The Day of Thunder

[Ryoshun Yukara]

"Obviously I did not choose my birth - rather, I did not choose my circumstances that followed."

She scowled, "I did not choose to be a butcher of the mad - I was the only one present who could be. Inaction would have cost my life, and the lives of many others. Am I the best? I hope so - I do not wish any other to have been forced to do more!"

[Kaijarisuigyo]

"Best needs not be... objective value? Like not like you being a four when all other people are three?

Best more of a state of mind. It can be bad work, it can be work that you dislike, yet you can be good at it, and willing to get even better at it. Because someone has to do it, and to do it right.

It is... a pride thing? You didn't choose to be a blade, you don't like being a blade, but if a blade you have to be, the sharpest blade you will be."

[Ryoshun Yukara]

Yukara listened, and then she nodded, simply. "Oh, I have been. I will be, until it is done."

Her eyes darkened, and she cast her gaze to the side. "I do not know what I will be after - perhaps nothing... but until I am no longer needed, I will carve away the rot... until it is gone or I am broken."

[Kaijarisuigyo]

"You people really are too obsessed with death. Yes, you will die. Eventually. The whole being mortal thing. But it's not something that you should always make your words about.

Look at your blade, since stories about blades have been the theme of our meeting. You take great care of it. You clean it, you sharpen it. But at the same time, you don't refrain of using it for fear of damaging it, nor do you use it recklessly. And you don't constantly remind yourself it will break one day.

Your life is your blade. Your end will come. But as long as you use your life with the same judgment than you use your blade, you should worry about it no more than about your blade."

[Ryoshun Yukara]

Yukara did not protest, and simply replied, "So I said, in different words. I will do what I am made to do, until I am finished."

Drawing her prayer beads, she flicked them through her fingers, gazing at them thoughtfully. "You speak much of philosophy and tales, Kai. Where did you first learn them, and what draws you to speak so much of them - I have not heard so many of them before, despite the long lectures of my teachers."

[Kaijarisuigyo]

"These tales are my sole memories of my past. Only by weaving them, again and again, can I be whole."

[Ryoshun Yukara]

"How did this come to be?"

She gave the woman a curious look. "Do you no longer have a home?"

[Kaijarisuigyo]

"This realm is my home. Now. But my home used to be the land of dreams. I am what you would call a refugee. And like most refugees, it costed me everything and then some to reach a somewhat safe place."

[Ryoshun Yukara]

"Oh..."

Yukara looked surprised. "I had never met a dream demon before."

[Kaijarisuigyo]

"I'm not sure I qualify as a demon. Though words are hard and can have multiple meanings. So maybe?

I am Tiger, from times old enough that things had only one name, and that name was what you were. I was not what you would call nice or merciful. But I was one of the Four Guardians. Evil would not enter our territory as long as I and the other three stood.

We failed. Because that's how stories go. The old guard must bow, so the new guard may shine. Still the duty remains. I am, thus I keep on the fight."

[Ryoshun Yukara]

"Demon... spirit... my grandmother was one such."

Yukara shrugged. "I do not mean ill by it, but by your own word, you are not of this realm. That is not a sin - only an explanation of why you might feel as though you are not from here, for you are not. In some ways I envy you having the chance to see and experience so much - I wonder if I will die before experiencing even a fraction of my own world."

[Kaijarisuigyo]

"Obviously. If the world was small enough that you could experience most of it in a single life, mortal or immortal, it would be a pretty boring world."

[Ryoshun Yukara]

"That is true, but when one turns the wheel, they forget what they saw before."

Yukara sighed. "In some ways, that is a mercy, but it does make the task of experiencing it all quite difficult."

[Kaijarisuigyo]

"Why do you think you have to experience it all though? Do you think there's anything to be gained by having tried every possible things under the sun?

Bird is not Fish. Bird will never get to experience the depths of the sea. Fish will never get to experience the highs of the sky. Is that a problem?"

[Ryoshun Yukara]

"Only that I know such wonders exist, I feel a selfish yearning to see them."

She chuckled. "I did not know, not long ago, but these last few years I have learned how wide the horizon truly is."

[Kaijarisuigyo]

"Dreams of discovering a brand new world strong dreams. Keep them close. The wonders that you don't know of yet but can already imagine have true power within the dream."

[Ryoshun Yukara]

"I believe so... I am more driven now to live, not just to die in pursuit of my task."

Yukara stretched, feeling her neck pop. "I should keep going, need to find a perch before nightfall. It has been very informative meeting you, Kai."

[Kaijarisuigyo]

"Likewise Bat-who's-also-Cat."

[thanks for thread]