The Day of Thunder

[Reiko Ohta]

Sleep was taken care of, but many issues remained and many mysteries. Not to mention the sheer weight of the nightmares Ohta had been subjected to. She wondered if that had happened to everyone as she climbed into the hot water with a sigh, needing this safe warm place right now.

[Jiyo Sora]

With various daimyo flitting about seeing to tasks he was in NO way qualified for, and having slept like a baby, Sora was in a fairly good mood as he headed in to take a bath- even if he had even more on his plate now than when he'd lain down to sleep.

But he also hadn't lived this long by neglecting himself, and people tended to take you more seriously if you were clean, so here he was.

"Reiko-san. How does the day find you?"

[Reiko Ohta]

Ohta looked up and even got a small smile when she saw who it was, sitting up and politely inclining her head, "Jiyo-sama, good morning. I am well, though I was not expecting such a drastic cool off. All the more reason to seek something warm I suppose. Or do you not mind the chill so much perhaps?"

[Jiyo Sora]

"Ah, Reiko-san, I find a bit of bracing hair helps remind me I'm still alive."

He grinned.

"Besides, it makes a good hot bath all the more enjoyable."

[Reiko Ohta]

"Ah, that sort. Makes sense to me. I've met plenty of followers of Lady Matsu who think that way too. I will admit, it's not wrong certainly... What have you been up to since we last met though? Did you succeed in driving away your inner demons yesterday at the festivities?"

[Jiyo Sora]

"I don't know if smacking a scarecrow with my sword did me as much good as trying to help the locals, truth be told. But whatever the case, I slept quite well last night. I don't know that I've ever had nicer dreams."

[Reiko Ohta]

"Nicer? Hm... my own were horrid. Loved ones melting and cries of hatred. I'm almost surprised I slept as well as I did. I suppose I was just tired after not sleeping the night before. ...maybe it WAS smacking the dummy. I shot mine with an arrow and it's head came clear off and embedded into a fence post behind it. So clearly I was mad at it."

[Jiyo Sora]

"Hm. Well. I felt it trying, you know. Began by seeing my wife holding our youngest daughter and sobbing for me."

He slid into the water a bit deeper.

"But I refused to go along with that. So I had a lovely dream of my home life."

[Reiko Ohta]

"You did not bring them here with you I take it?"

Ohta slips down again, the water high as usual on her thanks to her short stature.

[Jiyo Sora]

Sora laughed.

"Bad enough that I wandered off, I think Kinyoubi would strangle me if I dragged her and our two youngest all the way across the Empire. She's a remarkably patient woman, putting up with me for all of these years, but I think I'd find her limits if I tried that..."

[Reiko Ohta]

"What, accompanying you isn't enough reward in and of itself?"

Ohta successfully held back a laugh of her own at that.

[Jiyo Sora]

"See, I tried to tell her that one time, and I got swatted with a blank scroll."

Of course, that particular bit of gentle horseplay had ended up with the two of them on the floor, and Soryu turning up nine months later, but no need to belabor the point with someone who didn't need to know.

So he simply sighed happily.

"It'll be good to get home to her."

[Reiko Ohta]

Ohta nodded slowly, leaning back and trying to look at the sky. She let out a sigh as she realized she couldn't really see it thanks to the mix of the mist and steam from the water.

"Home... yeah, I suppose it will be. Though I can't say I have anyone waiting for me per say. I will of course take the opportunity to visit my parents once I'm back, but I'd been more busy with my duties and research than anything else. I'm kind of glad to have the opportunity to travel, get some fresh air, and see the Empire. No matter how gloomy this place is, not even a decent view in the morning to feel good about."

[Jiyo Sora]

He chewed on that for a second.

Sorta had been all over the Empire, after all.

"If you haven't been out of the Spider lands, I'd recommend a visit to the Scorpion- my daughter Phi has a few Scorpion friends, and right now she's visiting the Spider, so it might be you see her before I do... maybe if you tell her I sent you she can write some letters of introduction..."

[Reiko Ohta]

"Well, I've been out a few times. Never long, or far. Accompanying people on trips. I've been to Dragon and Lion lands. And I've stopped right outside of Crab lands. But this trip here is certainly in another category entirely. I was hoping to see how the stars might be different so far away from home, but night's been even worse than the days. As far as being outside and such goes."

[Jiyo Sora]

"It was like that in the South, before we rescued Lord Hisomu."

He closed his eyes and relaxed into the water.

"So. If we're lucky, we can clear it up. Although I've found the stars don't change that much from east to west- it's north to south that you see the real major changes."

[Reiko Ohta]

"Hmmm... wonder why that is? Certainly the sky interests me greatly... and I'd even heard the stars can help tell the future, if you know what to look for. Though if they change when you move, I wonder if it depends on where you stand..."

[Jiyo Sora]

"Futures always change."

He tapped the cheekbone under his eye.

"This eyes shows me the future at times. Often so I can change it. So it would be a little odd if the stars in the Nezumi empire showed the same future they did in the Bat provinces.""

[Reiko Ohta]

"It... can do that?"

Ohta looked curiously before looking away with a slight shiver, speaking towards the sky again.

"Visions of some sort or another?"

[Jiyo Sora]

"Usually just images. Like, 'hey, idiot, there's a spear coming for your left in your immediate future, maybe stab the guy trying to stab you first.' That sort of thing. Sometimes, though..."

He shook his head.

"At the Tournament of the Kami, I could barely stand to look at any of them. Because each of them created so many possible futures. It was... dazzling. Stunning. And more than a little irritating. Also upset me in a few cases, because some, had they become Emperor... well. I wouldn't be here. I'd have left the Empire."