Akemi had rented a garage for a few hours in the lower city, not far from the Drunk'n Crab actually, so Kyoko could work quietly on her bike.

"Not a scratch Hida-sama. Just a lot of mud and plant fragments I've thoroughly cleaned."
"With..."
"With a double dose of fungicide, as you asked. Did the same for your armor and your club."

There was a rap on the metal door frame and a faint wave of hand rolled tobacco drifted in. The Firefly stood by the entrance and looked around.

"Afternoon. Nice work, some of those spores were a pain in the ass to scrub off."

"Hey Koseki. Hope that place wasn't too hard to find. May I present you Kyoko? You too talked to each other earlier but I think it's the first time you meet in the flesh.

Kyoko, this is Hotaru Koseki of the Firefly."

Kyoko turned on herself while staying sit, and bowed as much as she could from that unpractical position.

"No you were easy enough to find. Nice to meet you in person Kyoko. Thanks for trying to help out earlier."

He looked around the garage and walked over to the bike. "That was some great driving last night. I'm impressed you kept up with Yul-san."

"Thanks. Worlds are big. You go nowhere if you don't teach yourself to ride fast.

Are you a biker yourself?"

"Yeah, I'm starting to see that Akemi-san." He shook his head though. "Oh shit, do you mind me smoking?" He gave the cig a guilty look.

"Honestly, I've never needed to drive outside of an arcade game or three. Flying though, I've done plenty of that in my time. Firefly mostly live in deep space. I only set foot on a planet about three months ago."

"You can smoke no problem. I don't myself but I don't mind smokers."

She eyed him from head to toes, as if to determine if a life in deep space had modeled his physique a certain way:

"Space-born and raised eh? That must be something. Could you tell me more about the Firefly Clan? I'll confess I don't know much about you except for the fact grandpa sometimes buys ore from you guys."

"Cool, thanks. Feels like a day for a bit of excess, after the morning we had..." He took a draw and blew out a smoke ring.

Koseki was wiry like an Oshidama player, but tough like a Crab bushi. That much of his ancestry had been retained. Tough enough to fall 20 feet onto a metal floor, and survive being attacked by a zombie, without any sign of injury or complaint. The high-R environment of a planet was actually working his muscles rather a lot, so he looked to be in pretty good shape even if he didn't always feel it.

"Yeah. I know my way around an asteroid, and the inside of a ship or a space station. All this nature stuff is new to me." He laughed and took another draw. "Sure thing! Yeah, we mine shit in space. Heh. Mineral extraction and the discovery of rare metals is a specialty. Our ancestors were Kaiu, so we've got strong ties to the Crab, as far as we have ties to anyone. Our work supports all the Clans, even if it isn't that glorious, and now the Imperial Families are our friends. I guess we don't have too many political concerns, thankfully. Seen off plenty of pirates though, so we don't lack for excitement, and it can be an adventurous life. I'm in our Explorer Corps so I've been to a lot of systems and seen a lot of crazy shit."

"I definitely won't blame your clan for being mercenary about who it sells its production to as my own family made its fortune by buying raw ore cheap where it could. Grandpa would say Koku is a stronger magnet to all metals than any mon."

She tapped her fleshcraft with her other hand:

"Pirates hey? Guess whose fault it is that I had to replace a barely used by a new model. Well, if by pirates you mean privateers. And by privateers you mean Spider. Is there a single pirate in this galaxy who is not secretly working for a clan?

I could live without the excitement they add. Maybe because I didn't spend enough time in deep space to start getting bored. All my personal interstellar travel have been purely functional, in mass transit vessels, go from planet A to planet B, with the occasional 'board that enemy ship' distraction. I guess that's as close from your experience as someone being carried in a cart while you ride a free horse?"

"I'm pretty sure Crab still get first dibs..." He'd have to check up on that.

"Shit, they got your arm? Fucking pirates. I don't know who they work for but all the combat I've seen has been against some anonymous group trying to steal our stuff." A shrug followed as he took another draw.

"Killed some in space, some in boarding actions." A chuckle at her description. "Yeah, I guess that's pretty close. Heh. So, were here for a miai. What sort of partner are you looking for Akemi-san? You got any preference?"

"Oh grandpa has made it pretty clear I was there to bring honor to the family by finding myself a spouse of known and good reputation. So I'm targeting the big shots, especially those with military achievements attached to their name. He would also be fine with a betrothed of good money of course, even if officially grumpy about it.

What for yourself? Under pressure too?"

Taking another draw he leaned back against a sturdy work bench. "Only in the sense of making sure I give a good impression of the Firefly. Fortunately we're everyone's friends, even if they haven't really heard of us." He flashed a knowing smile.

"We've been trying to set something up with the Isawa for a while, so if I can support that it would go down well. Otherwise any great Clan would probably make for a good result. I'm also trying to learn as much as I can about surface exploration, seeing as we have a planet to call home now."

"Uh? The Isawa? What could a family so detached of material concerns as the Isawa want from miners? No offense but grandpa don't have a lot of shugenja customers unless in the rare cases we manage to secure a shipment of jade."

Koseki smiled at the comment. "Where do you think they get the rare materials for their fancy new densai from? We don't just mine ore for ships, theres a crapload of rare minerals needed for high tech gadgets." He laughed. "And no one knows deep space like the Firefly. We've accumulated a lot of unusual lore."

"Oh... Yes. Guess it makes sense. In general grandpa deals mostly with common ores in high quantities so I don't know much about the rare ones.

So what is your new world like? Lucky enough to get one not too warm or too cold?"

"Yeah, there's a lot to mining that most people never imagine. Don't worry about it though, it's mostly my people doing it these days." He gave her a grin.

"Hmm, Amanoseki? Well it's got a whole bunch of continents and seasonal climates so it depends on where you are. We've only been there for a few months though, and we're sharing it with the Imperial Families, so there are a lot of resources going into developing it. It's a frontier world still, so lots to explore, including rich mineral deposits. I didn't get out all that much into the wilderness so I'm not so sure about the wildlife. Didn't seem to be any feakishly large lizards or mushroon zombies though..." His eyebrows raised a moment before he took the last drag on his cig and stubbed it out. "I'll probably be headed back there after the miai, even if it's just to share what I learned here before moving on."

"Unless you're having some secret bargaining ship up your sleeve, you're indeed far more likely to marry away than to welcome someone in the Firefly. In some way, that makes things simpler, as you can skip this part of the negotiation to focus on others.

Asakaze has been colonized since about a century, and Amanoseki since a few months, and yet both sounds as savage. Guess Asakaze really is inhospitable. But yeah, the lessons learned here could certainly help there.

So, in the end, we're back to saying your ideal spouse would be Phoenix. Managed to get in touch with an interesting one or not yet? I think the governor's daughter is the big prize of the miai but you will have to go the extra mile if you want to have a shot at her."

With a chuckle he shrugged. "Phoenix and Crab seem the most obvious choices, but maybe Unicorn would work well too? Heck maybe I can join a Moto Death Metal band?"

He made the universal sign for metal. "Ywah I met the governor's daughter and she's great, but I'm just a minor clanner so we'll see. Still plenty of people to meet yet. What about you? Got anyone in your sights?"

"Made a long, ordered list of potential spouses. Haven't really focused on any yet. Some really strong candidates but none that perfectly fit the bill. And still a bit early to settle for second best, even if some of the first choices are quite the long shot.

But hey cannot hope to reach a star if you don't shoot for the moon. Or something like that. Don't remember the exact idiom."