1/The Player Character must purchase a Paper Lantern through the Festival Tickets Prize Counter.

2/Said lantern must then be brought to the River of Closure.

3/The name of the lingering soul one wishes to commune with must be written on the paper lantern.

4/The Player Character must then wrap a strand of their own hair, or some personal belonging that burns easily around the candle wick in the lantern.

5/The candle in the center of the lantern is then lit and the paper construct set off to float.

6/After a few moments the Player Character will be transported as a small light up into the lantern, where they will find themselves and the soul they seek to commune with seated by a campfire, surrounded by darkness (in the same manner Kakashi met Sakumo) where they will have 15 minutes before the candle goes out and the ceremony ends.

The thought of contacting the dead was something that resonated with Hanbei deeply, so, without much of a thought about the whole thing, he would have purchesed one of the lanterns nearby for a mere 50 of his tickets, taking it to the river of closure as he was told to do so, thinking to himself that this would be a good opportunity to talk see someone from his past... though, he hadn't thought really who he had wanted to talk to... there was the thought of talking with his mother, who, he knew had died some time ago... getting to know her would be good, though he had nothing of hers that he would be able to give to the river. then there was the thought of some of the other people he had met along the road, friends and the like, he still had a trinket here and there that he had been given by them on the road, but, finally, the sly boy thought of the best option. This wasn't just a tool to talk to the dead, it was a tool to contact the living, though in a round about way. If you performed the ritual right, and they did not show up, it either meant they had no soul, which was more than unlikely, it was almost impossible...

Or it meant they were still alive!

So, taking some of the silk from one of the pieces of clothing Kanbei had made, and placing it in the lit lantern Hanbei would follow the instructions to the T and float it out into the river and begin to wait to see what happened... having written 'my father Kanbei' on the lantern... What happened next, was what he had hoped. Absolutely nothing, the lantern sat there as the candle within it burned lower and lower, Hanbei rested easy knowing that his father was safe in the real world and hadn't done anything foolish in looking for him. There was a greater sense of peace at the revelation for sure, but there was no other way particularly to quantify the feeling.

[348]

Others around him seemed to be talking with their long lost loved ones, while Hanbei sat there with his dwindling lantern, something about the whole mess was simply good, other ninja came by and asked if he was okay, to which he would simply smile and nod, telling them everything was perfect and that he could not have hoped for a better result, though it only proved to cement some of his home-sickness, he had heard that some big things had happened in Kumo while he had been gone and he hoped that none of it had reflected badly on his father. While hanbei had wanted to grow as a person before he returned, every day he missed what he had left behind for the most part... it was a somber feeling and one that he had not learned how to master for the most part. But, eventually the lanter faded away into the distance, caught by the current and whisked away with the other lanterns as they had finished with their loved ones, leaving hanbei alone to his thoughts.

He thought it was about time that he left... but, unknown to him, something was a little wrong, a whisper of someone passed by, a spectral hand reaching out through the void as Hanbei turned his back on the lantern as a long familiar arm reached out through the void, calling the boy's name in a strained matter, the name 'kanbei' had burned off the lantern, leaving only 'my father' written upon it as someone struggle to reach through as the wick of the candle finally extinguished...

[269]

Hanbei was able to hear something wafting on the wind, turning to look he just assumed that it was one of the other people with the lanterns and continued to leave, even if he had heard the voice clearly, he had not heard it in years, therew as no way he would be able to recognize it alone yet alone in among the crowd of a festival. Looking back to the halls it seemed that his tasks here had almost come to an end, moving towards the famed wheel of misfortune, he thought it had been enough time to give the machine another spin for good measure, he had already come off the machine pretty good in the scheme of things, he hoped his good luck streak would continue for the most part.

Placing his hands in his pockets he would look to the entrance as a man would have held out his hand with a large handful of tickets, thanking hanbei for participating in the river event. Telling him that while many yokai have been here and citizens, very few ninja like himself had been there at all to see one of their loved ones, not to mention he bought up that the interesting use of his lantern was not something he often saw, but he could see that it bought some peace to the boys' heart, which is what this part of the event is meant for. Hanbei smiled happily and took the tickets, thanking the man and agreeing with his premise before leaving and not looking back.

[150+ fin.]