"Fair." Hayato offered with a chuckle. "It's not like I'm a pro batterball player or anything." If there was such a thing. "But I win more then I lose, so that's something."

"If anything, isn't that the goal of all warrior and athletes?....Wait, are there pro batterball players?"

"Probably not," Hayato replied thoughtfully. "I think professional players would ruin the spirit of Batterball too." It was all about freedom? A pro league would need to have consistent rules.

"You are right about that other stuff though, the goal of athletes and warriors."

"I'm generally right, it's one of my redeeming qualities."
Still....batterball...maybe the jade legion had some players
"I never thought news sports would be one of the focuses of my miai experience."

"It is kinda odd when you think about it." Hayato agreed with a soft chuckle. The fields of mushrooms were starting to end as the farmlands came into sight.

"You'd think it would involve a lot more romantic moments."

"It's probably the mushrooms."
Shoan gazes out the window back at the giant fungi
"They just impede romance through their sheer presence."

"You know, you're probably right." There wasn't anything even a little romantic about a whole field of phallic symbols as far as the eye can see.

"I'm pretty i don't want to see anymore mushroom trees in the near future."

"I think after Asakaze I will swear off them for life."
The tiniest of sighs
"But I will miss the fried otori."

"Would fried otori be worth having to live around giant mushrooms all your life though?" Absolutely not, at least in Hayato's opinion.

"....You make a good point. But surely there's a planet out there which by the grace of the fortunes has wonderful fried chicken and also no giant fungi?"

"Well yeah. I imagine there are quite a few of them honestly." Most Mantis worlds had a preference for seafood. "Maybe crab lands or Unicorn? Both seem to have a love of fried things."

"...But then I would have to go to a Crab or Unicorn world."
Bluh!
"There isn't a nice honourable world somewhere that does nice fried food?"

"Most of the Unicorn I've met here have been quite honorable, Shoan-san." Hayato gently chided the Lion. Though he knew that it may be different for other members of the clan.

"If you want fried food from other places, well you're best off starting to search now."

"I....will admit the Unicorn on Asakaze have behaved appropriately."
Appropraitely for a Unicorn anyway!

"I might begin that search this evening.....oh this will not be very productive."

"Very productive indeed." The farmlands flashed by then as they drive along one of the rough roads of the countryside.

"Let me know what your research finds, okay?"

"From one otori connisseur to another I give my word. And of course, if you find any good locations in your travels it goes without saying you have to let me know in turn."

"That's the type of promise I am sure to keep, Shoan-san. The Empire needs a map of all the best fried poultry locations, and I intend to contribute." Hayato finished with a firmness to his tone.

"May Fukurokujin guide you....one day I pray we will have otori trucks on every corner."

"They're going to have to breed a lot more otori for that." Hayato mused, looking towards the farms. "I don't think they have near enough here for the entire empire."

"Hmmm, and they did seem pretty set against allowing anyone to export them."
Shoan shakes her head at the fields like they were somehow personally to blame
"The Phoenix never understand how to make use of anything. If this were a Lion planet we'd already be trying to work out how to farm otori and rice on the same paddy."