As it had been a few days since her last stop at the embassy, Yakumo drove her car over to the Black House for a scheduled meeting. Her attire for the day was business appropriate, and she right away took up one of the rooms to meet with Sumiko.

She didn't know if the smaller Spider had any practice with tea ceremony, but Yakumo was determined to practice her own skill more.

---------

Inserting roll now:
D7 EA. Tea Ceremony/Void with Sumiko. TN 15 | 4k3 ⇒ 16 (TN: 15)

Sumiko had returned recently, being slightly delayed as she prepared for her later trip to the desolation. She had dressed sensibly, and was carrying a few cushions towards the common room...which already had Yakumo.

"Oh! My apology" she bowed deeply "good afternoon Yakumo-sama, I hope you weren't waiting too long?"

"Not at all Sumiko-san," the songstress bowed from where she sat. "I just wanted to use the opportunity for our meeting to practice my tea ceremony skills more, and arrived a bit earlier to set everything up. Sotaro-san would do it for me when he was travelling in my retinue during my tour."

Yakumo gestured for Sumiko to join her.

"Oh, tea ceremony?" Sumiko looked very interested, entering the room and placing one of the cushions down for her, offering the others to Yakumo in case she wanted to sit a little more comfortably.

"What style of tea ceremony do you do? I haven't been a part of one for a long while, I've always wanted to learn though."

"Uuuh... I honestly have no idea," oh shit, there's different ways of doing tea ceremony???, "I just do it the way Sotaro-san taught me."

Yakumo did kind of wonder if there was a unique way of tea ceremony to the Spider, or if Sotaro was also just making it up somehow. "Let me show you, and perhaps you're able to guess what sort of style it is from, hm? You're clever so perhaps you're able to figure it out?"

"Oh, Sotaru-sama? I haven't spoken to him in some time. I wonder if he's doing well? I'm not very good at doing ceremonies, but I remember coming across a book on tea ceremonies before."

She fell into silence, ready to watch the process.

"I saw him not too long ago, since he's been accompanying me on my tour. He's doing fine." He had business elsewhere on behalf of the clan, so after the tour they had gone separate ways.

The ceremony itself seemed simple, but such was perhaps the purpose of it; to find beauty and peace in the simplicity of it as well as enjoying the silence, hearing nothing but the ASMR-like tingle sounds that went into preparing the frothy matcha for them to enjoy together.

For a fully formal ceremony, Yakumo would probably had used something like a personal tea-set, or a more special one, as this was just what the embassy had available. Still, it served well enough, and at the end, it left both women with a sense of tranquility and restored balance.

Yakumo herself sighed blissfully. "How have you been, Sumiko-san?" she asked at the end. "Been keeping busy with work?"

Sumiko played her part perfectly. Which was only a small part, but it was enjoyable at least. She lowered her head in thanks for the tea once it had finished.

"Chadō right?" Sumiko smiled "thank you Yakumo-sama. I've been quite well, enjoying the sights and learning about this fascinating planet. It's got a lot of mysteries to it, and even more if you start to look outside of it. The sanctuary is lovely, I even got to spend some time with the Drakes and was given permission to take one as a pet while I'm here! I'll be collecting the little guy tomorrow. What about Yakumo-sama?"

WHY DOES SUMIKO GET TO HAVE A DRAKE PET AND I DON'T?????

Yakumo's grip on the teacup tightened ever so slightly, her smile stiffening just ever so little, as she kept that voice to herself.

"Oh how splendid. They really are adorable, those little dragons, aren't they?" she chuckled and sipped her tea, which did relax her somewhat. "A pity they can't be taken offworld."

"As for me... it's been interesting so far. Mostly I've been focused on my musical work, but now with the concert over I find myself with some more free time to ponder some mysteries. Some questions that could probably best be answered with some looking around online, but you know, me - I'm terrible with computers." She gave a rueful smile. "The Lord Magistrate has been taking some interest in me, nothing too serious yet I think, but it makes me curious about his previous marriage. Do you think you could look up any public information about her for me? All I know is she died in some sort of accident not too long after they married - which is the public gossip, but gossip is pretty unreliable."

"They've very adorable, and there's a lot of fascinating information I've learnt about them from one of the researchers, Soshi Kioku-sama. I think there may actually be a similar creature on one of our clans worlds, albeit far less tame and a lot more dangerous, so perhaps not good pet material. I might look into it more when I get back home."

She picked up her cup, taking a small sip and nodding.

"The performances yesterday were fantastic. I'm not usually one for music and clubs, but everyone enjoyed it from what I could see. Closest I'll get to seeing such incredible performers like yourself close up, so I'll treasure the moment."

There was one final nod.

"I can look into that. Interest from the Lord Magistrate? I'm not surprised, you're beautiful and talented Yakumo-sama. I'd be surprised if he wasn't interested! Do you have his wifes name?"

She rose up, picking her cup up as well.

"I could potentially dig a little deeper depending what the public view says."

"Shiragiku does have some interesting wildlife, but nothing as cute and innocent as the spine drakes, I think." If anything there was as small and cute as a spine drake there, it was probably deceptively so. Or at least that was what she had been told growing up there, and why she had been instructed many times to not interact with any animals there.

"You might be among the few people in the Empire who's had the chance to see me perform live twice in the span of a year, Sumiko-san," Yakumo teased warmly. "As for the Lord Magistrate... he's a curious case, who the matchmakers are trying to set up again after he became a widower, but so far nothing. Not sure if it's his own preference keeping him that way, or something else." The unspoken words were if he was also trying to pursue her for that purpose.

Though Yakumo suspected more it was not for that.

"Kaede... Bayushi Kaede. I think she died uh..." quick math, "five-six years ago? Maybe seven? At least from what I know publicly. I don't know if that's true. But I'm curious about what might've led to her death."

Maybe Mineichi was like her? Followed by the spirit of someone else... and who was very scary too.

"I think in Shiragiku you have bigger worries, like being eaten by spirits. They've got a similar issue here interestingly, although I don't think they want that publicly known."

Sumiko picked up her beloved spider plushie on the way through and set it down on the computer, petting it and smiling.

"Let's see what we can find. I'll start simple..." she fired up the machine and started having a look around the info net

D7 EA computers/int+prodigy+inheritance to look at public information on Bayushi Kaede, Mineichi's dead wife. Calling 2 raises for better info | 10k5-10 ⇒ 19 (TN: ?)

Sipping the last remains of her tea, Yakumo watched Sumiko work her computer-magic. Her own attempts at looking for that kind of stuff only resulted in latest news articles about the magistrate (which were just tabloid speculations), or articles on someone completely unrelated named Bayushi Kaede who would probably be very confused on all her social media hits the past 24 hours.

"Hmm..."

Sumiko brought up another page.

"Mirumoto Kaede, a skilled duelist. Happy marriage with no controversies or scandals, which for a Scorpion world sounds very unusual. Some rumours that she was not really at home or happy on the world but there's lots of pictures of her at gatherings with her husband. Helping with running a charity too, she sounds like a really nice person."

She made a few more notes.

"Ah, died in an incident in a dojo, very sudden and shocking. All the reports I can find speak of the event with reverence until it was rather dropped after the Kinuran catastrophe which is understandable having seem some images of what happened there."

She sat back, looking up at Yakumo.

"Does this help, or would you like me to try and go deeper? I can't guarantee it'll give any more information of course."

"Hmmmm..." nothing that screamed out of the ordinary as such. "Probably a political marriage then, I'm guessing, as the Dragon and Scorpion have an alliance of sorts."

Her gloved fingers drummed against the table as she was thinking. "Does it say which dojo?"

"Honor's Lesson Dojo."

Sumiko brought up an article that showed a few pictures of the scene. A wrecked dojo can be seen in the pictures including deep scars on both the tatami on the floor and the doors of the dojo.

It doesn't say what the incident was, but that looks pretty bad right?"

"Goodness," Yakumo looked a bit paler as she saw the pictures of the dojo.

"That looks much more dramatic than what some of the rumors made it out to be..." she glanced to Sumiko. "Does anyone know we're looking at this...?"

"This is all public knowledge put out by the Scorpion, I haven't delved any deeper than what anyone could find" Sumiko shook her head "it wouldn't be traced back to us. I could try to go deeper into what they're hiding, but that would require being more careful. It shouldn't be too hard though if there's more you want to know."

She seemed to be thinking about it very carefully. "No... not for now, at least. I have a few other informants also looking into this for me - which should have no ties leading back to us in case this is drawing the wrong kind of attention."

Yakumo was maybe not the smartest, but she wasn't stupid and did know how to be cautious. "I might ask you for more tomorrow though, once I learn some more from my other sources."

Sumiko nodded, closing down the pages.

"That should be fine. I've got some interesting investigations of my own happening later."

She turned to look at Yakumo.

"You're really looking into this huh? Making sure things are ok before nakodos get involved? Or do you think there's something shady going on."