Boys' Night In (D10, LE, Butaj's Yurt)

[Asako Hirase]

It was the eve of the last day. It was a time to visit new friends, contemplate new futures, and prepare for one final hurrah.

No wonder, then, that the darkness found Hirase in amongst the Unicorn tents again, his feet following a familiar path. He had a couple of apples tucked into a sleeve, one green, one red, having nothing else to share but hoping it would prove to be an exotic new thing for his foreign-born friend.

"Butaj-san!" He tapped on the doorpost. "You in?"

[Moto Butaj]

"Butaj's in." The voice from inside replies. It doesn't have its usual ringing bustle. "Come in, come in."

[Asako Hirase]

That had Hirase's features twisted into a bit of a frown by the time he came through the flap. After the expected bow, he extended his hand, all the while looking his friend over with a concerned expression.

"What's happened?" He paused, then asked, "Did you botch your potion last night, too?"

[Moto Butaj]

Butaj smiles after Hirase enters and proceeds to shake hands. "The poppy gave Butaj wonderful dreams with Yuki under the stars, so no complaints!" He brightens dreamily at the recollection. He shakes it off after a moment, reluctantly. "It's the day. Butaj has lived a beautiful dream of love. But what will be of it tomorrow? Butaj has tried to retain a space in his heart for other outcomes but there is no such space now. It has to be Yuki or Butaj doesn't know what happens!" He puts his hands in the air in exasperation.

[Asako Hirase]

"Aah."

This, at least, made sense. Hirase clapped his friend on the shoulder, then sat.

"I have no urge to ill-wish by preparing you for worst case scenarios, but if that's information you want, I can at least tell you how Eastern Rokugani handle such things." Then, before he could forget, he added, 'Oh, and just so you don't see it and get a bad surprise, Yuki's going to be borrowing my fan tomorrow, since she gave you hers. I expect her reaction to winning you, or not, will be very visible and I wanted her to have that shield for her On. It means nothing, romantically, but I didn't want you to see it and be concerned."

[Moto Butaj]

"That's all right. Butaj trusts Yuki, and he trusts Hirase too. There would be no concern, but thanks for telling." He smiles weakly, but then his expression darkens. "I don't know what an Easterner would do, but I know what a Moto does if something stands between him and the love of his life. Butaj thought he could be complacent, just accept the result with misery in heart to haunt his life. But the more Butaj thinks about it, the more anger there is for such an outcome." He passes the kumis to Hirase.

[Asako Hirase]

Hirase took a long pull, then passed it back. He'd actually developed a liking for the stuff over his time here and would miss it if he ended up taking a wife back home.

"If someone else chooses you, there are only a few options, none of them particularly good. The most honorable choice is to retire." A momentary flash of amusement crossed the other man's face. "Somehow, I can't imagine you with a bald head, though I do actually believe you would make a good servant to Hotei-kami or Benten-kami. If you did that, it would dissolve the union, leaving you free, after you took the needed training, to become a traveling monk. If your travels took you to where Yuki was in service, well, too bad for her husband. You could never wed in that case, but you could be together after a fashion."

[Moto Butaj]

"Hum. Butaj is not sure he knows how it works, with this retiring and shaving, but... that's something... okay, what are the other options?" He asks with a deep frown. "Just to know what to avoid... possibly."

[Asako Hirase]

"The next option is one where you are each married to others, yet stay committed, romantically and, yes, physically, to another. There are any number of samurai who have lovers outside of marriage. To see their paramours, such individuals tend to do things like try to arrange postings in the same city at best, same province at worst. They meet when they can, steal the time they can, and make certain that they are always somewhere private when they display their emotions."

He met his friend's gaze squarely.

"I don't think either you or Yuki would do well with that option."

Then, grimacing, he said, "Then, of course, there is musha shugyo or, indeed, the full ronin option. Another that I do not endorse, though the former is at least slightly more respectable than the latter. In both cases, one or both of you would forsake your Family and Clan to follow the other. Musha shugyo is meant to be temporary; a samurai asks the permission of his or her Lord to travel as a ronin with a new Name, to learn something about themselves or to settle some sort of internal trauma that their usual service would not permit them to manage. In time, the samurai could return and, if he or she had satisfied their Lord that the reason they had left was fulfilled, their Name would be restored. To be ronin in truth, however, is to utterly abandon one's Clan and never return. It is generally viewed as a punishment, but sometimes the truly desperate take that road of their own will."

[Moto Butaj]

"How is that worse than taking her on the saddle tomorrow and ride north like the wind until we reach the mountains and cross into the Yobanjin north? Butaj knows that neither his family nor Yuki's would miss us terribly." Butaj finally spurts out, battered by all the projected misery.

[Asako Hirase]

"There are many who would say that to be a samurai without a Lord is the worst fate possible, worse even than death. Most in the Empire treat ronin as little better than bandits and, indeed, many ronin do find themselves forced to take up that profession, if you can call it that. Still, you are a samurai for all of that as a ronin, and that has weight when you pass on to Meido and the judgement of Emma-O. If you run, flee the Empire, you become a non-person in the eyes of Heaven. I suppose, if you joined a tribe, you might have their path through the afterlife, however."

It was a dreadful choice, and yet...had he not worked with Yobanjin himself? Had he not seen, at least a few times, beings of worth, with fine minds or kind hearts? And did not Yuki's father, the only member of her family who seemed to care for her properly, have such contacts as well, enabling to see his wayward child, should he wish to, at least on occasion?"

"If you convince her to take that path...she does know the tongue." He hesitated, then suggested, "Seek the Daughters of the Flame, if you do. They are the best of those I met. The Mountain Wind were honorable, when I last spoke to them, but they now war on the Badger so perhaps that has changed. The Tribe of the Sky can be welcoming, but they are, I believe, the cause of the tale I have heard of attacks by Rocs in the early years of the Ki-Rin's ride, which might be awkward."

[Moto Butaj]

Butaj grins broadly, though with a feral quality to it, and wild glint in his eyes does not abate. "Butaj would do nothing against Yuki's will. But with her by his side, there is barely anything he wouldn't do. This is what Butaj's heart is telling him telling now. And you can tell it to Yuki too if you see her before Butaj." He pauses to cut on the reckless streak. "Butaj still hopes it will turn out well. Also for the sake of your Clan. Butaj has not known this before, but of all the Clans the Phoenix seem the most interested in matters outside the East. Both of you know a lot about the Yobanjin, and it looks like you have some ties with them... Butaj suspects that once a path from your lands to the Chengzhong He Valley is found, there are passages from there to the Nahr'umar Valley to be found too. It may be long, but this is what horses and camels are for."

[Asako Hirase]

Hirase trusted this man, as different as he was, and so he told him the truth.

"There is a place in Phoenix lands, secret to most even within it, where the Isawa treat with the Yobanjin. They do not trade with them; Imperial law forbids that for everyone except the Tortoise. So, instead, the Isawa offer inferior goods or inferior trades so that they can then claim, with perfect Sincerity, that it is not trade, for trade is in good faith and with fairness." Smirking, he explained, "That place, Yobanjin Mura, is where I had served all of my adult life before coming here. It is why I know so much of them. Yuki's father, she told me, has worked there as well...indeed, I may well have seen or even met him, never knowing the connection with his daughter I would one day make."

[Moto Butaj]

He listens intently, and his eyes go wide with an "Oooh." But then a knowing smirk appears when he recalls the conversation in the dojo and the one thing Yuki refrained from telling. It was probably this, so Butaj instantly gets the gravity of this information and the amount of trust it has acquired for Hirase to impart this. "If it is secret, then Butaj will keep this secret too." He put a fist against his chest to signify his pledge. "It looks to Butaj that if it all goes well the Phoenix Clan may be a place where he can belong better than anywhere else outside the Unicorn, not only because of Yuki, but also because of Hirase and this. Trade is one thing, but to know the route there and back to Medinaat al-Salaam, a safe route, this is precious in many ways. Butaj thinks: what was the purpose of being in the Burning Sands for so long if now we won't use all that we know about it?"

[Asako Hirase]

"Exactly!" Hirase smacked his hand down on his own thigh. "Why did Shinjo-no-Kami leave, if not for her people to learn all they could of other ways and peoples and bring it home to share? Why did you all, and all of your Ancestors, endure so much if not for the sake of knowledge? If people here now choose to ignore those gifts you bring back with you, just because some of the adaptations your survival required seem strange to us, then they are fools!"

Calming himself a bit, he added, "That is not to say all Phoenix will welcome you; my Clan is traditional. But we also revered knowledge, more perhaps than any other Clan. Let the Phoenix hear your stories and know your heart and the differences in looks will become much less important. "