A lone shape leaned to the rail, holding a queer tubular object on his right eye, squeezing the other one shut as he gazed out to the sea. For an occasional observer, the bare-chested, slim man made a rather pitiful figure when compared to the muscular, stout bushi of the other Clans. He seemed out of place.

Carefully turning his head side to side, the man moved the alien cylinder as he turned, as if he was trying to see what lied at the bottom of the peculiar item.

She wasn't exactly stealthy, but small feet and an ingrained familiarity with the roll of the ship brings the small Shiba fairly close to the Unicorn before a slight scuff of her foot against the wood announces her presence. She bobs her head slightly, and sort of shuffles to a wordless stop.

Alerted by her presence, the man lowered the tube he had been examining, and turned to face the miniature girl.

Holding the item in his hands, he gave her a quick bow, his unbound hair falling on his eyes as he did so. "Good evening, Shiba-san. I hope your day has been well." the man greeted her with a kind, thin smile.

Every single one. Every time. Without fail...

About to glue her gaze to the floor to keep it off the smile that the Unicorn all seemed to constantly possess, she gets distracted by the object in his hands. Careful observation and study of it begins.

"H-h-hai, Iuchi-sama."

Erm... shy one, isn't she..

He was not too worried about her eyes, having see worse before, and more importantly, as his instincts told him that the girl before him was a good person. Then again, his instincts had said the same about that one Tsuruchi girl who had turned out to be less than a pleasant acquittance.

Fingering the cylinder with his fingers, he regarded her curiously, trying to keep his smile on his face. It always paid to be kind and polite, or so he had been told by the people smarter than him.

"How has the journey been thus far for you?"

"B-better than for some," she replies cautiously. She watches how he handles it, and tries to guess at it's weight. Quickly, she comes to the conclusion that it must be mostly hollow, else it would be handled as if it were much heavier than it currently seemed.

Remembering why she came above board, she glances around the deck, but fails to find what she was looking for. "Captain?"

"Captain?" He asked her, wondering what she meant. "You came to see the captain?" An eyebrow is risen, as the man carefully tries to guess what the girl meant, the smile disappearing from his face.

In his hands, the strange cylinder stops, his fingers holding the item in place, for now.

The lack of a smile elicits a small sigh of relief. "Ah... Hai. But... I'm s-sure he's busy." She shrugs.

"Erm... nice view?" Her sleeves were tied back, and one small tanned arm gestures towards the horizon he was previously looking at. She really wanted to ask what the thing was in his hands, but part of her wanted to figure it out on her own, too.

Also, on the foredeck, most likely... The Iuchi sighed mentally.

"He probably is." the man nodded. "Did you want to ask something from him? Or?" The mysterious tube remained in his hands, gleaming as the rays of the setting sun played on its coppery surface.

"Yes, very nice. Sunsets on the sea are always beautiful." he nodded in agreement, smiling thinly again. "The sea is really calm, even further away."

"Oh? I hadn't r-really asked the kami ab-about that yet. Didn't s-seem to be a need..." She glances down at the calm waters around the boat. They were water kami... she liked listening to their soft sighs, but for the most part, they didn't seem to mind one way or another most of what you asked, as long as you were polite...

"One does not need to talk to the kami to ascertain that." he chuckled faintly. "Ever seen one of these?" the man continued, carefully moving the oblong object he was holding closer to her face, giving her a permission to touch it with a nod.

Shaking her head, she hesitantly reaches out to the strange object using both hands. Tiny fingers gingerly lift it out of his hands, excruciatingly careful not to touch him in the process, even despite the movement of the ship.

It was heavy and smooth, smelling faintly of metal, oil, and well-worn wood. Turning it about in her hands, she brings it more closely to her face, every inch of it examined.

As the woman grasped the object, the shugenja let it willingly go, nodding again.

"Try looking through it." he suggested kindly as she fingered the item. "You should look in from the slimmer end of the tube." he added, hoping she would be curious enough to do as he told her.

Nozomi does as instructed and a soft gasp escapes her lips,"Sugoi desu ne!"*

She pulls it away quickly, turns it about as she examines it again for a moment, and then puts it back up to her eye. Not sensing any sort of kami attached to the object, she mumurs,"Y-you m-must be v-very g-good friends with a ta-talented K-Kaiu..."


((*"That's amazing!"))

"Hmm, actually I got this from a drunken Mantis." he explained. "He told me that he had been gifted with it by a sailor, after they had helped them on the seas." The tone in which the latter sentence was spoke suggested that the man doubted that the Mantis had not been entirely honest.

"I call it seefar occulum, as it allows you to see objects far away, as they were close to you. Very convenient at the sea."

Not Kaiu made.... From a Mantis...

"I d-didn't know M-Mantis made... Then ag-again, y-you said from a s-sailo..." A sudden suspicion hits her. Very decidedly, she removes the object from her eye and holds it back out to the Unicorn. Her demeanor goes from shyly curious to a bit reserved.

"I s-see."

Taking the object back, the man tucked it to his makeshift rope belt. "Yes, it likely originated from beyond the Empire, Shiba-san. Does that thought disturb you?" he asked, curious.

Avoiding answering the question directly, she says instead, rather carefully, "Th-the Unic-corn are w-well-known f-f-for their... affinity... f-for things out-outside of Rokug-gan. I g-guess I s-shouldn't be so sur-surprised."

Tiny fingers come to rest gently at her sides. Her hair obscures her eyes, which have fixed themselves on a space someplace equidistant between them on the deck.

The man chuckled, and smiled. "Then again, we spent 800 years travelling the lands beyond the Empire. The world is not always what it seems to be, Shiba-san."

Leaning to the railing, his bare hands resting on the coarse wood, the man fixated his eyes on the horizon before he spoke again. "Little teacher has said, 'all is one'. The universe, the world.. is a one entity. Even the things beyond our comprehension, and the things outside our normal field of experience... are need for the world to be whole."

There's no offense in her voice, the question is simply and plainly asked. "Are... are y-you p-p-preaching the T-tao to me, Iuchi-sama?"