Kyuden Shika

"I'd be honored."

"And I'd be honored to be in yours, too. Can't leave me hanging."

"Well, we'll see. If the Deer pair me off to some... I dunno, some male Sparrow I've never met, I might not have a wedding to invite you to..."

It wouldn't end up being quite that bad, but it would be close.

"Look, you aren't dying, and I'm sure everything will turn out fine. The Deer aren't going to be dicks about it. There'll be a wedding."

"From your lips to the Fortunes' ears, Unsei-sama."

Raizo sighed.

"But all I can see is that if I trust the Deer, I've performed poorly in their stupid tests. And if I don't... then how can I expect anything good?"

They shrugged some, somber. "I haven't done well, either. Honestly, I'm just hoping that Moshu-san does well, and he is, so he's doing all of the heavy lifting... If both parties are doing poorly, then you've just got to make yourself undesirable to everybody else. That way nobody will pick you and you two can have yourself."

"Making myself undesirable? That's easy. Comes naturally. My worry is, well... her."

"Nah. You aren't really as bad as you make yourself to be. Truthfully, I had my eyes on you for about a day and a half, really. Then Moshu came along, so there went that."

"Or maybe I've just been behaving myself in the desperate hope that it'll help, hm?"

He grinned at the Imperial.

"Still, glad I somewhat passed muster, at least in the early stages..."

"Eh. You might be, but you might also just be saying that so I think poorly of you. Especially since you've already told me about some of the arm's you've broken." They smirked.

"To be fair, that was before I really knew what it might be, and so I was in that 'He's being friendly to me. That totally means he likes me!' and then I figured out I was a dumbass and that's not what it meant at all."