Honoka had decided she quite liked the minor clan houses. Lots of different people of different walks of life combined into one melting pot of culture clashing. And now she arrived to meet another member of the minor clans, as she arrived and announced herself and enquired after Heichi Batsuda.

Heichi Batsuda emerged from his office with an easy gait and a wide smile. Someone was in a good mood.

"Ikoma-san, good to meet you. Heichi Batsuda. Please, right this way." And he led her into his office. A fairly spartan affair, the primary focus was a sculpture made of a Boar made of steel sitting on the main table. Batsuda sat across from it.

"So, how can I help you?"

Honoka bowed and smiled to the man, following him in.

"Good afternoon Heichi-sama, thank you for meeting with me. I hope you're doing well?"

She paused to look at the statue, impressed.

"Did you make that Heichi-sama? It's very impressive! Ah, my apology. I'm here to discuss the potential of trade between our clans, the Badger arranged for the tariff reductions for yourselves and the Badger however we also wish to extend the opportunity to trade with yourselves. One thing we are opening up is the opportunity to train in the Lion dojos in return for the commodities we need, if this is something that would appeal to you?"

"Hai, that's one of mine. I've always liked it. Really sets the tone."

He nods his way through her preamble, ears perking up a bit at school openings. "I think that would be good for us. Ikoma schools in particular would be something we'd be interested in. But I'd guess this isn't coming for free, right? How can we help you?"

"I highly recommend the Ikoma schools" the young Ikoma said with a smile "if you saw the performances of the students yesterday you'll see what I mean. What the Lion are most interested in stone and arms, if the Boar have these resources I'm sure we could come to an arrangement."

There was a small pause before she added "and from a personal point of view I'd love to know more about the metalworks, I've never seen such a thing before! However business before pleasure, ne?"

"Well, you're in luck. We have 5 Arms units, but I am afraid that we are out of stone. All I have left after that is Tea and Iron."

"Unfortunate about the stone, but a blessing on the iron as we are need a single unit of that also along with three units of arms" Honoka smiled "so a trade, three arms and one iron for places in the Ikoma bards school?"

"That works for me."

"Wonderful" Honokas smile brightened more "shall we say 2 places in the Ikoma bards school?"

"Let us call it three, and we can call this deal done."

"That works with me" Honoka nodded "I'll present it to Akodo-dono and once approved present it to court. I can't imagine it'll take more than a day, so hopefully I can present it during court tomorrow. Thank you!"

"Not a problem."

"With that sorted..."

Honoka started to smile more.

"Can I ask about the steel work? How does it work, is it similar to pottery or sculpting with stone? If it's a clan secret then I won't ask more, it is so interesting I couldn't resist asking more about it."

"Well, to my knowledge, pottery is about shaping with water and applying fire after the fact, and sculpting with stone is all a function of earth, but steelwork is about shaping and joining metal with fire as a part of the process. It is done at very high temperatures and requires quite the set-up."

"That sounds like it would be incredibly difficult" Honoka commented with a curious expression "is it closer to weaponsmithing then? How did Heichi-sama learn how to do it?"

"There are certainly similarities to weaponsmithing, yes, but I did not learn this in the forges of Shiro Heichi. When I toured the Empire in my youth, it was taught to me by a Kakita. I had hoped to see him again, here, but the Crane delegation seems to have had some turnover since then."