"She had been a beauty. Too much of one. The Dragon Maiden wasn't human, no,
but she didn't make me feel inferior to her in any way. She was a great hostess and
she moved with a grace unseen in any human girl.Truthfully, I was taken with her. I
was in love with her. From the way her hair cascaded along her shoulder down to
the small of her back to the way she spoke with a subtle seductiveness in her
honeyed words. Her golden eyes showed a kindness but a sorrow just as great. I
asked her once if she had been a geisha to relieve a debt of hers and she had only
responded with, 'I didn't have anywhere else to go'. It was the first time I had ever
heard her with such a tone that invoked the pinnacle of despair and I wasn't keen to
hear it again from her. She was the one person I didn't want to hurt. I didn't want to
remind her of any bad memories. The Lady of Grace didn't deserve to relive her
past no matter what it was. When I realized my feelings about her, there was an
urge to pay for her deflowering, pay for her way out, treat her like a man should and
make her happy. She told me she had always wanted to go back to where daffodils
and sunflowers had grown." -- an account from mashiro ryouma, a patron