The Day of Thunder

The garden had been the theater of great violence, followed by great agitation.

But time moves on quickly, and now it was once again peaceful, appropriate for some introspection.

Kai was doing that thing where you purposefully forsake your awareness of the outside, leaving you theoretically defenseless, to focus on the inside. Which wasn't very Tiger. But was about Tiger. To accept the risk, physical and spiritual, that came with facing the beast in her. If she truly was nothing but the last minuscule fragment of Tiger that hadn't been touched by the darkness, this would effectively consume her.

She smirked. Very good at telling everyone they should face their fears head on, not just pretend they don't exist. Not that much better at actually putting her lessons into practice. To be mortal was all about risking your life for what's worth it. And being whole once again was definitely worth it.

She closed her eyes.

She could feel the fragments of Tiger inside her. Including the bad bits. Their vanity. Their laziness. Their ruthlessness. Their habit of pissing around to mark their territory. But also the good. Strength. Nimbleness. Pride. Their dedication to their role as one of the Four Guardians.

And Tiger could feel Kai. In all her weird human awkwardness. Frail. Limited. Mortal. But also sharing their commitment to defend the realm. And crafty. And able to move people with her stories. And backed by the strength of the pack where the solitary Tiger only ever had their own. A chimera mixing Monkey, Spider, Wolf, and much more. Human.

Two big idiots with one common goal. One big idiot with a single goal.

Kai opened her eyes. Looked at her reflection in the mountain. Saw herself. Not the image of a strange woman where should have been a tiger's face. But her own face. The face of a woman who indeed was a tiger.

---

Kenji didn't like the gardens, cursed and weird he had for the most part avoided it at all costs after his first visit. Knowing it was here that Shinsei turned into some sort of demon possessed monk was rather disconcerting as well. There was certainly something wrong with this place, and a good part of him wanted to burn it to the ground.

Which would be difficult given the rain, and the fact that he wanted to check over the site of the fight one more time to see if he had missed anything. "Yeah, I know it's probably pointless." He grumbled to himself as he walked along, his head tilted as if he was listening to something far away. After going by the shrine though he wanted to find something. Anything extra would help after all.

Kai had moved toward more physical training, kicking and punching the air with great dedication. To feel comfortable within your body instead of wearing it like some ill adjusted clothes was as if not more important than any theoretical reflection.

Without ceasing to punch and kick the air, she commented aloud on the Akodo's endeavor:

"Even the best hunters among your animal's namesake couldn't pick up a scent by now disciple of the Lion. If there's a lead to follow, it's not here you will find it."

"I'm not particularly looking for a scent." He replied after a moment, glancing in the direction of the speaker. He recognized her but it had been a few days since he had seen the strange woman. "Just sometimes the best way to start is retracing your steps and seeing if there is another answer you can come to."

"Or so I've been told, and I tend to me stubborn enough to try." Kenji shook his head. "But you are right, I'd have to return tomorrow to find anything else, I think. Well, if the rain lets up."

"Assuming leads work the same they do in most forests of the mortal realms. My impression so far has been that these woods followed a different logic. I'm not sure the same path leads to the same clearing two days in a row, less so that it keeps traces of the people who walked it previously.

If it's dream logic, finding what you seek will be more about how strongly you want it than actual, material, hints. Like when you jump from location to location in a dream, without transitions."

"I'm not too sure how much dream logic applies." Kenji returned with a smirk. "Even then I'm not likely to change my ways to suit it's needs. I am a creature of Ningen-do after all."

"But I'll take what you said under advisement."

"When you go into the water, you swim despite not being a fish. The ability to adapt oneself to a new environment is one of the greatest skills humans have.

Let's phrase it that way: If this was a dream about you hunting a prey, how do you think it would unfold?"

Not everyone could swim, his youngest sister still sank like a stone. But that probably wasn't the type of point being made here.

So, he went with how he thought it would go. "I'd catch the prey and take it home." The Lion answered simply.

"Well, color me impress. That's actually a pretty good answer. Dreams tend to just skip transitions. Projecting yourself directly to the solution might indeed be the best way to succeed here.

Of course, with the darkness in charge, the dream might fight back your will. How good has been your sleep so far? Do you manage to go to bed with confidence?"

"I had a bit of trouble getting to sleep the other night. I went to bed a little later than I hoped. But since then I've slept with little trouble." He paused.

"Well, other to awake to find some sort of creature trying to assault me in my sleep last night."

"Wait, an actual creature? Not just a bad dream?"

"As far as I could tell." He said with a nod. "It was an ugly twisted thing that crept on its hind legs. It didn't have fingers on the end of its hands though but needles instead."

"It disappeared when I woke though leaving no trace behind." He ended with a frown. "I consulted a priest about it and she said she had heard similar reports and it was likely a creature from Yume-jigoku. Though she could not say what specifically."

"That's concerning. But, at the same time, I see it as progress. As if the darkness has judged your defenses so unassailable from within the dream it has to get around them through the physical world. In spite of it not having nearly strong a grip there, exposing itself to a strike back of fire and steel."

"I do wish I could have confronted it." Kenji mused in response. "But it disappeared very quickly, which I suppose just illustrates how weak it likely was. Something so quick and adept at stealth and running likely would not be able to face anyone in actual combat."

"I suppose you could say it potentially illuminates a weakness of the enemy."

"The darkness doesn't think like a physical being, or even like most mystical beings. But I believe that, to interact with the world, it must use incarnations that are closer to us in mind.

So, from my own long experience with people putting a great deal of pride into being frightening, quite a few starring Tiger directly, I would say nothing will unnerve it more, and thus make it prone to mistakes, than an inability to enact fear in the heart of its targets.

The best case scenario being an attempt failing so hard it turns into ridicule. Genuine laughter is the sharpest blade when it comes to slicing fighting spirit."

"So laugh in the face of your fears?" He offered in response, trying to fit what she said in a nice little box. "Or more, laugh because such a thing is too ridiculous to be feared?" That might of been a bit closer to the point.

He'd heard the first phrase a time or two of course. But the second was new to him.

"Even better if you can make it into contagious laughter. Defeating your own fear is great. Helping your allies defeat theirs is awesome."

"I'm not sure I'm that good at laughing." Kenji replied with a smirk. "Not if I've not been drinking at the very least."

He chuckled softly to himself. "Which I've been told is a very bad idea on the battlefield."

"I don't think I know a single story where the one getting drunk is not the loser. Quite a few about a clever warrior winning by tricking a far more physically powerful enemy into smashing themselves to powerlessness on the other hand.

They tend to all follow the same structure, regardless of the identity of the tricked and the trickster. The trickster shows deference to the soon to be tricked for their insurmountable strength, and offer them a gift of the best alcohol. The tricked basks in their submission and accepts their tribute. As soon as they've poisoned themselves with the nectar, the trickster revealed they had only faked defeat and surrender to achieve true victory."

That was pretty much what Kenji had heard as far as these kinds of stories went. Which wasn't too surprising all things consider, there was all kinds of tales of the seemingly triumphant victor being foiled by his own hubris.

"Well, looks like I'm stuck with not being great at making other people laugh then. Though I'm sure there is one among us that has that sort of skill." Though he couldn't name one off the top of his head.