(D0 ME) To New Strangers

[Kitsu Murato]

"No, the blade is a fine example of a well made katana, but it is no more or less special than any sword is to the family it is passed down through. Taiko simply asked me to carry it because he had nobody else that could and I could actually hear him to fulfill the request. He's not even looking for vengeance or glory for it. Just wanted it to be useful to our clan. And our family tested it for supernatural influence but found nothing. His soul isn't even anchored to it," Murato explained.

"And it takes more than a name to make me take someone as strange. But if you're grandmother does look out for you, I may be able to sense her when she visits if we were to spend enough time together."

He drinks a little bit more and refills cups as needed. And then in a potentially too bold move, sensing a little of her discomfort at his talk of speaking with the dead, he putshis hand across the table next to her own. His palm was up and inviting her to test him with the jade she wore as he didn't have any of his own. It was too precious a resource and the Lion too numerous to let every young bard to carry it around.

[Kuni Yasu]

Just a sword, just an ancestor...most likely. And just a strange Lion openly offering a hand. She not clever, not in the way courtiers need to be, but she's smart, certainly bright enough to see that offer, or maybe challenge. She nods, leaving the cup behind as she lifts her hands a bit, one reaching to unclasp the bracelet from her wrist.

"If she is around, I guess it might be very like your Kitsu Taiko-shiryo. I just don't have the gift of seeing such things, though some wards will keep those spirits from passing through, so they're still definitely not of this world." Yasu reaches to set the bracelet into Murato's upraised palm, fingertips brushing skin as she leaves it there, the beads (presumably) mostly cool to the touch, with spots of lingering warmth where the beads had rested on her own skin.

"So you can see the spirits that are here already, for whatever reason, but can't reach out to them as the Kitsu are said to do?"

[Kitsu Murato]

As her fingertips brush his skin, his do much the same. Though since he wasn't placing anything in her hand it seems plausible his touch was on purpose rather than accident, even if it was only a brush.

"Correct," he says. "I don't call them, but they sometimes call on me."

He presses the bracelet to his forehead. Then to the blade. There was no reaction from any of them and no change in the jade.

"But if I get the opportunity I can speak with your grandmother for you. Maybe she'll share some embarrassing stories from your childhood," he smiles mischievously.

He held the bracelet in both hands on the table, offering to fasten it on her wrist.

[Kuni Yasu]

She's watching his eyes as the jade drops into his palm, nearly certain there'd be no reaction, but too well-trained to look for the signs of suppressed pain not to watch. So the momentary surprise at that more purposeful touch is easy to see in the lift of darkly painted eyebrows, subsiding into amusement at the theatricality of him bringing the jade to his forehead.

"That would be one way to be sure which parts of my childhood she was hanging around for." That amusement carries into her voice, and a gentle smile of bright red lips.

Laying her wrist across the bracelet where he holds it, she nods once, holding still while he fastens it. "Thanks. Refastening it one-handed is a pain. Also..thanks for the unecessary reassurance." Her lips press into a line for a moment, before a deep breath, "Plus.. I'm sorry for being nervous about it. Ought to trust a Kitsu to tell decent dead spirits from dark ones, right? Not like you'd be lying about being a Kitsu with those eyes."

[Kitsu Murato]

"Well, it's actually nice to be meeting new people that show a bit of doubt. It makes things more exciting in conversation when people feel each other out."

He smiles as he fastens the bracelet, allowing fingertips to brush once more. He then finished his cup and refilled, offering the same for Yasu.

"I think the eyes probably tie to my gift. A bit different from the standard Kitsu, but still connected. So, did you know your grandmother before her passing or did you learn of her after she started helping you out?"

[Kuni Yasu]

Her hand rests, palm up, as he fastens the clasp, calluses across fingers and the heel of her palm on display, nails short but not ragged. She observes the Lion's hands, ready this time for the brush of his fingers, and considering what their appearance says--what this ease of finding contact says--about him. "Feeling people out seems to be much of the point of these early days, I suppose. Have you found anything to doubt about me then?" She lifts her drink with the other hand to sip as the jade settles comfortingly in place once more, nodding when Murato offers a refill.

"As for my possible spirit...great-grandmother in truth, so gone well before my birth during a rotation at the Wall. I like to think that, if she's actually watching over me...maybe other descendants too...that means she reached Yomi but needed to reach back. Still serving our Duty."

"I think it's good of you to take up the blade and memory of one who lacks family to take up those duties. Do you know much of his life then? I guess I'm imagining that I'd seek to find out what I could, if put in a similar kind of place."

[Kitsu Murato]

His own hands had callouse, those that one would expect on a bushi but not as prominent or clearly obvious. He practiced the sword and bow, but obviously not as much as others. Though his hands were also very clean with some tiny scars. The paper cut scars of a bureaucrat.

"Well, I doubt you will leave this miai displeased," he says, drinking a bit more. "Only doubt I have about you so far. But I have a hope as well... that you'll leave the sake bar pleased with the evening."

His expression seemed pleasant and honest enough. He nods at the explanation about her ancestor. "I think that's the common story among ancestors. Even if ancestors doing so is very uncommon. Usually want to see a duty fulfilled or the potential of their descendants fulfilled. But Taiko and I have a bit of a stranger deal, and his story is pretty interesting. He was cut down in a battlefield duel. A kharmic strike that ended both warriors. He doesn't hold a specific grudge though. He wants his blade to be put to proper use and doesn't want it to lose again."

[Kuni Yasu]

"It's going ok so far," she says with a smile, lifting her hand to catch the attention of a passing server and pointing to the bottle to ask for another. "Clean and fed after a long journey, interesting people to meet, sake that's..." she takes s small sip, "well, I might not choose this to bring as a gift to someone, but it's not bad."

"Kind of a rough demand that a blade never lose. Nobody wins every fight. Though I guess the extra motivation can't hurt on the battlefield." There's a bit of a question there. She's never really been on the sort of battlefield she imagined the Lion would have seen. "Sounds more like unfinished...business? desire? than a watchful ancestor. Not that I'm an expert on either've those."

[Kitsu Murato]

"It is completely unrealistic, but it's not uncommon that sensei teach their students to reach for unattainable perfection. He likely just wants a legacy of some sort, and he unfortunately needed to ask outside his own family. I just happen to be enough of a sucker to want to try and help."

The Kitsu eyes look to the side, noticing something.

"Ah, he decided to stop hovering for the moment. So if there are any secrets you wanted to share now is the time." He smiles playfully. "He won't hear them."

[Kuni Yasu]

"No. A sucker is the person who believes a Yasuki who says they're really in a hurry so they're going to cut you a great deal. Offering a legacy to the dead is a kindness, and a service that may aid them along to their next life." She lifts her cup in a small, appreciative toast before finishing it. "Kuni sensei are more pragmatic. They ask that we do the most that we can, for as long as we can, and record every scrap of information so it isn't lost when we fall."

Yasu's eyes follow his sideways glance, not *really* expecting to see anything, but there's the fuzzy sort of 'maybe?' feeling, as if she might catch a glimpse from the corner of her eye or something. Of course there's nothing there, other than the server carrying a fresh bottle.

She chuckles. "I'm not sure what secrets are more safely shared with the living than with the dead, but I don't think I really have any." If the first bottle is through, she'll lift the second and offer to pour this round. "There's just... all the stuff you don't know about me because we just met, and that's a rather large pile of things to try pulling from. What's something you'd like to know about someone the Deer might pair you off with? Something you'd rather learn without your friend hovering in earshot?"