[Day 7, Late Morning] And For My Next Trick(Open)

[Shiba Raizo]

"I'm beginning to think they used their research to select tasks I have no training or aptitude for. Or maybe they're picking on someone else and my areas of ineptitude just coincide."

[Moto Mitsuki]

"Oh come on. Though I'm more of a shogi person, and this is in no way a sure test, go is classically used to get a first idea of a commander's abilities to analyze a battlefield and adapt to it. All officers, even low-rank ones, are expected to have some knowledge of it.

And archery? The blade, the bow and the spear are the three weapons any bushi has at least basic knowledge of even if they may have preferences and specialties."

[Shiba Raizo]

"Rocks on a board don't need to be fed. They don't get homesick. Their courage doesn't fail them. Forgive me, then, if I find Go just as pointless as a courtier's gossip. As for archery? I hadn't held a bow since well before my gempukku. Thus, your... certainty in these matters is... unsupported."

[Moto Mitsuki]

"On go, I can 100% support that argument. My ancestor Moto Sarangerel thought exactly the same, and she was as terrible as chess as great at actual war.

But skipping bow day? Really Shiba-sama? Do you always wait for the Yobanjin to be at spear range before counterattacking? Or always fight with a company of professional archers by your side so you don't have to pick a yumi yourself? In almost any open ground skirmish, the bow rules over the battlefield, and disregarding it seems the opposite of wise.

I mean, even your peaceful monks are properly archery-trained."

[Shiba Raizo]

"Since you ask? Yeah. I just about always deploy alongside archers, unless it's..."

He made a seesaw motion with his hand.

"More subtle than an open scrap. But in those cases, nobody much gets to use a bow. In the normal run of things, I'm either with the ronin mercenaries- which generally means out front to get killed before anyone more important does- or I'm leading a group of spearmen."

[Moto Mitsuki]

The Kaito didn't ride, the Shiba didn't shoot... Mitsuki was starting to wonder if there was enough oxygen for brains to function properly high up in the mountains of the Phoenix.

"Not sure I understand the logic there. An archer in a tree can dispatch with ease a few spearsmen at its base. Heck, the only way to get rid of snipers is with your own archers. Or slingers, or javelin throwers, or whatever, but someone that can return fire. Don't the Yobanjin have bows or something?"

[Shiba Raizo]

"Oh, all sorts of bows. And our archers respond in kind. My guys are generally screening them from hostile infantry. Or cavalry."

He shrugged.

"I'm strong enough to draw just about any bow, but for the same reason... they like having me where push comes to shove, so to speak."

He paused.

"Also, a bow is a damn near useless thing to have on you heading into a cave after bandits, so..."

[Moto Mitsuki]

"Oh, if you know of all exits to that cave, one soldier with a bow waiting before each is of exquisite efficiency."

But I've got the point that you're going to defend the undefendable until the Fortunes strike us.

"So, what's your weapon of choice then? Good old katana?"

[Shiba Raizo]

Ah, the serene certainty of someone that the way they learned how to do things is the only way. Do the Unicorn even have specialized units, or does everyone just try to do everything all the same? Maybe the air's so thin up on those horses of theirs they forget that the point of an army is having people for things?

"If you know all of the exits to a cave, you'll often find that your single archer can't possibly see them all at the same time."

He smiled blandly.

"And if you have that information, then presumably you've already had a look inside to figure that out. As for my weapon of choice? Staying as far away from an actual fight as possible. But when I screw up and find myself in a scrap, I tend to favor the naginata. Makes use of my strengths, has enough reach to actually do some good in a scrap, and lets me fight in formation with my men when I have to without demanding too much space. It's also garbage in a close quarters fight like my cave scrap, of course, so I keep my hand in with swords and knives- and unarmed combat, because you can't count on your enemy to obligingly attack you when you have a weapon to hand."

[Moto Mitsuki]

"I said 'one for each' not 'one for all'. But that cave example is just a dead end for our reasoning, as we can just add up new pieces of information each time to counter the other argument. What is there too many exits? What if there's a passage that requires to crawl through it? What if the bandits have taken the princess and we only have until the new moon to save her, and it's in four hours?

Imaginary battles between children never have a clear winner, and I don't think ours will either. Even if we disagree, the fact we both lived to this day with all our body parts at their original places seems to indicate there is a logic to our ways, at least in their respective contexts."

The olive branch hadn't been offered with the uttermost subtlety, but it was there.

"A warrior needs to have more than one string to one's bow if they hope to live long. I myself know of a few knife tricks I used once a blue moon, but that saved my life on these blue moons.

In which style of hand-to-hand combat are you trained out of curiosity? Because I guess it's not Moto wrestling."