The New Winds

Ginkarasu set up his stool and blanket again in the same spot he'd been in.

He was tired of all the cleaning. But at the least he had this wonderful feather cloak now. It was so soft.

Otoko's own cape lay in her bag by her bed. There would be a time and place as far as she was concerned, and that wasn't just 'around the dojo'. Still, seeing the Yasuki boy in his made her pause, finally deciding to glide over and give a slow bow.

"... Yasuki-san. What are you doing sitting in here?"

Ginkarasu bows to Otoko. "Oh! Well, I have some mochi for sale if you'd like to buy some? But I also thought maybe I'd run into people who'd want to play Sadane. Or maybe I'd just read through a scroll on surviving in the wilderness, if no one came by."

Otoko's head tilted a bit as she looked down through her mask. "...That is quite a selection of possibilities. I am not really a fan of mochi or sadane unfortunately."

She didn't seem to know what else to add.

"What are you a fan of?" He asks in reply, settling a little bit. The cloak was so big, and it rippled enjoyably.

That thoughtful tilt of Otoko's head remained. "...I am not quite certain how to answer that. I am not the excitable sort... I do enjoy reading however, and long, hot baths."

He looks around, "Well. Hm. I don't think I can supply a bath, but if you wanted to read about surviving in the wilderness with me, I can share?"

After a moment, the Scorpion shook her head. Slowly sitting in seiza in front of the blanket. "Perhaps when you are done reading it. Regardless of my tastes, perhaps you could tell me about this mochi. Did you make it yourself?"

Her hands folded into her sleeves in her lap as she sat attentively.

He shakes his head. "No. My family sells it. They work with a group of mochi chefs to secure ingredients from around the Empire in order to excel at the craft. And then we sell it. There's almost always a festival somewhere in the Empire every day! It means a lot of travel, and even then we can't be everywhere."

Otoko was silent a moment. "... I see. Is it not more usual to have heimin selling a product? In my clan, samurai do not engage in commerce so... directly."

"We Yasuki have been doing it hundreds of years. I do not believe that there is anyone who engages in it as directly as we do. But it takes a lot to do so. There are countless duplicitous forgers who would take the products we provide down if they could and pretend to have something as good. So we make sure, tirelessly, that we bring the best to the Empire." He pats his stand. "Everyone says that a samurai's word is their bond. And coin? Coin is that, that exactly. Each one stamped by the clan or Imperial family that minted it. Each one a promise, a pledge, that there is value there. Based on the word of the samurai in charge of minting it, yeah?"

He looks up, pride in his family. "So we have to find the things that are worth the word of our fellow samurai. Of your lord or mine, or the Emperor's! Well, those of my family who're more involved in the market place and all. I'm to be a yojimbo."

Otoko listened politely, nodding at appropriate moments.

"...I see," she said of nothing in particular. "My own family are priests, and we do not usually have yojimbo or have much commerce. I will have to take your word on both topics. You are trained by your family's school then, or one of your clan's bushi schools?"

"My family's school. Yasuki Yojimbo's travel with courtiers and merchants across the Empire." He looks to Otoko a moment, "You don't usually have yojimbo? I thought shugenja outside of the Kuni normally did?"

Another moments silence. "... Perhaps one or two might, the daimyo or sensei... but for the most part, no, we do not. We try to avoid too many... personal connections."

He bows his head in thought at that, some seconds passing as he thinks about how lonely that would be. "Yeah. I get that, I think. I know people tend not to enjoy spending a lot of time with someone marked by Emma-O like me."

Her head tilted once again. "Oh?"

"Yeah. That's what the monk said when I was born. The white marks," he turns the left side of his face towards Otoko, "mean I'm marked with ill-fortune as a warning from Emma-O."

Otoko shook her head slowly. "...Trust me Yasuki-san, I at least am the last person who might judge someone for a spiritual imbalance. I could not tell you what a life otherwise would even be like."

He looks over to her and nods, simply, in affirmation of her words.

For a girl like Otoko, the silence was just fine. Still, she appreciated it more alone. "...Come to think of it, I had heard someone has been selling mochi since I arrived. This is not a first time for you, is it?"