The Day of Thunder

Yukara hadn't had much luck among the trees, and now she wandered the town, casting her gaze about, bisento tapping a steady tempo as she walked. Perhaps one of these homes would have a well shaped roof suitable for habitation. Or a stall. Or a tree in town.

Something. It occurred to her that maybe she could simply join the camp, but nobody had told her as much, and so she assumed it was for... important people.

So she carried on, flicking her prayer beads through the fingers of her left hand as she went, taking in the sights of the village.

Something jumped down from one of the roofs, landing on all four. A totally normal human woman who sniffed the samurai without any hint of embarrassment:

"Strong blood. Here to save the world?"

Yukara reacted in a series of steps, as her body began acting and then her senses informed her mind, which in turn restrained the defensive maneuver she had already begun.

As the shape first leapt toward her, she had pivoted her stance, drawing the Bisento across her body in a guarding angle, and then as the shape did not land on her, she had begun strike, whipping the blade toward the shape, and then diverting that strike into a flourishing spin as her eyes recognized it was not a monster, but a person.

She set the bisento haft back on the ground about the moment she was sniffed.

The hair on her neck still stood on end, and her pupils were dilated as the adrenaline surged and crashed through her, giving her the impression of a spooked cat, particularly with her baleful Bakeneko eyes.

After a moment, she realized the feral person had said something.

The pause was slightly awkward before she managed, "I am here to try and... stop the madness. You are?"

The whole display of blade-on-stick-jutsu had left Kai unfazed, even when the blade had shortened her hair slightly:

"Obviously. What's your plan? When do we begin?"

"I am not yet certain."

Yukara leaned on the Bisento, steadying her breathing.

"Perhaps once this festival is done? Perhaps sooner. The beasts have not shown their faces - nor has the answer I seek. I know only that both supposedly reside in this place. For now I am getting a feel for the elements here - and I admit I find them... strange. What of you? Do you come here to save the world?"

After a pause, she realized she had no idea what this beast woman was named.

"What are you called, roof-dweller?"

"Kai. I came here to acquire the required knowledge to save the world, for humans have no magical fire breath that could just burn that darkness away.

So far my results have been mixed. Not void, but not great either. Kinda like a prelude. Will our encounter be the triggering factor moving the story forward?"

Yukara tried to parse all of that.

After a long moment, she simply shrugged. "It might. The world does not work according to our rules. This is, no doubt, part of why this madness remains so difficult to understand."

With a faint sigh, she continued, "Well Kai, I am Ryoshun Yukara. I likewise have no magical fire - I have only steel and a desire to carry on until the problem is solved, or I am no more."

"There's steel and steel. Does yours have a name? A random blade will have a hard time killing a myth. For the famous dreamkiller on the other hand, it's easy-peasy.

It's an example thing of course. Dreamkiller doesn't sound right as a name. Need to convey the same message but with more symbolic strength to them."

She points at her own daisho.

"Mine are 白虎 牙 obviously. Byakkoga. The Fangs of the White Tiger."

Yukara glanced at her bisento.

"I do not know what name it should have. It simply is my weapon. I have had it since it was created." She ran a hand affectionately over the gnarled and carved wood of the haft. "I count it a faithful companion, but not a talkative one."

"Silent Something maybe then? Or some silence metaphor like Calm Water?

In all cases, it needs to have a name. Things that have no name have no strength.

I know names are complicated nowadays. At the dawn of time, you would just have named it Blade, and it would have been the strongest blade. But nowadays, there are many blades, so it needs a more unique name. A name that makes it even sharper in the world of dreams than it is in that realm."

"I see, but not water. No... it pulled from water, it does not stay in it."

She pondered the question, and then offered, "Yume-kiri. It cuts dream away from reality. It anchors to this realm, no matter what madness comes."

"Is good name. Now the difficult part. Making it live up to it.

But maybe that quest has already begun? Did you defeat beasts of nightmare with it in the past?"

"Banished. Drove off."

Her expression clouded, "Certainly it curtailed madness. It has not finished the worst of the monsters I have encountered. Not yet."

"Only halfway there then. Steel may dispose of the physical form but it needs to become legend enough to also reach within the dream. The steel has been tempered. Now the story requires tempering.

You say it has always been yours. Was it made for you? Under which circumstances? Most stories start at the beginning. It's simpler that way."

"Yes. A man who saved my life made it. He was a retired smith, but he reshaped a blade taken from an evil man, tied it to the wood that held me above water. Created a tool I could use to defend myself, and in time, defend others."

She ran a finger along the gnarled wood of the haft. "I cannot find fault with his work - it has survived much already."

"Break it will. Eventually. All stories must end. And then be repaired. Because sometimes what seems like the end is just another twist.

Now, a good weapon is only one part of the equation. Who happens to be its wielder?"

"I am Ryoshun Yukara. As I said."

She furrowed her brow. "What more is there to say?"

"At the dawn of time, a name was enough to fully describe a person. If you were Tiger, you were called Tiger, and anyone immediately knew what that meant: Strength. Pride. Danger. Territory. And that's all you needed to know.

Nowadays, a name is just the beginning. Yours, and your clothes, tell me you are a disciple of the Bat... Which has something to do with ghosts? Luck maybe? But it does not tell me if you are a guardian, a trickster, an explorer, a storyteller..."

"I am... me."

Frowning, Yukara stepped a half step back, as if trying to get a look at the question from further away. It was too large. After a pause, she continued in her husky alto, "I am little more than a blade, aimed at the sickness. Cut away the rot, let the healthy survive."

It was a poor answer, but she seemed ill prepared to give a better one. "I did not ask to be who I am - I am what I was needed to be."

"People have a tendency to not having asked to be born yes. That's because they didn't exist prior to the moment of their birth.

Now, does your soul embrace the task that was put upon you, that's a different, and interesting, question. Are you good at what you do? Are you best at you do? Could you become it if not?"