Kyuden Shika

(expecting)

As the audience and participants drifted away, clearing the paraphernalia and judges' seats, Yasu remains behind, stretching a bit. She's already here, so what better time to get in some further practice.

Murato hung out as well, hoping to get a full workout in. He nodded to Yasu, moving to join her in stretching. "Good morning," he greets with a smile. "Same idea, eh?"

Tanabe had no where to be after the event had ended and so he had hung back with Yasu as well. He gave Murato a wide smile "Murato-san! You did pretty well out there today!"

"Well, I've been practicing with Taiko-san in addition to our workouts. So I did better than expected," he says with a smirk. "He insisted that I start training in the Lion forms after discussing sumai with you."

"I hadn't known Kaito-san was as skilled as she proved to be either." Yasu says with a smile that remains pleasant, but is still deciding quite how it feels about all this.

"Does Kitsu Taiko-san..." Yasu hunts for words. "How does one train with a spirit?" In her, very limited, experience of ancestral spirits...which is to say written accounts only...ancestral spirits were very insubstantial.

"With how strongly connected we are, after years together, we've gained some ability to physically interact," Murato says with a shrug. "The spirit can... shift in strange ways. Just the other day he fully flipped me during training. Though he doesn't seem capable of doing so with others as far as I've seen. Perhaps it's because I was the one that found his bones, or perhaps it's because I carry his sword. But there is a very tangible connection, even if he is in a generally intangible state."

The desire to *study* what's going on there is incredibly strong. And would be incredibly rude. But... "Would be interesting to see if that level of connection remains when the sword is elsewhere. Or...is he tied more to the sword than to you and wouldn't be around then?"

"Well it seems that your ancestor is steering you into the right direction!" he announced with a hearty smile. He knew Yasu well enough to know when something was slightly off but he did not know what it was.

"Perhaps you will return to Lion lands and the Lion sensei will see you and decide you're better suited for the battlefield than the office." he joked lightly

on the matters of spiritual connections and properties he had little knowledge and deferred to the others to speak on such topics.

"Well, back home I didn't carry it with me constantly, storing it in my family home dojo while I was fulfilling my duty at the castle, which had round two miles of separation. And it didn't stop him from backhanding me for doing dumb things," he says with a smirk. "I think the connection is likely between us and the sword just potentially the catalyst that made it happen," he explained, in as much as he knew how.

Looking to Tanabe, "You tease, but I wouldn't argue with it if I got the chance, honestly. I've spent more time on studying battlefield tactics more than anything else other than the fortunes and ancestors. It's not an uncomfortable thought for me." He smiled at that.

Yasu nods, "that would fit with such a powerful connection. Has it grown over time?" It's a bit concerning if the spirit has grown stronger. "I suppose he'd be pleased if you moved to the battlefield."

Given the recent event, she settles quietly into the beginning of one of the kata she's been learning these past few days. There's a confidence to the movements that hadn't been there before testing them as they had, though her eyes flick constantly to Tanabe--whether for signs of his thoughts on her practice or to find hints in his own form, when he begins, would be hard to say.