The Day of Thunder

[Ryoshun Yukara]

Yukara had been found unworthy to be a thunder. Not that she had even known what one was, prior to arriving here.

Not that she had ambitions to such.

It was strange how one could become fixated on a single path when facing an obstacle, finding only one future before them which they must achieve, no matter the cost. Blind to possibility.

The voices crept and murmured, but they had been silenced by a single moment of clarity - a whisper of a future she had never known, yet welcomed.

Now she sat in seiza before the gates of the shrine, a place where the realms bled together, and the spirit could touch things beyond the immediate.

Here she meditated, her dreams and visions flowing together and through her, her mind casting to the promise of things yet to come, and things long gone. If darkness came early, she would be here to raise the alarm, and if not...

She was seeking something in herself that she had only recently discovered. Seeking it with an intensity and force of mind she had never felt before.

[Nanzi Ai]

Ai approached the gate with some awe... this was probably where it would all end. A symbolic door to their destiny.

Seeing Yukara in mediation she remained silent out of respect for her.

[Ryoshun Yukara]

What she was seeking seemed unlikely to arrive immediately.

After a time, she sighed, and then opened her eyes.

She seemed a little disappointed, but she still wasn't going to give up.

Glancing around, she blinked, and then rose to offer a bow of greeting. "Nanzi-san. I am sorry. I did not see you there."

Learning on her bisento, she smiled. "I'm surprised you are not getting your rest - you have quite a task ahead of you."

[Nanzi Ai]

"We all do," she said in response. "Though I shall find rest tonight, no matter what Yume-Jigoku throws at us. Are you well? I hope I did not bother your meditations."

[Ryoshun Yukara]

"It is all right, I am... soul searching. I do not know how long it will require."

She rubbed at her nose, and then shrugged. "I figured I may as well do it here - so if something happens I can at least warn the town."

Studying Ai's face, she inquired, "How does it feel? Being imbued with all... that."

[Nanzi Ai]

“I am not sure I was imbued,” she admitted. “I feel the same, just with a much heavier burden on my shoulders… the demands of all ten-thousand things in Ningen-do. Maybe it will feel more real when we begin to do whatever it is we were meant to do.”

“How do you feel?” she asked.

[Ryoshun Yukara]

"In all honesty? Disappointed." Yukara laughed. "How absurd, I realize."

Shaking her head, she continued, "I just hate to be... standing aside. To be unable to help." Gazing at the shrine, shrouded in darkness, she added, "To come this far and then stand aside at the end is challenging - but if I am to serve another role, so be it. I do not claim to be the wisest, possessed of greater wisdom than those who orchestrated these events."

[Nanzi Ai]

“If you stood aside, you would not even be here,” she responded warmly.

“You answered an unknown call and even now we know not what tomorrow will bring. It may be that those that stay behind play a critical role in saving this village. Those of us going beyond may never even return to know if we truly succeeded.”

“But I understand, I do,” she added.

[Ryoshun Yukara]

"You are correct." Yukara bit her lip, and then chose her next words with care. "I do not know what I will do - and I do not begrudge Nao-sama her place in the company. I just wish to offer whatever aid I can. My life has been focused on hunting a monster, and now it is dead. To be chosen would have given me new purpose."

As she observed the darkness, she added, "I was tempted. It offered the strength to make change right away. I confess I was tempted."

[Nanzi Ai]

“I find when I am lost or tempted to rely on Bushido and see to my Honor. As a samurai of the Bat, your life is guided by your Lord and family. Perhaps it is time to you turn to them instead of seeking new monsters to kill. You are a servant, not just a sword to be pointed at the latest evil. Perhaps things are different in the Bat, but your search for purpose in external things will never be fulfilling,” she said honestly.

“You are not without purpose.”

[Ryoshun Yukara]

"I have been told as much. I am new to my clan, so I will have to discover this when all is done."

She had a faint grin, and shrugged. "If everyone says as much, I cannot deny them."

[Nanzi Ai]

"It sounds like good advice, a Clan is more than some colors and a name, it's family and fellowship," she responded.

[Ryoshun Yukara]

"I have not had a family for a... long time."

Yukara did not turn from her observation of the shrine.

"So I will have to learn anew. So many things to learn. So much to see."

A pause.

"Do you think I could visit your homeland, after this is done? You made it sound so beautiful, I should like to see it before I die."

[Nanzi Ai]

“Yes, please do; we would enjoy your company and the Crane are very welcoming. You say learn? Have you not had relationships with people? Friends? Brief acquaintances? I suppose I am curious of what your upbringing was like that these concept are so foreign,” she asked.

[Ryoshun Yukara]

"I had a normal enough childhood, I think, but it ended early." Her expression was bland, as she regarded long faded pains.

"My family was killed by a bandit gang - and I was raised by a monk after that, before I was even an adolescent. I was in his care for many years, until about 5 ago... I would say I was perhaps fifteen summers? The bandits killed him too. One tried to take me... he was the first life I had ever taken. That was when I became... what I have been. A hunter. I pursued those bandits for five years, picking them off one by one."

She gazed at the darkness, wearily. "That hunt ended just days ago - when I slew the last of them, the demon Shimizu."

Looking back to Ai, she continued, "I am not well cultured, and I have the eyes of a demon. I stumble on names and customs - and my work involved culling the mad and the monstrous. I was viewed as an omen of death - tolerated at best. Feared. Avoided. I have been unused to... acceptance."

[Nanzi Ai]

“You have my condolences on such a hard upbringing, Ryoshun-san. Hunting bandits is a far cry from culling the so-called mad and monstrous. Bandits are typically dishonorable cowards preying on the weak for easy gains… those lost to Yume-Jigoku and Corruption are completely different beasts,” she said.

“How did you go from one to the other?”

[Ryoshun Yukara]

"The bandits and their victims both began to... become... the latter."

It was a simple enough answer.

"The hill villages were never very secure - and as bandits fled more civilized lands where they were no longer free to operate safely, they preyed upon small villages like the one I grew up in. That in turn bred despair, hatred, and in time... madness. I had been trained to defend myself, and no one else was there at the time to help. I chose to do what needed doing."

Taking a slow, steadying breath, she added, "In time, I met a magistrate of the Ryoshun, and he brought me official approval to continue my work - and he became a second soul toiling against the impossible task - until I was brought here."

Yukara's grip on her weapon was the only outward sign of her upset - the anger at how much she had been unable to correct. How many lives she had failed to save.

[Nanzi Ai]

"Why are you so angry?" she asked.

[Ryoshun Yukara]

Angry?

She didn't realize that she was, but now that it was pointed out, she couldn't help but notice.

That brought a dry laugh, and she eased her grip a little. "I am angry at myself, I guess. Angry that I have fallen short - time and again, I arrived too late to stop the bandits. Arrived too late to save the people in any meaningful sense beyond offering them the mercy of returning to the wheel before their souls were damned."

Looking back at Ai, she said, softly, "I know it is hubris, but I dreamed that maybe I could finally... be strong enough to do it right. To save the people before they come to harm."

[Nanzi Ai]

“But you can’t not even the Kami can do that, and if the Gods and Fortunes can, they don’t. Right now, somewhere in the Realm someone is suffering be it simply by bandits or their neighbor or horrific through Corruption; neither of us can stop it,” she said thoughtfully.

“It does not make trying any less meaningful but you seek an impossible standard that sets you up for endless sorrow.”