[Match Observation] I Choose You! (D11, LM)

[Yogo Mizuki]

Butaj keeps gripping Yuki's fan and seeks her gaze in the crowd. He feels like a rider without a horse amidst an empty steppe.

Mizuki bows to the Butaj. "Moto-san, It is a nice to see you again."

[Moto Butaj]

Of all people, Butaj hasn't expected Mizuki, who declared she wouldn't like to see him for the rest of the miai. Trying to not let on too much, he turned toward her with a smile. "Butaj hopes Yogo Mizuki is feeling and doing fine today." He returns the bow.

[Yogo Mizuki]

Mizuki nods. "Hai. I just wanted to... I apologize for my previous behavior. Yogos and marriage... It gets messy. It's not an excuse, just.... it's what it is." Mizuki gives a bow. "I prayed for you and Asako-san today. I hope your story has a happy ending."

[Bayushi Hotaru]

"You can't be friends with everyone."

That was one of the lessons in life that Hotaru's mother had tried teaching her first. Her mother was an accomplished business woman who owned a small mercantile empire in the Scorpion lands. It wasn't something she would have accomplished if she tried to appease everyone she knew. Appeasement did little when it came to paying taxes and making profitable revenue. True success came when you can appease yourself. However, Hotaru found herself at odds ever since she volunteered at the temple and asked to help others. It was a weakness others picked up from Her older sister had found easy prey in her naiveness and was taken advantaged on numerous occasions with her bullying. Later on, in her years, she found herself providing insight from the oracle. Sometimes there wasn't actually any good news to give, so she lied and found herself further burdened with her word.

Now, she found herself before everyone else and forced to make a decision. She attempted to reconcile her choice with not only how it would affect her but the arrangement of the other choices. There was one choice to make and she was spoiled for choice, burdened with a choice to be exactly. It was going to be impossible to please everyone, regardless as much as she tried. She cursed herself for speaking and meeting as many samurai here as she did, attempting to make friends, knowing their desires and wishes. Sympathizing with them. It made her aware, as well as complicit. Now, more than ever, Hotaru found herself recalling that important lesson from her mother.

"You can't be friends with everyone."

At the end of the day, she may very well have to play the villainess. She can't avoid her nature forever, despite how nice she may be...

Hotaru stepped forward and bowed deeply to the governor. "Ide-sama, I wish to offer my own thanks for your most generous hospitality here! You've given us the opportunity to prove ourselves before the Unicorn, and to our fellow in. Each of these challenges provides us with lessons and insight into the ways of the Unicorn, and we find ourselves growing closer to your kin each day. At the end of the day, I'd like to think that these lessons don't really end, regardless of where we find ourselves! New clan or our own. Your home but your journey hasn't ended and mine will begin. We will now have a lifelong partner by our side to accompany us, learning and teaching! Making a home is not going to be easy, sometimes sacrifices will have to be made. What I seek in a husband is someone who is capable of great spirit, as well offers a wealth of insight so that I can continue with these lessons you've given us, even if there are more challenges awaiting us down the road."

She mustered an open smile and her eyes swept through the crowds of the remaining eligible bachelors in the Unicorn. "For that reason, this one has found herself enthralled by Moto Butaj and wishes to make him her husband in the Scorpion Clan."

[Yogo Mizuki]

Somehow, this Mizuki's fault.

She knew it.

Why did Hotaru have to do this now, when she was over here?

I'm sorry. I had no idea.

[Otaku Imane]

Imane had been expecting to see Kitakuhime chosen before Butaj, purely due to their relative rankings. She realised that her friend had never confided his feelings to her, and hoped that this was a match he could be happy with. She tried to judge his reaction, but there were people in the way so she could hardly see him.

Idly she wondered if a) she would ever grow a few more inches taller, and b) this sort of drama was why the samurai here were so keen on their fans.

[Moto Khulun]

Khulun chuckles darkly at the choices and responses. She is getting less invested in this by the moment but for now she sits astride Oguro watching the show. She rests her hand on the hilt of Massacre and waits for her choice or being picked.

She would not remain a Unicorn no matter the outcome and really that thought is quite freeing.

[Moto Butaj]

No one shall have a glimpse into the mind and soul of Butaj in this moment. He closes - clenches - his eyes so that no one could look into them. His forehead falls forth as facial muscles tense. Something audibly cracks, and the sound reverberates after Hotaru's speech is over. A heart has broken. And the hand of the fan held in his hand. No reply, no word, no other sound.

[Asako Yuki]

Yuki's face went pale as Hotaru spoke Butaj's name. "I..." The woman felt a little faint and quickly brought her fan up to protect her face as her On shattered. "No... Hotaru-san..." Yuki began to hyperventilate. She kept the fan up, not trusting anything right now. "Hirase-san." She turned to look at him, tears welling up in her eyes. "I... I failed... I'm not... but..."

Yuki's legs lost their power and the young woman slowly sunk into a kneeling position on the ground as the world began to spin around her.

[Otaku Kitakuhime]

Scorpion...

Kitahume controls herself further not to wince when Butaj's name is called out by the Bayushi. When Misa steps up to talk, Kitakuhime's fan crack with anxiety. Yet unbroken.

[Shinjo Kemuri]

It wasn't a surprise, not really. He didn't know who it would be, but it was unlikely that he'd be the last of the Unicorn men chosen.

Catching Sanmi's attention, he smiled. She would let Miss know that he was not upset by her choice. He was pleased by it. At least it was someone he had met with more than once.

Maybe he could get a sheep for her.

[Usagi Tomoe]

Tomoe's On was unbreakable today, concealed behind her raised fan, unlike what it had been yesterday between her and Hotaru. She gave a sympathetic look to Yuki, and a nod to Butaj and Hotaru.

Inside, she felt a pang in her stomach as she came to see the consequences of her own selfishness. Selfishness only came at the expense of others, she saw. She would be happy, most likely, but it had come at a cost to others. I can never tell him, the rabbit resolved.

Hotaru's choice and sacrifice would be a debt she would have a hard time repaying in full.

[Moto Butaj]

When Butaj opens his eyes, he ignores everything and just looks for Yuki. Seeing her on her knees, he turns sharply. "Curse you all." His seething is that of a cold rage. He rushes toward Yuki, having no regard for any pleasantries on the way.

[Otomo Tenzo]

There it was: his moment, his turn to go. Otomo Tenzo flapped closed his fan, tucked it back into his sleeve, and quietly strode to the center. There was much he had thought about regarding this moment over the course of the last evening, and finally, here it was...

"Governor Ide-dono and members of the Unicorn Clan, thank you all for the wonderful hospitality shown to all of us during this miai: may the pairings this day serve to bring the Unicorn Clan and rest of the Emerald Empire still closer together," Tenzo started with the polite thing, turning and offering a bow to Ide Dabo before turning attention back to the crowd. He took a moment to scan, first looking to his cousins in the Seppun and Miya, then in a couple of directions among the crowd, eyes meeting nobody in particular, before staring straight ahead in making his announcement, short and sweet.

"This one chooses... Iuchi Batul-san as my wife, to share in the name of Otomo, to enter into the ranks of the Imperial Families, and to join me in honored service to the household of the Son of Heaven and His family." And with that weight lifted off of his shoulders, he finally looked to where Batul was in the crowd, a soft smile crossing his face as he turned to the governor, offered a final bow, and then departed the central area and started to walk over to join in the company of his wife-to-be.

[Shinjo Liu Yue]

Hiroji nods, his sadness evident. "With time, I'm sure. I will do my duty and I am sure I will find happiness in it. I hope you will too."

"Perhaps you will. And I hope the others do too." Yue opened up her fan and gestured towards the others with her eyes. What a cruel fate this is. And soon I will have to watch my beloved go off with some man who will never love her like I do.

Oh, who am I kidding? That's the talk of pillowbook writers. But goodness, there are so many broken hearts. What a horrible battlefield this is.