Hide took to the common room, she had gotten used to picking up a quick breakfast or snack before going out for the day, so she picked up a small snack and a cup of tea to give her a bit of an energy boost.

The Matsu kept an eye on the doors, looking for any potential friendly faces.

Fresh out of doing paperwork for some innocuous diplomatic issue, Kanna was walking through the embassy with her mind elsewhere when she suddenly stumbled into a vision of legend: Matsu Hide in the light of the day.

Well, the theoretical light of the day at least. The embassy still wasn't fond of big windows that let go a lot if any of it.

"Matsu Hide-san! How does the day find you?"

Hide looked up, teacup in hand. Well, that was someone Eriko said had been looking for her. It was only a matter of time, honestly. “Ah, Kitsu-san. Care to sit?”

“As far as how I’ve been… Well, pretty good. How about you?”

"There's a legend that in the days of old, the Lion conquered a city named of Journey's End, that was kinda like this place. After a few weeks they left camp never to return again, as not only they had realized there was nothing they could do to turn the city into a little less of a den of iniquity, but that the many sins of the city were getting to them instead.

I believe I can understand their feeling now.

But rehashing what I cannot do anything about is a perfectly useless use of both our times. I need at least one good interview of an honorable samurai, and if there isn't any non-Lion samurai on planet matching that criteria, I'll go back to my roots."

Kanna produced her densai.

"Please take a seat and tell me of your achievements Matsu-san."

“My… Achievements?” Hide rose a brow as she took a sip of her tea. “Just a marine, Kitsu-san. On duty I perform my duties as instructed. I’m not exactly the most… Illustrious of sorts.”

"Stop. Stop.

It's not about the glory of your actions. Never was.

The universe is big Matsu-san. There will always be a soldier that has defeated more enemies than you, in a more flashy way. I'm sure even the most extraordinary people of our time look at the original Thunders and wonder if there are good enough.

It's about the soul of your actions. What they tell about your character and how they can inspire others into becoming better, even at their own tiny level as but a cog in the great Celestial Order.

I have two stock questions that might help set the mood of what I'm looking for better.

First, what is the action is yours that you feel helped the clan most? That one achievement that was likely recognized by your peers, for which you might have receive a medal or something like that.

But second, what is the thing you've done you're personally the most proud of? That feat that might sound silly or irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, but that you keep tenderly in your heart of hearts as a defining point of your life. No good or bad answer here, can be your third place in a poetry contest when you were twelve, getting married, keeping company to a dying friend in their last moments, anything really."

“Well… I’m not one to get commendations a lot, but the one that was the de facto leader type on Asakaze seems to sing my praises a lot for helping him and Eriko-san, before we were betrothed, out with a bit of a pirate problem. Like a potentially lethal pirate problem. They did want to kill Akodo-sama and probably Eriko as well. But I feel that was way more of a team effort kind of deal.”

Hide shook her head and let out a sigh. “As far as personal stuff… Honestly? Probably that the wedding wasn’t a total disaster. Aside from said pirates trying to shoot at us.”

"Why did you expect the wedding to be a disaster? And what do you mean, not totally?

Usually, weddings are ceremonies calibrated to the extreme by professionals with little room for mistakes, and a million fallback for when they happen. Even that one problematic family member that you have to invite but you know always cause problems they take into account."

“Welllll… Said pirates from before? Yeah they literally crashed the wedding. With guns. I’m just glad no one was seriously hurt. I got hit in the shoulder but others just got grazed.” Hide sighed, shaking her head.

"I think you need to tell me more at length what happened there. Out of context, pirates attacking a Matsu wedding seems like very bad news... for the pirates."

"Oh the ones at the wedding are suuuuuuuper dead now. So it was bad news for them. But as far as the story? Well, we were talking with the Kitsu that was going to officiate the wedding and all that. Just general chatting. It was pretty nice, we got married on Inari's Cradle so there was some nice scenery and all that."

Hide paused before she let out a sigh. "Ahh of the sudden there was some scuffling noises and five uninvited guests came in and opened fire. I got hit in the shoulder, and made sure the poor old priest could get behind cover. Never have I seen so many sidearms drawn during a wedding."

"Hey. I'm almost surprised the priest didn't draw a gun himself. Both the Lion and the Crab have a reputation to maintain that every member of the clan is a deadly warrior in top of whatever their age and their official duties are."

Kanna's tone was playful, not serious.

"What did you or Eriko do to them for pirates to have enough of a death wish to challenge both the Matsu and Kuni families at once?"

"Eh, it wasn't me that pissed them off but another Lion there on Asakaze. And Eriko also had something they wanted, but they used her as bait to shoot the Akodo. Kidnapping assholes. I guess they were still a bit sore from the whole not getting either of their targets and decided to send hired ronin to shoot up the wedding as a message."

Hide just shrugged. "True Scions of Gusai. Sounds more like a cult than an organization of pirates, but whatever."

"A lot of small groups centered around a charismatic leader tend to develop cult-like behavior given time. The isolation of space certainly doesn't help.

Makes perfect villains of them in a way. Raving madmen likely tied to the Mantis clan? You sure no Ikoma has jumped on the opportunity to make a movie about Akodo and Matsu, and their Crab ally, against the pirate fanatics from space?"

“I mean, it only happened a handful of months ago.” Hide rubbed at the back of her neck as she eyed her tea. “But, yeah, told Eriko that we could totally have a screenplay written for what happened and the Ikoma would eat it up.”

"Guess we should start working on it then. The war is raging on at the moment, and our chilly relation with the Crab does push back the moment of our victory. Every ember we can add to the fire to rekindle it we take with glee.

So. What was the big moment of the battle? You know, that one scene that would be in the trailer of the movie. And what was the most virtuous moment? You know, not necessarily the passage with the most explosions, but one with a tremendous display of Courage, Duty or Compassion. Or any virtue really, but Sincerity tends to not be the most prevalent one on the battlefield."

“I guess when I charged one of the thugs that Scion hired on-planet. She had an unconscious Eriko in her arms and was trying to put her in the van and drive off.” That sounded about right to Hide. Of course, she felt more desperate than heroic at the time.

Kanna raised an eyebrow.

"You literally jumped the driver of a car about to start to save your wife?

Yes, yes, I think it'll do.

Actually, was she your wife then, or did the courting start in the aftermath of this event? A bit personal I know, but I don't think that's the kind of movie where the romance can just be swept under the rug in favor of more explosions."

“It happened during the courtship phase, actually.” Hide rubbed at her chin thoughtfully. “I mean, I think I was also her top choice at that point. But it certainly helped my case.”

"Fascinating."

Kanna kept taking notes. This was going to be a long interview, but for good reasons.

/fadetostorytime?