(D1, EM) Purification Makes Perfect

[Kuni Yotsuo]

"I don't doubt the hospitality and comfort that will be provided by the Crane, but it is that hospitality that will be quite out of place for me. I'm used to far more austere accommodations back home. On many occasions my master would take me out into nature for days at a time, where we would sleep on the ground and eat foraged wild foods."

He held up his hands a bit so that the backs of them could be seen, which are now pretty heavily scarred and calloused as opposed to how they appeared previously. "A few months ago my master took me for one of those training expeditions. In the morning we woke up and prepared for the day, in the afternoon I would strike a boulder repeatedly, during the evening he would heal me, then we would sleep under a grove of trees. Two weeks of that and I found it hard to sleep on a tatami for a while, as it was too comfortable."

He chuckled. "But he turned my hands into much more dangerous weapons, and I learned the relativity of comfort."

[Otomo Nobuko]

Her eyes widened at the showing of his hands and the explaination, though her On otherwise did not slip. That was extreme indeed, in her view. Though, perhaps it was common among the Crab. She was woefully unfamiliar with most of their ways.

"Was this an effort to train your body and in doing, train your mind?"

[Kuni Yotsuo]

"Just my body really," he replies. "Make my hands numb to pain, force the bones to heal stronger and toughen the skin. That way I can strike opponents harder with less risk of breaking my own hands in the process."

[Otomo Nobuko]

"Ah. That is..." she was more visibly disturbed despite her efforts, unconciously pulling her hands in closer to herself where they were clasped in front of her stomach. "Not the sort of training I would have expected. Especially when hands are so useful. To innure the senses is a very... interesting way of ensuring one can withstand potential pain of striking another."

A pause and then she added, "I do not think it is something I could commit to as my fingers must be able to weave much more delicate constructs. I am most impressed by your dedication, however."

[Kuni Yotsuo]

He nods at her assessment. "It's definitely not for everyone. But there are other methods with similar results used by many orders of monks across the empire. Some do so with sand over many years, slowly building up the tolerance. Others drive their hands into burning coals repeatedly, strengthening their fingers, by keeping them extended. I've heard that a few Hida actually strengthen their shins by using shin strikes against trees repeatedly. Martial artists have more than a few self destructive methods for physical self-improvement."

"It's not exactly the same as when a tailor builds up callouses on their finger tips from repeated needle jabs, since that simply happens and they get used to it in the course of stitching. But it's better than strengthening your body at the expense of someone else's, so that we are prepared to protect the people that are important to us."

[Otomo Nobuko]

"Yes, I suppose that is true," she admitted, having not thought of that. "However, if the point is to be able to fight another, then should not one become used to being struck by an opponent, not just striking them? It expends no one if both involved are after the same pursuit."

[Kuni Yotsuo]

"Eliminating danger before it can cause harm tends to be the swiftest and safest way to negate a threat. If one is not able to do so, then they are simply waiting to be finished by a more aggressive opponent. It is harder to train the body to withstand assault than it is to train for attack."

[Otomo Nobuko]

"Well, yes, that I agree with. That eliminating an enemy before they can attack is ideal," she nodded, "But not being able to remove whatever enemy that may be there without also being the object of assault is not necessarily just 'waiting to be taken out' by another. Battles flow back and forth. Sometimes an assault must be endured to secure a better opening to take down an opponent."

[Kuni Yotsuo]

"The problem lies in the fact that we are beings of flesh wielding tools. It says a lot that we can train our hands to be nearly as dangerous as a weapon, but only through mystical or secret means can we train our skin to be as resilient as armor. Warriors should not ignore training their bodies to withstand attacks, but it is the weapon that we wield that decides the final stroke of a battle."

[Otomo Nobuko]

"Now that I disagree with," she brought her hands up, still clasped, but the pointer fingers now out and pressed together where she rested them against her lip as she continued in a thoughtful manner:

"As the Tao says: 'You need no armor, you need no sword. You need only to know that you cannot be defeated.' If it were the weapon being wielded that decided the final stroke of a battle, there would never be any other weapon drawn but the one that always wins. So it cannot be the weapon. It can only be the one that wields it that makes the difference."

Nobuko's hands dropped back down, more loosely held now, against her obi, "Please do not take that as me saying your choice of weapons is wrong. Or that any choice of weapon to hold is wrong. Even I cannot say that I know I cannot be defeated, so having a weapon and armor would be very beneficial were I to find myself in that situation again."

That situation being the one where she nearly died from the zokujin attack, of course. A circumstance she now had a much better understanding of. Retrospect being what it was.

[Kuni Yotsuo]

"The Tao holds great wisdom, but it can also be difficult to interpret. I suspect that that particular passage is less about actual combat and more about belief. The idea that as long as you fight for your beliefs, even in death or loss you have still stood for what you believe is right means your beliefs have not been defeated. The philosophy that defeat in battle is not the same as defeat in principle. A weapon may not win the day when what is at stake is more important than who lives and dies. When you are fighting for survival and life however, rather than for ideals, believing that you will win regardless of what tools you bring to battle will not safeguard your life from a blade. There are many ways to claim victory, as the story of Bayushi during the Tournament of the Kami teaches us."

[Otomo Nobuko]

"That much I understand," she said, inclining her head that his interpretation was very much correct. "However, it still holds true that it is not the weapon so much that matters, as the one who holds it. A blade in the hands of a fool will hurt. A blade in the hands of a master will kill. And so it is with defense. A fool who flops around like a fish might avoid being hit out of luck. A master will be as the wind, unable to be cut."

She paused, frowning in thought, "To put my original thoughts that brought us here somewhat better: the Wall stands because it was made to endure. So, too, might one train their body to endure without it 'expending' another by allowing themselves to be hit by one like yourself, who trains their body to not feel the pain that striking a blow may cause."

[Kuni Yotsuo]

"Not feeling pain when being cut is a bit different from not feeling pain when throwing a punch however. Being resilient to a stab or cut from a blade is certainly helpful. In the realm of tools versus training, there are far more warriors that prefer armor to dodging than there are those that prefer a weapon to their fist. It is simply a disparity between our bodies' abilities to cause damage verses taking damage. It is not without merit or uses to train our ability to protect and defend our vital areas, but it just happens that we have a lot of vital areas," he says with a chuckle. "It's a simpler matter to learn how to strike the ones that an opponent can't defend than it is to defend all of them from an opponents strike."

[Otomo Nobuko]

"In the end I am not wholly in disagreement, nor am I wholly in agreement," she shrugged, still smiling, "I have had but one real experience when it comes to actual battle and it did not go well for me. I had no training to fight, nor did I have training to defend. The only knowledge I had, and that which allowed me to continue after, was that I knew I didn't know enough and had the awareness to call another to act as my yojimbo."

She had fallen quickly and saw nothing beyond the fact that Kenji had certainly followed after her.

"In the time since, I have trained some more, but my weapons, should I need to wield them once we are known as adults to all the world, will - mostly," Nobuko stressed that because as samurai, and with how unpredictable life had been for her so far, she could be called to take up literal arms again,"be my words. And my battlefields will be covered with the warriors of the courts."

[Kuni Yotsuo]

"I will likely be using words more than fists in my duties, as well. Though some of the spirit realms are places where they constantly struggle against each other. Fighting will be necessary if I need to visit those realms."

[Otomo Nobuko]

"That must be so strange and yet so fulfilling," she said, slightly awed at the concept. "To visit the other realms so easily... It is the thing one reads about in books and sees in plays. Hears about from the priests who are more learned on the topics. But never really... You are very blessed Kuni-san. You surely know that, of course. But it is no wonder that the Ruby Champion was so intrigued with the amount of spiritual energy pooling about our group in Hirosaka. Truly fate brought you all together for a reason."

[Kuni Yotsuo]

"The realms I've visited so far make it a blessing indeed, but I will undoubtedly be asked to visit others by my clan in the future that are far more dangerous. To help learn about how they function and gain firsthand accounts of interactions there. I imagine that it will be far less pleasant to do so, but my hope is that it will help the Empire a great deal in time."

[Otomo Nobuko]

"I am certain it will. The Crab have a very perilous duty and have ever faced it with steel in their hearts. Even in this, you show such strength. I hope, however, that such a time is very long in coming."

[Kuni Yotsuo]

"I would prefer that it is not so long," he says with a smirk. "I would prefer to make the most use of my gift for the benefit of others and I am curious to see what those realms are like at the very least. I'd say I feel a bit of anxiousness and eagerness at the thought, as it would be a challenge and opportunity to have the opportunity to do so."

[Otomo Nobuko]

"Perhaps it speaks to your bravery to wish to view the more dangerous realms when you are deemed to be allowed to. Myself, I doubt I could stop finding fascination in merely the visit to one other realm, no matter how endless those visits were. I am already rather enamored of the one we are currently in, after all."

Which is to say, she had found herself renewed in the wonders of the world they already were a part of, so the idea of traveling even to one other would probably be enough to keep her occupied for a lifetime.