Day 13, Night (Open) - What In Jigoku Is Going On?

After exiting to talk to Iweko Yoshinobu and Kakita Tsuki in the hall and asking them to return to hear him, Tamori Yoshi returns to the gym and tries to find a place where he might be seen and heard by all in the discussion. He would then wait for the Prince and Crane priestess to have his attention, even from the distance they still stood, before saying the following....

"Everyone, please," he calls out above the din. "First, I see no reason to doubt Moto-sama's words. If she has this power to offer to help us, there is no reason for her to lie about it. While the Dark Kami may have been involved in causing Goemon-no-kami to sleep or the realms to cross, I don't see his hand in her actions." He bows to Ayumu before turning back to the crowd.

"Accepting that, I believe we should allow him to remain sleeping," Yoshi states. "Yes, each one of us would sacrifice what they have gained here, and what they could do with a wish to Moto-sama, in order to save and wake the Fortune. However, it's not about any one of us, it's about all of us! What we have done... and what we can do, together, is more important than saving one man, even a kami." He looks to everyone, but mostly to those who would choose to wake the Fortune.

"Noboru-san," he says, "my wish is for a young girl not yet past her gempukku, whose own lungs threaten each day to end her life, to be healed, as Moto-sama said Utaku-sensei's old wounds could be. Would you sacrifce someone else's sister for your honor? Doji-sensei, would it not be your wish more than her own, to heal those wounds upon your love? Even Koshiro-san's wish is not wholly for himself, but to honor his mother and give her a gift beyond price. Moto-sama is offering every one of us has a chance to do something that will benefit another, to be another's hero as Goemon would want us to become... and some of us already have. There might have been a young man in such despair at his situation... that he contemplated taking his own life rather than continue to be a burden upon the world and his family. The friendships that Moto-sama guided to him already saved him, and made heroes of them all. Would you take that away too, just for the sake of one Fortune?" He looks to Hinata, Kobushi, and Koshiro briefly with a pained smile and glistening eyes.

"Goemon-no-kami was a hero of the Second Day of Thunder," he continues. "The world made heroes for 1000 years before he was a Fortune, among them two sets of Thunders. It will endure with him left dreaming, but more than that. If I were him, and were to know the cost of waking me, I would be ashamed at us all for severing everything that has brought us together to this point and squandering our own chance to be heroes just to save him. He is not just any hero, but the Fortune of them. He knows better than anyone that a single sacrifice to the benefit of many outweighs the opposite, and I believe he would make it without hesitation, just as each one of us would and should in his place... but not all of us together. The loss of many heroes is not worth the saving of one, no matter how important." He takes a moment to pause, weathering the emotional toll.

"That said, I believe we can still save him, too," Yoshi says. "Though Moto-sama says our own chance to wake him will pass if we leave him dreaming long enough to make what we've done here, and what we wish, into reality. However, there are those more powerful than us, shugenja who can travel between realms. If we take our knowledge of his situation with us, we can use it to save him or find those who will. If we don't, he could fall again without anyone even knowing or remembering, and our sacrifice would have been for nothing. We cannot risk that by waking him. However, if we let him sleep, we honor him by becoming his dream made real, heroes to ourselves, to each other, and to him as well."

"Maybe that was the sign to let you know Goemon was trapped? To point, and to answer your other question, Ikoma Renmaru-sensei doesn't seem to fully remember who he is. He's a piece of the whole, sort of like the statue. That seems to make sense to me." She answered as best she could.
Ayumu's eyes widened at this and quickly started to wave her hands in front of her. "Whoa, that's extreme Utaku-sensei. Also crazily unexpected, but uh, I can't do that. So it's a bit of a non-option."
With a goofy grin, Ayumu nodded her head at Yoshi's words. "Tamori-san makes an excellent point here."

As people continued talking back and forth, the girl started to get a bit lucid. As this progressed further Yokohime woke up. Probably people might just ignore what she was about to say but she had to say it anyways.

"The Baku are starving because of this altering yet the dream cannot end. Ayumu San should just stop what she is doing so the creatures of Yumedo can feed. But it seems that all of you are so egoist that don't think about those implications. Dreams are food for those in Yume Do."

She looked at Ayumu. "Your mother stands for compassion what about some for those that live in Yume-do?"

"My mom has compassion for a lot of things, even those who don't deserve it. Not that many would understand," Ayumu said, "But I earnestly have no idea what you are talking about. I'm not doing anything to the creatures of Yume-do, so I'm not sure why you think that. You've been a bit out of it, maybe you need to lie down?" The unicorn girl seemed genuinely confused.