Kenjirou Minami was his name, and he was Emperor Katsuki's personal servant. Serving Lord Katsuki was the biggest source of pride in his whole world. He may have been born into the position, but he absolutely loved his work and looked up to Lord Katsuki as the epitome of an honorable and just ruler. His Lord was fair, just, courageous and highly skilled. His Lord treated his subjects as people and not simply as tools to help him run an empire. His Lord was powerful and a force to be reckoned with. Yes, he was Kenjirou Minami, and he simply adored his Lord. He admits that he even secretly has a painting of the emperor he keeps hidden under his bed roll. He had saved his earnings and purchased the painting of Lord Katsuki from the town near their castle. The artist had beautifully captured Lord Katsuki's handsome features. Kenjirou felt closer than ever to his Lord having the painting nearby as he slept.

He was only seven years old the first time he was introduced to Lord Katsuki. The future Lord was still quite young then, only fourteen years old. It was the day of Kenjirou's initiation into royal service and he had been tasked with the role of Teishu (host) of the Hakobi-Temae. He had trained extensively for the special occasion for a whole year and had felt ready to impress his future Lord. He had sent the invitations and cleaned the garden around the teahouse. He had received offers of assistance from his mother, but had insisted on doing everything himself. He had still been too young to have the meeting with the Hantou (assistant) and Shokyaku (main guest), so his mother had held the meeting in his stead. While his mother had been in the meeting, he had cleaned the tearoom, changed the Shoji paper on the sliding doors and had replaced the tatami mats. His father had overseen the preparation of the Kaiseki meal and everything was in place.

Kenjirou had started out the day feeling on top of the world. His training had prepared him for this day and he was ready to impress his new Lord. He went over each step in his mind as he performed the ceremony. Place bowl of sweets in front of knees on the tatami. Push door with left hand two-thirds of the way, keep right hand on lap, then cross right hand in front of body and open it the rest of the way. He executed his issokutachi perfectly as he stood up and remembered to take the first step with his left foot. He had successfully avoided stepping on the edges of the tatami and sat down before setting the bowl close to the young emperor. He had said the required 'Okashi o dōzo' while bowing and the young emperor had bowed back silently. He had made it through the bringing in of the utensils, remembering to keep track of which utensil belonged in which hand at any given time. He made the tea, whisking it to near-perfection. He had picked up the tea bowl and turned it anti-clockwise so that the front side was facing the young emperor before he served it. And then, that's when he saw it, the spider on his sleeve.

Kenjirou Minami had been born brave and courageous. Kenjirou Minami had inherited his mother's skills as a steely-eyed warrior and his father's cool head under pressure. Kenjirou Minami had not been born with, nor inherited a tolerance for spiders. He had immediately broken into a cold sweat and his concentration had quickly gone out the window. It had taken him every ounce of self-control to not drop everything and run screaming from the ceremony, young emperor be dammed. He had felt his hand start to shake and had fought valiantly to steady it. Spilling the tea was not an option. He would have brought great shame and disgrace to not only himself, but his whole family as well.

As the spider began crawling along his sleeve toward the tea bowl, he had been at a complete loss of what to do and had been on the verge of panic. Spilled tea might be better than tea with a spider swimming in it. Scenarios started flooding his head. Would he get beheaded? Would his family be exiled? Kenjiro found himself on the verge of tears. A closed fan had suddenly tapped gently at his sleeve then, dislodging the spider. He had raised his eyes slightly and caught the bottom half of the young emperor's face, his mouth curved in a gentle smile.

"This kimono is absolutely exquisite. The wave pattern is subtle, but quite obvious to someone with a keen eye for detail."

He had been thrown a lifeline, and jumped at it. He made sure to avert his eyes as he spoke to the guest of honor.

"You are very kind and generous in your praise, young Lord. I am humbled."

With the spider gone, the rest of the ceremony had gone smoothly and finished without any further hiccups. Once every guest had had their fill of tea, the ceremony had ended and the cleanup began. After everything had been taken care of and he had finally been given leave of his duties, he had made a beeline for the Zen garden. He had managed to hold everything together in front of his family, but the stress of the whole ordeal and the narrowly avoided disaster had finally caught up to him. He had gone to a hidden little corner of the garden and had wept as silently as he could while it all worked its way out of his system.

A soft and tender voice suddenly filled his little corner of the garden.

"A spider may not have the beauty of a bird, the softness of a fox kit, nor the grace of a koi fish…but it has great purpose."

Kenjirou wiped his eyes with the back of his hand and looked up to see the back of the young emperor sitting discreetly on a nearby bench.

"Without spiders, we would be overwhelmed by blood-sucking pests and our produce would be devoured before we could harvest it."

He stopped crying completely as he listened to the young emperor's pleasant voice.

"Any animal, great or small, will generally only attack if it feels threatened. Let the animal be, and it will return the favor."

The young emperor had then dropped his left arm down behind him and opened his hand. He wiggled his fingers ever-so-slightly, motioning for him to come closer. Kenjirou crawled over slowly, making sure to stay low and hidden behind the bench. He had placed his smaller hand into that of the young emperor's, whose fingers had then curled around it. His little heart had fluttered with sheer joy at the gesture. He was instantly star struck.

"You did well today for one so young, Kenjirou Minami. You faced an unforeseen obstacle, and carried on with your duty while enduring overwhelming fear. I look forward to seeing what you become."

The young emperor had given his hand one last squeeze before releasing it and gracefully walking out of the garden. What happened in the Zen garden that day was a secret he had kept all to himself. Not only because it was his special memory, but also because such comradery with 'lowly' servants was generally frowned upon and grounds for punishment. It made what happened even more amazing to him because the young emperor had risked trouble to bring him those words of encouragement. He had decided, right there and then, that he would become the best damn servant in all of Orientalis. He would become the best because the young emperor deserved it. He would work hard and acquire all the skills he needed for his role before the young emperor assumed his reign. He would become the kind of servant the young emperor would be proud of.

Ten years had passed since that day. He had avidly soaked in every skill offered to him during training and learned some others on his own. He had gladly gone to bed countless times with a sore and battered body after sword practice, because one day that body would protect the emperor. He relished the callouses that had developed on his hands, for they were akin to badges of honor. The young emperor had saved him from catastrophic disgrace and had shown uncharacteristic kindness to a lowly servant. He would follow that man and serve him anywhere.

Presently, Kenjirou Minami was about to go on a highly important mission for his Lord, and he was absolutely terrified. He had grown comfortable running missions for his Lord back in the familiar lands of Orientalis. He knew the people, he knew the landscape and he knew the dangers. Occidentis was completely unknown, and the unknown was a terrifying thing. He had complete faith in his emperor's wisdom, and knew that his life would not be risked needlessly. He had more than enough courage to get him through just about anything. Still, he felt uneasy about heading into the foreign land. Kenjirou did one final check of his preparations and stepped outside into the moonlight. A stable hand holding the reins of a beautiful white horse awaited him. His royal escort was already mounted on his own horse, ready for departure.

Kenjirou turned to the guard and bowed deeply toward him.

"It is an honor to receive your protection, royal guard. I place myself in your capable hands!"

He mounted the white horse and followed the guard as they galloped toward the shore. As he looked up at the night sky, he saw Azami flying overhead. The emperor's eagle was a creature of incredible beauty. It was impressively large, fierce and the Katsuki clan's very own 'guard dog'. It had these knowing yellow eyes that unsettled nearly everyone it focused it's stare on. Incurring the wrath of Azami was not recommended if you valued things such as your eyes, ears or any other easily accessible body part. Lucky for him, Azami saw him as part of his 'family' and actually allowed him to stroke his head every once in a while.

A few years ago, he had been out accompanying the emperor on a horseback ride through the countryside when they had first come across Azami. He had been just an ugly little thing back then, covered in patchy down and writhing pitifully in a patch of thistle bushes. He had either fallen or been pushed out of the nest, and had been abandoned and left on his own to die. The emperor, with his keen senses, had heard the chick's faint cries and immediately located him. He had freed the chick from its thistly prison, having gotten his hand scratched quite badly in the process. He had gently tucked the weak chick into his kimono and they had hurried back to the castle. The emperor had insisted on hand-raising the chick himself, and after some initial doubts as to whether it would survive the ordeal or not, it bounced back and began to grow steadily. It was named Azami after the place it had been found, and the bond between the Lord and his eagle soon became unbreakable. It followed him everywhere and kept watch over him at night as he slept. The emperor had a special way of attracting loyal servants to him in droves.

He felt reassured knowing that the eagle was there with him. They had a sharp-eyed lookout watching over them.

Before long, they had arrived at the shore. Attendants were already on standby with food and water for them as well as their animal companions. The horses were escorted to the lower deck of the large boat and Azami was left to his own devices on the upper deck. The guard made himself comfortable in his quarters and Kenjiro stood on the deck as the boat set out to sea. Four lignum magi were present on the boat with them. The first pair would use their magic to propel the boat through the water, while the second pair kept watch. They would switch out halfway through the journey. The butterflies in his stomach fluttered around as they reached a decent speed. He prayed that the first contact between their clans would be peaceful and uneventful.

_terminology_

Okashi o dōzo – please have these sweets

Issokutachi - in one smooth movement (without the buttocks touching the heels of the feet)

Hakobi-Temae (運び手前) - also called the 'Way of Tea', is a Japanese cultural activity involving the ceremonial preparation and presentation of matcha (抹茶), powdered green tea.

(Cha) Kaiseki (懐石) - a traditional multi-course Japanese dinner; a type of art form that balances the taste, texture, appearance, and colors of food. The basic constituents of a cha-kaiseki meal are the ichijū sansai or "one soup, three side dishes", and the rice, plus the following: suimono, hassun, yutō, and kōnomono.