Kyuden Shika

"Why would it be abad time?" He asks with a smile.

"How are you Ishioka? I know you ended up with similar stress to what I had earlier."

"Oh, that reminds me-"

The Moshu says still stuck in the hug,

"I have something for Inoshishi-san, Ishioka-san. Would you be kind enough to pass it along?"

The big man releases his cousins and takes a small step back. Ishioka looks down, breathes deeply to center himself, and then looks to the Kitsu again.

To Moshu: "of course, Moshu-san. But Ino-chan," he slips without realizing, "would no doubt wish to see you personally?"

He sighs, then says to Murato, "I am very pleased. A relief for my heart, even... Well. It ended well. Probably as it was always meant to." He gives a little chuckle, slightly hollow sounding. "If I hadn't been trying to outsmart the Deer nakodo, perhaps it would have been a better time here," he tries to make it sound joking, but he clearly carries some guilt still for his choices.

He looks to Ishioka, expressing his sympathy with the Matsu. "Then I suspect a Dragon will become a Lion, if it's as it was always meant to be?" he asks.

Though the Kitsu didn't say it, he hoped so.

Ishioka nods emphatically, and an almost goofy grin comes to his face. He sighs.

"I had worried. I knew... There was at least a chance the Deer would see something else, match me with... who knows..." he says a little awkwardly, "But I'm glad that this was the answer. Ino-chan knew all along, I think, and I wanted to believe, but... Well. Perhaps Dragons are wiser than I had believed."

"They sit on mountains asking each other riddles. They're end up with answers to questions others rarely ask," he says with a chuckle.

"I am happy for both of you. Truly."

"Perhaps it's wrong for me to think of this as conquest but - I think we all won this miai."

"It's a lion way of thinking," he replied with a smirk. "And I suspect that our ancestors were looking out for us."