Grave News -

Visitors sure were a lot more common as King than they had been when Taori was just a regular soldier. Sure, he'd gotten the occasional knock on the door, but now? Every day it felt like someone new was trying to meet with him, either to size him up for themselves or to ask him personal questions and pitch their own ideas. He didn't much like the attention, really. But it wasn't like it was attention he hadn't been expecting. When you globally announce yourself as the new most powerful person on the planet, you tend to draw some eyes.

It had gotten to the point where he'd ordered guards to turn people away unless the matter at hand was of genuine importance, and so far, it had meant dealing with a whole lot less people. However, the occasional important matter did still pop up from time to time. One of which happened to happen on this particular day. Taori had been discussing something with a local official, when one of the guards approached. "Sir, we have visitors at the front gate requesting an audience." Taori frowned. "And I assume they told you something significant?" The guard nodded. "They say the matter relates to Yangcong."

Yangcong? Now that was a name Taori had never expected to hear come up again. In the end, Yangcong had proved himself to be an insignificant, miserable old fool who had died a meaningless death. What more was there to say about him? Taori supposed it couldn't hurt to hear the visitors out, but he wasn't expecting much. "You can send them to the throne room, I'll be there shortly," he ordered, and the guard nodded before running off to let the visitors in. 

Taori excused himself from the official, then made his way towards the throne room, where he took a seat atop the chair Rosemary had once sat upon. He'd never truly expected to see himself up there, yet... Here he was. 

It wouldn't take long for the guards to bring the visitors to meet him, provided they cooperated, and Taori sized them up as they entered. They both looked to be Saiyans, though one had quite striking red hair that wasn't common among their people. "So, my friend tells me you two want to talk about Yangcong?" Taori asked, "I'm not sure what more you could have to say about an old, dead man, but go ahead. I'm listening."

Well, this certainly was more interesting than the usual type of request that came through any given visitor. Taori raised an eyebrow and frowned as this 'Ches' suddenly poised that Yangcong was still alive. Although, Taori had to struggle to stop himself from snorting at the notion.

While he couldn't be certain these two's false claims were malicious in nature - after all, they could easily have been spooked by someone they believed to be Yangcong - he did know for a fact that it couldn't have been. He'd spoken with Amara herself in the afterlife, after all, and she had confirmed firsthand that Yangcong had come to the afterlife with her. She'd even seen him around post-death.

Still, he waited to hear them out before he said anything, maintaining a fairly solid poker face until they were done. "I see," he replied once the two had finished speaking.

"So basically, you're saying... Somehow, Yangcong returned?"

He sat back up in his seat and let out a small chuckle. "Frankly, I wouldn't worry too much about that. I can't be sure what it is you saw, but Yangcong is very certainly dead. Besides, even if, theoretically, he lived, sending more soldiers out to those outposts as you're suggesting would just be sending them to their deaths." These two were certainly bold to be storming up to the king and demanding soldiers be placed in various positions, though. He understood they were probably spooked, but they didn't seem to be thinking all too clearly.

"I apologize, but I'd much rather wait for confirmation from a trusted source before I take any sort of action on that front." If it had been Vocado or some other close advisor who had made the claim, then he might have some reason to take it slightly more seriously. As was, though, he saw little reason to take this as something other than just a couple of spooked Saiyans who had barely survived a battle and had hallucinated.

"If that's all, I do have other matters to attend to."

These fellows were insistent, weren't they? Though, Taori did sit up and raise his brow when Yakone suddenly mentioned that, somehow, he had visited with Amara in the Otherworld. "What?" Taori asked in surprise. Firstly, he was surprised Yakone was even aware he knew of Amara - he hadn't mentioned her name, right? Still... Something wasn't adding up about all of this. Ghost fruit? Yangcong more powerful than anyone in the afterlife? Demon Realm? Taori blinked a few times at Yakone, and occasionally glanced over at Ches to see if he was also taking this seriously.

The man's face was hard to read. Taori learned nothing.

"Er..." he mumbled after Yakone had finished speaking. "That is, um, quite a lot." What was he supposed to make of all this? While he couldn't say he completely believed the story, it made connections to enough things that he supposed it wasn't an impossible tale. Though, that also meant this Yakone fellow was a ghost himself, which was its own can of worms. 

Taori sighed. "Alright, how about this," he began to offer, "I have a few friends who are fairly well-versed in Otherworld matters. One of them is even a Shinjin. I'll take your words into consideration and ask them what they think about it - see if it's plausible, maybe have them check the afterlife and ask around about Yangcong. And if what you're saying is true, then I'll head out there myself to deal with him."

Frankly, if Yangcong really was back, Taori wouldn't want anyone else to be dealing with the old bastard. "It won't take all too long - I'm meeting with this friend of mine later today, in fact. You're welcome to wait in Sadala until I can verify your claims." Surely Yakone and Ches wouldn't fault him for wanting to remain cautious when it came to such outlandish tales such as this one. And if they did, well... They were just being unreasonable.