[D2 LN] A Second Chance

[Mirumoto Jinkan]

Jinkan, being unused to Kyuden Ikoma and not given to following directions well, arrived at the den of iniquities very, very late at night. Perhaps he had worn the blindfold on his way out the door and got lost? In any event he was sans blindfold, wearing new clothes from the morning's excursions, now clothed in gold and browns with slightly taller sandals to walk over mud and muck. His hair was tied into a bun and held with a shiny hairpin, and his daisho was at his waist.

Walking into the place was done with a nod at the tallest person in the room like they knew each other before looking for the Kasuga over the tables and people.

[Fukurokujin]

Seated at a table and surrounded by a number of sun-weathered, scarred, hulking men, a slender, petite woman looks up, sees the Mirumoto enter, and smiles. Her hand lifts, and a finger beckons him over.

"Boys," she says, "maybe offer to polish Mirumoto-san's swords for him?" A couple of nods meet her words, and one of the men strides over to do just that.

"Kasuga-sama says it'd be good for you to have your swords polished," he says, and he extends a hand to receive them. "They'll come back all shiny and clean."

[Mirumoto Jinkan]

The Mirumoto would stare at this man with an intensity beyond any propriety before twitching a couple of times. He smiled at something just beyond the edge of the tough man's face before looking at him again.

"If that is a euphemism, then I must decline. If however it is what it sounds like, something very rare these days indeed, then you may do as you have requested with my blessings." Jinkan would do as requested to keep the peace.

"Kasuga-sama!" He waved while walking.

[Kasuga Izumi]

"What's a euphemism?" says the hulking man, but he accepts the swords, and he and his companion depart into the back of the house.

The petite woman stands, extending a manicured hand to indicate the seat in front of her.

"Please, Mirumoto-san, be at ease and welcome," she says as she resumes her own seat.

"Will you have sake with me? Or perhaps your taste runs to stronger drink?"

[Mirumoto Jinkan]

He would sit in the floppy dropping motion small toddlers make when they get too tired to stand upright. After bowing properly of course.

"I could drink from the sight of your face but sake would be appreciated. I don't often drink though, so you are warned that I am not likely to put much away." Jinkan replied, staring at her eyes with a smile that pulled his scars into stark relief against his otherwise smooth skin. The black of his pupils was large and fixed, unlike the twitching of his fingers as he intertwined them in front of him.

"I will admit to surprise that you were willing to meet..." he trailed off.

[Kasuga Izumi]

Izumi meets his gaze easily, and she delicately pours him a cup of sake, holding back her sleeve from her wrist as she does so. And as she does so, the drape of her kimono becomes clear, as does that of the layers beneath.

She sits back, her own drink poured, and asks "To what should we drink, Mirumoto-san?"

[Mirumoto Jinkan]

Jinkan is momentarily distracted by something to his left before flicking his eyes back into place.

"To survival? To seeing the next sunrise." Jinkan offered raising his cup in her direction.

[Kasuga Izumi]

"May we all see the dawn--or at least what follows!" Izumi replies, and she takes a pull from her cup.

The burly men nearby shout something seemingly hortatory and drink, as well.

Izumi puts her cup on the table, folds her hands demurely in front of it, and leans forward. The draping of the layers of her kimono is again clear, where it clings to her and where it does not.

"Mirumoto-san had been surprised I would accept his request for a meeting," she says. "But with how adroitly it was put, I could not but be intrigued. I would hear more from you of it, if you were willing."

[Mirumoto Jinkan]

"How I find your face pleasing to look at? How your bone structure looks carved by a master artisan? Or how your eyes remind me of the gems of my home?" Jinkan smiled again, a thing that crawled across his face unnaturally. His own robes hung off his thin frame.

"I will be straightforward, I have not employed flattery before, and had assumed you would find it unpleasant for me to speak my thoughts. Most people find it entirely unpleasant when I speak my mind, and I ignore their discomfort as it pleases me. That my thoughts flatter you was unexpected for me." The Mirumoto shrugged, his eyes still not blinking from hers.

[Kasuga Izumi]

"There aren't many women who don't like to have their beauty bespoken to them, Mirumoto-san," Izumi replies, her voice low. "And when it's sincere, all the better."

She slowly takes another sip of her sake, touches one knuckle to her lips after as if to wipe away an errant drop.

"But surely you have more to say than just that I am pretty," she continues. "Or is it that you just wanted to see more of me?"

The sake cup returns gently to the tabletop. She leans forward again, brings her elbows in.

[Mirumoto Jinkan]

"Mostly to say you look absolutely stunning." Jinkan said eagerly before wincing suddenly. He held his side for a moment before switching to a more detached tone.

"Naturally I would explain this meeting as discussions for future cooperation between the Dragon and Tortoise. I do have the power to make a case for such in front of Togashi-ue, and he is a rather kind man to me. If the Kasuga are interested, the Dragon are interested. But uh..." he paused, now looking her over and not just in the face.

"Are the Kasuga interested?"

[Kasuga Izumi]

Izumi starts ever so slightly at the wince.

"Is Mirumoto-san unwell?" she asks, leaning further forward and looking up at him from under her brows. Her eyes seem large, indeed, and her lips purse ever so elegantly, ever so sweetly.

[Mirumoto Jinkan]

The Dragon muttered something under his breath before looking her back in the eyes. He smiled, his eyes narrowed. "Sometimes duty is a mountain, sometimes it is a kick in the ribs. I am well enough for drinking and other activities as necessary."

[Kasuga Izumi]

"Mirumoto-san must know much of mountains," Izumi says.

"Is it cold so high upon them? Are you warmed by moving southward?"

She refills his sake cup, again delicately, again gracefully.

[Mirumoto Jinkan]

"It is often very cold, the air grows both thinner and there is less to block the wind as you grow higher so it seeps into your bones as quickly as stepping outside. The south has been warmer for sure. The people a little warmer too for some reason." Jinkan replied. He picked up his cup and started sipping again.

"What about Kasuga-sama, you hail from Otosan Uchi and travel everywhere the water touches?"

[Kasuga Izumi]

"And some places it doesn't," Izumi replies.

She traces a fingertip around the rim of her sake cup, which stands empty.

"But I do prefer things a bit wetter than they are here."

She smiles, showing hints of pearl-white teeth, gleaming between full lips.

[Mirumoto Jinkan]

"Ah, allow me." Jinkan takes the bottle and pours for the lady with slightly twitchy hands. Not that he drops any liquid, he isn't incompetent.

"I hope you get wetter soon. It does not do for such beautiful skin to get dried out." Or the lovely bones behind them.

[Kasuga Izumi]

"There're ways Mirumoto-san might be able to help me get that way," Izumi says, her voice turning breathier at the end.

She lifts the sake cup, peering coyly over the rim at him. "I would hope Mirumoto-san would want to help me with that," she says.

Her eyes seem to bore into his, and he will be quite aware of how her lips part and the kimono accentuates her body, its draping hinting at what it covers and its parting giving just a glimpse of the same.

~~~~~
Temptation 38
Jinkan will need to make a Etiquette (Courtesy) / Willpower roll at TN 38 to resist the temptation (Core 145)

[Mirumoto Jinkan]

"One finds it hard to refuse." Jinkan replied, knocking back his cup with a jerk.

[D2 LN] A Second Chance, Etiquette/Willpower, TN38, 6k3 | 6k3 ⇒ 25 (TN: 38)

(Failure.)

[Kasuga Izumi]

Izumi's smile widens slightly, and she guides Jinkan's cup back to the table with a gentle touch of her fingers on his hand.

As she pours him another cup, she says "It is so good to hear Mirumoto-san say that," again breathily. "It is so good to know that he will be kind--but a woman needs to know how he can be so."