The Day of Thunder

"Ki-rin lands're mostly grassland, right?" Akutou asks. "Th' Otaku I talked to yesterday called 'em steppes.

"Ain't ever got up that way, m'self."

"They're beautiful, the way all of the lands of the Empire manage to be. Different from the Stag lands, of course, but I've found something to appreciate almost everywhere I've gone."

The apocalyptic vistas of the lands corrupted by Jigoku and the heart of the Realm of Evil were outliers, of course.

"Sounds nice."

Akutou considers

"What place other'n home's your favorite?"

"It may sound trite, but wherever I have family or friends to talk with. Parting with friends is a sadness- a place is just a place."

"Heard that from a fair number o' folks, too," Akutou says.

"Good t' have family t' come home to, I guess."

He shrugs.

"It's what turned me from a mangy killer into the picture of refinement I am today."

Another snort of a laugh.

"Can't say as it's easy thinkin' o' a man o' your stature havin' mange! I b'lieve you, mind, but it's a strange thing t' think."

"Before I came down from the mountains, Otomo-san, I was, hard as it is to believe, not the man I am now."

He sighed and settled a little deeper into the water.

"The changes have been entirely for the better."

"I've heard more'n a few folks say so," Akutou says. "Not 'bout you, in p'tic'lar, but 'bout how things were afore the Kami came. But I've heard folks talk 'bout how folks're too soft, now, too, an' how things aren't s' good as they used t' be.

"Can't help bein' born when you're born, right? But there's certainly some feelin' o' missed opportunity about."

"It's not like the Boss has thrown out everything that came before. There was a chance, you know- if one of the other siblings had prevailed- that it would have gone that way, but... the good stuff has mostly been maintained. And far as people going soft...."

He snickered.

"Take it froma former Hikaru, we thought all you flatlanders were soft back in the old days, and where are the Hikaru now?"

"In th' Imperial Libraries an' married to Kami," Akutou replies. "At least some o' y'all.

"But there's some comfort in what y' say. I 'preciate it."

"Just saying. Old fuckers like me always talk about kids these days. We were doing it back in the mountains when I was a boy- 'oh, this winter's nothing, you should have seen the one where Okko froze solid walking outside to take a piss,' that sort of thing."

He shrugged.

"We're always wrong. People aren't soft, they're different."

Akutou nods and pauses a moment.

Then he grins.

"So, did Okko freeze solid goin' out t' piss?"

"I don't know, I was maybe six years of age when I heard the story. Seems unlikely, but so do a lot of things that happen."

A newcomer arrived at the bath.

It seemed it was a woman. Scrawny, wrapped in a rough robe, Yukara had decided she really should be clean.

It was easy enough to wash off, even if it was uncomfortably hot, but now she came to the pools... the water bubbling and moving...

She gazed at it with a stubborn look, as if staring down a wild creature, and for a long moment not even noticing the two men, before finally slipping into the water up to her waist, then her neck. Yes, her robe was soaked, but she seemed oblivious to such - focused purely on her private victory over the pool, whatever that was.

Then she glanced over, and offered a chagrined smile.

"Hello sirs. I did not realize you were there."

"And here I wasn't even trying to be sneaky. I'm Jiyo Sora, Resident Codger, and this is Otomo Akutou."

Akutou gestures as if to tip his hat and seems almost surprised not to find it there.

"Ma'am," he says.

Might could be it's just a diff'rent custom in this part o' th' world, he thinks. But that's like t' cause a prob'em later.

"Ah. Hello Jiyo Sora, Resident Codger, and Otomo Akutou."

She shifted, wrapping the robe a little tighter, even underwater, and then gave a contented sigh as the heat eased knotted muscles.

"I am Ryoshun Yukara."

Scratching the bridge of her nose, she continued, "I did not mean to interrupt your conversation. I just thought I should clean up after a few weeks on the road. Did you both travel far?"

"Today, ma'am? No."

Akutou shakes his head.

"Came t' town yesterday. Had a long walk f'm Stag lands, though there was a riverboat made it a fair bit easier."

"A riverboat? That sounds dangerous."

She shuddered.

"You must be very daring, Otomo Akutou."