Kakita’s audience with the Emperor completed, he sought to bring himself fully back to his center.

Each breath.... each muscle... each step... All without waste or error.

He began his steps, unlike any other in the Empire... each with the careful precision of a master.

While you rest, your enemy prepares.

A pair of beady black eyes observe the kata with a keen interest. The wily crow remains silent in his observation, at least until Kakita's form is even a hair off, at which point he caws loudly, making his presence known.

With the first caw Kakita turns to see the avian observer. His eyes squint momentarily and there is a brief pause before a nod of recognition and acceptance of the criticism is expressed.

"From the top, then." He says aloud as he moves back into position.

Kakita steps and begins to float along the floor taking each step with careful aim.

----

Hayaku panted heavily on his knees as his sword lay on the ground a few feet from his grasp.

His hand still stung from the strike as words came that struck even harder.

"I thought your name meant 'Fast'... They should call you 'Slow'. Nanzi Osoku..." Grandfather mocked as he stood above the panting man.

"Why be a warrior Osoku? It is much easier to count beads!" The voice of his sensei rung through the ringing in his ears.

"Because... I... protect... the weak..." He panted out.

"And yet you cannot protect yourself... Does that frustrate you?" The mocking voice of Grandfather cried out to him.

Hayaku looked up and nodded, "Yes..."

Grandfather crouched down to stare at him straight in the eyes. "You must first learn the need for that frustration while training..."



----

The steps he made now were beyond that which he had made then... but there was still the frustration... but now only the kind which centered his soul.

----

Fluff Iai/Reflexes Roll For Training VP for fun.: 10d10o10k10+4 74

A pair of footsteps could be heard entering the dojo. As they did, there was a pause, a momentary pause. A breath, a careful focus and the person who led the other footsteps nodded, clapping at the door before opening it and slipping inside. Two women, one middle aged and the other not quite to her gempukku, entered. Both were dressed in the robes of monks. The younger watched with fascination as Kakita began his kata once more before a little chuff came to her ear.

"Those are for samurai, Mayumi," she said with a mild tone. If Kakita happened to react, she would bow before him as would her daughter. "Our weapons are different. Remember your hero's preferred blade, mmm?" And true to that form, the girl nodded vigorously, and as long as nobody seemed to mind was padding over to collect a practice bisento. All it took to keep her from looking for a daisho was that reminder and she was off to find a spear easily too big for her size.

"Please, do not let us interrupt your practice, -sama." She added it before glancing at the old crow and grinning impishly. So he was here, eh? What was the bird about this time?

He shook his head gently, "It is no interruption. I try to avoid distraction. It is said that: 'Distraction breeds disaster'."

He looked at the girl as she found a suitable weapon and began her practice. He smiled faintly and stepped forward to watch.

"As you say. Distractions are death on the battlefield." She knew that all too well. When her daughter had fetched a practice bisento, she pulled out two very real, very old and weathered tonfa from the sash of her obi, cinching it again and taking up a position opposite Mayumi. "Warm Ups first. Remember the kata she showed you." Trying to train her daughter in weapons when she preferred the spear and polearm was not easy, but they'd learned how to spar opposite.

"I do not believe we have met, -sama. I am Nozomi, and this is my daughter Mayumi>" she said, her body moving through the flow of kata with an ease that spoke to practice, to focus, and above all to a very thorough understanding of the limits in range and reach that the Tonfa gave. They spun in her hands, both in defensive posture and ready to lash out and trip with almost viperish ease. She was not the kind of master with her weapon that Kakita was, but she knew exactly what she was doing with them.

Fluff Staves/Agility - 47

He bowed at her introduction. "I am called Kakita. It is a pleasure to meet you both. You have the gait of a warrior Nozomi-san. I have heard of a Nozomi who traveled on the journey to save the lord Hisomu... are you this same Nozomi?"

"Kakita, is it?" She made a note of the name. Unlike many, she really wasn't as good remembering all of the many names of famous personages, though the name sounded familiar. He was probably someone of importance. Bat... by the colors. She bowed back before continuing with her kata, keeping an eye on the girl as she went through her stretches and first kata.

"Yes, a woman named Nozomi came out across the river from that trip to rescue Hisomu. And you'd be talking to her. I've seen my share of battles in the past, though none like the ones I saw there. And hopefully never again. Glory is one thing, but what was down there should stay down there forever if I have my wish." It might have sounded a little odd, but considering the vows she'd taken when she 'put Phi aside' to her, the girl who had crossed the river had died there, and it was Nozomi who left. It confused some, and others caught on quickly. "These old grain beaters have seen more than their share of blood, I'll admit."

"You traveled to a realm that seeks to destroy that which is good in this world. You did what you must to protect the realm of man." He replied with a strong sense of approval in his voice.

"To stand for the weak in opposition of the evil... That is what I seek to become as well."

"A good goal in any man or woman's life," she said, her tone gruff in agreement, though there was a discomfort there. She didn't like to heap accolades at her feet too much, even if people occasionally said things like that about what she'd done those days. "I wish I could pretend to such nobility, but it was a frightened young woman who crossed that river, pretending that she was not scared behind her mask. She went, seeking the attention and eye of one who would know what happened those days, that she might no longer be a leaf floating upon a stream that she did not control. That she did what she did would help others, was not her choice."

"When she crossed the river, Nozomi knew what she had done had been for the sake of more than herself. One woman entered, another left. I had a lot to learn, and I'm lucky I did not lose my life to learn it."

He nodded, "The winds of destiny push us in paths that seem mysterious to us... But Destiny has no secrets. We learn to embrace our experiences with time. Even death will be something we learn to embrace."

He nods his head towards her, "I commend you for your modesty... but you are a woman worthy of respect. There are many whose choices lead them to paths of self-interest and destruction despite more noble aims than what you possessed."

She chuckled. "I was fortunate to have the companions that I did in the journey. Those who once called themselves Hikaru were an asset in their new lives, and they watched over a young foundling in their ranks." Their young, little scout and murderer. Old man Koyama and Sora had taken good care of her. "And that crow's usual traveling companion had a way of opening one's eyes to things that they had never considered, paths perhaps neither even imagined existed. The walk has been good to me. I have no regrets. What I brought from that place has made me the woman I am."

She didn't say it, but there was a way in which her daughter grinned when she did that got a tiny, stern look. Mayumi knew damned well that when Nozomi said it, she was one of the things that she meant when she said she brought them out of that place. She didn't speak, though, focusing faster and faster. For a girl of her size, she was holding the Bisento just fine. She strove to emulate Matsu in many respects, and it showed both in her style of fighting and how she had applied herself physically.

"I suppose I don't look for respect, but if I feel like someone has learned something in knowing me, I consider it a victory. I grow every time I speak to a new soul, see through new eyes. I try not to judge. The path of enlightenment takes a thousand roads. None are the same."

Kakita looked to the bird in the rafters again.

So you are Shinsei's companion? That is a reassuring bit of information. And makes sense...

He smiled softly and turned back to watching the child, "She is your daughter? She trains with an intense ferocity. She will be strong one day."

"I'm going to grow up strong, like the great hero Matsu!" she declared finally, taking a moment. There was a pant of exertion there. These kata were designed with the Spider in mind as much as the monk's methods. It was taxing on a young body, as it had been for Matsu in her youth. "Mom even says just because I was born a m..."

Nozomi stepped in and tapped her shoulder. "There are many paths, yes daughter. But some must be opened by another, remember that." And that was Hisomu's choice to make. "You will know your calling soon enough." She coughed apologetically. There was still a certain amount of upward mobility as the various bodies of population formed the clans but she had seen the writing on the wall. She knew what was happening with what Shinjo and Doji had set in motion for the tribes, for those the emperor had ordered today not to impede as they left. Mayumi might have upward mobility if she wished it, or she might not. Her own child, however, Nozomi was quite certain would not. the Orders were making a choice. It would cost them, but aa thing that they were willing to put aside.

"In days like this, everything is possible. Only fate will tell the final tale."

Kakita nodded and made a note of the child's selection of hero.

"An openness to possibility keeps the mind agile. A good trait to possess."

Mayumi took after her mother. She'd trained with Matsu when she was younger, and they'd come over to the Spider lands to keep up with her over the years. It had been almost poetic how that had gone through.

"We are reeds who are cast in the wind. We must be able to bend, to shift with the flowing of the wind." A bit of a proverb, but hey. She studied at the Teacher's feet enough. Even she could pick them up. "To be able to adapt as the world changes around oneself is one of the most important lessons when the world does just that every year, seemingly shifting like the breeze."

“Only a fool thinks the wind is empty.” He replied with a line from Shinsei and a smile.

“The wind has certainly brought us an interesting situation here. All of us stuck here for an indeterminate amount of time.”

With some evil spirit trying to turn us all into hollowed out versions of ourselves…

He turned, “Destiny blows us in interesting directions.”

"It does like to push, does it not?" Rather hard at times. Her lips turned into a thinner line. "Yes, we do seem to be caught in an unexpected situation. Happenstance has proven to be something many here are willing to make use of." If for no other reason than an excuse for politics.

"I will admit that the direction we find ourselves on was not my plan, without question."

“What was your plan?” He asked with interest. The man appeared to be an apt listener at this point.

"My plan, in truth, was to visit for a single day. I felt that it wouldn't be right for there to be no representatives of the order present. I was unaware Kuu would be present and in town, or I might not have come. But two is better than one."

In truth, she detested Hadananzi. There was something oily and slick about him that reminded her so much of the man who had found him years ago. Nanzi was a hero of the empire and a good man, who had sacrificed much for the sake of the people. However, he was also a preening poppingjay with pretentions about proper conduct that made her want to box his ears with a tonfa, and the oily man who followed him around was just as bad. The reality was that she just didn't get along with Doji's vision of the world, and where she could give some leeway to a goddess who clearly meant well, Nanzi was just a man and a bit too... Nanzi for her tastes. So, she usually kept her distance from his affairs and everyone was happier.

However, Doji was a friend of Shinsei's. All of the kami were. And a friend of a friend was still just that, and it felt wrong to skip this. "So I had planned to come, to poke a little fun at an old warhorse or two I know, meet with a few others who I don't get on quite so well with, but I still try, and then we'd be on our way. We were thinking of traveling to Shinjo lands weren't we daughter."

Mayumi nodded. "I still say I haven't seen Beiden Pass." That got a warning look from her mother. "Oh don't look at me like that, Mother. You say Bayushi Umeno-sama is there and you haven't' seen her in ten years at least. You always talk about it."

"True..." Umeno was a friend, and she felt bad, but she didn't want to admit to her daughter that the reason why she never went south was that she didn't want to feel compelled to test if Umeno was corrupted or not. the mere thought horrified her.