(Moon 15, Afternoon+, Crow's Nest) Tsunami

[Isawa O-Washi]

Atop the Crow's nest, the hulking form of the Half Moon's junior gunso sat in perfect seiza. His large hands lay in an easy curl atop his folded knees, palms up, and his back was straight without being stiff where it leaned against the mast. Only the loose hems of his cheery orange hakama, caught in the strange wind constantly blowing off of the Sea, seemed to move.

Still...were any to risk an approach they would see that the eyes, now a swirling purple that verged upon black, constantly swept the horizon.

[Kaiu Seiko]

Seiko wasn't interested in disturbing the gunso. She just wanted to see as much of the sea as possible. Maybe she could spot something that wasn't so... so...

There were no words for it.

And as she reached the point where she could actually see O-Washi, she recalled that what she felt was nothing as to how bad it was to the water tensai.

"Isawa-sama," she murmured, giving a small bow as best she could. "May I join you?"

There were, of course, better ways to have asked. "I was looking for greener seas. Shall I look up here for them?" A little more polite, letting O-Washi dismiss her without risking insult to either one of them.

Well, so be it. If her presence offended him, she would simply leave.

But she did want to see if there was a better view up here.

[Isawa O-Washi]

"Why?"

The man's voice was cold with control and he didn't move an inch to look at or acknowledge her.

"There is nothing, nothing that you should hope to see here."

[Kaiu Seiko]

Seiko considered her reply.

"It gets me just a little further away from the sea that should not be," she said at last.

She paused, thinking.

"I know," she said to herself. "Excuse me, Isawa-sama. I have something..."

Carefully, she went digging through her clothing. She knew she had it... there!

Slowly, she extended her find, a single finger of jade.

"Would this help Isawa-sama any?"

[Isawa O-Washi]

"No. It will not. I know something of the Crab, however, and I acknowledge that it is generous for one of your Clan to offer. "

There was no smile, no welcome, but there was a slight lessening in the coldness of O-washi's tone. "You feel the wrongness of this place just as a sailor, a sailor and a Crab. Ordinary priests hear the waves moan, hear the wind laughing as those who are mad are wont to do."

One massive hand came up, sliding over his eyes.

"Until I completed my advanced training, my eyes were brown." Because she might not understand, he explained before she could question. "I am tensai, Kaiu-san, and that is so powerful a binding that the element that chose me makes itself shown on my person. Some claim the eyes to be windows of the soul and my soul is bound to water."

At last he turned to look at her directly.

"I do not merely hear the voices of the kami...I share in their pain and, if I do not focus all of my will, I may well join in their madness at well."

[Kaiu Seiko]

Seiko was quiet as she took in this information.

"I understand," she said at last. "Then there is nothing I can do for you. I am sorry, Isawa-sama."

She took a few handspans down on the rigging, then stopped and looked back at O-Washi.

"It is Crab pragmatism. Better to save one as yourself, if I can, than save myself from the madness."

With that, she made her way down the rigging.

/exit unless stopped

[Isawa O-Washi]

He said nothing, returning to his sworn duty, becoming again a seeming statue of a man.

[Isawa Junpei]

It was near a half an hour before someone else decided to even venture near the Crow's Nest, and even then it amounted to his fellow Isawa and tensai hovering a good span away, facing into the clouds and banks of fog. Drawing the pure kami to him, he kept the madness at bay by listening to the sweet, if haunted, song they sung. They had no more want to be here than Junpei and it was exactly that reason that they clung to one another. They would hold against the darkness, but it took a great deal of his concentration to do so.

It took several minutes for Junpei to even realize that another person was with him so far above deck, and as he turned slowly, to take in the rest of the flotilla, he caught sight of the flash of orange, made all the brighter thanks to the dark and paling air. Part of him thought to approach, but another remembered the whispers of the crew to leave O-Washi to his thoughts...something Junpei thought a decidedly bad idea in the current atmosphere.

[Isawa O-Washi]

He had, of course, been seen. By the time Junpei thought to look at him, O-washi had been staring for some time. Intently. One might almost say menacingly.

"Cousin..."

The gunso's words were very quiet, the hush before thunder crashes or the eye of a storm.

"...care to explain why you're aloft when calling the spirits here was expressly forbidden by the Captain?"

[Isawa Junpei]

Junpei drew near to his favorite gunso, arms wrapped tightly about his thin frame, "Oh, I would never, Isawa-sama. I don't know much about the dark realm, but every shugenja knows the danger of summoning the spirits around the..." He didn't want to finish the thought aloud.

Instead he just raised a hand to brush a strand of loose hair out of his face, tucking it behind his ear. "This," he gestured beneath him as though to indicate his flight, "has nothing to do with the kami. It is...difficult to explain." He felt strange trying to articulate his peculiarity into words. "This is...well, it is an imbalance within me. I can strengthen the air in my body, shedding my earth. It releases me from the confines of the earth, allowing me to...fly. From what I am led to believe it is like the studies of monks and their natural way with the elements."

[Isawa O-Washi]

For long moments, the big man studied his Clanmate, his Cousin. Then he nodded and went back to scanning the sea. 'Very well."

Minutes passed in silence before O-washi said, "It is good to see you have recovered. I was concerned."

[Isawa Junpei]

"Domo arigato, Isawa-sama," he inclined his head raising a hand to his chest. "I'm fortunate to have been in the compassionate care of my kinsmen." He fell silent, a growing trend in their conversation, as he searched for words to convey his sentiments.

"I...," he faltered. "I've never felt such sickness in the elements. The spirits were terrified...are terrified. In some way I wish I could offer them comfort, but instead I'm overwhelmed with an indescribable sorrow. I've spent so long among our homeland, where the kami reign, imbuing each stone with the strength of a mountain and each raindrop with the power of a tsunami. But here...here they are as terrified as us...I mean the shugenja. They are not afraid, like us, of death...they are afraid of losing their minds, their souls."

[Isawa O-Washi]

"If it is any consolation, it gets worse than this. Be grateful for the Captain, who knows the safest path."

O-washi's gaze never faultered from it's appointed task but his voice displayed his weariness, not of body but of mind. "I have sailed the Sea proper before and there, it is no longer sadness...those spirits have lost the battle you speak of entirely and howl in madness. For ones like you and I, who's elements are powerful upon the ocean, it is a truly horrible place. It is why I have hidden myself away here, though it is true that my eyes are keen and I do the duty well. Though water is meant to be calm, the suffering of it in this place stirs in me a wrath I can barely contain."

[Isawa Junpei]

"I'd wondered what kami you called kin, but when I heard about your own haunting by the sea I ventured a guess." Junpei turned his eyes out onto the fog-laden ocean peering about for the other boats hidden amongst the low-lying clouds of dark vapor.

After more silence, the young tensai spoke, "Isawa-gunso...why are we here?" He felt the question a bit of explination. "We're a training ship are we not? Why would they send those of us least skilled in the seas to one of the most horrific places on the ocean? Is this a test?" His voice cracked as he finally asked the question that had been dwelling upon for the past three days, since he'd heard word that they would be going to the Sea of Shadow. As he said the last words, they were tinged with sentiments of worry and betrayal.

[Isawa O-Washi]

"All of life is a test, Cousin." A hint of wry amusement colored the deep voice even though no smile graced he who spoke. "Think of it, though...what is it that you suppose the Imperial Navy does? Most Clans patrol their own coasts more than well enough not to need us to protect their ports. True, there are small villages in bits of coastline claimed by none...or by many, which is almost as bad. No, what we of the Ninth do is fight that which is too much for anyone else, be it for lack of manpower or just lack of concern. This Sea and those who are cursed to endlessly sail upon it are something that you will have to face in time if you stay with this calling."

This was allowed to sink in for a few moments before the big man let out a great sigh.

"The mission, however, is not one intended for combat, in the Sea of Shadows or otherwise. We are going to the southernmost portion of the Empire's borders, a place we claim and yet do not. It is meant to expose you recruits to as much of what you may well encounter as possible without drowning you in it."

[Isawa Junpei]

Junpei might have given a quizzical look at the larger Isawa's cryptic remarks, but all things were revealed in time. What more concerned him was the prospect of dealing with the Sea of Shadows on a regular basis. "I...I," he stared down into the dark waters, "I don't think I can...This place is poison to the soul. No shugenja should be here."

[Isawa O-Washi]

"I thought the same, the first time I encountered it."

This time, the man did turn to look fully at Junpei.

"Almost eighteen months ago now, when I was a fresh recruit to the Ninth as you are, my ship was one of a training group not unlike this one, save for one key difference." The sound of rustling cotton betrayed that the man had shifted, too uncomfortable to maintain his unmovable position while discussing something he found deeply disturbing. "Unlike this ship, which is blessed with a plentitude of priests, that one had only myself and one other, a man of the Seppun. He was one of the gunso and he was the one who got me through my first few days of hearing the kami wail and scream in pain and madness, though it was a near thing. He reminded me of the need of shipmates for those of power to help them understand what it is that pulls at them and how to resist it. Strong as bushi are, they are as infants in resisting the call of the spirits and need those like us to help them resist, or else the kansen would take the lot of them, one by one."

[Isawa Junpei]

"But how are we supposed to help when we barely have enough strength to fortify our own souls? The elements are a whisper here, and even then I fear to call out for them, not for my own safety but for theirs." Junpei placed his hands in a meditative mudra completely without thought, the gesture calming his nerves. "The great enemy is so powerful here..."

[Isawa O-Washi]

"By soothing those who've never felt any call at all when it's evil that tugs at them. We can't be less than the Crab, Cousin. They've been standing against these murmurs for a millenia. It'd be shameful if the blood of Isawa can't do so for a few days and the crew would notice, believe me. When thre's no real status to use to make one's ranking in a group, it comes down to who's got the biggest balls, as it were. Some of the priests here haven't taken it at all well."

He thought of the trouble caused by the Daidoji and grimaced horribly.

"It spreads like a cancer when that happens and it is up to those of us who're strongest in our power to be strongest in will as well. It's best for the crew and best for us in the long run to showcase the strength that made a Kami bend his knee so long ago. If you need help with workng out how, I'll give it...I've endured more in this place than any tensai has, to my certain knowledge."

[Isawa Junpei]

"It's funny, in a way," he seemed at a loss of what to do with his hands, trying to unfurl them from his body, but wanting nothing more than to wrap himself up in his sleeves. "I was talking with Daidoji-san the other day and I talked about Isawa and how he took to the battlefield against the last brother and his minions. In the earliest times of the empire the Isawa scourged the empire clean of abominations. I said, 'how can I do any less.' I now know, I hadn't the vaguest idea of what I what I was talking about."