Been at sea for extended periods of time, sure. Not known exactly when she'd see land again? At least once. Let the gentle whisper of the waves lull her to sleep? As many nights as she could.

Had to sail through taint-infested waters while the waves moaned a constant lament? Not 'till now.

Sure, she'd been places where Suitengu had been less than pleased about one thing or another... but this? This was awful. She'd never heard the waves so unhappy. Nozomi had gone on deck, thinking to help the others out with tacking sails and such, but the constant eerie keening of the waves had caused her grip to slip more than once. The last of those times, one of her fingers had narrowly missed getting caught in it, and she'd come back down below decks to try and avoid giving the ashigaru and other sailors any more work. And to avoid any lost fingers.

Now she paced the armory floor, feeling out of sorts.

Rinzuki wanders into the room in her trousers and sleeveless blue top, and pauses as she catches sight of the Phoenix girl.

"Shiba-san," she says, bowing to her politely before continuing to a rack of bokken. "How are you this morning?"

Nozomi bows to the woman politely, then resumes her pacing. "I've b-been be-better. And you?"

Hopefully this one isn't as infuriating as her cousin...

"Not too bad," she replies with a pleasant smile. "Are you here to practice your weapon skills, or just hiding away below deck for a bit?"

"I..." She pauses, not having really considered it. She'd just started pacing and this was where she'd ended up.

"I c-could t-tr-try u-using a we-weapon, I guess... A-are you sk-skilled in an-an-anything in pu-particular?"

"Plenty of things!" Rinzuki glances sideways towards the rack of bokkens. "But weapons? Not really."

She hefts one up and holds it in front of her awkwardly. "Shinjo-sama was giving me some lessons the other day, but I was honestly a bit too distracted to really pay attention."

Being completely ignorant of things that had gone on, Nozomi asks, "Oh? Distracted by what?"

"By Shinjo-sama," she admits, with a casual shrug of her shoulders. "But, she said that...the most important thing...was to bend your knees."

Rinzuki holds the bokken out in front of her and bends down into a half-crouch. For about five seconds. Then she stands back up and starts tugging at her trousers.

"Okay, really?" she complains, looking down at her pants in annoyance. "How in the name of the ten Kami do they expect anyone to concentrate in these things?"

Bend your knees? Once again, her imagination carries her away, and she imagines Rinzuki and the Shinjo running around in epic combat, in a weird crouching stance the whole while.

"Oh... eto...y-you get u-used to it." She shrugs and decides that maybe some careful stretching will help... the pacing sure wasn't. "S-starts to f-feel a l-little... windy...w-without them, af-after a while."

"I still prefer kimono," she sighs, shaking her head.

Rinzuki takes a few awkward swings with the bokken before smirking at her own lack of skill.

"Good thing I was born a shugenja, neh?"

"A-as you say, Iuchi-san..."

Nozomi slides a bokken from the rack, and seems a little surprised when it's almost as tall as she is. Awkwardly, she tests the weight in her hands and looks at the other shugenja. "Wh-why would you w-want to use o-o-one of these?" Her skepticism of the whole endeavor is obvious.

Rinzuki gives a half-hearted shrug.

"It might be fun, don't you think? I mean, not in combat or anything, but the sparring part seems like it might be entertaining."

Not sure she understands, Nozomi asak,"S-so, you m-mean just w-wi-with these... n-not real s-swords?"

To most, the bokken was about the size of a katana. To Nozomi, it could have been a perfectly scaled No-Dachi. She kept the tip hovered about the floor, and glances back at it, wondering about how much fun it could possibly be.

Rinzuki nods in the affirmative.

"When I was a little girl, all the Sh..." She pauses for a moment. "...shugenja...children...would have to stand back and tend to their lessons, while everyone else would run around and hit each other with sticks."

She waves her bokken around a bit. "They're really just big sticks, right?"

Nozomi notices the uncharacteristic stutter of the Iuchi, but makes no comment. She wasn't about to point any fingers for that sort of thing. She's also a bit more concerned that the poor Unicorn woman enjoyed the idea of being hit with a stick. There really had to be something wrong with the Iuchi family.

"W-well... I g-guess so." A pause. "H-have you s-spoken to a-an-any of the C-Crab about that?"

They seemed to like hitting...

"Oh, no, I wouldn't want to bother them."

She lifts the bokken and gives it one more test swing before returning it to the rack.

The little Shiba gives hers a small swing and only succeeds in dropping the thing towards the bottom of the arc. Irritated at her own ineptitude with it, she quickly puts it back on the rack. "I g-guess it'd be good d-defense to know, th-though..."

She returns to her stretches, and then slowly turns them into muscle toning movements, slow and careful. "So... you and Shinjo-san get transferred together?"

"No, we merely arrived at the same time." Rinzuki finds a tatami mat and takes a seat upon it, still facing the little Shiba. "What about you? Did you come alone, or is there some yojimbo hiding away in the crew quarters, being negligent about his duties?"

"Oh. You t-two seem t-to kn-know each other pr-pretty well, I ha-had thought mu-maybe..." They were both from the same clan, and a long way from home. She shrugs.

"It's j-just me."

She adds a bit wryly,"They d-don't usually a-assign Shiba to d-defend Sh-Shiba."

"We are just close friends," she explains, the rather pleased little smile on her lips adding multiple layers to her words.

Upon hearing that Nozomi didn't have a Shiba watching over her, Rinzuki seems to grow more interested. "Have you been forced to go without a yojimbo, then?"