It was her idea. Coming here, that was. Not Koyuki's by any stretch, not that she minded the location of course it was a nice place and one she quite intended to frequent if she could manage. Nice, for a meeting spot too. However, this was probably near the bottom of her places to suggest when Koyuki had asked to meet. Which wasn't a long list, since a far larger number of places weren't even allowed onto the list at all. Yet all of that was a little like smoke, meaningless. For now she was here.

Sat among her usual assortment of pillows out on the floor, she waited. It probably wasn't a place to stick when Yakumo showed up but it was comfortable in its familiarity from the other night. Having arrived a bit earlier she was already tending a drink slowly while she waited, held with a certain kind of detached grace. Eyes, like a prey animal, scanning the horizon with their vicious appearance.

Inside the Akatsubaki, Yakumo's arrival could be noticed at first by light chatter caused between her and some of the workers. It seemed casual and maybe a tad flirtatious, but on the whole pretty innocent as giggles were exchanged and she was guided to where Koyuki was waiting.

She had changed out of the extravagant clothes from the party earlier, and was now dressed in a traditional kimono with motifs of spider-webs, and little spiders hiding in said webs. The obi was tied in a simple drum-knot, in black with red spider lillies on. "Ah, Kuni-san," her face, usually pale, seemed a bit flushed. Maybe because of all the sake earlier. "I'm glad we could meet again, under better circumstances."

Moving to sit down amongst the cushions, it was easy to see she still wore her signature black gloves, and long black tabi socks that seemed to compliment them.

From the moment she crossed into the room, Koyuki watched her. There was no rise or shift in her as Koyuki had grown quite comfortable watching people without any attempt to hide it. By the time Yakumo stood before her the woman had buried a slight smile. Koyuki was being ridiculous with her thoughts, a little, she thought. Shifting forward she offered Yakumo a bowed head on her arrival, at least, "Better than standing in the rain. Or rescuing a plushie," she said, with some self-admonishment on that fact infecting her tone.

Eyes glancing, briefly, at both the gloves and socks- different as they were, "You looked," the word beautiful caught on her tongue like a snare, and for a brief moment she struggled and pivoted, "astonishing at the party this evening."

A bow was given in return, light and relaxed in its gesture. And she was a little bit tipsy still so that factored in as well.

"A compliment? I'm surprised... and flattered, thank you," she smiled easily, giggling a little bit even. Yakumo's vibrant eyes looked over Koyuki. "I do recall seeing your beautiful face there," though I was disappointed to see what you were wearing, "but I'm even more glad to see you again here. I didn't think this evening's party was your type of thing, to be honest."

Gloves hands smoothed out her kimono to avoid any wrinkles in the fabric while she kept her focus on Koyuki instead. "Shame I missed you at the club last night. You're quite the mysterious woman, you know. I am still trying to figure out the puzzle that you are..."

An easy smile, filtered with a giggle, Koyuki's gaze lingered for a moment before she glanced elsewhere in the shift of conversation. Finding one of the members of staff and making eye contact for the moment. Waving one over, and then returning focus to Yakumo, "I did not think I was such a puzzle, Susumu-sama. I can assure you however, you did not miss much. I found myself deeper in my cups than I had intended. I might have made quite the fool of myself had I managed to stay longer, in fact, I had already bumped into that friend of yours, Usagi Rei. Met him with a little jostle only earlier in the night."

Laying her glass down, she shifted her position, comfortably leaning in toward Yakumo as she spoke, "Clubs I can do, so many people and yet- they are more barriers than actual crowd at times. A backdrop. Fancy parties like the one before are a bit uncomfortable still, they move slow, it is hard to find my footing."

There was that light persistent warmth found within that had yet to dissipate.

Leaning in closer, Yakumo's perfumed scent was more noticeable. Complex scents of spices... cinnamon, vanilla, something floral, and the undertones had some kind of scented wood to them.

"You seemed quite at ease on the streets. And as you said, even in the club, you had your footing. Perhaps I should be by your side for the next social event our Scorpion hosts put on for us, to teach you the rythms of that courtly dance?" the Spider asked, voice warm and eyes on Koyuki. "I suppose I find you to be a puzzle because you have these different facets. Lovely blue eyes that a Crane would envy, yet an... armor of sorts that I would see on our Daigotsu soldiers. Not physical armor, but you know - emotional."

Narrowing, slightly, she kept herself from getting pulled under the wave. Searching Yakumo's expression first, but deviating. Following along the jaw line to the chin, the lips, along the slightly flushed cheek. Noting these things as if it were clinical kept her focus intact, "I wonder which of us would have more to lose in such a situation. Though, perhaps the Spider would approve of it. A Kuni tucked up with one of their star idols probably has a better image than my mind can imagine," she says, a slight lead to her tone.

"But I can't disagree it would be less in my clans favor- and yet, I'm hardly dissuaded from admitting that I can stand to benefit from that as well," she said, she focuses on her eyes for a moment but doesn't keep contact for long.

Her own expression was relaxed, smile casual and eyes a little hooded. This close, her skin seemed even paler underneath the makeup. "Hm, not nescessarily something my clan would be terribly thrilled about, but being the current pet of the Miya has its perks - I can say it's for my public image as well as pleasing the Imperials by following the doctrine of promoting harmony between the clans."

Almost everyone had grown up watching Starlight Miko Crusaders, and it's Imperial propaganda of harmony being achieved when all nine worked together. The musical group Heavenly 9 practically lived and breathed that message.

"And really, what would the Crab have to lose from it?" she asked as her smile turned a bit impish. Her eyes moved from Koyuki's own, down the features of her face, resting for a moment looking at the red-painted lips, then back up to meet Koyuki's gaze.

"Even the smallest bit of credibility given to the Spider is like a hot knife in the wound," she said, on a affected voice as if to play it off gently. Koyuki held no love for the Spider, it was evident. Like any other she would gladly see them all removed from the Empire. Except maybe one. Eyes meeting hers as she did so that her intent not be misconstrued. A thought played across her brow, the small knit of it that was preamble to the delivery of the question. Yet, it didn't feel right now and so she stowed it back away.

"I would welcome it, however," she said, and the soft sincerity of her voice surprised her for a moment. There must have been other words she could have put there, something more verbose or with charge. However, naught that felt right came to mind. It was a sticking point, right then and there.

Her lips curled into a wry smile, eyes locked for a moment in silence. "That makes two of us then, though I wonder what else you would welcome." Saying those words, Yakumo averted her gaze as she stretched for the tray of sake and cups on the nearby table.

"But, I must ask... you are free to not answer, of course, I won't be upset if you don't. But why such hatred for me, my clan? It's been ages since the Spider's origins - and we're hardly the only clan you've fought with in the recent generations of time." Lifting the botte of sake, she poured one cup as her eyes focused back on Koyuki. "You say it's like a hot knife in the wound. Why?"

And the other cup was poured.

Eyes briefly shifted, quick to the movement and then back. All without shifting her position while she waited, hand reaching out to her side and resting upon her leg. A light noiseless pattering of fingertips across her leg as she idly thought. While Yakumo poured, she began, "Your clans ideals," she says, glancing down as the glass finishes only enough to claim it, and then return her gaze to Yakumo in turn. Glass held aloft between them.

"Their lack of certain ideals, to be precise. I speak of the monstrosity of individuals that walk among you, for one reason or another. I speak of the way your clan throws lives away at ever turn. How they cling so desperately to horrid ideas regarding genetics. How you flaunt your jade-infused tattoos, and believe it is supposed to make you trustworthy, but it is done in such a way as to spit in the face of those who rightfully mistrust. I hold with me the traditions of a clan that dates back far before yours ever existed, and I do not suspect your own people do not do the same," she says, pausing for a moment. There was, perhaps, a measure of Crab propaganda to her words, yet she held it all with conviction. Taking a sip to at least wet her mouth, but not finished.

"I hate the ideals you support, but we do not always get to choose that in this life."

"Oh please," she rolled her eyes a little, "the Mantis as a great clan are what like... only ten years or something older than us? Less than a generation, not even a blip in the timeline of our glorious Empire." She claimed the remaining cup, and put aside the bottle. Her motions mirrored Koyuki as she too held the cup between them.

"But," there was a soft sigh, "I don't disagree completely with what you say. The callousness... the harshness. But, I can't blame my kin either for being like that, when everything they have - we have - are the things no one else wanted and we just had to make do with barren rocks of worlds." A thoughtful silence came over Yakumo as she put the cup to her lips, slowly drinking the sake. "I've seen different ways of life than most of my kin have, being among the few training outside of the clan."

A gloved hand reached up to the collar of her black kimono, gently pushing it ever so slightly, to reveal the traces of jade-green spider lillies on the pale skin near her neck, and judging by the design the flowers probably continued outwards to the shoulder. "If given the choice, I think most of us would be happy to not have to be questioned merely because of our names, and where we were born, to not have to produce some token of jade to show that we're not monsters at any request given to us - simply because that is the law."

Gaze shifting onto the tattoo, there's a narrowing of her eyes and a rising heat that she quenches with focus. Settling back up to her eyes when the words grew in import, "I hold no resentment for you, or those of your kin that simply wish to live," she says, it is the quick reply to settle the concern before it welled. Taking her own time to raise the glass to her lips and sip it slowly. Following the swallow, Koyuki meets her eye again. "I have not spent long in the company of other clans, remaining in Crab territory," Koyuki's eyes look away, elsewhere in the room, "Yet, I know well that those who should have been raised into good samurai made choices that ultimately made them anything but. If that is true, then the opposite may be true as well."

Returning to her, she looks briefly to her jaw, lip, and back up toward her eyes again, "I see you, or those like you, and I wish all the more that the Spider simply ceased to be long ago. As a clan, a people of particular ideals that does not breed a respect for the life that they govern. Maybe then you, and those like you, would not have had to live under such conditions." Tapping at the edge of her glass Koyuki knits her brow once more.

"May I ask you something, Susumu-sama?"

Koyuki's words certainly held her interest, because she didn't hear the hate or vitriol she was expecting. It was... almost more like pity? Sympathy? A few had shown her that in the past. And it was always a thing to find, like suddenly stumbling upon a rose growing in a dirty ditch.

"At some point, who is to blame; the ones making the choices that made them monsters - or the ones who put them in the position to have to make such choices at all? Is it the fault of the man starving that he had to resort to theft to survive, or the fault of those who starved him?" she retorted as her voice became more even, less playful and flirty like it had been earlier. More centered, concerned, sympathetic.

Turning the cup in her gloved hand, she looked down at it, taking a brief moment to appriciate the decorative paint on the ceramic. And then let that moment flow away as easily as taking a breath. "I appriciate that you do not seem to want to exterminate us simply because of what we are. It is... much more than I've experienced from most outside our clan. Crab especially." Yakumo breathed in deeply, and gave Koyuki a nod of her head. "Yes, of course may ask."

Koyuki sat with that thought, listening. For what it was worth Koyuki's expression did not seem to offer disagreement, or disapproval to anything that Yakumo said following. Merely she allowed it to be said as she ruminated on it herself. Glancing down briefly into the liquid sitting in her cup. Eyes rising from it toward where she saw the tattoo, the edge of it still somewhat sticking out. Jade, it was always such a beautiful color. Almost a shame that something so beautiful had so much meaning wrapped up in it, hate in multiple directions. Almost all of it valid, to some degree.

Yet, a monster was a monster, and you still had to put it down. That doesn't mean that it's cubs need suffer the same fate.

Breaking from that, Yakumo's 'Yes' keyed her in more directly from the mix of listening, and thinking. "I only wish to right the wrongs I can, in what time I have left," she says, and then focuses up more directly meeting those violet orbs once again. It was truly unfair how beautiful they were, "Your work as an idol. I can tell you love it.. but what comes after? What happens when you have outlived that particular usefulness?"

Noticing Koyuki's attention to her tattoo, Yakumo gently tugged the collar back into place to allow the jade-decorated artwork to disappear into the shadows of her kimono once more.

"You make it sound like it is your burden to bear alone, Kuni-san," she offered with sympathy in her voice, though her thoughts were distracted as she was trying to think of how to answer Koyuki's question, and at the same time not completely betray her clan. A part of her didn't want Koyuki to feel vindicated for everything she had said earlier.

Thinking of the future was something Yakumo hated. "Probably the same as most samurai - I'll be married, there will probably be kids. Maybe? I don't really think about the future much." Because a future seems so far away and unlikely for me. "Given my time outside the clan, I'd probably be married out for political gain. I am given to understand this is how it is for most samurai in the Empire."

"How painfully generic," she said. Her eyes had cast away from the tattoo realizing the intent behind the additional covering up. Looking out to the floor she lifts the cup to her lips but doesn't drink right away. Yakumo might not of said anything, but in a way she said everything. Koyuki knew what Yakumo was doing, to some extent, far too well. Holding off for a second before taking a slight pull from her cup she let the flavor mix in her mouth a moment. Settling in with a sigh she allows the takes a breath, but adds.

"It is not my burden alone to bear, but it is the burden I work to give my life for. Mine alone won't do it, but it'll help," she said. Maybe that could be enough, to have meaning in that.

"Mm, you're right. It is a bit of a generic answer," at least she didn't shy away from that fact. "I just... don't really think much of the future. Of the after, as you said it. Because I don't want to think of my life without the music, and the performance."

Yakumo shifted her gaze between her cup and Koyuki, until deciding to settle her attention on the Crab. "I don't know if you have anything like that - something in your life that is so important to you, it's hard to imagine living, or just being, without it?"

It was a bit like they called her own, the focus falling on her. Koyuki's gaze would briefly look to Yakumo's just as the question was asked. Which only made the distant look, the glance away, it all revealed so much more. Warmth crept up the back of her neck, she stared down into the liquid of her cup. Taking a drink till it ran dry and setting it aside. Koyuki's eyes narrowed as she looked down to one of Yakumo's hands.

"No, I don't." You lied, of course you lied. Why would you tell her the truth? "Maybe one day I will find it." That was smart, well said. Maybe it might even find you? "Until then, I live for only the Crab and to serve as best I can." Because what else are you going to do? Why don't you tell her what you really live for? That last thing you want to do? "But for now, I don't care to think about the future either," she swallowed, hoping it wasn't noticeable.

Pathetic.

"So, how about we focus on tonight?" she asks, daring to look up to Yakumo. Not quite meeting her gaze but she wasn't shied away.

Her chuckle was soft, alluring even. "Now who is giving the generic answer, huh?" The Kuni was just as guarded as she was. Probably with her own reasons as to why.

And who was she to force her muse to reveal too much of herself?

Yakumo couldn't help but to notice that Koyuki wasn't quite able meet her gaze, so she reached out with her hand, her fingertips covered by the silken-soft glove barely touching Koyuki's jawline to encourage her to look up. "I would like that, Koyuki-san. Living in the present is my preferred state of being."