The Day of Thunder

It had taken some asking around, and a few headaches, but Sora had figured out where Kumori was staying.

So he approached the modest home- which was, even if shared, probably nicer than his tent would ever dream of being- and asked after her.

Kumori had just finished dinner with her hosts and stepped out onto the porch after hearing Sora at the door.

“Hey there old man.”

"Evening, Laughing Bird."

He grinned.

"Figured I'd swing by the local branch of the Imperial Palace. You got a moment?"

She nodded and waved him up to the porch.

“So… pretty nutty day.”

"Not the first time- I told you about fighting the guy's incarnate hubris, right?"

He sighed.

"Bad one, though. At least nobody died."

“From what I hear it was the real one this time though and not a shadow…” She replied as she looked out over the village.

"When it comes to trust, the distinction doesn't mean as much as you might hope... anyway. On the subject of morale- and winning hearts and minds, hopefully... I have an idea."

She turned her gaze towards him out of the corner of her eyes while still facing out.

“Yeah?”

"That meal I suggested putting on for the locals? I might need to borrow your name to whack some objectors on the head with. I'm not prepared to go to war with four daimyo over the venue, we'll probably have it somewhere other than in camp, but if a certain scarecrow-fighting Lioness bridles at the idea, it might be useful."

“You know I trust you.” She says plainly.

“And you know I don’t like throwing around my name and expecting people to cater to my every whim… So use it as you’d like. But try not to use it as a club…”

She shrugged, “I don’t see any of the daimyo reaching out to me for input… So I figure they are happy running the show as is… I just hope they don’t run it into the ground.”

She nodded, “I think things that pull people together are a good idea. So if you think it’s good. You can tell anyone that I ‘approved’ it.”

"On that same subject, Wu Zhe has been my primary point of contact for this..."

He chuckled.

"Largely by default. But you've heard the talk around town. We need to try to arrest this drift before we have more to worry about."

Some people have excellent timing. Might be fate, might be a dragon's foresight, might be the foreword of a affable curmudgeon.

At any rate, there was a knock on the door...

“I hope we can… But when you have one Daimyo who hates my family to her core. Another who wants to make it so we aren’t in charge of the empire with that bakufu nonsense… and two younger ones who defer to the hardline anti-Imperial older ladies…”

She tilted her head, “And now Shinsei goes and proves all their fears to be valid…”

She sighed, “The rift doesn’t seem like it’ll get mended in time…”

She then turned towards the man who just arrived and knocked on the door.

“Come in.” She says aloud.

The man wore a thick green kimono and a large straw hat to protect him from the rain. Removing it has he stepped inside he was, of course, Wu Zhe.

''Good evening'' he said with a bow

"I think Anjing's core might have some room for hope. But more importantly, we need to hope. We give up, we might as well starting trying out fittings for the fancy new limbs we'll be getting... ah, Wu-san. Good evening."

Kumori nods to Sora’s comment and turns her attention to Zhe.

“Good evening Wu-san. How can we help you?”

''My apologies for the interruption, princess.'' he bowed low after realizing who was present '' I had initially hoped to get a word with Jiyo-sama to keep him updated of today's event...'' clearly he did not expect her to be there, something might have been lost in the communication.

The dragon was calm but it was clear that his day had taken a toll.

''...I will wait until this is over.''

"I have no meaningful secrets from Shiba-sama, Wu-san."

The deliberate pomposity of his tone was delivered with a grin.

"And it might be I'd just burden her with whatever you told me anyway."

She nodded and smiled softly, showing she was more than welcome to have the Dragon intrude.

Zhe sighed and nodded, joining them. He opted to start with the political side

''First, a bad news: Makime-sama finally managed to get expelled form headwoman's home during her 'visit' with Anjing-sama. I convinced Chouri to continue talking with the crab daimyo, leveraging some of the crab delegation's good deeds and bravery in the village.''

He paused for a second

''A good news: I might be able to convince the Crab to move to the village if there enough willing to house them''