Still dressed extremely formally from the events over at the Lion embassy, Yakumo took the detour over to the Imperial embassy, inquiring if Miya Nishida was present and available.

Yakumo was lucky, Nishida was actually there! She was quickly brought to the lobby by a host of servants after the reception got the green light from Nishida.

In the lobby, she was taken through several corridors, past all sorts of ornaments of riches, to a separate conference room.

Nishida was sitting in it, waiting for his surprise guest, "Susumu-san, a pleasure," he said, bowing slightly.

Well the Spider embassy could learn a thing or two from this one. This was how a proper embassy should look like, Yakumo thought.

"Miya-sama," the formality of her garment gave her no other choice but to bow formally to the Imperial samurai. "Good afternoon, I hope I am not intruding with my visit...?"

"No, no, I could never refuse a visit from a friend," he replied. "Sit down, do you want any refreshments? Tea? Rice?" he asked, looking at the small army of Servants still waiting in the doorway, probably some of them fascinated to see the Sususmu Yakumo.

Fascinated fans wasn't something she was unused to, so she didn't make any remarks on it. "Hm, tea, please. It it is no imposition, Miya-sama."

Her movements were a bit restricted by the traditional attire, but Yakumo still moved elegantly to sit down at the offered place. "How are you today? I thought I'd stop by for a visit, to see how you were doing, and if you had heard any other juicy gossip."

He nodded to the servants, who quickly closed the door and left.

When the last servant left to return later with tea, he turned back to Yakumo, "I have gained insight," he began.

"Our conversation helped me to see a new way, I can't say it will be easy to leave the old behind, but I will try not to be blinded by pain anymore." he bowed slightly to her, "As for news, I have been studying a bit about the sword and the spirits. Apparently there are four of them, all quell from one: Ketsuyoku. He is affiliated with three other such spirits, Haiso, aka Rout, Kurayami aka Darkness and Ranshin aka Madness - all born from fears of the first men, all potent gaki that hunger for fear or mortals. These spirits have not been known to possess people." he explained

"Growing pains is real," she said, her words echoing that she could relate in some way to it.

"I had heard of these names, but... hm, the last part there is new. The report, it claimed that the spirit possessed him. So something is not quite right here. Not doubting your discovery, of course, Miya-sama," Yakumo was quick to clarify, "but rather, I begin to wonder more about what happened."

Her gloved fingers tapped the edge of the teacup. "Kuni Koyuki-san and I, we investigated the dojo to see what answers the kami could have. The one Kuni-san spoke to said that... 'something came through the veil, summoned by crimson and black. A life was lost. A soul pure and good cast into greyness'."

Her expression was thoughtful trying to make sense of it in a different light. "What if someone had called it there? Not nescessarily the Lord Magistrate, but... if the Scorpion are willing to turn a blind eye to the nature of the glimmerstones, what else could they be doing?"

"I'm afraid I know too little about ghosts to give you an answer for that" he said, "But if you want to hear my theories,..." a knock announced one of yours.

"Come in" he ordered and one of the servants brought tea and a little pastry, placed it between the two and left.

"Where was I? Ah yes, theories. Perhaps the magistrate has been cursed? If his wife was the innocent soul that was lost, then it could be that an enemy or envious person did this to him? Or maybe he lost his soul? Could Kuni-san find out whose soul was the innocent one?"

"Maybe? I should ask her..." A curse was a possibility. But she was starting to suspect more that someone else was responsible.

Though the idea that he had lost his soul made her shudder. "It's a downright mess, that's for sure. I can't believe the Scorpion would just sweep this under the rug and continue on as if nothing was wrong. I'm not even a shugenja, and even I can feel that this situation is all sorts of rotten and wrong."

"My hatred had other roots, but it was not unfounded" he said, "Not that I want to make everyone feel ashamed, but the Scorpion's leadership is fundamentally repugnant". he said, holding his tea cup, "It borders on a miracle that the equivalent of a thug agent was left alive. If it is true, then this man is highly dangerous and highly unstable."

"Not to excuse the poor behaviour of the Scorpion here, but I think you'd find shitty decision making like that in almost any clan, Miya-sama. The Scorpion chose to turn a blind eye for the sake of koku in the case of these Glimmerstones, and they're sweeping things under the rug on these gaki too because it's too much of a hassle to do anything about it." True to Spider-form there, Yakumo cut the nice talk and just delivered it straight. All the clans had their weaknesses for money, and were loathe to deal with troublesome issues.

"I don't know if we can call him highly unstable though," she shrugged. "If it's true that these Gaki do not possess people, then we merely need to eliminate the gaki, thus he won't be manipulated by them anymore."

"Hmmmm" he took a sip of his tea and politely ignored Yakumo's attack on all clans, "Whatever it is, it's dangerous. You sound like you know more than me though?"

"Mmhmm..." she pondered skirting around the issue entirely. "I've had the chance to spend some time with the Lord Magistrate. Maybe I'm not the best at reading people, but to me he doesn't seem to be responsible for this gaki. At least not by choice. The loss of his wife seem to have hit him hard, from what I can tell."

Yakumo shrugged her shoulders slightly. "I don't think he's a villain in this tale."