[D4 LE] A Suitable Place

[Togashi Yoshiaki]

(Expecting but a public place)

Yoshiaki arrived at the maze as they had agreed at the end of their last meeting. It was one of the few places one could expect some privacy, allowing the leaves to hush their words and walls to shield from view. It had the added benefit of being fairly discrete as opposed to one their rooms which could easily get the town gossips flapping.

The monk stood near the entrance wearing his usual loose fitting pants and sleeveless top. A parcel tied to his waist.

[Horiuchi Sriyani]

Sriyani arrives only a moment later. The slight jingle and click of her jewelry muffled a bit by the heavily embroidered haori, its imagery surprisingly bright under the full moon. The edge of her kimono brushes the grass, gathering damp as she goes.

Her own small parcel is tied up in a fushia-patterned furoshiki cloth and carried, swinging lightly as she walks. It's apparent when she catches sight of Yoshiaki, her posture lifting as her attention focuses. "Togashi-san! I hope the evening finds you well." Though, for obvious reasons, she does not invoke the favor of bright Lord Moon.

[Togashi Yoshiaki]

Muffled as it is he turns toward her and the sound of her jewelry. His expression calm as ever but with a small curve of his lip at seeing her.

He bows "Horiuchi-san. It is good to see you again." He said straightening, his voice even and calm and smooth as usual "The evening has been quite well and only promises to get better."

"What of yourself?"

[Horiuchi Sriyani]

She returns his bow, then taps her satchel. "I've tea," lifts the small sack, "and snacks, to share in a flawlessly tended maze over conversation with Togashi Yoshiaki-san. If anything else in the day went poorly, I'm sure I've forgotten it now." Good cheer fills her smile as she looks up to him.

"She gestures to the maze with a small, jangling bounce. "You first as the warrior between the pair of us, or me so we can can both see where we're going as you'll see over my head just fine?"

[Togashi Yoshiaki]

A softly rumbling chuckle emitted from his throat "Well this Togashi is quite the lucky on I would say." He tapped his own parcel "we seem to have an abundance of snacks, though you had the foresight to bring tea."

He motioned toward the maze "please lead us Horiuchi-san, I'd hate to obstruct your view. Besides calling me a warrior is a far stretch and regardless I am sure the Crane keep their mazes free of bandits and monsters."

[Horiuchi Sriyani]

There's a twitch of her lips when she sees his parcel before she nods and heads into the maze, footsteps quiet on the grass. Someone on the other side of the hedge would hear only the disembodied clatter of her jewelry. They need no lantern with the full moon, as they make their way through the leafy turns. She admires an ikebana display of all white flowers, making the most of the moon.

She chooses directions randomly, looking for a nice bench or a dead end suitable for sitting in, letting luck guide them a bit. "Have you been through here already?"

[Togashi Yoshiaki]

He followed her steps probably just a touch closer than what was strictly polite. He nodded though she likely couldn't see the movement "I have not explored it fully but I did visit it a few days ago. Found a rather bewildered Crane. Or perhaps she found me as she stumbled through the maze."

They went through a number of random turns before they found a dead end that had a small but open patch of ground just a bit larger than the space necesarry for two people. A display of purple and yellow flowers sat on a pedestal against the back wall of the space.

He looked to her with a raised eye brow in a wordless question.

[Horiuchi Sriyani]

"A Crane? Somehow I thought they'd all know the pattern of this place. Some Crane art they were all versed in." She sees the dead end and turns to see that silvery raised eyebrow. She nods with a smile and nods to the display. "That's portent enough for me."

Smoothing a spot in the grass, she sits and reaches into her satchel to pull out a stoppered clay bottle and two simple cups. "Simple mint infusion," she says as she sets them out. Pausing, she looks up. "If it's not another Togashi secret..I've been wondering how you came to be one. Not many born to it, are there?"

[Togashi Yoshiaki]

"I do not think she was from here." He said simply as he sank to the ground near her.

"Nothing wrong with something simple yet usually delicious." a little smile.

"Some are, many aren't. I might as well have been. I was raised in it, a baby left at the foot of the mountain. This is where my luck began, my careless parents where ever they were left me there unattended. Could have been attacked by wolves or any manner of beast." He delivered this with a detached neutrality, it was simply history he was told at this point "but I was found and a monk brought me up to the High House of Light and I was a Togashi from that day forward."

[Horiuchi Sriyani]

Her hands pause as his story gets a few sentences in, expression unreadable as she focuses on him. As he finishes, she nods but doesn't speak for a bit, as she unwraps a small bento box.

She doesn't say that such mysterious beginnings could only have fueled speculation about his odd coloring, though the thought occurs to her. As does the idea that it might have been the reason superstitious parents abandoned a baby. "Somewhat similar and different you said before. Seems like a theme. But it means a monastic life is the only one you've known?"

The box, when opened, reveals skewered dango of white, mugwort green and a pale blossom pink on one side of the divided box, and lightly grilled ones with a sweetened soy glaze on the other. Sriyani doesn't say anything about them, just shooting him a small grin as she sets them out.

[Togashi Yoshiaki]

He bows his head in confirmation "yes, not a life I chose but one I have found fulfillment in. I do wonder at times if I would have come to it anyway or if I would have led an entirely different life. The Lord of a castle or a peasant farmer, could have been almost anything." He says as she sets the treats out.

He reaches for the parcel at his side and unwraps a box, opening it to reveal four fish shaped taiyaki sitting inside the golden brown outside promising a crisp texture and just a bit of the red color from inside showing through revealing the filling of the snack. He grinned back to her but then bowed his head "Thank you Horiuchi-san." He said taking one of the dango and popping it in his mouth a small sound of appreciation as he chewed.

[Horiuchi Sriyani]

Thoughtful, for a moment as things are set out, she eventually asks, "Would you care to know if you could? I suppose that's not possible, unless they left something with you that would provide a hint." About to say something more, she stops with a wide grin at the taiyaki.

"Hah! Where did you find them? Or did the kitchen make them specially for you?" She only waits long enough to make sure the tea is poured before plucking one from the box for herself.

[Togashi Yoshiaki]

He smirked a little "A kind word goes a long way when asking for help. They have nice cooks in the kitchen." He said by way of answer.

To her other question he shook his head "It hardly matters anymore. For many years when I was younger I certainly wondered but over the years I have made peace with it." He replied with a small sincere smile.

[Horiuchi Sriyani]

"Understandable after all these years." She sips her tea, considering, and shakes her head lightly. "The water kami can sometimes offer information about the history of a thing, but it's not always useful from a human standpoint, but that doesn't sound like something you could use."

She settles more comfortably on the grass, curling her legs up beside her nibbling the taiyaki in small bites to make it last. "So, another orphan. I don't meet so many outside of the Horiuchi."

[Togashi Yoshiaki]

He shook his head a little "No it won't but it is kind of you to think of it."

He took a long sip of tea a small hum of appreciation. He set the cup down "You are an orphan as well? Is that a story or simply how things have always been?" His voice gentle

[Horiuchi Sriyani]

As much as she wears her emotions on her sleeve, it doesn't seem this is a hard story to tell, though it takes a bit longer than it might for pauses to chew. No sense letting that taiyaki cool enough for that crispness to soften! "It's a story, but there's scarcely more to tell than your own. I was found in the midst of a camp of a slaughtered Nomad tribe... mmm, tribes are like clans among that folk, but much smaller and without set lands." The small explanation feels well-practiced. "I'm told that the attack seemed a few days past, and I'm lucky a caravan was passing near enough to hear a starving infant's cry. Lucky too that I wasn't simply killed, and I suppose seemed too lively for the scavengers amid that feast."

At that she pauses, with the stillness of someone sensing a misstep, lifting a hand to her pinch thumb and forefinger between her brows. "Ah...sorry. Shouldn't probably talk of carrion eaters while eating...or ever in polite company."

With a small, jingling shake of her head, she concludes. "Anyway, the Horiuchi were pretty much founded to take in war orphans and the like, so there I went. Only life I have known, much as it was for you among the monks."

[Togashi Yoshiaki]

At her apology he waves a hand dismissively but doesn't interrupt her any further. He doesn't seem troubled by such things.

As she ends he nods, his expression giving away little "Similar but different, a theme between us it would seem. I guess at least there was less to wonder about people knowing where you came from." He says after finishing a bite of the dango she brought.

"Even with more information do you have questions? Things you wonder about?"

[Horiuchi Sriyani]

She nods a quiet assent to..well all of it. "Of course I wonder. What it would have been like to grow up with them, what my parents were like, if I had siblings..." I've been to the cairn they set up over them. There's no other sign of what happened there now."

Her eyes close a moment as she sips her tea. "But it means there's no disguising my ancestry is solidly gaijin. Another small stone in the pile Isawa-san uses to count the many reasons it's unfair that he should be saddled with me." A small, dismissive huff through her nose indicates her opinion on that. Even in this rather private place, it seems she's taken something of his warning of the other evening to heart and at keeps her voice lower. "At least as an ambassador, he can't well make demands that I keep myself out of the public eye to avoid *embarrassing* him."

[Togashi Yoshiaki]

"A natural thought process." Was all he commented on that part.

That same frown from last night landed on his lips as she spoke of her betrothed "This man thinks very highly of himself to look down on someone like you." He said, dislike clear in his voice before his emotions evened out.

He took a sip of his tea "So before you are wed to this Phoenix you wish to have a tattoo to remind you where you came from yes?"

[Horiuchi Sriyani]

She shrugs with a crooked smile. "Well...Isawa. The reputation for arrogance isn't entirely unearned. And...someone like me?" Picking up the tea and gesturing back toward the manor and all the stored presentations, she shakes her head. "Before this, I'm not really anybody as those kinds of ledgers weigh things. Least powerful family of a slightly odd clan and all. I, hmmm...I appreciate you seeing something more."

The cup is cradled in both hands in her lap as she nods to his question. "Something for me. I expect he'll hate it. And I'm a bit ashamed to admit that I'm glad of that. He's annoyed about all those things that I didn't even chose. At least this one I'd've earned. If that makes sense."

"Doesn't have to be a Ki-rin, that just...seemed an obvious choice at the time and..." her lips press tight into a line before she looks up to find his silver gaze. "hmm, now it reminds me of you too. I'd like that."