"..."

For a few moments, Hikaru silently observed her surroundings. This was, of course, the place she had seen in her dreams. What she had previously assumed to be the product of a late night no longer seemed to be so. The detective elected to remain quiet, however. The small girl with the bells in her hair and the miko outfit had a number of different questions to answer to, given the strange situation they now found themselves in. As a result, Hikaru decided that the most natural option would be one of observation. She would allow others to ask their questions first, and observe her surroundings and the responses of the girl in question.

Who, for her part, seemed rather stunned for a moment. Not one, but two people had just questioned her gender?

"Ah... that's... Look, what does it matter?!" she suddenly cried, letting out a huff and folding her arms. Was she... pouting? Certainly that shattered some of the mysterious image around her, but it wasn't long before she had regained her composure. "... In any case, this place is where I can most freely interact with humanity. You're humanity, aren't you?"

She cocked her head to one side, eyeing the assembled students. "You felt that way when I contacted you before."

So the dreams were some form of contact...? Hikaru nodded to herself. Her initial shock had been replaced with a desire for answers.

The question about the unpaid groceries went absolutely ignored.

The next question Tsukuyomi chose to address was from... ah, Manami? Yes, Yamada Manami. It was impossible not to recognize the straightlaced student. A model adherent to school rules, to say the least. Hikaru noticed what she could only assume now was a goddess show a mild twitch of irritation at having a familiar honorific applied to her, but in this case she didn't make any sort of outburst.

"This is a hollow space, a location in which the mediums of the collective unconscious and the waking world are uninterrupted," Tsukuyomi explained, "While there's nothing stopping from me appearing to you anywhere I so choose, this location allows me the most freedom. This hollow space is located in my domain, as well."

Tsukuyomi's domain... At that, Hikaru had to speak up.

"So, you're saying that this 'hollow space' is located within the moon?" she asked, her voice calm and level.

"... Ah? Yes, you could say that," Tsukuyomi replied, with a nod, "But regardless, there's more pressing matters to attend to. All of you have seen Strange Gospel, haven't you?"

Was that what this was about? Was this... deity... it still felt so surreal to realize that was what Tsukuyomi must be, also concerned with Strange Gospel? Just what [i]was[/i] the phone app?

"Its origins are not of your world," Tsukuyomi continued. Behind her, one of the screens lowered itself, and suddenly stretched, expanding wider and wider, displaying in full the bleak cityscape. The strange sky. And yet... somehow, so recognizable... "It came from the Apocrypha. In order to stop it, you'll need to go there, as well."

[@PKMNB0Y][@Mercurial][@Crimmy][@RolePlayerRoxas][@TheFake][@CondorTalon][@banjoanjo]