>>5957432“The channel must be closed. You must be purified. If you are not, one day the love that holds together the form of your mortal soul will eventually flag, the corruption will overtake the channel to the pure land, and close it in a more… abnormal fashion. You will die but not die, losing your soul but not your animus, becoming a demonic being, a lich. A monstrosity. You will lose your mind and go insane, and forever be driven by nothing but the agony of not properly belonging to the world around you. You will be consumed with the animalistic urge to destroy all that is proper in this world until someone eventually puts you down and returns your aborted essence to the pure land.”
“The Hokage himself said the channel couldn’t be closed, that it was part of me? Again I ask, what do you mean to do that’s beyond even his power?”
Hiraku smiles at you. It’s a smile brimming with mercy. “Even the greatest of the ninja are limited by some laws, laws that can be bent but stand unbroken from one side of the spectrum of life and death. However, a law that can be bent from one side of the mortal coil may sometimes be bent back from the other side.”
The smoke surrounding Hiraku begins to distort now, shimmering as the bandages fall from his eyes. You see the bone of eye sockets that lead into a black abyss, blue light almost imperceptibly shining forth. His smile widens as the flesh dissolves from his face, revealing a grinning mask of death as even more of his body begins merging with the smoke the surrounds him. “I have watched over this place for long years… Long years, voluntarily bound and maintained by the prayers of my successors... It would be an honor to spend the last of my power helping you. I long to touch the love that holds you together, and heal you as my final act before I pass on. Your eyes can perceive more than mere demons, Otomo Mizutani… It is good that you have found your way to this place, and to my presence. I can aid you… You must tell the priests that you will undergo Hiraku’s ritual. They will know what you mean.”
With a blink of the eye, Hiraku is gone. There is no smoke here, and the incense is unlit. You sit cross-legged and alone in the empty honden.
>Undergo the ritual IMMEDIATELY.>Flee. You’ve come to understand that this man views purification and death as borderline synonyms. You may not survive whatever he intends for you.>Confer with your teammates, even though it will be uncomfortable to reveal these details.>Keep your silence. Whatever your choice, this is a personal journey for you alone.>Write in. 