It was not hard to find out about the man, Hata by name, despite the size of the town. He was an older man, enough that one or two described him as starting to go a little senile. While he lived out in the shrine along with a girl who stayed to do much of the taking care of the place, he spent much of his time in the city, and was well known in these parts at least, and was drinking companions with nearly everyone he met.<br/><br/>He was as well known as a merchant unusual in addition to his work maintaining the shrine, often finding himself in possession of peculiar objects he had no particular use for, although how he got them is a matter of great speculation with no real plausible sounding answers, many of the stories clearly deliberate fabrications.<br/><br/>A few of course he acquired after everyone realised he dealt in oddities and sold their own to him, but the vast majority always seemed to simply appear out of nowhere from one of the inside pockets of his rain cape.<br/><br/>The shrine itself had an even poorer reputation than the somewhat quixotic man who operated it, being one of five within a half a day's travel of the city, and rather small and somewhat dingy, despite the efforts of the girl there. Visitors there were seldom, and despite it being fairly close to the city gates was one of the least frequented, partly due to the rundown nature in itself, and partly due to Hata's regular absences making it less than welcoming.