(D2, LE Kochako Fried Chicken) A little food before drinking (Expecting)

[Miya Nishida]

"That is quite what I heard." Nishida nodded in agreement.
He took some more chicken and ate it leisurely. "If you've been here for so long, Eriko-san, you must know where to find a good teahouse, right? So far my information has only led me to the mall, to a small, and if I may present my opinion, somewhat controversial, tea store."

[Matsu Eriko]

"Do you mean Tian's Bubble Tea around here?" She asked curiously as she look vaguely toward the area where the bubble tea store would be. "That's the only one that I know of around here. I've been there enough times that I've snagged a couple of Loyaltea Points. It's a great place and they don't just serve the sweet stuff but most of it is made for casual consumption. Do you mean like traditional tea where everyone sits around a low table in a seiza, taking turns? Tough find around here! I sure don't have the patience for it. Hm, that's more of a Crane thing but I'm sure The Frog would host tea during the early hours. There's also the hotel restaurants that probably serve such a thing too."

[Miya Nishida]

Nishida's eye twitched for a moment "Bubble Tea,..." his mouth opened and closed, visibly struggling for words.
A tirade of several minutes was already forming in his head about the unsophistication of the kami-damned swill that called itself bubble tea. After a while, during which Nishida must have been debating whether or not to start this discussion, he sighed, then took one deep breath and exhaled.

"Too bad..." he finally replied.

[Matsu Eriko]

Eriko blinked at Nishida when she caught some hint of his disapproval. Maybe it was the lack of enthusiasm or hesitation in the response. She couldn't know for sure as she fixed the collar of her blazer. "Uhm, I take it that's not entirely your thing. I still haven't quite gotten over the hill that people put whiteners or even legitimate milk in those drinks, ha! I don't blame you at all!" She said with an anxious chuckle.

She nodded. "But yeah, maybe hit up the Frog in the morning and they should fix you up something. Tea must be an item there, those hangovers don't exactly nurse themselves."

[Matsu Hide]

Hide looked over to the counter. An opening! Her eyes then shot back to her wife and their mutual acquaintance before she excused herself to get her chicken. “I’ll return shortly.”

She needed that spicy recipe, damn it.

[Miya Nishida]

He cleared his throat, "Anyway..." he pulled out another chicken to bridge the awkward silence with food.

"Have you heard about the rumors of the Dark Iron Forges?" he asked Eriko.

[Matsu Eriko]

Eriko quirked a brow at that after she finish nibbling on some chicken bits. "There are a lot of nooks and crannies around the city, and every section of the city is its own bunch of nooks and crannies in itself. I might have been looking in the wrong places. What are they saying?"

[Miya Nishida]

Nishida looked suprised, "I thought a former Kuni would've heard about it. There are rumors of the mines being haunted or cursed, of missing heimin in the area." He told her, while grabbing his soda. "First thing I did after touching the ground was analyse the planets industry, old habit of mine, and I stumbled upon those rumors."

[Matsu Eriko]

Eriko scratched her shoulder on an anxious note. "Admittedly, I've had more experience over more mundane matters than spiritual ones. You have to imagine my surprise when some treasure hunting in Asakaze turned into stumbling into a maho-tsukai and mushroom zombies! That's peculiar and something worth investigating. Something worthwhile to bring up to a few shugenja too, in case it's more just haunted than tainted. There are some Kuni shugenja around here too. One of them works in show business...there's one who's an edge queen..."

She snapped her fingers. "Oh! There's also Kuni Koyuki, have you met her?"

[Miya Nishida]

He shook his head, "That name doesn't ring a bell, is she part of the crab delegation?" He asked.

[Matsu Eriko]

"Yes." She nodded at that. "Actually, she's a mutual acquaintance of both Hide-san and me. I just met her today. She's stationed over at the embassy as an attaché. It turns out that we were almost neighbours the entire time and didn't even know it. Well, it's a big city and all that. I'm sure she'd be interested in knowing, if she doesn't already know."

[Miya Nishida]

"I'll try to arrange a meeting with her. For Scorpion's sake, I hope it ends up being just rumors. It would be too bad if one of their big industrial plants had to close down." Something about the way he pronounced the last sentence probably indicated that he wouldn't really find it that bad.

He pondered a bit while sipping his soda. "Don't worry about it, this city is huge, anyone can go into hiding here if they want to."

[Matsu Eriko]

Eriko ran her hand through her hair to fix it and as an anxious gesture. She chuckled a little to herself. "You know, this is going to sound really rich coming from me but I kind of doubt the Scorpions would leave something so obvious just sitting around. This isn't like the fringe of the galaxy where Asakaze was found but rather a fully developed world. I don't think they would let another industrial plant go haywire after what happened to the last one. Then again, how are we supposed to know if it's all according to plan? Uhm, yeah, don't use this quote as evidence against me when I do something silly around here in the future. On the plus side, it won't be a headache for you anymore, right?"

[Matsu Hide]

Hide came back, spicy chicken in tow. She looked at the two former Crab, having obviously missed most of the conversation they were just having. She tilted her head to the side curiously, but decided to not ask anything.

[Miya Nishida]

He shrugged, "It's pretty easy to claim after the fact that 'everything went according to plan' in the name of the kami, I've used that excuse more times than I care to remember."
He greeted Hide with a nod before continuing, "And don't worry, the conversation here probably has next to no carrying power. After all, we are in a fast food restaurant, late in the evening after a drinking binge. No magistrate would take that seriously."

[Matsu Eriko]

Eriko waved Hide over once she got her chicken. Partners did exist to have their food stolen, after all.

"It works the first time but the second time you look just kind of silly. That said, I don't think even the Scorpion would claim the first time was anyone's plan. One peek over the border and you can see nobody is really winning when you have to live with that eyesore." She thumbed the vague area of Desolation, without really knowing which direction it would be from the interior of the mall. "If you're curious, might be worthwhile to get a ronin to do the looking for you. I know I got one before they became a hot trend for Winter Court."

[Matsu Hide]

Hide was more than fine with her chicken being poached by Eriko, so she sat herself down next to her.

“Errr… I’m not sure what’s being talked about. But keep on going. Pretend I’m not here.” It was hard to do, since Hide was just right there, but she also seemed to be tuning the conversation out as she looked over at something else. Admiring the wall decorations?

[Matsu Eriko]

Eriko was more than happy to take some chicken from Hide now that she was sitting beside her. Sure, she already had chicken of her own but it wasn't this chicken! It was also hot and pipping from the fryer too! "Oh, we're just talking about strange things happening in parts of the province. Then again, I suppose we could be talking about a dozen sort of potentially strange occurrences around here."

She shrugged and looked at Nishida. "Anyway, was there anything else you wanted to bring up, Nishida-sama?"

[Miya Nishida]

He shook his head, "Other than talking about the local mysteries, I didn't have much in mind." he said, scraping the last piece of chicken out of his bucket. "But I understand that's distasteful, at least to non-ex-crabs," he chuckled, "We can change the subject if you like, you said your wedding was 'unique' didn't you?"

[Matsu Eriko]

Eriko perked at the question and slowly turned her gaze to put the attention on Hide, regardless if she was eating at the moment or not. "Well, I think that story is something that Hide-san has the privilege of telling. I'd like to think that she earned every bit of glory of it to be the one to tell it. I mean, besides, I got off pretty easy all things considered and she was the one who took the shot in the shoulder. We might have gotten away to laugh about it but we'll never get our wedding outfit deposit back. We should have gotten at least half of it back. I swear they could have thrown my white kimono in the wash and nobody would know the difference."