Session Seven; Turn of Events

It had gotten dark a while ago, though Mikoto knew the sun was still up. It was just that the trees blotted it from view as it slowly sank below the horizon, a horizon she couldn’t see because she had gone so far into the forest she no longer knew where it actually ended. Hikaru and Hinata had led her there. It was on her orders, but originally she had believed they were just going to wander around town. Even after they had entered the woods, she had believed it would be just a short trek. Now, after several hours of tramping through bushes that pulled at her kimono, sinking into soft ground, and tirelessly following her lions, she had to find Katsumi or else she might not ever make it out of here. She was lost.

She wasn’t just lost she was also hungry. She was tired. And, most of all, she was angry. She was getting married tomorrow and not one of those she lived with was going to be there if they were all gallivanting in the woods. They probably didn’t even care, too busy with their stupid hunting trips and their stupid group outings that she wasn’t even invited to. Tsuruchi invited Shiba right in front of her, but did he think to even offer Mikoto the chance to decline? No, no he did not.

And what was Katsumi thinking? She was most obviously out here; otherwise, Mikoto wouldn’t be out here. Hikaru and Hinata were following Katsumi’s scent, so she had to be out here with everyone else, hunting and foregoing the wedding. Mikoto’s anger melted into sadness. Katsumi didn’t want to come to her wedding. She could empathize with that. If Katsumi were getting married, Mikoto knew she wouldn’t want to be there seeing Katsumi promise herself to someone else. It would be too hard to bare witness to, especially with the way she felt. Mikoto knew she was teetering on the edge of adoration for Katsumi, with the long drop to love lying below her, and Katsumi was like a weight pulling her off the cliff. Mikoto wondered why she hadn’t seen it before. Katsumi was already at the bottom, or at least in the same precarious situation Mikoto was. She probably felt the same way as Mikoto did for her. In addition, Mikoto was marrying Katsumi’s brother, that could make things more complicated for Katsumi’s feelings, she reasoned.

Hinata ran ahead, bounding through the trees and out of sight. Hikaru chased after her and Mikoto followed suit. They must be getting close; her lions hadn’t raced off like that the entire trip. Then Mikoto smelled it, something savory and warm, something was cooking. Her mouth began to water, it was past dinner and she was starving. She had skipped breakfast, and only eaten a small amount for lunch, too nervous about tomorrow and too preoccupied with where Katsumi was. Her stomach gurgled in response, as if agreeing that whatever it was that smelled so delicious needed to be consumed right away.

There was a glow ahead, a light beckoning Mikoto towards it. The trees thinned out. She could see shapes around the fire. Then she was out of the woods, stumbling into a clearing where a huge fire blazed and everyone turned towards her rather rambunctious entrance. Asahina sat on a rock next to Tsuruchi; Kitsuki wasn’t far away. Shiba was braiding Sara’s hair. And closest to Mikoto sat Katsumi, wide-eyed and unmoving, shock coloring her face.

“Matsu-san,” Katsumi shook her head in disbelief, “What are you doing here?”

“What are you guys doing here?” Mikoto demanded. “Aren’t you supposed to be in town?”

No one responded. In fact, no one moved besides Hikaru who padded towards Katsumi to nuzzle against her. The fire popped loudly in the quiescent scene, the only other sound being the cicadas calling to one another.

“I’m so hungry,” Mikoto groaned as she moved closer to the static group. She halted after a few steps, her unease growing as the silence continued from everyone. Katsumi hadn’t stopped staring at her, still looking for an answer as to why she was there. “I was looking for you,” Mikoto admitted, offering a contrite smile.

Katsumi didn’t give the reaction Mikoto had believed would come. Instead of opening her arms to her or being pleased that Mikoto had come just to spend time with Katsumi. Katsumi’s face darkened, her eyes narrowed, and her lips thinned. Mikoto could see the muscles in Katsumi’s jaw flex. She had never seen Katsumi angry before, but this was exactly what she would expect it to look like. Katsumi grabbed her bisento and marched towards Mikoto. She didn’t understand what she had done wrong, all she did was come looking for Katsumi. Katsumi gripped Mikoto’s arm, tugging her along back into the woods.

“But-but food,” Mikoto stammered as Katsumi dragged her away.

Session Six; The Art of Words Part 2

The first leg of the trip was silent as the grave. Kyuzo was deep in thought trying to figure out what to do with the new friend of theirs. She obviously was coming to town with them, but after that, what would they do? And why was she out in the woods? And even further, what was she doing awake? The Naga were supposed to be sleeping, at least, that’s what he believed. Yet here one was, being hunted by her kinsmen, triumphing, and now attached to his side and following them back to the city he was running. Not to mention whatever happened in the woods with the spirit that turned her Naga friends against her. That was also something he would have to worry about. First, what he was going to do with her needed to be worked out.

“We…” Shiba was the first to say something in over an hour, “Should probably not be walking into town with a… Naga.”

Her timid voice floated effortlessly across the space between them. She was behind Daigotsu, who was behind the Naga, which was behind him, and Tsuruchi took the lead.

“Honestly, I’ve thought about that, and the thing is… I don’t want to…” How could he say this in a way that others could understand? “For lack of better words, I don’t want to hurt her feelings because I don’t want to make her mad.”

The Naga had already proven to be dangerous if she misunderstood something, the scene with Shiba being threatened was the first example that came to mind. What would happen if Kyuzo angered her? Maybe she’d go on some sort of killing spree, or find other Naga and tell them that he was the one that shunned her. He didn’t even want to consider the things she was capable of with her pearl magic and her ability to explode heads and take out three Naga simultaneously.

“If Asahina-sama wants to bring a Naga into town, who is really going to stop him?” Tsuruchi reasoned.

“Yeah.” It was a good point. Kyuzo was the leader of the town; if he wanted to bring her there, no one had any place to object.

“Especially a wounded one,” Tsuruchi added. That was another good point. Kyuzo had saved her life, or tried to at least. Honestly, her anatomy was so vastly different he had no idea if he even helped. It appeared he had, but he couldn’t really say.

“Perhaps, after all the unfortunate events that have taken place, this could be seen as a sign of good luck and prosperity for the town,” Kyuzo remarked.

Daigotsu scoffed. Kyuzo shot her an annoyed look, which he was nearly certain she didn’t catch. The Naga, however, was holding out something small and fuzzy to Daigotsu. He peered over his shoulder and realized, as Daigotsu accepted it, it was a rat. Kyuzo shook his head and returned his attention to the path before him.

“We can’t have her stay outside of town after her troop has just been murdered and she’s wounded and we have no idea what is going on,” Tsuruchi attested.

“I agree. Perhaps she can live in the temple,” Kyuzo suggested.

“I don’t think that will be the best choice,” Daigotsu gave her input.

Session Six; The Art of Words Part 1

Kyuzo was up at dawn, always rising just before sunrise. A routine that had become so ingrained in his being he had long ago stopped being surprised that it was nearly the same moment everyday when he opened his eyes. Today was another day he wasn’t looking forward to. He was restless. It had been a long month of training in order for him to accompany the Scorpion scouting party on a mission. A long month of little improvement on his part, he just wasn’t getting how one could make themselves lighter than they were. Maybe he just wasn’t suited for the art of silence. He’d keep at it, at least. Nevertheless, that didn’t solve how much he desired to be out of this small town where everyone bowed and addressed him as their lord. Just for a few hours. It wasn’t as if he wanted to run away, he just wanted a break. Even when he was painting, he didn’t really get that break. It was the same four walls, the same scenery, and the same people constantly interrupting him.

Kyuzo took a deep breath before leaving his room. He had dressed and was ready to begin another day of solving menial problems, if there were even problems to solve. The town seemed to function rather well on its own. The only issue that had been brought to Kyuzo’s attention so far was the unfortunate business with Tsuruchi Airo. A business he would rather put out of his mind than use as an example of his brilliant leadership. He was still uncomfortable about the way everything happened. Seeing the ghostly Airo following Negisa around town after she had taken him to enact ‘justice’ was even more discomforting. Then he had simply disappeared shortly after the new Mantis delegate, Airo’s brother, Tsuruchi Meintaro, had arrived. Kyuzo had decided he wasn’t going to postulate on what happened to Airo, he truly didn’t want to know, and so he didn’t ask.

Stepping outside into the backyard, Kyuzo found what he was searching for, or perhaps whom he was searching for. The Soshi twins were diligently directing a few Scorpion add onto the complicated obstacle course he had been running for several weeks. A man was hanging rings on the opposite sides of a beam, as if you were to swing from metal ring to metal ring across the beam, however, instead of some child’s game one would have played years ago, the man was stepping into each ring, and making it look rather easy as well. A deception, Kyuzo had learned from the first day, the Scorpion took a joy in perpetuating.
“Pardon me, Soshi-san,” Kyuzo addressed the two.

Both turned at exactly the same moment, and in tandem greeted him in return. “Asahina-sama, good morning to you.”

They had been acting like this since the day one of them informed him they were twins. It was easier before, when he had just believed Soshi some sort of shugenja that could manipulate time and always end up wherever he was looking for her at. Now they were nearly connected at the hip, speaking the same thoughts at the same time, and when they weren’t doing that they were finishing each other’s sentences without ever overlapping a syllable. Because of this, he tried to spend as little time as possible with them when the two were together. One at a time they were easy enough to handle, but both ended up disorienting him with the constant switching between who was talking.

“Good morning to you,” he responded, getting formalities out of the way. He had an express purpose for seeing Soshi, even if both of them were together. However, he also felt he knew the answer before he even asked it, seeing as how they were building more on the scouting course. “What’s the progress on heading out with our scouts? Are we going to have to train ourselves more? I just want to get the lay of the land, and I know I’m not catching on as fast as I should with this…”

Both Soshis held up one of their hands to indicate for Kyuzo to stop.

Session Five; One Life Begins, One Ends

Kyuzo stepped back from the cherry tree to better see the big picture instead of focusing on the small details. He looked it over and nodded to himself. It looked real enough, he had done a fine job with shading so the tree gave the illusion of gentle motion in a breeze. It was serene. At this moment, he couldn’t think of anything that would improve upon it more than he already had today. It was good before, but now it was starting to become a tree and less a picture of a tree. He went through the motions of cleaning up his painting station wondering what he was going to do next. Kyuzo had thought running a town would be much more time consuming than it was turning out to be. With Daigotsu running construction, Matsu the guard, and Kitsuki handling the trading and income, there wasn’t much to take care of himself. On top of that, they were waiting for the bulk of their new population to arrive, so everything was just continuing as normal with very little guidance from him. The city was running smoothly and would continue to do so until they had to expand.

Expanding, that was a thought. Kyuzo had toured the town but he hadn’t seen much beyond the hill they inhabited. He knew there was a forest to the southwest, and a river that ran through the town, but besides that, he wasn’t aware of much of the countryside. There had to be rice patties somewhere. And what was beyond those? It suddenly occurred to him he hadn’t given much consideration to which way the town would expand, or how far, or even what was out there. For all he knew there was another town within a few hours travel. In addition, the Scorpion weren’t very forthcoming with information. They spoke to him with riddles and half-answers.

He sucked his teeth and headed towards the inn the Scorpion had last been spotted at. Shiba quickly tailed after him. She was exceptional at the part of being a yojimbo that required her always to be there, he never had to find her before he left the house, or even in the house. Usually she was near enough she could drop whatever she was doing without a moment’s notice. Kyuzo liked that, not having to tell her what to do.

Soshi wasn’t hard to find, she was standing outside the inn as if she were waiting for someone. It was probably him; she did odd things like that. Like the day he met her and she was in their house tending to Tsuruchi, apparently waiting for him as well then she began talking to him as if he should have known all along whom she was. She knew everything about him and even then some. Granted, the house wasn’t exactly a strange place for someone to be waiting for him, but she popped up whenever he thought of her, and sometimes when he didn’t.

“I’ve decided,” Kyuzo said as he approached Soshi, “I’d like to accompany your group on a scouting mission.”

“It’s inadvisable, Lord Asahina,” Soshi began in that sultry sweet voice of hers, “for you to join us on a mission. Of course, it is still your choice. However, things can get hazardous and if we couldn’t manage to handle the situation, one or two lost scouts aren’t a big deal, but a lost daimyo is.”

Kyuzo had thought she might try to talk him out of it. The Scorpion were a secretive bunch, and choosing them for scouting was the most logical choice, but requesting to join them wasn’t something most people did. They were tight knit and lacked trust in their fellow man, especially if you weren’t a part of their clan. Probably even if you were a part of their clan.

“Perhaps Shiba could accompany you, then? I think the experience would be well worth the risk.” Kyuzo hadn’t even asked Shiba her opinion on the matter, he didn’t mind volunteering people for jobs, but this was a little different, perhaps he should have discussed it with her first.

“What do you think?” He asked Shiba. “Would you like to go? Get out of town for a bit?”

“I am here to protect you,” Shiba responded.

“Alright, that settles it,” Kyuzo nodded and turned back to Soshi, “We want to go.”