[Day 5, Early Afternoon] A Slight Change of Pace (Open)

[Suzume Senseki]

Time to practice something that would actually be useful in her duties, vs. pushing stones around on a board. Yasu arrives at the dojo, performs the appropriate entering rituals, and glances around for a space before moving to the racks of practice weapons to find one she likes.

It's not like she can miss the big Otter in this space, or like she can help smiling at the sight. She pauses for a moment, hand against the rack, enjoying the chance to watch him without being noticed.

A calm, slow paced Suzume is back to the Dojo for some more training as well. After the appropriate rituals, seeing the others inside, he bows low to all of them - including the large Otter, who he remembers seeing around in the miai, but doesn't remember meeting properly. As he was busy talking to Raizo, though, he gets closer to the Kuni at the weapon rack. Instead of taking a weapon, however, he has a bokken of his own in his hands.

"Ah, Kuni-sama! Good to see you again", he says, bowing low again. He seems to notice her smile and her eyes looking directly at the large Otter, but makes no comment on that, just keeping a calm smile of his own on his face. "For some reason I didn't expect to see you here - knowing something about the Kuni, I probably should, though!"

[Kuni Yasu]

Her attention is drawn instantly to the Sparrow with a couple of quick blinks at the shift. She bows. "Same, Suzume-san...well, with the good to see you. Not surprised to find you here." She plucks a reasonable representation of a naginata from the rack. "But yes, the Kuni train to fight. We are often in places where it's a necessity."

With a glance and a nod to the open spot she'd been looking at, she asks, "I was planning to run through kata, but my head's a bit busy for solitary focus. Would you be interested in sparring a bit?"

[Susaki Tanabe]

Raizo made a dismissive gesture.

"'Honorable opponents' is just a pair of words thrown around by people who want to feel better about what we do. Your way seems better. People might even learn something from the experience."

"We can only hope!" He exclaim with a laugh "though given I have a lot of repeated use of my skills on the same people I'm not so sure."

He clapped his large hands together "Would you like a sparring partner Shiba-sama? Or exchange kata? I'm always interested in how other clans do things."

He didn't immediately notice Yasu as she entered but he heard the voices and looked at them. One might think the happy, bright Otter couldn't get any sunnier but they would be wrong. When he saw Yasu his smile broadened and his eyes gained a warm light. He saw her discussing something with another person and so he restrain both the urge to loudly greet her across the dojo and to run over and spin her around in a hug.

He instead turned back to Raizo clearly in better spirits than he had been a second ago and awaited the Phoenix's answer.

[Shiba Raizo]

"We can only hope!" He exclaim with a laugh "though given I have a lot of repeated use of my skills on the same people I'm not so sure."

He clapped his large hands together "Would you like a sparring partner Shiba-sama? Or exchange kata? I'm always interested in how other clans do things."

He didn't immediately notice Yasu as she entered but he heard the voices and looked at them. One might think the happy, bright Otter couldn't get any sunnier but they would be wrong. When he saw Yasu his smile broadened and his eyes gained a warm light. He saw her discussing something with another person and so he restrain both the urge to loudly greet her across the dojo and to run over and spin her around in a hug.

He instead turned back to Raizo clearly in better spirits than he had been a second ago and awaited the Phoenix's answer.

Good to see I'm not the only one neck-deep only five days into this thing.

"Well, I think you'd find an outright spar a trifle one-sided, Susaki-san, but we could give it a go, I suppose. I only know the two kata... Lord Shiba's Valor and Striking as Water..."

[Susaki Tanabe]

"Oooo I haven't heard of that one. As I said we can simply exchange forms and knowledge. I know a lot of pieces of a few kata but the only ones I'm well versed in are Badger Style, Striking as Earth and Lord Hida's Grip." His face had a look of eager interest, probably similar to a look of a scholar presented with a new topic of study.

[Shiba Raizo]

"All right, well... Striking as Water is probably the easiest to grasp- and one that my sensei would be less likely to hunt me down slap me silly for sharing."

He hit a stance and began demonstrating flowing movements, including knife-hand strikes.

"The idea is to flow around your opponent's defenses.- strike where they're unguarded. It works just as well with a weapon- probably better- but if you find yourself unarmed against an armored opponent, it's pretty handy..."

[Susaki Tanabe]

Tanabe nodded "Ah yeah I guess your sensei might care if you teach clan techniques to outsiders! I didn't think of that." He said as he watched Raizo move through the form. His eyes were much more analytical as he watched the Phoenix, they gain a sharpness that hadn't been there before.

"Ah I see, it's not so different than my clan mates fight. I wasn't trained by the Otter school but I have had plenty chance to watch them." He lowered into a stance and began to flow through the steps if the Otter knew anything it was to flow like water. He moved much easier than someone might guess based on his size.

"Ha! Yes I can see the importance of being able to be so adaptable on the battlefield. And armored opponents are the bane of an unarmed fighter."

[Shiba Raizo]

"Well, I mean... I kind of wish I knew some specifics techniques to take advantage of the fatigue involved in wearing armor all day long. 'Cause I don't care how tough you are, that stuff gets heavy after a while."

[Susaki Tanabe]

"Oh yeah I get that, I wear lighter armor most clans use for their Ashigaru and its heavy enough. Can't imagine how tiring those big, heavy sets of lacquered armor might be. Though I get why it's useful, really hard to punch through that stuff." Whether he had literally punched through heavy armor or it was just a turn of phrase was anyone's guess.

"So where is it you mostly serve? Or do you move around a lot in your duty?"

[Shiba Raizo]

"I'm mostly with the less-glamorous bandit-chasing detail."

He chuckled.

"No fancy armor, no parade-ground looks, just a lot of walking around the Phoenix provinces with a heavy pack chasing people who generally don't have banners. Well. Most of the time."

He paused.

"A lot of work alongside of mercenary ronin, if that tells you about how.... glamorous the duty tends to be. Until my first night at the Inn here, I hadn't slept inside of a building since my gempukku or so."