Party: Daidoji Jinsoku, Hida Ganko, Doji Natsuki, Togashi Amajino, Yoritomo Shohei
Jinsoku makes his way to Chi, only to be caught up with Matsu Mizuki. The samurai-ko talks to the duelist, trying to plan a way to get Chi to the safety of the Temple of Lady Sun. She explains she saw dubious individuals around the temple, and suggests getting Chi out of there, as brigands and rogues would be able to enter the open temple of Osano-Wo more easily than the enclosed Amaterasu temple.
The pair meet with a shifty looking individual and provoke him into drawing his weapon on them. As the man calls for back-up, the pair quickly takes him down and turns to face the new threats... before Mizuki turns on Jinsoku and fierce combat ensues between the two, where the lady is revealed to be a shadow-creature that absorbed part of Mizuki's identity.
However strong this supernatural being may have been, Jinsoku's training proves him to be a superior force and before she gets away again, he strikes her down.
The others, with the real Mizuki guarding their back, head down to the dwelling of the Maho-tsukai, near the Bridge of Drunken Lovers. Ganko releases the door from its hinges and the group manage to get through the scattered remains of the house and into a trapped tunnel-system that leads to a spot under the river. Through experience and quick thinking, they easily make their way into a ritual room, where the remains of the victims of the Moon Cult are piled into a heap on an altar.
The vile shugenja and his followers, caught off guard by the rapid chase, hastily try to resurrect the remains of their victims into an avatar of Lord Moon. The combat is quickly joined and the combination of Ganko's strength, Shohei's combat manoeuvres and Amajino's incredible defense breaks the power of the tainted trio.
Shattering the links between the incomplete avatar and its ritual components destroyed the unholy vitality that animated it, leaving it to crumble back into separate parts.
The group realize that leaving this location as is, would be bad, spreading potential taint through the city.
They call in their Isawa friend, who brings along a familiar face in Kuni Kobayashi.
Over the course of a week the Inquisitor, the Witch Hunter and the party set out to destroy the remaining cells of the Moon Cult in Ryoko Owari, using the information gathered from captured cultists and helpful kami in the city.
The other plans of the party are halted, as the big meeting they wanted to have with the heads of the Scorpion families in the city get delayed with polite but insistent messages. The group does manage to set an official meeting at a later date.
Fade, the local bandit whom the party had invited to visit Kikyo, does not show up.
