(D11LE, expecting) Not-quite-midnight snack.

[Agasha Inoshishi]

"Oh yes, before this thing even began, I had a major clue. 'For they will gaze one upon the other, for eternity, before the walls of the city.' Yes, very clear."

She munches contentedly.

[Shosuro Hikimasu]

"Then that's good, something nice other than the trouble mentioned before", he nodded. "I can't say I've got it quite like that myself, but I did have something before arriving here as well, that turned up again."

he was perhaps romanticizing things, but he'd started to believe it himself a little bit.

[Agasha Inoshishi]

She smiles.

"How excellent! These little threads of fate that pull us back and forth are the makings of the world, to me. Will you speak to me of whomever it was?"

She's clearly interested, perking back up even as she had drifted off.

[Shosuro Hikimasu]

He wondered if Inoshishi would have to guess. Clearly she new Narumi if he was right about Ishioka. Clearly girls speak to one other even if they are competing.

And everyone saw him perform with Emiko.

Thusly, he thought he could scoot by with a cheeky answer. He picked up his tea.

"Oh, just the prettiest girl in the miai."

Sip.

Though he did have a sudden thought about another girl, not someone looking for a good partner, but perhaps someone who needed him. Fortunately his dead eyes were a good poker face, so his sudden doubts were unlikely to show.

[Agasha Inoshishi]

"So a tie between Kheree and Koi. I see! That's some decent taste you've got, Shosuro-san."

Her fast answer is perhaps the littlest bit suspect. Especially since it had neither any cattiness to it nor embarrassment that she didn't include herself.

She smiles and raises her cup in a mock toast to good taste.

[Shosuro Hikimasu]

He returned it without a word. After all, he wasn't going to confirm anything. Much as he wanted someone to talk to about it.

After a sip he smiled. Then turned a little dour. He thought about Narumi a bit, he remembered Fujiko, he wondered whatever happened to the Nekoma, he hadn't got to know her at all aside a brief chat.

"Koi-san is quite beautiful though", he said almost to himself, remembering the bath chat they had some days ago. "I'm sure she'll marry well."

[Agasha Inoshishi]

Inoshishi considers that, even if it isn't meant for her.

"If you want to see her beautiful, figure out where a moth would be drawn, when and how, then do that thing. Then you'll see beauty one rarely beholds. Even when talking to me!

I'm sure she'll marry."

She considers, thinking back over the recent past, times with Koi still fresh in her memory. And bottom.

[Shosuro Hikimasu]

He shook his head. "It'd be a shame to do so when my intentions aren't to follow through, even if it ended up we married", he said. It wasn't a firm resoluteness that begged to be broken, it was just a sad matter-of-fact that he accepted, as if he truly did know the alternative. "I think no less of those who pursue the moment, it can take courage. It's simply not for me."

[Agasha Inoshishi]

Inoshishi grins and waves her hand in dismissal. "It is nothing, Hikimasu-san. Is there one you wish to pursue, if this miai were to end in a Void result?"

Getting a Scorpion to talk like this was unusual, in her experience. And it gave insight into how the Clan thought, even if in just this one person.

[Shosuro Hikimasu]

He chuckled. "Yet it won't end in a void, will it?" he asked. "I don't see much point in the game, but if you insist, then perhaps you can return the favor?"