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Nitta laughed a little as she listened to the stories.

"Hmmmm...I'm going to guess that the first story is false and the second story is true. But just in case...." Nitta poured a small cup of sake in case she were to be wrong.

Tora smiled at all of the answers. "Looks like everyone has guessed but Mizu-chan," she said. Tora smiled knowing she'd made it difficult. But not too difficult she hoped.

"Ah! Now I have someone who will recieve the penalty with me if we're wrong, right Mizu-chan?" Nitta laughed, tapping the younger girl on the arm with the end her fan.

Mizu laughed and blushed. "Ne Nitta-sama, I suppose I will be drinking more sake tonight," she remarked as she gave a blushing smile to those seated. "I'm such a terrible player of Big Liar Onee-sama, I hope I do not end up drunk!" With a playful grimace, she took a few careful sips of the sake. "Ne Onee-sama..." she queried, her cheeks flushed with embarrassment, "Could I possibly try telling the stories? I am so terrible at guessing and I don't wish to be drunk...not on my first time drinking sake..." She stopped, wondering if she was overstepping her boundaries as a maiko. She gave her cup of sake a furtive glare.

Tora was excited; her cheeks flushed at Serena's comment. "Thank you, Onee-sama Serena!" Tora said giving a slight bow. "Please, Mizu-chan, tell us some stories!" She said, and smiled sweetly at her friend.

"Ha ha!" Nitta laughed. "Yes, you fooled me indeed! I shall have to be more careful from now on when playing Big Liar with you, Tora-chan!" Nitta lifted her sake cup delicately between two fingers and drank it quickly.

"Mizu-chan, no offense meant, but I do hope you are a worse liar than Tora-chan! As Serena well knows, I am not known for a high alcohol tolerance!" Nitta blushed slightly as she made eye contact with her former younger sister, certain that she too was remembering some of things that had happened when Nitta was drunk.

Mizu blushed, her cheeks hot with embarrassment. "Thank you Nitta-sama, Onee-sama, Tora-chan, and Rune-chan. I am a terrible guesser, and I have never told stories for Big Liar before so I have no idea whether or not I am a good liar or a bad one...but I am rambling," she remarked, laughing softly to cover her embarrassment.

Smoothing her kimono hem with suddenly-trembling hands, she tossed about in her mind quickly for a true tale and a story to tell. With everything clear in her mind, she began.

"This is my first story," Mizu began, a sweet smile brightening her features. "A few months before I moved here to Gion, I was on my way to visit an uncle in Kyoto, which was located only a day's journey from the place my family was staying at for a business party my mother and father were going to attend for a few days, who wanted to introduce me to his new wife. He expressely told me to bring the festive costume kimono my mother used in one of her favorite dances, the tale of the sparrow's rescue. My mother always wrapped that kimono in a special blue-silk cloth and the other costume kimono for the dance, the fisherman's good fortune, in a red-silk cloth, to keep the two kimono distinct. On the day after I left for Kyoto, my mother was scheduled to perform the fisherman's good fortune dance for the guests of the business party. Unfortunately, neither of us counted on the new maid at the house. She had inadvertently wrapped the sparrow costume in the red-silk, and the mermaid costume in the blue-silk, so when I undid the blue-silk parcel, I was astonished to find the mermaid kimono and not the sparrow kimono in my possession. I was horrified! But there was really nothing to be done. If my uncle's wife had not passed by my door and seen my expression, I would have been lost. She hurriedly ordered one of the grooms in the stable to ride quickly to my mother with the sparrow kimono and switch the two kimono back! If it wasn't for the quick thinking of my uncle's wife, I would have been in such trouble!" Mizu ended with a blushing laugh.

"This is my second story," Mizu continued. "When I was a young girl, my mother and father left for a very fancy party at my mother's former teahouse and left me with a beautiful violet-silk kimono a friend of the family had made for my upcoming birthday party. It was so beautiful that I knew I just had to try it on. I dressed in my first silk kimono and decided to practice my walking by taking a stroll around the tea garden we had to one side of our house. At first it was difficult because I wasn't used to the encompassing, almost constricting feeling of my new kimono; I even loosened the obi a bit so that it wouldn't be so tight. Unfortunately, that was my undoing. Just as I was passing by the koi pond, the obi that I had loosed came completely undone, tangled around my zori, and tripped me into the water! By the time I managed to come up the kimono was ruined! I was so upset I sat in the pond and cried until my eyes felt sore. I knew I would be in so much trouble, and would probably never be given another silk kimono until much later. Just as I was pulling myself from the koi pond, I heard a tapping by the back gate, and being a curious child, I went to see who it was. It turned out Komachi-san, mother's friend who had sewn me the kimono, had heard me fall into the pond, realized what I had probably done, and gone home, returning with a replica of my own kimono that he had saved in case something like that happened. My parents never found out about the kimono I had ruined!"

Mizu smiled sweetly at the assembled people, wondering if she had made it too difficult. Or too easy? You never know... she thought to herself. "So, which story is true, and which story is false?" she asked.