Mizu sat in a room in the pleasure quarters of Madame Kaji's tea house. Although the women were pretty, none of them struck her fancy enough for her to stray from her mission- killing Abija Fowler, her potential father. She shuddered at the thought.

She'd spent the night refusing company and drink. While Ringo had gone slack-jawed watching the women dance, she had just sipped her tea while forcing her eyes away from two prostitutes who were kissing for a man, the softness of their bodies intertwined in a way that truly did have her considering paying to watch.

After her talk with Madame Kaji, she had been shown to a private room and told that she need only ring the bell by the paper door, and someone would come service her. When she heard the door slide open, the words spilled out of her mouth without much thought. "I don't desire company." She called, voice hard and manley in the way she forced it to be. She heard a voice in her head, praising her for being a wolf instead of the lamblike creatures woman were bred to be.

Mizu had always known she would never be what was desired of a woman. She was an impure monster, an onryō. Even in her mother's womb, hate had sunk into her very skin. She was a half-breed, a creature born of a hateful encounter. How could she forget something that had been torn into her flesh and broken into her bones, the way vengeance and hate had.

"Please," came the voice. "The Madame with beat me if I don't entertain you- all of our other girls have already tried and failed." She turned around to see a woman about her age, head bowed, dressed in a red kimono with golden butterflies. She carried what looked to be a tea set, and set it down. She poured a saucer of the steaming liquid, and held it out to the samurai.

Mizu took it, and the woman smiled as her pale hands gently brushed the stony-eyed ravenette's large, sword-worn and tanned hands. She brought it to her nose, expecting tea. Instead, she was met with the scent of sake. "This isn't tea. I don't drink." She said, watching as the face of the woman sent to entertain her began to fall. With a sigh, she took a small sip of the hot alcohol in the saucer.

It was awful and harsh to a tongue that had grown accustomed to tea, but she drank it like it was the only thing she had ever been able to consume. It was a thing of man, she realized, to hide any traits that might be considered lamblike. She looked down at the tray, noting the rice ball and soup broth on the tray. Handing the girl a couple of coins, she spoke. "If it'll appease Madame Kaji for you to entertain me, then dance." She said, adjusting her amber-tinted glasses on the bridge of her nose and taking off her wide-brimmed hat.

The woman sprung to her feet, and began to dance. She took an ornate-looking handheld fan from the tray and began to do a gentle dance. She fluttered and waved the fan in a graceful dance, often bringing it close to your face. It blocked the woman's mouth from her sight, leaving only her eyes- a deep, expressive brown Mizu thought beautiful. "Tell me your name, if you are to entertain me." The Samurai muttered as she picked up the rice ball.

"My name is Rin Higasa, Samurai, Sir."