A man wearing his service uniform and an elaborate mempo remained knelt at an altar, his palms pressed firmly together. Lost in prayer, his vigil was safeguarded by two veiled figures in the shadows, the monks tending to the shrine giving them a wide berth, looking a little disturbed by their presence. Heavy scent of incense hung in the air, the acrid smoke carrying the prayers of the devout into the heavens. The man took his time in quiet prayer, his eyes closed until a gust of air extinguished the incense he had lit. Taking this as a sign that his prayers had been hear, he pushed himself up, dusting his pants with his hands before turning his back to the altar, slowly making his way to the doors. The two figures in shadows followed him, keeping a polite distance even when he stopped at one of the vending machines places outside the temple.

Well, if destiny conspired to have all her attempts at visiting the shrine in the morning fail, Kanna would make a small exception to her strict "early to bed and early to rise" Lion schedule to visit the shrine in the evening. You win battles by knowing the enemy's timing, and using one he does not expect. as Akodo-kami did phrase it in Leadership.

There was no way she was going to have yet another strange encounter that would divert her from her goal that late. No. Way.

Pushing a token into the vending machine, Mineichi pressed a kanji engraved on round activator, invoking the kami of hospitality bound within the machine. Whirring happily, the device produced a bottle of Soshi Sweat - an isotonic drink made to mimic the mineral content of human sweat without metabolic waste. Precisely something you would want in a hot and humid place such as World of Dreams. Turning to the sound of footsteps, the lord magistrate greeted the Lion with a nod of his head. "Good evening." As the hour was late, the shrine was quite with only a few devout milling around.

Well, technically, meeting a Scorpion of high ancestry at their ancestral shrine did not qualify at strange.

"Good evening Bayushi-sama."

Appropriate bow and all, maybe slightly slow down by all the alcohol absorbed a few hours earlier.

"Peace be upon you and your ancestors."

"And upon yours..." Mineichi squinted his eyes. "Kitsu-san? Good evening, as well. I hope the Fortunes have kept you on this day."

"Kitsu Kanna, Ikoma press, temporary resident of the World of Dreams for the next couple of weeks."

She adjusted her glasses.

"The Fortunes have been clement so far. May it remain that way."

"Bayushi Mineichi." the lord magistrate bobbed his head. Chances were that Kanna had seen the man on one of the many posters that reminded the locals of the virtues they were expected to uphold and thus the introductions were largely ceremonial. Then again, much of the Empire was largely ceremonial, traditions and customs uniting the dystopian society. Awful things existed and were done for the sake of tradition. "Prestigious assignment, no doubt." He had his doubts, figuring that any self-respecting did not want to set their feet on Scorpion soil if they could help it, even if the Clans did cooperate on few fields. "May they remain clement, yes. Arrived today then? Or recently at least? Did you catch the nebuta festival?"

"I arrived in time for the matsuri, though not by a wide margin. It was certainly a sight to behold. More people in the streets than a lot of worlds have inhabitants. One of these events that are so big, so profuse, it's a wonder the organizers manage to put it up in only one year.

Guess they must be already working on the next one at the moment. A samurai's work is never done."

"It is a sign to behold, yes." he mused. "Especially if it is the first thing you see. We are known for being rambunctious - but not quite that rambunctious." Then again, as usual, both the jails and hospitals had filled with samurai and heimin after the festival. Large crowds and alcohol mixed poorly. "World of Dreams has the highest population of all the worlds that make up the Empire." There was a hint of pride in his voice. "Though I am sure the Lion are doing the best to change that." Some of the more urban Lion worlds were catching up - World Dreams was densely populated, but had only so much land that could be built on.

"And yes, I would assume so. Chances are that they are repairing the floats as we speak. There's always the next festival."

"My short and very biased experience of the World of Dreams so far has suggested no one is stingy with alcohol there, whether in the streets or in the skyscrapers. If things continue at this pace, by the end of this Winter Court, only the most hardened Hida, Moto and Ikoma will still have a semblance of a liver. There are a lot of occasions a polite samurai simply cannot refuse an offered cup."

She nodded slightly at the last comment:

"The Lion's growing strong indeed. But is it really a surprise? We've had a natalist and expansionist policy since the dawn of the Empire. It's in our nature."

"No. The moniker stands for a reason." Mineichi took another gulp of the isotonic drink he had purchased. "The world offers anything and everything you can dream of. Likely things you cannot dream of as well." His eyes betrayed his smile that the ornate mempo hid. "Including all sorts of drugs and herbal concoctions to reduce the harms of pursuing pleasures. Still, everything has a price, as the Yasuki say." Sometimes the price of assignment to World of Dreams was cirrhosis. "So, hold to your cup and sip carefully."

"Better Lion than Mantis, if you ask me." Mineichi nodded in agreement. "The Crossroads keeps the busy, for which we are grateful." With Mantis having to pour forces into the Crossroads system that Lion besieged largely out of principle, the Yoritomo pirates found themselves more often on front lines rather than freely praying on commerce. This suited the trade-dependent Scorpion perfectly fine. The fact that the conflict also saw Lion bleed massive amounts of resources did not hurt the equation either. After all, Scorpion mercantile companies considered Lion good clients.

The question of the honorability, or more so of lack of dishonorability, of drugs, any drug, was heavily debated and not necessarily the subject that put the most Kanna at ease because there just wasn't an easy answer there.

Especially with how muddled with politics was honor in such affairs.

"At several occasions in the past, the then occupant of the Imperial Throne has ruled that the price of some dreams was too high on the soul, and passed laws to attempt rein in that so particular market. None of these decrees managed to stand for long even if most were never officially repelled. The prohibition on opium from two thousands years ago is a classic example of that.

The presence on this very world of the Son of Heavens, and of the whole Winter Court, appears to suggest the time of such conflictual edicts has passed. At least one thorn you don't have to worry about too much anymore."

"Decrees stand, one way or another. When the Throne bans a list of substances, it takes but few weeks the streets to be filled with derivatives that circumvent the edicts. Now, we have banned many of the precursors, but as it seems natural for men to chase their dreams, this particular race is hard to ever end." Not that Scorpion really wanted it to end. They wanted the tax revenue from the drugs sold and imported. "Peace ever lasts so long, even if Scorpion has managed to avoid wars. It is not as if the Lion are willing to give up. The same goes for the Mantis, no?"

"I'm too young to remember this peace you talk about. The proclamation of war may be only months old, but all my life I've heard stories of violent skirmishes with ships sometimes flying the Mantis flag, often not.

If anything, maybe after the Lion's ineluctable victory the galaxy will finally know peace for the first time this century."

"Peace in general, I meant. I am well aware that Lion and Mantis have been at it for... two decades now? Almost like old lovers at this point." Mineichi mused, sounding a little amused with his joke. "And if you count piracy as act of war, Mantis has been at war with everyone for the past century. Including themselves."

"For Crossroads system, possibly. But the Emerald Champion and her goals remain an enigma. The Spider - well, who knows what the Spider will do next. Dragon stole Ide - Unicorn cannot leave that particular insult unanswered. There will be no peace in a while."

"The galaxy's big. The Lion cannot solve all issues by themselves. That's why the Emperor has three hands.

Even if, admittedly, one of them is twitching strangely at the moment."

"May he live long." Mineichi mutterd. Poor sod. Like herding cats. While the Otomo did most of the actual work, chances were that the Emperor would have needed thousands of arms to manage the mess the Empire was slowly sliding into. "You would mean the Crane?" he sighed. "I have no idea why they are doing what they are doing. I mean, their coffers are deep, but you would think that Spider and Mantis would be unpalatable allies. Apparently this is not the case."

"To sell one's honor for a temporal convenience is easy. To buy it back impossible. I wonder how the familial shrines of the Crane, and especially the Daidoji, are faring nowadays. I feel like some among the clan must not be in a hurry to face their ancestors at the moment, even as a name on a plaque.

The Lion will deal with the Mantis. But the Crane's money sure slows things down, to everyone's dismay."

"Honor does not feed a man, nor does it march to war." he quipped. "Desperate men are the most dangerous after all." That being said, he was fairly sure Crane had a lot to lose. But as long as the Mantis navy was large enough to challenge both Lion and Crab, there was precious little anyone could do to the Crane. Lion, of course, were determined to change that. "Their daimyo is a man with eyes set on future, they say." They also said that Crane daimyo had his eyes set on buttocks of certain Crane actors. "And yet, everyone trades here. They say you cannot buy honor - and as much is true, but for a price, you can get anything else."

"Oh? I wasn't aware the Crane, of all people, were in such a dire need for food and shoes they had to resort to such unseemly alliance."

A bit too much sarcasm here, but felt called for in that situation.

"One will always find a casus ignominiae to justify their shameful actions. It doesn't make them any less wrong.

And I would say there are many more things money can't buy. Victory for example. You can buy supplies, information, weapons, soldiers, have overwhelming advantage on all aspects of war that can be acquired with money. And still be defeated in the end. Because advantages are only as good as your ability to exploit them.

There's a world of difference between owning the means of doing something and having the ability to do that thing. Otherwise, anyone would only need to own a good brush to be a talented painter."