The Day of Thunder

[Shiba Kumori]

“You invite them or they invite themselves?” She said with a side-glance of jovial suspicion.

[Nanzi Ai]

“You invite them or they invite themselves?” She said with a side-glance of jovial suspicion.

She smirked and said, “She came without a tent and needed a place to stay. She is a pleasant woman and a beautiful singer. I felt duty bound to offer her a place to rest and stay relatively dry. Nothing untoward happened of course.”

[Shiba Kumori]

“That’s a shame.” She said in reply to the last sentence with a smile.

“How’d she get all the way here without a tent though?”

[Nanzi Ai]

“I am a proper lady of good standing now, I can no longer be a lordless sword for hire,” she responded.

“No idea, she’s a little eccentric… esoteric even, but endearing in a creepy dark witch kind of way? You just have to meet her, I am not sure I can do her justice, Haka Soju,” she offered.

[Shiba Kumori]

“Once again… another shame.” She replied.

“I guess I’ll have to look her up. The Haka do tend to be a bit more on the creepy side. Be creepy enough and maybe the creepy things leave you alone at night.”

[Nanzi Ai]

She narrowed her eyes and countered, "I am still pretty fun, I just have more responsibilities now."

[Shiba Kumori]

“That’s a bold claim for someone so ‘responsible’. You’re gonna have to prove that at some point.” She replied warmly.

[Nanzi Ai]

“I am the Fortune of a Good Time, lesser fortune mind you,” she teased back. “I just have standards now.”

“We can’t all don a mask and go parading about as we see fit, as much as we would like to. Well I mean I did get a mask but it came with its own responsibilities as well. You have jade with you, yes?” she added in a friendly tone.

[Shiba Kumori]

“Standards? I’m wounded. Please regale me with the exploits of your most recent tea party.”

And then with a pat into her sleeve, “Of course. I don’t leave home without some.”

[Nanzi Ai]

Her eye twitched lightly at the teasing as she strove to show she was not a stick in the mud like their elders. She replied, “Good, keep it close to your heart, dearest cousin.”

“I brought my tea set with me if you are missing a proper tea party,” she offered. “Funny you would mention tea, my last real adventure revolved around a tea ceremony gone awry. Though it was less derring do and more horror and dealing with a woman with too many teeth and moving third eye.”

“The forces of the enemy are gaining strength, so I am glad I have a good sword at my back,” she said warmly to her cousin.

[Shiba Kumori]

“I hope to be one step up from a three-eyed tea lover.” She replied with a smile.

“Gotta keep up with my little-cousin as best I can.”

[Nanzi Ai]

“I hope to be one step up from a three-eyed tea lover.” She replied with a smile.

“Gotta keep up with my little-cousin as best I can.”

“The three eyed tea lover was a rather talented poet, all things considered.”

“Keeping up, is that what you call it… and yet, I am still the best sword of this generation,” she said warmly.

[Shiba Kumori]

She chuckled, “You’re counting the range after my birth year, right? That’s a pretty narrow definition of ‘generation’.”

[Nanzi Ai]

She rolled her eyes and said, “At least your humor has improved over the years.”

[Shiba Kumori]

She laughed jovially… first time in a long while.

“We’ll just have to see who takes down more monsters by the end of our ‘generation’. You’ll need to invite a lot of monsters to your tea parties if you want to catch up.”

[Nanzi Ai]

She laughed jovially… first time in a long while.

“We’ll just have to see who takes down more monsters by the end of our ‘generation’. You’ll need to invite a lot of monsters to your tea parties if you want to catch up.”

"Would you like to come to a tea party," she said with a smirk as they walked.

[Shiba Kumori]

“You’d have to have pretty low standards to invite a wild fox.” She replied.

[Nanzi Ai]

“You’d have to have pretty low standards to invite a wild fox.” She replied.

“I thought I was inviting a dear friend, who just happened to be a lowly wild fox,” she said warmly.

“I promise there will be treats.”

[Shiba Kumori]

“Treats are nice. Who else would be coming to this party?”

[Nanzi Ai]

"Shinsei?" she blurted out.