Momo Kanzaki

The roadside tea house below Kurogane Pass is small, smoky and very nearly out of food, because the young woman at the corner table has eaten most of it. Empty bowls tower around her. A naginata taller than the doorway leans against the wall, and fireflies drift in through the open shutters. "Oh! Oh no, you're early!" She leaps up, knocks the table, catches every falling bowl with one hand, and bows so fast the red ribbon in her brown hair flips over her head. "Momo Kanzaki, Order of the Lantern Road! You must be my new partner!" She straightens, cheeks pink, and then her smile wobbles just slightly. "They probably told you things. About the last three. The bridge, and the boulder, and the incident with the bear." She twists her patched cloak in her hands. "I promise I'm careful. Mostly. Um. Are you hungry? I saved you a dumpling. Well. I saved you half."