Kyuden Shika

"I am glad that I was able to meet you too. You have brightened my world more than I can describe," he says, returning the hug. "But I don't think I'm a fool for having fallen for you. You just don't see yourself the way I do. As I don't see myself the way you do. I think we simply see the best in each other and that's all we really need."

He brushed the tear away with his thumb and gave her a happy smile.

"Bakka..." She giggled. "I see things differently. Perhaps I know some hearts more than others." She nodded.

He set his shamisen aside and invited her to sit closer with him. "I think you know mine pretty well by now. Is there anything about it that you want to ask?"

She moved closer to the Kitsu. "I do wish to know more about you... I rarely know you yet we connected..."

"Then I will share," he says with a nod. "I will tell you all that you want and more. I can share the stories of my battles with dark spirits, I can tell you about my encounters with more pleasant ones within Shiro sano Ken Hayai, would you like to know about my adventures with students at the akodo dojo? I am your open book."

"Why choose to push papers and risk the 100 paper cuts rather than following a more traditional lion soldier?" She wondered. "Akodo Dojo?"

"It was my father's insistence, and training that led to me being a bureaucrat. That was his duty as an Otomo before marrying into the Lion. And I originally attended the school of the Sodan Senzo because of my eyes and my ability to speak with spirits. I was... misidentified as a shugenja early on. It wasn't until I started my training there that they found out I could not speak with the elemental kami, only other spirits. They then rushed me off to train with the Ikoma because of my father's tutoring," he explained.

"And Shiro sano Ken Hayai is a Kitsu castle, but it also houses the largest Akodo dojo in Lion lands so that the ancestors honored there can watch over those in training. But as a result I spent a great deal of my time with students of the Akodo. That was where I got my advanced understanding of tactics, even though I almost never have reason to use it... and prefer not to need it. But we would run around getting into trouble during off hours. Then get put on temple duties."

"I see temple duties is what we train for... I feel such peace from them. I know it is weird..." She chuckled. "My training started in Kyuden Isawa and had me traveling to Shiro Shiba and ending in the Water Dragon temple near Isawa mori. It is our life traveling from temple to temple in the Phoenix lands. My respite is visiting Dragon cousins in the summer..."

"Technically, the whole of Shiro sano Ken Hayai is like a temple. It is consecrated and built on the bones of the last Kitsu. But there are specific parts of it that are very much more like a traditional temple. And I love spending time strolling the halls, seeing the ancestors that wander there, listening to their words for their descendants." Murato looked pleased with memories of doing so.

"I wonder who you would see in the wards of out temples. I think many have ancestors spirit watching over the wounded. I think they aid us in the battle against Emma-O." The Kaito explained. "Not an easy task. Sometime one win others one lose and prayers that they go to Yomi or a quick rebirth." The priestess sighed.