RP: YSS Eucharis [Mission 12.4] Warm and Wet

Ramiro shook his head at the situation, figuring it was about damned time that it happened. Although he had only been back for the most recent missions, the stories were ones he knew well. As for his intentions, he was right where most of them were, ready to defend the Shosho if the situation presented itself.

At Helen's comment Ramiro would normally have grinned and joined in with the festivities, but the Elysian didn't deserve to be given that kind of an opportunity. His only reaction to the comment was him bluntly responding, "Can I use a gun?" He then turned and walked away, his hand leaving his sidearm after it had instinctively jumped there at Michael's outburst.

Once inside he walked back towards the food. Upon passing Hanako he stopped and bowed deeper than he ever had before. Upon coming out of the bow, he walked past the newbie, muttering to her, "Less words will say more," and then continued back towards the food.

Hakujou kept quiet during the whole event. She was disappointed to learn that the elyasian was gone, but his attitude was very demoralizing. And the Shosho decided best for her crew.

The new meat confused her, was she wearing glasses? "Beg pardon, what was your name?"

Shiomi didn't know what to make of the words dropped by the Yamataian man who had bowed to Hanako too.

"Shiomi Aoi Santô Hei," She answered Hakujou.

Shiomi broke her eye contact with Hanako to look at the questioning woman, and to try and figure out who she was. She didn't immediately notice any rank on the other Nekovalkyrja, but Aoi assumed she was senior to her -- a safe bet on a veteran crew. She bowed to Hakujou (for a much shorter duration than she had for Hanako.) When she came back up, the wide-eyed swept-ear look of surprise and lingering fear had melted away to show a nervous Nekovalkyrja waiting for orders.

Reika mostly kept her silence through the entire confrontation between Michael and Hanako -- the neko operative doubted that the scrappy little Shosho needed any help to clean the Elysian's clock with her years of military experience, despite the physical disparity between the two. When the Shosho came back inside and Michael called after her -- trying to renew the scuffle -- Reika could be seen visibly wincing as his voice echoed through the onsen's entrance way.

"Okay... this is getting fairly ridiculous..." the young Neko commented, mildly exasperated by the Elysian's incessant, disruptive behavior. The yukata-dressed operative positioned herself next to Hanako, arms-crossed beneath her breasts. Her glaring eyes were fixated towards the entrance to the Onsen and the other crewmembers standing between Michael and Hanako.

With a sigh, Reika turned her attention to the new medic. She overheard the fledgling Neko give her name to Hakujou, so the SAINT operative proceeded to greet the Santo Hei and identify herself as well.

"Hello, Shiomi-Hei. My name is Tachihara Reika -- a pleasure to meet you." The cyan-haired neko gave the medic a brief bow and slightly awkward, but friendly smile. "You picked an exciting time to show up."

Sune listened to the words of the other crew members. Most of them had already said the things he would have, so he chose instead to simple turn and walk backup the stairs.

As he reentered the onsen, he saw Hanako talking with a rather nervous looking Neko. To be that nervous meant only one thing, she was obviously a new recruit for the ship. He remembered his first encounter with Hanako and how nervous he had been.

He heard Takeyu and Armundo talking and walked over to them. He walked up silently behind Armundo, his bare feet on the stone floor not making any sound. He placed his left arm on Armundo's shoulder and leaned in to say softly.

"I understand your are still recovering Soichiro-Santô Hei. You obviously have not heard that Ketsurui Hanako-Sama has been promoted. Her rank is now Shôshô. Best to remember that." He grinned at Armundo and then walked back to the changing room.

Once in the changing room, he unlocked his locker and removed his robe. He put his uniform back on, adjusted his belt to make sure all the accoutrements were in proper place. He took his comb from his bag and straightened out his hair.

While the idea of visiting the Palace with Hanako sounded pleasant, it was her home and she was going there to see her family. Sune figured he would be better off working on a few of his projects, one of which was something Hanako had asked about.

Hanako calmed down more and fixed her yukata a bit. "Would you like to join us for lunch, Aoi?" she offered. "Our meal is waiting in the next room over."

Leading the Aoi to the next room, Hanako found the medic a seat near hers and then sat down to begin the interview. "Why choose the Eucharis?" she began, always interested in how and why people decided to apply to serve with her and the crew. She started quietly eating while she waited for the answer.

"Good to meet you, Tachihara Nitô Hei. I look forward to serving with you," Aoi replied to the friendly-looking neko, bowing back and wondering why Tachihara would be bowing to her.

"Ah..." Before letting herself be shepherded away, Aoi snatched up her glasses from the floor. When she sat down, she had them clean and resting comfortably on her nose where they belonged. "Well, in socialization I heard a lot about the wars with the SMN. The Eucharis was mentioned because it has you as her commander, and I just decided I'd ask to be assigned there... I didn't actually expect to recieve a posting with your ship, but I appreciate the opportunity to serve aboard," Shiomi said.

Tachihara definitely had a point about joining at an exciting time. Shiomi admitted to herself she could have missed the discharge of another soldier, though. She decided to tread lightly. Nothing bad would happen if she performed her duties and learned about her crewmates, right? At the very least, it wouldn't happen to her.

"Is that so?" Hanako commented, looking a little disappointed. "I was hoping the ship would be noted for our accomplishments rather than having a Ketsurui on the bridge," she explained. "Eucharis has a reputation for going through the toughest ordeals. We tend to leave our missions in less than perfect condition. We have done a wide range of missions including first contact missions, surveys, raids on NMX shipyards, rescues of downed ship crews, VIP extraction, space battles, tank battles...a medic is a must for our team. But what do you plan to do with your off time, when there is no one that needs healing?"

Sune came out of the changing room and located Hanako. He approached her and

"Ketsurui-Shôshô, I beg your pardon for the intrusion.

I wish to thank you for arranging for our gathering here at the onsen. It has been an interesting cultural experience.

However, I have decided to give up some of my shore leave to attend to some projects. One of them dealing with the AMTC system. I have contacted an associate of mine at Ketsurui Zaibatsu regarding the matters. So he is coming over to take me to their facility to discuss the project.

While visiting your home the Palace would have been interesting, I believe this is a better use of my time at this time.

Hopefully I will be able to rejoin those who wish to do some shopping as I still have a few items I wish to gather for my cabin."

"I haven't really had time to pick up any hobbies. I was usually talking to my sisters on my off time during medical training and the flight courses," Shiomi answered.

She thought over the possibilities. "Many of my sisters wrote, sang, danced, read, listened to music or pursued education through what they called a seminar... Maybe I'll take up one of those hobbies?"

Shiomi pushed her glasses back up. She remembered the technician when she fixed them, and remembered the philosophy he had imparted on her. "Mostly I just want to see what there is to see."

Hanako smiled and continued eating. Aoi had given her a good impression.

When Sune asked for permission to work on his project, Hanako reminded him to take an escort. She was going to suggested Blueberry, but Blueberry had disappeared into a hotel room with Sunflower. Luckily Blackberry volunteered.

Once group was mostly finished eating, Hanako got a communicator call and then announced that their bus was back to take them to the shopping area and/or the Empress' Palace.

Takeyu relaxed as he finished eating his food. "That was great, my thanks Shosho," he said with a slight bow of the head.

"Ma'am, if we head to the palace, I'll contact my sisters school to have them release her early. Sadly, the only formal clothing she has is her uniform, so I hope that'll be appropriate for the occasion."

He had a message already prepped to be sent to her sisters school, but he half wanted to do some shopping first, though he was going to leave this entirely in Hanako's hands.

Reika was mostly silent and enjoying her own thoughts throughout the meal, though she peripherally paid attention to what was said. After she had finished meal, Hanako announced the bus was ready to take them away from the onsen and so Reika thanked the Shosho for the delicious food and politely excused herself to recover her clothes and personal gear.

Back in the changing rooms, Reika removed the yukata she wore and once again donned her Star Army dress uniform. After reacquiring her duffel bag, the young Neko proceeded to wait by the entrance to the onsen for the rest of the crew to assemble.

"We're going to the Palace?!" Aoi asked excitedly, jumping up from her chair.

The Palace! Shiomi had never dreamed of seeing the Imperial home. There were Samurai there, and royalty! Gardens, dojos, statues, guards! Just the thought of it filled Shiomi with anticipation. Quickly Aoi took her glasses off for a habitual cleaning and practically bounced out the door with a hop and a mind for her gravitational powers.

She almost went all the way to the bus, but stopped with the waiting crewmember and touched down next to them.

Sune sat in the back of the car that had been sent to retrieve him. He realized he had never spent any real time with Blackberry. He was always on the opposite shift. He made a mental note to spend some time during night shift to interact with that shift.

"I appreciate you coming with me Blackberry Shoi. The project I am working on is one that the Shôshô requested. A new module for the AMTC that can perform like several of the units, so we can have one in the Medbay and another stored elsewhere on the ship for emergencies.

Meanwhile while we are visiting the Ketsurui Zaibatsu we can spend a little time and get to know each other." He said with a smile, then turned his attention to the city beyond. The rain was still coming down, but not hard, just enough to wash the air and the sidewalks.

Hanako smiled and gave Aoi a nod. She then went to the changing room and got her uniform, hat, and coat back on and then went to the door to get on the bus. She would have to spend more time at the onsen, she decided, taking her seat near the front and looking down at the dismissed Elysian's neatly folded uniform the onsen staff had given her on the way out.

Takeyu smiled at Aoi and got dressed, heading back to the dressing room and changing into his uniform and grabbing his things from his locker.

When he was done he thanked the Onsen staff and left the place and boarded the bus, taking a seat just a few places behind Hanako and relaxing a little bit.

After a bit of an absence, Helen joined the group at the bus, an expression of quiet contemplation upon her face. She knew that there was a distinctive effort being made to make this minor vacation a good one, but she just could not really find herself settling into it. Though, she knew that after this time with the crew, she'd be parting from them, so why not continue to take part? Her resolution on the matter resulted in Helen sitting upon the bus once more, ready to go to the next destination.

After changing back to her uniform and following the others to the bus, Hakujou learned that the next stop would be the Imperial Palace. The prospect of gaining samples of the Ketsurui Samurai and Taisho Yui made her salivate slightly, but that was off set with the suspicion she might be found out and arrested there. So, she had only one option.

"If it's not too disrespectful, Shosho-sama, I shall return to the ship and go over the final inventory for the medical lab." Hakujou said, a hidden twinge of sadness in her expression.

"That is alright," Hanako told Hakujou.

Once everyone that was coming boarded the bus, it started off towards Kyoto's shopping district. Out the window, they could see the city was still bustling with activity in spite of the heavy security. Every couple blocks there was a checkpoint with large scanners, Neko soldiers, NIWS units or a TASHA, and a tank or two.

As the bus came to a halt outside the rows of shop, the driver announced "Next stop, Empress' Palace."