Suikazan Fuguki rose from the bath barrel, water streaming down his body and pooling across the tatami.
He stepped out of the tub, pulled a bathrobe from the rack and wrapped it around himself, then walked to the window and pushed open the one facing Kirigakure.
By the following morning, the fog had thinned somewhat.
It had not completely dispersed. The fog of Kirigakure never fully dispersed, but at least the outlines ten paces away could now be seen.
A faint layer of morning light filtered in from the sea, staining the mist a color somewhere between gray and gold.
When Suikazan Fuguki opened the door, Biwa Jūzō and Raiga Kurosuki were already standing in the courtyard.
He had no idea when they had arrived.
Biwa Jūzō leaned against the crooked pine tree, Kubikiribōchō laid across his knees. His one exposed eye was closed, as though he were dozing.
Raiga Kurosuki sat on the courtyard's stone steps, his lightning blades lying flat beside his legs. His fingers tapped the blades now and then, producing an almost inaudible metallic hum.
Both men's hair and clothes were damp with mist, clearly having waited here for quite some time.
Ganzi stood at the corner of the corridor with a tray in his hands. Three cups of hot tea sat on it, but he did not dare approach.
Suikazan Fuguki stepped out of the room.
He was not wearing his orange outer robe today. Instead, he had changed into a dark brown short jacket, its sleeves rolled above his elbows to reveal two thick forearms.
After a night of hot herbal compresses, the bruise on his left cheek had faded from bluish purple to a dark yellow, its edges beginning to lighten. Yet the marks left by Kutsuki Baidiao's five fingers remained clearly visible.