[D5, MA] Birds!

[Toritaka Hanatsuko]

Hanatsuko decided to return to The Inn and get some late lunch when she noted the Magistrate. She is glad that she doesn't need to use the codewords. She knocked on the frame. "Kakita dono?"

[Kakita Konohamaru]

There had been a noticeable absence at the meeting, and that was Torikata. There was the possibility that she had forgotten, or the Scorpion had taken her out at night, bu-

Oh, there she was.

With concealed relief, He gave the Falcon a bow.

"Torikata-san. I hope today finds you well?"

[Toritaka Hanatsuko]

"I wish... I apologize for not coming earlier but I needed to center myself." She bowed. "It is not easy for someone like me to tune out the spirits around me."

[Kakita Konohamaru]

A nod.

"I trust you did the right thing." because I don't have much idea myself was left unsaid.

"When we're so close, it feels... odd, almost. It's only been three days, but it feels like a lifetime."

Kono looks into the palm of his hand, waiting for...something to change.

"Have we learned anything else?"

[Toritaka Hanatsuko]

"I think when Asahina sama made his sketches last night was granted a vision in Yume do. About a cliff..." She pursed her lips. "Did he tell you about it?"

[Kakita Konohamaru]

"No, but I know about a cliff by the fertile mounds shrine which is said to connect to the...spirit realm, or some such? Apparently, lovers who cannot be together in life jump down it to be together in death. That cliff?"

[Toritaka Hanatsuko]

"Probably the same one. He said that he was able to save two people." She was pensive.
Nothing like that will happen to you.

"Kakita dono... I wonder... Could the survivor of the Orchid have taken the daughter and jumped the cliff? She would blame him for killing her."

[Kakita Konohamaru]

"It's possible," began the Kakita, "Depending on where the shipwreck was and whoever jumped with her. I thought they were in the sea myself, since that's where the Kuni who died ended up."

[Toritaka Hanatsuko]

"Sometimes the whole story becomes a legend and there are items left out to make it a bit more appealing." She pondered.

[Kakita Konohamaru]

That was gruesome, but entirely possible thought.

The Kakita nodded in reply.

"Indeed."

[Toritaka Hanatsuko]

"Somehow I feel I have followed the steps of Bujeihime. I duel on the beach with Kakita sama as part of centering myself." She nodded. "But I didn't feel any different. Perhaps that didn't help the curse."