(D2, LM) Wrath of Heavens (Open)

[Seppun Yuzu]

Waiting a beat to make sure that she wasn't interrupting the two when they were about to begin again, and noticing the Seppun eyeing her, she looked down slightly sheepishly, "Nekoma Jae, sorry," she says, perhaps a bit awkward given the circumstances and uncertainty of the moment but well meaning. She takes the opportunity then to pay respects to the dojo. "Just didn't want to interrupt." she says softly. She takes the opportunity to also take off her hat; a dojo was no place for hats, after all.

"Nekoma..." The boy tilts his head and raises an eyebrow at the name. Specially the chosen part. "It was no interruption. I am honored to meet you. Shosuro-san and myself were debating which should be our next training moves. He suggested a different approach and I am still skeptical of its benefits. Care to join in and put your thoughts?"

[Nekoma Jae]

Jae bows in return to Hikimasu. At his words, her eyes glanced at Yuzu, then back. The young man was a governor or a district, trying to figure out how to act around Imperials seemed daunting enough. She also didn't want to end up offending the scorpion by giving advice on the situation when he was clearly the actual warrior of the two of them.

"I'd be happy to try." Jae responds earnestly, taking a few steps forward. "Well, I'm not a bushi, but... with anything, music, plays, writing, you don't want it to be the same the whole time or predictable; being comfortable with multiple approaches and changing between them means your opponent will have to try to keep up, right? It'll be harder to figure out what you're doing and respond to it. I... don't know if I'm explaining this well." she says softly.

[Shosuro Hikimasu]

"It's how we grow in our field", he reiterated from before. "Focusing on one thing you eventually note you need understanding beyond it to become better."

He nodded to the Nekoma, but more in her general direction. This miai was full of pitfalls in the shape or beautiful women.

[Seppun Yuzu]

"Alright." He says and takes a step back, "Demonstrate it to me, onegaishimasu."

[Shosuro Hikimasu]

"Very well then", he said, surprisingly with some theatrics he hadn't intended.

After a moment he got a hold of himself and took his stance again. He was relaxed, open, knees bent and ready. He even bounced back and forth slightly on them, as if perhaps he was ready to dance. His hands held the bokken loosely,

When he struck, it was from a position off balance, and it was shoddy, lacked common scorpion deadly grace and would be easily defended against.

As he exhaled however, he seemed even more relaxed than he had been before.

"What I'm trying to show is that practice is where you should make mistakes, to learn. Training isn't a competition that requires complete immersion, sometimes you need to fail and see where it takes you." And he really did seem a bit less on edge than before.

Showing off Water Style for relaxation. School tech. | TN: 2 | Success: 0 / Opportunity: 2 / Strife: 0

that's -1 more strife. down to 2 again.

[Nekoma Jae]

Jae looks between the two of them once more and moves to the side once it seems that they're going to begin again, opting to sit down for the moment and watching, noting details of what they were doing and what they seemed comfortable with as Hikimasu took more of a moving, flowing approach to combat. She pondered how she would respond to this sort of approach.

[Seppun Yuzu]

The boy grunts inwardly and tries to loosen up some tight muscles into a fluid stance, and...

He actually makes it happen with a sigh of plenitude.

--
Trying the uncomfortable ways of the water stance for a moment + tactics | TN: 2 | Success: 1 / Opportunity: 0 / Strife: 0

It was TN 1, not 2. So, it is a success
Stance: Water
Initiative: Focus 3 + Speed of Heaven 1 = 4
Remove 2 strife

[Shosuro Hikimasu]

"Working a flourish into your routine might be fairly beneficial", Hikimasu observed. "Some people call it wasted movement, but others find it natural to move such a way." He bowed to Yuzu. "Do with it what you will."

[Seppun Yuzu]

Seeing wisdom in the exercise, he bows thankfully to Hikimasu.

[Shosuro Hikimasu]

Hikimasu accepted the thanks. And was especially happy to have learned something new that day himself.

OOC
The water stance rolls don't remove strife because they weren't rolls called for by the GM, unfortunately. Though I will be engaging in my passion this slot to lose some strife, since what happened here still fits that frame.

I'll still be at 2, as losing 3 here, but i gain 1 later in the afternoon.