bump in the night

They? He glanced at her as they walked, but his steps did not falter. He did not probe with questions or insist that she explain herself, as he suspected she would continue once she'd had a moment to gather her thoughts. It was a quiet night, even the air was still, as though waiting on bated breath to see what she would say next.

And once she spoke the pale of Hattori's brows furrowed, understanding settling in as he paused to take a look at her. A real sharp look at her. He had always wondered about the nature of her markings, how and why they were so sharp, almost jagged. More like brush strokes than dappled edges like his own. He had only ever seen markings like this before, not that he'd been to court or met royalty himself, but he'd seen a distant cousin once and though they were undeniably koi. Kiriko herself had relatively few markings and plenty of white, and yet... Well, it felt obvious then and though her claims were bold and tempting to push aside he knew she was speaking the truth. Who would lie about this?

Much had changed in their homeland in his absence, but he couldn't say he was overly surprised to hear such a fate had befallen the royal family. Much of their power and prestige had been slowly taken away by the Shogun, in the end they were figureheads more than anything else, it seemed. And all that was left was to sweep up the mess left behind, tie up the loose ends.

And Kiriko was a very loose end.

"Well," He made a thoughtful sound in his throat, paws crushing dried bamboo leaves as he went. She was safe here, but was there anything else he could do to cement that fact? He would think on it. "What would you have me do?" He asked instead.