🍵 Episode 4: The Steep Price of Tea

The road winds down into Chaobe, a terraced port town built entirely on tea. Plantations line the foothills, drying houses cling to the slopes, and glass-fronted estates crown the ridge. It looks elegant, prosperous, refined. But under the surface? Something is off.

The heroes meet Lady Kusshō — a tea magnate who seems almost too perfect. She greets them with impeccable manners, a smile that never falters, and trays of candied ginger and jellies that appear just when their suspicions rise. She needs help “restoring order” to the tea trade, and soon enough, Kabu, Kabocha, and Matsu are running errands that slowly consolidate her control of the entire supply chain.

🏯 Journey Journal: Kobe

Chaobe takes its shape from Kobe — a city of sea, mountains, and international trade. In Kitano-chō you’ll find old ijinkan merchant houses, built when foreign traders first set up shop in Japan. We pulled from Kobe’s ropeway and herb gardens for Kusshō’s glass estate perched on the hillside, and from its skyline rising against the mountains for Chaobe’s layered streets. Kobe’s blend of refinement, modern craft, and quiet indulgence became the backdrop for this story about comfort turned sour.

🎭 Heists and Doubts

This is the first time the team really runs missions together. Kabu negotiates at the plantations, Matsu times the drying house patrols, and Kabocha puts it all together in a full-scale heist. They succeed — almost too well. Each job ends with Kusshō thanking them sweetly, pressing exotic sweets into their hands, and brushing off their unease.

But when they finally break into Kusshō’s vault, the “seed” they expect isn’t there. Instead, the chest is filled with dossiers about them — names, hometowns, abilities. She’s been watching from the start. And that’s when Kusshō shows her true form: the tea demon, a cursed seed of gluttony masked as elegance.

🍂 Kabocha’s Moment

The battle is lush and suffocating, illusions of abundance wrapping around them like steam in a teahouse. Just as it seems hopeless, Kabocha runs out of her pumpkin shuriken. In desperation she flings her hand forward, and a razor-sharp pumpkin leaf slices through the demon’s bark. The screen shifts into ink-splash style for a beat — her first power awakening. She stares at her hand, shocked. Kabu is impressed, but quietly unsettled.

🎁 Aftermath

They win, but not cleanly. The townsfolk are freed, Kusshō dissolves, and a Dutch trader hands them a solid gold tea strainer, explaining its magical use in perfect nonsense Simlish. They nod politely and accept.

The group walks away divided. Matsu wonders if they went too far. Kabocha argues the outcome justifies the means. Kabu says nothing, caught between them. The tea strainer clinks at his side — a trinket with an unknown future.

And in the final tag, Kusshō’s files are passed to a shadowed figure… or perhaps a waiting crow. Someone is still watching.

🌱 Why it Matters

Episode 4 is indulgence with a price tag. It shows how comfort can dull instincts, how sweets and smiles can distract you from hard questions. It’s the team’s first true heist, the first time they operate as a unit, and the first fracture in their values. For Kabocha, it’s a breakthrough — her powers are beginning to bloom. For Matsu, it’s a warning. And for Kabu, it’s a silence that speaks louder than words.