Sanda pulled up in front of the bar where she was suppose to meet Yayoi. The motorbike ride had been just what she needed to clear her head after that brutal simulation. She was still shaking a bit and was in need a a drink. She spottend Yayoi and followed her fellow Ranger inside.
Sanda was somewhat surprised when Yayoi grabbed a bottle of very strong stuff. She was even more surprised that the Ranger seemed so depressed. "But..." Sanda gently prodded while poring two glasses of the hard stuff.
Yayoi looked at Sanda, and then she took a breath. “She’s an Ittô Heisho, this means she outranks me. I mean I’m just a Santo Hei, a rank far below hers by 5 atleast. My sisters were just teasing how I’d have to salute her when we meet. I’m even more shocked that my pure innocent little sister got promoted.”
"Damn." Sanda said simply and took a drink. She made a face and said "Damn." With more conviction. She got up and went to the bar for a bottle of fine Rum and returned with two new glasses. "If we're going to drink our problems away, we need at least something that taste good."
Sanda poured two new cups of the Rum and took a sip. "Now that's more like it." She eyed her companion with a mix of pity and detachment. "You've been fighting for your life for 2 years on Hanako's world. You've got to have some kind of promotion coming to you after all that." She took another sip, savoring the taste and the burn.
Yayoi watched her go to the bar and soon return with the bottle of what appeared to be fine rum. She gave a rueful smile at her words before she took a sip of it. Sanda did have a point, though, the rum tasted better. The glass was placed back on the table as she listened to her words and realized that she was right.
To her shock and surprise about her sister’s promotion, she hadn’t asked about her own promotion. She did remember hearing that sometimes those soldiers who died sometimes got promoted though they weren’t there. “Yeah, I think your right, ” she said to her and shook her head “I’m a goof’ she said before she took another sip of the fine rum.
Sanda smiled, "Exactly. Shoot, before we picked you up my team extracted another girl who had been posthumous promoted to an officer and she had gone down an Itto Hei and was rescued a Chui." Sanda laughed at that as she poured refills. She could feel her body relaxing from the warm liquor.
Koyama had returned to the ship briefly, speaking to her Captain and to welcome the newest arrivals. Yet in his stern, tacturn manner had recommended she return planetside. If only for a while longer. Bruised still from her ordeal at her home, Samurai House, Koyama had simply nodded stiffly. The woman had boarded the shuttle again and returned to her homeworld, the crown jewel of the Empire with a sigh of mild relief.
She could not face her teacher again, yet had no one else upon the planet to be with. Yet, looking at the roster, the XO had noticed two were in Kyoto. One familiar, and another she had been meaning to interr- question. After the shuttle's landing, the Chui had simply taken a cab to a specific bar in her native city. She had never gone into a bar before. Nor had she ever even let a single drop of alcohol touch her tongue. But it was lonely and she did not feel like dealing with the half-ID SOL at the moment. At the very least with their resident Ranger she shared somewhat of a kindred spirit. Standing there, and with a bit of courage, Koyama strode into the bar with a foreign expression, one different from her usual neutral countenance.
She appeared more... open. Expressive. At ease. Still in her bodysuit with its bone white panels, it drew a few stares. Especially with her rank pin and golden bands. Yet she ignored them all, instead finding the tattoo'd woman and the other Ranger. Moving with an almost artless grace, weaving her way through the people, Koyama cleared her throat delicately.
"Hello...?" her voice uncertain as she looked to the two with that smoldering golden stare.
Yayoi listened as Sanda spoke to her about how they’d picked up someone who had been posthumously promoted to an officer rank. She learned that this girl was an Itto Hei, and when she was rescued, she was a Chui. Yayoi took another sip, emptying the glass before the refill. She was about to make a comment when another joined them. She noted that she was a Chui, so she immediately saluted her. “Greetings Ma’am,” she said in greetings.
Sanda stood up so quickly she almost spilled the bottle of rum on Koyama. But even sippsy Sanda had great reflexes and set the bottle upright without losing a drop of the precious licquid. "Ma'am." Throwing a salute.
Koyama smiled softly to Yayoi and then Sanda, "Please, Koyama-san. I am technically not on duty. The Shosa sent me planetside again. He believed I needed more R&R as he called it." she wanted to add 'Difficult Man' to it but thought better of it.
She made to seat herself, then stopped and looked to the two women. "May I?"
Sanda visably relaxed and smiled. She could read between the lines as to why the XO was really planetside. "Please do." She grabbed another glass for Koyama and poured her a messure of rum.
Yayoi indicated she could sit “please sit, Koyama-san.” She indicated the bottles “we have a bottle of fine rum and a bottle of a kind that can intoxicate even a Tsumi or Neko.” she said as Sanda poured a glass of rum.
Koyama took a seat, wincing seemingly in pain as she did so. An audible pop emitting from her as a grimace soon twisted her lips. But it passed within an instant. Yet the offering that lay before her, the glass with the liquid being poured caused her to blink. An eyebrow going up.
"Rum?" she asked, seeming confused, "I... have never had alcohol before. Not once."
Sanda raised an eyebrow. "Really? Wow you have lived a sheltered life. I think the first time I took a drink I was six. Course that's pretty typical for a Nepleslian." Sanda shrugged "I won't be offended if you don't drink. You're still welcomed to share our table."
Three Ketsurui Samurai in uniform marched into the bar, their black boots barely visible under blood red hakama pants over their white kimonos.
Koyama laughed, a small, soft laugh, the first heard since the shuttle. If not a bit more subdued, "You could say that, yes. I was born at Samurai House and raised there, Sanda-san." she picked up the glass, stared into its depths and brought it to her nose. With a sniff, the Neko reared backward from it.
"... You drink this? Does all alcohol smell so... sharp? Would this not be better used as antiseptic? But I have heard Nepleslians may drink so young. Amongst other things. Such has being given weapons as children." the woman stated before something caught her eye. The Chui turned her head, seeing three figures standing there. Dressed in hakama and yukata, red and white. Koyama put the glass down and frowned.
Why were three Samurai here? It wasn't often they made public appearances these days.
Sanda just laughed. For a moment it was just as if a pressure valve had given way and everything pend up inside came out. It didn't last very long, but it felt good to release it. "Haha. Probably. I've used it as an antiseptic before. Hell I cut my teeth as a baby on a pistol." Sanda noticed Koyama's intreset in the Samurai figures that had entered the bar. "Friends of yours?" She asked.
"Perhaps," was Koyama's answer. She seemed wary. "Where there are Samurai, there may be trouble."
The samurai made their way to Koyama's table with an air of authority and the ranking leader of the trio was handed a huge golden scroll case by another and unfurled the scroll. "The Empress of Yamatai, at the recommendation of Ketsurui Yui, and Ketsurui-Shinjuku Hanako, requests the presence of Koyama at the Empress Palace in Kyoto, in two days from now, to participate in a clan ceremony of adoption. Signed, Her Imperial Majesty, Himiko I of Yamatai, Queen of Elysia."
"Trueno Santo!" Sanda swore. Looking at Koyama with wide eyes.
Koyama tensed a little as the Samurai drew near. She knew what they could do. The variety of them. Her face immediately went impassive as they brought forth a scroll. Such a thing was an official document, the seal that of the Clan. The air of authority with which the leader showed was as if offering a challenge to her. Purely reflex in her case.
But it was not until it was unfurled, and the words spoken that Koyama's expression broke, that calm, emotionless feature of her sisters she had worked hard to attain shattered. Instead she goggled at them, mouth opening and closing before her teeth clacked. In answer, Koyama felt the glass shatter in her hand. She had been holding it that hard. Pain lanced up and down the palm of her hand and stung from the alcohol. But that was ignored.
Sanda's words fell on deaf ears as Koyama got to her feet, drawing herself up to her full height. She did not bow, by inclined her head to them. Even on official business she was still known among them. And treated them as equals as often as she could.
"Please inform Yui-Sama, Hanako-Sama, and her Majesty I will arrive promptly," her words wavering, cheeks, once pale as milk flushing as if embarassed and to the point she visibly trembled.
Yayoi listened to the conversation around her with interest before turning her attention to the samurai. She couldn’t help but remember how her sister had apparently been training with a Aether Katana that she apparently built. “Em…Empress?! “she said in shock and surprise. She knew that Koyama was a Chui, but Empress? That was a shock.
OOC: JP by @SpaceEye @ajax228 @Ethereal @Soresu @Soban @Cowboy