Oh ho... so she's taunting me, eh? I think I like her. Girl knows what she wants.

"Well," he answered, taking the glass. "I suppose I'll try it... if I can trust you not to take advantage of me," he finished with a grin. "I'm putting my faith in you, now." He took a sip of it and blinked, noting that it did taste a little different than he was used to. But there was no sense in losing stature in Min's eyes just because her drink of choice was a little unfamiliar.

If she can drink it I can, and if she enjoys it than by the gods I will enjoy it for her sake, he resolved.

A few minutes --and another glass-- later, Kikuchi resolved that perhaps Min was right. This must be some heady wine. It occurred to him that Min must be one hell of a woman if this was what she preferred to drink. The edges of the world began to get comfortably sketchy and his thoughts turned briefly back to the day's accomplishments.

I wonder how long it will take them to find her. She'll probably find her way away from them... but if they're smart they'll find a way to corner her. Hopefully they have enough information to make her come to them. Nowhere for her to run then.

Once again he did his best to shove it to the back of his mind. It really took a lot to distract him from a beautiful woman getting him drunk but... It just... the anticipation was killing him!

Back on topic, boy. Stop fixating. Eyes on the prize.

"You know, Min. I have to say that I--" He took another sip. "--just may not be man enough for the kind of drinking you're used to." He grinned. Her final estimation of his masculinity wouldn't rest on his head for liquor. My real chance to impress her hasn't even come yet. Though with luck it shouldn't be too long.

Stop dr-- but...Oh... oh, I see... The water's over theeeere....

Aishigara was beginning to feel downright fantastic and he knew by now that it wasn't the wine. No alcohol had ever had this effect on him. It was... it was something else. Some combination of the day's victories and this wonderful girl he'd found.

That's got to be it. It's her. Haven't felt this great around a girl in ages.

With that thought he headed over, reaching out to touch the wall for balance once or twice. Once he was by her side, he took the glass and felt the sudden irresistible urge to sit down. Bed looked comfortable and standing was just... well, why? What a waste of energy. Sitting was good. He sat toward the head of the bed and turned to face her while he did as commanded and enjoyed some water.

He took a sip and found that water wasn't nearly as interesting as the wine. The wine had been great. He almost went for more instead of the water, but some part of his mind was still trying to optimize the situation and it reminded him that she wanted him to drink water and that was a good enough reason to do it.

He conceded the point to himself with a small note of disappointment and drank a little more. He leaned back against the wall, noting with satisfaction that this took even less effort than actually sitting up.

Aishigara set the glass down and looked up at her. Wow, is she ever fantastic. He opened his mouth to speak and found himself really kind of enjoying the idea of just... relaxing. Maybe resting. In fact, the idea of being asleep suddenly seemed so attractive he couldn't imagine that he'd ever wanted to do anything else.

He leaned his head against the wall behind him and suddenly stopped worrying about consciousness entirely. If being awake felt this good sleep would be great.

After leaving the note for B'esctra at the front desk, Myrnal sat on the floor in the hall that led to Minshara's room. She'd fully intended to wait for the physician to return, but the first person down the hall was an older woman who beckoned to Myrnal to follow her.

"What?"

"Your friend. She says she has something for you, but would like to meet you in your room. She asked if I could please see that you were there."

"My friend, huh?" She picked herself up off the ground with some effort. She hadn't gotten much rest and it was getting harder to move again. "Whatever," she said. Taking it as the politest assent she was likely to get from the belligerent gaijin, the woman led Myrnal back to her room.

"She will be here when she can, I think."

".....yeah, okay. Thanks," she finished insincerely.

Myrnal sat down on the floor on her bed, and waited for a few minutes before lying back to stare at the ceiling. She reached up to touch the cut across her neck just under her chin. It still stung a little, but it had stopped bleeding.

Yanna is going to freak out, she thought. I can explain away some scars but she is not going to be happy about this.

Eventually she heard a voice outside her door. "Myrnal? Are you in? It's Min. Look I know, I'm the last person you want to talk to at this moment... but I think I've got someone you'd rather not talk to at all passed out in my room. Trust me... you really want to take a look at this."

Myrnal growled deep in her throat at the idea of having Minshara in her room, but part of her was a little curious as to just what in the abyss Minshara was on about now.

Fine then. I'll talk to you. ...But I'm not getting up unless I have to.

"Come in. It isn't locked."

Myrnal's mind was trying very hard to react to several different things at once.

First of all, Minshara had apologized. Hard to make much of that, particularly since there was a good chance she was just saying it because courtesy demanded it. If she were sorry she wouldn't do things like that in the first place.

But there was little time for further cynicism before the next revelation hit. Aishigara? What th-- That little f@#$er, I knew he was alive. She's keeping him WHERE?

"We?" Myrnal echoed. "You got a mouse in your pocket? I don't see any we. You're the one who brought the little s@#$ home. I don't have the will or the energy to torture information out of him beyond what you heard of his thoughts."

Figures she's a telepath. F@#$ing manipulative mindreading brainwashing s@#$s the lot of them-- Myrnal caught herself short on a mental rant. ...I need to chill; I'm turning into Hakaril.

"Anyway, If I were you I'd just cut his throat while he's out, dump his body, and forget about the whole thing. You're making this too complicated."

Myrnal sighed inwardly. This is how all conversations with Minshara were doomed to end now. Minshara offering her half-hearted and chilly assistance, and Myrnal pushing her away to keep from getting hurt again.

This is just so typical.

"Hey," Myrnal said as Minshara started to leave. She waited for Minshara to turn back around. "If it makes you feel better, it's entirely possible that... if it's me he's after... that he's already tried."

The ninja sighed and sat up on her bed. "I was actually waiting for you when your messenger found me. I left a note for the drow, too," she finished with a shrug. "Some woman attacked Somnia and me in the onsen earlier. Somnia took care of her, but it was weird. Before Somnia killed her she asked where the drow was, and when we wouldn't tell her I think she was very disappointed in our character."

"I wanted to warn you guys since it's entirely possible that you'll have problems too thanks to our recent alliance with a servant of the Fallen One," she finished with distaste. If there was one thing she hated more than having to tolerate Maedhros' presence in her life again in any form, it was having other people associate her with him.

"You think that's the same problem, or a separate one?"

The hell do you mean what's to stop him? You cutting his f@#$ing throat. I fail to see the huge problem with that plan. Myrnal barely managed to keep the thought to herself. The truth was that for most of her friends Myrnal would gladly have gotten rid of their enemies. Her own integrity, whatever honor she cultivated for herself... as a rule those things weren't nearly as important as the well-being of her allies.

It was just one more indication that she and Minshara were working from very different moral viewpoints here, not least of which being that Min wasn't behaving the way Myrnal would if a friend were in danger. Frustrating, but not exactly surprising.

"All right, fine. You don't want to kill him, don't. I won't ask you to do anything more than you've already done." She closed her eyes and rubbed her temple with one thumb. "If you can't think of anything else to do, just leave him in your room and ditch him. He probably won't think too hard about it if he can tell himself he got laid."

Another sigh later, she shrugged. "I'm not in any condition to go kill him myself right now, so the only option I've apparently got is to head out and hope it takes him a while to catch up to me again. As for him hiring someone else to kill me... it doesn't seem like him. He's more likely to..."

He'd want to fight me himself. But he'd have to get to me first and he couldn't do that unless...

"He'd hire somebody to corrall me someplace, get me where he can fight me on his own terms. But I can't even begin to imagine that he'd want anyone else to be the one who kills me. I mean, there's not really anything he or anyone else could really do to me besides kill me. There's nothin--"

The thought hit her fully-formed before the words could come. There's nothing they can hold over me... except Yanna and Kerran.

A flash of panic brought with it the intense desire to go home, to see that nothing happened that Kerran couldn't handle. Fortunately her paranoia got the better of her and she remembered that if anybody she knew were really in danger, it would be because Aishigara's contacts found them through her. Rushing home wouldn't help anyone and she didn't even know that's what he had planned. It was just a worst case scenario. If anyone tracked her to Miriel they'd be able to find her grandparents easily enough, but tracking her to Miriel with just her name would next to impossible.

It was just a worst-case scenario. Just a moment of panic. Just the paranoia of a woman who knew what she would do in Aishigara's place. With any luck Aishigara wasn't anywhere near as spiteful and cruel as Myrnal sensed she could be.

She took a deep breath. Myrnal could deal with him on her own turf, but she had to get there first. She couldn't go back to Miriel for fear of leading trouble back to her family's doorstep, but there were other options.

"All right. Here's the deal. Whatever you do with your new drunken womanizing ninja housepet is your business. I'm going to try and get some sleep. Tomorrow morning I'll go collect some earnings and see about getting myself on the first ship out of here. Sailor's Bane is the fastest way for me to get back on my own ground again. Let him come pester me there if he's got the balls."

Myrnal watched Minshara leave, staring at the door long after she'd gone.

Well, that's a weird thing to say. All things considered.

Something didn't entirely feel right to Myrnal about this situation, about the way things had resolved themselves. A more arrogant woman would have told Minshara how dangerous a game she'd been playing with an unstable and uncertain ally. A more self-assured woman would have settled for hating the healer for her previous callousness. A more expressive woman might have explained to Minshara the difference between affront and injury. A more resilient woman could have shaken the betrayal from her mind to believe that Minshara really hadn't meant to hurt her.

For better or worse, Myrnal was none of these things, and when she lowered her eyes from the closed door it was with resignation.

Whatever. This is such horses@#$.

Her sleep was light and uneasy, but undisturbed. By the time she woke the sun was high above the rooftops and Myrnal remembered she had work still to do today. She shook out the last of her pay, and after she'd covered incidental charges for her room she had just a little left over. The corner of her mouth twisted in a smirk as she laid out plans for the day. She was likely going to spend the remainder of this shopping, of all the silly feminine things.

Nonetheless, she needed clothes and supplies if she were looking at a ship voyage alone. For a pittance Myrnal bought the simple and practical clothes worn by many women who had more to do in a day than arrange flowers and pour tea. Pinning her hair behind her head with a comb where it would hopefully leave her alone for the day, she closed her hand around her last few coins.

There was one more thing to buy, but it was taking Myrnal all day to decide she needed it. She'd been having a heck of a time making her way around alone after the ordeals her body had been through recently, and she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she'd have it a little easier if she just sucked it up and bought a cane.

She sighed. It's just for now, she thought. When I get this crap out of my system I can get rid of it, but for now the least I can do is get a decent one.

With that, she spent the last remnants of her pay on a polished cherry cane with a silver handle. If she was going to need a walking stick, by the gods it was going to be a good-looking expensive prissy one.

By the time Myrnal reached the Bloodflower, she'd gotten used to walking with it, and she noted with some annoyance that it did help.

Well, would you be less pissed if you'd spent all that money for nothing? She challenged herself. Damn thing.

It seemed that Papilonn had made the arrangements assuming Myrnal would get Minshara safely to Nijon, though Myrnal couldn't help but recall how close the job had come to ending much more poorly. No matter. With the bulk of her pay safely in her possession, Myrnal's next task was to find a way to get herself the hell out of this country. Sometimes it seemed as if everybody here was out to get her, and if nothing else she'd be home relatively soon. Minshara said she'd take care of Aishigara, which likely amounted to telling him a convincing lie and sending him on his way.

Fine. Next time Myrnal saw him, she'd kill him. That simple.

After asking around, Myrnal found that there was a ship leaving in the early evening. Officially it had been full for weeks, but a few well-placed bribes assured that she'd have passage when it left. All she had to do was head back out across the border, check out with the guards there, and wait around the dock for the day until her ship was ready to go.

With one last, long look over her shoulder, Myrnal spared a moment to regret she hadn't gotten the chance to get to know this place better. She didn't know if she would be in this part of the continent again, and it might have been good to see more of it than she had.

"Just wasn't meant to be this time, I guess," she muttered. "Eh." Pausing to dig out her forged papers before she reached the station, Myrnal got her feet and her cane back under her and headed out to get herself away from this ridiculous place.

She'd be home before long and that was nothing to complain about. Then it would just be her and her dog. No one to harass her or bring any more chaos into her life. She was done with it.