The Day of Thunder

[Anjing]

Snip

"You carried your painting supplies here?" Anjing looks at him like the Crane had decided to bring a collection of particularly pointy shoes into the wilderness. "Well, I suppose if they are already with you. I shall see if there is time, but your offer is interesting, I accept."
She smiled slightly, imagining the look on his face if she asked him to paint the sea.

But then her expression darkens.
"So it is a sign of the taint? Tai had thought as much. A dark omen. It makes me wonder about what could be waiting in the village. They must be hard people to have survived such a thing...if indeed they are people, and if they did."

[Doji Hikaru]

Hikaru nodded. "I carry them everywhere." His chin tilted up. "I am aware that this may seem strange to other Clans. But as a servant of Lady Doji, it is one of my duties. I was trained by one of her students, and have even shared with her some of my works."

The fog almost seemed to settle in deeper. Hikaru looked around, his features drawn. "I cannot say for sure. But I think it may be." He looked at Anjing. "There may be a corrupting force in the village. Perhaps we were called here to destroy it?"

[Anjing]

Hikaru nodded. "I carry them everywhere." His chin tilted up. "I am aware that this may seem strange to other Clans. But as a servant of Lady Doji, it is one of my duties. I was trained by one of her students, and have even shared with her some of my works."

The fog almost seemed to settle in deeper. Hikaru looked around, his features drawn. "I cannot say for sure. But I think it may be." He looked at Anjing. "There may be a corrupting force in the village. Perhaps we were called here to destroy it?"

"I am sure the paintings have many uses." She said in a tone which didn't so much as imply skepticism but hurled it at you.

"Something to destroy in the village? Interesting, perhaps some monster or some artifact. I don't know how Shinsei would have learned of it, but perhaps a paramour of his is from here."

Glancing at his bowl and tutting. "You finish all of it now, don't waste food at times like this."
Hadn't his mother ever taught him to finish his oversized spicy food bowls?

"I had thought all this corruption nonsense would have ended when they pulled the little grumpy one out of that hole. But it seems the world's problems are not so simple."

[Doji Hikaru]

Hikaru let the skepticism pass without comment. Instead, he gave a quiet sigh, and a "Yes, Lady Anjing" when encouraged to eat more. He did so dutifully, raising the bowl to his lips. "It's very good. Very... intense spices." Hikaru coughed gently as he felt nasal passages opening, and rather more burning in his mouth than he expected.

"How does Shinsei know any of the things he knows?" By the tiny shake of Hikaru's head, it was meant as a rhetorical question.

The description made Hikaru blink; well, okay, that and a few tears that were forming in his eyes from the heat. "You mean... Lord Hisomu." Hikaru let out a breath; again, both surprise and heat. "Lady Makime also spoke about Shinsei having lovers." He tilted his head, looking curiously at Anjing. "I hope you do not take offense, Lady Anjing, when I say that it is a strange experience meeting legends." He gave a little seated bow... quickly wiping his nose while his face was partially concealed. Yes, this was definitely more spice than he was used to.

[Anjing]

Snip

"Makime is still around? How was she doing?"
Peering at Hikaru, dropping her voice.
"Did she tell the wall story? She always tells the wall story."

And really, that was all Sora's fault!

"I'm no legend, just an old woman with too much still to do. A legend would have figured it out already and then leapt the mountains with a single jump and cleared forests with a single swing."

[Doji Hikaru]

Hikaru blinked, then gave one of his tiny smiles. "She did tell the wall story, in fact." He tilted his head, regarding her. "Did it happen more or less as she'd told it?" The story as told by Makime had seemed to favor Anjing more than Sora already, actually.

Frowning, Hikaru lowered his bowl once more. It was almost entirely empty, and his face was already melting, anyway. "Perhaps. I suppose those are legendary things. But just as Lord Nanzi is a legend among the Crane, so are you among the Crab. And both among the Empire." He hesitated, frowning. "I suppose I cannot say what makes a legend a legend. It just seems to me that you are one."

[Anjing]

Snip

"It depends wholly on how she told it I think. But it was a long time ago now, it's a miracle any of us survived from that time. I should make a point to see her, she always had strange ideas about how things could be better organised. Might need that now."

She would just have to look for the straightest and most correct tent.

"You're a flatterer Hikaru. But it would be foolish for an old woman to sit here and tell you to stop." With a slight grimace "hopefully something of me and my people lives on, if only in stories. But if we don't deal with this corruption issue I suppose it won't matter either way."

Anjing turns to gaze out into the fog as her eyes narrow. "Something about this places feels very wrong, it has my hairs standing up. I don't suppose the Crane brought a wiseperson of their own?"

[Doji Hikaru]

Hikaru briefly closed his eyes, although his almost-smile was still there. "I have traveled with her for several days. She still has those ideas. And more." His expression grew more serious. "But I promise you, I am not speaking to flatter. Or, if I am, that does not make it less true. And that is good, because I feel that we will need legends."

Following her gaze as Anjing looked around, Hikaru set down his bowl, the better to let his hands find his sword if he needed it. "I did not travel here with Crane. But besides traveling here with Lady Makime, I also travelled with Togashi Satsuki-sama and Hantei Genji-sama, both children of the Kami themselves." He grimaced. "We came upon Ryoshun Nao when we were almost at the village. She is very young to be traveling with herself." A beat. "Well, herself and a pig."

[Anjing]

"Then I pray Makime's ideas and the legends will be enough."
Anjing frowns.

"Satsuki is a good girl, there is much of her father and her mother in her. But unless much has changed since my last visit she did not take up the way of the warrior. I hope you will see to her safety as much as your own. It's either that or the Ranmaru boy, and I don't think he really wants to be around women. Genji I only know by reputation, but what I have heard is good."

Raising an eyebrow.

"I don't know Nao or the pig either. But it is good you made sure to protect the child. It speaks of your character. I came with a band of the Crab's finest. Tai our wisewoman who can see through the bones of the earth, Takuma, one of our most formidable warriors, and Ayako who is young but true-hearted. Should you require aid you may call on them. There is another of the line of Hiruma about as well, his focus is on corruption to a great extent."

She puts down her empty bowl carefully and makes to take Hikaru's.
"We have not always had common cause with other Clans. But while a Clan is made of people, people are not made of their Clan. In this dark hour we will judge those we meet by their words and deeds, not by the actions of their families."

[Doji Hikaru]

Hikaru nodded. "I will see to her safety, even before my own. I swear it." There was a note of steel in Hikaru's quiet voice, and in his pale eyes. There could be no doubting the sincerity of his words. After a moment, he swallowed, sighing, the momentary flash of fervor fading. "And yes. She has much of both her father and her mother in her, in a very complimentary sort of way." He smiled, then, shaking his head. "But she is also very much herself."

Once more, Hikaru cleared his throat. His expression turned serious as Anjing listed the various members of her clan, and he nodded acknowledgement at each. "Thank you." He said. "I shall do so. And they, and you, may likewise call upon me. I, too, have learned much about the corruption these last few years." The thought made Hikaru sigh.

"Hmmm." Hikaru murmured, his hand on his bowl, struck by Anjing's words. "It is my belief that the best of the Empire has been brought here. I hope you will be able to judge them as such." His own wording made Hikaru pause again; did he or did he not count himself among that number? Sora had once said he saw no special destiny about him...

Hikaru shook his head. He held up his bowl, offering it to Anjing, but: "May I assist you with the washing, Lady Anjing?" He asked, polite as ever.

[Anjing]

"Tsssk. We shall see. But I suppose most of them seem to be good at something."
She takes the bowl with a nod.

"You included Hikaru. Hopefully in the days ahead we can add your name to those legends, that will make it easier to remember at any rate."
She stands and starts carefully dousing the small fire.

"It's been too long a day to turn down your offer. I accept. Now make yourself useful with the cooking pot."
Indeed, the Crane's most rigorous challenges lay ahead of him.

((Fade to washing? Thanks for the scene!))