[Day 1, Early Morning] The Breakfast of Champions (Open)

[Shiba Raizo]

Raizo didn't really examine his breakfast- he just ate it with the sort of mechanical devotion acquired by long marching with a full pack.

He sat with his back to the wall, his attention apparently on some point in the middle distance as he worked his way through the bill of fare.

[Bayushi Mitsu]

"Shiba-san!"

A Scorpion samurai dressed in grey silk, daisho tied at his waist, waved and approached, nodding affably in greeting. "I'm Bayushi Mitsu, from the capital. Do you mind if I join you?"

Not quite waiting for an assent, the fully-masked Bayushi sat, motioning for the inn's staff to bring more food. "Has your breakfast offended you? The food seemed well-made yesterday..." He glanced back towards the kitchen.

[Shiba Raizo]

Sure. Eat with a Scorpion. What's the worst that could happen?

"Bayushi-san. Nothing wrong with the food, I'm just... not an enthusiast."

For much of anything, it seems.

"I'm Shiba Raizo, lately of some miserable military camp on the Phoenix-Lion border. Feel free to join me."

[Bayushi Mitsu]

"Ah, so there's hope I won't be disappointed with the breakfast at least. You know, if food does not satisfy, I can recommend Uguisu's Song for the sake."

The Scorpion was silent for a moment as his food arrived. He selected a bite carefully, lifting the bottom of his mask to allow the food to disappear behind it. A small approving noise appraised the fare.

"On the border of the Lion...that must keep your sword busy. Does your enthusiasm lie more with martial pursuits?"

[Shiba Raizo]

"My enthusiasm? Not so much. My duty? Very much so. Although luckily, most of the time on the border, my job has been to stand there with a bunch of other similar fellows looking tough while my commander and the local Lion officers compared maps."

He picked up his soup bowl and knocked it back, draining the broth in one pull.

"A truly glamorous existence."

[Kakita Akihiro]

With a flurry of motion the hero of the hour arrives! Or rather slowly moved down the stairs to get something to eat. He had slept too much and now his head hurt from all the motion and sunlight. He had made sure to wear his blue and silver kimono with striped green inner kimono beforehand though. Can't go to breakfast looking like a barbarian. His halfmetal mask was painted and shined.

Akihiro turned a flat stare upon the pair of samurai eating and talking. The Shiba he recognized barely through the fog of post sleep sleepiness. The other was unknown. Might as well go introduce himself. He signaled for some tea and went to visit the table with a flourish of motion that almost gave him whiplash. "Minna-san, might I join your table?"

A bow to the Shiba first, then the Scorpion. Well he hoped that was a Scorpion.

[Shiba Raizo]

"Kakita-san, it can only improve the conversation for Bayushi-san if you do. Baysuhi-san, this is Kakita Akihiro. Kakita-san, this is Bayushi Mitsu."

[Aimi]

"Bah, you people," Aimi says with a grin, pulling up a chair and all but collapsing into it, her hair still slightly scuffed from a long night of deep slumber, "You sleep all night on a comfortable bed, you are fed good food in the mornings, and still you are unhappy. Perhaps one of us could pretend to be Shiba-sama's old gunso and shout at him until he feels more at home, ne?"

[Shiba Raizo]

"You're all too good-looking to be my gunso. And none of you have voices like someone's strangling a cat, either..."

[Aimi]

Aimi tilts her head for a moment, frowning in thought, before glancing at the other samurai at the table. "You know, I'm not sure... I think that was a compliment? Not much of one, I'll grant, but even so."