Here we go again.

The cool ocean winds made a nice change from the heat of previous days. Weather still took a lot of getting used to. Koseki took a few moments to savour the feel of it on his face, and breathed deeply.

I hope she doesn't run off on you again my boy.

"Me too father. Me too."

With a determined nod he walked into the fancy restaurant for the second time in two days. It was quiet this morning, perhaps they were beating the morning rush. The attendant led him over to a nice table for two with a window view and his thoughts turned to the day ahead. Orbital defense, a monster hunt, and maybe a jam session. His internal soundtrack shifted to something loud with a pounding drum beat.

Here we go again.

Eriko didn't think she would return to the Snow-Moon-Flower so soon, although the last time didn't really count when she was called away to a meeting. However, the morning wasn't quite the same for her, having slept weird and perhaps hardly getting any sleep at all. If she hadn't been so practiced at the routine after so many years, she might have even stumbled out of her room without throwing up her facepaint.

Loaded up on her share of pain killers, she shuffled into the restaurant looking like she was in a slight daze. Her outfit was more casual this time around on her repeat visit. She looked about the restaurant for Koseki, wondering if she had managed to get here before him.

Koseki stood when he saw her enter and start looking around. Politely bowing he smiled to her. "Good morning Eriko-san. How are you? Well I hope."

Noting the slight befuddlement he decided not to comment on it. "And another nice outfit. Let's hope we get to finish our breakfasts today. Or at least start them. Sorry you got called away."

The server brought them tea and he waited for her to look at the menu. "It's a beautiful day, hopefully all that business has been dealt with now?"

Eriko perked up when she finally spotted Koseki among the stables and meandered over casually. She plopped herself into the seat unceremoniously. "Good morning, Koseki-san. I managed to get up this morning, so that's pretty good. How 'bout you?"

She gave a lackadaisical wave at the apology.

"It's nothing, forget about it. I'm sorry that I got called away and kept you seated here on your lonesome. That was really lousy of me. Anywho, I really hope to make it up to you. You get plenty of me today, I promise," she gave him a quick wink.

She picked up the menu and flipped it open. "...on my end, yeah. For others, not so much."

"Yeah I'm pretty good considering last night's karaoke." Then again, can't remember the last time I had an actual hangover."

Koseki felt a bit of colour spread to his cheeks when she winked at him and for a moment he was without a witty reply.

"Wow. I mean, lucky me. I mean, poor them." He gave a slight frown, hoping whatever was going down wouldn't be too much of a problem for everyone. "I'm going to see if I can help out with the local drifter problem today. Better get my strength up. Got any recommendations? I just had the chirashi bowl yesterday."

"Yeah, I guess you got a bit lucky hitting the jackpot, as the Mantis would say. Probably," she said as she turned serious for a moment. News that other samurai in their group were due for some local punishment probably hadn't made their rounds in the miai just yet.

"Oh...is that supposed to be a trick question or you're trying to twist my arm? I haven't really put my chopsticks to anything here yet! After my shenanigans yesterday, this would make you the expert. Besides, you're my safety chief," she said she pushed her menu off so that it overlayed atop of his. Truly, she wasn't really in the mood to do any reading that was longer than two words.

"Say, do they have any of that big bird around here? I heard some locals mentioning something about that. I knew you could ride the birds but not eat them. That would be kind of swell."

"Heh, yeah something like that." He noticed her serious glance and decided not to ask about it publicly. Maybe a discrete message later.

"Hmm, no space fugu then. Okay I have a better plan. It might even be suitably safe..." Koseki motioned for the server and grinned at Eriko. "Might as well get an expert opinion." He proceeded to ask for the recommended dishes, preferably including the otori special. Perhaps this was what happened to the ones that couldn't be tamed to ride?

Once that was done he relaxed a little. "So. Must be feeling pretty good to have succeeded in your mission. You started thinking about what you actually want from the miai side of things yet?"

Thankfully, the community had long developed breeding and raising otori for consumption. It as unlikely that a riding otori would be made into a meal as their meat was typically more gamey but that wasn't to say they were exempt from that but less likely to appear in a restaurant. The server easily enough suggested grilled otori, delicately seasoned with some locally grown herbs.

"It feels good to do what I wanted to do, I'll admit that," she gave him a nod, "it was a longshot and I actually managed to make it happen, with all you helping me, of course. Kinda bit of a relief, you know? Now I might be able to prove to my sensei that I managed to get in trouble for a good purpose. That might be an actual first, believe it or not."

"But things are keeping me up at night, sometimes," she said as she shifted her shoulders in a slow shrug. Her body ached but thankfully there were painkillers, "and I'm not exactly talking about my roomies going to the bathroom in the middle of the night and flushing ten times, if you catch my drift."

A slow nod of understanding followed her comments. "You're never off duty, are you Eriko-san? And you're wondering what happens next, with a certain situation, if I'm mining the right seam."

He leaned forward a little. "You did what you had to do. If the rest isn't resolved correctly. Well, you've got friends you can call on. Safety experts and the like."

Of course, Koseki hadn't heard about the floggings yet, so he thought she was just worried about the maho user getting away.

"Anyway, I'm glad your sensei will be pleased. Does all of this mean you've started thinking about the actual miai yet?"

"Uh, huh, always," she said with a bit of acceptance on the matter. It didn't exactly make it a relaxing life but it was what she was trained for. Considering it was the first time she encountered something like this, she was overdue to finally do something that her training actually prepared her for. She had it 'easy' until now.

"Thanks, Koseki-san. I kinda appreciate that," she said under her breath with a small smile that was tinged with a bit of guilt. Part of her wondered if he would be so willing if he was going to be taking beatings in the near future.

"Well," she said at first before chuckling, "I guess I better at some point in time. I still have a week before I make some decisions, don't I?"

One thing about Firefly was they were super tough, she probably needn't have worried. He gave her a grin and took a swig of the tea.

"So, what are you looking for? Have you got a free choice or does your family expect certain things from your match?"

In a way Koseki felt pretty free. The Firefly would be happy with any Great Clan or Imperial match, there was plenty to be gained, and they effectively had no enemies. Politics was for other people.

"The Kuni aren't typically too overly political. Well, I'm not, at least. Apparently, back when Crab and Scorpion weren't seeing eye to eye, Kuni and Scorpion were a thing?" she shrugged and took a lazy glance around the restaurant, "I don't think I'd want to end up with a Spider, to be frank. I'm not going to start beef with them when there isn't any to be had in the open but it would make my job complicated. Well, apparently they watch their own pretty well, so they say. "

"So, what I'm saying is...I'm mostly free," she smirked at Koseki.

See boy. You want a nice Crab. Sturdy.

"Mostly free huh? Well I'll drink to that. Maybe sake later though, tea isn't quite right." He was about to follow up when the first plates arrived. "Mmm, otori. Alright then let's see what the big bird tastes like."

He took a bite and nodded in appreciation. "Mhm. Wow, that's good. "So. You don't want a Spider. What would you like?"

"Does time and drinking time have much of a concept when you're in space?" she asked curiously as her gaze went to the server. Some sake would be good right about now but very likely not a good idea.

She gave a lazy bob of her head and picked up the chopsticks and take a bit. "I imagined those big things to be tough and really chewy but this isn't bad at all. They have some decent eats here, I'll give them that," she said as she was still chewing.

She narrowed her eyes in thought, "That's a good question, Koseki-san, and I think I find myself more likely married out than having something married in. Ujina-sama brought up an interesting proposal that I serve with the Hare, doing Witch Hunter stuff there...even if I'm not that great of a Witch Hunter. Kind of hard to find a niche for that elsewhere kinda would need to reinvent myself...and I'm a very stubborn girl."

"Time only has meaning in space if you use a reference. We usually just work off standard time, depends on the specific system you're in though." He chuckled. "When you're mining it's easy to lose track."

The otori was delicious. It was hard to imagine it was the same organism as Blinky.

"Yeah, I can imagine it would be tough to just switch up... There's a lot of investigation involved in space mining you know. Sometimes we find weird stuff out there in deep space. Also pirates. Plus weve got that new world to explore... Anything in your, ah, 'specialist' area would be above my pay grade though."

"So you're telling me that you don't actually drink in the morning then? That's a shame," she said with a mournful shake of her head before she took another mouthful of grilled otori. It was that she didn't have manners but she just couldn't be too bothered to consider them at the moment. The otori was good comfort food she needed at the moment, as well as the company. Her chopsticks stabbed through a few things on her plate.

"Hah, yeah, I know piratesh. Mrmhm...Did you know that they're found on land too? Hrm...How's that for a mind fuck?" she said as she swallowed her last mouthful, "worlds can be pretty surprising. I think the Crab are sitting on a few that aren't exactly the friendliest places in the galaxy and there's bound to be more of them. It checks out..So, what? Do you think you see me as a space investigator?"

"Well, not every day..." He smiled in amusement. The otori quickly disappeared from his plate.

"What? Space pirates on land? What do you call them, land space pirates?" He raised his eyebrows in mock surprise. "But yeah, I bet Crab space has some crazy stuff in it. And yeah, maybe your skills would come in handy as a space investigator, why not? There's always something new to see."

"You call them a pain the ass, that's what," she smirked before she drunk some tea after the delicious offering of otori.

"Those space pirates have to dock sometime and they're still full of trouble. All of them. I thought it was because it was from too much time spent in space so that they don't know what's up and down, getting angry at everything and anything that doesn't go their way. That can't be the case, obviously, especially now that I've met you Koseki-san. I mean, space investigator doesn't seem that bad. Not the wheelhouse I'm used to with my heels on the ground but it seems the same in spirit, right?"

"Heh, yeah I like low-R. Although full-R makes it look like I've been working out a lot more than I have." He laughed and refilled their tea cups. "There's always something that needs investigating in space. It would be probably be pretty different to what you're used to though. Just throwing it out there." He gave her a grin and looked up as some nigiri arrived.

Eriko looked a bit amused. She tried to lean back in her seat to imagine it more and winced, choosing to lean forward with her elbows on the table instead. "And you're actually giving me the full package to this life and not the sort of 'oh, but you'll be doing other stuff' bullshit. You know what, I think I kind of like it and it's definitely got my interest piqued. Just only wondering now if this is something I'd consider fun or would drive me crazy eventually. What's so different here that always have in space?"