Sora took stock of the side-room and chuckled.

It was considered humble. Modest. And compared to some of the places he'd slept in his youth, it was palatial.

The girls were... off memorializing an old fox. Kinyoubi and Soryu were at the hot springs.

He shook his head and smiled.

"Alone at last."

There was a sound of sweeping from outside the room. Nozomi wasn't far from her daughter at this point. It was about time for the girl to come of age, now that this madness was done. She would complete her training afterwards, and there would be partings. Painful partings. But for now she was not letting her out of her sight after what she'd seen.

Awareness active, she bowed as she entered the private chamber. "One more chat, old friend?" she said with a faint smirk on her face. "I think you should know by now you're never truly alone in this town... but we have some privacy. Mayumi will see to that. She can be quite loud when she greets people."

"Ah, there's alone, and there's alone. Besides. Who do you think some of the spies answer to, hm?"

He grinned. Shook his head.

"I hear you're going to be taking Shirayuki under your wing, at least for a bit..."

She snorted and sat down, nodding. "At least for a time. I travel too much for the child's needs. I think we have good facilities for her training, though she'll be a handful and a half for the younger monks. Still, I think she may grow a great deal." There was a pause. "I may have heard there are plans among the Order and Dragon to work with the Scorpion to establish a temple near the Shinomen. I may be the one sent that way. When that day comes, it's best if she were in other guidance. But it won't begin immediately."

"I think you know how to handle a handful. At least until you head to the edge of a scary-ass forest full of Fortunes know what. And who knows, by then I might be under pressure to arrange some kind of political marriage for her."

He made a face.

"But the Dragon have some monks in their ranks, and judging by some of the chatter in the courts, other clans are thinking much the same, so... I'm just glad you'll be able to guide her a bit."

"I've heard that the clans are thinking of developing their own monastic orders, or teasing it, since the proclamation of the Emperor. I think it's actually a good thing. It will promote different paths to enlightenment and help spread the Tao to the empire at large. The different orders might help serve as bridges between peasants and samurai as well... something I've been worried about." Her lips turned down in a frown before she nodded to him.

"But you know I'll take good care of your daughter. That's not why we're here. What's on your mind?"

"A couple of things..."

He cleared his throat.

"We're... working on ways to let anyone who can pass certain tests become a samurai. After all, I wasn't born to this. None of us in the first generation were. I was hoping we could maybe coordinate how the Orders would interact there. I was thinking maybe we could have monks proctor the examinations, since you won't have any clan loyalties influencing you. Plus it would serve as a reminder of the place the Boss has set aside for you guys."

He muttered quietly, "and I hate the word 'peasants,' they're farmers, fishermen, craftsmen... anyway."

A pause.

"This is the part where I dance around and crow 'I told you so,' except that my being right is seldom a good thing."

She blinked. There was a pause. She just... sort of ... stared at him for a moment. Shocked. Absolutely shocked.

And then she laughed. Her hand went up to her head and she fell back into her seat laughing. It took a minute and Mayumi poked her head in, bowed before going back out to sweep again. Nobody was coming here, but seriously mother. That hyena laugh of yours... Eventually, she calmed down. "Kami! I've been trying to imagine how to pull the clout together to even broach the topic with the Emperor. Getting time with him while we're trying to get the temples and monasteries set up... and here you're already on the move. I love it. Yes, of course. I'll twist their arms if they even think of bucking this. But they won't. You'll have support for it." She settled and smiled at him broadly. "You just took a load off my mind here."

(OOC: Fair warning - she netted limited influence resources, so this is a fluff agreement that she'll help. I had to spend most of mine to make sure the faction goal went through and protecting Shosuro took the rest.)

"And you're not wrong, but like it or not that word's going to stick in the end. This, however? Will remind our successors that anyone can serve as Samurai. They are not special because they were born of those chosen by the kami for one role. They eat because the others farm, but any can serve with blade or spade."

She raised an eyebrow and then snorted afterwards. "Enjoy it. I didn't think he was a good man, but he could hide the taint well. There was no proof, but that crazed swordsman managed to find it where there was none. But worse... while the threat to Doji is, indeed, the realm of evil it was not that man who was its vehicle. Something much worse."

"Oh, it's a little something some old friends and I have been working on. For years now. You might want to ask Koyama about it the next time you see him..."

He chuckled.

"One of the secrets I keep from a fair number of people. Not sure how the Little Teacher would take to it, to be honest, but maybe I'll broach the subject to him someday. The secret, I mean."

And of course, Hadananzi.

"That crazed swordsman- who is profoundly irritating with his pious faith in Destiny- may or may not have had a bit of a nudge. And then there was the help he got from some other friends of the Throne."

He paused.

Eh, fuck it.

"I wanted to get him the jade dust but never really found the opportunity. I'm glad someone else came through."

Jiyo Sora wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 02, 2021 10:17 pm

"Oh, it's a little something some old friends and I have been working on. For years now. You might want to ask Koyama about it the next time you see him..."

He chuckled.

"Somehow, I'm not surprised. I'll give him my thanks next time I'm up that way. Either way, it's good to know I wasn't the only one thinking that direction." Somehow, despite the lack of focus on academic learning in the tribe, she wasn't surprised that the Hikaru would be focused on some form of upward mobility for the average peasant.

Jiyo Sora wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 02, 2021 10:17 pm

"One of the secrets I keep from a fair number of people. Not sure how the Little Teacher would take to it, to be honest, but maybe I'll broach the subject to him someday. The secret, I mean."

She nodded. "We both have those. I trust you in it, just like you trust me." And the less he knew about hers, the better off he was.

Jiyo Sora wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 02, 2021 10:17 pm

And of course, Hadananzi.

"That crazed swordsman- who is profoundly irritating with his pious faith in Destiny- may or may not have had a bit of a nudge. And then there was the help he got from some other friends of the Throne."

He paused.

Eh, fuck it.

"I wanted to get him the jade dust but never really found the opportunity. I'm glad someone else came through."

"I'm just glad he had it. There was a chance nobody would notice that he'd put it on the blade, had it not worked, so he might survive the duel with nothing more than a slightly sullied reputation." Really, it had been the most brilliant method, but it wouldn't work twice in their lifetimes. It was fortunate Hadananzi had been bold enough to engage in the duel in the first place.

"Regardless, while he was it seems the lesser threat, he's been forced to ground. Now he is a monster instead of a monster with the backing of a clan."

Nozomi wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 03, 2021 2:16 pm

"Somehow, I'm not surprised. I'll give him my thanks next time I'm up that way. Either way, it's good to know I wasn't the only one thinking that direction." Somehow, despite the lack of focus on academic learning in the tribe, she wasn't surprised that the Hikaru would be focused on some form of upward mobility for the average peasant.

"Well, after all the noise he and I made at the Tournament about how the Kami needed to sit the fuck down and realize they weren't in Tengoku anymore...."

He chuckled.

"I'm just glad he had it. There was a chance nobody would notice that he'd put it on the blade, had it not worked, so he might survive the duel with nothing more than a slightly sullied reputation." Really, it had been the most brilliant method, but it wouldn't work twice in their lifetimes. It was fortunate Hadananzi had been bold enough to engage in the duel in the first place.

"Regardless, while he was it seems the lesser threat, he's been forced to ground. Now he is a monster instead of a monster with the backing of a clan."

"And now we get to figure out just how much damage he managed to do during his fifteen years near the top of their command structure."

He made a face.

"Not that Nanzi needs much help making things worse, but even he has his limits."

"Somehow, I feel like Shiba, Hisomu and Shinjo all have a bit of a sense that they're not there anymore." Hisomu more than anyone else had to be intimately aware of the fact that he was no longer in the heavenly realms. But in a lot of ways, she saw humility in them that she didn't in the others. It was a positive trait.

Togashi... she was just not sure what to make of him, and that probably went for the entirety of Rokugan as well, even including those closest to him.

She frowned and reached up to scratch at her chin. "Nanzi's damage has always been human in nature. The sort you could cleanse in a generation, eventually. Hadananzi could have caused irreparable harm that we don't even begin to know, and understandably the Crane will want to be first to root it out, even if there's a concern that they'd want to be quiet about it doing it. You have something in mind, don't you? Go on, old man. Spit it out. Whatever it is, you might get some actual traction with the stunt in the duel. That'll shut up the lesser naysayers. It even shut his own daughter up apparently, so... there's that."

"We need to let them clean their own house. Like them or not, it's just... how it has to be. I think they're entirely too proud, but this has humbled them, and letting them prove that they're trusted to handle it undercuts that ridiculous alliance they were trying to expand."

He sighed.

"Trust... but verify. I was hoping the Brotherhood could do some unobtrusive investigation. Especially among the farmers, fishers, and others the Crane try to pretend are a uniform block of people beneath their need to interact with directly. I have.... other avenues to check their work, which I'll be putting into action as well, but you guys are often more... approachable for people. Especially people growing up and living in lands where anyone called 'samurai' is supposed to be loftily above them."

"That would be for the best." She was glad Sora saw it that way. She and he both shared reservations about the Crane, but much like the Crab, she didn't want them antagonized too much. The situation could still be salvaged, but likely only if the Crane were allowed to do it themselves would it result in no long-term resentment that could only serve the enemy.

"We can keep our ears open and maintain good relations with the farmers. I intend to take advantage of this little plan of your boss to treat monasteries as places of learning. They farmers and those treated as lower castes will need to be given options, but also they'll need to be protected if something goes horribly wrong in the empire. I suspect they may see things we do not, so ... without putting them in undue jeapordy they may be very helpful."

"The Libraries are meant to serve them too- so if you need a hand, some resources, or just a dry building with some room... drop my name. I'll try to have orders in place to facilitate sharing resources if needed."

"I think working jointly will be a good idea. While knowledge and enlightenment aren't the same thing, they're still not incompatible. It's something that could really help the mission that we have." She idly wondered if Kinsen had any idea that part of her solution to their problem of heimin relations would involve telling the heimin that they had a way to become samurai.

"The work never seems to end, does it? Still... we both knew it would come to this all those years ago. We knew the fight wasn't done yet."

"I'd hoped we'd have time find more about the Five that the Nezumi talked about."

He sighed.

"But I won't lie... I'm glad that this is hitting before our children have to face it without us."

"Better us than them," she agreed. "And we have time yet to find the five. We have a lot of time yet. It might not be our generation, but with the Nezumi Empire as friends? We might yet manage to learn more about them. For now, we apparently have to protect our dreams." Yeah, she was working on that one in her head already.

That was not proving easy.

"I was thinking about that, actually. The dreams. Did you talk to anyone who actually had the dreams that night?"

"I have not spoken with anyone who experienced them, no. I've... had some other concerns to focus on lately." Namely Shosuro. "Have you managed to get in touch with anyone, to know what their experiences were?"