu, and the one who accompanies. I would like to ask them a few questions.”

Yamazaki was in a bad mood. Some would say this was normal for him, but actually despite his waspishness, he normally enjoyed his work. The visit of the shaman and … whatever that demonic whore with him was… had made him have to go off shift early with a migraine. He woke up this morning feeling not exactly rested, still knowing that they were in the mansion. Why Lord Kojuro had accepted them inside he could only guess, but it wasn’t his place to question. Now his work was interrupted by one of the samurai of the outer ward, wanting him to look over some papers. “They give the bearer free travel throughout Kiyonai, though not entry to the mansion,” he told him. “He wants to see a priest called Zu Fu.” Yamasaki groaned unintentionally loudly. Not that bedevilled shaman again. He felt obliged to head outside to greet the visitor.

The bureaucrat held the neatly folded papers out to Isjakanum and gave him a bow. “You are a visitor to our nation I take it. You are free to travel where you will but entry to the Mansion is by appointment only. The one you seek is inside, but you must wait out here. However, I will see what I can do to expedite his coming out here to meet with you.” Yamasaki filed away a mental description of the ice crystal giant. He would need to report this. No doubt Lord Kojuro would be interested, at the very least. “Good day,” he bowed and left. It seems Isjakanum would have to wait outside although someone would try to fetch Zu Fu for him.