Duty (D7 EE) [Mizuki's Room]

[Yogo Mizuki]

Mizuki glares death Yuuru. Of course, the face mask makes it moot.

[Soshi Yuuru]

"I assume this was all just part of our, 'teach these Unicorn how society works' plan, no?" He smirked in return.

[Soshi Taira]

That brought a dry laugh.

He still hadn't heard about Yue's song.

"I don't know about you, but I've spent the last six hours teaching them about all the horrible ways they could go very wrong. It's done wonders for my mood."

[Bayushi Hotaru]

There were a good share of distractions and festivities during the day, much to Hotaru's chagrin. However. that at least saved her the trouble of storming in with a shortage of breath and a muddied kimono. It would have made for a more dramatic entrance, but she preferred to be more proper among her Scorpion kin.

She changed out of her presentation outfit from the afternoon contest to a simple black furisode kimono with minimalistic designs of branches at the hem. Her usual good spirits and cheer were lacking on her face as she bowed formally to her fellow kinsman, looking uncharacteristically serious.

"Thank you for getting together on my behalf, as I do have important news that concerns us, and easily the Empire as a whole. I shall get to the point, as we've already wasted much of our time today. No offence intended. Something happened last night...I followed a clue from one of my visions and I happened upon a clandestine meeting between some Unicorns and a dark rider, apparently an emissary for the..." Hotaru paused and mouthed 'Dark Lord' without saying it.

"It was the intention of the emissary to form a truce of sorts where the Empire, or at least the Unicorn, could aid the services of the..." Hotaru mouthed 'Dark Lord' once more, "in its ongoing war against the..." She then mouth 'Nothing'. "It requested that bodies of the dead be given to him so that they could raise an army to combat its enemy, perhaps hoping that we would aid an enemy of an enemy...Thankfully, most of the Unicorns refused, although he managed to earn the hook of some...Without a concrete answer, he rode off into the darkness and was...gone."

[Yogo Mizuki]

Fuck. "Thank you Bayushi-san. This news is grave indeed. Who were the Unicorn there?"

[Soshi Taira]

Taira stiffened, and his expression turned blank, an iron mask.

"Who... who of the Unicorn... who was there." A slow, snarling breath. "What answer did they give!?"

[Yogo Yuichi]

Yuichi was genuinely surprised. He dropped his cup... and stood up immediately.

'' Wha...wha... WHAT!?...HOW!?... WHEN!?... WHO!!? '' He is filled with anger.

[Soshi Yuuru]

Yuuru just sat quietly.

[Bayushi Hotaru]

Okay, that was a stronger reaction that she anticipated. She assumed they would have just accepted it gracefully and cook up a nefarious plan secretly. The Yogo's reaction, in particular, had her taking as step back with her hands gesturing him to settle down.

"Hey, now...I don't want to start throwing names around until we get a better idea of what's going on here. And there was more to it than that. I don't know how the other Unicorns got wind of this meeting, but I guess they were invited. I will only guess it was through Moto Khulun, as she had something that was given to her by the dark emissary. He mentioned something about Shinjo-Kami being imprisoned and he wanted to proved that with a trinket taken by one of his servants..."

[Yogo Mizuki]

"Suggestions? Does everyone have jade?"

[Soshi Taira]

Khulun.

"Does someone have jade?"

Taira looked around.

"If so, please lend it to me."

[Soshi Yuuru]

Yuuru shook his head, "Nope."

[Yogo Mizuki]

"I have broach. I can lend it out to anyone seeing Khulun, but not enough for general use."

[Soshi Taira]

"That is enough."

Taira looked to the Yogo.

"I will speak with her. Now."

[Yogo Yuichi]

'' Better Idea of what's going on? Oh Right! Let us just talk as Jigoku's influence spreads around...Who else was there!? Say their damn names, Bayushi-san....'' yeah, he did not take that very well.

'' I have jade, and I gave Shinjo Liu Yue some as a gift...''

He looked around. Yuichi could not understand his clanmates' calmed reactions

'' Speak to her? Speak?... you don't speak with blasphemous heretics, you burn them. Meeting with agents of Jigoku is an imperial crime, you don't speak with them!''

'' Bayushi-san are you certain that... thing... was an agent of Fu-Leng?''