The New Winds

Yotsuo stood in the yard, performing rudimentary and poor Jiujutsu kata. He was not very skilled at it, but he had seen his Master performing them daily for a few years. But his master had been far more focused on teaching the young Warden the sword first for practical reasons. Mostly because if it was absolutely needed, a child would fare better with a blade than a tiny fist.

Sakura was tired from all the weird kata things they had to do, so she took a chance to relax outside against a wall and cool off. Her eyes caught movement, and she watched someone in what she knew were Crab colours still doing the odd kata thing, except his was just focusing on the middle part that had punches and kicks.

So people do this for fun too?

She didn't know if she was allowed to watch or not, but she did.

"You're not following through."

Ichiro had been taking a moment to relax between his own exercises and watching what other students were up to. His long hair was tied back, loosely, and he wiped a lock out of his eyes as he moved near the Crab. Only barely remembering to give a sketchy bow as he does.

Straightening he reaches one hand out to mark a spot in the air, "If this is your opponent." He then punches at it, his hand stopping in the space, "You're striking to here." He then strikes again, continuing slightly through the target, "You want to be striking here, so that all the force is with your blow."

His face didn't look like he was having too much fun. He seemed more deep in focus on what he was doing. He continued working at it, moving with the grace of a... child. So not very graceful.

He nods to the Unicorn, but doesn't stop to bow, being in the middle of his practice. "Okay. I didn't go over this in depth with my master yet. He taught me the sword first, in case I needed to be someone's second." He repeated the motion with the suggestions taken into consideration.

The young man nods. Apparently not set aback by the grim words, "Yeah, my sensei start with the important stuff too. But it's the same basic principal just a different weapon. You strike through where your target will be not where they are now."

"That makes sense, but it's way different without a blade. It's already difficult enough that I'm not great at balancing and stuff, but I learned with a weapon that I needed to account for balance with," he says. Continuing the motions of the unarmed form, he looks over at the Crane, wondering if she was going to practice too, or if she was already very skilled. She was a Crane so she might be one of their duelists.

"Hah!"

"Hoh!"

"Hiii!"

She wasn't really feeling that last kiai, but her form on that imaginary strike was still solid. Like a few of the others, the Lion seemed to have taken the opportunity to get some more practice in. That 'test' they'd called out had been child's play, really, and a good bushi was *always* looking to get better. So here she was, with little more than a stick, practicing her form.

As she went through her routine, she kept an eye out on the others; not wanting to interrupt but certainly wanting to see how they did their thing. No sense in letting the opportunity to see how students of other clans fought go to waste, after all.

The Utaku smiles as he nods, "Well that's why we use kata and practice. Success takes time and effort."

"Yeah. I got a lot of practicing to do," he says. "I probably won't have to use martial skills much in the future, but I don't want to be caught off guard if I do need to. I'm going to be doing much more spiritual duties."

He continues the forms as well as he can. He at least seems to have a sharp enough mind to be able to pay attention to what he was doing and saying even if his movements were still very childlike.

So that kid is teaching the other kid how to do punchy-kicky correctly, while the Lion kid is waving a stick around. Where is the art?

She daydreamed a little about making her beautiful weaponry, but snapped out of it with a shake of her head as the teacher-kid stared at her. She bowed to the woman.

"Um...hello! Am I in the way?"

Haruki listens to the other students conduct their practice as he sweeps the floor like he was told.

"not great at balancing . . . learned with a weapon . . ." Yotsuo san helped me out yesterday, might as well help him out today, right? Haruki pauses his sweeping and walks up to the group.

"If you're trying to practice unarmed combat using stances learned with a tetsubo, I wouldn't be surprised you are having trouble. Perhaps if we changed the mindset from when you have to fight without a weapon to something like Sumai, a part of our spiritual enlightenment, it would be quicker to learn?"

-snip- Standing way to the side and not interacting here. Moved to other thread

Kuni Yotsuo wrote: ↑

Sun Jun 21, 2020 11:29 pm

"Yeah. I got a lot of practicing to do," he says. "I probably won't have to use martial skills much in the future, but I don't want to be caught off guard if I do need to. I'm going to be doing much more spiritual duties."

He continues the forms as well as he can. He at least seems to have a sharp enough mind to be able to pay attention to what he was doing and saying even if his movements were still very childlike.

"A wish choice. Any samurai, regardless of station or role, could potentially be called to fight by lord or Emperor. It would not do to be unprepared if that were to happen, as unlikely as it may be for those not trained as bushi."

"No, I was just wondering if you were good at dueling and stuff," he admitted to Sakura.

To Haruki he says, "I don't use a tetsubo, I use a katana. But I'm smaller than most of the people here and even that requires a lot of compensating for the weight. I'm actually trying to mimic the unarmed forms that my Master uses during his practice. He just never actually taught me how to do them. I saw them a lot, but never really practiced them in a dedicated way. He had me practicing with a blade while he practiced his jiujutsu."

"Duelling? Oh" Sakura giggled and shook her head "wrong school. I trained with the Kakita, but not the duelists. Although I understand some of what he is saying, I learnt how to use my hands working at the forges" she held up her hands, which looked perfect.

Kenji also went to train after the common exercise. To his amazement a small pack had already gathered. He still had to get used to the fact that there were so many new faces around him. Since he didn't really know anybody from the group, he decided to do his own exercises first of all. He took a bokken and held it to his side to pull it with a "Ha!", take a step forward and strike.

Since he was already at the Dojo, Prash decided he could take the time to practice some more. Shugenja didn't usually receive much martial training in other clans, from what his sensei said, so he might as well take this chance.

He saw the phoenix and the Utaku boy (he was a boy, right?) seemingly helping the Kuni he had met at the docks, a crane girl apparently curious but a bit lost, a dragon girl practicing some quite interesting martial arts moves, and a girl in Lion colours doing some more kata with a bokken.

Kenjutsu kata sounded good. He gets a bokken from the weapon stand, finds himself some space, tries to concentrate, then executes some practiced movements, then tries to focus on strikes to the head. He always seemed to get the timing a bit off on this, but one day he'd get it perfectly right!

As he finishes, he peeks at the Lion girl again, trying to compare their movements, and waiting for her to finish. Maybe they could get some practice in striking and defending?

The Lion girl kept at it for a little bit longer, before she started to feel the burn and had to take a break. She was pretty oblivious though, to anyone looking at her. She'd been too focused on her own practice and on looking at other people's martial forms to notice where there eyes were going. And now that she'd stopped practicing for a moment, she was too focused on her cup of water. Still, she seemed open to be approached.

Despite starting his kata after the Akodo, he still had to wait a bit for her to be finished. As she took a break, he went for some water himself and got closer to her. "Ohayou gozaimasu, Lion-san!" (Assuming she hasn't got the Akodo mon on her clothes; if she does, he'd call her 'Akodo-san' already). "Good form on the Kenjutsu Kata! I guess that's what I should expect from the line of Akodo no Kami, ne?", he says gently before he gets a cup of water himself.

Yui did indeed have an Akodo mon on her clothes.

"Thank you," she said, when addressed with a compliment, "though I have much to improve on."

She then gave a bow. "I'm Akodo Yui, and you... you're a bushi of the Unicorn?"

Normally one might tell from the presence or lack of a daisho, but that was with adults, which technically they weren't yet; so she just had to ask.