Arthur
How long had it been since Atsuko had set foot on the Crab embassy grounds?

Too long, perhaps. She still remembered the night as if it had only been days prior. She was soaked to the bone after the fire in the Leatherworker's, covered in soot and blood from the horrible monster that had made the abandoned brewery its home. So much had changed in the months between. The ronin had only just entered into the service of the man who bid her there, a man who now rested with his ancestors. The bazaar was just a distant twinkle in Ide no Suio Kenza's eye when she stormed into the waiting area pleading for a meeting with the Crab's ambassador, and yet it thrived now, growing ever larger and more prosperous under her watchful eye. Much had changed in the interim, but one thing had not.

The yōkai she had been bid to hunt remained at large. 

Part of it was out of her control. The trail had gone cold enough that not even the duo of trained shugenja—a Kuni and a Yogo no less—could find hide nor hair of the beast. They had managed to turn up some evidence of a conspiracy here or there, a few trace clues to indicate that *Something* Remained within the city, lurking and biding its time. Spring had brought new clues, but nothing groundshaking. Nothing she could proudly proclaim as a success in ridding Ryoko Owari of that which went bump in the night.

What parts remained in her control vexed her. It wasn't her job, she had to remind herself. Ide Nakato had asked she investigate the matter, and so did Hida Koyama. But Ide Nakato no longer ruled the Unicorn's delegation, and Utaku Kazuko had made her will that Atsuko man the bazaar well known. Hida Koyama might have ruled supreme amongst the Crab, but he was not her overlord. His orders were more a request than anything else, no matter how sternly he gave them.

And yet she still had not managed to fulfill them.

Why return then? Why bring herself to the gates of the Crab without a proof of victory? The answer was simple enough: to better arm herself to provide that victory.

Before she had arrived in the city, Atsuko had scarcely ever interacted with the supernatural. She attended festivals, revered the Fortunes, and asked forgiveness from the kami when she slew a hare or bird for her evening meal. But monsters? The closest thing to a monster she had ever faced was the barbarity of bandits lost in their greed and hunger, fighting like beasts to steal what was not their own. She could not be expected to do the Crab's job without the same support the Crab gave their own men and women.

It was with that thought in her mind that she took the first bold steps toward the gates of the well-fortified embassy grounds. Her dealings with the Yasuki merchants at the bazaar had taught her better than to come empty-handed, of course, and so beneath one arm, she held an unassuming lacquered chest, heavy with goods yet to be seen. The other she placed firmly on her hip as she addressed the ashigaru at the gates.

"Atsuko. Retainer to the Ide family. I have business with the ambassador and his aides."

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Jeramy
Yasuki Umeo was seated in his office. He was reviewing tariff reports when the servant entered, bowing respectfully. "Yasuki-sama. Atsuko-san, a retainer to the Ide family, requests an audience. She bears a chest and claims to have business with the Ambassador." Umeo's eyes lifted from his reading, and a flicker of recognition crossed his features. Atsuko was not a frequent visitor, but her name had made its way into a few of his predecessor's files. The ronin was... Noteworthy. He set the scroll aside, his mind shifting gears from the matters of trade to the more pressing concerns of security and diplomacy.

"I shall do what I can while Hida-sama remains indisposed. Show her in," Umeo instructed. His low voice was calm and authoritative. He stood and smoothed the front of his kimono, a deep blue fabric adorned with the Crab mon. His posture was upright, the items on his desk exactingly arranged. The walls were adorned with maps of the empire, and trade routes were marked on them in different colors. 
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Arthur
It took far longer than Atsuko would have liked for the ashigaru who marched off to announce her arrival to return, though perhaps it was unfair to blame the guards for that. Any delay at all would have grated at the ronin with her tendency towards impatience. Eventually, however, the man returned, and she was let through the gates and led through the courtyard and into the embassy proper.

Months had passed since she last set foot within the structure, and yet, despite the length of time that had elapsed between her previous visit and the present, she could tell that she was being led along a different path than the one the kindly assistant had hurried her down so long before. Indeed, that much was confirmed when she was directed through a door into an office containing not the mammoth ambassador of the Crab, but a stranger. Well, half a stranger. The Carp that decorated his kimono was an increasingly familiar sight to her.

"Yasuki-sama," The diminutive wave-woman offered a bow of adequate depth for the situation, "I am Atsuko. Your ambassador, Hida Koyama-sama requested I handle a situation some weeks ago. I was hoping to discuss the matter with him—shall I assume he will be joining us?"

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Daniel
Koyama walked the halls of the embassy after a barrage of meetings. He knew the work was unceasing but it would all be for the better, or at least its what he told himself silently. After his encounter with the Unicorn ambassador last night and the meeting with Mantis Ambassador just moments earlier he felt as if the fortunes were preparing him for something. He would meet it, as was the Crab's Duty. Still, there was a lingering feeling he couldn't pin down. He took a breathe to refocus himself and rounded a corner to see an eye patch that looked familiar to him. Atsuko, She was working for Ide Kenza, a prominent merchant and grand host of the Bazaar that had opened. He needed to take another more, casual visit of the play when the time was afforded to him. But he let the Ronin carry on her business since she seemed to be headed toward Umeo's office. Probably to discuss matters of commerce.

"Hida-sama, That young woman was here to see you." Hoshiko chimed, walking slowly to the Hulking man as if hearing his thoughts. "You were still meeting with Moshi-sama and not to be disturbed. So I sent her to Yasuki-sama in your stead."

Koyama nodded and took another breath before heading to his Advisor's office. As he approached he heard them speaking and stepped in at the Ronin's mention of him.

"It is a safe assumption, Atsuko-san." Koyama said sliding the door open. "Pardon the interruption, Yasuki-san. I was wrapping up a meeting. Now then, what can the Crab do for you? It has been some time since you've paid us a visit. 

Koyama noticed the lacquered chest tucked under her sinewy arms and nodded. Perhaps some physical vestige of the beast she'd slain to be cleansed or a matter altogether different.
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Arthur
It was almost as if on cue that the Crab's ambassador materialized from elsewhere in the embassy. Were she a less perceptive young woman, she might've assumed that he had been eavesdropping on their conversation from the very beginning. But a man of that stature could only lessen his footfalls so much. It wasn't his sudden appearance that vexed her, but rather, what approach would best see her objective accomplished, now that the key component had so fortuitously manifested before her. There was always a leveling of wheeling and dealing when it became time to negotiate with the samurai caste. Something she had been laboring to learn over her time in the city.

But perhaps the current was not such a time. The Crab prided themselves on their directness and pragmatism, as she had been harshly taught during her first foray into working with the surly defenders of the wall.

"I am glad you are here, Hida-sama," The little ronin offered the requisite bow as she turned to greet the ambassador, "It means I can skip right to the point. What I need from the Crab is support."

She was sure the more conventional clan samurai would balk at the idea of a lowly ronin making demands of aid from their vaunted diplomats, but every moment she spent grubbing for influence was another moment things weren't getting done. Given the scope of the task at hand, every wasted moment put them all the further behind.

"You asked me to investigate the yōkai problem of the winter and see it put to rest. I'll be honest: I don't know the first thing about yōkai. I can handle bandits, I can handle merchants, I can even handle samurai. But I can't even begin to speculate how to find—much less kill—an enemy I know nothing about. Who is to say these creatures can even be killed by the weapons I have available?"

There was sure to be pushback to that. It had been months since the investigation began, and she had made little headway before deciding that she needed to ask for help. Time had been wasted. But it wasn't as if she had been idle those months. She wasn't so foolish as to appear before the Crab empty-handed and wanting like some kind of beggar.

"That's not to say I haven't discovered anything. It's just, what I have discovered is... Worrying. Should we sit before I continue?"

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Daniel
Koyama glowered at the Ronin, not for her flippant speech or frank request, but at whatever she discovered. Even if she was uncomfortable, she always kept a tough front with what she was saying and He understood the need for it. No matter her considerable her skill with a blade was, Her confidence rarely so shaken that she'd voice her concern. He walked to the screen and tapped twice and then motioned for the Ronin to sit. Outside you could hear 2 bushi in heavy armor move outside the office.

Koyama sat down across from Atsuko and looked at Umeo for a moment before leveling a deadly glare at Atsuko. "What have you learned that worries you so?" 
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Arthur
Reading people usually didn't pose much of a challenge to Atsuko. It was her job, after all, to keep a beat on any who might threaten her charge. Or, in times more recent, the marketplace her charge oversaw. The Crab proved more challenging than most. It seemed every time she met with Hida Koyama, he spent the majority of the time glowering at her. Not an unusual thing, given her heritage and his status, but a discomfiting all the same. His snarl was made all the more vexing by the clinking of armor just beyond the thin rice paper that made up the walls. 

Yet she still had a duty to dispatch, potential threats to her well-being or not. The young ronin made her way towards the karo's low desk, setting herself down before it and settling the chest she held beside her. Ordinarily, her swords would join it to her left, but given the circumstances... Perhaps it was better they remained right where she liked them.

"The first order of business is to establish that the yōkai problem never really disappeared. Whether or not the creature, or *Creatures*, caught wind of our investigation and laid low, I cannot say. What I *Can* Say is that the problem seems to have spread further than we first anticipated—people are being drawn out of the city and into the province beyond."

More context would have been helpful, but she had little to provide. She could not say why laborers were being drawn from the city, nor by whom, nor for what. Only that it was happening.

"More worrisome is by what exactly. The *Smiling Carp*, a merchant vessel pertinent to the investigation, lost a few men last season. Repairmen, sailmakers. The laboring type. They claimed to have found better work in the countryside. It must have been well-paying work, too, as almost all of them paid off the remainder of their contracts right then and there. The ship made port again just recently, and what do you know? Another set of workers decide they've found better work elsewhere. They paid in advance as well."

The story was a dry one, and she might have forgiven the elder Hida for growing irate with its length. But the context was important. Especially when she reached into the sleeve of her kimono and withdrew a familiar-looking silver coin. She placed it on the table between herself and the duo of Crab.

"Paid in the same coin you asked me to investigate. The same coinage that boy seeking medicine paid Ayaka-san. Funnily enough, illness is something of a persistent theme in this investigation, Hida-sama." There was little mirth in her eye despite the words that came from her lips, "The man who wrote the journal that started it all described a terrible illness. One of our suspects accosted herb merchants and monks alike looking for a cure for similar symptoms. The boy at the bazaar pays in this strange currency, asking for herbs to soothe the same ills."

A sigh left her lips, and she waved her hand as if to dismiss the frustration. 

"Whatever yōkai is targeting the city—if it even *Is* A yōkai—is making people sick. Even one of the men from the *Carp* Who took the mystery payment did so to care for his sick lover who, as you might guess, worked somewhere outside the city. I wish I could give you more, offer you an educated opinion on my findings, maybe filter out the chaff, but... I am not trained to identify with this sort of stuff. So the Crab's support can begin in changing that: I want access to your libraries. If you want me to put a stop to this, I need to know what *This* Actually is. And that's the best place to start."

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Daniel
"No." Koyama retorted. He let the answer hang in the air for a moment, pinching the bridge of his nose. His frustration with the situation was growing by the second. There were more question than answers and the answers begot more questions. The scope of this grew with every passing day and Atsuko was right: She did need aid. He let out a rumbling sigh before continuing.

"Even if we had some that you'd recognize as a library on the premises, I cannot let a retainer from another clan go looking into our archives. You've found that the coins and the workers are moving beyond provincial authority. If we wanted to make a case to root out the corruption we'd need to talk to Otomo-sama or perhaps Shosuro Komori-san, The Scorpion's new ambassador for writs of passage. It could be seen as a act of war if I were to send any type of force that was able to fully root out the malignancy you're describing across provincial borders. That and the Merchant ship should be something to investigate. If the Smiling Carp is bringing in these laborers we should not discount their probable complicity in all of this. Do you know if the vessel is arriving to port from the direction of the adjacent province? If so, We can attempt to infiltrate the vessel and be lead back to the source."
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Arthur
Atsuko raised her hand as the ambassador answered her request.

"You do not seem to understand my intent here, Hida-sama. My investigation into this matter is something I have performed as a courtesy to the late Ide Nakato-sama, and to reassure Ide Kenza-sama that his commercial investments in the city are safe. It was not done out of the goodness of my own heart."

It sounded quite mercenary when put that way, but that was the way of things, both within the world of samurai and especially within Ryoko Owari Toshi. Those stewards of Rokugan who presided over the masses wrapped their actions in noble codes but fundamentally looked out for themselves and their own above all. If one wanted to obtain something from a member of a rival clan, then they would need to give something in kind. Perhaps that had been forgotten in part because Atsuko did not have a clan to call her own.

"My continued support of the endeavor is, therefore, contingent upon the Crab providing me the resources I require. If you cannot provide this aid to the retainer of another clan, then you are not entitled to the aid of that clan's retainers in turn."

She was sure that the matter-of-fact tone she adopted would irritate the Hida. Yet it needed to be said—her services were something of value. That the Crab had seen fit to assign the duty before her to a lowly ronin in service of the Unicorn indicated to her that they either did not consider it a priority, or they could not act on it on their own, as the ambassador had admitted only moments prior.

"If that is all, then I should be going, Hida-sama. I have a busy afternoon ahead."


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Daniel
"On your way, Atsuko-san." Koyama said, with a nod. 

"The Guards will show you out."
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