"Not surprised there. Does she sing as good as she dances? Would expect no less of her."

Need a shugie then? Who?

"Definitelywasthebestsingerthere."

Kuni-san should be very effective against them.

"On a scale from 0 to Moto Ruhe, how good?"

Eriko? She's not a shugenja.

"Probablyasevenoreight."

He blinked.

She isn't? . . . . How did I miss that?



--

ooc the italicised comment goes for RL as well. Oopsie

"I had a karaoke night planned for today myself, but it has been canceled at the last minute. MAXIMUM RANGE wasn't available anymore apparently."

Eriko = Witch hunter = Jigoku specialized investigator.

Non magical alternatives? A shugenja you can spare?

"Totallyhavetoarrnagesomethinganothertimethen."

Mumei and myself are not combat shugenja. We're healers. Although in a pinch I can always summon a bear spirit.

"Did you meet Moshi Atena? She would like very much to sing but seemed to be cursed to have all her soirees end up in disarray. She was on that boat for instance."

Will have to do.

When do you expect it to happen?

His eyes narrowed and he almost growled at mention of a . . . Mantis. Some hatreds were hard to let go.

"Atragedyforsure."

He managed to remember a Crab had died there and let that emotion override the anger.

That may be tied in as well. The actions of the colony and the cult may have riled up the local wildlife into aggressively pushing back at the expansions.

Akemi switched tracks after the Mantis cold shower.

"Found the cool flowers you were expecting to find in the end?"

When will you be ready to stop it? I'm sick of it.

He nodded.

"TheAsakazanbiomehasdefintepotentialforpharmaceuticalandscentnoteuse, ifitcanbextractedsafelyandethically."

We need to stop the ritual, or at least make it partially fail. Long term, we need to persuade the Phoenix to be more accepting of the planet and not worldshape so aggressively.

"Signed some sort of contract with the locals then? Or still pending the result of the miai?"

Short term: When? Where?

"Can'treallytalkaboutthatyet . . . "

He smiled. He knew if a deal had been done or not, but it wasn't his place to announce it.

Still working on that. 'Where' is in these books somewhere, I'm sure. 'When' is likely soon. In the next few days. We'll let as many folks know as soon as we know.

"So that means yes. You're more lucky than me then. No one wanted grandpa's contracts. Which is a good thing as he said to me: If they sign that, it's good for us. If they don't sign that, consider them smart enough to be good marriage candidates."

Fine. We'll wait and stay wary. We're good at that.

"Bereadyforanythingthen!"

That passed for both their conversations.

Thumbs up.

"Got any other cool gossip for me before I finally stop pretending I'm studying to actually study?"

He blinked trying to think of anything the Crab might be interested in. She didn't look the sort to want hallucinogenic mushrooms so he went with the safer option.

"FantasyFighttournamenttonight. Yougoingtoplay?"

"Uh?"

Akemi took a moment to parse the words and understand what he was talking about.

"The video card game thing?

Actually yes. Akodo Akihiko-sama seemed very enthusiastic about it and I should at least give it a try I think."

"It'sgreatfun. I'veplayedsinceitcamebackintofashion. LookingforwardtoplayingpeoplepotherthanLionsandotherKitsune."

The Vulpine Excitement Level could be seen rising, even through the doom and gloom of everything else.

"Game is that popular among Lion/Kitsune lands? Haven't heard much of it at home but all..."

The word "rich" was not pronounced though it required a bit of effort from Akemi to skip it.

"... Lion and Fox seem to be pretty into it. Is it that good?"

"WelltheLiononlyplaythebaseset. Traditiontheysay."

He shrugged.

"I'msureIpaidtoomuchformyexpansionsets, butIneededthelatestexpansiontogettherarealt'PolarMoriKuma'. It'sareallyfungametoplay. Justwithfriendsoratournament."