<span style="color: #0080BF">Sayuri was finishing up her sweeping when the monk approached. She looked up at him. She raised her eyebrow. Well, he clearly wasn't human but he didn't seem to be threatening. Despite the fact that he carried a weapon, he was not wielding it. Also, she could tell he was a monk. However, why would a Buddhist monk be at a Shinto shrine? This was very odd. Sayuri approached and bowed nonetheless. She was head priestess here, after all. <span style="font-style: italic">No use in lowering ourselves to petty squabbling.</span> <br/><br/>"Good day, sir monk. Welcome to Kumishiri shrine. What brings you to a Shinto shrine?" She listened patiently while he explained his reasoning. "An inspection? This is unexpected. Is your lord samurai a Shinto follower?"<br/><br/>The situation become even stranger when a tanuki appeared and started looking the monk up and down. She was a little nervous having two non-humans around. While neither had made a move to be threatening, you can never know with demons and she was outnumbered. Plus, something about the way the young tanuki moved made her think that his intentions were not honorable. The fact that she was almost surely being ignored was interesting. He seemed to chat away without care that anyone could hear him. He did have a point though about finding this village. <br/><br/>Sayuri thought she heard footsteps on stone. She glanced toward the path up to see a man in samurai apparel coming up the steps. <span style="font-style: italic">Ah, could this be the monk's lord samurai?</span> She was unsure what to do exactly. Turning towards the house, she called out for her granddaughter.<br/><br/>"Aikiko! We have guests. Come see to them!" </span><br/><br/>Aikiko appeared from the house and walked over to where her grandmother was standing. Akiko, being young and inexperienced in her dealing with non-humans, she flinched slightly at the sight of Mushiba and Junji. She recovered as quickly as she could and bowed to them.<br/><br/>"Hello."