Yamada Mariko Mariko, dressed as one of the geisha, sat down in the centre of the room with her shamisen and started playing a
nagauta style music piece. Before joining the Golden Chrysanthemums, Mariko was a popular geisha on Kyushu and she enjoyed showing of her musical talent at this occasion. Her hands nimbly ran over the instrument's strings.
Hank gets up off the floor looking pretty pissed off, however he sees Moka glaring at him and he composes himself....
"You'll get yours, maggot!" Hank muttered as he carried on his way to find a Hacker that wasn't likely to gouge his eyes out.
Moka turned to Robert with a wry smile on his face. He knew this was the next big thing for him to push out to the free people of Liberty. "What's the cost and how far to travel? What are your current market predictions and is it worth it?" Moka wasn't just looking to make a quick buck, he wants to continue dominating their presence in the Liberty Black Market. That is his key to getting the Rogues to glory. He waited a moment for a reply before taking a swig of his bourbon.
"I see..." the Hacker said while inhaling another large dose of cardi-smoke into his lungs. Muerte was a complicated and puzzling character for sure.
Before speaking, he checked that Valdez was well away from them and busy with other guests.
"So, word is that the National Council is on its last legs. Patricians are bailing out left and right. Is the Legion poised to take over their businesses in Malta, Liberty and elsewhere?"
He looked back to Moka "Well, there's a guy on Freeport-2 who pays about seven grand a pallet right now, but we'll need to make our own network for it. We can smuggle slaves, black market weapons and ammo to the Brigands, and the latter two to the Maquis, and make the same profit, roughly. As for travel, it's a relatively short route if we're using the Zurich path. Everything's organized at this point, I wasn't just drinking wine in a Marseille whorehouse. Oh" He nodded towards Emilie "There are also things that too sweet to not take" He laughed.
Meanwhile, Emilie's head spun with wild ideas on what to do with the new information.
Hemlocke watched with a smirk as Hank threatened him under his breath and watched him scurry away like the rat he was. Putting his hands on his hips and looked down for moment before composing himself once more, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall, closing his eyes and pondering what the future might hold for him and wondering if Dixon would be stupid enough to actually attack him. That man didn't do things without planning them, but Hemlocke did, that's why he was hard to predict. His train of thought was interrupted however by the sound of music coming from the center of the room. Opening his eyes and lifting his gaze as he stared over at Mariko. Listening to the music the woman was playing and was calmed. The only music that ever played on Rogue bases was old beat up radio channels with the same old songs on repeat. This however was natural and not played across a speaker. It was a very nice addition to the festival he would have to admit, and not entirely unexpected from the Golden Flowers of Kusari. Hemlocke would keep to himself for now and relax, something he wasn't really capable of doing with so many people wanting to stab the man in the back.
Keenly, he listened, not letting the clarification fall on deaf ears and feeling a small hint of embarrassment for presuming the extent of their familial relations and turning up wrong. "Is this a recurring festival or the first of its kind? Oddly enough, I expected the other Dragons to also attend, but I suppose the tensions waived their entitlement to an invitation." Ryu assumed either Chika or Hachiro would be knowledge of the answer to that, his isolation from current events while being necessary was certainly not advantageous when it came to pertinent information.
Ikeda Yume Yume overheard Okamura and replied to him.
"This is the first time we hold this festival, but I think it will certainly not be the last time. In my opinion it is a great success. Just see how it strenghtens the bonds with our allies. Our invitation covered all Blood Dragons. We were given notice of their shogun accepting the invitation, but it seems like he considered this festival not important enough for his time. It is actually an insult of theirs to our leader to not show up to this occasion, especially after all the previous trouble they caused us. Kiri-sama thought it would bring the Blood Dragons and Golden Chrysanthemums back together again. It seems like the Blood Dragons who showed up today are the ones who still hold us in high regard."
Saitō was still staring at Torres, the Outcast had clearly dodged her question, and was reluctant to answer when Ikeda had pressed the issue. She concluded that he probably knew more than he was letting on but wasn't willing to share it with so many unfamiliar faces around.
"Regardless, such behavior is highly inappropriate, don't you think?" she paused and drank from her cup. The sake inside was strong, but decent enough compared to what she was used to. Luxury goods were a rarity on Kyoto.
As she drank, she listened to the conversation between Okamura and Ikeda, a devilish smile crossing her face at the mention of the Shogun. "I'm not entirely sure who the Shogun is any more," she teased, "or how many there are."
"Who knows with the Red Dragons these days. The hostilities started with us engaging a Coalition vessel. It was then that they contacted us demanding that we left their coalition allies alone and threatening us should we continue our hostilities towards the coalition. They even demanded a sum of 10 million to repair damages to the Coalition. Then there is the case of Misaki getting shot at by the Sendai defence structure.
Yume put her sake down and stared at Saitō
"It is almost like the Coalition turned them into a communistic vassal network to undermine our Kusari."
Moka takes in this information, looking down at the smirking foreign girl...
"Are they all this pretty?" he chuckled. It's no lie Moka likes a good dozen concubines at any one time. Hell, he even brought a half dozen with him on this trip. "And I think I have the perfect plan for this drug. We can on cart it to the Unioners or keep it locked up for our own market. As for exports, you know we got the slaves and the guns a plenty."
![[Image: RoguesLogo.png]](https://discoverygc.com/wiki/images/0/01/RoguesLogo.png)
![[Image: 75.png]](http://lh.discoverygc.com/media/75.png)
![[Image: 264px-LR_Logo.png]](https://discoverygc.com/wiki/images/thumb/4/48/LR_Logo.png/264px-LR_Logo.png){kind=logo}
