Despite his wounds, Yul and Mumei had carefully cleaned out the inside of the Orthithopter before returning it, bland-faced, to the rental place.

Now, though, Yul found himself with time to attend to his wounds. Thumbing through his list of contacts, Yul found a name. Kitsu Nozomi. Yeah. She seemed like a nice person, and was a shugenja. She'd be willing to help.

Nozomi barged into the room without waiting to see if she could be let in. She looked at him sitting on his bunk, completely shirtless! Her cheeks turned red and she turned away.

But something else clicked in her head: he was injured! She looked back to him, her eyes widening. "Oh! You need me to help you, don't you?"

Yul flashed Nozomi a quick smile. "Hey, yeah. Thanks for coming. I really appreciate it. You just seemed so nice the other night, I figured you'd be willing to help me out." He grinned. "Wrestling some other time, I promise.

Gesturing to his bare chest, there was a strange line of dark bruises; clearly healing magic had already been applied, but not complete. "Do you think you can do anything with this?"

"Wrestling some other time?" she echoed before pulling out her holoslates to hide behind them. Of course, she was also pulling up the much-needed healing spell.

Once ready, Nozomi scurried over and closed her eyes, both as part of her prayer and also to avoid staring at his chest for too long. She took a peek through her first application. "No, no, no," she said out loud. "That isn't good enough." Whether she was scolding herself or the kami was up for debate.

She clasped her hands again and chanted another mantra for the spirits. When completed, she opened her eyes and held them up to the man's wounds. They were still so stubborn so she leaned in closer, taking away the last of the man's wounds and perhaps healing away any sort of other discomfort the man had.

Perhaps it was part of the kami's plan that she was now so close to him. She squeaked and retreated, bonking her head on the bunk frame. She gasped and rubbed her head as her glasses fell off.

---

D5 EE Path to Inner Peace TN 10 (Water Slot 1/3): 4d10o10k3 19

D5 EE Path to Inner Peace TN 10 (Water Slot 2/3): 4d10o10k3 59

Orokos clearly trying to make up for the "almost killing you" part.

Yul smiled. "Yeah, like we talked about. I mean, if you're still up for it."

He watched, his expression curious, as she performed her magic, sighing as the magic took hold. And wincing as she bumped her head. "Thank you, Kitsu-sama. You okay? Here..."

Bending down, smiling as he realized he had his full agility back, Yul picked up the glasses. "Here, allow me." He stepped closer, glasses held in both hands, clearly intending to put them on her face.

"I would," she admitted, biting down on her lip.

It became even worse when Yul placed her glasses on her nose for her. "Thank you," she whispered, shaking in her spot.

Yul laughed, easily and healthily. "I mean, of course, Kitsu-sama. Thank you. You healed me!"

Indeed, he seemed to have new energy as he practically bounced over to the kitchen area. He didn't bother putting anything else on. "You're welcome to hang out here for a bit if you like, Kitsu-sama. Can I get you anything? Some tea? It's instant." He smiled apologetically.

Nozomi watched him walk around the room for a while, stared even to the point of her glasses dropping off her face. She gulped and pushed them up before looking away towards the door.

"You should put on a shirt unless people get the wrong idea," she said. "Or lock the door. We could lock the door..."

Yul stopped. Glanced back over his shoulder. Smiled, mostly not nervously.

"Haha, you're right." Chuckling softly, giving Nozomi a sidelong glance, Yul walked to his locker. A quick check on the side, and then he opened it. "It wouldn't be good to have a locked door, would it? People would talk. And my roommates have the key, anyway."

He pulled out a tank-top, sliding it gracefully on. "Turning to Nozomi, he bowed. "Your reputation and good feeling are both important to me, Kitsu-sama." Yul said.

Nozomi peeked over at him at the locker. She watched him slide the tanktop on and bit down on her lip. For a couple of long moments, she closed her eyes in deep reflection.

"Yes, my reputation," she murmured. She then broke out into a loud and awkward chuckle. "Wouldn't want to be like that Crab and the Spider, right?"

Yul chuckled. "I heard about that."

He closed his locker, fiddled with the side a bit, and then turned back, smiling gently. "Yeah. I heard about that." It wouldn't be right to say that he had a guess as to who the couple was.

Yul shrugged. "Well... people do things they shouldn't. I'd expected that some people would be making out." He shook his head, chuckling softly. "I just didn't expect that it would be a Crab and a Spider. Well... who can explain attraction, right?"

"Attraction is odd but it can be explained through science," Nozomi blurted out. She kept her mouth shut and looked back to her reading bag. "Um, what do you do for fun?"

Yul looked at her a moment, and then shrugged. "I don't know. I think there's more than that." He smiled.

"For fun?" Yul shrugged. "I mean, I'm a pilot for my clan, but it's more than that. I'm always happy when I'm flying. Besides that... outdoors stuff, I guess. Hiking, climbing..." he smiled, "riding Otori. That sort of thing."

He looked at Nozomi again, eyebrows going up in polite inquiry. "What about you, Kitsu-sama?"

"You like riding things, huh? And wrestling?" Nozomi fumbled with her words. She pushed her glasses up and then held up her densai. "I read! A lot, really. Most of my time here not talking with anyone has been reading."

"Riding, yeah. I do a lot of that. Wrestling..." Yul shrugged. "Well, I give it a try from time to time, anyway."

He walked back to the kitchen, turning on the kettle. "What have you been reading?" He asked politely.

Nozomi put a finger horizontally up to her nose and checked it afterwards.

"Oh, well, lots of stuff," she said, dodging the question as best as she could.

A person would have to try harder than that to get Yul off the scent.

"Oh?" Smiling, he crossed his arms over his chest; with his build, it was a pretty good pose. "Like what?"

The Kitsu scrolled through her book library. There had to be something she could show him. "Aha!" she cheered to herself. She turned it around; it was the book Kiseki had written about the Otori. "A fellow samurai here at the miai wrote about how to deal with those bird things!"

"Oh." Yul chuckled. "Well, that makes sense."

He tilted his head, regarding her curiously. "Hey, you didn't think I was going to judge you for reading that, did you? I mean, I may be a fighter jock, but I respect what you guys do. Shugenja, I mean. And the Otori are pretty cool, too."

"I'm glad you respect me. Most people do, I admit," she said with a plastered smile. "But, uh, no, I didn't think you'd judge me for that particular book."