>Man, is there anything that can get this kid down? Probably not.
>Let's follow along then!
>She does seem a font of cheerfulness. You imagine it could actually get a little obnoxious sometimes....
>You follow after Kyouko as she heads further down the cobblestone path.
>"So where else do you pitch in around town?"
>"Oh, I've worked lots of places," she replies. "A bakery, a cafe, a library... I helped coach a school choir once, planted some trees in Whitemantle Park after they blew down in that storm a couple years back, delivered fliers... Lots of stuff!"
>The sounds of the surrounding city grow just a little fainter as you proceed, the tall trees doing their best to ward off the world outside. A gentle breeze stirs their leaves to rustling as the faint trickle of the tiny brooks adds a subtle bass beneath. There is a burst of sound and movement to your right as a small bird takes flight from a high branch and then disappears beyond the trees. It is but a short walk to the main building; Kyouko leads you up the small flight of stairs at its front, past a humble offertory box standing before of a small gong that rests astride a water feature, and then through the main doors.
>You enter into a sparse and spartan room, shoji walls and wooden flooring with little furniture or embellishing. It is lit by a small cluster of paper lanterns hanging from its ceiling and a few of its walls bear long scrolls of archaic calligraphy; the brushwork is fine, but so stylized as to be hard to read. There are a pair of small water features in alcoves along the main wall, built in the likeness of springs issuing over water-worn stone, but little else of note. It is surprisingly spacious, perhaps all the more so because of its sparseness; maybe a gathering space of some kind?
>"Wait here just a moment," Kyouko says in an uncharacteristically subdued tone as she walks towards one of the sliding doors on the far wall.
