After a full morning of working out, Bayushi Tenma decided to make one last stop before heading to her room. Wheeling her luggage with her, she looks for some place with interesting refreshments and settled on a tea establishment. She wasn't big on trying new things, so she got some plain bubble tea and some sort of local cake before finding a seat at a little cafe table, leaning her stuff against it as she sat down.

After a workout that had pushed her far more above her limits than she expected, Akemi just crashed in the first establishment serving drinks she could find.

"Something refreshing please. I trust you as for the taste." she asked.

Noticing the red-haired woman, something triggered in her head:

"Sorry Scorpion-sama, but haven't I seen you somewhere before?

Oh I know! Nothing special actually. It was at the gym, like two hours ago. We crossed paths in one of the corridors."

Flashback of etiquette lessons kicked in and she finally bowed:

"Hida Akemi of the Crab."

"Bayushi Tenma, Scorpion yoriki."

She gave a seated bow before motioning to one of the other high legged chairs around the table, "You were at the facilities as well? We must have been going opposite directions then. Feels good to stretch one's legs after a long shuttle ride though, neh?"

"Yeah, it's good to confirm everything is still working correctly. I'm drained though. Trained with the help of a Matsu, and she didn't go easy on me."

She downed half her drink in one go.

"Yoriki hey? So, you catch the bad guys? I'm a military myself. Hida shock troops, currently on leave due to injury, expected to be reintegrated as soon as the miai is over."

"Hai, that's right; Bring them to justice so they can pay for their misdeeds. ...I imagine I won't be doing any of that while I'm here, but I will admit... it's tempting to think about."

The mysterious outsider, visiting the planet to take out the badguys and bring peace to a Phoenix world in turmoil! Or something like that.

"I can definitely respect what you do, though; Not many have it as hard as the Hida Shock Troops they say. Apart from maybe the Lo... well, other shock troops I suppose."

"The Lo... Can we please not talk about them? I already feel like there are Spider everywhere on this planet. All conversations seem to eventually wrap around their presence, and I've witnessed with my own eye two... specimens before even landing.

Instead we could have a nice conversation about... I dunno. Maybe you've got some funny stories to share about your investigations? Something like The case of the black cat and the stolen letter?"

"No need to say any more. As to my investigations... I do wish they were more often exciting like a Seppun Sherlock story, but then again, I think they're more so in their own way. I'll admit, I don't have a ton of authority to be making arrests on my own, but I've done plenty of tailing and arresting and the serving of warrants."

"Hey, grunt work is thankless work, but it's in no way useless work. I'm myself quite low in the hierarchy. Hope to rise up the ranks one day but encountered a minor setback that delayed things this year."

She playfully put on display her mechanical arm.

"Grandpa wasn't happy about this. According to his calculations, by now I should have been at least nikutai, maybe even gunso. But we're both adaptable and we've made the best of this situation. I got a new arm, he arranged for me to enter a miai during my imposed downtime."

"...it is very well made. How long were they planning on keeping you off duty then?"

"It's still cutting edge technology, so they had no real idea either. More like we'll see when you new arm work again, if it ever works again. But I reacted well to both the graft and the physical therapy, and passed all ability tests successfully before coming here.

So in the end... About six months off duty between the incident and my expected return to service."

"Not too bad, considering how such an injury could go. As an understatement. Well then..."

She raised the tea she'd gotten, "Here's to you returning to duty soon hopefully, perhaps with a match that suits your tastes too."

Akemi joined the impromptu toast:

"Indeed. Good luck to you too.

Though grandpa definitely intended that I brought back a match of good reputation and status more than one matching my tastes...

Hoping for some qualities in particular in your future betrothed yourself?"

"I... actually have not given it much thought. Relatively, I mean. This whole miai business was a surprise to me; I already had certain expectations on when and the subject of my marriage might come up, and this certainly is not anything close to that. This feels much... sooner, and more in my control. I am still off balance."

The Scorpion girl frowned briefly before putting her straw in those lips.

"Life is an explosion or something like that. It comes at you fast, it doesn't wait.

But hey, you've still got a big week to think about it.

I could present you a few Crab boys if you wish. But must warn you one of them is already head over heels for one of your clansmates."

"I will admit, I know there are other Scorpion here, but I know nothing about them. Perhaps the fault of the circumstances that brought me here. ...and I would have no objections to a Crab mate, as it were; If they seemed intelligent enough."

She put a finger to her chin.

"...I suppose that might make that one of the things I am looking for, now that I say it."

"Oh. Is there a story about how you ended up in this situation?

Sorry, might not be something you want to talk about.

As for the boys, we've brought a full house. We've got a successful businessman, a genius engineer, and I think a ace pilot too.

Add to that the girls of course, as we're not in the dawn of the empire anymore. There's a Kuni who is fiery from what I've heard, though I have yet to encounter her in the flesh. And obviously, there's me, the charming war veteran."

A slight smile, "I can see that. As to a story, it's nothing special. It's more that coming here was a personal recommendation for me, rather than some sort of project from the higher ups; I'm not here because I was judged to be a great candidate or anything like that."

"My grandpa would say that no one will ever care about how you've got a position as long as you do a good job at it.

Well, he would also add But don't you dare fail after saying that, but I'm sure that's not the most important part of the quote."

"Mmmm... well, if it helps, I don't feel unqualified to be here or anything like that. Perhaps a bit out of my depths; I'm no duelist or smooth talker or anything like that. And I've never properly dated anyone, so my experience with matters of the heart is a little woeful. But I'm sure that won't be too much of an impediment, no?"

"Yeah, the ability to flirt will be at best one of the many criteria the Phoenix will look for... Though on that front, I don't think you will have any issue shining."