(D3, LA) The Fallout Shelter

Yogo Aya · **Joined:** Sun Apr 05, 2020 12:42 am **Posts:** 719

There seemed to be a great deal of alarm coming from the walls. Lion bushi and others were streaming towards the gates of the city to apparently fight against a venerable horde of angry returned spirits. Not fitting nicely into the Lion command chart structure, and almost completely tapped out from the day's hunt, Aya instead ducked inside the dojo. It was a nice defensible location, with ready access to weapons, should the unthinkable happen, and the Lion fail.

Isawa Tomomi · **Joined:** Fri Apr 03, 2020 11:07 pm **Posts:** 93

At least one other had had the same idea. No more classifying refugees at this point, they all had jobs or were on the road. Tomomi had no real weapons of her own here, nor much skill in any case. But if everything went very badly, she'd bonk as many heads with a wooden approximation of a naginata before her story ended. So she'd come to the dojo, hefted the practice weapon, and swung it through some warmup kata.

Warming up was really, really nice after all the freezing.

Hearing someone else enter, she paused, reasonably sure that the building being overrun by a horde of slaughter spirits would be much louder. "Hello..?" She slides quietly toward the weapons rack on bare feet, just in case. No sense letting someone aim at her voice by just standing there.

Yogo Aya · **Joined:** Sun Apr 05, 2020 12:42 am **Posts:** 719

The Yogo blinked at the hail.

"Oh, someone is here? It would seem a little late for weapons practice when the enemy is at the gates." she remarked.

She bowed to the Phoenix.

"I am Yogo Aya, a pleasure to meet you, despite the strange circumstances."

Isawa Tomomi · **Joined:** Fri Apr 03, 2020 11:07 pm **Posts:** 93

Planting the end of the faux-naginata on the mat, Tomomi offers a bow. "Likewise, an honor. I'm not actually much use with a weapon. Everyone who is, is out there. This way I'm not interrupting or distracting them when they come here for proper training."

She chuckles slightly. "Also...it's warm, and I didn't want to walk all the way back to the castle, just yet. Needed to thaw a bit." Stepping away from the rack, to allow better access, she adds, "and there's plenty of room if you're also here to practice."

Yogo Aya · **Joined:** Sun Apr 05, 2020 12:42 am **Posts:** 719

The Yogo lets out a deep breath.

"I agree that it is warm. It's pretty miserable out there....I'll admit, I'm a bit tired, I was doing my fighting before the enemy host showed up. But if they have a practice knife, I'll do forms with you." she offers.

Isawa Tomomi · **Joined:** Fri Apr 03, 2020 11:07 pm **Posts:** 93

Knife vs polearm was not a matchup she'd ever done. Probably the bushi had, if they aimed to be prepared for everything. "I'd be honored."

Padding back toward the center of the space, well away from anything that could be struck with a long hung of wood, she asks, "what kind of fighting was happening before the attack? Were you scouting?"

"Oh, manners. Isawa Tomomi, historian. Feh...guess I'm more tired than I should be too. The cold is draining."

Yogo Aya · **Joined:** Sun Apr 05, 2020 12:42 am **Posts:** 719

Aya smiled a bit.

"Think nothing of it Tomomi-san. These past few days have been hard are many people." she offers.

She picked up a small practice "dagger" really it was a stick with ambition.

"Sort of. We were following up on a scouting report of a monster attack. There were snakelike tracks, and some people who had been compressed into new and exciting shapes."

She walked to the taining area, holding the knife like a gang fighter would. It she was going to fight against someone with a polearm, the trick was to get inside her range. IF youl could do that, there was little they could do besides get stabbed.

Isawa Tomomi · **Joined:** Fri Apr 03, 2020 11:07 pm **Posts:** 93

"Snakelike tracks?" she asks a bit warily. She'd prefer not to find out that this madness she'd learned of, infecting the Naga spirit/mind thing hadn't sent her new acquaintances into the forest to ...compress people.

She lowered the polearm, holding it ready in a not quite horizontal position, since the obvious idea with such a weapon was to poke at people from far enough away that they couldn't poke you.

"Did you find, whatever made the tracks?" She wasn't sure which answer she hoped for.

Yogo Aya · **Joined:** Sun Apr 05, 2020 12:42 am **Posts:** 719

Aya started to circle, staying out of reach of the polearm, looking for her moment. She flicked the knife up and down to keep the Phoenix's attention on it, and not her footwork.

"Oh yes. We were very fortunate, the Lion sent along someone who was an excellent tracker. Blinding rain, frozen ground, and he still managed to lead us to the ugly bastard and his two little offspring." she said, as if this was something she did every day.

Isawa Tomomi · **Joined:** Fri Apr 03, 2020 11:07 pm **Posts:** 93

Offspring?! There was a certain horror in that thought, and pity if that madness infected children. She'd meant to avoid just spinning in a circle here. The forms taught a more retreating, eliptical kind of path, blade nimbly ready to deflect. But that thought gave her a shudder and pivoted where she was, still guarding.

"It had children? What..or who was it?"

Yogo Aya · **Joined:** Sun Apr 05, 2020 12:42 am **Posts:** 719

Aya would find it surprising how inquisitive these samurai were about monsters. But later, when she would be asked again, not now the first time. Time was fluid after all.

"Hmm, I'm not sure of the proper name. It wasn't a common monster. It was something so suffused with the power of Jigoku that you could not really tell if it had ever truly been human. But it looked like a tentacle tree, moved like a greased snake, could crush multiple people with it's tentacles, and reanimate it's fallen victims. Very resistant to weapons, very vulnerable to fire.

She punctuated her statement with a feint and a dash to try to get under the guard while the Phoenix put the puzzle pieces together.

Isawa Tomomi · **Joined:** Fri Apr 03, 2020 11:07 pm **Posts:** 93

Honestly, the information worked far better than the feint to slow any reaction. The blade dipped much too slowly as the Phoenix recoiled from the casual conversation about creatures of Jigoku.

At least that response made it easy, almost automatic, to step back, with more grace than her years might lead someone to suspect, but with an entirely unsurprising lack of speed. "That's...digusting!" she spat out, desperately bringing the butt of the weapon around between them as she backpedalled. It was merely sparring, but the thought of being touched by Aya was viscerally repulsive at that moment.

"Not...Naga then."

Yogo Aya · **Joined:** Sun Apr 05, 2020 12:42 am **Posts:** 719

Aya looked hurt at the Phoenix's reaction.

"Hey, you asked. What did you think I was risking being out in an imminent warzone for? A pack of wild dogs? I mean, I could've said that, but that wouldn't be very Honest, now would it."

It would have been more Courteous, but Aya never did believe in that one very much.

"Naga? Huh, I hadn't thought about that. Hmmm, I mean, it was pretty badly mutated, with enough exposure to Jigoku things can get very weird. I mean, I can't vouch 100% it wasn't originally an ill-mannered tree. But given how far North it was, I don't think a Naga seems terribly likely. But while I can't rule it out, if it started out a Naga, it was definitely no longer that when we killed it. And it's little vine zombies withered when he killed it. And then we chopped off their heads to make sure."

She didn't advance on the Phoenix, because at the moment she didn't trust her to actually check her swing. But she sure didn't seem to have a problem with continuing to assault the Phoenix historian's sensibilities.

Isawa Tomomi · **Joined:** Fri Apr 03, 2020 11:07 pm **Posts:** 93

Scooting out of range and setting the butt of the practice weapon down to lean on. Tomomi gave up any pretense of sparring to stare for several long breaths.

"What is *wrong* with you? 'little vine z..' ...things and chopping off heads and even bringing the name of the ninth Kami's realm before a shrine?!" Ok, that last was a little over the top. There were probably worse curses uttered before the dojo's shrine all the time.

"And I was worried about the Naga here, not...ugh, how would any get all the way down there and all the way up here, how did *things* like that get up here at all?" She stops, frowns and rolls her shoulders back with a calming breath. "*Don't* answer that actually. Just...please stop acting like you were raised in a Kuni stable."

Yogo Aya · **Joined:** Sun Apr 05, 2020 12:42 am **Posts:** 719

The Yogo blinked at the Phoenix's meltdown.

She scratched the back of her neck.

Rain fell on the streets, and the forces of the Empire clashed at the gates.

"So....."

A pause.

"....why Naga?"

Isawa Tomomi · **Joined:** Fri Apr 03, 2020 11:07 pm **Posts:** 93

Tension left her shoulders as the improprieties passed. Not raised by Crab after all. They tended to bluster about not being appreciated when told that their talk of unmentionables was unwelcome.

"Because you mentioned snakelike tracks," she glances down and to the side, a touch sheepish, "I...didn't want to think that the ones I'd just spoken too were actually the monsters some stories paint them as after the war."

Yogo Aya · **Joined:** Sun Apr 05, 2020 12:42 am **Posts:** 719

"Oh."

"I haven't met any. Met a pirahna magistrate who knew some about them." she replied.

Aya was a bit off her balance. Not because of the meltdown, per se. She was used to that part, though she hadn't gotten any of that lately. Mostly because usually the meltdown was immediately followed by them storming out, and Aya could go back to figuring out how to kill monsters. She hadn't actually had anyone stay after blowing up after her, and wasn't quite sure how to handle that situation.

Isawa Tomomi · **Joined:** Fri Apr 03, 2020 11:07 pm **Posts:** 93

Her grip on the vaguely pointy staff is relaxed as she nods. "Ryuuta Kin. I've met him as well. He arranged the meeting with a couple of the Naga in town. They're quite unsettling, and yet well-spoken." Her head tilts, eyes narrowed inquisitively, deepening the fan of lines at their corners. "Have you even seen them? A few have been in town through the winter. Not sure if there were any at the court."

Yogo Aya · **Joined:** Sun Apr 05, 2020 12:42 am **Posts:** 719

Aya shook her head.

"Haven't seen any. And I wasn't at court." she admits.

While it made sense that no one in their right might would send her to any court, the fact that she was here at all was....odd.

Isawa Tomomi · **Joined:** Fri Apr 03, 2020 11:07 pm **Posts:** 93

Tomomi frowns a bit at that, searching her memory. "Yet I don't recall seeing you about town this winter. Have you just frequented spaces so far from mine?" It was certainly possible. The Phoenix probably wouldn't recognize most of the town criminals either, for example.

(D3, LA) The Fallout Shelter

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