Kyuden Shika

Murato stood near the entrance to the gardens, awaiting his musical partner for the evening. He had his shamisen with him while looking to the cloudy evening sky.

Emiko had mentally debated with herself whether to bring her favourite instrument. She loved playing it, but there was no way a Lion would be accepting of such a...gaijin instrument, so while she brought the box with her she hadn't intended on playing it. She had her flute instead though, which was fine.

She approached the garden, and bowed in the direction of the Lion as she drew closer.

"Kitsu-sama, good evening."

"Usogawa-sama, I'm glad to see you again," he says with a bow of greeting. He noticed the box, and he was a curious sort.

"Got something special?" he asked with a smile, before leading on a stroll to find a better spot within the gardens, farther from the entrance.

Emiko smiled, and shook her head.

"It's nothing, just an instrument but I understand it would not be appropriate. Please lead on. I hope you are well? It is lovely to see you again."

She followed the man into the garden, carefully looking around.

"I am doing well, thank you. I hope that your day has been good too," he says, locating a spot he thought looked nice some yards in. "Does this spot look good or would you prefer further into the gardens?"

"My day has gone well. Thankfully the rain has passed now, ne?" Emiko said with a nod "this spot seems ok. I didn't bring a blanket though, so the ground may be wet."

Reaching into his sleeve, he produces his furoshiki bag that he uses for travel. "Not a problem," he says laying it out. It is big enough for one person, and it seems that he had brought it mostly for Emiko's sake. "I don't mind a bit of wet grass. These clothes are more practical than stylish. Benefit of Lion browns is that they hide dust and dirt well. Helps our armies look like they hardly even marched to get to the battlefield," he says with a chuckle.

"It would be rude of me to take your bag to sit on, I can stand Kitsu-sama" Emiko bowed "It's ok."

He waves it off, "It's just a temporary place to sit, no worries. I brought it with in case it was necessary," he says with a smile, laying it on the ground. "If you end up not using it, that is fine, but if we are out here for a while, it's an option."

With that, he readied his shamisen and strummed a few notes worth of scales as a warm-up. "So, in our schools we play a scale game sometimes where we try to match the scale, pith and pace of a fellow player. Do otter musicians do the same game?"

Emiko relented when the man insisted on laying on the floor, sitting on the bag.

"Thank you" she bowed to the man in thanks.

"Oh, hai we do. The Otter are not big in numbers, but a lot of us are musicians and performers so we make sure to practice a lot" she took out her flute "do you want to start?"