Sapphire Ambassadors

Asano had splurged and bought some very nice plum wine indeed. She'd even done something her sensei never would have approved of, which was to use the kamis' help to keep it chilled. So it was when she set it on the table, wearing her most elegant (thought not her most formal) kimono and sitting down at a table in the room her and Yoshino had ended up sharing. This would be their last night at the inn, and Asano wanted to make sure it was memorable; She'd cleaned the room impeccably, ordered fresh cushions for the table, and put a flower arrangement in the center. Summoning up Tenten, she gave him a whispered message and sent him out to find Yoshino to let her know everything was ready.

Having a bird land on her shoulder was still a novelty to Yoshino. The intention was clear to her though.

"Hello Tenten. I'll head up now then."

She felt a little sad she didn't have some seeds to treat the bird with. Heading back to the inn and to their room she knocks on the door. Yoshino opens it and steps inside a moment later. "Good evening. Congratulations again Asano." She says cheerfully, closing the door.

Asano stands as Yoshino enters, giving her a bow.

"And to you as well, Yoshino. You already know how excited I am... but what about you? Let's eat and talk; I have plum wine and mochi for both of us."

She held one of her sleeves and indicated two platters set up on opposite sides of the low table, each with seven mochi set up on them, garnished fancily despite being such simple plates. Chilled cups held the clear plum wine above them.

Yoshino returned the bow. Asano was being more formal than anticipated.

"Mochi too? This is a treat." She declared, looking around with an uncharacteristically wide smile. When she noticed the chill emanating from the drinks she was stunned. "How did you...?"

"Oh, the cups? The kami can turn water to ice, if they wish. I... suppose I used it a bit frivolously. But I wanted even this small snack to be as memorable as possible, you know..."

Asano played with some of her long white hair subconsciously as she sat there, her other hand in her lap as she sat seiza on the cushion.

"Then you've already succeeded. What a delight." Yoshino clapped her hands together with a big smile on her lips. She would take a seat beside Asano. "Our last night here. I shall miss this town a little."

"You, miss a place? ...you must have some good memories here then, despite everything. I thought you were eager to be out of here, what with the spirit and the rumors and the Phoenix..."

This had the Doji blushing. She makes a show of clearing her throat. "Well, yes, but the town itself is lovely."

"You are entirely right. I love this place, with its simple orderly beauty. It's like the whole town is a temple to art..."

Asano seemed to stare at something suddenly and Yoshino would hear a soft skittering sound behind her before there was something grabbing her foot.

Yoshino jumped in alarm. "W-what?!" She quickly looked down.

Behind a little tanuki had grabbed one of her tabi and was sniffing at it with its wet nose, the racoon dog no ligger than a small pillow and about as fluffy. Asano seemed miffed as she gasped out, "No, Yoko! No grabbing guests' socks! Bad girl!"

The tanuki let go and looked at Asano before turning to look up at Yoshino.

Asano was stunned. She glanced between the tanuki and Asano. "You're keeping a new pet? My heart nearly stopped Asano."

Asano scratched her cheek self-consciously.

"Weeeell... there was an incident yesterday at the market with some tanuki stealing produce, and the locals asked for help from those good with animals. I know how to talk to animals of course, and am probably better at understanding them then I most people, so I found some of the culprits and showed them a different place for food outside of town, returned the vegetables. Apparently, one of the tanuki followed me back though. Kitsune Shizeneko-san said she was an orphaned pup that seemed to think of me as her mother. I... couldn't just turn her back out into the wild without parents, Yoshino..."

Asano pushed her fingers together; She'd done that a lot as a child, taking in strays and nursing injured animals. Though she was an adult now and this was much different.

"I was there!" She'd interjected at mention of the market incident. "But the tanuki I tried to follow got away..."

She looked back to the critter as Asano explained.

"I won't say anything. Besides, she's a cutie." Yoshino says casually, reaching for the sake and making sure to look away. "In fact, I've not seen anything."

Yoko immediately took looking away as an invitation and scurried around Yoshino, WANTING to be seen to climbing up onto Yoshino's lap. Apparently Asano had bathed her, because the racoon dog was all fluffy and brushed and smelled like Yoko's shampoo. For her part... Asano didn't tell the young raccoon off this time, because the whole scene was just too precious to her. Though she made sure not to say that.

"Ah, I see. Well, you'll have to tell me what you think of this plum wine; I've tried it myself, but I wasn't sure what kind of plum wine you liked. Sweeter stuff, more clear and pure, something more complex... So I just went off what I thought."

Which ended up being something clear and pure and new, a more straight simple plum and alcohol flavor rather than something cloudier and sweeter like Asano preferred. She figured Yoshino was more grown up in her tastes than herself.

"I am not particularly particular." Yoshino responds, amusing herself with some word play, as she bends to the side to help lift the critter onto her lap. She has a sniff of the plum wine. It smelled nice. Very promising.

"Let's taste. Thank you Asano. Kampai." She held up her cup. "I'll need this I think."

Asano raised her cup as well; While she had tasted it before and knew it wasn't her favorite type of plum wine, it was still pretty good and refreshing. And things tasted all the better when you put work into them and they meant something to you. So she knew this would taste good.

Yoko watched as the two young women tasted the plum wine, not particularly interested in whatever was in the cups herself; It hadn't smelled like water, whatever it was.

Yoshino also preferred sweeter things, but all plum wine was quite sweet so she was satisfied as she had a sip.

She set it down with a smile.

"I'm going to Phoenix lands tomorrow. I received a letter from my Lord with instructions. No sign of Isawa Kojiro-sama and no way to contact him, but I will go to the Institute mentioned."

The letter is removed from the right sleeve of her kimono and slid over to Asano to look at.

"It might be some time before we meet again cousin."

Asano looked down at the letter, reading what exactly it said.

Yoshino waited until Asano was done. She tapped the table gently. "I've written my own letter in response. I'll of course be complying, but I wanted to flag that I can't exactly escort him if I don't know where he is. There are some complaints about him too. I'm still grateful for his help of course. It would just be wrong not to flag the issues I've had with him."