The Day of Thunder

[Jiyo Sora]

Sora made his way to Enrou's home, carrying a small bundle.

He looked around and sighed.

Between the bloodshed here last night and what Enrou was doing before Chouri talked him out of it... not sure I like this place all that much.

But that was the past, and it only mattered because it was behind him. He'd do what he could to keep it there.

Besides. He was here for the future.

[Enrou]

Unsurprisingly, Enrou's house was quite a bit of hustle and bustle with all the recent injuries, perhaps even more than usual given that the man himself was laid up in bed, wrapped in bandages and splints, with a few bruises visible here and there. His usually grumpy visage somehow looked grumpier than usual, possibly because he was currently incapable of moving his arms with enough dexterity to manipulate a pipe, and was delivering orders, formulas, and listening to input from his apprentice and whatever other helpers were available and requiring direction. It didn't take long for him to notice Sora when he approached, and he did his level best to at least nod in acknowledgment of his presence, but mostly it was the focus of his gaze that suggested he was aware of the man at all.

[Jiyo Sora]

"Last night seems to have gone... poorly."

He approached the apothecary.

"As it's no certainty when I might get the chance again..."

He set the bundle near where Enrou lay.

"Earlier, I spoke of how the libraries would benefit from your knowledge. When you get the chance, I would still like to add what you know to our collection."

[Enrou]

"I'd laugh at the understatement if it wasn't likely to hurt so much if I did." Enrou sighed, but he did it very, very carefully. "This is something of an object lesson in passing along what I know. We're lucky that my apprentice knew enough to get by while I was unconscious, and it's not hard to imagine what might have happened otherwise. So, no time like the present. Not like I could run off even if I wanted to."

[Hisomu Reo]

Reo is on a cot, still passed out from the night before, still insensate after the exhaustion of treating the surviving patients.

[OOC: Unable to converse, but scene dressing]

[Canary]

Said apprentice comes in, checking on the bandages, looking for bleed through. "Honestly, I'm still worried with how long you were unconscious, sensei. That's not good." She checked his eyes and head briefly, as well.

[Jiyo Sora]

"They breed people tough in the mountains, don't they Enrou-san? Mentally, if not otherwise..."

He had a seat.

"Now, my calligraphy is atrocious, but... everyone else seems rather busy at the moment..."

[Enrou]

Enrou appeared like he wanted to complain about the inspection of his eyes and head, but didn't do so verbally. "It's very rare that someone ends up involuntarily unconscious and it turns out to be a good thing." He looked over at Sora. "No need to write that part down, unless your healers are grossly incompetent."

Once his personal examination was over, Enrou leaned back in his bed and looked up at the ceiling for a moment. "Sora-sama...if I may ask something before we begin?"

[Jiyo Sora]

"It only seems fair, Enrou-san. After all, I'm the one imposing upon you in your home..."

[Enrou]

Enrou nodded, his eyes never quite straying from the ceiling. "Last time we spoke you said something about the long life of a killer, and hinted at your experiences on both sides of things. Going from that to a scribe seems like a pretty drastic change of perspective, so I'd like to know...what changed in you to warrant such a diversion in life paths?"

[Jiyo Sora]

Sora chuckled.

"I could be pompous and talk about being shown a better way by the Son of Heaven, and I'm a pretty bad scribe in the grand scheme of things, but..."

He shrugged.

"I suppose I can give you the whole story as I see it. By the time I was twelve, I was already... tired of what I had, my tribe... had no future, at least not for me. I'd just go on fighting and hunting and running around the Spine of the World until somebody killed me. Wouldn't have been mourned by many of my own, this eye... well. So, when I heard about these new people, these Kami, I went looking for a better way. For me, my people, whatever. Some of it I found without meeting the Kami at all- it was an Isawa woman named Reiko and a tribeless wanderer named Jin who taught me how to read and write, at over twenty winters of age. That by itself opened whole new worlds to me."

He grinned.

"Reiko and Jin are both daimyo now, so you can bet I wasn't the only one who saw something in them. And the Kami... some of them struck me dead wrong. Like, what they wanted for humanity, for Ningen-Do. I actually grew close to despair, because so many of them seemed to want a world I wouldn't have been able to bear living in. But then I met the Boss."

He seemed to be warming to the subject.

"One of the only ones of them who listened when I came to him, an illiterate barbarian from a tribe nobody much wanted to live anywhere near, and babbled out my fears for what his family's arrival would mean for the future. He listened to me when I was no one. So I decided I'd follow him. But I was still a fighter, a killer. I was simply going to be doing it for better reasons. So I think the real change came..."

He scratched at his beard.

"He trusted me to protect his children. The job wasn't the surprise, it involved plenty of fighting, but... the trust? You have to understand, nobody in my tribe had really trusted me to do anything but hold up my end of a fight. I lived alone, and I fully expected to die alone. But the Boss... he had trusted me with the most precious people in his life, despite all of my doubts, my questions, my shortcomings. He put his faith in me."

Another shrug.

"I got the idea for the Libraries a couple years later, when I saw examples of Nezumi libraries on the trip South. But the change began with that trust. He saw something in me I didn't. I got to figure it out as I went along."

[Enrou]

"Huh. I'd remark on how small that one moment would seem to be, but I think I understand. And it helps soothe my mind a bit, knowing that what I'm about to say will be heard by someone like you."

Enrou sighed again, letting his eyes close for a moment.

"It's funny you should mention an Isawa in your story, given how I'm originally from their tribe. Unfortunately my experiences weren't quite so pleasant. I spent a lot of time learning and studying plants and medicine, honing a craft that I felt was imminently necessary for the betterment of my people. But excellence was something of an expectation, not an achievement to be rewarded, but a standard to be expected. Nobody ever really gave much credit to the work I did. They were all too happy to use it when I found something new and effective, but...aside from that, it was just another day, another discovery, and more questions to be answered on the horizon. I'd be lying if I said it didn't make me bitter."

He rolled each of his shoulders once, resulting in a very soft popping sound as each released some pressure. "I heard about the Kami, and much of the tribe saw it as an opportunity. I wasn't among them. To me all I saw was an even greater power approaching with even less consideration for the achievements of a single person, so when the tribe left to follow them, I stayed behind. Settled down, started a family." He shook his head slowly. "It made me happy, at least I think it did. It's hard to remember it now. All I remember was when the corruption entered her dreams..."

At this, Enrou did make an effort to turn his head, wanting to look at Sora as he relayed this part of his past. "I'm sure you understand how that went. She went mad, tried to claw the dreams out of her eyes, started to think our children were hallucinations brought about by her nightmares...and I wasn't fast enough to save them. I was barely fast enough to save myself in the end. So there I was, wounded, angry, having lost everything, when something shows up and tells me who I can blame for it all. A bunch of people that went and sealed up the realm of evil and forced it into a new one, a place where it could infect the minds of anyone it wanted, and those same people were the ones my tribe abandoned me for."

There was a quick, wheezing rasp as Enrou tried to bark out a single derisive laugh, wincing visibly from the effort. "Ow. It all made sense at the time, and I was all too willing to go along with what it said. I admit I am responsible for a number of things that happened here in the village, and I hold no delusions about what might be coming my way for my part in it all. I don't know if my actions directly cost anyone their lives, but I'm not so arrogant as to think I am blameless. Not only that, once you freed Chouri from that thing's grasp, it was all too eager to abandon me for its own goals, just like everyone else had done. I almost laughed when my comatose patients suddenly got up and started swinging at me. I definitely deserved it. I probably deserve far worse than that."

He covered his eyes for a moment, and his voice took on a much softer tone. "That girl...the one who lost her arm. She made me realize something. Even at my most bitter, I was still offering assistance to people where I could. It was easy enough to justify it as simply going through the motions of what I'd known all my life, holding onto a shred of who I used to be as I turned into something else. But I did what I could to offer my aid, ease her mind, try to make some sort of difference in her life. And apparently I did. I saw one single tear of relief roll down her cheek, and something broke in me. In that one moment I felt more recognition and validation than I'd ever received in my entire life, and for once I felt like I might be able to live up to some sort of purpose. Then you come along, telling me I can store all the knowledge I've built up and spread it across this empire you people have built, and all the answers were just suddenly there, right at my fingertips."

Enrou snorted. "Sorry for the long lecture. I don't have my usual herbal assistance to keep me from rambling on like an old codger. I just figured if anyone could appreciate the way I feel right now, it might be you. I'm ready to provide whatever knowledge you deem fit to rest within your libraries."

[Jiyo Sora]

"First of all, there's only one long-winded codger here Enrou-san- don't tell Reo, he thinks he's an old man too."

Sora tapped his blank scroll thoughtfully.

"Secondly, you're right. I do understand. I don't know that I would have made the same choices you did, but... our enemy does not fight fair. It will prey upon weakness after first creating it. If it can't find someone desperate to exploit, it will drive people to desperation. Because it's nothing without us."

He paused, then half-smiled.

"You're right about something else, too...we don't know if you cost any lives directly through your actions. We might never know with certainty. But I can promise you this- your knowledge can save lives. Lives beyond counting. It can form the foundation for future study. Shugenja are more common than they were just thirty years ago, but they're still rare. Most villages would do better to know even one half of what you do than to hope some priest will come along to solve all of their problems for them. I don't know what your fate will be in this life. But I think your legacy will be a good one. But before we get to that..."

He picked up his brush.

"What were their names? Your family, I mean."

[Hisomu Reo]

With the speaking, the pair did not notice the change in Reo's breathing pattern change, slowly waking to the sounds of their voices.

"You know Enrou-san, I think I finally know what people mean when they ask how somehow smart can be such an idiot." Reo has curled and risen, a little unsteady as he now walked without his support stick.

"But Jiyo Sora-san and I have something in common, and that's meeting Reiko-sama." Reo motions to his leg. "I think I told you: My parents dumped me off at a healer's house because I was worthless to them. But I wasn't useless to her. And I wasn't useless to Reiko.

"When I walked in the Shadowlands, I heard a voice promising me the chance to fix my leg, that offered me the skies. And if I hadn't been with Reiko and her bodyguard I would have walked right to the voice. They pulled me back. They gave me something to believe in, and now the place you once called home would be envious to have someone of your skills and knowledge."

Reo looks back over at Sora. "Jiyo-san and I...I believe we have an understand as to the nature of what each of our libraries hide. Though I am an old man, curse you, I just now have a leg that will keep me running a bit longer. I think we would both look for a way to see that your talents are not wasted."

[Enrou]

Enrou breathed slowly, trying his best not to get too emotional, lest he end up in even more physical pain to accompany the emotional. "My wife's name was Sachiko. I had an older daughter named Nadeshiko, and a younger named Kaori. My son's name was Shirou." It had been so long since he thought about their names, speaking them now seemed unreal to him.

"I think that's the thing people misunderstand, Reo-sama. Those of us who proclaim to be smart have a tendency to forget that we don't know everything. But I know plenty, and if there's one thing I've seen in the past few days, it's that even with a fair number of shugenja at your disposal, their gifts, though great, are prone to run dry far quicker than a store of plants and a pile of cloth. If it were otherwise, well, I don't think I'd have so little space in my own home right now. So, where should I start?"

[Jiyo Sora]

"Wherever you like."

The Imperial chuckled.

"If my wife can edit my own rambling bullshit into something people can stand to read, I'm sure she can walk me through whatever it takes for this to make sense."

[Hisomu Reo]

Reo nods. "It's as Sora-san says: shugenja are great, but they can't be everywhere. They are easily taxed, and in a crisis their attentions are usually sent elsewhere. They also, especially now, tend to be clustered in major settlements. But every village can grow an herb garden. Anyone with quick wits can replicate what you've developed. There's a reason why your patients clustered to you Enrou-san: how many have you saved? How many of them can go on to save others?"

"Maybe it's time you're saved for once...though" Reo looks back over to Sora. "I suspect there will be a cost"