Kyuden Shika

"I have great respect for Moto-sama, I would say burgeoning on admiration, so if she says I am not fit for this course of action I will take it into heavy consideration but I am not sure we know each other well enough for her to be certain of that." There was no coldness in his words, just honesty.

Mitsuki took a deep breath:

"Indeed, I might be judging you too quickly, from the only sides of you you've shown me of at the moment.

My judgment might also be clouded from the fatigue of the duels that happened just before, and the incidents peppered through them in spite of people only using wooden swords. In a spar, fear the beginner, not the master. The master know how not to wound or kill. The beginner does not.

For real though. You'll be married, or more exactly engaged, soon. And who you will end up with will close some doors for your future and open others. The path you will take depends far more on this one event than on all the words we may exchange now."

Soyokaze dropped his stance and lowered the bokken, resting the tip of it on the floor. "You are likely right, in two days everything will change." A wave of uncertainty washed over him. "But do you really think it isn't worth my time to learn how to use the things I make every day? To be able to defend myself, my home and my family? I cannot assume I will have one like you to protect me all the time."

"Sword training is definitely a worthy endeavor. Improving one's body is never lost, as the brain is but a part of the body, and indeed having a better idea of how to handle a sword will make you better at making them too.

I was worried that you would get lost in it instead of seeing it as what it is: But a part of a whole.

That we're able to have a calm conversation about this has already reassured me greatly."

She shifted to a standard training stance.

"Let's work on your guard again, this time for real. I will only go for upper strikes, all at the waist level or above, so you may first perfect your parries and deflections against those. It's unlikely will have time enough to go beyond that exercise today, but one simply cannot learn to run before they learned to walk."

He took a high guard again but was clearly preparing to dodge back, expecting another trick. "So let me ask you, is a scimitar better for parrying than a katana? i imagine it's wider blade would make it so but i also think too many samurai under utilize their sword for defense, some of the Kakita I have done armor repairs for think I'm a madman for suggesting they get hit less."

This time, Mitsuki hit where she said she would hit.

"Better yes. But it's still not a weapon made for that purpose, like a jitte can be.

If these Kakita returned with an armor damaged but no wound on them, it's that they knew their stuff right, not the opposite.

While it makes your job harder, letting you armor takes care of a hit while you counterattack with your sword is a pretty good battle strategy. Learning the locations of your body you can trust your armor to defend, so your mind can focus on the others, is actually required to reach the next level of battle prowess.

Not only a good armor makes a warrior more likely to survive, but it also makes them deadlier on the battlefield, by allowing them to use a whole new range of techniques that would have been simply too dangerous without it."

He tried to keep a firm grasp of the wooden sword, gripping it as hard as he could. "What do you mean, doesn't the armor restrict your movements? I thought that would make it harder to fight in."

"An armor that restricts your movement isn't an armor: It's a piece of shit."

Mitsuki was suddenly a bit concerned about the Asahina armorsmithing ability.

"Good armor feels like clothes. Heck, most ceremonial clothes are harder to move in than actual armor, and feel heavier because the weight is badly divided.

Sure, armor is still more uncomfortable than a silk coat, and you'll be tired at the end of a day of running around with it. But except for a few advanced acrobatics like a split, everything you can do unarmored, you can do armored. Even jumping and rolling."

Soyokaze tried to take a swing back, remembering his early training and Striking As Air....but his movements were badly telegraphed. "Are there any ways that Unicorn armor differs from the other clans? I know Hida armor can be beyond heavy and strong."

"And they still can move nicely while wearing them, so it's all good for them. They're well adjusted clothes if you will, just designed for a bigger build than you and me.

I don't think Unicorn armor are meaningfully different. Maybe a bit lighter on average, so to lighten the load on the back of the horse, but as far as I know they're also among the pieces of Unicorn that have been heavily influenced by Rokugan style of smithing.

You'll have to ask an actual Unicorn smith to learn about the devil in the details."