The New Winds

Eager to practice, Nesrin finds her way to the archery field after proving her proficiency at not getting hit. Her purple and gold deel slaps against her boots as she walks as quickly as she can without breaking into a jog. After all, Kakita Naomori would be coming from the same training, so she'd have no excuse if he was there and she was running late.

Her fellow Utaku arrived minutes later. Perceptive eyes would notice the water dripping from his hands from the purification and cleaning he had completed after his own previous training. Kakita-sama was doing a favor in giving him extra training... plus he was a Crane- it would not do to show up for practice with hands bloodied from his uke.

Though it had not been a perfect showing Ichiro was buoyed by his success and carried himself with some small pride.

Away from the range, the Kakita sensei is busy setting up a wooden obstacle wall. When he sees some of the students from the other day that caught their eye take up stances at the range, they take a break from the preparation sand head over.

Ichiro gives a small, but not rude, bow to Nesrin then a much deeper one to the approaching sensei.

"Kakita-sama, I hope the day finds you well."

After a similar set of bows, Nesrin simply offers the acknowledgement of "an honor, Kakita-sama." They already had one question to answer, no sense peppering them with more right out of the gate.

"It does, and I hope you have all had your rice?"

He steps up to the range and picks up one of the bows, beginning to string it.

After the training for what would be his more usual shugenja duties, Prashant decides to go to the Archery field. He was almost sure this would be included in the Dojo activities at some point, and he still hadn't done much training in Kyujutsu back home, so it would be good to get some practice so as to put up at least a decent show when and if it came up later.

He arrives to see two of his fellow Unicorn students around one of the Dojo's sensei, and moves closer, bowing to them - somewhat awkwardly at the students, as he felt such formalities felt a bit odd among them, but then low, if a bit still, to the sensei.

"Utaku-san-tachi, Kakita-sensei! This one was hoping to see at least some practice in Kyujutsu. Would it be too much trouble if I joined you in training?"

OOC

(Practicing for RP and counting as Kyujutsu training only, if that's ok!)

Ichiro smiles and nods, "Indeed, the dojo provides honorably as to be expected." And about as stingy as would be expected - but not every sensei was going to take you hunting for venison he supposed.

Watching the bow be strung he lets his courage take hold, "Kakita-sama I hope it is not an imposition. I believe the way of the bow is vital to the abilities of a warrior and our relocation here interrupted my studies of such with my previous sensei. Would you allow me to train with you this afternoon? I know there will be classes for it later but I would rather not wait."

"Certainly, I am happy to show you the way of the bow."

He motions for the students to pick up and string their own weapon.

"Take care in how you string, to have one break when you need it most is quite the tragedy"

Prash bows to the sensei again and tries his best to do a good job stringing his bow. He'd done this before a few times, but was far from practiced, and it showed.

"Thank you."

Ichiro follows along with the instruction as best he can. He is still unskilled with the bow itself but his natural reflexes lend him some aid in the matter.

During a lull he looks to Prashant and smiles, "It is good to see you practicing Iuchi-san. Any Unicorn should be able to ride and shoot even those who can call on the spirits."

After some time, Prash manages to get the bow strung, and nods and smiles back at Ichiro.

"Hai, Utaku-san! I try to follow on both my Shugenja father and my Bushi mother's footsteps too, and do my lineage proud as I tread my own path."

Nesrin's had some instruction, and shows familiarity with things like which end of the bow is up, and how the string loops go. Still, she's young and nowhere near into her full size or strength, so even stepping through and letting her weight do a good bit of the work, she's able to juuuust barely bend the bow enough to string it.

She nods at Ichiro's comments, and listens to Prashant's. "There's a lot the bow'll teach you. But I'll warn you, it's a whole different set of muscles, so expect to be sore. It's like putting someone on a horse the first time who hasn't grown up with it. They think it's no problem because they're using all those muscles to walk and hop around the dojo and then...ow! I haven't practiced in ages so..." she rolls a shoulder, anticipating the strain to come.

She's not overt about it, but when it becomes obvious that the other pair are untrained, she makes more of a point to keep the work she's doing in their line of sight. This isn't the kind of test you get in trouble for cribbing hints from your neighbor on.

"When you fire the bow, it is an instinctual thing. You envision where you want the arrow to go, then clear your mind of all thoughts, exhale, and release. "

He demonstrates the proper pose, drawing technique, and release, then motions for them all to come forward and try.

((Kyujutsu/Reflexes, TN6))

Ichiro had nodded at Nesrin's advice and took up the bow.

He pauses only for a moment to get a feel for it before loosing an arrow that sails straight and true into the target.

"Beginner's luck, I'm sure."

(14)

"Nice! Thank your luck later, so it knows you still want it around," Nesrin says with a grin, shielding her eyes from the sun to see how close his arrow was to the target's center.

Setting her feet, she finds her stance, lifts and draws the bow, tongue between her teeth as she focuses on that last bit of draw before the arrow releases. It's a bit more wobbly, and nowhere near as centered, but it does hit the target.

Nesrin bounces on her toes slightly with a soft, "woo! Next year I'll do it from horseback."

"Oh, thanks Utaku-san! I'll try to remember that... and get ready for some pain tomorrow. Won't be the first time!", he says, smiling, then focuses on the shots by both Bushi, seeming really happy to see them both do well.

When his turn comes, he then takes up and reflects on what the teacher said for a moment. Envision where the arrow should go. Clear your mind. Breath out. Release.

He usually closes his eyes to focus, but manages to keep them open and focused as he draws the arrow, then releases it... and manages to hit the target. He's even a bit surprised with himself, but evidently happy that he could do it.

OOC:

Day 2 Serpent - Kyujutsu training. Kyujutsu/ Ref TN 6 - 1k1 unskilled: 1d10k1 9

"Good, again. Ten thousand times to master something."

He keeps watching the students, occasionally making corrections.

((Students in this thread may trade their ally in for +1 Kyujutsu. If you take this option, please make a note in this thread))

Ichiro nods dutifully at the sensei's comment and continues to fire at the target.

(Spending ally for Kyujutsu)

Nesrin does her best to incorporate each correction to stance and force, trying to find that spot of calm in the middle of reminding everything to work correctly; feet set right, hips and shoulders, elbows and wrist all connecting the earth to the arrow and letting it fly into air. So many adjustments.

In between, she takes her turn at collecting the arrows to bring back. "Is it any easier because you can talk to the spirits in the arrow, Iuchi-san?" she asks, honestly curious how that might affect training.

(yep, trading the ally for skill)