The New Winds

Today Aiichirō discovered a lot. Or thought so. Anyway, the Akodo thought that he did not evaluate himself properly, and Aiichiro interpreted it as "counting advantage over things too much". If something was going to help him, it was learning how to keep humble. And no one better for such a lesson than monks.
So he was searching for either Kai, Masuyo or Yotsuo.

It was not difficult to locate Yotsuo. He had just recently exited the bath and was readying himself for his daily trip to the temple, seeking his center on his Tatami in the dormitories. When he finally found it, his hair was mostly dry with just a bit of dampness. Beginning the task of combing it out to ensure it was in neat order, he noticed his fellow Crab looking for someone. He nodded in greeting. "Aiichiro-san."

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D5 Rooster, Meditation / Void, TN 20: 5d10o10k2 35

He nodded back, confused for a second if he should do so or bow. "Yotsuo-san, I sought you." Aiichirō sat on front of him. "Akodo-sensei tested us today, and told me that although my knowledge in the way was superb, I lacked the skill for self-evaluating, I couldn't say how much I knew. I believe this to be a byproduct of arrogance, and sought you on help to deal with it, as you have been trained on the monastic lifestyle."

He continued brushing out his hair as the Kaiu explained his concerns. "The Wardens aren't like many other monks, you know. We are taught how to hunt and destroy evil with ruthlessness and efficiency. But in many ways we lean more towards a monastic lifestyle over the samurai lifestyle to help us maintain spiritual purity more than asceticism."

"But it sounds like the lesson he was trying to teach was less about humility and more about self-awareness. Those two things aren't mutually exclusive. Some amount of pride and self confidence is necessary for a military commander and warrior from what I've gathered, since without them you can't inspire them in others. Introspection is an entirely different concern, and it sounds like that is what both Akodo-sensei and you want to improve. Honest introspection allows you to understand just how confident you should be in your abilities and where you need to improve them."

He gently rubbed his fingers, adjusting his posture. "I hear and understand. How can one improve introspection? It is hard to say if you are evaluating yourself correctly until you find out that you were overestimating or underestimating yourself. I have been recommended meditation, although I'm not so sure. It would though explain if self-evaluation is linked to it, because I have found myself unable of meditating so far. Achieving the mindfullness state." He says.

"I meditate frequently. It's something I need to practice to control my ability. Looking inward and shifting my understanding of the world around me and the world I intend to visit. But it's also useful in understanding how I fit into the world I am in. I advise it to anyone, though it does take time, effort and practice just like any other skill," he says, finally setting aside the brush.

"Sit like this," he says, moving into seiza. "Make yourself comfortable."

"I should then take it to practice." He nods to Yotsuo's explanation and imitated his posture the best he could. But it didn't feel comfortable, so he moved around some. It still didn't... But he gave up before he looked like he was possessed by a worm.
"What is next, Yotsuo-san?" He asked, tripping a little on the suffix. Almost called him sensei.

"Close your eyes, and think of something you find relaxing. Sitting in a bath, watching a campfire, enjoying a breeze on a warm day, feeling loose earth between your toes... whatever is most familiar, calming and gentle. Create an image of yourself doing that thing in your mind and then imagine the feeling of your body in that activity. First feel the elements on your fingers and toes... slowly the elements work their way to your hands... time goes by and you feel it in your arms and legs... you feel it encompassing your torso... your breathing pushing your back and chest against that feeling, gently and steadily... it rises to your neck and head. You feel yourself surrounded by that sensation."

"When you are there, you gently stand up in your mind, and step outside of yourself. You can see you, and you tell yourself what you are doing. You are leading men in battle. What decisions do you make, how do you feel about them, are you warriors following you, do they succeed or fail, how many do you lose, how many could you save by giving a different order... You are observing yourself and seeing the flaws and perfections, the failures and successes. Slowly move away from yourself to get a wider view. How does the field look, are you in the right position, can you move to a better position, can you see your enemy's strengths and weaknesses... The battle ends and begins again. Your enemy comes at you from a position of strength, so how do you cope. Do you need to retreat, can you see a formation to defend with, do you notice a means to flank, have you been counter-flanked... You see yourself as the enemy commander. What have you as your enemy done well and failed at, what have you as the commander done well and failed at. Let the sounds of battle fill your thoughts and drown out all other sounds until you can no longer hear my voice. Only the voices of yourself and your warriors battling against yourself and your warriors..."

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OOC: Providing guided meditation, Cooperative roll giving +3 to Aiichiro's meditation attempt

He obeyed the instructions of the Kuni, but when he mentioned a familiar and comfortable feeling, the best one he could imagine, things went downhill fast and became suffocating. He tried to focus on the subsequent words and saw that they didn't hold any meaning now, then trying to go back to the first step, trying to think of the ocean he saw at the Yasuki, a rest after a day of hard work, a fresh breeze of air... But then he lost what his guide was speaking at the present. This was not the intention, this was the opposite of the intention of what he was supposed to feel.
"It is not working, Yotsuo-san. I think I don't get the grip for those things yet. Maybe we could try again tomorrow, or... Or something." He says, almost falling on his words, holding one of his hands gently against his chest.

"It's fine. It took me a long time to learn after starting practicing. If you never meditated before it will take a bit of practice. Like any other skill you just have to practice it and it will come in time," he explains with a nod.

"But that doesn't mean you can't introspect. You just have to look at it like playing a game of shogi or go against yourself."

He nodded back. "I will attempt to do so. Thank you, Yotsuo-san. Do you know anything about the kitsune rumour, being the spirit specialist? I think it is just gossip due to how unlikely it is, but perhaps it has a base of truth. Can't discard any possibility after everything that happened so far. Any reason why strange things are so attracted to this place?"

"I have no clue how true it might be, but with all the things that have gone on I wouldn't be surprised if a kitsune visited. They are curious. But I wouldn't be able to say why there might be so much spiritual activity. I don't know the history of this place. It might not exactly be out of the ordinary. But with people that have spiritual sensitivities being present in large numbers I'd also not be surprised if some spiritual influences followed some of the students here. I mean, even the oracles seem to be paying some attention to the goings on here."

"I have heard that they discovered an underground city under Tsuma. I think it is something related to this place, but why would they do the Championship here every year if it is so spirit touched? Perhaps they mostly attract benign spirits and the hole one was just misfortune? Maybe they also don't normally appear and it is just because of the number of people touched by the Realms here."

"The caliber of students from across the empire at the Topaz Championship likely also draws the attention of spirits, particularly shiryo from Yomi looking in on their descendants. It's not unreasonable to think there might be other spirits from different realms with similar curiosity or interest. A city under the city though? If it hadn't been found before now and was unknown... that could have any number of implications as well."

"I don't know any details about it, it was just something that Ginkarasu-san told me. But he said that some students found it, which implies that it was previously undiscovered? That's something worth looking into. Also, people talked about ninja. Could it be another kind of evil ghost that was confused as one?"

"Ninja are a warning story to make children obey their parents and scare gullible adults, pillow book villains. If someone or something pretended to be one then they were just being silly and trying to prey on unfounded fears," he says dismissively. "I also doubt that the sensei would allow looking into an underground city by the students here. That would be the jurisdiction of the Imperials and Cran in charge of this region. To allow exploration of something where they don't know what dangerous things may lie would be irresponsible. If any student got harmed in such a place, outside the scope of the training that was already scheduled, that would create political problems with the student's clan. Plus, there are likely far more qualified historians and explorers to assign that duty to now that they know of it. The students dealing with problems that come up but were unforeseen by the sensei here is one thing, but willfully allowing them to do something that they cannot gauge the danger of is something else entirely."

"The sensei wouldn't allow, but someone discovered and entered on it by themselves if the rumour is true. If people are stupid enough to be scared of ninja stories, they are also stupid enough to do this by themselves. Do you know what they say? That some children try to enter the Shadowlands alone?" He answers. "Perhaps I should make this place an alarm system of some sort. Too many weird things happening. This brings my danger sense to a high level. Think that it would be necessary?"

"If it's necessary, the sensei will do so. There's a difference between the students discovering something that wasn't known and being allowed to go somewhere that is known. I'm sure they'll limit access now that it's been discovered. But you can't stop someone from going somewhere when you don't know about that somewhere."

"Entering a catacomb alone without knowing what is there is still something I regard as a poor idea. It could be littered with traps or the spirits of whatever caused them to be hidden."

"I'd definitely agree in the case of students still not past their gempukku. But then, sometimes you don't know what you're walking into. I didn't know where I was or what I was doing when I first started using my ability. Can't really compare your experiences in Yume-do with other people. But now that the sensei know, I'm sure the path to that city will be barred to students."