Sero Osada, a madman with a licence to kill grated by the ever charming state of the bloody mist. Truth be told Di wasn't thrilled with the way in which Kirigakure carried out it's business as it more often than not involved a butchers fee paid in offal and loss. Being nobility himself Di had read more than a few treatises on good governance and the oft touted virtue of benevolence was lacking in the extreme. That sort of sweeping reform wasn't his immediate problem however. Even a malevolent order was preferable to the chaos that was total anarchy. However those in power needed to be held to their own rules and it was clear in the case of the Yatagarasu killings that someone with an excess of potency had either gone totally rogue or elements of the state were acting in a manner that could only be described as hypocritical.

Osada was the first of these suspects. He had a muddied history involving numerous lurid events which evoked the most base bestial aspects of human nature. He was also quite powerful as far as the children of men were concerned. The fact that Di had had to traverse a mystic gate into what could only be described as a demi-plane created by the man's chakra attested to that. It was actually some wonder that the entire thing didn't collapse given that it seemed to owe it's entire existance to a single being.

Though perhaps this could be chalked up to a case of perception. Did not every mind create it's own  version of the universe either through the bodies senses as an empiricist believed or through hidden depths of ones own being as the solipsist would have it. The tricky part was of course letting other people into this domain.

Di had come across some highly useful information regarding this strange spatial anomaly. Apparently it acted as a magnet for departed souls drawing them into it's confines when Osada sent them from the mortal coil. If the man was to ever attract the attention of King Yama or his various servants then he would doubtlessly be in no small amount of trouble. The wheel of reincarnation was a greedy beast and it didn't let those who would flout it's clutches off easily.

But for the moment this strange detail had proved to be something of a blessing in disguise. Sero Osada had a record of everyone he had ever killed and had just opened the door for the viewing public to sidle on in and inspect the place for skeletons in the proverbial closet. Di had made plans to meet up with Kirei on this side of the dimensional breach. Together they could better investigate the shades of the deceased and confirm once and for all if the victims of Yatagarasu were among them. Di had heard that Nova and Mokuzai were among those who had chosen to undergo Sero's trials. Should he come across them on his travels he would ask either ones assistance in keeping an eye out for Yatagarasu's victims.

So far Di had been walking through the forest on foot making sure to avoid pitfalls and tangled roots that stuck up through the soil. So far progress had been quite slow and more than once he had come dangerously close to toppling over into what he suspected were deep mires of encompassing bog. The one or two souls he had come across had been pitiful shades barley advanced from the state of hitodama . Though they did give off the traditional blue glow that was common among ghosts meaning that he could possibly see them better should he take to the air. Weighing the pros and cons of such a decision Di finally settled on it being the superior choice. This wasn't Kirigakure and the presence of a dragon flying across the sky while notable would not cause total panic as it would in a human city.

This was after all a spectral realm and there were already ghosts walking about openly. Also if his senses were accurate larger creatures were also roaming the area. Possibly manifestations of Osada's subconscious or possibly separate entities which had been attracted to the mental landscape. Besides unless he was rather circumspect about where he transitioned back to his human state the other wandereres would be none the wiser.

As his body shifted into the serpentine state that was his true self Di began to ascend on a current of air. Doubles if Kirei, Nova or Mokuzai were to look up they would see him and understand who it was riding the wind.