Avian Education (Day 1, Early Eve, Open)

[Isawa O-Washi]

"Did you expect we'd be just patrolling the little inner bays?" One black brow rose. "The Clans do that well enough without us, after all. No, a man of the Ninth will spend long days away from his home and, yes, the Empire. Not usually this far, mind, but far enough."

[Isawa Junpei]

"Well, not exactly, but we're the army of the Empress. I guess I just assumed that we would be ready to fight in her name. Not to mention the war with the yobanjin. I would think that the personal troops of the Empress would be kept even closer these days." He waved away the comment, "But I know next to nothing about military priorities. Clearly I'm wrong or else we wouldn't be here, you just don't hear about anything like this back on land. If I wanted to remain in the Empire, I should have joined one of the other legions I suppose." He smirked.

[Isawa O-Washi]

"Exactly so, and that's what most do." O-washi looked at his kinsmen earnestly even as he raised up one great hand in a signal to his eagle, who had finally finished his meal and looked to be thinking of taking a nap if he wasn't called soon. "I expect fully a quarter of you recruits to request transfers when we get back. If you decide to be one of them, I have a few friends in the First still that I could put in a good word with for you, or you could try for the Fifth...being a tensai, they'd no doubt welcome you with open arms."

Mighty Sensuifu, seeing his friend's wave, let out a call and, with a great flapping of massive wings, made the journey from the foremast to the main, peering down upon both men with bright golden eyes from the apex, easily within touching range. Tiny Sage, still distracted by the dies of O-washi's hakama, didn't seem to notice him...this, however, wasn't at all mutual, for it's movements made the huge bird's head tilt this way in that in clear curiosity. Mindful of the attention and having no wish for his lap to be the target of swooping, O-washi made soothing noises even as he snaked one hand to his ofuda, the other carefully warding the little ball of fur.

[Isawa Junpei]

Watching the graceful approach, Junpei decided to give the raptor a wide birth, "If you think it's the best time I can call up the kaze-kami to speak with Sensuifu. It will take some time, however, to importune the spirits."

[Isawa O-Washi]

The big man gave his eagle an assessing glance, judging his mood by virtue of familiarity. "He seems in a good enough mood...he hasn't started hollering or posturing at you, after all. It'd be a help, actually, because then I could talk to Sage here while you explained to Sensuifu."

The eagle, perhaps guessing he was being spoken to, bobbed a few times and made what was, for him, a soft, gentle noise.

This, at last, made the kitten look up around O-washi's fingers. If instinct told cats to hunt birds, this one's were either not yet developed or a bird the size of a ten-year old child was too big to register as such.

[Isawa Junpei]

"Alright," hands folded into a well practiced mudra, no scroll needed to do what felt completely natural to the tensai. Opening himself up to the kami, he began speaking in a melodic chant, gently asking the kami for their assistance. Happily coming to the tensai's call they whirled around him, his draping sleeves and billowing tunic growing even more verbose in their waving. The vaguest hint of voices seemed to echo around him, filling Junpei's ears with timeless incantations. Trying his best to commit the rote to memory, he mimicked the gestures as best he could, but the garbled voices and his own limits of study in spellcraft made him fumble with the words.

Biting his cheek to stop a frown from forming, the tensai simply took in a deep breath and tried again. Once again the caprecious spirits came easily to his call and for several more minutes they spoke in elated voices. A smile slowly spread across Junpei's face, listening to the chatter of the wind. While he communed he seemed lost in his own little world, wrapped in the musings of the breeze.

(Importune Rolls; Will finish importuning in next post)

[Isawa O-Washi]

His fellow tensai ignored him, too busy focusing on his own prayer to be concerned with those of another. For all his jovial nature, the kami of Air loved him least of all the elements, barring of course Void which he could sense but not touch. His brow's furrowed slightly as he cajoled them, certain that the only reason they came at all was the sheer cuteness of little Sage who would also benefit from his efforts.

Triumphant in the end, however, he smiled. Then, quietly, he began the task of explaining to the little kitten just what this huge creature was and why he should be polite, also telling his brother to be ,too.

[Isawa Junpei]

It certainly wasn't by any lack of will on the kami's part that Junpei was having difficulty committing the rote to memory, but at last, after several long minutes, he managed to perfect the prayer, echoing it into the air, drawing the kami to him to link Sensuifu with himself so that the two would better work in tandem for the exercise. Smiling at an incantation successfully completed, Junpei offered his introduction to the eagle before turning back to his superior, "So, Isawa-gunso, what exactly should I tell him you're doing? Honestly I'm not exactly sure myself."

[Isawa O-Washi]

The eagle, while surprised by a new voice it could understand, was quite sociable for one of a breed with such a fierce reputation. So busy was it in it's greetings and questions, largely about how it was that Junpei flew with no wings and no feathers, that it was hard to make up the words of his master.

"I'm hoping to convince him this little one and his brother aren't food. I'm afraid for them when they finally start exploring the deck....Sensuifu is more than happy to feast upon the squirrels of our homelands, or so it was when last we were there, and kittens and squirrels are not so very different to a bird's eyes."

[Isawa Junpei]

Trying to listen to two conversations as once, Junpei eventually had to just decide on one, and so listened to the gunso. Turning back to Sensuifu, however, he tried his hand as explaining his flight as simply as possible, which amounted more to a 'I just can' kind of answer, which he was sure was about as much as the bird would be able to comprehend. After that, though, he moved on and in no uncertain terms explain 'kitten,' pointing at the small furball 'is not food.'

It seemed a simple enough concept to grasp.

[Isawa O-Washi]

Sensuifu, alas, didn't seem to agree. He felt that the creature was a small snack, true, but it was clearly simple to catch and thus it was his right to eat it, should he be hungry and the creature so foolish as to be caught.

O-washi, meanwhile, was trying to explain to the kitten that it should hide from the large bird. It didn't sound as though he was having much look with his task, either.

[Isawa Junpei]

Speaking through the kami, Junpei tried a different tact, perhaps appealing to the birds sense of loyalty. Maybe invoking the name of O-Washi would get some kind of agreement from Sensuifu. And so, Junpei tried his best to convey a sense of 'Master O-Washi does not want you to hunt the kitten.' For a second the young tensai contemplated the absurdity of manipulating a bird, but, alas, he was a shugenja and if speaking to the wind or rock or trees was not absurd to the mundane people of the empire then this was nowhere near notable.

[Isawa O-Washi]

The notion of 'master' utterly baffled the bird. It got distracted from the task at hand to lecture Junpei about how the huge man was his brother, starting in on a long tale about the capture of a truly massive fish that was, in bird-terms, a massive triumph worthy of great glory to be sung of for generations.

[Isawa Junpei]

The tensai waited out the lengthy tale, offering a nod at, what seemed to him, proper intervals. Whether or not the bird understood these as attempts to appear polite and attentive or not was likely a matter of debate for someone other than himself. Instead, at the finish of the epic, he quickly amended his intentions, attempting to keep the same message 'brother O-Washi would like if you didn't hunt kittens.'

[Isawa O-Washi]

The bird considered this for a time before asking if perhaps his brother was planning to eat them himself...he would not rob his brother, after all, for O-washi was a truly terrible hunter and likely to starve if he started to steal from him those few things he had managed to catch.

[Isawa Junpei]

Junpei considered the idea for a few moments, but in the end concluded that Sensuifu might end up dive-bombing the kittens later if he saw, assuming they'd escaped the, apparently, clumsy grasp of his 'brother'. It went against Junpei's instinct to lie, but in all honesty, sometimes bending the truth was best. So, appealing to the bird's sense of vanity, whatever it might be, he tried a new approach, 'Brother O-Washi thinks they are unworthy prey for you. They are too easy to catch for a skilled hunter and would only make you lazy hunting them.'

For all the younger Isawa knew, it was true. He would have to confer with O-Washi later to confirm.

[Isawa O-Washi]

Such an appeal was a wise choice, it seemed, because the great eagle puffed out his proud chest and made a few pleased remarks about how he was the finest hunter of all the hunting birds to which his brother had introduced him. No doubt that such tiny morsels were, as a matter of fact, unworthy. Better he stick to the ship-dancing fish which were smart enough to fear him then the small thing that didn't even seem to realize it was in the presence of a master hunter.

[Isawa Junpei]

Junpei might have offered a word or two to his superior, but such would break the attention of the kami, and so, just in case he needed to offer any more words to the bird, he glanced over at O-Washi and give him a smile and a nod, trying his best to offer affirmation that he was, at the very least, getting through to the feathery hunter.

[Isawa O-Washi]

It was good that Junpei'd succeeded because O-washi, by his grimace, had not. The kitten, which had been staring at him with wide, slightly-vacant eyes for some time had evidently decided his words were uninteresting. Instead of talking, it had curled back up in the pouch he'd carried it up in and was now asleep, if the snoring was to be believed.

[Isawa Junpei]

A wry smirk spread across his face, and whether they were finished or not, Junpei spoke, "Perhaps when they're older."