(D2, EE) Rekishi Monogatari

[Kaiu Aiichiro]

"I'm not that worried on wining the championship. Just want to pass my gempukku."

[Yasuki Ginkarasu]

"That's..." He rubs the back of his head. "As a yojimbo, if I'm really impressive here, I could gain duties helping the Emerald Office, or protecting an Imperial, or anywhere, really. I don't know what comes next, not really. So I..I've gotta care, you know?"

[Kaiu Aiichiro]

"I'm trying to score well but not too well. Like, I understand that it is important for you, but for me it is just not dishonoring myself. What good would it be to a Kaiu? 'Congratulations, you scored quite well on those arts completely unrelated to the Kaiu techniques, guess we can marry you to the cousin of the niece of the Lion daimyo?'" He sounded lowkey bitter.

[Yasuki Ginkarasu]

"And if that marriage secures the material needed to continue the War for 100 days? Or an alliance that shifts the courts again and again?" He smiles, "Or even better, if you doing well enough means you're trusted in choosing some of your own path?"

[Kaiu Aiichiro]

"I think... Yes, all of those would be great." More as in it's-your-duty-to-say-this than wanting-to-say-this. "Marriage things are complicated with me. I avoid thinking about them a lot because I can't control anything on how things will unroll."

[Yasuki Ginkarasu]

He stops walking. "You don't get the rule of 23?" He looks around, and in a hushed tone, "What happened?"

[Kaiu Aiichiro]

He got confused for a moment, but an obscure rule being called out and Ginkarasu looking around then losing his breath on his words gave him a familiar sensation.
He grabs the pole of his war fan and stops walking, changing his footwork to a combat stance. They were already quite far from the market and the street was empty. Aiichirō looked around, specially in the shadowed areas, but still scanning the surrounding in general.

[Yasuki Ginkarasu]

"I thought we as Crabs were allowed to find our own spouse, unless we're 23 in which case we're given to the nakodo?" He frowns. "Like, even Hida O-Ushi-sama."

[Kaiu Aiichiro]

"It is a complicated history, really. I'm as Crab as I'm Phoenix right now, marriage aside. My father and my sister are Shiba."

[Yasuki Ginkarasu]

"Ohhhhhhhhhh."

He says, totally not getting it.

"How do you serve two lords? That has to be tough."

[Kaiu Aiichiro]

"Oh no, only Kaiu-domo. And Kaiu-domo is anything but a harsh daimyo. She helps the students at the forge and one time told our sensei she was more skilled than herself!"

[Yasuki Ginkarasu]

A nod as the gears slowly turn in his mind. "Are you a hostage then? Can't go to Phoenix lands?"

[Kaiu Aiichiro]

"More or less so? I don't know the negotiations in that detail. But I know it costed my lord to keep me. I think that's why she gav... I earned the nikutai position so early. I just know that I'm my father's responsability until I pass my gempukku, but after that if I'm still Crab I remain Crab."
He looks to the sky.
"And it's the official gempukku, which is near. You know."

[Yasuki Ginkarasu]

A nod.

"Do you...do you want to stay Crab then? Cause showing your training is really good could show that the Kaiu who trained you did a good job. Or you know." He frowns. "I guess you could maybe use it to go back to the Phoenix?"

It hurts him to say it, cause who doesn't want to be a Crab, but maybe his friend wants that.

[Kaiu Aiichiro]

"Of course I do want to stay a Crab! I have been studying so hard about the Shadowlands, and tactics, and everything to make it disadvantageous even to marry me away. Like, I'm not studying only for that, I'm also studying for duty because my sensei said so, but I'm really putting effort into this. I worked really really fast yesterday. You saw it. I even already finished the Tessen." He shows it, handing it over to Ginkarasu. "And I couldn't even make a knife six months ago."
"Also, I have never been to the Phoenix lands. Really want to if I get the chance."

[Yasuki Ginkarasu]

He nods. "Then finish here. And let them know that you found the duty that you think is most important. And yeah! You were so fast! I didn't know metal could change like that!"

[Kaiu Aiichiro]

"Water is change and flexibility. Just as the metal turns, so adaptable needs to be the mind of a battlemaster. Improvisation is key on the battlefield." He said something that he thought that was smart-sounding.

[Yasuki Ginkarasu]

A nod. "And this is our battlefield for the next few days."

[Kaiu Aiichiro]

"I don't think it will change things. Letters don't travel so fast. Even if I was a beast today and all senseis wrote about it, the nakodo couldn't do anything in time."

[Yasuki Ginkarasu]

"Oh." He frowns. "That's some fast marriage arrangement."