Exploration 101. [Day 4 Mid Afternoon Moint Mainaka Open]

[Bayushi Nobuyoshi]

Well at least they'll never ask you to surrender your wits, Yoritomo-san. Nobuyoshi thinks to himself.

Nobuyoshi hands over his daisho, just simply thrilled at the prospect of wandering around a gaijin market. Thrilled.

[elonweis]

The little girl puts her hands on her hips and sniffs, "Yoritomo Youchi says kama are only tools in the hands of a heimen who doesn't know better."

Haku looks slightly shocked at the girl's audacity even as he accepts their weapons. He did manage not to drop them as he admonishes quietly, "Chi-chan...! Mind your betters."

[Bayushi Nobuyoshi]

Nobuyoshi puts a hand to his mouth to stifle a laugh.

"See, the Mantis HAVE trained them to be quite knowledgeable, Yoritomo-san." Nobuyoshi offers flatly.

[Yoritomo Kaito]

The Bayushi continues to be politely ignored as Kaito's eyes remain on the young girl.

"Yoritomo Youchi-san, is quite right Chiba-san. But you might want to be more careful with your words next time to be sure that you don't give insult."

[elonweis]

Chibi blushes and looks down as she loses a bit of that sass. The girl bows quickly, quite chastised, "Hai, Yoritomo-sama..."

[Yoritomo Kaito]

Kaito flashes a grin. "Good, good Chibi-san I would feel responsible if I didn't tell you and you ended up getting in trouble for it in the future." Turning back towards the building he glances at the scorpion. "Shall we?"

[Bayushi Nobuyoshi]

"Certainly, Yoritomo-san. Nobuyoshi offers. "Let's see if the market has what we're truly looking for."

Nobuyoshi heads into the market with his companions once everyone's ready.

[Yoritomo Kaito]

"Alright then." He replies as he follows the group in this might be a bit of an adventure and it was likely he could ignore the scorpions rudeness for at least an hour.

[elonweis]

The girl leads the way in to the enclosed market.

Despite the neat rows of merchants and shops, the market felt messy. Perhaps it was the crush of people eating, bargaining, proclaiming the quality of their wares, and running errands. There was barely enough space to move and stop, though somehow the natives managed without shoving.

A few of the guards glance at the foreigners, but otherwise ignore them. Chibi looks up at the three samurai, raising her voice to be heard above the dull roar of conversation, "What did you want to see?"

[Yoritomo Kaito]

"Well I was more interested in looking really Chibi-san. Never been to a foreign market before and was curious on what wares they had that might be different then the norm." He replies as he glances towards the scorpion "So I'd say take us to anything that may be interesting unless one of you two have something you wanted to look for?"

[Bayushi Nobuyoshi]

Nobuyoshi shrugs.

"Perhaps we should take a general tour of the market, and see who is the busiest?" Nobuyoshi suggests, his voice raised. "It might tell us something about what's happening if we see what kind of disaster they're stocking up for."

[Bayushi Kichirou]

"Also gossip gets passed in places like this. I would imagine anything overheard could be useful...barring that if we have a more directed question asking the 'patrons' might not be a bad place to start." Kichirou says mostly thinking out loud but projecting enough that his compatriots could hear him over the general den.

[Yoritomo Kaito]

"Sounds like a good plan to me. Lets go with that then." Kaito replied the scorpions were likely better at hunting out information them him anyway.

[elonweis]

Chibi just sort of looks at them all confused. She was nine and didn't have a clue as to what they were talking about. At least she was smart enough to catch on to the fact that they wanted a general tour. So, when they made an indication they were ready to go, she started down one of the rows. Her favorite in fact.

Here there animals of all sorts in various sized cages. They weren't food animals, but pets of an exotic nature. It was one of the least active of the market sections, though there were still plenty of people going through to get from one point to another.

[Yoritomo Kaito]

Animals weren't what Kaito was expecting to see first in the market but they were interesting. His eye's scanned over the various animals some foreign others not it was a interesting though he didn't know how much they would learn from it. "Chibi-chan? Is this aisle usually this busy or is it kinda slow today?" He asked hoping to get a little information from the child.

[Bayushi Nobuyoshi]

The perils of a nine year old tour guide. Nobuyoshi thinks. Still, it's emptiness means the rich are out doing something else.

Nobuyoshi looks around, taking stock of the stock.

[Bayushi Kichirou]

While his cousin catalogs the stock Kichirou watches the people. Looking for any in small groups even among the crowd or off in corners where fewer people are moving passed.

I should really try and learn this language. It would make everything else with these foreigners easier I'm sure. he idly thinks to himself even as he scans the crowds.

[elonweis]

The three foreigners (and child) received a few odd looks from the more richly and sumptuously dressed of the patrons. The one's who were important enough to have guards didn't seem that concerned and soon returned to examining the creatures. Chibi looks up at Kaito with a big smile, "It didn't use to be like this, there used to be a whole street full of animals! But with all the new people, they moved inside because some people tried to eat them and it was very sad but now it's fine."

There were small monkeys, brightly colored birds with feathers the hue of gems and songbirds drab as sparrows but with voices sweet as flutes in addition to cats, dogs, snakes, hawks and even two leopard cubs looking frightened by all the noise and scents.

[Yoritomo Kaito]

He wasn't too surprised the gaijin had tried to eat the pets, they were gaijin after all but according to Chibi's words it wasn't normal. Which meant some of the towns people probably weren't eating well or at all for that matter. "Well that's good Chibi-san." He replied trying to think of a question that wouldn't over whelm the mind of the child. "Do you think there is anything else we need here Bayushi-san's?"

[Bayushi Nobuyoshi]

Nobuyoshi shakes his head.

"I doubt anyone of these animals would travel well on the Half Moon, nor will the merchants be receptive to gifts of koku." Nobuyoshi offers. "Perhaps we should visit the actual food merchants, instead of the accidental food merchants?"