Who goes there? (Day 9 LE)

Kaiu Maiya · **Joined:** Tue Apr 14, 2020 6:43 am **Posts:** 878

Her heavy armoured footsteps could be heard for quite a distance. In the dark from the late evening her lit metal lantern could be seen from even further away than she could be heard. However, the intense rain made both the sound and the sight of her harder to notice than would have been at all usual. It hadn't stopped all day. It hadn't stopped at all in days. It felt like a monsoon at this stage. Her lower armour was dirty from mud, but it was lessening as she walked along the strong walls. That was one upside of the rain.

Being used to guard duty while it rained it wasn't a big deal to Maiya. She'd stepped out to walk the walls to be used to them in case she needed to fight atop them. She was halfway through a full circuit of them, upon which she was going to head to bed, when she stopped briefly to adjust her helmet. Lifting her lantern she looked around. The last Lion guards she had passed were increasingly further away. Would they hear her if she shouted? The rain would make it difficult.

Togashi Myo-en · **Joined:** Mon Apr 06, 2020 4:27 am **Posts:** 418

An indistinct blob along the inner side of the wall-walk resolves, as Maiya gets closer, into a human figure in a wide hat and straw cloak, apparently not carrying any light, leaning against the parapet and gazing out over the scattered lights of rainy Nikesake. Water trickles from the edges of the hat like a beaded fringe all around, but the wearer seems unbothered.

It (she?) is a shorter and slighter figure than Maiya, though it's hard to tell much about her build under the humble straw cape. Beneath the hat, yhe Kaiu's lantern light catches on bare-shaven scalp at nape and temples.

Kaiu Maiya · **Joined:** Tue Apr 14, 2020 6:43 am **Posts:** 878

The bushi held the lantern out in front of her, higher, to cast more light toward the figure.

"Who goes there?" She calls out in challenge, stepping closer with a hand atop her sword pummel.

Togashi Myo-en · **Joined:** Mon Apr 06, 2020 4:27 am **Posts:** 418

The figure in the hat turns away from the view out over the city, lantern light now illuminating her face. She shows her empty hands, palms out. "Togashi Myo-en."

It's a woman's voice with a northern accent, which fits logically enough with the Dragonish name.

"Hello there."

Kaiu Maiya · **Joined:** Tue Apr 14, 2020 6:43 am **Posts:** 878

"Kaiu Maiya... hello." She responds, her armoured posture relaxing a fraction. Her hand remained on her katana hilt as she was still a little tense. However, as she'd never met a Togashi before and as they were the ruling family of the Dragon she was inclined not to give offense if the woman wasn't an enemy.

She'd just double check first.

As the woman wasn't armed she gave her a slight bow. The rain hitting her armour changed its sound to a heavier pitch momentarily as it went from striking her shoulder guards to her back.

"This City is likely to soon be under siege Togashi-sama. What brings you here?"

Togashi Myo-en · **Joined:** Mon Apr 06, 2020 4:27 am **Posts:** 418

This Togashi doesn't have the eerie reddish luminosity the slaughter spirits are rumored to exhibit in dim light, and she certainly doesn't look aggressive. Not much of a Toshigoku vibe about this one.

"Why am I here? That's a very deep question, Kaiu Maiya-san," she says, with a mild expression beneath the hat. "With many answers, though I think you want the simple ones first."

"If the city is under siege, I will be, too. I was a refugee from Toshi no Omoidoso, like so many others--though maybe more capable in war than some." The water trickling from her hat changes its miniature river-courses again as she glances out over the parapet and back toward Maiya. "I can't fly away like a bird, nor would I when others are in danger, but before I bleed for Nikesake I thought to see it as a bird sees it."

Kaiu Maiya · **Joined:** Tue Apr 14, 2020 6:43 am **Posts:** 878

Oh Hida. She had been warned about Togashi. This one seemed like full of tricks than in some stories she had heard, but Maiya was already a little confused.

"So, you're here to help in the siege to come? Ok. Thank you. Ano, why a bird's eye view?" She wondered as the question left her lips whether it was worth asking a second question... Let alone a why question.

Togashi Myo-en · **Joined:** Mon Apr 06, 2020 4:27 am **Posts:** 418

"How can I defend Nikesake if I don't know what it is?" The monk answers a question with a question, perhaps predictably. "Cities have many selves making up the whole. I am a visitor here and don't have time to learn its nature slowly. A bird's view of a place is not complete, but from above one can see its meridians and pulses more easily."

Kaiu Maiya · **Joined:** Tue Apr 14, 2020 6:43 am **Posts:** 878

"Hai..." She sort of followed the gist of what the Dragon was getting at. Slowly she turned to take in the same view Myo-en had been gazing at. The city streets were lit up for the most part. Even through the rain you could hear the sounds of a bustling city.

"It is alive I suppose."

Togashi Myo-en · **Joined:** Mon Apr 06, 2020 4:27 am **Posts:** 418

"Like a moss patch, or a forest. Many lives make something more than their sum." Myo-en nods, rain trickling erratically from her hat again. "Maybe it's attachment, but I want it to survive."

The slight smile that curves the corner of her mouth at that is... dry.

"You're a long way from the southern walls, Kaiu-san," she adds after a few beats.

Kaiu Maiya · **Joined:** Tue Apr 14, 2020 6:43 am **Posts:** 878

"Forgive me Togashi-sama, but, ano... wouldn't that simply be Compassion? Unless it's something I'm going to eat or some horrible creature I tend to want living things to survive. Especially people." Strange Togashi. Do Dragon only act if they hold attachment?

At the other woman's statement she grunts in agreement. "And yet here I am patrolling the Walls of another Clan as they prepare to fight their own ancestors. And then I meet a Togashi assessing the City's life flow. Hai. It's all very strange." Unless the Dragon had a question the Kaiu wasn't about to regale her with stories of the Carpenter Wall.

Togashi Myo-en · **Joined:** Mon Apr 06, 2020 4:27 am **Posts:** 418

"Of course I do not want the living beings here to suffer. But I like the town as it is, too." Myo-en frowns thoughtfully, assessing her feelings. "One of those things is compassion, perhaps. But wanting things not to change? Fate is always changing us. To resist this isn't always compassionate. It might be only fearfulness."

The straw cape shifts, sparkling with rain, as she rolls her shoulders underneath the layers. "Are you here on these walls because you wintered in Lion lands and were caught out here, as I am? I think it is much too soon for reinforcements to reach here from south of the Spine of the World. Though I would be happy to be wrong."

Kaiu Maiya · **Joined:** Tue Apr 14, 2020 6:43 am **Posts:** 878

"If fate wanted to turn me into diced okonomiyaki then I would resist." Maiya responds bluntly, starting to find the Togashi's words bothersome. She didn't like the idea of fate changing everyone without them having any will in the process. Also, there was a possible undertone to the words that she hoped she was wrong about.

"And the reason we're resisting the returned spirits is because their change involved directly killing the Emperor. I'm not really sure it's compassion to condone that, ne?" Just in case the Togashi needed a reminder of recent events.

Rolling her shoulders the Kaiu switched her lantern from one hand to the other. Her left hand was now free for some exercise. She wiggled and stretched her fingers to prevent any cramp.

"No Crab armies on their way as far as I know Togashi-sama. I was wintering here as you first guessed. Crab armies should only leave Crab lands in an emergency. The Imperial Legions and the whole Lion Clan ought to respond to a problem like this first in my humble opinion."

Togashi Myo-en · **Joined:** Mon Apr 06, 2020 4:27 am **Posts:** 418

"Unfortunately, the Lion seem... divided," A dry understatement if ever there was one, considering nearly every person inside the walls of Nikesake with Lion blood had spent the morning seemingly arguing with themselves. "I hope enough of them can choose the Empire over their worst ancestors, in the end. But even suggesting a Lion has a worst ancestor may be taking one's life in one's own hands, sometimes."

She rubs a palm over her shaven temple under the hat, making the wide basket-surface wobble a little. "I am not advising passivity, if that's what you think, Kaiu Maiya-san," she adds with a small, vaguely awkward smile. "Living things have a choice about what we become, some choice anyway. The one thing we cannot do is hold still in a moving stream that is much bigger than we are. Trying to cling in that way might cause more harm than letting go. Just look at what the spirit Emperor has done, all because he won't let go of the life he had in a past age."

Kaiu Maiya · **Joined:** Tue Apr 14, 2020 6:43 am **Posts:** 878

"Maybe safer to suggest Toshigoku affected their ancestors. Less of a loss of honour that way, ne?" Maiya suggested, having heard some comments on this throughout the day.

To her surprise, something which came frequently of late, the Dragon's words made some sense to the Kaiu. Tapping her foot on the floor a couple times she wondered about things bigger than herself. Probably everything. She shook her head.

"Anyway, if you're going to fight, better take care Togashi-sama. They're mean by all accounts. Not nice at all."

Togashi Myo-en · **Joined:** Mon Apr 06, 2020 4:27 am **Posts:** 418

"Hm. You are more politic than me." A corner of Myo-en's mouth curls upward. "If the Realm has affected the spirits who dwelt there... still, there's some reason from their earthly lives that they went there in the first place." She shakes her head slightly, the motion magnified by her hat and the rain scattering from its brim. "I have fought many Naga, ratmen, once a strange man of melting shadow--but I think you are right, in some ways these lost ancestors are the most threatening of all."

She steps lightly away from her perch against the battlement, "I don't mean to hold up your patrol, Kaiu-san. May I walk with you? I've looked my fill here, for now."

Kaiu Maiya · **Joined:** Tue Apr 14, 2020 6:43 am **Posts:** 878

"Nah." She waved that suggestion off with her free hand. "Just passing on what I've heard from others."

Maiya scrutinised the Togashi more closely as she casually and humbly spoke about various opponents she had fought before. It had the Crab frowning a bit. She didn't think the Togashi looked like much of a scrapper.

"Sure... so, what was it like fighting naga? There's a few in the city, but, ah... friendly." The bushi went on to say as she began walking again. She was still mentally stumbling for how to explain that one.

Togashi Myo-en · **Joined:** Mon Apr 06, 2020 4:27 am **Posts:** 418

"Not so different from an army of human men and women, the veterans at that time said." Myo-en swings into a light, flowing gait that paces Maiya easily, if perhaps in a less disciplined cadence. "In some ways. They have an understanding of one another's thoughts and senses that is not like ours at all, almost as if they can hear each other waking and sleeping, and that made them fearsome in a fight. They had the advantage of knowing the land, and their bodies are better suited for jungle forest than ours.

"But their tactics were much like ours, they defended their ground in like fashion. And divided themselves by pride in the same kind of way, too." She laughs, a very brief, rueful sound in her throat.

"That is how some Naga came to winter in Lion lands this year. One of their officers turned against another lord who had once betrayed her. It's a long tale, but those are her..." Myo-en chews over words in her mind for a moment "...vassals and householders. They followed when she made peace with the Empire."

Kaiu Maiya · **Joined:** Tue Apr 14, 2020 6:43 am **Posts:** 878

"That explains a few things I've heard from them. Makes sense of some stuff I've heard from others too. You sure know a lot Togashi-sama." The woman was living up to the reputation of her Family and Order.

"Know any more about it all? One of them said to me that they want to battle the shadowlands and they can't be corrupted." She hoped the other woman didn't mind mention of such things in the vague sense Maiya had used.

In contrast to Myo-en the Crab had a very purposeful walk. The armour she wore likely made that very necessary.

Togashi Myo-en · **Joined:** Mon Apr 06, 2020 4:27 am **Posts:** 418

"Well, I was there." Myo-en shrugs, shifting the layers of her straw cape. "Yes, their ancient enemy is the same as yours, or mostly. They call it a word that means something like 'the Foul' in our language, and fought it for many ages of their people, before they all went to sleep for so long. We found their temples decorated with crystal and jade, written over with stories of those battles."

She walks quietly for a few paces, roaming in her memories. "What they called the Foul could hurt and kill them, but it could not infect them. They misunderstood humans very badly because of that."

Who goes there? (Day 9 LE)

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