The New Winds

Saburo's attempts to Clear his mind were less than successful today, but the effort had to be made. He was still sufficiently elated that the Jiujutsu demonstration had gone quite as well as it had. It did not, however, give him reason to rest on the proverbial laurels. He was out in the fields, a training bow in hand. This time, as the cloth was wrapped around his fingers, he was starting to shoot with considerably greater confidence than he had before. He wore a straw cloak and wide brimmed hat to keep out the worst of the drizzle today. It was effective, but rather gloomy weather for shooting.

Repetition was the greatest teacher of all, if you were to ask him.

Still wet from training with Hida-Sensei, Kenji joins the shooting range. Meanwhile he had gotten a hat, too, but only to not have water in his eyes all the time.

There he was, Kenji thought. The star of the Hirosaka Dojo.
How could such a sickly boy be the top student of the dojo. Yes, Saburo was determined, and probably had a stick up his ass, but why did he make it this far?

Keeping his thoughts to himself, Kenji greeted the boy "Greetings Asako-San, I see you are practicing with the bow, do you mind if I join you?

It was a question that Saburo would not have the answer to. He was just about as surprised as any to find himself listed as being the top mark when he actually bothered to look at the boards this morning. His eyes had climbed in mild shock at that, and he was currently in a mixture of disbelief and repeatedly reminding himself of what the Yogo had warned about. Pride came before a fall. Right now, he was obsessively firing away when he heard Kenji's approach. Letting loose the latest arrow, he paused and turned, bowing to the young man.

"Feel free. There is ample room, though the weather plays havoc on the fletching. Still, rain does not wait for us in times of war, why should it be so kind in times of training yes?"

"The forces of nature are also one of the enemies we samurai must face. Be it tsunamis, earthquakes, droughts, floods. So, yes, it doesn't hurt to train in all weathers, Asako-san.

Kenji took some arrows, a bow and started some practice shots.

Considering that Kenji had hardly trained with the bow, his shots were not that bad.

"What are your cousins like? I met Kaito Haruki, but I hear there are quite a few of you here at the dojo.

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D3 Serpent Fluff Kyujutsu/Reflexes unskilled: 3d10 13

Saburo's own work was not stellar, though it was approaching the expectations that were being set for them. As he fired, he grunted and glared at the target with the same displeasure he seemed to take all things. His lips were set in a firm line, so much so that he seemed to miss the question at first.

"Ah, there is a gentleman, Asako Sanzo who is present here. Pleasant, friendly sort. Easy going, like many of the members of the branch. I do not believe we are related, save distantly by clan ties. Another Isawa trained fellow is here, Tanshin. He has some skill with the priestly arts as well. I believe he has an interest in healing arts." Though he suspected the man had better talents with fire than water, who could say? "There is another Kaito. A young woman. Kai I believe. We've only spoken in passing."

"It's good to have a lot of clansmen you can rely on."

Kenji shot some arrows. For a while only the sound of the rain and the impact of the arrows on the targets could be heard.

"It can be, yes. You have a few of your own, do you not?" Admittedly, the one seemed to be a touch on the narcoleptic side in lessons, but she wasn't an unpleasant person, he supposed in a very distant sort of way. "Generally, the company of one's fellow kin is at least a sense that one is not alone in one's tasks, though most of what we do at present is singular to ourselves."

"My clansmates are not as numerous as yours, Asako-san. Doji-san seems talented, but,... something,... well, ... She's very kind-hearted. Kazuko-san comes from the same Bushi school, although not from the same dojo. I, ....."

His heart started beating a little faster.
He paused, took a few deep breaths and shot a few arrows before continuing.
"don't want to look bad next to her"

"The Doji... is a person that I think I would have trouble relating to. She seems a very ... yes, I think that I like 'soft hearted.' That seems a fair description." Much better than ear-splitting, vapid, sleep deprived houligan. He took a shot and nodded with a small smile. As always that wooden face of his showed displeasure, but then again it rarely seemed to smile no matter what. His eyebrow raised and he glanced over when the Kakita was mentioned.

"She and I have not been formally introduced. But... I believe I can appreciate the desire not to underperform in front of someone. Having another Isawa here is ... challenging in a way."

It was nothing like that at all, Saburo. Whatever lack of emotions were involved in your own self-absorbed effort to be perfect about everything, it was almost certainly nothing like whatever the Kakita was thinking right now. After all, the only reason your heart rate was accelerating was physical exertion.

The large Moto boy grabbed the practice equipment and went out to the range. He hadn't improved at all since his last visit but that never stopped him from putting in effort. He'd get the hang of it one way or another eventually.

He made no move to engage with or greet the other boys and simply started shooting arrows, rather poorly I might add, in the same general direction of the target.

Noticing the newcomer, Kenji turned to him. It was the giant Moto. Not only was the giant big, no, to make matters worse, he was strong. Kenji would not admit it publicly, but he was afraid of the guy.

"Greetings, Moto-San," he said briefly, with a short bow, before continuing with his exercises.

ichiro grunted and nodded "Kakita-san." He said with a voice that was pitched a little lower than most his age and promised one day to be a rumbling bass.

Otherwise he seemed content to focus on his archery, he didn't seem hostile or against engagement but he would obviously not seek out conversation.

"Moto-san," the Asako said in turn, bowing to him when the two were speaking. "You both did the Hida's training credit today. I believe he will be pleased to see those who he worked with personally perform as well as they did." Cause, hey, hadn't they both been in that little training session the other day? It'd certainly helped them all out. He wasn't going to push too hard, but he did want to offer them that compliment.

"I was definitely glad about Hida-Senseis training," Kenji began. "It helped me on the exam today,..."

"Asako-san." Indeed, the training helped a bit. Hida-sensei is very skilled." The Moto replied as he continued to shoot arrows near the target, one ot two actually hit it but didn't stick. If his lack of progress frustrated the large boy he showed no signs of it. Continuing the pattern of nock, draw, loose.

Both he and the Moto had a similar attitude towards their practice, a repeated firing, the arrows still having trouble with sticking but at least coming into position on the target for the most part. "A pity that we haven't had a chance to speak quite so closely to the archery instructor, but there will be an opportunity soon enough, I imagine." It would have been nice, but the Hida's help had been invaluable for him.

"Tomorrow will be ... different. I haven't done presentations of calligraphy before."

Ichiro shrugged "Calligraphy isn't important to me, if I pick something up, great, otherwise I doubt an opponent on the field of battle will care if my letters are pretty enough."

He barked out a quick laugh, a rare thing for him. "They will care if your priests have good diction. It would not be good for your enemies then, but no. You are not wrong. A little is the most you need in the work of war." Literacy to read orders wasn't bad.

"Calligraphy teaches one not only to write beautiful letters, Moto-san. It allows you to understand the meaning behind the text. Your general might give you a secret message between the lines," Kenji said casually as he continued to shoot arrows at the target

"I can't speak for the Crane but the Unicorn don't deal in secrets and coded messages. We crush enemies beneath our hooves they try to hide in the shadows and we drive them out, they try to surround us we break through. The Moto are not a fancy fighting force but we are formidable." He replied without taking his eyes from his training.