The Breaking Point.

[Kakita Sojiro]

(OOC this takes place immediately after Naetaru wakes up the group in Kyuden Doji and has his meeting. It is for the most part closed RP between Sojiro and Saiko, but if someone else from the group mentioned above feels like being involved, feel free to shoot me a PM)

Sojiro knew he wasn't going to be getting any more sleep tonight. Even if the nightmare hadn't ruined his chances for that, he was far too angry now.

He found himself in the training dojo in the basement levels of Kyuden Doji. This early in the morning the place was abandoned, which was good. It meant that Sojiro had the area to himself.

The room itself was made of stone, with woven tapestries depicting the lessons of the different Crane styles of combat hanging from the walls and wooden striking uki, or wooden dummies, at various places throughout. The floor was covered in a thick tatami mat to lessen the impact from rough landings. Light came from two massive fireplaces built into the stone walls that were always kept burning. Sojiro had removed his kimono and wore only his hakama and waraji. His upper body was covered in scars, including a large patch on his chest that looked to be from a burn rather than a blade. The tatoo of a dragon and a crane wrapped around each other adorned his back, and he was covered in a thin sheen of sweat. Katana and wakizashi were both drawn, and he worked his way through the various kata of the Ha no Arashi style with vicious precision, trying to bleed off the anger he felt coursing through him.

Alesha, how could you? HOW COULD YOU!?

The swords whirled around him as the thoughts whirled in his head, creating a mental storm to match the storm of blades that had given the style it's name. Now and again a kick or elbow strike could be seen, Ha No Arashi's inheritance of the Niten style's lesson to use every weapon at your disposal to defeat your foe. Unsatisfied after working through all his kata, Sojiro sheathed his swords and snatched a yari from a rack on the wall, beginning a new kata with it. After three katas with the yari, he replaced it on the rack and began an empty-handed kata.

Everything you taught me about honor, about never giving up, you would sell to the shadows. Along with your soul.

The kata picked up in intensity as Sojiro's mind raced. An observant person would note the the fires were being stirred up by a breeze that should not have been able to penetrate the thick stone walls.

And you would DARE to drag Mitsouko-san down the path to corruption with you? You would force that on someone you once called family?

"rrrrRRRAAAAGHHHH!!!!!"

Something inside his mind snapped. He flung himself at the wooden uki in front of him, striking the wooden planks over and over again with his fists. Around him the fires flared, fed by the unfocused, uncontrolled potential in him to call on the air kami. He struck the wood again and again, breaking boards and skin. There was no martial technique now, just unleashed anger and the pain of Alesha's betrayal. He lost all track of time - nothing existed but the wood, the rage, and the pain in his heart and his fists.

Eventually he came back to reality. The head and chest planks of the uki were shattered. His hands were swollen and bleeding, and Saiko was staring at him, concern and alarm etched onto his face. Sojiro had no idea when his cousin had come in. The crane's eyes still blazed dangerously, but his voice was ragged with all the emotions overflowing in him.

"How, Saiko-san? How does a man discard everything he stood for, everything he preached, everything he taught me, and not only embrace damnation, but try to drag those closest to him down that same path?"

[Saiko]

Saiko stood in the doorway, watching his old friend and mentor proceed to destroy a large portion of the small dojo, a shadow of some distant emotion on his face. He knew that Sojiro was in a bad state, and had been ever since their meeting with Naetaru-dono, and after he had packed, gotten into his traveling armor, and sent his gear to the stables to have his horse made ready for travel before going to search for his old sensei.

He stood in his dark green and black armor, weather worn and battle-scarred from years of traveling and use, ever since his gempukku, and he looked far more natural in it than any kimono. He did not have his katana with him; he carried a dark red bokken of fine quality, though it showed signs of extensive use. Carved on the side was the Crane mon, the Dragon mon, and the symbols of the Kakita Dueling School, and on the other were the words Ha no Arashi.

As Sojiro's explosive display of katas came to an end, and he addressed Saiko, the young Dragon did not at first answer. He walked into the dojo, unbuckling his armor, shedding it to the ground by the door. Next came his travelling kimono, leaving him in his black training pants and travelling boots, the boots coming off as well. His honed body, while not overly muscular, was very toned, a mark of a rigid training regimen despite being naturally small. His long black hair fell over scarred shoulders, reaching the black Dragon mon tattooed onto his back. His front was scarred as well, and his left bicep bore a tattoo of a tiger and his stomach the Five Rings.

He walked towards Sojiro, and as came closer, he held the bokken up so Sojiro could clearly see it, and said, "Do you remember this, Sojiro-san? This is the bokken that you made for me. You showed it to me the day you agreed to train me, and told me you would not give it to me until the day I beat you in a duel. I remember that day well old friend." He looked his old friend in the eye. "When did you start smoking again?"

[Kakita Sojiro]

The question caught Sojiro off guard, but after a moment's reflection he realized that there was no real chance of hiding it from Saiko anyway.

"I'm not entirely sure anymore. The nightmares never really went away, but lately they've been worse, almost like reliving... that. Harder to wake up from and far more frequent. Often, the opium is the only thing that can make me sleep without dreaming or get me back to sleep when I have one. I've not been smoking a lot at one time, but the times I've needed a little bit have been more frequent lately. My choices seem to be a little opium or far too little sleep."

He looked down at his bleeding hands.

"I've lost my center. And I can't seem to find it."

[Saiko]

Saiko shook his head at Sojiro's words, s shadow of pain flickering across his face once more. He stood there, in complete silence and stillness for a moment. "There is always a choice, my friend. And that choice is almost never easy; I know this. But you are stronger than this, and somewhere, you know it."

With that, Saiko seemed to relax for a moment, for the first time since he entered the room; a false move. He moved almost unbelievably fast, bringing the bokken up hard into Sojiro's stomach, then stepping to the side and following the attack through with a second one to the back that sent his old sensei sprawling on the ground.

"Do you think that this is how you center? By destroying yourself and giving in to your rage?", Saiko spat, his tone very different now, a touch of fury in his voice. He stood over his old mentor"How does this help? How are you serving your family, your clan, or the Son of Heaven? Do the Dragon dying at Swift Sword benefit from this? Do your Crane brothers suffering at the hands of that bastard Alesha?" He walked over to the wall and grabbed another bokken, tossing it clattering to the floor next to the winded Sojiro. "Get up and fight me. Or have you lost your ability to fight a real opponent to your mindless grief as well?"

[Kakita Sojiro]

The first blow caught Sojiro completely off guard. The second to his back was more expected because he knew Saiko's fighting style well, but that expectation did not give him the opportunity to respond to it, merely to know it was coming. He hit the tatami mat hard, but not as hard as Saiko's words hit him. It wasn't the harshness that stung, it was the truth in those words.

Be in the moment. Be present in Now. The past is beyond your touch, the future is not here yet and likewise can not be touched, except by the Now.

His father's words came back to him in that moment, words spoken during his iaijitsu training.

I'm still clinging to the past.

He gathered his legs up underneath him in a typical iaijitsu sitting stance, the boken coming to his hand. This was a false move of his own: Saiko would no doubt be expecting an iaijitsu strike from this position. Instead, Sojiro lashed out with a side kick, catching Saiko in the belly and knocking him a few feet back before following up with a down-to-up slash with the boken aimed at the Dragon's inner thigh. The kick connected, but the strike was blocked before it hit the thigh midway up Saiko's boken and countered with a thrust aimed at Sojiro's chest. Sojiro sidestepped to the left as he deflected the thrust to the right by bringing his boken up and pushing it out, catching the strike close to the hilt. He followed this maneuver by rotating 90 degrees in the direction of the sidestep, placing himself behind and to the right of Saiko and using the momentum of the rotation to throw a diagonal, up-and left to down-and-right strike at Saiko's back. The Dragon saw Sojiro's rotation and followed suit with his own, catching Sojiro's strike very close to where Sojiro had just caught Saiko's thrust. He launched another thrust at Sojiro aimed at his right shoulder. Sojiro stepped back as he deflected the thrust, and both samurai reset their position. The Crane said nothing, but a small, tight smile was visible on his face. Not the twisted, malicious thing he had been wearing earlier - an honest smile borne of actual enjoyment.

Outside the dojo, the crack of the bokens could be easily heard.

[Saiko]

As they reset, Sojiro's genuine grin was set in direct contrast to the cold smirk that Saiko wore. The counterattack had been every bit as fierce and relentless as he had expected; the beads of sweat forming on his brow were testament to that. The old training partners, and before that master and student, were only getting started.

"Is that it, old man? I remember a time when you would've had me on my back before I could have even gotten that close to you." The young Dragon sprung onto the attack again, a lightning-quick thrust that if not for a very last minute sidestep would have knocked the air out of Sojiro again. Saiko counter-stepped, bringing his bokken around in a short slash-stab combo, which was easily parried.

Back and forth they went, fighting around the dojo. Push, counter, recover, push, counter, reset, on and on they went. It was a dizzying display of kenjutsu between two swordsmen who obviously had created their styles around fighting one another, but if one in the know were watching, they would see that now the element of surprise was lost, Saiko was losing...

More and more, he was finding himself on the defensive, and with no opportunities for counterattacks, he was losing ground. Sojiro was leading him around the dojo, relentlessly wearing down his defenses, waiting for the Dragon to make a mistake. It seemed to happen, Saiko's off-hand came was off his bokken, behind him, he seemed to be stumbling. Sojiro's grin was now akin to that of a wolves; he pushed his attack, seemingly to end the fight here and now.

He was completely knocked off balance by the parry that followed, a vicious strike throwing him back from the wall that he had pushed Saiko against. As he recovered his footing and reset to prepare for the inevitable counterattack, he realized why; Saiko now had a wakizashi bokken in his left hand...

[Kakita Sojiro]

"Old man, eh? Let me show you what experience can do, then."

Sojiro pivoted off center and struck, then struck again. Both blows were blocked, but he was on the offensive now. He began the methodical process of moving Saiko's sword and body where he wanted it to be, using feints and strikes combined with footwork to get the movements he wanted out of his younger cousin. Saiko countered, but it seemed that Sojiro was expecting each of his shots and had an answer for them. Slowly, the Dragon was backed up against a wall.

And then he managed a parry that threw Sojiro backwards a good three feet due to it's unexpected nature, and the Crane realized his mistake - he had backed Saiko up against a rack of boken, and his former student now had a wooden wakizashi as well as his normal length boken.

Saiko's assault was both explosive and relentless. Strike after strike was thrown, both thrusts and slashes, and it was all Sojiro could do to backpedal and parry the katana. He dealt with the wakizashi primarily by staying out of it's reach, ducking and sidestepping the shorter boken. Saiko was unleashing his own version of the Storm of Blades, and proving why he was the only other master of the style in the process.

Sojiro was running out of both energy and room to maneuver. He had one option - attack. He just needed a chance to do so, and Saiko wasn't going to just hand him that opportunity. So, he would have to make it happen on his terms.

He suddenly switched tactics. Moving closer, the Crane parried a thrust from Saiko's wakizashi, seemingly leaving his head open to a slash from the katana. As Saiko took the opening, at the last possible moment Sojiro ducked and swept the Dragon's feet with a crecent kick. As Saiko hit the tatami mat, Sojiro jumped over his body and scrambled to the weapons rack, snatching up a wakizashi boken of his own as Saiko found his feet.

"Alright then. Let's do this properly."

[Zeure]

It was at that moment as Sojiro had regained his stance and calm that a wave of nausea passed over him. He felt more sick than he had ever felt before. It was as if every disease had passed over him all at once. A searing hot pain struck him across his chest starting in the right upper side and working it's way across to the lower left side.

Saiko could visibly see a red hot light draw down his chest in that manner.

And suddenly it cleared and Sojiro fell to the ground and caught himself on one knee. He had a new scar, images of fighting an Oni alongside Yasuki Chad that he had never done, and the feeling that he was going to be vomit. Though, thankfully, the last feeling never came to fruition.

[Kakita Sojiro]

OOC: For any readers, Zeure had my full permission to post this. No godmodding here.

[Kakita Sojiro]

Sojiro dropped the bokens and gasped as he went down to one knee, his eyes going wide in surprise and unexpected pain. Images of a battle he had never been in filled his mind... he and Chad standing with two Unicorns against a massive oni... a graze from the oni down his chest.... vomiting....

"Wha..... what in Jikoku's pit was that?"

[Saiko]

Saiko set his stance; his sensei had neutralized his advantage over him, but the realm of two blades was something that came very naturally to the young Dragon. Every fiber in his being yearned to unleash their full fury in this test of skills, when Sojiro suddenly dropped to his knees. Saiko grinned; he would not fall for such an elementary trick. But when he heard his friend's reaction, he knew something that this was no simple ploy to win a duel; something was truly wrong.

A flash passed over his eyes, and he felt... something. Something very dark and unnatural, but yet familiar... He shook it off for now and walked over to his friend. "Sojiro-san, what is it?" He stayed on his guard, bokkens still at the ready. Something about this was not right.

[Kakita Sojiro]

Sojiro flopped down from his knees to his butt, still holding the scar with one hand. His back was propped against the wall that he had just taken the wakizashi boken from. He was no longer in pain but there was still a feeling of weakness and a hint of nausea, and his facial expression held a mixture of surprise and concern.

"I wish I could tell you, but... I have no idea. I was fine, and then suddenly my head was filled with... images? I'm not sure. I'd say they were memories, but... nothing like what I saw has ever happened. I was in a cave in my armor, battling a huge oni with Yasuki Chad-sama and two people I didn't recognize. They looked like Unicorns. The Oni slashed me... and then I was vomiting, but I wasn't in the same spot I started in. At the same time, I felt this intense pain go through me right along this scar, and I got really nauseated and dizzy."

"Saiko.... where did I get this scar from? I don't remember it. I can tell you where every single one of them came from, but not this one. And I just realized that."

[Saiko]

A shadow passed over Saiko's face as he listened to the tale, as though a memory was passing behind his eyes, and just as quickly it was gone. He stood in silence for a moment, deep in thought before he responded. "Strange things are happening, Sojiro-san. This empire that we have fought and bled to protect is falling apart, bit by bit, and all the actions of those who are only trying to save it are meaning nothing. A battle far more dire than any we have fought is approaching, and we are not ready to face it."

The young Dragon helped his sensei to his feet before placing his wakizashi back on the rack. "I'm sorry, old friend, but I must cut this short. I have to deliver a message for Naetaru-dono, and after I will be returning to the mountains for a time. There are answers I need that I do not think I will find elsewhere." He sighed deeply, a storm in his bright green eyes that belied his calm exterior, and handed the bokken to Sojiro. "Look for my return during Winter Court, sensei. I'm sure we shall have much to discuss, and a duel to finish."

Saiko walked towards the door of the dojo, stopping only to turn back and bow once more to the Crane duelist. He reached down and gathered his belongings, and set out on a journey that would change his life forever....

[Kakita Sojiro]

Sojiro got to his feet and accepted the boken from his former student silently. It wasn't until after the dragon had bowed that he spoke.

"Saiko-san. Thank you for... this. You spoke the truth to me, and while I am ashamed that you had to beat those words into me, I am grateful for having a friend that knows how to reach me when I am lost within myself. I've been focusing far too much on the past, when the present is what demands my attention. You are very right about strange happenings in the empire, and it is time we addressed those issues."

"Safe travels my friend. I look forward to finishing this with you at a better time."

Sojiro bowed to his old friend before he left, a sinking feeling settling in his stomach as he began the mental preparations for his trip to Kaneka's court.

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