{D3, EM: In the Dojo] Again! (Open)

[Bayushi Ameiko]

Ameiko began her day as always, training her mind and body for any obstacles that might appear that day. Practicing tumbles, then some juijutsu kata, she moved back to the bokken and let repetition be her guide. Strike swiftly, strike through, do not allow a cut to be shallow.

[Mirumoto Jakuchou]

Jakuchou steps in and takes in a deep breath before bowing to the dojo properly. It was a familiar smell, the covered scent of sweat and hard work, hidden by cleaning products and incense. It was the smell of home.

She gave Ameiko a nod of greeting before setting aside sandals and taking up a pair of bokken. She was no specialist in such forms as her more common bushi brethren, but the taoists liked to practice with two blades from time to time to improve independent muscle control. Without interfering with the Scorpion's own dance of blades, Jakuchou begins a series of very defensive combat maneuvers that seem to create something of a shell around herself.

[Bayushi Ameiko]

After another five hundred strikes, her hands fully feeling the strain, and her clothes feeling heavier from sweat, Ameiko halted. It had been several minutes by then. She had noticed the elderly samurai come practice, but the dojo adheres to different social rules generally, she had not welcomed the other.

Seeing her more clearly now, Ameiko identified her as one of the Dragon who had come...a Mirumoto, but couldn't recall her name. That was rude, so she decided to remedy that, but waited until Jakuchou had finished her own exercises.

A bow.

"Good morning!", the girl said brightly, how having settled her breath and body, the sweat wiped away. "I am Bayushi Ameiko, student of my clan's style and the One Hundred Stances dojo."

[Mirumoto Jakuchou]

The bow was returned, Jakuchou similarly sweating, but from a much lighter workload. This didn't seem to embarrass the older Dragon, who probably had much better endurance in her youth.

"Good morning, Bayushi-sama. I am Mirumoto Jakuchou, a student of the tao and blade at Great Windfall monastery. Though I would be surprised if you'd ever heard of it with how small and young it is," she replied , with a practiced pleasantness, overcoming her prejudice for Scorpion, as she knew those she met here didn't have anything to do with the coup.

[Bayushi Ameiko]

"I admit I do not know it", the Scorpion replied, blissfully unaware of any specific disdain, and only expecting the usual level of disdain. "What method do you practice there, niten?"

the elderly woman had been using two bokken, after all.

[Mirumoto Jakuchou]

"It's not specifically a great dojo or place of training for warriors. It is a monastery devoted to Daikoku, constructed in the mouth of a depleted gold mine. But the Ise Zumi and taoist swordsmen maintain a small dojo outside the monastery mine at the entrance. We do have some retired practitioners of Niten from time to time on pilgrimages, and a few of those taoists practice the style to honor their ancestors. I do it to practice independent muscle control but never use it to actually spar or fight. Mostly I practice more basic kenjutsu and iaijutsu, though I have doing so for over 50 years so I'm relatively familiar with the basics," she says, likely understating her skill with a blade.

[Bayushi Ameiko]

"Privacy and stillness at an empty mine, hmm?" she nodded her head gently. "That does sound enjoyable, I have spent much of my time in dojo such as these and though I have no quarrel with the sights or traditions, something different might bring a better perspective." She perhaps was thinking aloud, but returned her full attention to the Dragon. "Have you seen much in sword work, or have your duties kept you mostly in the mountains?"

[Mirumoto Jakuchou]

"I fought during the coup," she says, not pointing out specifics or anything so as to avoid a potentially sore subject in discussion, not pausing before continuing on, "and the clan war. I long stood by our Emperor's side from his early days of fighting for the empire's sake. It was a chaotic time, but in the end the empire remains standing, so I am glad to have had a hand in helping where I could. Of course, that's all behind me now. If I got hit by a tetsubo as badly as I got hit back in the day, I'd be greeting Emma-O before I found my way to the floor." She smirks at the admission of the ultimate fate of many warriors that don't die in battle.

"And yourself? Have you taken part in any engagements?" There wasn't any seeming avoidance of the topic, and in fact there seemed to be a sense of expectation that she would be asked, though without encouraging it. She'd told her stories thousands of times before, but she preferred hearing them, especially from young folks. Jakuchou never understood other older folks obsession with talking about their own history, though she understood curiosity about her own past from new acquaintances.

[Bayushi Ameiko]

"Since gaining my station, I have not seen battle", Ameiko admitted. There was a slight implication that something may have happened before that, but much like childish things are discarded when becoming a samurai, so are other things buried. "Though you fought in the clan war? Mirumoto-san that must have been both glorious and horrifying. A distant relative of mine in the Shosuro also is of that age, he claimed to have been an apothecary as a boy on the Second Day of Thunder, he vanished some time ago, we thought we had lost him to the Rain, but he simply reappeared, no worse for wear, shortly before I left to the One Hundred Stances dojo. The elderly may not be able to dance with a tetsubo so easily, but they know how to survive, neh?"

[Mirumoto Jakuchou]

"You learn to survive or you have good fortune. Some just get lucky like me and simply don't die in battle. Though more than a few Lion probably can't comprehend that statement," she responds with a smirk. "Folks of advanced age tend to be part of some clans more than others."

[Bayushi Ameiko]

"Yes, I imagine there are many more old Crane than Scorpion", she said. "For myself, I have seen disregard for danger cause untimely death, and cowardice preserve many, many lives at the cost of honor." She glared at the floor a short moment, seeming to struggle with something about that statement. "I am still young though, perhaps one day I will learn a truth or two."

[Mirumoto Jakuchou]

"The truth is never just on the surface. That is part of Bayushi's way no? Such is it with all people. You will never see all of what shapes them from the surface. Not to suggest everyone is inappropriately dishonest though, because lying to ourselves is something all samurai do. Especially when they get to my age... because regret is a sin but lying to yourself is not." When she spoke it was somehow simultaneously sweet as one might expect from a grandmother and cynical as one might expect from a veteran, all with a smile as bright as daylight.

[Bayushi Ameiko]

"Honesty with the self seems more important than it is with others", she said. "Others need to hear a lie at times, to keep peace, but keeping the perspective of honesty with yourself I think is very important." Then she giggled, as young girls do. "Though true honesty with one's self requires awareness I yet lack."

[Mirumoto Jakuchou]

"It's definitely more important, but we lie to ourselves about that too. Because we are taught that it's okay for us to suffer in silence but don't want that for the people we care for. But I am older than the mountains and still haven't found the answer, just the path that works for me. Searching for answers to philosophical questions usually ends up getting people lost."

[Bayushi Ameiko]

A tilt of the head. "That is a curious view for one from your clan, is it not?"

[Mirumoto Jakuchou]

"I think that as time passes you'll find that views held by Dragon are... varied. Ask 100 of us the same question and get 100 different answers," she replied with a chuckle.

"But also, half or more of thise Dragon would likely admit to feeling lost and being okay with it. We don't need to know where we are to live our lives, even if its more convenient."

[Bayushi Ameiko]

"So you are saying being lost isn't bad", she concluded.

[Mirumoto Jakuchou]

"Exactly so. Being lost is being in a place where we have nearly unlimited opportunity to learn and test ourselves. Certainly you can have a poor outcome from being lost, but you can also have an amazing outcome," Jakuchou says with a nod. "So never be afraid to get a bit lost... in the world, in thought or even in dreams."

[Bayushi Ameiko]

"I enjoy direction, the illusion of control", the a scorpion admitted. "I do not feel lost."

Helpless perhaps at times, but not lost.

[Mirumoto Jakuchou]

"And that is not a bad thing. I simply look at being lost as an opportunity, so I don't mind it at all when it happens," she says with a nod. "Not everyone is comfortable with the feeling. It takes a bit to get used to it if you don't naturally feel that way."