Byakuren had never been out of Bonchi no Kuni before. Not that she had any trouble navigating the roads from her native country to that of the Land of Earth, but the change in scenery was staggering. Lush, thick, green jungles have way to brown, packed earth and grey mountains. The Tokonatsu placed such importance on nature and the beauty therein, but they almost entirely focused on plants- flowers, leaves, vines, that sort of thing- but they neglected to take into account the sheer majesty of the mountains. Perhaps they had never seen them before.
Byakuren certainly hadn't. But seeing them here, she was in awe of their majesty. She made a point of cataloging every stray strand of grass, every small flower, fighting against the tough earth. Truly, Bonchi no Kuni was paradise on earth, even with all of its dangers. Even the flowers struggled to bloom in this place of stone and strife.
She pressed a few into her notes to show her father when she came back. This mission was something of a formality. She was accompanying the Ryu's most favored apprentice, one Yutakako Keiko, to the hub city, (Iwagakure no Sato) of their allied nation (Tsuchi no Kuni) to observe a debate. The civil war in the city had already resolved itself, but Byakuren did not feel comfortable in its thick walled buildings and predilection towards big, blocky construction. It just felt so wholly... unnatural.
One thing she did notice was an abundance of bees, despite everything. She had read about ground nesting bees before, but in the jungle such things were unnecessary. They were plenty of trees and space to go around. At the very least, even if humanity fell off the face of the earth, the bees would still be there to be Nature's stewards.
Byakuren did not make for a good tourist. While she was certainly interested in every nook and cranny and difference in this city, she also firmly stood out even when she didn't want to. First of all, her look. Bright pink hair and a tendency towards shorts and equally bright colors did not sit well against a backdrop of brown and misery. Second, Byakuren had no idea what she was getting into. She didn't understand how these people lived here, and her questions were met with brusque answers as opposed to the long, detailed, academic answers she craved.
Keiko had gotten the two of them to the place where the debate was taking place. It would appear that she knew this place very well. Her clan, the explosive Yutakako did hail from here, after all. How she ended up under the Ryu's sway she couldn't fathom. She felt it would have been rude to pry, she felt.
A bonafide child bounced onto the stage, and Byakuren watched Keiko light up. Did she know him? His arguments were pretty baseless. What authority did he have? He had great power, sure, but great power does not make a good leader.
A woman further up and behind them shouted for the kid to get off the stage. While Byakuren agreed with her basic premise, she was incredibly harsh about it. He was just a child, did she really need to be so mean about it? He's likely just misguided and in need of someone to talk to, is all.
Someone else called her something along the lines of "stuck up aristocrat" which Byakuren inherently took offense to. Surely that person was also misguided. She had had similar insults thrown at her as a child, given how clannish the Tokonatsu tended to be. But they were good people, regardless of their lineage.
A man put his hand on the boy's shoulder, and addressed the crowd. The atmosphere of the hall changed entirely. Surely, this must be the person they were waiting for. Byakuren waited with baited breath for the arguments to begin.
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