[[backdated to immediately after Waiting for the Storm]]Thus far, Tsurude thought, he'd had a very productive day. No emergencies - not even of the running-out-of-coffee type - no meetings with the council (not even random encounters in the hall), and even in the few meetings he
had had scheduled, they were casual affairs that weren't stressful or really even all that important. (He should talk with the minister of commerce more often; man knew his alcohol.)
This meant that, by Tsurude's standards of 'productive', he had had six cups of coffee, three cups of tea, ramen for lunch, eight saucers of sake (just to test if the minister could really name alcohol by taste alone), signed twelve documents, read four, and had two naps. His inbox had increased by twenty-three documents and four petitions, but that was just the nature of the beast. It only grew, never diminished.
So when his secretary nosed in and claimed Hyuuga Nejiko was there on clan business, it kind of soured his mood. Not that Hyuuga Nejiko was there to see him, but rather that they couldn't talk about pleasant things, like the next mission he wanted her to go on. No, if she was here on clan business then it was only going to be about unpleasant things. Well, at least it wasn't Hiashiko and her jailers.
"No," he told her when she entered the office.
( 'Does that about cover everything?' )