Hizashi Ambassador Mansion Jeoncho

The news that Shogo was Tsukimi's intended bridegroom shed some light on the situation, but that light only revealed more complexity. “I see,” he said. “So you ran away to avoid being married to Urabe-dono?” It explained Shogo's reaction. It hadn't been the honourable thing to do on Tsukimi's part, but the story was definitely incomplete. “Tell me the rest later. But not too much later,” he said. “You can understand how this complicates things a little.”

“For now I really should see that they're both alright. I'm sure he's just doing his duty as my personal guard,” he replied, hoping she would feel less personal guilt over Yasuke getting thrown about. Kojuro knew that Yasuke could hold his own in a brawl, but if things got serious or Shogo's men decided to join in the situation could get out of hand easily. “You need to stay hidden though – we don't need any more surprises.”

He watched Yasuke put in a good account of himself with his attack on Shogo, only to see Shogo flip him off. Perhaps it was time to get involved... but much to his surprise and delight Wuppo intervened, separating the two combattants. He walked down to the end of the corridor, stepping over the splintered wood and paper panels Shogo had left in his wake. “Good work, Wuppo,” he said, pleased that everything had ended with no major injuries.

Yasuke had launched himself into an all or nothing attack - once again he sought to thread the needle with a bow on 100 yard distance. Shogo it seemed was a far too gritted and experienced warrior to fall for that simple and one directional attack. Before Yasuke knew of it, his leg was intercepted, grabbed and launched away along with his own body, Yasuke hitting the pavement and rolling a couple of times. He hurried up again with an angry frown on his face, and he certainly started to feel a little battered already, but of course this wasn't going to stop him.

But what was going to stop him was his tree eating friend Wuppo, and as the ogre's hand clutched around Yasuke and Shogo, Yasuke was still trying to flail at Shogo in vain. However his vicious attack only lasted as long and he turned his head to Wuppo.
"Wuppo... I was just ending this..!" he scolded the large ogre, though his words were not too harsh. Perhaps because he wasn't exactly winning, if he was to be honest.

"Wuppo... Uhmm... maybe it will be safer if he goes on the other side of the wall..." Yasuke tried to persuade the giant ogre right before Kojuro exited the mansion - looking quite content with the situation. That guy was hard to get to know properly. "Oi, Hizashi-dono. Care to make Wuppo put me down?"

"Indeed I did, though it took me a tad longer to realize it then you did. As always Lady Kiri, you are far shrewder than you appear." He said, a hint of smile breaching his usually taciturn appearance.

"No noble in my lands would have sought such an alliance without informing me, particularly given the recent political turmoil. Just in case, I shall have it looked into. Perhaps the former Shogun still has friends out there who are less than happy with his death."

With Yasuke seeming somewhat calmer than he was previously, Yasuke’s appeal to Kojuro to convince Wuppo to put him down was granted without Kojuro having to actually tell the ogre. Wuppo put Yasuke down, but kept Shogo clutched in his left hand - holding the man down at his side like a piece of luggage.

“Da Wize Otta!” Wuppo greeted Kojuro happily. “Wuppo sleep! An’ hear smash! Wuppo wake up, an’ see Taga-fish smash. Him roll! Da Tiggafish so good at roll, Wuppo fink him rock on Wuppo mou-tan! Huhh-huh-huhh!” Wuppo laughed, making light of Yasuke being thrown out of the mansion, and having to roll to lessen the impact of landing.

“Wuppo have dream! Bad dream! While sleep! Das when Wuppo have dream. I’z see big fing! Big! Big den Wuppo. Big like tree. An’ angry! Like dis! RAAHHH!!” With that, Wuppo lifted both of his arms over his head to demonstrate the large angry thing in his dream, acting as if he had momentarily forgotten he was holding Shogo. Shogo was hoisted into the air at the top of Wuppo’s reach as he reenacted his dream.

“Fing angry! Angry at Wuppo!” Wuppo put his arms down, and began to move over to the exterior wall of the garden. Wuppo grasped the top of the wall with his right hand, and used it to brace himself and he stood on his tip-toes. He lifted Shogo over the wall, trying to get the man as close to the ground as possible before letting him go, which would drop him down over the other side. Wuppo didn’t stop talking as he released Shogo like one might remove an ill-tempered cricket that wandered into the house. “An’ den, dere more Wuppo! Lots of Wuppo! A’den I’z wake up an see da Taka-fish!”

Wuppo’s rambling style of story-telling was just about as coherent as it normally was (which is to say, not very), but the others may have been able to gather that he’d had a dream about a large monster, and that somehow there had been many more ogres that looked just like Wuppo in his dream.

Hitomi's eyes narrowed in the brush as she watched the woman scale the wall, shifting silently in the bush she'd hidden herself in as her hands went back around her waist to untie her obi deftly. The heavy fabric slid off her shoulders in a ripple that was disguised by the wind shimmying the bushes around her. Carefully she folded the kimono, stowing it in the garden area to return to it later. She was not now in the nude, of course, instead wearing a shinobi's garb. She'd been trained from a young age on how to conceal the garment below a normal servant's kimono and it was fortunate she'd thought to wear it to the event. She needed to be ready at a moments notice and though she could easily engage with the kimono as that was also a skill she'd practiced, this outfit was much more suitable to trailing someone.

She watched as the woman went, unfurling the sleeves and pant legs to completely cloak her body in darkness, tugging the hood up with the cowl. She waited till the woman was nearly out of earshot and for another stiff breeze to blow through to hide her darted footsteps to the wall running along the side before hiding in the alcove that she knew to be one of the servant exits that was also used in cases of emergency. It was well concealed from view and few knew of it's existence. She paused again waiting with her hand on the heavy iron handle, peering around the corner to watch the woman as she continued scaling upwards.

Wuppo had everything under control. “Yes, Wuppo, looks like you stepped in just in time,” said Kojuro. Yasuke was put down without him needing to say anything, but it seemed Wuppo wanted to hold on to Shogo for now. He listened to Wuppo reciting his dream and that seemed to provide enough cover that he could conveniently ignore Shogo's appeal for the time being, after all, Wuppo was much louder and more insistent. “Something big that scared you? What could that be?” Once the ogre started to walk towards the wall, Kojuro said “You should probably put Urabe-dono down now, Wuppo...?” only for that request to finish once Shogo was already over the wall. It wasn't as though he controlled the ogre's actions after all.

Shogo out of the picture temporarily was a relief. “Let's go inside,” he suggested, a lot more together than his flimsy protests at Shogo's treatment would have indicated. “Thanks both of you. You're not hurt, Yasuke?” he asked, as he made sure Yasuke and Wuppo both followed into the building. “You need to bend down to get under here,” he advised the ogre as they passed through the doorway.

If all went to plan they would soon be back in the room with Tsukimi, this time with Wuppo in tow. “Shogo-dono is gone for now, but you had better let us know what to expect when he returns,” he said to the priestess, before introducing her to Wuppo, and vice versa. “You need to tell me your reasons for not wanting to marry Urabe-dono,” he said quite seriously as he sat back down. If Wuppo would like it there was still tea and snacks available.

Brushing off his clothes Yasuke was quite content that the ogre dropped him down in good spirits.
"Well I'd still say it was entirely unnecessary, but in the end this was the right thing. Now if you could just put the bastard down here in front of him... and maybe squeeze him a little first..." Yasuke interjected. "We'll settle this real quickly..." Yasuke continued and cracked his knuckles turning towards Wuppo and Shogo with a confident smile, only to see that Wuppo had already released Shogo on the opposite side of the wall.

"Did... did you hear any of what I just said..?" Yasuke threw his arms up and sighed, though feeling his shoulder being bruised he winced a little and quickly brought them down again. "He'll just come marching in again, and the problems still aren't solved." Yasuke argued and shook his head, having fully ignored the conversation between Wuppo and Kojuro.

"I'm not hurt - I mean I did a few fancy dodges making it seem like he got me, but that was only to ascertain his moves." he gave Kojuro a confident smile and padded him on his shoulder, a little bolt of pain going through his wrist, and he clenched his teeth to suppress it. "Maybe we should go get that wondrous sake soon...?" he suggested to change the subject, though any sake now would suffice just fine. Ultimately Yasuke followed Kojuro back inside instead of sneaking after the sake immediately. Having the huge ogre follow them inside, squeezing himself in, was an oddly casual thing and Yasuke caught himself wondering if other samurai clans had to contend with the same amount of odd stuff he was experiencing. Probably not, he thought, seeing the ogre stepping through the mess the drunken bastard and himself had already made.

Yasuke made his way over to Tsukimi's side, his breath held just shortly as he considered if it was a thing he could get away with, but opted to continue as she looked concerned. Putting his hand on Tsukimi's shoulder Yasuke would try and speak as gently as possible.
"Are you okay, Tsukimi? That man was very rude." he said, right before Kojuro also spoke to Tsukimi, Yasuke opening his eyes wide. "W-what..? Did he propose to you? When?" Yasuke asked surprised and frowned, although suddenly that name rang a bell. "Urabe... Is that Shigu Urabe, one of your generals..?!?" he turned Kojuro, having forgotten his exact given name, as his mind slowly starting to process the fact, that he had attacked a general. This could potentially be very bad, but Kojuro seemed oddly calm.

"Hizashi-dono... with all due respect, what is going on here?" he looked to Kojuro and then back at Tsukimi - even casting his gaze at Wuppo, feeling like everyone in this room knew more than him.

As Kojuro had pointed out to him, Wuppo certainly wouldn’t have been table to enter the door or even move around inside without stooping down a considerable amount. He walked into the Ambassador’s Mansion hunched-over, his giant ogre frame compacted into the narrow hallways. One might shudder to think what might happen if something were to startle the ogre, making him stand up straight quickly. When the trio made it to the room where Tsukimi was waiting, Wuppo stopped for a moment just outside in the hallway.

Wuppo looked at the door on the ground to his right, and then to the place in the wall where the door used to be on his left. He began to giggle to himself, being reminded of an adventure he and Yasuke had been on at one point together. The pair had broken a door at an onsen in Kiyonai following a water fight that ended in Yasuke running for his life from the foul stench of Wuppo’s flatulence. The end result was Yasuke being knocked unconscious, a great stone bowl of water being thrown, and one broken door to the changing room. The ogre was just about to share the memory with his friends when Kojuro introduced him to Tsukimi.

“I’z Wuppo!” he said, confirming his identity in a voice just a bit too loud for indoors. Wuppo walked, still hunched over, just inside the room and sat on the floor. He was seated in such a way that anyone entering or leaving the room would have to climb over him or squeeze between him and the wall. Kojuro seemed to have something he wanted to know from the woman in the room, so for now he would keep his memory of the good time he’d had with Yasuke to himself.

“Hmmm..” Wuppo wondered as the woman spoke as if he was in deep contemplation of what she was saying. In reality, Wuppo’s mind had wandered to the pot of tea sitting on the table in front of him. He leaned forward, and took the pot of tea. He brought it up to his eye level, examining the tea pot closely. From all indications, it didn’t appear as if it even registered with Wuppo what was being said.