The delicate female tilted her head and rolled her eyes towards the kitsune; she noted the distinctive teeth and quirked an odd smile.  The creature's reactions had answered some questions, but there were others.  But there was more than one way to learn about its nature.  She lifted her hand without turning her body towards Bedlam, her thumb, index, and pointer fingers splayed slightly.  She slipped her fingers to either side of the kitsune's throat and stroked her jugular and her carotid simultaneously, and then pushed her fingers firmly in and up, hooking them under her jaw in an incredibly painful manner that lifted her onto her toes.  Mokujen returned her attention to the strange being, smiling still as she held Bedlam up by her jaw and throat like she were cradling a cup of wine.<br/><br/>"This lovely creature is Bedlam, and she owes me a great deal of her breath.  Spirit, if you will.  Despite her forward ways she is an accommodating creature, and I will require....help to remove as much of the essential breath as I am due without accidentally slaying her."  The devil's hand lifted higher, nearly taking the young kitsune off the floor and cutting into her soft skin with unsharpened fingernails.  "From that I will give you an amount, unless you wish to make a different sort of trade."<br/><br/>She half turned and then swung her wrist around, forcing Bedlam to follow her fingers in order to save herself from more intense pain so that she was looking into the kitsune's face.  "I spoke with Kyukiko in order to warn off those whom you have offended or troubled so that they would not bother you here at least.  I said nothing about her sending you to me; how she interprets my words is of absolutely no consequence to me."  She lifted higher, forcing the kitsune to one toe, making her struggle against nearly the full weight of her body on those two fingers.  "You, on the other hand, should know not to interrupt your betters when they are discussing things upon which your safety and existence hinges."<br/><br/>Despite the urge to push the young woman up and over to the ground unceremoniously, she was very aware of the eyes upon them.  Decorum was required in the main room.  In private it was an entirely different matter.  Slowly she lowered her hand, and let the kitsune stand on her own two feet.  She rubbed the potent blood across her fingertips, feeling the dead lack of chi along her skin as nothing human could.  As chi was immaterial, potent and energy, so was blood it's utter opposite.  The yin to its yang.<br/><br/>Without looking at the creature in white, she spoke once more to it.  "Are you interested?  She can take a great deal of very....intimate....experience without risking dissolution.  And I will need to reach deep inside her for what I require."  The only way Mokujen could do that on her own was by tearing Bedlam open.  Literally.