2026-08-29: Rats
- Log: Rats
- Cast: Miho Ijuuin, Shiryuu Ryouhara
- Where: Aoba Fencing Hall, Aoba Ward, Sumaru City
- OOC Date: August 29, 2026
- IC Date: January 01, 2013
- Summary: Miho Ijuuin, training at the fencing hall, is visited by a most unmannerly boy, according to her admirers--but a useful ally, to her. They discuss preventive measures for further vermin incursions.
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
Aoba Hall is humbly named, but has excellent facilities. It is a moderately sized building done up in off-white stone, and does not openly advertise its Olympic clientele--but those who know, know. It isn't only Miho Ijuuin, either; a number of her teammates practice here. ...But Miho is the biggest name on the register.
She is here today practicing. It is evening, late enough on New Years' Day that Miho has already performed her familial duties. She has not been here long; she will not be here long.
"Hup--"
And the competitorss have lined up for the chance to be her practice partner.
"Next!" she calls after she scores a third touch.
"Next!" she calls, after an effortless-seeming win.
Some get closer than others, but none defeat her. And soon, Miho has taken off her mask, looking to the crowd before her as she drinks water.
"That was amazing!" one says.
"Oh, wow, Ijuuin-sama!"
"Thank you," she says calmly, and turns her eyes towards where something else is happening. Someone else...?
<Pose Tracker> Shiryuu Ryouhara has posed.
It's not particularly difficult for him to find an Olympian, nor is it particularly out of place to imagine they would be practicing in a facility custom-built for the purpose. At least, it's the sort of thing one would imagine for any other.
No, for Ijuuin, it's the itinerary. A regular bee's nest of productivity, here, there, everywhere. There are certainly one or two that the Ryouhara clan has been tempted to stick bells to.
"Ieh, that's the wrong type of sword! And are your shoes...??"
"It's fine... it's just for display."
He doesn't dignify the latter half with a remark. The boy appears at the far end of the facility, a bag on his shoulder and as opposed to a sport saber, a grey-flecked pearl-handled katana is sheathed at his hip, tucked through his belt. He wears a hooded grey haori, concealing most of his hair, and his shoes..
They *are* trainers. Adidas Y3 Kubos, specifically, a special run from Yamamoto-sensei. They do not look like court shoes -- the black and white sneakers look like they want to start a fight.
At any rate, Shiryuu adjusts the gym bag on his shoulder and politely (read: ignores) wades his way through further uncomfortable questions.
"Miho Ijuuin..."
Ah, that should be enough. Deadly, calm, cold:
"Did you get a slice of cake..."
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
No, Miho is easy to find. She's right here! And of course, she spots... the katana.
"Excuse me," Miho says to her adoring public after Shiryuu approaches. She glances down--to see his pugnacious shoes--and then up to Shiryuu's face again. She considers; they do want to starta fight. However...
"Yes," Miho confirms to Shiryuu, turning. Her fencing sabre is in one hand, her mask under the other arm.
"I did."
Of course she got some of the cake. Yua made it. Yua's cake is Miho's cake, usually.
<Pose Tracker> Shiryuu Ryouhara has posed.
There is a certain power to someone showing up and calling out the inarguable strongest fencer in the entire hall; it tends to mean most others will keep their distance.
Especially given the fact that they're both armed. This will create no end to gossip about the day a mystery fencer showed up at the hall to challenge Miho Ijuuin at the very height of the year, just when the sun and moon kissed for the first time on the horizon.
Hopefully the inevitable rumor demon that shows up will be swiftly dealt with.
As for the tall young man in the grey haori, his eyes (one pretty perceptibly sporting a slate grey edge to it) focus on her saber in hand. His own hnd moves, resting on the pearl hilt, fingertips draped over the kashira.
It's the wrong hand, theoretically.
"...Good," Shiryuu replies, calm.
He steps up to the line. Ijuuin will understand that he doesn't actually care to fight -- it's nigh forbidden, at least in this fashion. But who else would willfully step up?
Most of them are roundly beaten, today. Everyone else will keep a wide berth.
"I want to talk about jewelry thieves."
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
The inevitable rumor demon might be fun. Maybe they should encourage it.
Miho does not move to a combat stance. While it might be fun, it is indeed forbidden... and this sabre is promised only to sport, not to bloody contest. She has a different implement for that.
It has the electric scoring mechanisms and everything, this one.
Miho likewise steps up to the line, but does not move to take up her blade or re-don her mask. But this is a good way to talk without being overheard, or overlistened-to.
"I see," Miho answers. "The cake was good," as it happens. "I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did."
Her short hair shines in the fading light of a window.
"Tell me more about these jewelry thieves, then."
<Pose Tracker> Shiryuu Ryouhara has posed.
"Mmm."
With Shiryuu, it's a lot about what he doesn't say. Most of the man's intense grandstanding is a matter of misdirection, used like a brute force cudgel. The actual details of his real intentions are usually somewhere slightly to the left of what he's saying.
What he doesn't say, is that he's pleased.
The moment, the second's easing of the discerning cut of his brow will have to do.
They're on the line, face to face, swords at hand. It's almost as it was in the old days, separated by hundreds of years of innovation and war. And yet.
"...yeah."
The topic shifts, but only on that ambiguous fulcrum, only just slightly. It's still a pretense, but one with a little bit less honesty than the first.
At the very least, there *was* a cake.
"I feel like you and I have the same problem with the same big, fat, black rat thief. But he's not the only one... is he?"
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
Yes, Miho can read this subtlety. She is usually the stoic, the one who says less, and yet she falls easily into the role of speaker for Shiryuu; she is wordier than he is, certainly.
...If still in her old-fashioned sort of way.
There was, indeed, ,a cake. But this...
"That is true," Miho says, without scowling, which is how one knows she's in this matter as well; she keeps her expression level and calm, and it is not hard for her to do. ...Though most would expect the topic to make it impossible.
That particular rat...
"Unfortunately it seems even the most stringent measures do not keep that one at bay."
"...But that is not the only one, no. They spread far and wide."
<Pose Tracker> Shiryuu Ryouhara has posed.
"Aa."
Shiryuu agrees; there are a lot of rats.
The boy's chin dips in the darkness cast by his hood -- his angular features creeping into the bright light a little more. It shows his flat expression, noncommittal, the same as her own. But Shiryuu could be forgiven to treat the matter gravely -- it's not his place to do any less.
"...we're still searching for an in to 'that place.'"
He doesn't reply with much surprise, only the practical nature and difficulty. Some things are infuriatingly opaque. Even so, an open question hangs in the air; what happens if they do?
There is a cost to such things, as has been already demonstrated.
"... Even beyond what's already true between us ... it seems as if we share a challenge, you and I, for the time being."
Shiryuu raises a single index finger from the kashira of his blade, pointing up illustratively.
"....and with the rats as bold as they are... things can't be allowed to go on as they have been."
Shiryuu's fingertips appear at his right -- from the fringes of his voluminous sleeve. A hand, opening just out of sight.
"...and so, my ratcatchers tell me you've been busy."
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
Miho's white fencing gear, by contrast, offers little room for shadow on her face; she looks at all in the same light. It is grave, certainly...
"Mm." 'That place'.
"It is worth looking."
But a challenge? "We do. Your eyes see it." He points 'up'... and indeed, tehre is something that cannot be allowed.
"It is in the earth and in the heavens that I seek my answer," Miho says. The dragons, she refers to. "An energy that the 'rats' cannot contest... In time, at least. Until it comes about, we must be patient."
"...But some of these rats do not bear patience well. If you have a suggestion, of course, I'm interested."
"I am waiting, now. Waiting, and building."
"But I do not like to leave a challenge unanswered."
<Pose Tracker> Shiryuu Ryouhara has posed.
There are souls meant to stand glorious in the light.
And then, there are...
"Rats abhor shining light."
At this point, there are at least a few onlookers peripherally interested in their conversation, encoded such as it is. They are encouraged to keep their distance and stay out of earshot, when Shiryuu draws his sword with his off hand. An impressive feat of dexterity necessitating a two-part draw and a roll of the hilt into his hand, the black-finished blade of Bankasoujin distorts the crisp overhead lights as he handles it carefully.
The gleam is muted, then stifled entirely as Ryouhara wipes the surface with a cloth produced from his left sleeve, plucked by his right, Miho will notice that unless he is ambidextrous -- which he may very well be -- he is still holding his sword in his off hand, running the cleaning cloth against the spine, ostensibly to blot out oil, taking great care over the new fittings, and where he had to pinch the blade between his thumb and forefingers to draw it.
'It is worth looking.' "... We'll give you the first consideration if it arises," Ryouhara replies.
"... as would be expected."
The moment turns, as Ryouhara works idly.
"It's my intention to lay hold of affairs," he tells her -- "To make clear to all of the vermin ... that they carry far too cavalier an attitude."
Though Shiryuu says the words simply, it is by far the most he's spoken in a stretch. His attention could be mistaken to be on his sword -- but even in the muted gleam of a black blade, Miho's silhouette is reflected before his eye.
He is watching her, as his lips part.
"...I want to lend you the upper limits of my power for the time being."
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
"I would bring it down upon them."
Shiryuu draws his blade, and Miho watche hi move with it; she does not rule out the possibility that he is ambidextrous, but takes it as a the peaceful gesture it is; to openly bear steel with the killing hand would be another matter entirely.
"Expected, but no less appreciated for it."
"Hmmm. A bold intention," Miho says. "One I am... restricted, from enacting myself at this time."
However...
"...But with such a lending..." It would expand her reach.
"I accept," she says. "This is my highest priority at this time."
"Only 'her' very self is more vital."
"As for me..."
"I must continue to play defensively, for now. I do not yet see the space for a wide action... on my part."
<Pose Tracker> Shiryuu Ryouhara has posed.
'A bold intention.' "Aa." Shiryuu confirms. "Over three hundred years of service in the emperor's name... we will not be relegated to letting rats eat wherever they please."
"Jaa.." He does slowly switch hands when he reaches a point he's satisfied with his blade, lifting the weapon to slide it back into the sheath without having to touch the blade again. The fittings settle into the saya with a soft click.
She says she cannot move as she pleases for now, so easily.
"That is to be expected of a new mother."
It's the closest Shiryuu comes to wishing Miho well; it is in fact the only thing that separates the two of them. But that difference...
"Eventually.. things change." Shiryuu surmises without explaining. Eventually, perhaps even their own alliance will be tested. "But for the time being.."
It's enough to say that alone, as the boy trails off.
Shiryuu, uncharacteristically, discards his polishing cloth callously to the air -- the folded cloth flutters only briefly in the air before settling to the ground on the line that lay between them. Miho can see it now; a cloth marked with the three leaves of Ryouhara.
He turns to leave; by now, even in the short amount of time they've been speaking, he's purchased quite a wide berth from the onlookers around them.
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
"Quite."
But as expected... Miho smiles. It is not an overly-toothy thing, but something more genuine. Indeed, it is a good wish, and Miho accepts it as such. But things... do change.
Perhaps one day. But for now, "What will be will be."
He goes--and the cloth is discarded. Miho glances down at it.
Then, she watches him go. He has a wide berth from the onlookers indeed.
Miho watches him go. Then...
"Ijuuin-sama, was that man bothering you...?"
"No," Miho answers. "Bring me what he left, but do not look at it yourself. ...I am done for the day."
And when she gets it...
Of course she'll read.