Hide’s eyes narrowed, she stopped in front of the ronin and crouched down. “Look, Mio-san. I’m not like you guys. I’m not going to torture you like you did to Eriko. I’m not going to hurt your little girlfriend either. I just want to confirm what you have told me. So name, please.”

There was a tense pause from the ronin before she finally spilled the beans. "Okay! Her name is Ai, okay!?"

She looked down, "...Just...Ai."

“See? Not that hard. Thanks, Mio-san. I’m going to keep my promise. I’m saving my ammo for this Gorou guy, not you.” Hide stood back up, rolling her shoulder in place. “Just don’t ever touch Eriko ever again, okay?”

"Yeah..." she said bitterly with her gaze going down. That still change anything on what was going to happen to her.

"The True Scions..." Eriko mustered with a laboured breath as she tried to move but found herself aching in all sorts of places, grimacing at the phantom bruises on her body despite being given a clean bill of health thanks to the efforts of the shugenja in the room, "this Gorou guy belongs to the True Scions..."

Hearing the name of the Mantis catches Akihiko's attention,now that he's seen to deployment of additional sleeping space if it's needed. He turns to the bed, but then stops. He looks to Hide, eyebrows high in insistence that she talk to Eriko, but he doesn't say anything for now.

“Oh, you’re awake now.” Hide turned her attention to Eriko, making her way over to her bedside with purpose. “So, this might sound stupid but... True Scions?”

"Yeah, you heard me. The True Scions are a band of ronin contractors and mercenaries...that's their cover story, anyway. The truth of the matter is that they're a bunch of crooks, thugs and pirates..." she grimaced and looked to Hide.

"Can you be a pal and sit me up, please," she said with a faint smile.

“Oh! Oh, yeah.” Hide slid a hand to support Eriko’s back and pulled her up so she could sit. Her arm still hovering behind just in case. “You should probably rest, though. Akodo-sama here has offered this bed space for you.”

The Matsu still looked very concerned. “How did you piss off a bunch of pirates? That’s my job!”

Eriko tiredly gave a few nods to the new faces around the room, some whom she met for the first time, before finally looking to the Akodo in the room. "Thank you, Akodo-sama, that's very generous of you. You probably didn't imagine your miai going this way...ugh...but I hope you're feeling very popular at the moment at the very least. Maybe not as popular as Hide-san, of course."

"Well, I like to moonlight sometimes," she smirked before wincing, "auggh...it's a long story. I can summarize. I tried to deal with them and get something for them in exchange for a tip on a lost Crab shipment. But, silly me, they only had radiant shots for me!"

“You know, when I said no lone wolfing it, I meant for it to be a precaution for the whole other thing we were looking into.” Hide let out a long sigh. “Now I absolutely mean no lone wolfing it. That asshole is still out there. Sorry for not putting him down, but getting you out of there was the number one priority.”

Akemi looked even more confused now.

"And uh... What's the connection with Akodo-sama? Why did they ask him to come? Why did they call him Hero in such a snarky way?"

Shion was quiet the whole time, just helping where and if needed... And paying attention.

She'd heard about weird stuff happening around during the Miai all right, but apparently there were many things happening at the same time. It all sounded quite complicated and tangled.

At least she was happy that the actual bloodshed was kept to a minimum. For now, at least...

So... What's that about True Scions? That Garou guy probably wasn't happy with her shot hitting him, so it'd be smart to keep her ears open.

"I, uhm..ooouff," Eriko tried to sit up on her own but quickly chose against it, perhaps her body wasn't done resetting itself just yet. "Sorry for the miscommunication. I thought you meant no lone wolfing as in going after the bad guy. I was just checking out the scene of the crime, who would have thought that they would have come across the galaxy to get me. No hard feelings about not getting Gorou...there are probably a dozen assholes would take his place but there's no denying that he easily has the most punchable face among his bunch...He's got that going for him."

"...I don't know," she said as she glanced to Akihiko, "you were mixed into this too? It's not like pirates are known to be the friendliest bunch in the galaxy. It would make sense if he came all the way here to get not just me but Akodo-sama too. Quite the coinkidink."

"I don't think those bastards are going to stop now. After they tried to kill me once, I went back in there the next day and took back what I gave them. Now I'm the thief? As I told Koseki-san, these pirates don't know what's up and down from all of their time in the void."

Hide felt a sudden a headache come on after hearing Eriko’s story. This was going to be a recurring thing, because of course it was. “Eriko-san... What exactly did you, uhhh, take back from these guys?”

Akihiko waits for Eriko's next answer, then half-asks, half-thinks-out-loud, "But that's still no connection to me. Gorou... Wait, did he ever call me anything but 'hero'? Well, and... A term I won't use here."

“Nah, just those things.” Hide rubbed at her temples in an attempt to stall her headache. “Well, he made a mistake trying to get two birds with one stone. He needed to contact me to get to you.”

"Let's...not worry too much about that now..." she said as she wanted to scratch her back but chose against it, "it's in a safe place and not on me, so it's not in their hands. I'm having someone look into the artifact to see what has them so bothered about it."

"As you sure you didn't accidentally piss off some pirate in your line of work, Akodo-sama? I mean, they call themselves pirates but it's just another name for a group of people that do things off the books, if you know what I mean."

Koseki nodded. "Now I see why you got so excited about pirates at breakfast. Artifact. Now that's an interesting word..." Maybe she'd share more at some point but now was a bad time.

"You should get some rest Eriko-san. And you Akodo-sama. If these True Scions try coming back tonight they're getting a radiant hello from me."

The Lion shakes his head and sighs. "Of course I've made pirate enemies. My first half-kill was a pirate fighter, and there have been more since. But there's nothing special about me. I'm not... Well before..." He takes a steadying breath. "Until two days ago, I wasn't even the biggest Lion hero here. And I'm really nothing special in a many with thousands of pilots." He shakes his head, the weight of the day's activities pulling him down, even with the powerful healing magic he'd absorbed.

"Hey, Mio-san," he turns to the bound woman, trying to keep his voice even. "What did Gorou say about why I was important?"