Akemi drew from her own strength to help Mumei straighten herself up.

"Sadly the tease is better than the actual story. Eriko, being Eriko, managed to fall into a hole in the ground, and Hide definitely used that as an opportunity to show off her guns and how easily she could carry her. It did not end with a full bridal carry or anything impressive looking sadly. Hope they did manage to fix that missed opportunity by now. Did she ask you for dancing lessons herself at least?"

Mumei shifts her hand from Akemi's shoulder to back, "Your turn?" she checks in to see how much practice the Crab accepts here. "And have you ever known Hide-san to ask for something all nice and direct like that? She wants to flex and hope you read her mind." She grins. "I mean, it's like some Matsu stereotypes are kind of true or something."

Akemi started slowly bending backward, careful to actually keep balance and not simply let go. The various accessories of the costume clinked as she moved.

"Well, she did ask me for some wrestling training quite straightforwardly... But I guess that as long as it can pass as something combat-related, Matsu's boldness knows no more limit.

All the other clichés are also true. She simply refuses to fight dirty... But she barely needs to break a sweat to force you into an unbreakable submission hold."

"mmm, That can certainly be appealing. Hopefully Eriko thinks so too?" Mumei has no problem with Akemi's weight or height for the maneuver, grinning down at her. An expression made just a bit goofy by the plastic horn and fluffy ears atop her head. "I guess you just need a way to frame asking for a date as a battle tactic and she'd do ok?"

She's solid, pulling Akemi out of the dip as well, pulling them into a bit of a turn so she can add that momentum to the move. "Balance is actually a bit easier at speed here, by the way. Like...imagine trying to do run in slow motion. Not a walk but all the movement of a run, but slowed down. The balance is all off."

"Making my knees do some work instead of relying entirely on my hips? I think I've got the idea. That's similar to some training exercises."

She started moving that way, a bit too quick at first then imposing herself a slower pace.

"Who taught all that by the way? And who trained you? I confess I did not expect you to punch in the same category as me."

"Hmm, to dance? It's part of our training, a part of how we worship and honor the first Seeker." She checks her own pace to her student's comfort, adding a bit of exaggerated hip movement to demonstrate, the short skirt fluttering. "Yeah, hips are for showy, for stacking over your knees on a lift, but they aren't where strength comes from. Hips are just fun."

"And the strength comes with that practice, but also...my closest elemental connection is to water, which can wear mountains away or wash entire coastal villages from the map." She laughs, "though I do not do much actual punching."

"I believe the feeling was mutual," the priestess said, in regards to Chiyoko. She smiled awkwardly and dipped her head. "The Lion would be happy to have you. Or, well, if someone from my clan marries in, that'd be fine too."

"Should try. It's cathartic sometimes. Though if you're untrained you'll probably hurt yourself as much as the one you hit. Hands are fragile as a default. I have an unfair advantage in that regard."

She smiled.

"And I'm aware of the power of hips even in a public setting. One of the good sides of being from a clan of supposedly brutes if that the respectable people kind of brush it off when you go a bit over the line of what is acceptable."

Mumei grins, "I'll bet. Minor clans get by with being beneath notice for the most part. Now...if you're not so worried about being proper, hip to hip has it's own power and offers another connection to signal where you're moving next." She does not demonstrate in the crowded mall without more invitation than that.

"As to punching, I've found that dancer muscle makes people think twice if you stomp hard on their foot and glare hard. They figure you _must_ be able to back that up when you're a shrimp and not backing down." But if it's as cathartic as kicking things, I'll have to give it a try with some training.

"Is the fresh arm more or less fragile in that regard? Feel free to tell me to mind my own business." she pauses, "speaking of which, thanks for herding Yasuki-sama the other day.."

"We will see what happens," she said with some tightness to her words. As it was now, she felt uncertain of the future.

"Do you ever do divination?" Nozomi asked. She glanced at her densai and patted it with a smirk. "Do you know Tsuruchi Hayato? He gave me an app that gives you your horoscope. Not exactly the most traditional but... it can be fun to think of the future that way."

She gave a wistful sigh. "But fun is a bit hard to come by right now even with all this con stuff." She bit her lip. "Must be how the soldiers feel on the front lines, passing time until duty calls. Is it like that for pilots too?"

"My mechanical arm is far more robust than my regular arm... But that's actually kind of deceptive as it is made that way to compensate for lack of self-healing and self-maintenance. Cut me from a good specialized mechanic for a couple of months and it'll turn into a dead weight, worst than a standard prosthetic.

At top form and with the proper training however, movements, sensations and abilities are on par with the real thing. Kind of a marvel of technology."

She tapped Mumei's shoulder with her mechanical fingers one by one as a proof of that then glanced around.

"Let's keep it a bit safish, there is no one in the crowd I want to impress this time.

As for Yasuki-sama no need to thank me as I was also the one who called for him in first place, even if I had expected he would drop in a bit later. He is kind on the edge with the recent events and I had to throw him a bone. Poor Yul once again took one for the Crab. Can't thank him enough for that.

Speaking of Yul, I am not blind. The both you... Do you plan for this to be a long-term thing?"

There's no blush or stammer, just a smile that's decidedly fond. "Yeah. We're both set on it if," she waves vaguely at the air, "everything else doesn't intervene. We're..really compatible. The Unicorn get a Navigator...well an almost Navigator. The Osprey get something in the negotiations and one less stipend to pay while they..we, struggle with the rampant piracy."

There's a bit of warning..."and practice!" plus a grin, before a shallow dip, that she spins them into and out of, keeping the momentum flowing.

"I'll pass that along to him, though," she says afterward.

"The arm's a wonder then, honestly." Many shugenja hate them, looks like the Osprey is not in that category. "The spirit technology has to be very delicate, I imagine."

Akemi offered her a sincere though slightly sad smile:

"I'm happy for you both. It's very rare to able to marry someone you love with such intensity."

She switched back to the less dangerous subject of her arm:

"I know how to make it work but I have no idea how it works. You can ask Kyoko, the servant on charge of its maintenance, about the details of the mechanical parts... But the actual magic in it is a secret well-kept in some Kuni laboratory."

There's a moment where Mumei considers asking about the rumors, but that seems unkind. Instead.. "Thanks. It's ridiculously lucky. I've never offered that much attention to Benten, but I suppose I ought to, in gratitude."

"Have you had any luck shaking a decent match out of the crowd here?" She spins under their joined arms, ducking her head a bit to keep the little horn out of the way as the tiny skirt swirled and settled.

"I figured it'd be secret. Very fancy work. I'll stick to the stars then, and hope never to need one, since it would be hard to avoid meddling with the spirits then."

With a push at Akemi's hip, she says, "and a taller person turn,", releasing the other hand, but keeping it nearby. "you just, let go...and keep that hand kind of around them to corral the motion, keep them from wandering too far off."

"I have a few potential good candidates and a few acceptable backups should things go astray. Chances of a match made in heaven are low but all of them are good people with whom it should work fine.

Nothing absolutely certain yet though. Who will marry who is kind of a complicated thing right now between the Crab and its allies. Between the Phoenix playing their own games and the successive deaths of Koryn and Chiyoko, arrangements are being made and unmade quicker than I can remember them."

She followed Mumei's instructions. Her brain, trained by growing up among numerous bigger cousins, still had a hard time considering her as the "tall one" in spite of facts.

"Divination? No, I can't say I've tried that before, but... hm, maybe I'll ask Tsuruchi-san for it too. I've never considered looking into my luck and fate in such a way before."

Hyeon-ju took a sip from her boba tea. "Kind of. Or rather... I don't mind it as much, to be honest. I don't get to spend a lot of time planet-side, so that is something I have been enjoying. Fresh air, wide open landscape as far as the eye can see. Having room to move and live."

The Osprey sobers at mention of the deaths. "Yeah. I mean, it feels odd to focus on the scrambling their deaths have caused, but that's one part of the plans of their families and clans had for them, and that's a loss to be acknowledged too. I was sorry to learn of Kuni-sama's fall."

"There's so much happening. I can't help being grateful for this small break in the intensity, even while feeling guilty that I'm not spending every moment I have on, mostly fruitless, research."

"Resea... Oh yes. I've talked with Kitsune-sama. Not much I can do to help with my bushi brain until we reach the point where you can point me at something and ask that I apply repeated percussive shocks to it. Good luck with that.

And Koryn's end... Barely had begun to know the boy when it happened. Was a good one. He kind of indirectly saved Eriko's life the very same morning you know? And to have learned that the local wildlife's aggressiveness might have been encouraged to create such incidents..."

She bit her lip.

"Discussion is going into depressing subjects we can do nothing about at the moment indeed. Not a good idea."

She pointed her chin at the free use cosplay scene where groups could simply walk the stairs and put on a show if they wish. At the moment a ninja miko was "suddenly appearing" to join a golden miko and a tattooed miko thanks to her partners dropping the sheet what was hiding her from sight.

"Want to give it a try? Did not prepare a choreography beforehand, but maybe we could cook a simple one quickly?"

"No? Not a common thing among pilots, huh?" she asked, in regards to the divination.

"There is a certain freedom to walking around on solid ground, right? Well, ground that isn't made out of metal." She tapped her foot as an example. "I suppose that... regardless of whether or not you remain in the Utaku, you'd still be a pilot after all. I think it suits your look, honestly."