Truth of Blood

[Izayoi Goto]

Glass and steel, simple yet purposeful lines. There is elegance in minimalism.

Goto Izayoi, Iga Jonin Kunoichi, Childe of Mochizuki Chiyome, once servant of the Takeda Clan, arranged a meeting in this modern hotel room with an Invictus Miss, Domain Reeve and claimant to the Takeda name.

As she waited, she wondered just how this meeting will go.

[Takeda Katsumi]

Three precise knocks sounded upon the hotel room door, then silence. There was no shifting of weight. No sound of breath. The unquiet dead were remarkably silent when they wished to be, after all.

Takeda Katsumi waited outside, clad in a simple black kimono, with the Takeda mon clearly upon her sleeves and over the left breast. Her daisho, as always, was hidden by the ancient power that lurked within her blood.

[Izayoi Goto]

Izayoi answers the heralding sound promptly. Like her countrywomen she is wearing something traditional. The crests of Goto and Iga displayed proudly, her daisho worn in view. The Takeda already knew she bore the expertly crafted steel.

"Oyasuminasai, yoru wa dō yatte anata o mitsukeru nodesu ka?" She greets with a bow when the door closes after the Haunt's entrance.

"Thank you for agreeing to this meeting.*" once they move from the door. "I know there are many questions dancing upon my tongue, I wonder if you find yourself in the same predicament."

Izayoi shows the other women to the chair she'd been sitting in and the glass table that lay before it. A steaming teapot rested with a full teaset. "I prepared tea if you might enjoy the sensation of familiarity, if not. I will not be offended." they were dead and many kindred did not indulge in things that wouldn't agree with them.

*

Going to be continuing the conversation in Japaneses, but I'll write in English for ease and also laziness :P

[Takeda Katsumi]

Agreed! Conversation takes place in Japanese (unless otherwise specified), but written in English

"Good evening, Goto-dono," Takeda replied with a bow before she stepped across the threshold and into the room. Her murderous eyes swept over the room, taking in the modernist decorations. Truthfully, she was actually very fond of them, she liked the asymmetrical glass and steel, the clean lines, the spartan feeling. It would contrast so wonderfully with wabi-sabi. Nevertheless, Takeda wasn't pleased to see that Goto had not only already made the tea, but that she was using the western furniture as well.

Nevertheless, to frown would be to dishonour herself, and so instead Takeda simply paced over to an empty spot on the floor, removed her killing sword from both the shroud of obfuscation as well as her obi. Sinking into seiza upon her floor, she set her sword on her left rather than in front of her. A clear sign: it would be clear to draw if it was needed.

"I do have questions," Takeda conceded, "but I have learned that often those questions are best answered when one does not speak, so I will humbly listen."

[Izayoi Goto]

Izayoi smiles at her countrywomen, shaking her head slightly. "Will you not call me out?" she asks, drifting over to the table, and the tray the tea set sat upon. "I didn't realise until it was already made, it isn't that I will turn my nose up at our living history....I have not stepped foot in Japan for centuries....many things are dull to me. Forgive me of my blunders. I masters would have had me whipped for doing something like this." Her hands hesitate over the porcelain, "The last time I attempted a proper tea ceremony....it did not come to me," she admits, it might be seen as a weakness, but Izayoi knew she must give to get. "Would you like for us to begin again. You might need to lead the ceremony, even if I attempt to play hostess."

Returning to where the Takeda, if she was truly a Takeda, sat, Izayoi goes to the ground, her mirror is opposite.

"I have one question that presses upon me more then any other has ever done to me.

"Are you truly the blood of the Takeda?"

[Takeda Katsumi]

Katsumi arched an eyebrow at the sudden question, surprised into betraying such a sign of confusion.

"Am I truly of the Blood of Takeda?" Katsumi repeated, something like scorn appearing in her voice. "Are you implying that I am liar? That I would claim the name of the Takeda clan when I have no right to it?"

[Izayoi Goto]

The anger is promising, existing outside the Haunt's Cursed Sakki.

"You would not be the first to claim such a thing to my face." she answers easily, "Many would claim such august lineage, and many have been felled." There is steel within her dark eyes, bare and gleaming as she intones once more, "Are you truly the blood of the Takeda?"

[Takeda Katsumi]

So there was steel inside the shadow, something which Katsumi would have to remember if she hoped to continue to walk on her current path.

"I could continue to claim that I am of the blood of Takeda," Katsumi continued, her voice having cooled once more, "but as you said, any fool could claim to be from such a lineage. I could recite the names of my ancestors directly back to the Tiger of Kai, but what astute student of history couldn't have learned to do the same? Perhaps I could instead try to provide you with artifacts that would prove my ancestry, but if I were truly such an honorless curr then I could have had them stolen, or worse, simply purchased them, as though money had the same worth as blood. So allow me to ask you, Goto-dono, what would you accept as proof, if you insist upon disparaging my word."

[Izayoi Goto]

"All are true." she nods, "Each are possible." another nod,"I, however do not believe you to be honorless."

The shadow stands, moving to where a briefcase lay, she opens it and retrieves a calligraphy set. Which she presents to Katsumi once she is returns to seiza.

"Your written oath sealed with blood with be every truth I need."

[Takeda Katsumi]

Katsumi would have smiled had she been given the privacy to do so, and instead merely nodded. They were of the First Estate, after all. There were somethings that even they had to consider inviolate.

With a bow, she accepted the calligraphy set. Then, with great care, she drew her Wakizashi and drew it across her left palm. Then she turned and made a fist, thick, dark vitae welling between her fingers and falling slowly to fill the ink stone. Then, she took up a silk kerchief from her obi, cleaner her blade and sheathed it, and then used the silk to bind her hand. She would will her flesh to close later, but for now she took up the brush, dipped it into her vitae, and began to write.

Her calligraphy was not well formed, but there was honesty in that, and soon she had finished and passed it to Goto for inspection.

"Now that you have my oath, sealed in blood, what does this mean, Goto-dono? You are not going to tell me that you have sworn revenge against the clan of my birth, are you?"