"Don't underestimate the cruelty of the spider clan, Akemi-san, your arm should have taught you that they will stop at nothing. To marry a Hida and then turn her against her own clan seems to me to be something I would trust the spiders to do."

He nodded.

"So this hyperactive child is capable nonetheless? I would never have guessed. Never judge a book by it's covers. If he's the current leader of this operation i would offer my assitance in this matter."

"Hey. I know the Spider can be cruel, but Daigotsu Shokomaru marrying me would be the Spider shooting themselves in the foot so hard it's hard to imagine. Plus, if he really wants to do that out of a sick game of his... Not much I can do. He is even higher status than you, he'll have the ear of the matchmaker in any case."

She sighed:

"Since the first time I've met him, and even now, I have been wondering if the Kitsune is not overplaying his own... lack of attention. Or maybe what makes him... special in society makes him very good with the kami? No idea really. He is kind of the wildest card of this weird deck that is the miai."

"I hope for your sake you know what you are doing"

"If the Kitsune is really just acting, we are probably dealing with one of the best actors here on Asakaze. Nevertheless, if he is the one to gather the information, I would like to meet him, after all, this is about all our lives."

Akemi nodded in a non-committing way at that. Cause she for sure wasn't.



"Can give you his number if you don't have it. He is not in my inner circle, so cannot do much more than that."

"Good, I'll try to meet up with him." he said with what would be follwed by a long walk in silence.
Mochi would run around, oblivious to all the things that are happening right now.

"Do you have anyone who can tend to your wounds tomorrow?" he asked Akemi.

"Yups. Yul has made arrangements with the dancing Osprey, Nakauchi Mumei. I'm not 100% sure about the nature of their relationship, but he seemed pretty confident she'll have us patched up in no time.

And... Uh..."

Akemi looked embarrassed:

"Thank you. For everything you've done and that you're still doing right now.

You did all that was humanly feasible to get me and Eriko out of an impossible conundrum. You jumped the gun to warn the lord magistrate about the threat at the very first opportunity you got to do so. That Agasha-sama did not want to listen, for one reason or the other, is irrelevant. You worked hard to protect your faulty clansmates and I won't forget that."

"That is good, i've met Nakauchi-san once during my walks here in the park,.."

he lit himself another cigarette.

"We are the Wall, Akemi-san. We may not serve on it anymore but this saying is still true today, we need to count on each other to protect the empire from the monsters and oni that linger in the dark or inside our walls. I wish i could've spared you, Kuni-san and Shinjo-san the punishment. Next time i will be better."

Akemi straightened herself up and smiled:

"When the Crab stand shoulder-to-shoulder, victory is the only outcome. Anything else is merely temporary.

Don't remember who said that... But they are right."

"They are" he said with a smile, offering her his fist for a epic-crab-fistbump.