This city is not terribly far from Trench. A couple days of walking, or a good few hours by train at most. And yet the ecology yields those disease curing mushrooms that were all the rage the month prior to his arrival.

Trench itself is ill. More than likely something to do with blood pollution in the soil, but it stands to reason that some tests are in order.

He digs in the patches of soil where these mysterious healing mushrooms are most prominent, taking samples of both the fungus and the soil it grows in to be examined on his return.

In the distance, he hears a faint but sudden sharp chord strummed on a biwa.