<div class="floatleft">(http://i.imgur.com/kCO6g7j.jpg)</div>At least the Kimono issue was taken care of.<em>THAT</em>was set out in the guest quarters along with the new make-up kit they'd purchased locally to be donned on the way back from the bath. It had been quite some while since Mitsuki had gotten to enjoy a nice hot bath. Ryoko Owari was the last, wasn't it? If it wasn't for time concerns they had really wanted to spend some time shopping on teardrop island but having gained Bayushi Mayu as a traveling companion made a lot of Mitsuki's time management sink like a junk with a hole in the bottom of it.<br/><br/>Surely the gift they brought would be sufficient? Tending to pets and trained animals was what got them sent to this event in the first place but Mitsuki quietly lamented to himself as he walked briskly through the grounds of Ikeda Akimitsu home toward the bath house that he did not have a chance to see the other gifts personally. His mind was all weights and measures, the clack-clack-clacking of an abacus. He kept his hair pinned up as Mitsue as they sat in the washroom quickly and privately scrubbing themselves.<br/><br/>Even the light conversation in the main bath went mostly unheard, a holdover of etiquette to ignore the conversation of others. When you lived in a society that lived behind rice paper walls, it was only right to develop certain filters to give others privacy right? Well...unless you were a courtier and then you just didn't talk about what you heard. Picking up a bucket and dousing themselves, most of their lip paint and the definition of powder around their eyes was gone but not entirely washed away.<br/><br/>Wrapping themselves in a towel from under their arms to just above their knees Mitsuki meandered their way into the main bath from the open wash area only to find themselves facing a preening Akodo Narumi, natural endowments poised for all to see, going through her family liniage. They'd missed the first few words of it so they had no idea how long they'd been going on but at the very least it certainly was impressive. They might even lock eyes by accident, something that even his usual boisterous portrayal of Mitsue would get Mitsuki flushed across the nose.<br/><br/>Once she'd sat down again Mistuki blinked, eyelashes fluttering as their brain restarted. They didn't need to get into the mathematics or particular ratios of the Akodo woman's figure that they'd just had burned into their eyes. Thankfully, the heady and somewhat deep voice, a mixture of the masculine and feminine, of Mitsue was soon slipping out of his mouth to smooth things over with all the subtley of a brick.<br/><br/>"Yoshikuzo!" Came the first enthusiasm, holding up a fist like a solider would in agreement after a rousing speech from a lord. "This Bath house here? Impregnable! Especially with Akodo-san here to protect us. Aaaah means a yasuki like me can relax and take it easy now." They'd be all smiles, swaggering to the least populated side of the room with all the odasity of a crab out on the town. Mitsuki didn't expect this many people to be here so they'd have to think quick. Arms folded over their chest she knelt by the side of the pool and turned her back to the rest of the samurai.<br/><br/>"Water is a carp's native element you know, so I know I'll be right at home here. Just like a battlefield is for a Lion. Lets see if I can fill out this pool just as well as Akodo-san can fill out a set of armor!" A crude but still double entandre of a joke making mention of Narumi's chest, hopefully enough to get eyes off of Mistuki as they playfully dropped their towel down their shoulders and off their back before slipping down into the water as quickly as possible with only a split second flash of backside, leaving the towel up on the edge as they sank down right up to their chin. Only then would they turn around to face the others with something of a lewd 'shit-eating- grin.'<br/><br/>"Please, call me Mitsue. It's a pleasure to see you all. You too Bayushi Mayu...oh I see you hiding over there. There is suppose to be quite a meal tonight I hear so that mysterious bandit that kept stealing my kabayaki at night while we were on our way here? You probably won't even have to look out for them on your watch. I'm very sure our hosts will run them off, wherever they might be." with far more casual manners than other courtiers, they even went as far as to stick their tongue out at the scorpion when they thought no one was looking.