Kyuden Shika

I could burn this place to the ground without compunction and slaughter anything with a Deer mon that tried to escape the blaze.

"Well. I already figured them for a pack of fuckers, but now it's clear. But, I, uh... I gather, since you're not visibly distraught, that Bo-san took it better than they probably expected?"

Lips pushed together in a thin line before she shook her head slowly. "They gave him everything he needs to have me arrested for breaking Imperial law. He still loves me, despite that. He believes I'm better than am I, and my past deserves to stay in my past. But the Emerald Magistrate says otherwise, and everything I was before I came here is dead." she says flatly, clearly reigning in an explosion.

"Well. Cheer up. I'll probably give this miai a scandal to wipe your little indiscretions under the rug. 'Cause if they think I'm going along with this shit, they're as stupid as they are vicious."

She spares him a look, curious. Prompting him to go on with the uprising of one manicured brow.

"Let's just say that for Shiba Raizo to marry Shika... Whoever, Shiba Raizo needs to exist. A solution of sorts has been worked out- with the help of our mutual associate- and with this bit, friend- Kasuga Yoshi."

She let out an incredulous laugh. "She got matched with Yoshi?" Her eyes narrow again. "So you're running?"

"After a fashion. But goodness, how awkward, it seems that the Deer's research missed that Aimi is actually a Tortoise on Musha Shugyo. And thus, when her pilgrimage ends, the ronin Aimi no longer exists, and thus cannot be married to Kasuga Yoshi. Truly, a sad oversight."

He bared his teeth in an approximation of a grin.

"And heaven forbid they try to gainsay it, since their research missed a much more crucial aspect of her background than the polite fiction Yoshi-san has brought up. So. Kasuga Aimi will wed a ronin named Raizo sometime soon as a purely internal Tortoise matter."

"That... sounds incredibly complicated, my moon and stars. Are you sure your simple brain can manage it?"
Her way of wishing him the best, and admitting she worries for him.

"Oh, probably not, but Aimi and Yoshi are both apparently onboard."

He sighed, a ragged sound.

"Two weeks ago, I cared about none of this shit. And now... Fuck me, Narumi-chan, what a colossal mess things ended up being."

He sighed.

"But at the same time... it's... strangely liberating. Fuck them all. From my parents who took so little interest in my life to the lords who sent me to this farce to the shitbags who put it on. Fuck them all."

She sidesteps closer to the bastard soon-to-be-not-Phoenix, and rests her head against his shoulder while taking his hand and squeezing gently.
"Do the thing, Raizo-kun." she encourages quietly. "Burn everything down, and start over."