There's a Frog in the Cards

[Willoria]

Cho sat on the steps of her small house, running the cards of her tarot deck through her hands. The edges were well worn, it was a deck her mother had given her as a child. As she looked at the colorful images she realized quietly that it was probably time for her to make her own deck now, just as her mother had once painted this deck for her. Her mind worked over what kind of set up she wanted. Perhaps black cards with gold detailing? Her thumbs ran over the images as a whimsical smile graced her pale lips. She missed the woman dearly. "I'd give anything to have you still here..." she whispered, swallowing hard before shaking her head. She pulled her hood back up over her hair and hid the bright shades away. Her beads and her braids still showed through as they liked to sneak out a bit on either side of her face.

Closing her eyes she ran her fingers over the cards before finally drawing one out and turning it to look at what she had pulled. She stared at the design, a man standing at the edge of a mountain with a staff in hand, he wore a traveler's cloak. It was The Hermit. The woman smiled softly. "Now who could possibly be coming to me today?" she asked no one in particular.

[Nick]

When Fuhen was young, he hadn't been that spiritual. He'd joined in his village's prayers for a good fishing season, but he saw it more as a tradition than asking favors from a goddess. As he grew older his spiritual side drifted further and further away still, especially as he saw so many abuses of power from those claiming to be voices of spirits or gods. And yet, something always seemed to pull him back. At the ripe young age of 20, he'd fulfilled a prophecy with his friends Gendo and Kosuke, seemingly saving the world from such a dangerous cult. A prophecy couldn't exist without some kind of divine intervention, and not to mention, he'd finally actually met the goddess Takiyasha-Hime that his people in River Country so often prayed to. Was it a fever dream? It was hard to tell.

His wanderings during the war had done little to change his mind on the matter. After all, what benevolent gods or goddesses would allow such things to happen? Surely, Takiyasha-Hime had granted him this power that he might help others, but why him specifically, and only him? Was there another prophecy being headed up that nobody had deigned to tell him about? He had to know, he had to look into it.

He asked around about such fortune tellers, and his aide offered to bring one to the court to speak to him, but this felt like the kind of thing that was best if he handled himself. He didn't have to travel far, all of Tea Country was close, and the recommendations of course came local, for someone who supposedly wasn't a local at all. He walked with the calm confidence of a man on a mission, and occasionally had to stop and say hi to those who recognized him despite his plain appearance. Before too long, he was stopping before a small house, a few feet away from a woman perched on a doorstep.

"Heyyo, is eh... Cho here? Needin' one o' them readin's people've been tellin' me about."

[Willoria]

His shadow crossed her card before his voice did. Cho lifted her head to look up at Fuhen for a moment, tilting her head silently before nodding. "I'm Cho." she answered simply before glancing down at the card in her hand. 'So he's the Hermit today... interesting.' she thought to herself, carefully sliding the card back into the deck with a sigh before she stood and took her staff from where it leaned against the side of the small house. "Come in, Shogun." She'd open the door and leave it open for him to follow her inside if he wished. She'd lean her staff against another wall once inside and remove her hooded cloak to hang up next to it. Rolling up her sleeves left the tattoos on her hands slightly more obvious, her hair and beads braided into it revealed without the hood and her hair cascading down her back as she crossed the small room.

There wasn't much space in the living room, just a small couch with a low table in front of it and a rug under both. A table against the wall had a simple teapot and canister with loose leaf tea in it. Cho immediately went to the table to prepare tea for herself and her guest before putting it on the small table and gesturing to the couch. "Normally I ask if I should ask the runes or the cards... but since the cards already told me someone was coming I'm guessing the answer is cards..." Cho sighed and looked at Fuhen for a moment from where she stood. "What's on your mind?"

[Nick]

He would listen to her, silently shutting the door behind him and following her across the room. As she took her cloak off, the Frog noted that she was quite pretty, and as his eyes wandered, he noticed the tattoos on her hands. His own people didn't do body markings typically, and to him, the sight of such things pointed the needle further in the direction of mystic. He was just about sold on the idea of mystical powers pointing him in a direction again, as he slowly sidled between the couch and table to sit down, breathing a loud, heavy sigh.

His eyes were closed for a moment, and he opened them to stare directly into her soul for a moment. Neither fortune telling nor mysticism, his gaze was merely intense and brought out a judge of character. How much could he say to this woman? These were matters of state, after all, would the Heart Empire be worse off if they heard the ramblings of their Grand Shogun? Would the people lose faith in him if they found out he held faith in such esoteric arts? His gaze softened, clearly satisfied for now.

"If'n fate has told ye I've come, then that same fate should decide." He agreed, putting his hands on his knees, awkwardly too high on a couch not built for his size. After a long pause, he responded to her question. "The world isnae at peace." The Shogun nodded to himself. "I seek it, aye, I seek peace, but I feel in me warrior's spirit that it willnae come while I yet live. Nay, I dinnae think me own generation, or those who came directly after me may ever know that peace..." A sad smile crossed the frog's lips, clearly troubled. "This path ah've been on for so long... I just need t'know if'n all this fight is gonnae get this dream, this Heart Empire, where it needs t'be."

[Willoria]

She watched him move to the couch and sit down, movements most would find awkward simply due to the man's height and the size of the furniture in comparison. But she wasn't watching for that, she was taking note of the way he moved. His shoulders, the motions of his arms, taking in the details as she observed him. Yet she wasn't a young woman checking out an attractive man, she was appraising him and his body language. Even his sigh, the way he closed his eyes for a moment, they were clues to the burdens he carried. When he opened them to bore into hers the woman didn't flinch. She was young, but hard looks and stares were things she was accustomed to and part of her dealings more often than not. She simply stood there in silence, hands folded in front of her, as she waited for him to answer her question. 'Let them unload their burdens, prying becomes a difficult and painful process, it has to be their choice.' she reminded herself from her mother's teachings.

As his gaze softened and he finally spoke, she pulled a small cushion up to the side of the coffee table opposite him and knelt on it to listen to what he had to say. She tilted her head as she listened to his question before producing a deck of cards from a pouch on her hip. She set them in a small stack in front of her before separating them into three piles quietly and then stacking them again. Slowly she did this a few times as she thought quietly. "You carry so many burdens, will it help to know that any question you ask me stays here between us?" she asked him quietly, lifting her head to look at him a moment. "The only ones who would ever know you came here even, would be if you told someone. I don't speak of the work I do for others." she hummed to herself briefly as she thought about his question.

"It's a broad question... the more to the point the more likely I am to get you an answer, you want to know if the Empire you've built is heading in the right direction, am I understanding that right? That your fight isn't in vain?"

Jutsu UsedShow

Secrets of the Witch • Minor Divination
D-Ranked Taijutsu Discipline
The user has studied the concept of micro expressions, and trained themselves to recognize and understand the meaning behind such momentary slips of emotion in their targets. This allows them to better understand what their target truly feels or thinks, despite what they might say or do, provided their opponent does not have a jutsu designed to hide such things from others.

Secrets of the Witch • Casting Bones
D-Ranked Taijutsu Discipline
The user has studied the concept of body language, and trained themselves to recognize and understand the meaning behind major shifts in the body and motions. This allows them to better understand what their target truly feels or thinks, despite what they might say or do, provided their opponent does not have a jutsu designed to hide such things from others.

[Nick]

"Aye, apologies." He started, a soft smile on his face. "Ah'm nae yet old, and yet I find meself becoming a cryptic old man more and more every day." He paused for a moment, letting the words come to him. "Ah'm an open man to most." He grumbled, bringing a hand up to stroke his bare chin once, leaning back a bit more. "I suppose that's right." He paused a bit longer, finally seeming to make his decision.

"Ah'm going to war, again, seer." Another deep sigh, another burden. "River Country was personal, and so I didnae involve the people, but these next steps... Ahah, ah'm nae sure what those next steps are, just yet, but it willnae be just me on a mission." He made a motion like someone playing with stress relief balls in his hands, and in a puff of his pink chakra, little daggers appeared and swirled around his hand dramatically. "Ah'm ready t'die for the freedom o' others, and the volunteer fighters are as well, but... Aye, I suppose we're gettin' ahead of ourselves. One question at a time. Is the fight in vain?"

[Willoria]

Cho chuckled as he referred to himself as getting cryptic and the young woman shook her head briefly. "Well in here, I think the only truly cryptic one is supposed to be me." she teased, smirking at him. She toyed with the cards in front of her a bit more. She seemed to shuffle them, sometimes inverting a handful of them at a time before slipping them back into the rest of the deck. But all the while she kept them face down as she listened to what he had to say. Her hands paused as he mentioned war 'again', and for a moment her eyes lifted to stare at him in surprise. It was hard for the young woman to hide her own fear of such a thing, and yet a moment later the glimpse of her own feelings on the matter were gone.

She had lost her entire family in her last encounter regarding 'war'... and that had been entirely an accident. Her family wasn't involved, only passing through. Yet she had lost them. But she also remembered how her mother had given her many lectures on the burden of readers and seers, especially to such men of power in such positions such as the Grand Shogun.

With a small flourish she suddenly spread all of the cards out in front of her, across the table. Her fingers floating over them as he asked his question. It sounded so very simple, and yet she knew it wasn't so. "Please... pick three." she instructed him quietly.