Kyuden Shika

Unsei was there, sitting towards the back of the common room in the inn and appeared to be in a bit of a huff. They had been mildly angry the entire day and just couldn't figure out why, regardless of how many times they had tried to figure it out. It was increasingly frustrating because Unsei knew they had immaculate self-awareness...

So why can I figure out what's pissing me off now?

Which left Unsei with a half-empty bottle of sake besides a deck of cards which looked rather old, but well cared for regardless. They were laying the cards out in specific orders, then flipping them over, reading what was on each one, and then grumbling angrily to themself before shuffling the entire deck and starting it all over again.

Hikimasu had been relaxing in his room, reading. Though it was getting better he was still convinced the pillow novel was something of a harem story after all.

So at least it was easier to put down that way. He got up and looked for something to drink in the common room.

Oh look a Seppun.

He didn't immediately think of retreating, but they looked back to normal mode, not angry man or blushing woman, and he wasn't sure how it would go.

He kicked himself. Unsei is Unsei. Don't be an idiot.

"Hoi, Seppun-sama", he greeted and sat down after bowing "This spot taken?"

"I thought we would've been past the samaing by now." They murmured in a neutral tone, but then they sighed, sat up, and bowed politely to Hikimasu. "That seat had not been taken, Shosuro-san, though now it seems as if it is."

They shifted their pile of cards over, as well as the bottle of sake, so that the Scorpion had a bit more room at the table.

"How has the day found you?"

Yes well ignoring proper honorifics in public is a terrible idea at a miai.

"I'm well", he told the Seppun. "Relaxed, upbeat and ready for it to all go wrong. Yourself?" He peered at.the table decor. "You've been working on something."

"Much the same. More so a larger focus on how this is all going to go wrong. I keep feeling like I'm missing something. I'm not divining something. That there's something bigger at play here and I cannot figure it out for the life of me."

And I have been. I appear to have woken up on the wrong side of my futon today and I am in a rather... unwell... mood. I usually have an extremely keen sense of self-awareness, yet cannot figure out the why. So I thought to ask them," They gestured at the cards. "And it hasn't worked. They keep giving me nothing."

They seemed to have thought of something and seemed terrified. "Is this what Lui-chan feels like all the time? Angry? This is just unpleasant."

Possibly, but she seemed more used to it when I met her.

"You say you can feel something wrong, but have no true signs?" He asked. "I'm not an astrologer so maybe I don't quite understand."

"Yes. I just... It just feels like there's something wrong. The rain hasn't stopped once in three days. A figure is missing out of a painting. And I'm sure there's something else that I'm forgetting. It just doesn't feel right and I can't figure out the reason. I want to say there's something going on, but I just don't have the proof that it is." They grumbled before sighing dramatically and lying their head on the table.e

He put his cup on the table and sat leaning against the wall next to the table. "I think someone took the painting and replaced it with that version, and I'm actually the superstitious type."

He refilled Unsei's cup while they were facedown.

"Yes that's what I'm figuring, too, but what if that's wrong? If it is, then there's a murderous painting spirit out there and it doesn't sit well with me." Having basically been raised as a guard dog for a VIP, Unsei did not, under any circumstances, enjoy having any dangerous What Ifs laying about.

"I hope that's sake you refilled that with. Speaking of superstitious, I met one of the Bayushi and poor dear was nearly jumping out of his skin with fright."

"We do that with spirits", he said. "Pray you never meet a dead scorpion woman with a grudge."

He smiled, mask coming down to drink. "And of course it's sake, it's past midday isn't it?"