Enter Misaki
Misaki came out of the corridor with a bottle of sake in her left hand and a piece of paper in her right. She then noticed an unknown woman sitting at the koi pool. Misaki stared at her for a while before she took a pencil from her bag and started writing on the paper. Soon she was done and inspected it.
こんにちわ、お名前わ柚木です。鯉が好きですか？
She folded it into a small boat and stood on the other side of the pool, where the placed it into the water and gave it a slight push towards Teresa
Teresa sees the small paper boat, and takes it. She chuckles a bit, then notices something is written on it, and unfolds it. She flips the piece of paper once, then twice, trying to make sense of the writing, her eyebrows furrowing. Then, she shrugs, and takes out a small portable translator scanner from her belt, and sweeps it over the paper.
Upon hearing what the message says from the translator, her face lights up with a broad smile. She turns to Misaki, and nods, before speaking in English:
"I do love them! How'd you even get them?"
Misaki
She steps closer to Teresa, looking at the first with a contemplative expression.
I know the orange fish are from Malta. Kiku-san also likes them very much, which is why we imported them and have several swimming in the pool now.
Misaki looks up to Teresa.
Say, are you the local neural net administrator?
Unsure of what's going on, Emiko just gives a nod and a light smile and accepts her Sister's invite.
"So, what exactly am I doing? It does look rather fun."
Teresa chuckles, as she shakes her head.
"Nah, I'm just a pilot from the convoy escorts. I got shot down during the run-in with that corsair, and one of your ships picked me up after I ejected. I'm just waiting here until one of the boys gets here from Malta and picks me up."
She takes out a small canteen, unscrews the cap, and takes a swig, before offering it to Misaki:
"Cardamine wine. Want some?"
Maria looks at the indicated, Hanako, and waits for further enlightenment of what she needs to look for in the judging, noting as she moves her head, another has been invited to join, 3 to 1, i hope this is as innocent as it looks she thinks to herself.
Hanako groaned. She will actually have to go through with this now.
"I propose 3 rounds. Miss Maria chooses winner in each one. Best of 3 wins. Simple."
"Since we have to respect our elders and all, Rin should start." she chuckles
"So please, someone explain this to me," she says. "I mean, I want to play, too."
She then turns to Teresa, "Um, if you don't mind, may I try some of that cardamine wine?"
Rin
Rin turns to Emiko.
I don't object to you joining. Do you know the basic rules of Haiku? the structure is 5 - 7 - 5 syllables. It is a shortened form of the older waka poetry tradition that has 5 - 7 - 5 - 7 - 7. But I am sure Hanako here only knows the cool kids version.
If Emiko wishes to join in we will do best of 3 with a 4th round if we all won one.
She took a sip of the gin.
Yes, bring that cardamine wine to this table. This gin is the typical stuff that you would expect Sasaki to bring along.
Alright, my turn then.
She picked up the gin bottle and held it up
If this reached the sea.
Is the salt of the oceans,
the tears of the fish?
Enter Chihaya Hachisuka
It is around this time that a shockingly sober Chihaya waltzes into the bar like she owns the place. She sits down on a stool near the bar and loudly demands "WHISKEY!"
As she is given her "WHISKEY!", she notices the meeting of the impromptu poetry club and recognizes the uniform of the Gen'an Chrysanthemums, the renegades who had given her trouble in the past. They clearly didn't care, though the fact she had approached the station in a recently acquired Cutlass rather than her notorious Oasis and the assumed name of Suzume Kisaragi would throw off suspicion. The cell-like nature of the Chryanthemums works in her favor in that regard, making her identity conveniently hard to verify, and she is just as high on cardamine as everyone else present.
Whiskey in hand, she approaches the uniformed Gen'an Sisters and decides to make an inquiry.
"Greetings, Sisters, is there a Yamada Mariko here? I've been looking for her."