High above the ship that even now creaked and swayed lazily in the harbor Kaito sat lazily watching the deck below. Most of his shipmates were my now long gone fighting perhaps dying on a enemy ship not too far away but near invisible with the night and the fog.

Waiting patiently for word or sight of flames he softly sung a old sailing song letting the wind carry the words away.

It wasn't too long before Kaito was joined by a quiet Crab. She gave the Mantis a polite nod, and then looked off towards... the issue.

It wasn't a particular pleasant song the young mantis was singing and he didn't stopped as the crab joined merely nodded his head as he continued the song. Which seemed to be about a sailors revenge and altogether would be a rather dark song to sing on a night like this to most.

It was a few minutes later that the mantis song came to an inn and he glanced over at the crab. "How do you think it's going?"

"With the blessings of the Fortune, it will go well," Seiko replied, her voice quiet.

She didn't look at Kaito when she said this, her eyes still trying to pierce the fog for some kind of clue as to what was going on.

"True enough." Kaito replied wondering if anybody had actually taken the time to pray to the fortunes for victory. It seemed likely the woman had the way she was staring off into the fog though.

Seiko remained silent for a bit longer.

"With all the rumor, I would not be surprised if at least one didn't make it back."

A gloomy pronouncement.

But it fit her. In her mind's eye, she already could see one of those who did not make it back, though she wished that she was wrong.

"Few battles come without losses, though I've always been told it's bad luck to think of the loss of your companions. Even the one's ya don't like too much. When the fighting is still going on." Kaito replied reaching down to grab his pipe and place it in his mouth.

Seiko looked at Kaito.

"Is there someone in the fight whom you would not mourn if he out she did not return?"

Kaito chews on his pipe for a moment feelign around to see if he had brought his tobacco. "I suppose you could say there are one's I wouldn't miss so much if they didn't come back. Still don't want em dying at the hands of gaijin though."

For a moment, Seiko just looked at him. Then she nodded in understanding.

"Anyone you would particularly mourn?"

Kaito thought about the for a few moments. "Not really don't think I could say I have gotten to know most that went all that well. What of yourself Kaiu-san, do you have someone or several someone's you would mourn more then the rest?"

Did she?

She sighed.

"I don't know," she confessed.

Kaito raised a eyebrow at that and took the pipe from his mouth packing it with tobacco from a small pouch. "You sound more then a bit uncertain there Kaiu-san. May I ask if it's because you're having doubts about whether ya like em? Or is it doubts about how ya like em?" He asked as he went through the practiced motions of lighting his pipe.

Seiko took a moment to think about her reply.

"More the latter," she admittedly. Crab pragmatism again drove her to reply. "I am a widow. So that... complicates things. I think."

Oh yeah. Definitely confused.

Kaito nodded slightly. "I reckin that would but then again most complicated things only complicate things as much as you let them complicate things." He took a long drag before slowly releasing the smoke. "Just because someone is gone doesn't mean ya stop liking them or that ya can't like someone else as well. It just means that they aren't there so you do whats best you yourself and your clan, and if ya don't have a half dozen or so children at home I figure your clan would want ya to get married again."

"Course that's just a sailors opinion and most sailors I know aren't the best when it comes to matters o' the heart."

"No, it is not that. It was a... proper marriage. We did our duty. I wore white when he was gone. The moment it was proper, I stopped wearing white. It was... as orderly as a Kaiu-made barrel."

She looked away.

"This... is different."

The pipe went back into the Yoritomo's mouth as he thought about his response. Women are so blasted difficult. He thought as he released the smoke once again.

"Well, if it's different ya mind me askin how so? Does he have you wanting to blush like a doji maiden? Or....?" Kaito asked leaving the part about her maybe wanting to go out on a boat to have a little 'practice' with the mans 'rod' unsaid. He didn't have a hankering to go flying off the crows nest after all.

How is it different!?

If she knew that, she wouldn't be so confused. That was the problem! She didn't know!

Why were men so frustrating?

"It is not something neat and orderly," Seiko attempted to explain. "It is like trying to understand the notes of a master shipwright after he has gone crazy and started talking with vegetables."

"Huh." This mantis was truly enlightened wasn't he. "I figure I'd just stop trying to understand it then and go with what felt right."

"But then I've never been in love or at least not the type of love they spout about in those romance stories. Not saying you are in love of course."