Demitri stops by SushiMei’s bar to find his employee Gally. After a stern talking/suffocation Demitri flies back to the palace to meet up with his samurai compadres. Meanwhile, the rest of the party is in a fight with the helmet on top of Ghost’s head. They defeat the mimic and see that they are being watched on all sides by eyes of pure void. They flee the area and return to the palace and meet Demitri. They lock Ozzy up in his cell and head to bed after Itorosu kills all the hobos within the jail. Celosia uses divination to contact the god of fire Pyrus who tells her that Shaiyo is still alive.

The next day they talk to Itorosu about Shaiyo and he tells them about a strange energy he sensed on top of Mt. Drake. He also explained the reason why Shaiyo’s castle is still standing after all these years. After talking with Itorosu the party tortured Ozzy and got almost no information out of the stone-cold rat king. Afterward, the party headed to the market once more. Demitri talked to Gally and Winger to see how business was going and gave a messaging stone to Winger. Akabono took Ghost’s magic carpet to the magic item vendor to have it fixed and Celosia talked to the magic jeweler. Celosia offered the poor lady a position at her Hanamachi and Demitri gave her a gun for protection. In return, they all received free messaging stones.

After the market, they all headed to Mei Sharona’s Hanamachi to receive more information on the disappearances. Mei Sharona wouldn’t talk without payment so Celosia used hold person and they brought her into a back room. They found out that there was a strange man coming down from the top of Mt. Drake every so often who wasn’t supposed to be there. After talking with Sharona and stealing money from Shai Lou, the party took the trek up the massive dormant volcano.

At the top Ghost climbed up the colossal statue of Ryujin and gained favor from the beast. Demitri tried to cut off a tooth of the dragon but was blasted back with a wave of heat. Down below Celosia found a secret entrance in a tree, radiating dark energy. Once regrouped the party went down the tree and entered a dark building within the mountain. In the room below they see several crates and barrels. As Celosia goes to touch a crate she is immediately caught by the adhesive of a mimic and all the other crates and barrels reveal themselves as deceptive monstrosities.