The New Winds

Having a quite singular idea with his cup, he needed to talk with Yotsuo. An Ikoma probably would have seen his given gift with joy, but he approached it with curiosity, inventiveness and even respect, if it was as good as he thought.
He had his time to set up the tea table in the small hall that opened to the four bedrooms. He even asked for some brewed matcha. But he wouldn't wait staring at the void, so he grabbed one of his engineering projects to work with, the great piece of paper scrawled over the table as the Kaiu repeatedly put the teacup in the table, focused in the tools for some seconds, took another sip and resumed his work.

Returning to the rooms, he bowed in greeting to Aiichiro. "Good evening Kaiu-san."

He nodded back. "Oh, Yotsuo-sama, I was waiting for you." He starts to put his technical drawing tools aside.

"What can I assist you with Kaiu-san?" he asks moving to join his fellow Crab.

"We met some spirits last night at Poisoned Water. According to Kaito-san, they were sakkaku spirits. When you looked at them from far or in the corner of your eye, they looked like tanuki. But when you sat together on the table they were, they looked like men."

"Yes, it's a relatively common taboo among shapeshifters. That they can be observed in their true form when they aren't being focused on. Many hegoyokai have small indicators of their true selves. I imagine that when I am traveling similar effects are in place for me, though they are not things I can observe myself. When I am traveling among those of Sakkaku I appear as a monkey and among those of Chikushudo, a dog," he says, understanding the concept quite well. "Hopefully they did not cause you too much trouble. Given that they were at a sake house though, odds are they were tanuki. Did they appear as racoon like beings when you could see their true form?"

"They did. And invited me and some other competitors to a drinking game. I didn't recognize the name of the drink, but I accepted. Not the wisest thing I had done, but I thought there was some kind of trick and got curious on what it could be. Also, I heard that people from other clans are weak to drinks and wanted to look over them somehow. So we accepted it, and the last person standing before blacking out would get five koku and a special cup." He says. "In the end I won, but was seeing doubled when the entire thing ended. And eventually I passed out."

"It's not an uncommon game for them. They love their sake. They have likely already returned to Sakkaku after having their fun."

"The thing is the prize I won." He puts the cup on the table. "Kaito-san said that their cups make them never get drunk. And I got one now."

"That's one of the fun things about Sakkaku spirits. They can be cruel in their jokes at times, but they can also be generous," he replies with a nod. "It likely functions just how they said it does."

"I was wondering... Do you know how the cup works, Yotsuo-sama? How it purifies? If it really only filters alcohol from all drinks or could be used to something else?"

"I would honestly not be able to begin to explain that magic. There are shugenja that can call upon the kami to determine such things. The only other way of finding out would be trying it yourself with something that might make you sick. But then, at that point you wouldn't know if it was your own constitution or the cup that protected you I would think. But it would be something to figure out. If that's the case, you could use the cup in the wild to drink straight from unsafe water sources. Though even if it does do that, you still shouldn't use it for cursed or magically corrupted liquids. It might not be strong enough to overcome magic."

"Can you bring to the Kuni? It's a small chance that it can purify the Taint, but I don't think it is a trivial one." He replies, nudging the cup forwards. "It's already a nemuranai, I think. We just don't know how strong of one. We could test if it can purify poison first when I get back home. There is poison in the traps at the wall, if you didn't know. Obviously I wouldn't get it from the traps, I would just pick some from the source, pass it throughout the cup and give it to an animal. I believe a wise first step would see if you only can't get intoxicated when drinking from the cup or if the liquid passed throughout the cup first. Second one would be best. But now I would need someone with poor constitution and a bottle of shochu to test. I know Saburo-san isn't that resistant. Maybe we can convince him."

"I would carefully consider before trying to give it away. Spirits could get upset or displeased if you were to give away a gift that was given by them," Yotsuo said in a slight warning tone. "If you wanted to test such things yourself, then certainly you should try, under the supervision of experts in both nemurenai and the materials you are testing. Plenty of Kuni would be quite interested in helping with such things I imagine. But I would not give it away like that. There is the possibility that it was actually bound to your spirit in some way and that it might only work for you as well. A lot of variables. For now, I would simply keep it and enjoy the blessing those tanuki granted as intended. Think about what you wish to do before returning home. Possibly have it looked into by a shugenja to determine it's mystical properties. But it was a gift to you from the spirit realms. That is a very important spiritual occurence."

"I see. So maybe we can try to see if it works with other people when I'm drinking together and when I'm not. This sounds like something we need to test too. Although we could test it right now with that. Shochu is strong enough it can make Hida drunk." He side-eyes. "I'll try to get myself enlisted near Shiro Kuni nevertheless. I believe it's important enough of a cause. I believe many of you, or at least some of you, should be nemuranai experts, yes? There are plenty of strange things from the Shadowlands. We could search for a shugenja to help us. Toritaka-san was very kind earlier to cast a spell to recover ourselves from the hangover. Maybe she would also help. Asako-sensei too, perhaps?" He inquires.

"Whoever you would feel comfortable in asking," he says with a nod. "But from what I know of shugenja, those strongest with water have the strongest ability to see things hidden from mortal eyes. I have never had any sake or shochu myself and I would avoid such things. I simply do not know how it might affect my ability. For all I know, a little bit of alcohol might affect my mind enough to have me slip right into Sakkaku. I'll likely test that eventually, but only under strict conditions the first time."

He nods. "I only get sake rarely and never did shochu. My superior in the Wall gave me the tip not to abuse any of those substances without a need to. They are useful to make you sleep if you get the nightmares of the Taint, and if you are already on it you will need more for it to make an effect as your body gets used to it. Like, it enhances your Earth slightly. Perhaps we can ask Ginkarasu-san if he isn't already sleeping. Do you know the spell that recovers hangover? Would hate for him to get headaches when you two are our strongest competitors."

"I don't know any spells," he says with a chuckle. "I am a monk."

He chuckles with shame. "I forgot this. I'm sorry."

"It happens all the time," he says with a smirk.`