The priest stared straight back at the oni, his expression unchanging as she asked if the prior fight counted as a request. A few more moments passed before he snapped his fingers, causing a shrine maiden to walk out from a side room with a small box in hand. When she opened the box, though, what the group would see was not money or riches, but instead a set of medicinal pills that emanated a relatively strong herbal scent. Ren scrunched his nose instinctively, but decided to peer a bit deeper in to see what they looked like. They seemed to be a deep green, though with a faint golden luster that made them feel far more otherworldly, and each seemed to be about the size of a marble, if not slightly larger.

"These pills are able to expunge any corruption from the world of mirrors; you must consume the entire pill in order for the effect to take hold. Each of you will be given three for free, but any more will have to be purchased, as the time and resources required to create them are no small order. We shall hold onto them for the moment, but any time you wish to obtain any, let one of the miko here know and they shall deliver accordingly."

With that statement, the miko snapped the box shut and left the room as Izawa moved to address the next question—the girl who seemed to be crackling with electricity.

"Well... Rather than asking me that, young lady, you may be better off asking your parents. I cannot answer questions of heritage, but they may very well give you the answers you seek," he said, his non-answer casually dodging around her question before he turned back to the rather rude young man from earlier...

Who seemed to be giving more excuses than simply apologizing. Shame.

"The fact that there were circumstances that caused you to be evicted from the shrine grounds before is not something you want to be telling the priest of the shrine, don't you think? In any case... To answer your questions in order:
First, it depends on your tolerance to the world itself. In a manner similar to this world's diseases, your bodies will gradually build up an immunity after multiple visits. At the moment, it may be no more than a few hours at maximum for you.
Second... The answer to that is both yes and no. No one I know has found any residents of the city willing to negotiate at length, but the possibility of such beings always exists.
Third. I don't believe I need to mention anything more than special effects movies, correct? Even putting the possibility of them assembling aside, the more people that enter, the higher resulting risk comes forth if we cannot successfully cleanse them all every time. 
Last... Well, there lies another problem. We have used most of our resources in prevention and restraint, and have thus barely even ventured into the world in search of answers. We know nothing other than what has been said and what we have done, but what we [i]do[/i] know is that it is a strange amalgamation of modern architecture and old Edo-era buildings. You may find some familiar points of reference from the city you all live in, but I cannot elaborate on what I do not know. However, the possibility exists for the creation of outposts in the future, but at the moment our resources are spread too thin to work on such projects."

The last question was, at least, easy enough to respond to, and soon enough another miko came out from a side room to deliver a spool of thread to the dullahan as Izawa took a deep breath.

"...Does that answer everything? In that case, I await your return in the future. Best of luck to you all."

Ren sat in silence as the question-and-answer session bounced inside of his head. Between a possible doomsday scenario, the existence of youkai and an alternate world, and the powerless person that he was that had quote-on-quote 'potential', things were still slightly difficult to process. The girl who had the bravery to confront the gashadokuro (or one of the girls, at least) seemed to be singling him out, but there was another person here who had done even less that he had...
And seemed to be twice as eager to jump into the fray despite seeming [i]younger[/i] than he was. At least the old man had a gun or something, which would explain a lack of chastisement on that front, but still!

"...Ren. Amazawa Ren.. I'm just a normal human in an extraordinary situation, I guess," he said, sighing as he stood up from his seat within the barrier. "I... I'm going to head home to rest a bit. I think I still need some time to process this whole thing; probably gonna come back tomorrow or something. As for the possibility of getting hurt... Well, if it means not watching the city go up in flames, I guess I'll just have to suck it up and deal with it, right?"

With a sigh, the young man walked out of the shrine's back entrance before noticing that a girl had been eavesdropping on the entire conversation. Opting to just let the priest handle this matter, the young man gave a bow towards the priest before leaving for real, slipping back around the building and into the crowd as he headed home.

What a crazy night.

[hr]
The afternoon of the New Year was definitely a time that Ren would've expected to have been far more busy for those at Koumi Shrine, but it seemed as if most of the resident had handled their yearly visits earlier in the day, if not the night prior. It... Was a bit strange, he had to admit, but the priest standing outside the shrine waved to the young man once, motioning him to come over to speak with him. When he did, Izawa cleared his throat before beginning to speak.

"The New Year really is quite chilly this year... In any case, if you recall from last night, there were a few side rooms from which the miko were entering and exiting. We've repurposed one of them for anyone attempting to enter the city of mirrors to use as a place to relax, check requests, or otherwise cleanse themselves after a trip. There are already a few people waiting inside, and to be honest, I wasn't expecting you to return. Just to make sure... You [i]are[/i] willing to do this, correct?"

"...Well, that conversation confirms that entire thing was real, so I have no reason to think otherwise any more. Even if I'm useless right now, I'll find some way to help the efforts here. Sitting on my hands just doesn't feel right," Ren responded before bowing and donating a 500 yen coin to the shrine before entering.

The center of the shrine, as before, had the glowing portal still hovering in existence, but what was of more interest to him right now was the side room. It seemed unlikely that any requests had come in so soon after this place opening up, but maybe the people already there were ones he could reason in letting him tag along to gain [i]some[/i] sort of valuable experience or knowledge.