Honestly, she'd been getting out of her depth here… sure, there was something up with the orb, but that was almost a given when it came to anything from Gensokyo, and taoism wasn't anything she knew in detail. Maybe, to some degree, she had experience with working out what any given item might be used for from a danmaku perspective, but that was just exposure to Kaguya speaking. The obvious thing to do was just to touch it.

What was the worst that could happen?

Before Mokou could reach out and presumably find a new and exciting way to get herself injured, the hermit responsible for this place came back… and the jiang shi. The downside was that… ah, the half-ghost was going to jump to the fighting. Not a bad idea, fighting first and asking questions later was just how you got things done. But maybe they could avoid that? This room wasn't huge, and things still ached from being cut apart earlier.

The easiest way to delay her was to just get in the way. She might attack anyway, since Mokou would be fine in the long run, but maybe it would work?

"Looking for you. You two make six of us from Gensokyo."

And the hermit was the first one that might have some idea about getting back, or at least communicating.

Given her experience in dealing with the jiangshi that was struggling to do much of anything in the past, Sanae wasn't quite sure what to expect from whatever was waiting for them inside of Seiga's new base of operations. Sure, Yoshika was... Well, she wouldn't say strong, per se, but she was problematic in her own right in a proper fight. Granted, there weren't any divine spirits lingering around for her to heal off of here as far as she could tell, but that had been more of a one-time thing anyway.

Regardless, it felt like a bit more of an obligation to the green-haired girl at this point to follow after the Taoist, even if she wasn't in peak fighting form. There wasn't any guarantee that whatever was waiting for them would be weak enough for Seiga alone to handle, after all.

Thankfully, the fact that the three of them could fly meant that Sanae didn't have to worry about slowly plodding down the stairs inside the mausoleum—heavens knew that would make her head spin even worse—and before long, the trio passed through into a space not all too dissimilar to what she had seen from the Divine Spirit Mausoleum back in Gensokyo. This one was smaller, of course, but it certainly did fit the bill for what she expected Seiga to be living in.

The house in it's center was, of course, their destination, and before long Seiga—with Sanae, still using Rayne's shoulder for support—floating not too far behind.

Her surprise when the 'rats' that had made their way into Seiga's home were Youmu and Mokou (and two other strangers), though, was...

Well, it was more than she was able to physically show at the moment.

"...How did you two manage to even find this place?" she asked as the two unfamiliar face in the back glanced at the newcomers a bit warily before deeming that the green-haired girl, at the very least, wasn't any sort of threat at the moment—and thus, by proxy, choosing to ignore her.

"I suppose the angry one is the homeowner, then?" the smaller girl asked with a bit of a shine in her eye. "Our timing could have been better... But I've got a bevy of questions of my own to ask about the goods here, so I don't have reason to complain."

"More than that, though... Six from one place?" the monk remarked as he brought a hand to his chin. "...Never mind the odds of that happening given what you've told me, but doesn't that mean that there might be more people from our own worlds here, too? Two or three would be astronomically coincidental odds, sure, but..."

@VitaVitaAR@Raineh Daze@DracoLunaris

---

The decision to retreat as the cave began to collapse upon itself was swift, and as boulders began to seal off the path forward the group of would-be explorers would be able to avoid the last few parting shots from the wraiths as they barreled through any stray rocks that threatened to cut them off from both ends.

Either way, the group would at least come away from the incident fairly unscathed. Unfortunately, what they had originally come for—both the goods and the shopkeeper—were still nowhere to be seen. What Serena's response to that (never mind the explanations of what happened here) would be...

Well, they were probably not going to be particularly pleasant, but it was going to have to be something that needed to be done one way or another.

With that said, this was a good a time as any to consider how to move forward. Though the princess' request could well be considered a failure, they had come away with the information that there was something lurking far beneath their feet.

Unfortunately, this meant that their presence would be known as well; whether or not that would cause problems in the days to come remained to be seen.

@VitaVitaAR@Drifting Pollen@Rezod92@Lugubrious

Though things looked dodge for a minute, the otherworlders managed to beat a hasty retreat in one piece after all. Anne's speed, Fran's strength, and Lewa's winds saw them to safety, with Remilia on hand to undo any damage that the humans had sustained if she felt so inclined. Once the terrific din died down and the tremors subsided, the group slowed to a walk as they retraced their steps through the underground path, the caverns growing narrower as they climbed higher and closer to the basement. It took a little longer for Lewa's heartlight to stop racing, and he almost regretted it when it did. He could not say what his team managed to achieve, if anything, nor what they even came here to do, but even if just for a little while, the excitement had taken his mind off his situation. The underground expedition reminded him of the old days before the Bohrok invasion, when every day had been an adventure through some wild, beautiful corner of Mata Nui. Being so deep beneath the earth, where the sun didn't shine and the wind didn't blow, reminded him just how much he missed his island home. For now, he would have to content himself with the sun and wind of Nieve.

Along with the others he trudged out of the caves, then up back through the shop. Lewa did not particularly regret leaving this mystery unsolved; he'd simply been along for the ride, maybe since the very start. His genial, heroic nature had been put through the wringer by his extenuating circumstances, so it was hard to get invested in any errand that stood in the way of his search. He felt like the minute he started caring too much about this world, he'd be relinquishing his hold on his own, and that was something the spirit air couldn't possibly do--not as long as he clung to a sliver of hope. Still, while the lack of resolution to this side-quest didn't really bother him, the toa looked rather glum as he emerged back into the open air. Not even the caress of the breeze against his body lifted his spirits. He looked around, his eyes dull, at all the humans blissfully and ignorantly going about their lives. No doubt the question on his tongue was one on everyone's mind. "So...now what?"

“They're alive!” Rayne elated with relife, before being very confused about what went on afterwards with the sticking of the piece of paper to the confused woman’s face. There wasn’t time to ask, however, as apparently there were intruders downstairs doing.

She did however, take a moment to at least give her name to Yoshika-chan with a quick little “Hello, I’m Rayne” and a tip of her hat using the hand she wasn’t using to support Sanae.

Speaking of Sanae, and well, everyone she was with actually, turned out that downstairs were yet more people from her world, which led her to offer one simple guesstimation, which was that “Guess the goddess who kidnapped us all had a preference for it?”