The (Intermittant) Journal of Natsuki Hashimoto

5^th Juvax 45

Today has been our second day here. I had hoped it would be a day where we would be able to get to know each other a little more, but it was another day where people chose to challenge Miss Chan. It is not a very good idea to me.

I was not paying alot of attention to the room, half concentrating on where Choki was with Mikato, so I did not hear what started things or how both Cathal and Catlin, who would like people to call him Jo, were involved. Jo did follow here out of the dining room to return a little later. He appears to be excited about some books he found in the Library.

Mikato wanted to show me the towns today but we only managed parts of the Modern town, before he received a message from Miss Chan that she was arranging a trip to Elysium, the shadow where Agnetha, who is the Living Logrus lives confined to her tower. I do not think I could cope with such an existance as she has.

As there are two Patterns and residences here, Miss Chan's Mansion and her father's castle, there are also two towns, a modern town that reflects Miss Chan in her shadow? and a medieval town reflecting her father? in his? shadow. The modern town is reached by turning left out of the gate and following the road, which is what we ended up doing. The medieval town is reached by taking the path for the castle as we did yesterday, and turning south away from the cliif instead of taking the path that climbs it's face.

The road from Miss Chans mansion is modern much like our roads at home. It winds down the cliff in such a manner as to allow modern articulated trucks to come and go, but for people on foot there is a steeper path that snakes backwards and forwards but which shortens the distance required to walk to reach the road at the bottom of the cliff.

We followed the road south for about a quarter of a mile before a side road joined it from the West. This road must run along the bottom of the cliff as it is not visible from above. There is a signpost here, which reads "Effulent Processing Plant", but which can only be read if coming from the town. We did not take this road but continued on towards the town.

Whilst the land here is full of forests, the building which I later learnt was the main Mizzurian Office and production complex was clearly visible above the trees. These two buildings are the largest in town and dominate its centre, but they are not out of place here and are very environmentally freindly despite being made from concrete, steel, and glass. They are surrounded by fruit trees, and gardens, and wild flower meadows, and the walls have gardens and vines growing up their sides.

After about another 3/4 of a mile we reached the edge of the area of marked plots along built or partially built roads, which are laid out on a grid. as we continued along toward the centre of town we encountered dwelling of several styles, the architecture and construction of which reminded me very much of home, a strange mix of the modern concrete, glass, steel, and brick, along side tradtional Japanese black stained timber buildings, with tile roofs, carved bamboo screens, and rice paper doors.

The centre of town to the West is dominated by the large Mizzurian buildings. Opposite these are rows of shops and smaller businesses, and apparently the only fuel station in town. To the immediate south of the centre is the town hall, very much smaller than the 5 story building that is the Main Mizzurian Office. To its East is the main Western style hotel in town, whilst to its East is a complex of warehouses and storage facilities.

We continued past these, past the bus station and hospital, and College, and after another mile and a half reached more warehouses. This the port on the river. It  is an area of the town that is most strange as it is protected by ring of water fed from the river, and a wall, and gate house, where as the rest of the town has not form of fortification at all. I do not understand what the point of this is.Why would it need protecting at all, and from what.

Like much of the rest of the town the docks seem to be new and are still being built.

Rather than head back down the main road, Mikato chose to lead us into the forest to the West. Occasionally through the trees we could see the Mansion up n the cliff on which it sits. It was as we reached the edge of  the grid of town roads again that Mikato received his message. He said there was one thing he would like to show me before we headed back to the Mansion. He was both annoyed that he had't been able to show us all he wanted, yet pleased that we would get to meet Queen Madison. He said that like Miss Chan she had suffered great trauma in the Rodian War, but he would not say what that trauma was.

When we encountered the grid of roads again, all the plots we passed were overgrown. Obviously the town hadn't expanded this far yet, even if they had built the roads ahead of time. After about 3/4 of a mile we came across a farm of class houses, apparently where they grow fruits and vegetables. Apparently there are several of these farms in the area that is classed as the town. At this point we crossed a major road like the one from the mansion into town, although it ended not far in the distance.

We continued North back towards the mansion, crossing another major road after about half a mile. Like the previous one it ended not far in the distance. many of the plots here were also overgrown, but I could now see in the distance what appeared to be a temple complex. I asked Mikato if that is where we were going. he replied it was, The Cailong Temple at Carnelian. We continued on passing one of the horse breeding farms that serves to provide horses to the garrison at the castle before reaching the Temple. It was both very impressive and very traditional, although its origins obviously were not based in Nippon.

It occurred to me then that Mikato might have had a different motive in bringing me here. I asked him. He said he thought I'd appreciate visiting in and meeting the Sensei here, adding that "she" wasn't here right now as she was busy. I'm sure there was a hidden meaning in his answer but I'm not sure what. Perhaps he was implying that Miss Chan was the Sensei here but that cannot be possible can it?.

Our visit was too brief but I found the practice of the pupils here fascinating, so similar in style yet so different. With time ebbing away from us we headed East away from the temple passing two more of the glass house farms before we reach the main road once more and turned North back towards the Mansion.

When I arrived in the Library having been passed by several of the others heading in the other direction, Miss Chan, dressed much as she had been yesterday, carrying her sword, was already there with  Mikato.  She suggested we all move down to the foyer whilst we waited for the others to return. Once everyone was present she said she was going to open a Trump Gate, and could everyone move through as quickly as possible please.

She then produced a trump from her pocket and opened the gate. Mikato obviously used to this, went through followed by Choki. People hseitated. I was about to follow Choki when Cathal moved so I followed him.

Passing through the portal we found ourselves inside the outer enclosing walls of a large fortress. Off to our right was a large building abutting an even larger tower. Emerging from the large doors in the end wall of the building were a group of individuals, headed by a woman in a dress of a style I'm not familiar with. Coredelia and the woman embraced, with what apppeared to be joint affection. Cordelia then turned and introduced her, "Her majestry Queen Madison, Queen of Elysium.", before introducing each of us in turn. She then asked the Queen if her mother was available, something I failed to understand the reasoning for at that time. In fact a large portion of the exchange that followed didn't make any sense, "the Queen asking Cordelia if she'd like her to check", and Cordelia's response of "Yes, and if we could be fetched in the manner in the manner she was at the start of the Rodian War", although it all became very clear several minutes later after the Queen, accompanied by Mikato, and for reasons I didn't understand till later Choki, returned to the building from which she came.

Cordellia now stood as if waiting for something. With nothing else happening I was able to look around. The interior of the castle is quite vast, with numerous other buildings. However, 2 things immediately stood out, a huge mind numbingly black "curtain" - which is the only term I can think of that may come close do describing it - that hung from the sky to the ground to the left of the largest and strangest tower I have ever seen. The actual main body of the tower wasn't strange, it appeared to be some form of cut stone, it was what sat atop it several hundred metres in the air. Again finding the right terms to describe it are difficult, but perhaps the closest would be an opalestent gem, of hues of blue in colour, on a scale matching that of the tower itself.

It was from this "gem" that something resembling tentacles were exuded as we watched and waited.  I did not know what to make of this, but given Cordelia had arranged this, I doubt if any harm would actually befall us, and resolutely, if very nervously stood my ground. I noted that Cathal did the same. Catlin asked what the tentacles were and should we be running. Miss Chan's answer was not inspiring, "it would be pointless to do so, our best means of escape would be having an instantly activating trump to hand". I did not understand the meaning of what she said either.

The tendrils, of what ever substance they were composed of, gentlely but securely gathered us up, and proceeded to withdraw in the direction from which they'd originated. I have to admitt to being petrified at this point, but the tendril held me absolutely firmly, and I do not believe I would have been able to escaped had I wanted to. I braced myself for the imact with the wall of the gem but we passed through as if it were not there at all.

We now found ourselves inside a large pentagonal room with what apeared to be 5 framed somethings that occupied most of each wall. 2 appeared to be huge landscape scenes, one of what I supposed was this castle and its surrounds, and the other of . The other three, I guessed were also of landscapes, but they were all blurred and greyscale, much like images from films of pictures on old black and white TV screens suffering from signal interferance and distortiona effects due to the weather. Off to one side apppeared to be a huge building, of obviously "American" sytle, but this was equally as large as any of the buildings in the interior of the castle grounds from which we'd just been transported. As we were lowered to the floor it was easy to observe the intricate geometric mosaic inlaid into its centre, outside of which we were placed, before the tendrils were absorbed into the writhing mass in its centre. The mass then shrunk and became a woman of western descent with black hair in a stunningly beautiful dress of green hue. As soon as the transform was complete, Cordelia moved forward and they embraced in the same manner as she'd previously done with the Queen. She then turned and introduced "Agnetha, The Living Logrus".

It appeared everybody was too stunned to ask any questions, something that neither Agnetha or Miss Chan appeared to be expecting. Eventually Catlin asked about the problems in shadow and repairing the Pattern.  It was clear from Agnetha's answers that despite her significantly greater powers and abilities that evven she did not know either what the true problem was or how to resolve it. It was also obvious that Miss Chan had obviously had lengthy discussions with her. Perhaps Miss Chan had been completely truthful in what she'd previously about this being about the family and nothing else. Whilst intersting in and of itself I couldn't see how any of it related to either myself or the rest of us.

Two more topics arose out of the discussion that followed. The first was raised by Cathal in relation to exactly how do you merge with the writhing mass of tentacles, which is called "Assaying the Logrus". I didn't understand the answer. The second was about the Black iceberg that intrudes into the Castle which is apparently the Abyss, and is another realm but unlike normal Shadow. Agnetha said she didn't know much about it, suggesting we asked somebody called Charlie, or her mother, at which point she pointed to Miss Chan. The discussion in the library after dinner confirmed that the Charlie is Miss Chan's daughter and that she is at present at school, although she would most probably be returning for the Expo.

With no further questions forthcoming Miss Chan suggested we return. Again she opened a Trump portal to the Castle Courtyard, from which we headed into the Grand Hall to retrieve Mikato and Choki. Miss Chan then thanked the Queen for her hospitality, before asking about her attendance at the Ball in a months time, which was odd at the time because I'm sure it was 2 weeks away. After the Queen said she would we returned to the courtyard where Miss Chan opened a Trump Portal to the entrance hall of the Mansion. I was surprised to find that we'd only been gone for a little more than 2 hours. This must mean, based on the discussion between Miss Chan and the Queen that time flows faster in Elysium.

I had thought this would be an end to the days discussions, but it seems that the time after dinner in the Library is a good time to get Miss Chan to discuss things. Tonights topic appear to be that travelling Shadow is not risk free and that going armed, preferable with a weapon like a sword should become second nature to us all. I did not think to bring mine as I did not think I would have need. As the discussion went on I thought back to earlier in the day and the reason why Mikato had taken me to see the Martial arts school, perhaps it would be a good idea to investigate it further. There must be a connection between it and Miss Chan, as she demonstrated a considerable degree of knowledge of a variety of weapons and their usage, and she appears intimately famiiar with the process of foring a Katana, and has a personal relationship with a master weaponsmith in Nippon. She has also previously indicated she knows something of Ki, which may be why the gardens are laid out the way they are.

We also learnt something of the nature of Miss Chan's sword. It is apparently some form of Trump artefact that her father took from a Chaos Lord, but is has been modified by the Serpant since it has been in Miss Chan's possession. Miss Chan's daughter also has a sword which her mother created which has some form of Trump power.

I did not follow all of the rest of the conversation enough to completely understand everything. Miss Chan has already demonstrated she has access to technology more advanced that in my Shadow. Zou Yan is far beyond anything I think that exists there except in films or amime. It seems that she also has access to fusion reactors and that she has several of them. There was a discussion about trading across realms but I could not follow it. I think it is something we will all need to understand much better.

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