D4 LE Silent Thunder

[Shimizu Ryori]

"I guess wanting to meet your magnificant horses was a silly reason to volunteer to get married"

[Otaku Kitakuhime]

"Perhaps." She smirks, blushing just a little bit. "As long as there's no regret, you're fine being silly."

And cute.

[Shimizu Ryori]

"Regret is a sin" he nods " A samurai does not have time to dwell on what ifs and paths not taken. Learning from the past to plan a better future is fine but dwelling on it, that road leads only to despair" he sighs " Is there any way I can help you? I feel like we have been dwelling on my future so far, is there any questions you have about the empire?"

[Otaku Kitakuhime]

"Who are the Shimizu?"

[Shimizu Ryori]

"Magistrates and yojimbo mostly, we have recruited many wave men in, as a family we are still feeling out our place being only in existence for a decade and a half, but I think that, since the Ikoma guard the knowledge of our history, and the Akodo guard the ways of battle and tactics, the Kitsu the spiritual reverence of our ancestors, and the Matsu the ways of martial prowess, the most logical place would be in protection of others and finding the threats that others havent noticed yet. Our founding was finding such a threat, an assassin who slipped past the Crab into the Imperial court, I think that would be a good tradition to continue, but it may be a tradition that continues without me."

[Otaku Kitakuhime]

"Yojimbo, ne!. That's honorable." She nods, leaning a bit against the arch. "Tell me about these wave men."

[Shimizu Ryori]

"Wave men come in three categories, those who have been cast out by a clan either for great shame or for thier own reasons, second those who were not born samurai but through some great deed were raised up, and third those whose grandparents or greatgrandparents were one of the first two. These people are all samurai, but none serve a daimyo. They are in many cases a poor and forgotten part of society. The Crab offer many the option to prove themselves on the wall, and Akodo Shimizu when forming his new family has accepted many as well, after extensive vetting. Many do not approve of this action by my family daimyo."

[Otaku Kitakuhime]

"I approve of this. If one is brave and serves with honorable devotion, it is only proper that a sire may grant blessings to serve the Kami and the Child of Heavens."

And I here was I thinking they were sailors.

[Shimizu Ryori]

"Not all wavemen are honorable, and many turn to banditry out of desperation. Additionally there are some clans who willl send spies dressed as wave men, claiming to no longer be loyal to thier former clan, when they truly are. These are tactics tthe Lion would never use, but have had used on us in the past. This gives all wavemen a bad name, and thus punishes those who are honorable by association."

[Otaku Kitakuhime]

"Which Clans would be so dishonorable to do something like that?" She squints her eyes.

[Shimizu Ryori]

He smiles "If a clan would ever take such action it could never be proven, and no clan would be able to show thier face if thry ever made a tradition of taking such action that would be considered of questionable honor for what they thought was the greater good of the empire. Doing such would require them to become masters of intrigue and shadows, and would imply that such traditions of sacrifice of thier own honor went back so far as to their founder. They would be survivors and rebels, and some might suggest patriots and heroes, but not ones you can trust at your back, or on it."

[Otaku Kitakuhime]

"Complex. I'm not quite sure I understand." She nods while the skies darken even more. "You sounded an awful lot like Bayushi Suteichi-san, now."

[Shimizu Ryori]

He snorts " I am sorry I am use to imperial courts and shared history, to accuse someone without proof is extremely dishonorable, so even if everyone knows some people do things, noone can speak of it openly" he sighs " tell me what the Bayushi's face looks like?'

[Otaku Kitakuhime]

She presses her lips in a shy smile. "Like a dream."

[Shimizu Ryori]

"And what does the mask that he uses to cover part of his face look like?"