Takeda House
"What are you supposed to be?" Hoshi asked Aiko as the two warmed inside the Takeda House genkan while they removed their shoes and tried to glimpse past the noren curtains, catching the eye of the hostess to give their reservation's name. Within the entrance foyer of the restaraunt, the Kaiyo's two officers appeared very different than they had out on the streets. In preparation for the legendary fixed menu that had drawn them to the restaurant, they had changed with the help of Aiko's samurai and a locker at the Pulsing Pearl, each had donned more clothing.
The princess blinked at Hoshi's question while looking down toward her bared blood red toenails to make sure she didn't forget to take off some piece of the succubus costume she'd worn for the past few hours. She had not, obviously, and jolted her head back to address Hoshi with a mystified gaze under the bounce of her bangs.
"Nani?" Aiko questioned in the simplest Yamtaigo tones. Instead of her seductive bodystocking and demonic accoutrements, she now wore a chic pantsuit made of bright scarlet fabric. It was roomy but certainly not ill-fitting, with wide padded shoulders plus soft lapels that ran down buttonless and closed kind of like a kimono. Contrasted to her immodest costume before, only a deep vee of porcelain skin now showed from her chest. The thin black leather belt that connected across her front with a two-inch gold curb chain was cinched around her waist to give the princess a very stiking silhouette.
In kind, Hoshi's bare chest had been covered up with a white kurisode with thick double string on the hem of her sleeves. Her ofuda had been stripped, no longer pasties, and clung to a pair of hamaya arrows tucked into her waist's obi. They were less than necessary now as the bleached top coupled with the ruby red hakama she had been wearing before completed her new outfit, that of a shrine maiden. Her costume's sacred arrows were likely meant to take down a ghastly spirit like that which she had been dressed as before.
"I did not think a costume was appropriate for dinner," Aiko explained. A golden cluster of bellflowers with twinkling diamond anthers and pistils spilled down and back from atop her right ear. "This is part of my casual wardrobe."
"Are you trying to say something?" the costumed captain asked as she jutted her hips, making the sanguine folds of her pants sway.
"Only that I am not supposed to be anything right now," Aiko said simply, still a bit confused. Her captain was happy to let the joke pass and smiled placidly next to her as the hostess came back for them. The minkan woman had ducked under the noren curtain and pushed it up with one of her heavily bandaged hands, the gauze of which fell in tendrils at the wrist and around her torso. The two smiled warmly at the hostess before she led them away, through the busied restaurant. It seemed some patrons were dressed up still, like the captain and the hostess while some were dressed "casual" as Aiko was.
"The haunted house was quite a thrill," Aiko said as they were ushered deeper into the restaurant, getting back to what they'd been talking about just before. "Though I have to admit it imposed some small amount of stress upon me. Whoever put it together really captured the horrific face of Elysian history."
Ketsurui Yui hadn't passed down any full memories to Aiko beyond military training, but the Mistress-Taisho's youngest daughter nonetheless experienced innate feelings about certain subjects. Every time she saw the name "Flint Vanderhuge" while reading history, Aiko's blood would boil even though she held no rational malice for the man. The Kaiyo's trans-universal adventures to Ayenee felt like visiting her favorite amusement park. And, quite strongly, Aiko knew that Yamatai kept its most barbaric enemies closer than it did the nation's greatest friends.
"Very chilling," Aiko grinned, trying to appear charmed while willfully remembering that the spooky Elysian Wars-themed attraction had just been a bit of Candy Festival fun.
"I never fought an angel, but the crew of my first posting, the Yamatai, they raised me on stories about your mom as a general, fighting masses of angels in the blood-stained snow." Hoshi shook out her shoulders underneath her white jacket, ridding herself of the spine tremble she had felt. "Chilling indeed... I still can't believe you wouldn't let me get that Elysian baby skeleton," Hoshi whined, reminiscing on the small assortment of oddities that the haunted house had been selling.
"It was tasteless, Chusa" Aiko reiterated coldly, to which Hoshi gave a hearty chortle.
"We're just opening the top floor balcony for the night, the choice is yours, Ketsurui-dono." The hostess opened the doors that partitioned off Takeda House Kyoto's upper dining level, latching them open and then standing to show Hoshi and Aiko to one of the many open tables. The two chose a large corner table that edged the deck's traditionally-ornamented balustrade overlooking the street bound revelers outside.
"Arigatou!" Hoshi cooed, then to Aiko noted, "From here we can see the night's best costumes or spot those girls we met earlier. You cool with more joining?"
"We would be dining at the palace if it were not chill, Hoshi," the princess replied using a word she'd learned to match Hoshi's slang. She stared out over the costumed multitudes below without much focus in her eyes, simply taking in the scene as a whole now that they had a moment to relax after a long day of spooky fun. "We would be remiss to refuse any company when the night is so young."