Jiro is sitting in the common area of the Phoenix rooms, offering prayers at the shrine. He had seen his brother head out earlier, but stayed back. He suspected he was going to go raise a stink about the shrine they noticed the previous day. Usually he would have joined him but it was important that they do some things on their own or with other people here. So here he was praying, while tea steeped nearby. He rose, moved to the table and poured himself a cup.

Kiriko wandered into the common area, concealing a yawn behind one hand. She was running a little late this morning, but that was okay. Perhaps there was some reason for her delay.

"Oh... good morning, Shiba Jiro-san."

He greets her with a nod. "Tea, Isawa Kiriko-san?" he offers with a smile. Offering an empty cup at a seat next to him.

"It's a fresh pot."

She nodded and settled down at the offered seat, a smile crossing her face. "Perfect, thank you, Shiba-san. How are you this morning?"

"I am well. Amaterasu-no-kami will shine on us, we'll get to participate in a famous tournament, and I get to spend time with you," he says, pleasantly, pouring tea for her.

"And yourself? I hope you are doing as well or better."

"That's nice to say," she replied brightly, accepting the tea. "Thank you very much. I am also well for those reasons. I am looking forward to see how everyone's stories play out. What possibilities will be see come to fruition? It's interesting."

"You mentioned something like that yesterday," he says, interested. "Something about variations of possibilities and time and lines or something. I am... not certain I understand what that means?"

"Oh, that," she said, nodding a little. "All possibilities exist simultaneously within the Void. Most people can't perceive or access them - once a choice is made, the possibility is solidified in one direction... For this version of you, anyway."

"All possibilities. So like, the future exists there?" he asks, curious at that. Since possibilities are in the future as far as he understands it.

"Honestly, I think time is an illusion, so the past, present, and future aren't fundamentally different," she replied with a shrug. "But not everyone agrees with me on that perspective. But in short, yes."

"An illusion? Like, not real? That... is... I'm not sure I understand how it would be an illusion. Like, yesterday already came and went did it not? Isn't that what time is?" he asks, honestly not understanding what she means, but also not saying it's not true... because it's not something he knows enough about to make such claims.

"From a perspective anchored to our physical form, certainly," she nodded. "But possibilities exist where you made different decisions yesterday. Those exist just as much as the conclusion you perceive now. A little adjustment, and nearby possibilities are even accessible." She shrugged.

"I... accessible?" he asks. "Like... make a different choice from one you already made? That's just learning isn't it?"

"Time is just a matter of perspective," she said, shrugging. "We're only limited to when we apply our learning by our temporal perspective. Of course, one gets lost without that perspective, so it's a balance. It's hard to learn if your memories are an incoherent jumbled mess."

"So if time is an illusion and perspective and all that, what about physical acts that follow one after the other? Like my grandfather being born then my father, them my brother and I? Wouldn't those have to be in an order?"

"I would be lying if I said I knew how exactly it worked," she replied, tilting her head to the side. "I'm not a master, after all. I know that there persistently exist realities out there where those things didn't happen. Maybe they're equally real, with people experiencing them right now. Maybe they're not."

"Wouldn't those people experiencing them be us?" he asks. "If they were experiencing them wouldn't we be experiencing them?"

His questions seemed to be attempting to figure out exactly what she's talking about rather than to argue, as his expression is somewhere between contemplative, curious and confused.

"Certainly, though it may or may not be the same us as this us," she replied with a nod.

"Not the same us..." he says, thinking about it, which is slightly easier for him having a twin since he's always viewed Haru as connected due to sharing the same soul in a different identical body.

"So... they exist in like a different spirit realm that is just like ningen-do?"

"I don't think it's a different Ningen-do. I think Ningen-do is just much more complicated than we can see," she replied with a shake of her head. "I remember a jumbled mix of things. Maybe it was echoes like that."