After everything that's happened, she was getting a sense that something was going to happen soon. It was perhaps a matter of waiting for the shoe to drop and Eriko didn't do very well with the uncertain wait. She had to do something in the meantime. It was either going out on her own and finding trouble or something productive, she easily made her choice on the matter.

Eriko would be found at the shooting range to get a few rounds in before calling it a night. She wasn't so much practicing her accuracy but also her draw from her holster after each full clip expended. It was going to go south eventually and she wanted to be the first to shoot.

It was rather a rarity that Nishida used his sidearm,... at least now that he wasn't a Yasuki anymore, but his bodyguard Akechi and his Yojimbo were going to train for a few hours and so he decided to accompany them, he had nothing else to do this evening anyway.

He was not surprised to find other samurai in the dojo, but it was probably a happy coincidence that he ran into Eriko again, "Eriko-san, greetings" he said after he had made sure that she had secured the weapon and was responsive.

Eriko would finish with her last few shots in her clip before she regarded the approaching figure at the range. She raised a brow and would switch the safety on her weapon before removing her shooting earmuffs.

"Oh, hey, Nishida-sama," she said before presenting a deep bow, flashing a smile. "Here to shoot a few rounds? You know, I never pegged you for the shooting type but then again, I heard Yasuki take some self-defense."

"Well, those rusty hands still need to be used sometimes, a sharp tongue doesn't help you against sharp knives in dark alleys" he replied, "Besides, my two shadows here also wanted to train" he pointed to Akechi and Himei, who bowed briefly to Eriko and then got ready for training.

"How are you doing? No pirates to disturb your tea party so far?" he quipped.

"Rusty hands?" She said on an amused note as she looked down at Nishida's hands. "I thought Yasuki are supposed to be known more for their golden hands for handling all of that money for the Crab. Is there a term for that? I am curious what sort of alleys you find yourselves in. They might even be some of the alleys I've been to before!"

She would give a quick nod to his shadows. "Me? Nah...But, pirates might have stolen my stuff, that's always a pain."

If only Eriko knew what kind of reputation he had before the Miya,.... improved his reputation a bit.

"Many a Yasuki speaks of diamond hands when they have struck a particularly good deal" he replied amused, "But the world of business is an unforgiving one, one time you smile at one partner and at another,..." he fell silent,

"Uhmm,.. Be that as it may, you have been robbed?" he asked surprised.

"I'll have to take your word for it, Nishida-sama. I know people do all sorts of things with and for money. There was a good reason the Crab and even most people left it in the diamond hands of business people." She gave Nishida a wink, thinking she was rather clever for learning a word and immediately using it afterward.

She frowned pensively on the topic of pirates. "Well...nothing I'd bemoan to just anyone about but considering you're familiar with my storied life, I suppose I'm playing a bit of keep-away with my 'friends' in the True Scions. They've been after something of mine and looks like they're getting closer to it. My hopes are that they're just as in the dark about it as I am."

He blinked a little at the description. "A lost good that two parties are chasing?" he asked cautiously. "That sounds exciting enough, at least. You say you're in the dark? So I take it it's not something that's easy to find?" he asked her as his Bodyguards where occuppied with training.

Eriko let out a sigh a looked around, a bit at a loss of where to start with the whole fiasco. "It's a rather long story, Nishida-sama but let's just say...I passed off an item to a translator slash decoder to have it figured out. Perhaps the 5th one I tried. They usually end up with no success over the thing and I move on. This time around, the decoder goes missing and his place is completely trashed. He either had a lot of enemies or my enemies potentially caught up to him. After what happened at the wedding, figured they wouldn't try going after me anymore but my stuff instead."

"Hmmmmm" Nishida paused for thought.
"Seems like you're in a bit of a tight spot right now, Eriko-san. The pirates really don't want to leave you alone either, huh?" He grinned, somewhat amused. "At least they're not mushroom zombies this time," he said before thinking again to say something productive: "And you really have no clue? Didn't you find anything in the translator's apartment?"

"Hey, funny enough...the mushroom zombies were something I stumbled on and were specifically not after me. Well, not enough I started to go searching the ship, which turned out to be the maho-tsukai's hideout. Kind of a happy coincidence, in a way." She laughed with a snort.

"The thing is I never got around to finding out where he lives. We kind of got jumped by goons when we visited his workshop, which turned out to be trashed and ransacked by the way. The shooting started and then we bailed afterward when it started to get too hot. At this point, it might easier to find the True Scions than Cheung."

"Huh" he said and tilted his head. "Some pirate organization called True Scions have stolen an unidentified something, I assume a data module, from the translator named Cheung." he summed it all up.

"My power here is severely limited, Eriko-san, but my eyes and ears are very good. I would like to help you, as compensation for not being able to spare you the punishment from Asakaze," he said and bowed, this time deeper than he had to.

Eriko narrowed her eyes at the mention of the punishment and sighed. "You know, Nishida-sama, kind of figured that was water under the bridge a while ago. Kind of bummed that it went sideways a little but it's not like it didn't go right at the end. It's a bit tough in the Lion but it's not like I necessarily was easy on the Crab either. I don't think you need to stick your neck out for me for just that reason alone if that's what you're looking for. It'll be dangerous. Especially, when we might be walking into a situation where these pirates types don't really care for who you are or how much status you might have. They'll just pry whatever they can take from your dead body all the same. Do you still want to help in a situation like that?"

"I'm not a warrior," he said in a way that reminded her that there was still a crab under the flower, "but like I said, I have good eyes and ears. And when push comes to shove, there's always Akechi," he pointed at the old man, who fired volley after volley. "I would offer you my resources, skills and contacts to help you." he said determined.

Eriko scratched her arm as she thought about this. "Well, not I'm going to say no when I'm probably in need of help more than I can publicly admit. There's something you could do for me, especially when it comes to getting your feet on the ground for an investigation. I would appreciate it if you could pitch a hand at that. Once the shooting starts and you want to bail, I totally wouldn't blame you for bailing for both of our sakes. I'm sure the Miya are going to have a long list of questions for me if anything bad were to happen to you."

"I agree that I intend to prevent my demise with the utmost strength," he said, with a final chuckle, "So Eriko-san, what mystery may I solve for you?"

"Well, to tell you where we left off...Hide-san and I did some snooping around the slums to find Cheung, which only resulted in us getting jumped by some goons. Likely some people are either loyal or under the payroll of the True Scions. We got out pretty fine, Hide managed to delete one of their faces in the process. I managed to pull something from the corpse, a card from Mako Motor Garage. I'm looking to get back to the slums when I can manage to do so with greater numbers, you know, when it looks least attractive for them to jump us?"

(OOC: GM hint, Day 9.)

"I see" he retrieved his card from his suit, "Then we'd best settle how you can contact me right away" he handed her the card somewhat unceremoniously. "My eyes and ears will be open to you then."

Eriko blinked at the card at first before smiling. She did accept the card with full ceremony on her end, certainly doing her best impression of Yasuki business etiquette as she took in both of her hands and gave him a bow. "Thank you, Nishida-sama. I thought had your contact already but figured that you would get a few new numbers with your gig in the Miya family. Same here, I guess. When I call you, I hope you have a nice pair of rubber sole shoes around! For gumshoeing, you know."

He laughed, "The Miya were very thorough about my personal equipment, I'm amazed they let me keep Asakaze's bot."

Even if the named bot would probably never see the public again.

He blinked at the pun, " Gumshoes? Hmm that makes sense. I'd probably have to organize some sturdy footwear, my suit shoes are hardly made for such an operation."