Nakahama

Sorato finds himself, for the second time in as many days, wondering at the ease with which other shugenja call on the air kami. He'd be lucky to manage invoking that simple prayer without knocking the poor bird off its branch in a sudden unruly gale.

He keeps quiet for now, though, not wanting to startle the bird or break Kiyoshi's concentration. He watches Haruhi maul her clothing with raised eyebrows--how will this human intervention in avian courtship work out?

"Ooh, that's a lovely color. That'll do quite nicely."

It flicked its tail. "Could I trouble you to tear it up a bit? What do I look like, a jimen tori?" Indeed, it was a bit large for the relatively small bird as it was.

"Of course." He carefully tore the fabric.

"Right, right, that's very good." The bird said. "T'all very much,"

It would wait until some of the strands were on the ground, then swoop down, picking up a length of it. With that, it flew off, towards where the other singing had been coming from, blue fabric trailing behind it.

Sorato smiles in genuine wonder as the bird flutters off with the scrap of fabric in its beak. "Well. Look at that." Benten bless that silly little creature.

After a moment he adds, thoughtfully, "Hope we're not creating an unrealistic standard for the other males of the species."

"I hope he comes back to finish our chat." Kiyoshi sighed.

"Their love-songs are the stuff of legend. They mate for life. There's a local folktale about a pair of Shama lovebirds."

"I do hope he comes back! But I got some good footage and audio, either way."

"I wouldn't want to interrupt true love." He said. "We can still look around. "

It wouldn't be much later that the bird came back. After all, there was still more blue to collect!



"Gonna get her some more of this. She likes blue." The bird whistled.

"I don't want to interrupt, but could you tell me more about this area? Are there caves around here?"

Kitsune Kiyoshi wrote: Mon Nov 17, 2025 9:48 am "I don't want to interrupt, but could you tell me more about this area? Are there caves around here?"

"I don't really know. Not many. Probably a few. I'm not really much for caves, y'know?"

Haruhi smiled. "Ask him what he likes most about his mate. Perhaps he will sing it."

She was ready with the audio, hoping for more Shama lovesong!

Hatoful GM wrote: Mon Nov 17, 2025 10:10 am

"I understand. Tell me about her, the woman you've chosen. She must be special."

Kitsune Kiyoshi wrote: Mon Nov 17, 2025 11:13 am "I understand. Tell me about her, the woman you've chosen. She must be special."

"Oh, yeah, she's great." The bird sang. "She's pretty, she's strong, she's nearby, she's great at finding bugs..." All of these characteristics seemed to have roughly equal weight.

"Anyway, she's gonna want more blue if she wants a proper nest. Bye!" Once more, the bird swooped down, picking up a length of the blue cloth, and carrying it away. At least there had been a variety of sounds.

Haruhi smiled.

"I can only imagine he said nice things. And perhaps she heard him cooing about her. It's marvelous. Such a happy fluting."

She surely had enough to start work on a shama avi-drone schematic!

Sumiko had watched the display of helping the bird get a mate. The Crane was ripping up clothes, the Kitsune was giving some kinda bird love advice. The Phoenix was...watching, which was the only thing that seemed normal here.

For her part the Spider had put her bag down and leaned against a stone. She wasn't sure if this bird was going to be helpful or not, as it seemed to be building something with all the blue from the Cranes clothes but she wasn't going to interrupt something that let her small legs rest from all the walking.

"He didn't know anything about caves." Kiyoshi said. "They aren't very important to him. He's focused on nesting right now. We should probably check the lake and verify it has fish.".

Haruhi nodded.

"I am imagining a pretty nest with blue ribbon woven all through."

"Yes, let's head on to the lake. Plenty to study there. Did anyone bring fishing gear to actually try to catch the fish? Assuming we find some?"

"Yes, of course." Sorato smiles pacifically. "Tenjin Town is full of fishing shops, it turns out. I've got a collapsible pole in my bag." He hitches his daypack into a slightly more comfortable position. "We'll see if anything bites for me, though."

---
(I totally did buy a fishing kit at the change to D4! Hah! )

"Wonderful! Let's head on to the lake and see what we find and give it a try."