Yosuki was smiling her enigmatic, dark smile, stretched on her futon and absentmindedly picking fruit and tofu cubes from a plate on her nightstand. Giro approached her, trying to ignore his passion for her in favor of more pressing matters.
- "Show me your true face, Giro," Yosuki said. How glittering her eyes were, dark but steely. Like the blades of the shadow samurai, in mockery of the pure bluish glint their weapons had held in life before Giro's magic or unfortunate circumstances of their death had twisted them into a feverish, broken mirror image of what they had been.
- "Why, my tempest?"
- "I like it. It is true and pure, it reminds me of that I know the truth, that we are companions." Her hair had a few strands of grey in it. For some reason it made her only more attractive to Giro.
- "Very well, Yosuki. You shall see my true form, as is your wish. Think of it as a token of my..." he frowned, searching for a word.
- "Your what, Giro-san?"
- "You tell me. 'Love' is hardly a concept that can be used of companionship of ones such as us. Still, 'obsession' does no credit to it either."
Yosuki just shrugged and smiled, watching. Giro started to change. He felt all the smells so bright and distinct, his vision so much sharper in the dark. His mind was even more predatory and survivalist than it was in its human shape, the cruelty the fuel of his ambitions and prolonged lifeforce.
Yosuki marveled at the hybrid of a rat and a man. The gnarled body, surprisingly strong for that of an old man, was still there, but the head was a rat's, the beady eyes not so much unlike the ones he had in his human form, the cruel intelligence, the gray fur... and then there was the tail, the hairless, smooth thing. Yosuki actually got turned on by the bipedal hybrid form of her lover. Giro found that slightly disturbing, but then he would expect nothing less from a woman like Yosuki.
- "This is no time for lovemaking," he said, against the feeling waving at his loins.
- "No?" Yosuki said. "I suppose not. I know what I have been able to scry, but that is not all, obviously."
- "The gaijin?"
- "He is on the move, finally," Yosuki reported. "All the family is. They are heading to the coast, so we might as well suppose that they are traveling to Kozakura. And there is a war in their footsteps as well. Lots of refugees, reaching for the coast and more fertile lands."
- "The Emperor has heard reports, of course... it seems that an ambitious warlord has arisen on the Plain of Horses, and gotten pretty far."
Yosuki nodded.
- "She is well in the center of Shou Lung already, her progress only halted in the northern provinces. It seems the gaijin helped in the defence before their departure, though why I cannot imagine," she said.
- "We didn't anticipate that," Giro the imperial wu jen said, "but perhaps it will be to our advantage. She is a mere mortal, if an ingenious and ambitious one. Now, the Kusatte Iru has been all but revealed. Sanitobi's Water magic school would battle it in Renkuy so we have been steering it further northeast. A few more villages have been wiped out and people are panicking, deserting the villages and running for the mountains, often to meet a short end in the hands of the bandits. Sometimes the korobokuru tribes protect them, though."
Yosuki smiled a content smile.
- "Really, my dear," Giro laughed. "Why do you look so pleased? Why such ire? What is it to you if insignificant peasants get their lives destroyed in the process of fulfilling our plans?"
- "They are the filth!" Yosuki snapped, her eyes flashing. "The germs of the earth, the ugly, fat, stupid animals who possess no modicum of vision, grace, purpose or even a reflection of the Celestial heights all living beings are supposed to emanate! They are ugly! They have no meaning! They cling to their pathetic little lives as if that is something significant. They disgust me and I enjoy it when they are crushed!"
Giro shrugged.
- "That is very... passionate of you. However, I was thinking that with Iridescent Peacock Society's help I would probably be able to reveal Kusatte Iru completely somewhere offshore Shinkoku. If that would happen once the gaijin is on his way to Kozakura - we would get rid of him, and probably a lot of refugees as well. That might be enough to ignite the First Oni in his chains - especially with this Khan wreaking havoc and advancing the coastline of Shou Lung. However, something is making me uneasy..."
