The New Winds

Though she had done a bit of cleaning when she'd first gotten up, mostly involving making her futon, Otoko had made her way a bit away from the rest of the cleaning students. She had found a quiet, dim corner where no one was cleaning and set a statue against the corner of the walls so it could stand up. She kowtowed to the small figure and murmured her prayers.

The sound of sweeping could be heard, though there was an initial pause. Someone appeared to be looking in her direction, and shortly thereafter walked a little further away. the sound of sweeping was a little fainter, at a respectful level so that the Yogo could continue her prayers without actual interruption. If, when she was done, she looked behind her she would see Saburo clearing the grounds around the dojo nearby, waiting to bring the rake into that area, but only after she was finished.

Otoko would sit up enough to give a seated bow, hands folded into her lap, before speaking up just loud enough to be heard over the distance Saburo had given. "...Asako-san, you need not be so cautious. You will not interrupt my prayers with your work. I am better focused than that, and I would not get in the way of work I should be helping with besides."

He heard her, just barely and nodded in turn. Starting to move his sweeping more or less on the path to the small shrine, he took his time drawing in closer, though he did speak up briefly on his way in. "I have little doubt of your focus, Yogo-san. I simply wish to remain polite." Oddly enough, for all that he was a virtual walking thunderhead most days, his occasional lack of decorum was less out of a desire to be impolite and just... unfamiliarity with the whole thing.

"...I never had a doubt Asako-san," Otoko said simply. She gave one more bow of her head to the ground before she stood, taking the small statue and slipping it safely away into her obi.

"Besides, I should be helping clean. There are always other moments for pioty, ne?"

"There are always moments. Piety is a lifetime's work in the end, after all." He nodded to that, motioning nearby. There was at least one other rake if she wanted to join him in the midst of cleaning. "May I ask to whom you pray?" He wasn't going to press if she demurred, but he had a polite curiosity.

She stared at the take as if it were a traitor. Her shoulders slumped slightly before she moved over to take it. "... Ancestors," was her reply over her shoulder as she took hold of the offending implement.

He continued to work with the kumade with the feel of someone who had probably done one too many charging runs with a wet cloth across the dojo floor, and had developed a taste for it. Were he not of the samurai caste, he would have made a fine house-keeper. Properly fastidious to the point of obsession.

"A good practice, and well thought of to bring something to conduct such prayers. We are far from our family shrines after all." He would kick himself for the lack of forethought, but it was a thing he would address when he returned home. A simple placard would do nicely. They couldn't be that heav... oh right. That's why he didn't bring them around. they weren't light.

"Specific ancestor. Haunt's me. Prayer's of appeasement." Otoko's own raking was lethargic and haphazard. She didn't do poorly, but it was clear her mind wasn't quite into it.

"The inspection, the close inspection of one's ancestors can be a ... intense thing, yes." To him, the notion was an honor, but at the same time, the constant criticism of an ancestral spirit who was less than pleased for whatever reason. "Still, it is good to continue to offer that appeasement. Never good to allow any of our ancestors to be forgotten." He wasn't going to critique her raking. Adding help to his own would make things go faster overall anyway.

"We can never quite live up to their memory can we?"

Otoko gave a soft sigh at that. "...Perhaps that is how things go in the Asako family, but matters are more... complicated among the Yogo. All of my ancestors have the legacy of betrayal on them at some point after all. The curse does not allow for greatness. All the same... we remember them, for what they left behind."

"..." He considered that for a moment and then shrugged, leaning on his rake to look at the Yogo for just a moment. "I may have heard of this curse once. But I know little of it. They say Yogo was once Asako, long ago. Long long ago. But I won't ask about a curse. It isn't for polite conversation unless you wish to share one day." He had been told he was born under a bad sign himself. He wasn't going to press the matter further.

He considered that for a moment before grunting and starting to rake again, shaking his head. "My ancestors are monks and scholars in many cases, soldiers of some small renown. My family has served in Pale Oak for generations." He closed his eyes and considered that for a moment. "I wish to live up to the memory of Kitsu Taiko. Though he was not of our ranks, not one of the Isawa, his greatness with the power of fire was renowned by all and he served on the council as its master. Even if others say a thing is impossible, I will not believe it until I see it cannot be done for myself."

Her head tilted as she glanced over. "...You wish to become the Elemental Master of Fire? That... is a lofty goal indeed Asako-san. Only one a generation can claim such usually. It must be quite a task to aspire to, with nigh impossible expectations."

"I am not so arrogant as to believe myself the better of a man such as Isawa Tsuke." He did mean that sincerely. Seriously the guy was fucking scary as hell on a good day. There hadn't been a master of fire like him in generations. "However, I think it is the way of the Isawa to look to such a man as a goal to seek to achieve, that I might have the aspiration to reach perfection in the art, even if it is not my call to stand in such a place when his duties are fulfilled."

No way in hell did he think he was ever beating that particular master. Elemental Legions were a far less... outlandish pipe dream, though like any good Isawa trained boy, he did dream of a seat. Who wouldn't?

Saburo considered. "There is a fine line. To seek perfection for its own sake is one thing. To seek it to be seen achieving it is another. I think somewhere in that is the question of intent. Pride and Ambition can be little more than self-destruction on their own. It is probably good to keep humility in mind in all things." A shrug and a snort. "I have never been good at that, I will admit. I have spent too long being low. I wish not to return to that."

Otoko nodded softly. "A feeling many in my family know all too well. Some grow frustrated being told how live, that they are in the background. How many famous Yogo can you think of Asako-san?"

"Yogo." He didn't even bother to call him by his proper name, Asako Yogo. That had been shirked long ago. Now, he was only Yogo. And it was a bit of an admission that the only famous Yogo he could think of in his entire life was the founder of the family. "I could understand the bridling. To stand in the shadow of another can breed resentment. In my case, I wish to believe that which overshadows me may yet be defeated, and will not yield until it is so. But what you face... it is a thing more spiritual and deeper than that, is it not?"