The Day of Thunder

[Otaku]

"So you did not know it was here before the attack?" Shinjo asks, quiet as ever. "Then I wonder when and how it found its way in."

Her lips press into a thinner line. "The claws, we've seen those reported before. All those who suffered that change in Shinjo's lands have either been laid to rest or... disappeared. Now I guess why some of them couldn't be found. Our scouts were looking for people on two legs."

[Ryoshun Yukara]

"I do think that the result of the change varies - some of those I had to... put to rest... had taken other forms."

She did not elaborate.

"That said, for individuals of that life, a wolf is a powerful allegory. I would not be shocked if you said others took similar guise."

[Nozomi]

"Transformations and monsters of that ilk take a thousand different forms. I have seen ones who wore their human guise like a skin and disguise themselves among the living. I have seen horrors that were beyond physical description," Nozomi said with the same sort of wooden deadpan to her voice as she nodded over at Yukara. "I have yet to see any successfully cleansed of the corruption personally, but ... it was a worthy wish even if it ended only with their death. They may not be part of the wheel now, but they will haunt no more the likes of mortal men and women."

She frowned more visibly and shook her head. "The horrors that were faced in the south were much more ... physical than the ones we face now. Still, this one seemed physical enough."

[Ryoshun Yukara]

"Indeed. As a human, violence was her stock-in trade. As nightmare, I doubt she had reason to change."

Yukara rubbed at her neck, contemplating how much more to say, offering only, "I have learned a technique that... temporarily purges the corruption from a soul's chi. Sadly, it causes substantial damage in the process, and the effect is fleeting, for corrupted flesh soon exerts itself again. I hoped that the technique might free the soul if it coincided with death, but I cannot say for sure if that would have worked."

[Otaku]

"Hm."

Otaku turns her focus and quiet intensity onto the older woman. "Nozomi-san, the little teacher said we might ask you and Ukyou for some explanation of our duty here. It can't all be guarding this village against one monster and then another. Our swords are just as needed for that at home, and here or at home it's only baling water out of a sinking boat. Can you tell us anything more?"

[Nozomi]

"There is a ... similar technique I am aware of. An atemi strike, not unlike the one I used, though meant to purge that part. It mostly does damage. In the end, the corruption remains." She shook her head sadly. There had been no peace in 'rest my brother.' She'd considered learning it, and perhaps the Earth would deem it needed, but not for now. Otaku's question, however, got her attention.

"Protecting the village, Otaku-sama, is just something that you will do naturally. You are here, because here is where you need to be. The teacher has been drawing together people for whom there is ... potential. One day, the stars will align, and they will be needed. Something great, something small. And among those, the potential to be a "Thunder" exists. Against this tide of corruption, and the one who serves as its head, they will stand. How they'll stand, what against? I couldn't tell you. I wasn't here all those centuries ago the last time it happened. My guess is the worst nightmares imaginable made flesh, but only those who return would know for sure. For the rest of us? We are here in case they fail, and to make sure they don't."

[Otaku]

"The last time it happened?" Otaku's brows draw together. "What do you mean by that?"

[Nozomi]

"It is something the teacher has said. A thousand years ago. In ages long forgotten, this battle happened, and other defenders of the realm of the living stood against the champion of that day. This battle comes again and again, though there are thousands of years between." She shook her head. "Hard to imagine such time frames, is it not?"

[Otaku]

"..."

Otaku considers this.

"So this has all happened before? How can we know such a thing?"

Quietly, she adds, "How did it end the other times?"

[Nozomi]

"The champion of Jigoku fell. That is all that I know. As for how? Old relics. You and I will leave ripples in this life behind. So did they, long before we walked these plains. And each of us endeavors to leave behind something that will carry the truth to the next generation. I have already made my own arrangements." She got a bit of a face. Ok, so she hadn't exactly made her own arrangement so much as her daughter had walked out to go fulfill her destiny somewhere the hell else that wasn't here, but the point stood.

[Otaku]

"The champion of Jigoku fell. That is all that I know. As for how? Old relics. You and I will leave ripples in this life behind. So did they, long before we walked these plains. And each of us endeavors to leave behind something that will carry the truth to the next generation. I have already made my own arrangements." She got a bit of a face. Ok, so she hadn't exactly made her own arrangement so much as her daughter had walked out to go fulfill her destiny somewhere the hell else that wasn't here, but the point stood.

Otaku shrugs one shoulder, lips quirking a little. "If anything of me is worth remembering, the choice is for the ones who'll have to do it. I can't take that with me around this karmic wheel you monks tell about. I'll worry about what I can do right here and now."

She cocks her head. "Unless these old relics and stories tell you anything that would make our task now easier?"

[Nozomi]

-snip-

"Focusing on the here and now is almost certainly the best choice in this moment, Otaku-sama. Do what you can, focus on what you must, and you'll be fine. We have no choice but to be enough, do we not?" She sighed. "I... just don't know that I will be able to be more than a support at the sidelines to all of you."

[Otaku]

"That's plenty, Nozomi-san." Otaku shrugs again. "If the people of the clans must do this ourselves, it's what we owe the Heavens. For sending us the brothers and sisters of Shiba and their gifts."

She considers, meanwhile blinking the garden's heavy sleep out of her eyes again. "Anyway... most of the Empire is on the sidelines. That's the point, isn't it? A few people can do this so that everyone else can go on and live?"

[Nozomi]

She managed a tired, old chuckle as that was said. Did they owe it to the kami or to the heavens? Sometimes she wondered. Certainly they had no alternative than to sit back and be undone, and she wasn't a fan of that. "You have the sense of it. The Thunders rally against the darkness and stake everything, so that the rest of us may live. It's not unlike the days in the far south. Five to save a kami, the rest to watch their backs, lest the worst come and the champion be claimed as one of those brethren."

Of course, the alternative...

[Otaku]

"It's a shame none of those old ones finished the job," Otaku says quietly, half to herself. "Or left directions."

[Ryoshun Yukara]

Yukara had lapsed into silence, listening to the exchange without any comment.

She followed the conversation with a sort of hungry silence, simply absorbing what she could to contextualize her own experiences.

Leaning her weight onto her bisento, she took the weight off first one foot, and then the other.

It would be nice if she got good rest that night to help mend her wounds.

The last comment did draw a chuckle, however. "I find that often directions given to strangers are... confusing, at best. A teacher usually focuses their teaching to suit their student, do they not?"

[Otaku]

"A good map can be read by anyone with eyes." Otaku half-shrugs one shoulder. "Teaching is for one student. A route map is for all the world. Both have uses."