[D6, EA, expecting] What's a little rain?

[Matsu Ishioka]

Ishioka didn't love the rain, especially after several days in a row. But a big, athletic man like him did like the freedom to stretch his legs, get big lungfuls of fresh air, and not feel like a lot of people were piled up around him. Today, he was taking that walk in the woods, weather be damned.

He was, of course, still a very responsible samurai, so he'd brought the large umbrella he'd acquired. These old trees seemed to offer a nice combination of space enough to move without constant threat of tripping or slipping, and decent cover from the rain, but it was still a wet place with somewhat squishy ground beneath him. He seemed Cairo's about folding up the umbrella and just featuring the tree cover to be enough.

[Agasha Inoshishi]

Inoshishi, on the other hand, seemed to enjoy the rain quite a lot, even if she wasn’t a fan of the heat. Her small basket was covered in wet but fresh mushrooms. She walks contentedly beside the large Matsu, skipping every third step to keep up, uncharacteristically silent.

Of course, now that they’re well away from the town, she is finding it harder and harder to keep the quiet.

“Ishioka-san…I missed you yesterday, but the absence makes me enjoy this more. Of course, I would enjoy it even more if I knew what you were trying to tell me the other day…”

Inoshishi needling over a story that wasn’t finished? Never! Her playful smile says she’s prepared to let Ishioka keep his silence on the subject, but unwilling to let him forget. Not that he would.

[Matsu Ishioka]

The Lion, who had perhaps been lost in his thoughts, hears Inoshishi's request and nods.

"Ag--Ino--," he has to stop himself immediately as the part of him that just wants to tell the story wars with the part that wants to tell it in the kindest way he can think of. Making a face at himself in frustration, Ishioka looks at the Dragon.

"Inoshishi-san, it is a story that I need to tell you. A, um... A hard one to tell," he says, a little strain already creeping into his voice. "But I need to tell it, and... I will need you to be patient with me until I can finish, or I am not sure I will be able to finish. Perhaps we should sit on those large tree roots there, as I tell it?"

[Agasha Inoshishi]

Inoshishi nods, smiling serendipitously.

"You have yet to tell me a story, so you have yet to hear me truly listen. Are you certain you can handle that much scrutiny? After all, even the bravest of Lions should hesitate before entering the Dragon's lair."

She catches the Lion's hand for a moment, squeezing to take any sting away. But there is still a rather stark warning. She will hear more than the Matsu means, should she put on her professional On and listen intently. Of course, she's not certain she can hear a story and not put on her professional On.

She sits, almost with the dignity of a magistrate in a courtroom, although she appears completely unaware of the difference between her movements and the usual playful banter she has with the Lion. Stories are special, indeed. As she looks up, there's a moment of stillness, and Ishioka now has Inoshishi's full attention. There's a brief flicker of fire in her eyes, the kind that could flare to life with any untruth. But beyond that, there's compassion that says Ishioka can say as he pleases and she will understand, whatever it is that is said.

[Matsu Ishioka]

Ishioka sits on another root gnarled up at an angle to Inoshishi, a bit like he's sitting at a witness stand in that metaphorical courtroom. He takes a couple of deep breaths, really so deep in his own mind right now that he doesn't fully notice the intensity of r the compassion in her eyes. In a way, he is the man going to face demons inside his own mind.

With one final, heavy breath, he slowly begins to speak. It's a factual retelling, Ishioka having set aside the idea he could make this better than simply baring the truth.

"Ahem. Back in the fall, my younger sister, Matsu Hachiko, came to visit me at Kyuden Hida. She he was not long past a very strong performance at her gempukku and was the talk of our family. A prodigy like her should have gone to the Topaz Championship, but, well, Matsu family politics. We had a complicated relationship," he says with a strain in his voice, "but I loved her like my whole family did." There's a heavy exhale.

"One night during her visit, I was supposed to meet her after my work day ended at a popular restaurant. When I..." The Lion has to pause as his face starts to look different. "When I got there, I found her in the street, katana in hand, with a Dragon samurai-ko on one knee before her. The Dragon was bleeding horribly from..." He pauses, in that place he always hesitates, and reminds himself why he's here. "The, ah, Dragon samurai-ko..." Ishioka has to look down and swallow hard. "Hachiko had taken her arm," he finally says, pained more by that part of the memory than might be expected. "Um... Whatever the, ah, cause had been, clearly Hachiko had won the duel. She said it was over and lowered her sword."

Ishioka draws in a long, slow breath. "I was concerned, of course -- fighting in the streets is no way to behave -- but, then..." The Lion's breath catches, and he has to pause for several moments. "Then," he says, forcing himself to continue, "I saw the Dragon raise her katana and cut Hachiko down. Right--" he gestures vaguely out in front of him, showing he'd been standing about as closeas he was soothing with Inoshishi right now. "So close," he says softly, voice straining.

"She, um... That was my favorite sister," he says, voice very uneven now. "My parents' pride and joy. And she was gone, just like that. Right..." His hand weakly waves to that fleeting distance again, and then he sits, staring at the ground, almost like he can see something, or someone, right there in that small space in front of them. His eyes look somewhat haunted, shimmering around the edges like they'd caught raindrops somehow, and rather than sitting still as stone, his body shakes a little as he takes ragged breaths.

[Agasha Inoshishi]

For once, Inoshishi's inner voices fall quiet, letting her absorb whatever Ishioka plans to say. She's caught the edges of the story, of course. It's impossible to have the much weight on your soul and not tell everyone around you that something happened, if only they have the ears to listen. And while it's Inoshishi's mouth that most remember, it's her ears that are always going.

She continues sitting as Ishioka's body shakes, concern evident in her dark eyes. She considers going to him, but discards that in a moment, some nagging thought keeping her focused on the story he had told. The incomplete story he had told. She felt all too well where he might be going. She would change his mind though. She had to. And besides, he wouldn't thank her for helping him right now. He would either get through this or...or he would get through this. One way or another. He would.

But her mind goes back, over and over, to the story, running it over her brain like water over a fall, wearing it down and reducing the mountain, one stone at a time, to nothing, even as some other part of her screams to do something, anything, to stop the inevitable conclusion (1 strife, Truth Burns Through Lies analysis).

Picking at a wound, Fire/Medicine, Assess story, Truth Burns Through Lies, Void Point | TN: 2 | Success: 3 / Opportunity: 2 / Strife: 1


When the answers come, they roar like the whitewater under the fall, angry and everywhere, not to be ignored. She remembers being under such falls, when her mouth wouldn't stop moving, and still her ears listened to the angry water kami slamming into the very stone until it too cracked. She surrendered to the waves. She's never regretted that decision. Here's hoping she wouldn't shortly.

In a voice far weaker than any she normally uses, she speaks gently. Clearly, she is holding back from the wave of answers striking in her head, not wanting to seem so cruel as to immediately start poking holes.

"That sounds...truly awful, Ishioka-san. I am sorry you had to witness that. No one should...see such a thing." She looks at her hands, dreading what comes next. "But the story isn't finished, is it, Ishioka-san? Please continue."

[Matsu Ishioka]

The Lion looks up, face pained but covered with confusion.

"Inoshishi-san? I don't... I don't understand." His drawn face is searching for some sign of what she means.

"I... As Hachiko fell, I, I caught her..." He starts to talk faster, pulling what details he can remember that he hadn't already shared. "She... I couldn't..." There's a rather frantic breath. "Thethethe, the magistrates, they came for the Dragon..." Ishioka seems to be barely holding things together, not understanding what had led the Agasha to doubt him when he was so clear and direct.

[Agasha Inoshishi]

Seeing the pain she caused by being wrapped in her own head and her own stories, Inoshishi shakes herself, casting off the idea of future pain and once again taking the reins of her destiny firmly in hand. She breathes deep, turning back to face the Matsu fully. Her face is pained, but not for herself, for him.

"I...Ishioka-san, I knew there was something wrong. I felt the edges of it, whenever you looked at me. But it wasn't me. Not me at all. And now...I'm sorry, Ishioka-san, I..." She half slumps, half dives forward, her heart breaking at the agony she caused by not being who she is. On her knees in front of the Stone Matsu, she looks like a child as she places her hands on his knees. "I am so sorry, Ishioka-san. That should never have happened, never in front of you, you who..." She looks up at him, trembling.

"What you must think of me. My brave Ishioka-san, seeing me in these colors. And yet you still...let me speak to you. To touch close to your heart. When every time you've seen me, it must have...torn at you."

She looks down, drawing a deep breath and holding it for a moment.

"How can I help you, Ishioka-san? I...I will do whatever you say. Just, please, please don't send me from your heart."

Her hands slide from the Matsu's knees and she leans forward, touching her forehead to the tops of his feet, shaking, surrendering, but doing what she must.

[Matsu Ishioka]

The Lion doesn't understand, still, and this is entirely outside the possibilities he had predicted. His head is swimming as he frantically tries to organize thoughts, to say coherent things... And while his mind is mostly lost in trying to make a plan, there's a simple, core part of him doing what he knows he needs to do, whether it's logical or planned or expected or whatever.

The quiet, unrepressed part of Matsu Ishioka wordlessly lifts Inoshishi from the ground and helps the scared woman to sit on his knee, one large hand placed gently on her back just to make sure she doesn't topple if she faints. His other hand wipes his face, a small thing to help bring mind and spirit back together. It still takes some moments, but Ishioka's mind starts to begin functioning again, quietly asking both and neither of them, "What... What must you have thought I was going to say..."

[Agasha Inoshishi]

Inoshishi doesn’t resist as she’s lifted on to Ishioka’s knee. Honestly, there’s nowhere else she’d rather be, and she slumps towards him, her head on his chest near the should and her hands across his torso.

She looks up, staring into those warm, dark eyes. In a small but strong voice, she responds to the question, even if it wasn’t precisely aimed at her.

“What I thought was that you were going to say be with me in any real way. That the thought of loving someone in this hateful color,” she plucks her kimono, “was too much. At least, that’s what I thought as your story finished.”

She looks up, earnestness etched on her face, making the next ridiculous statement sincere and not lewd. Although the choice of honorific…maybe that’s lewd. Regardless, her voice is clear and devoid of any sort of provoking sensuality. In her mind, this is just fact.

“If you don’t want to see this color, my lord, you have but to take it and I will never wear it again.”

She shrinks slightly, clearly making it easy to remove the kimono if the Matsu so desires.