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"Thanks Panda. I've got a few more sections of the grounds to survey yet, then I should be able to come and help." Bowing the mirage began checking out the next section.

*Panda quickly being sorting out the blocks. Making sure to be carefull*

~Kami shielded his eyes as a beam of light suddenly stabbed through the window. The sound of grinding stone and cracking of wood told him that they were finally making progress outside.~ "Well, I guess that solves that doesn't it? Time to get to work I suppose. Care to give me a hand?"

~Kami smiled at Shiaree as he posed his question before turning and heading into the archives. Despite the shrine's relatively young age, they were quite extensive. Row upon row of bookshelves and scroll cases extended under the shrine, towering above even the tallest of the monks. Many of the monks who had passed through or come to join the guild had brought one or two books with them. Some of the other tome's and scrolls were already a part of the shrine when the Warrior Monks made shop there. Nobody was quite sure how old most of them were, and it's for that reason that Kami headed to those first. Walking down the many rows large shelves, he came upon one that had tipped over onto it's neighbor during the attack, spilling the contents all over the floor. He sighed and shoved the immense piece of woodwork upright with a grunt.~ "Well this is certainly going to take awhile...."

Kami spent a great deal of time dusting off and sorting the mess on the floor. These were some of the shrine's oldest scrolls and tomes, so they had to be handled with care. On or two had collapsed into dust when the shelves tipped over, covering everything with a fine powder of lost knowledge. Eventually, he noticed a strange box amonge the loose parchments. He dug it out and examined it closely, finding it to be an old bamboo scroll-case. It was the same kind used during the Edo period to transport important government decree's, with the exception of a strange seal that had been placed on it. It was very faded and hard to make out in the faint light, so he decided to take it outside.

He hopped the steps two at a time on the way up, and took the case out into the courtyard where he could better examine it. Looking carefully, he noticed the seal was actually an ofuda similer to the one's he himself used often. The script was archaic but somewhat readable, and in the center was a strange diagram of an Oroboros. That's a rather odd thing to find on a scroll from ancient japan, made even odder still by the fact that the figure had been changed slightly. A small space had been placed in the serpent's body, as though meant to break the circle it represented.

Curious, he rubbed his thumb against the blank spot while wondering what it meant. A small bit of smoke spewed from the spot, and Kami tried to toss the scroll away before it exploded violently. The monk was thrown several feet away and tumbled unsteadily to his feet as the sound of the explosion echoed throughout the shrine. The scroll fell to the ground softly, and thick black smoke was now pouring out of the seal into a large cloud in the middle of the courtyard.

Near the edges of the temple grounds come a rustling amongst the trees, a flash of orange leaps from branch to branch, then stops as soon it began. A small shaven head peeps out of from behind the foliage to look around.

At the sound of the explosion, his eyes widen in shock, and his hands wave in circles as he begins to loose his balance. THUMP! The small monk lands on the ground with a thud.... he laughs studiply untill his back pack lands on his head.

He gets up slowly rubbing his shaved head and begins to repack his pack.... string.... cloth... apples... etc.

The Little Monkey lept up with a shriek at the voice behind him.... spinning around he took up a defensive stance with tea bowl in hand.....

His soft brown eyes rested on the mirage... he paused looking closly at it and stuck out his finger to poke at it....

"H... hello.... my name is Hou..." Gaining a little bit of confidence he pronounces "Yes, my name is Hou, greatest of the Monkey Monks!.. er.. Warriors, yes, warriors sounds better..."

"A..and who ... or what are you?"

The mirage smiled at Hou and bowed, "I am Atsu, second in command of the Warror Monks here in Barton, or actually a mirage of him. I'm impressed you could see through it so quickly. Few can, but if you know what to look for, you can tell." Looking down at the pack, "You are a traveling monk then?"

Atsu himself stopped short as he saw the great snake emerge from the smoke. "That's not a good thing..." He muttered to himself. Moving slowly now, he came up behind Kami.