Kyuden Shika

Murato waited for the appointed hour at the house, having asked for a private room with a shogi board set up. He found himself looking forward to a game, not a common thing for him.

Emiko eventually arrived, under her umbrella as it was still raining! It was getting silly now. She smiled and bowed as she did so.

"Good evening Kitsu-sama. I hope you are well?"

"Much better now," he says with a smile, indicating a spot across the shogi table from him. "It feels too long since we've sat down and chatted, and a little strange that it's not for music," he says with a smile.

"It was only a few days ago! Or yesterday if you include bringing me tea" Emiko said with a laugh, sitting down gracefully "oh, shogi? Tired of Go now then?"

"Well, you said you were looking for a travel shogi set, so I thought you might prefer this," he said with a smile. "And a few days can seem like a long time. With some amazing people, the time feels like it flies by. And then the anticipation between makes the time feel slow."

"Shogi is fine, I enjoy it too" Emiko confirmed with a smile and a nod "just thought you said Go yesterday. Either are enjoyable!"

Emiko got the attention of someone and got some tea ordered for the both of them - plum tea.

"Who have you been meeting with? Sounds like your days have been interesting then."

He had learned the hard way with his crash yesterday to choose who he talks about meeting with. He still felt terrible about it, even though it was feeling much better today. "Well... for one, I've started training with Susaki Tanabe-san. When you asked about how I formed my opinion of the Otter the other day I realized I may need to expand my horizons to confirm my suspicions. And as I thought, I have not met an Otter samurai I haven't liked," he says with a beaming smile. "He's a pretty great guy."

When the tea arrives he enjoys a sip, closing his eyes for a moment to focus on the taste.

"Delicious. An excellent choice and thank you for making the introduction to this ne friend," he says setting the cup aside.

He then indicates that she should feel free to take the first move.

"Oh, you've met with Tanabe-san? That's good! I'm glad, Tanabe-san is a good man and he'll make someone very happy. I'll miss him a lot if he leaves the Otter."

Emiko did indeed make the first move, moving a piece forward.

"I wasn't sure I'd like plum tea but it really works well."

"I find him to be great. We've been training a bit, spears and running. I will definitely enjoy the opportunity to continue doing so. But maybe he's trying to train a replacement in case he does marry out," Murato says with a smirk, making his first move, a relatively aggressive one.

"So he sees a future yojimbo in you then?" Emiko said with a smirk, moving to mirror Murato rather than take the initiative "he would be a difficult act to follow you know. He's quite the wrestler."