Sumi give a light-hearted giggle while covering her mouth demurely. "Why, Usagi-san. it is a tournament to showcase your skills. What good would it do to showcase something without people to show it to?"

"Then you have yourself a competitor of the Usagi, Tsuruchi-san," Tsuki smiles, "and the Empire will see that the Hare are not to be trifled with."

Sumi beamed and nodded her head firmly. "Indeed they shall, Usagi-san, indeed they shall. I will be happy to add your clan to the list of those attending. It will be a glorious event." Sumi then rose half-way to her feet and bowed to Tsuki before rising the rest of the way. "It has been nice speaking with you Usagi-san. However, I must I must now ask that you excuse me. I have more arrangements to see to for this tournament and long roads to travel. I should be going now."

"Be wary, Tsuruchi-san," Usagi Tsuki bows in farewell, "there are many who would see an end to Yoritomo-sama's ambition, and any who serve him."

As she was beginning to leave, Sumi turned briefly to face Tsuki and said, "Ah, I see... But Usagi-san, I am certainly wary to be a lone traveler out on the open road. Tell me however, who would seek to end such noble ambitions?"

"Many among the Great Clans are unwilling to accept the heights to which Yoritomo-sama has risen; no few among the Minor Clans are unwilling to see Yoritomo-sama reach any higher to their detriment; and there are some within the Mantis who resent the high handed way that Yoritomo-sama absorbed their duties."

"I see," Sumi said after listening to Tsuki. "I wonder though, Usagi-san, do you know some these Mantis, or are these perhaps phantom rumors that you have heard? All of those whom the Mantis has accepted into the clan were presented with a very beneficial offer that they chose to accept. Hardly high-handed, and it is so easy to make slanderous comments on someones deeds when you are envious of their deeds."

Sumi sighed letting a moment of silence settle before commenting further "As for the rest of the minor clans, well, I fail to see how a minor clan rising in power to become a great clan, and thus, proving to the other great clans that the minor clans are not beneath their notice, is to their detriment unless they are indeed fearful of being noticed." Stopping, Sumi gave an apologetic bow and told Tsuki. "I apologize for sounding so argumentative Usagi-san. You were only cautioning me and that is no excuse for me to rant so to you. So many people are so resentful of another's successes that it is just shameful."

"Those who have spoken to me have spoken in confidence, Tsuruchi-san," Usagi Tsuki shrugs apologetically, "and I would not betray their confidence in much the same way you would not tell a newly met acquaintance the drunken ravings of an old comrade.  But it is the Hare's duty to hunt down the hidden enemies of the Empire, and out of such dissatisfactions are conspiracies formed.

"Ah, I see," Sumi said with a slight bow. "Perhaps I might not speak of drunken ravings. They often do not amount to much once the drunkenness is gone. Ravings that I suspected of growing into a conspiracy, however... Well, I suppose I should be thankful that my comrades do not rave drunkenly about such dissatisfaction Usagi-san." Sumi shrugged, dropping the subject for now and giving Tsuki a smile. Sumi considered there was likely very little she could do with any information of that sort right now. There were other things that she needed to do first and could not spend the time necessary for watching Tsuki to find out more, besides that, it was doubtless that the Scorpion already knew what she was referring to and Sumi suspected that if she became too involved with it, she would either quickly become their pawn or be pulled away from it. She would have to hope more information came her way before she devoted much activity to it.

"I wish you well in your dealings, Tsuruchi-san," Usagi Tsuki bows, "and hope the Mantis prove themselves worthy of the loyalty of the Wasp."

Tsuruchi Sumi finds Tsuruchi Michiru--the Tsuruchi adjunct to the Mantis contingent--unsurprisingly, in one of the practice yards, training with her longbow.  She is alone in the yard, as her particular training regimen requires that she shoot at multiple targets of varying distances and angles as quickly as possible, and no one wants to get in her way.

"Well, Sumi-san," she asks, after completing her final sequence of shots, "what brings you here?"

"Oh, I was enjoying a pleasant afternoon and thinking of ways that I might improve my own kyujutsu. this made me think of how close I was to here. So, I thought to come by. It is an honor to see you practicing your skill Michiru-san. I would consider it no small gift if you would allow me the pleasure of watching you further. I will try not to disturb."

"Your timing, Sumi-san, as always, is impeccable," Michiru replies, smiling as she unstrings her bow, "as I am quite finished for the day.  Too much shooting at one time can over stretch the bowstring.  However, if you wish to improve your skills, practice is the best advice I can give you."

"I could hardly even begin to equal your skill, Michiru-san, but of course I would be foolish not to heed your advice. What do you normally do after practice?" Sumi asked, watching Michiru for a clue as to what she was going to do next.

"I take tea and, perhaps, meditate upon my fortunes," she replies, as you exit the practice area, "would you care to join me, Sumi-san?"

OOC:  are you still looking to find out more about the Tsuruchi who are dissatisfied with the Mantis?  I assume Michiru is where you wanted to start gathering information

"You are very kind to offer Michiru-san. I have been on the road a long way and the weather does parch one's throat. I will accept your offer if it does not inconvenience you." Sumi followed her out of the practice area. Her Scorpion training keeping her eyes alert for any details that gave her a bit of personal information about Michiru.

OOC: Yes I am, I'm just trying to sort of back into the conversation without being too blunt and insulting.

Michiru leads Sumi into her stark tea room, there are few decorations, though the tea set she serves you from is fine.

"So, Sumi-san, it is not often that you come to see members of your family while you represent our interests in court," Michiru says, sipping her tea.

Sumi glanced over the rather austere room and smiles as she had a seat. She then graciously accepted the tea. She was in fact quite thirsty, aside from simply enjoying good tea. "I wish I were able to do more at court. I am only a minor actress, but there are many favorable toward me." Sumi sighed as if frustrated. "I must confide in you Michiru-san. I would like to do more, but I wonder if I should. It seems lately that if I benefit our clan, it is only the clan that receives the benefit while our family seems mostly forgotten for its efforts."

"The Wasp have always been a little bit different from the other samurai of Rokugan, Sumi-san," Michiru shrugs, sipping her tea, "we forgo the daisho in favor of the bow, we follow the Wasp code rather than bushido, and our duty binds us to the Emerald Champion.  When Tsuruchi bound us to the Mantis, we traded some of our independence for acceptance within the order of Rokugan.  Yes, the Yoritomo benefit most from your efforts, but being able to hunt our quarry with the protection of a Great Clan--even one so newly minted as the Mantis--is worth a little sacrifice.  Now," she smiles, "I won't say that I don't miss the yellow and black, or that all of the Wasp are satisfied with their lot, but both the Mantis and the Wasp still have much to learn about each other."

"Yes, I should think that they do have much to learn," Sumi agreed with a smile of her own. "It would be nice if there were an opportunity to for me to wear the old colors, unfortunately the yellow and black was traded out and I was given to the Scorpion to raise. I never had the chance to wear it, such a pity." Sumi sipped at her tea in silence for a moment. "I knew within reason that if I were unsatisfied with the state of things then there must be others. Sadly however, it seems that fortune has not favored the notion that similarly unsatisfied people should meet, or even if they had, secrecy obviously demands that they could not confide in each other, would you not agree Michiru-san?"

[Private to Kaze no Kage: Once again, I am so sorry for the long wait!]

"Of course there are those who are dissatisfied with their lot in the Celestial Order, Sumi-san," Michiru shrugs, "but the ways of Heaven are mysterious and do not take into account the short lives of humanity.  However, some among the Tsuruchi who continue to wear the yellow and black--with the full knowledge of the Mantis Champion--in order to fulfill their duties to the Emerald Champion.  Those of us who wish to remember our former lives as Wasp--outside of our role as Emerald Magistrates--sometimes wear black armbands in memory of simpler times.  It is not so much a matter of secrecy," she continues, sipping her tea, "as a matter of conflict between our new role as subject to Yoritomo-sama and our continuing role as servants of the Emerald Champion.

Sumi sipped at her tea thoughtfully, then asked Michiru, "What conflict exists between the two roles? Would Yoritomo ask of us something the Emerald Champion does not approve of?"

"It is a matter of perception, Sumi-san," Michiru replies, "when the Wasp were a Minor Clan, the Great Clans took no issue with all of us being considered Emerald Magistrates because there was little to no benefit to our taking advantage of our position.  But now that we are members of a Great Clan, our position is a potential political threat."

"I see your point" Sumi told Michiru, while in truth she did not fully. "It would seem to me that the best way to solve this dilemma would be to somehow distance ourselves from Yoritomo, would it not? We need some sort of barrier to prevent anything we do from washing back the clan and also to make it plain that we only act in our duty as magistrates and that there are no political motives behind our actions."

"And you would propose to do this how?" Michiru asks, not mockingly, but genuinely curious, "to distance ourselves from Yoritomo-sama so soon after our adoption into his clan would cast doubt upon our loyalty to the Mantis Clan and bring shame upon Tsuruchi-sama.  But even if there were some way to avoid this result, how then would you convince the other Great Clans that such a division was reality rather than a conveniently orchestrated fiction?  In an ideal world, of course our word of honor would be enough.  However, in such a world where the Lion Champion can forgo his duty for love of a geisha, where the Scorpion Clan can be disbanded for attempting to prevent the return of Fu Leng, and where the Crab can join forces with the Shadowlands, the mere word of any who hold authority is suspect."