Despite Noriaki so flauntingly announcing she was attracted to the lowly samurai, taking Asuka aback for a moment, intently as the woman had listened to her, Asuka did the same as Noriaki began to weave her tale, twas a tale that brought much to the ronin's heart in sadness, of how a peasant and a noble warrior came to know each other, become the grandest of acquaintances, and eventually the closest of companions, but all through their time together, a love began to blossom, a love that just as Asuka...the samurai could not requite for very reasons the ronin held her affections at bay. Weakness...such an ill word it was now to her. For is it even weakness to protect those you cherished the most? If so...then Asuka was the weakest of all swordsmen and swordswomen, for eventhough she drew her blade in anger against the fiend Kurohebi...she also bared her weapon to defend Hanami. All while she pondered upon the very story Noriaki eloquently dictated to her, Asuka could feel such a warmth brimming to her eyes, the warmth of tears daring to fall unto her cheeks. Just as the samurai...would she too die with such regret in her heart? Would she too leave feelings unrequited to her beloved Miko-dono and leave her....to ever regret knowing love?

The tale, it had done more to Asuka than open her eyes to the truth. As she sighed in an effort to quell the tears in her shadowed, blue eyes, she cleared her throat roughly, it having swelled a sort with the overbearing guilt she felt, conjured forth no less by Noriaki's poetic and tragic work. Though it was odd to Asuka, the way the woman spun this very yarn, it was a nostalgic sense. Asuka was beginning to think that the very villager Noriaki spoke of was indeed her, and that what she dictated was not fiction but rather a history the flirtatious one had shared with another woman. "It is funny, Noriaki-dono..." The ronin quietly uttered, her mournful eyes still affixed to her knees as she sat at the bench, lifting her head shortly so she could face the woman sitting next to her. "I can't help but think this tale you give me...is not a work of fantasy, indeed it isn't, but perchance I am reading too far into it." She had gotten the message. That's all that mattered. "I too must wonder if I shall die as the samurai, only realizing in my final moments what I held was not weakness, but too late am I to requite such feelings I wished to tell Miko-dono of, and I pass onward with a heart burdened so. But your words give me hope, Noriaki-dono, that they certainly do." For once in this very hour, a smile, a true smile finally returned to the very lips of the troubled soul. "It is true, I will need the assistance of one such as thee to overcome this very burden I speak of, and...despite my disapproval of earlier accounts of thee upon this journey, I am willing to forgive as some perhaps forgive me for my past endeavors, and I am willing to trust you, Noriaki-dono, that I am. As with many of these women, I too consider you a valuable comrade."

To think that beforehand, she was beginning to despise this woman, but in honesty, Noriaki only made a few mistakes. True it was cowardice to avoid aiding your comrades in battle, but as Asuka put it, such mistakes were in the past. Standing, the ronin bowed, a rather courteous and friendly smile still held upon her face as she looked to the poet. "I thank you for what you have said, Noriaki-dono, that I do. True, this burden I still carry, but I feel it has lessened as I've listened to your wise verbose, and....I wish you well in your pursuit of affections with your wonderful muse." A slight nod given to the woman, Asuka turned and back to the restaurant she went ambling, besides, the aroma of food was beginning to intoxicate her yet again, but...there was another pungent scent looming about, and another familiar one at that. [i]Sake?[/i] It only took one step into the very room to discover her assumptions were right, there was sake being passed about, but....what was this?! "Oro?!" She couldn't believe her eyes! Truly this had to be a deceptive illusion! Asuka blinked again and again ever so awkward, but no...it was still there before her eyes! That woman, the very same who vied for the very affections of Hanami, Ageha, she was...sleeping so immodestly in the miko's lap! "Mi...mi...Miko-dono?! A...Ageha-dono?!" All color seemed to have faded from her face, white as a ghost was Asuka upon viewing this...this unwelcome image, and soon limp became her legs, and not to mention every inch of her body. "O-oroooo......" And down she went to the ground, that flabbergasted expression ever present upon her blank staring eyes towards the ceiling, and her quivering lips. [i]This was not what I was expecting at all, that I wasn't....![/i]