Yamagata quietly sipped his green tea as he waited for their ‘host’ to arrive. He had arrived early, as he had planned, but surprisingly he was not the first; when he had been asked to relinquish his weapons and enchanted items another set of equipment already lay in a neat pile to one side. A thin shirt of chainmail and a pair of short swords were the stand out items, but there was also a small collection of items and weapons that Yamagata had learned to associate with ninjas.

Contemplating this information as he removed his own gear, setting his bow and quiver against the wall as he removed his armour and laid his tanto before it, Yamagata wasn’t sure what to make of a ninjas presence here. He was even less sure what to think when he saw the ninja in question. As he was led into the room the only other person present was a young woman in a red kimono; she was clearly not another servant, but also did not fit his image of what a ninja would look like. But then, wasn’t that exactly the point?

Taking the seat opposite the young woman, Yamagata requested a bottle of green tea and settled in to wait. As time passed more and more people began to arrive and seat themselves at the table; mean and women, young and middle aged, there didn’t seem to be much of a pattern to those who arrived aside from the fact that they were all younger than him. But all of the men appeared fit and strong, some bearing the scars of battle, and while the women were all beautiful he already suspected one of being a ninja and had no reason to think the others weren’t equally dangerous.

As the spaces around the table began to fill up the presence of the empty seat at the head of the table became more and more obvious. Yamagata continued to sip his tea and tried to calm his nerves.