[Natori's disbelieving look shifts to something more pensive, calculating, as Matoba drops that pronouncement. It's not as though Natori is a stranger to the idea of the little games that ayakashi become obsessed with-- this sort of thing is par for the course, if a little more... salacious than the sort that usually lands in his lap.
(Even Mitsuru, the one the Matoba clan had insisted would be perfect for Natori to track down and eliminate, was merely said to 'lure in young men' with the end goal left unstated.)
But Natori can see the contours of it. Like the Omibashira scam on a grand scale: lure in a bunch of weaker creatures, then feed off them. Why not a more parasitic relationship, something that could be devoured more slowly than a single feast? Sex was perfect for generating the sort of emotions that a particularly pernicious ayakashi could live off of for a long time. It's not the fact of the game that surprises him; it's that Matoba has resigned himself to playing it.
A creature powerful enough that the Matoba would bend along to their whims... it would be a god, or something strong enough as to be indistinguishable. Natori knows it could happen. What he doesn't know is why Matoba has already made the determination that they must play. Either this place is giving off some sign that Matoba can pick up that Natori can't, or he's had more time to investigate it, or both.
Instead of replying to either the explicit or implied statement that Matoba makes, Natori tilts his head to the side, considering.]
no subject
(Even Mitsuru, the one the Matoba clan had insisted would be perfect for Natori to track down and eliminate, was merely said to 'lure in young men' with the end goal left unstated.)
But Natori can see the contours of it. Like the Omibashira scam on a grand scale: lure in a bunch of weaker creatures, then feed off them. Why not a more parasitic relationship, something that could be devoured more slowly than a single feast? Sex was perfect for generating the sort of emotions that a particularly pernicious ayakashi could live off of for a long time. It's not the fact of the game that surprises him; it's that Matoba has resigned himself to playing it.
A creature powerful enough that the Matoba would bend along to their whims... it would be a god, or something strong enough as to be indistinguishable. Natori knows it could happen. What he doesn't know is why Matoba has already made the determination that they must play. Either this place is giving off some sign that Matoba can pick up that Natori can't, or he's had more time to investigate it, or both.
Instead of replying to either the explicit or implied statement that Matoba makes, Natori tilts his head to the side, considering.]
...How long have you been here, Matoba-san?