Chouzaburou

Chouzaburou was the most gifted oracle to train at the temple. All of Waterfall City saw it. Fishers would ask for auspicious days; guards would seek warnings of danger. Chouzaburou would listen to the whispers in the sacred vapour wreathed around their head and relay the spirits' guidance with wide-eyed sincerity. They believed they were a conduit for the ancient voices of the falls. This changed when a child, weeping, asked the spirits where they had lost their favorite fishing lure. The mist whispered the answer: snagged on a root beneath the main plaza's fish statue. In that moment, Chouzaburou understood. The voices were not ancient. They were the city's own worries, its hopes, its forgotten chores—the quiet thoughts of everyone, gathered in their mist. They weren't speaking to gods; they were listening to everybody.