"Well, I did not think it'd happen this way either, but I am sure that the nakado know what they are doing. I've already talked to one. It was bit weird, but, well." he smiled awkwardly. "About what you'd expect?" Sora offered. "I trust them to sort things out in an agreeable manner." If nothing else, the young man was confident.

"Ahh, right. How he's doing? He wasn't taking part, was he?" he asked, trying to recall if he'd seen another familiar name on the list. "The food at the castle isn't that great then?" Sora wondered, turning to Chiruha.

"Well. I am not saying everyone knows." the young man grinned with all the smugness an Isawa could muster. "I know and that's enough for me." The way his gaze rested made it evident that he had no pretenses. "I would call it Benten's guidance, yes."

Chiruha gave a casual wave of her hand. "I'm sure he's doing all right, even if a bit annoyed at everything. And the Shiro has great food, just not as great buns as Serenity," she explained herself as she continued to make her way out.

She could only give the Isawa two blinks at his words regarding Benten, "Uhm...that's gr..."

Murr...murr...

Before Chiruha could speak, she was interrupted by a rather feral sound of an animal nearby. She looked around curiously before she could determine the source of the murring. Carefully meandering toward a few crates that were stacked beside a store that hand closed for reconstruction, she happened upon an orange kitten that had been huddled here.



The kitten's fur was bristled and it stood with its front paw forward at the ready on the defence.

"Oh..." Chiruha had said as she narrowed her eyes. Cats were certainly not local here. "I think it's a lost kitten...maybe separated from a visitor?"

"You have cats here?" Sora asked, thinking much along the same lines as Chiruha, trailing her. The kitten had also stolen his attention. "It looks a bit scared? Maybe it's lost?" As usual, the Isawa had to come up with all the theories.

"No...some people own dogs but cats are known to roam and the local surroundings aren't exactly cat friendly, so they aren't popular pets..." she murmured in thought.



The kitten turned its attention to Chiruha and looked at her cautiously as it continued to muurrr...murrr...murrr, as if to question her intentions.

"I should get it before anything happens to her...him...It shouldn't be wandering around like this. Even around otori it might be dangerous," she said as she bent down and reached out a hand. The kitten didn't take a liking to that and splayed its front paws on the ground, hissing and spitting at her.

"Spicy little thing...but let's see if I grab her from..." Chiruha frowned but wasn't going to relent, trying again to negotiate with the kitten. Unfortunately, the kitten hopped forward to lay its tiny claws on her fingers and took a quick to gnaw on them before dropping back defensively. "Oww!"

She staggered back and dropped her bun on the ground. Her fingers took on superficial scratches from the kitten but enough to cause slight bleeding.

"I could see that." Sora murmured, grimacing as he thought what an otori could do to an overtly curious cat. "Isn't it cute." he added, almost as enthralled by the critter as Sora was.

"Uh, try to be careful, grab it by its neck..." the young man tried to advise Chiruha, only to realize that he was rather late. Wincing when he realized what had happened. "Oof, that must have hurt." He reached for her hand, gently wrapping his fingers around her wrist to take a better look of the scratch. "Uh..." Realizing what he had done, Sora let go of Chiruha, dropping his gaze as he did so. "Sorry..." he muttered.

"Water... water." Sora pulled a small canteen from his kimono, offering it to Chiruha. "You should get that cleaned just in case." He was still a little flustered as he reached into his sleeve, looking for his napkins.

"Uhm," Chiruha murmured when she immediately took notice of Sora taking a hold of her wrist before letting go.

She turned her attention back to the wound and grimaced at the sight of the 'injury'. Her hand went over the other as she applied some pressure on the cuts. "It's fine...I'm just bleeding a little. I should get it clean and patched up. Maybe Hakue-san is on duty around here and give me something just in case. It was my mistake anyway, really should have been more careful..."



Muurrr...

The kitten didn't seem too remorseful at what it did and continued to stay on the attack stance, occasional hissing and spitting at the humans lingering close. It slowly backed up against the wall and found a pipe opening. The kitten quickly crawled in to make its escape.

"WAIT! It's running away!" Chiruha cried out and quickly bent down to take a look at the pipe.

"Mhmhm, you should have." Sora murmured in agreement. "I think you are supposed to capture them by the neck." he explained, seemingly all-knowing. "Maybe we should..."

"Oh no..." Sora manage to gasp as he watched Chiruha to lunge after the kitten, following in suit even as he reached into his satchel.

Chiruha pressed her body on the floor and tried to look down the pipe the kitten went into.

"Oh, no..." she murmured as she tried her best to get a better look. "I can't see him, I think he's gone..."

She finally sat up and let out a sigh. "Who knows where he could have gone now or if anything is going to happen...Sorry, this is probably my fault. I guess I wasn't really thinking clearly when I saw the kitten and ended up bitten instead. It's kind of a rookie mistake on my part."

Sora followed her, frowning as he did so. "Mhmhm, well, you did kinda scare it." the young man murmured. "But still, I don't think you could have done better." he added, trying to comfort her. "We all make mistakes. We learn. That's what this mon's about." Patting the Phoenix mon on his kimono, Sora peered to see 'the damage' the kitten had done.

"Could you extend me your hand." he asked Chiruha, holding a small scroll in his hand. "I mean, this probably won't warrant this, but better safe than sorry."

It also seemed fitting that a Phoenix would get scratched by an angry and scared cat too but that wasn't a thought that Chiruha was capable of at the moment. She was rather deflated that she wasn't able to rescue the kitten and that it thought she was a threat to it. It was just the other day she was teaching someone how to handle an otori, albeit a tamed one. It was enough to have her still beating herself up over what transpired.

"Oh...sure..." she murmured and held out her hand as instructed. It wasn't serious and at most, it looked liked she took a few papercuts in a short amount of time. It perhaps stung more to her that the kitten escaped than anything.

Looking at the scroll, Sora reached to hover his hand over hers, murmuring a familiar prayer the Phoenix taught to every acolyte, the kami of water surging to wash over Chiruha, knitting the scratches she had. "There, you shold be good now." he quipped, tucking the scroll back into his satchel. "Maybe you could ask a servant or two to come here and look for it?"

Chiruha had almost hoped that Sora wasn't actually thinking of casting a spell on her, considering how wasteful it might be. The kami likely didn't take it too kindly to be used for a trivial task, in her opinion as a Phoenix. She let out a small breath with a nod of her head. "Thank you, Sora-sam...you didn't have to but thank you. I'm thinking of stopping by one of the medical stations on the way. I don't think the kitten was sick but it's better to make sure..."

"I should...probably get going," she said as she gestured vaguely to the direction of the Shiro. Now she was without a lunch, too. "It was good seeing you again, Sora-san, and I hope the miai goes well for you. Thank you for your help."

She bowed deeply in thanks.

"This gets you back faster, neh." he quipped with a smirk on his lips, clearly not sharing her concerns about abusing the kami. "Your kindness speaks volumes." Sora added, his voice now a lot softer.

"Ah, yes." Sora bobbed his head. "I'll hope to catch you sometime again and I hope that you can find the kitten." There a hint of worry in his voice even as he bowed to down to match her. "Do carry the Fortunes, Chiruha-san."

"Hopefully..." she murmured, looking at the pipe hole and hoping that it would magically pop back. However, she knew better when it came to a frightened animal. He wasn't going to pop back up wanting cuddles.

"Carry the Fortunes, Sora-san," she gave him a nod and reluctantly returned to her routine.

/exit