[Day 3, Late Afternoon] Water, Water Everywhere

[Isawa Junpei]

Isawa Junpei stood at the ship's railing, looking out at the other ships in the fleet, obscured by a thin haze that could mean only one thing, rain was coming. Since after his morning shift he'd carried his umbrella with him, and now, opening it and holding it overhead, the first droplets came down, only to be followed by a sheet of rain. Thankfully it wasn't a driving wind, and so, Junpei just stood on deck, enjoying the sight of their floating community, rocked gently on the current.

[Kakita Sugita]

The only shelter Kakita Sugita has is the air around him. It doesn't hold back the rain very well at all. "It is on these occasions that I wonder if we're floating on the water or if we've gone below suddenly. Thank the Kami I can still breathe." Says the sodden Kakita.

[Isawa Junpei]

"It is quite the experience. I've never been this far out to sea during the rain, well aside from that bit we had just after leaving port. Sadly even if the weather had been nice enough to be on-deck, I wouldn't have been able to get above deck. So, I thought I'd take in the sight. Somehow I thought it would be like rain on the coast, over looking the ocean, and in a way it is, just not in the exact same way." Junpei continued to stare out at the other ships in the flotilla, but then turned to the Crane.

A moment of shock registered in his eyes, if not his face, "Oh, if you'd like, share my umbrella." He extended it a bit, so that half of it were available for cover.

[Kakita Sugita]

"No. I like swimming. Thank you though." Sugita makes the motions of swimming through the rain as he walks closer. "Speaking of coast... I was wondering if we could see it yet. The weather isn't helping."

[Moshi Chihiroko]

Somewhere out of the way, a Moshi was busy tending to her duties. As she passed the conversing samurai, she bowed and nodded in greeting before returning to work.

[Mirumoto Itsuho]

Itsuho had been on the deck as was her duty, though there was little to do but continue to train and hone her skills. As the rain rolled in she had taken a pause, and she slipped a straw cloak around her body, her long hair matting wetly to the back of it. She made her way up to the two samurai standing by the railing, offering a stiffer bow than usual, the cloak and rain making moving somewhat more difficult than usual.

"Konnichi-wa, samurai-san's. This is quite the rain, is it not?"

[Isawa Junpei]

"It most certainly is, Mirumoto-san," Junpei inclined his head, drawing his umbrella over himself more fully, once more. "To you, Kakita-san, I doubt the shore will be visible until the storm passes, and even then we do not make landfall for another day or so. Give our island destination that likely means no land for quite a while. What of you Mirumoto-san, what are your thoughts about our upcoming locale?" He corrected himself, raising his voice to include both Dragon women

[Mirumoto Itsuho]

The woman shook her head a little as the rain dripped off it. "As much as the thought of land appeals to my sense of stability, Isawa-sama, I am not sure I care to step foot into another land outside the Empire too highly. I have been in Yobanjin lands before, and from all I've heard, the lands over the seas are not much better for hospitality, let alone the heat and local floura and fauna."

[Kakita Sugita]

"I wouldn't be on a shore party there given a choice." Sugita looks out at the rain blurred masts of the rest of the flotilla. "Will the whole fleet need to take port?"

[Isawa Junpei]

"I'm unsure," Junpei pondered the matter. "I suppose it would depend whether or not the island has a suitable port for ships of this size and whether the island has any sort of reefs preventing larger vessels from docking. Whatever the case, I have to agree, the idea of wandering a foreign market doesn't greatly appeal to my sensibilities either. I only thank the Fortunes that the kami have not abandoned us so far from our homeland. Though the locals may be brutes, at least the spirits remain as wise and civil as any."

[Mirumoto Itsuho]

The Mirumoto gave a soft shrug. "I do not hate the gaijin, as many seem to. They deserve war when they bring it to our lands, but many of them I merely pity, even brutes that they are. To be born outside the divine grace of the Celestial Order must be a terrifying existence, even if they can not hope to comprehend that."

[Kakita Sugita]

"Hate, pity... Both are more than I'm willing to give gaijin."

[Isawa Junpei]

"One may find nobility in the savage, but until I see it for my own eyes I'm afraid I've little to base an opinion aside from history and experience, and neither looks kindly upon them."

[Mirumoto Itsuho]

"Apathy is also able to be given, Kakita-sama. Though, you are right, Isawa-sama. There is little point speculating, even if one wished to." She shrugged softly, shaking some rain off her straw cloak.

[Kakita Sugita]

Sugita shrugs... apathetically. "Apathy has less value. It takes no effort."

[Isawa Junpei]

"As greatly as I wish for apathy, I'm afraid recent events leave me unable to maintain ambivalence. The gaijin are heretics in the best of times, and now we venture among them, with their blasphemies in full view; corrupt gaijin sorcery as foul as any blood magician." Junpei wrapped his free hand around his other arm, covering himself with his sleeve as though suffering from a sudden chill.

[Mirumoto Itsuho]

"All of which are matters best left to those unfortunately burdened with them. We will be in port regardless of wishing to be or not, but it will be no use dwelling on the matter. In and out, as far as I am concerned."

[Isawa Junpei]

"Let us pray it is so," Junpei look at the other training ship in the distance. "I wonder what they're discussing?"

[Kakita Sugita]

Sugita nods. "Sounds like a good plan to me Mirumoto-san."

No answer for the last question.