[D3 LM] - Lesson One (Semi-Open)

[Nozomi]

(OOC: Expecting, but this is also a thread involving Stealth training, so ... Stealth 17 to start)

She left a message with Noriaki no Yamadono on where outside of the camp Matsu should meet her. She was between patrol shifts, which made it a good time after a quick bite to eat to offer some of the lessons she'd promised. Admittedly, she'd taken the chance to do it on their way along the open field leading the Twilight Mountains, but the terrain here was perfect. One of the early hard lessons that she was going to be working with was a creek bed.

Partially open territory. Tree lines, but you had to cross the river itself quietly and without slipping. It was a good early lesson in terrain and stealth. So, she crouched on a rock at the edge of the tree line, aware and watching for the girl and possibly her father. She didn't know if he would tag along, but either was fine. She wasn't well hidden, but that was part of the point of this little exercise, wasn't it? Maintaining cover here was more difficult than elsewhere.

[Noriaki no Yamadono]

LM3 - Stealth Training - Does Yamadono spot Phi? (Per 3, Investigate 3, Notice Emphasis, TN17): 6d10ro1o10k3 55

Yamadono was several yards behind hia daughter. He hadn't told her what was to be expected, other than to pay attention. He has easily seen the other woman, but didn't give it away to the young Matsu.

She, for her part, kept her eyes sharp, hands around the haft of the massive polearm, though it seemed second nature in her grip. Soft footfalls, as if hunting boar, as she moved through the terrain in a contemplative manner.

[Nozomi]

The phrase 'you move like Shai'Hulud in a Rage' would have applied, if this were another place and another time. Phi wasn't aware that the father was in the background, keeping a watch on things as he should. She kept a stick at her side. Two of them in fact. Nothing more than a simple switch, serving well for her purposes. When she saw Matsu draw near to the river, she slipped down from the rock with perhaps a bit more guile this time, and moved up behind her to give a quick, smart switch. Just enough to sting and be noticed.

When she crouched there nearby, she glanced up at her, red eyes barely visible in the hood. "Nice spear. We're not hunting boar today, Matsu."

[Noriaki no Yamadono]

She growled at the swat, twirling her polearm about. Looking to the masked woman, she steadied herself. "But you have to be as aware of foes as you would boars. They're wily." Her voice was a harsh alto, showing a commanding presence that was beginning to develop. Her ferocity burned within her.

Yamadono slowly moved, sitting on a rock. The wind moved through his hair, as he quietly watched from afar.

[Nozomi]

"That is so," she said, smirking behind her mask at the girl who she now offered a swatch to, the second of the two. "Boars are cunning, but ultimately stupid. Humans outthink themselves into corners, but can be far more deadly. Today, I want you to try and stalk me. We will see how wary you are, and if not?" She took her own swatch and smacked it into the palm of her other hand. "The lesson will be less harsh than it would be beyond this riverbank, yes?"

She wanted to make sure the girl understood what was going on here, though she doubted it would take long to figure out. Unbeknownst to the two of them, she was much better at spotting sneaky types than she even was at being one herself. Good rule of survival, that.

[Noriaki no Yamadono]

The girl took the switch, feeling it in her hands. Around her neck, a small, green circle was strung about, a new accessory from the days prior. She pursed her lips, nodding to Phi.

"I will do more than try, Phi-sensei." She declared, confidence brimming over in her words. "I can be a very good student." There was a certain admiration as she looked to the masked woman.

[Nozomi]

She paused, catching sight of the new accessory and gestured. "Keep that safe. I'm glad to see your father made sure you had it. I don't know how badly, but we will need it." She patted her chest once, right about where the finger nestled under her clothes, close to her skin. "But to this lesson. Because you will not always fight in the field of glorious slaughter where people obey the rules. I will cross the creek several times. I want you to try and sneak up on me. The first few times, to see how far along you are to start."

She gestured to the trees. "Go, disappear. I will start when I cannot see you." And if that didn't happen? Well, that would tell her just how much work they had to do.

[Noriaki no Yamadono]

She somberly nodded, reaching up to tuck the necklace beneath her tunic. Drawing her cloak closed, and began to stalk away.

While she seemed to be rather agile, it was the actual skill in hiding that was lacking. More the movements of someone used to tracking game, but not so much setting up the ambush.

The last of the Noriaki watched the game, pulling his hat off, running his hands over his head.

[Nozomi]

Without actual formal training, this was going to be a different sort of lesson entirely. Phi, nevertheless, played along and started to move along the edge of the waterway when it was obvious that Matsu thought she had things going in her favor and was all too prepared to switch her the moment that she caught her shadow in the light that reflected in the creek. It was a little trick she remembered for when she wanted to look like she was unaware of someone she knew was there.

She'd be patient as she walked, waiting until the girl was just a little closer before the switch would fly. She didn't coddle people she trained.

[Noriaki no Yamadono]

The girl crouched as she moved, reeds swaying as she tried to circle through. It wasn't that she was clumsy, hut rather, trying a new way of pursuit.

The older man stroked his mustache as he watched the pair. From his vantage point, his view was all but unobstructed.

The young girl stepped closer and closer, clearly trying to not be obvious, but her inexperience made that even more apparent.

[Nozomi]

The switch lashed out and went for the calf before Phi darted back a hop and looked her over, nodding. "You haven't done this before." It wasn't a judgment. It was a statement of fact. "It's not like a boar. A beast smells us, so we out think them. Head upwind. Leave no tracks. Stay silent and wait till they forget. A human can out-think themselves, but they can do what a beast cannot. They can interpret. The tricks you use for hunting? Won't work on me. Stop thinking like I am a beast. Moving quietly is not enough for a scout."

She didn't expect this girl to become the kind of killer she was. If Yamadono had raised her and she ended up like this, it wasn't likely. He didn't play around by the looks of him. But scouting, she figured would get through to her.

[Noriaki no Yamadono]

The girl yelped a sharp cry as the switch bit into her calf, turning quickly to face the direction it came from. A hand rubbed over her leg where a small welt was forming.

"Okay, okay..." she took in a calming breath. Lips pursed jnto a hard line. "I haven't. I don't really find myself sneaking up on people all that often..." she admitted, not so much with disappointment, but maybe embarassment at not being instantly great at something.

She began again. Focusing, finding her center.

Phi-sensei isn't boar. How... what does it mean to hunt man?

Yamadono chuckled very quietly from his perch on the rock, seeing Phi lash out. Were this a real fight, he hoped Matsu would realize the danger she would already be in.

[Nozomi]

The lesson of a little light pain was a powerful tool here. It smarted, so it reminded someone that if it were a blade it would cut deep, and if a blunt instrument would crack bone. Phi hadn't been raised by the sort who believed much in positive reinforcement. Survival was the prize among her people, and she very much doubted Yamadono was the type to spoil his little girl. No, the princess was going to grow up to be a great warrior some day.

Taking up another position, Phi started to move along the river banks once more, taking her time and threading over the stone. She knew exactly where Matsu was, but she also knew that was going to be the case. The next switch would be if she did something stupid. Seeing her out of the corner of her eye, she decided to take a little more time on the crossing, let the girl think about what she aimed to do, how to approach.

[Noriaki no Yamadono]

The girl stopped in her tracks. She dropped low, below the reads. As much as her emotions were a storm, and her heart beating with furious passion, she would be a good student. It was as if she focused on everything and nothing, trying to take in the lesson on a spiritual level.

A smirk on her lips, as a fairly large creature, maybe a beaver, approached her. She raised a hand, spooking it off to cause the reeds to rustle one direction, as she slowly slinked a different way, trying to not disturb the reeds as much.

Yamadono raised an eyebrow, impressed for the moment that it was.

[Nozomi]

She caught that, and when the switch came down this time it didn't aim to strike the girl, but the ground right in front of her. Phi stopped there and her eyes looked directly at hers. The switch had moved much closer to when the girl got her than the last time. She'd caught her, but it was a closer thing.

"You listen. Good." Was she smiling under the mask? Maybe a little. "Clever trick with the Beaver. Think like that. Let a human outsmart themselves. Give them what they expect to hear... they will hear what they want. A bear will smell you. A wolf will smell you. You fool them like game. A man can fool themselves. A man will always be their own worst enemy. You will always be your own."

She nodded. "We do this again. And again. Repetition is a friend, but... your father teaches you to listen well. I know a few highlanders too more than one switch to shut up and listen."

[Noriaki no Yamadono]

The girl nodded, then a thought. She looked to Phi, her eyes bright with the vibrancy of youth and the desire to learn more.

"This can be applied to scouting but... it can also be used to sneak up on the enemy, can't it." Her question was asked without judgement.

"Because that... isn't honorable. But it is more honorable to do what must be done in service to survie and benefit the Clan." She rested slightly on the polearm, contemplating.

"Duty demands it. What good is Courage if you aren't alive because you didn't take the best strategy." She was musing, something taken to heart at such a young age.

"Phi-sensei. We're doomed to never live up to these ideals, aren't we?"

[Nozomi]

She glanced at the girl before sitting down and bringing a leg up. Motioning with the switch, she gestured to the rock opposite. She was certain by now Yamadono was here, so she pitched her voice loud enough to be heard. "We continue the lesson in a moment, and I will give it to you again tomorrow and the next day, as we travel, so long as it is safe."

"You're right. That is how I use this. I am a killer, Matsu. These hands are stained in blood. More than I think you have seen yet, even if we are close in age." A shake of her head. "Have you yet taken a life? You should be ready for it, for the feeling of cold dread that enters your heart the first time you see the light leave their eyes. You will feel it that first time, if you haven't yet. Don't let them fool you. War. Scouting. Assassination. Doesn't matter. You take a life, and you won't take that back. They will be gone, forever."

"I sneak up behind the enemies of the Hikaru and I shoot them in the back, or I crack their necks with these," she said, patting one of her tonfa. "These old wooden tools are drenched in blood. But stealth does not need to be used for that. A scout. A hunter. A guard watching at the gate. A bodyguard. It can be used in ways the ... honorable might forgive. They will never love it."

"Honor... we barely understand it. A word that was brought to us by those who returned with Koyama five years ago. A word your people and mine did not know. The Noriaki? Heh... ask your father sometime. We both have blood to share." A grunt, a shake of the head. "But I see what it is. It is a pretty, perfect world that these kami wish to make. Akodo, Hantei. They want a perfect world, but men are not perfect. If you wish to live by it... you will have a hard life, but maybe it will be good for you. But keep Duty and Courage first. Know your place, who you are, what you are meant to do. Do it perfectly, and do not fear the words, the judgment, or the blade of another. The rest? If you can pull it off. They won't ever make an honest woman out of me, heh. I admit that is one reason I will probably serve Bayushi. He does not strike me as quite so... honor bound as others."

[Noriaki no Yamadono]

"I've not taken a human life yet." She said without reservation, or disappointment. "I have been training as a warrior since I was old enough to take father's sword. And this polearm called to me when I was nine winters."

She looked up to Phi. "I am not bloodthirsty. But I am ready to answer, a soul for a soul. Father told me of his past, when he tells me about my mother. How he is a killer. Blood isn't something I am worried about." The young girl sat on the indicated rock, idly running a hand over the blade of the weapon.

"If I am to lead to the armies of the Spider, I won't be ablr to say no to any tactic. I can't expect honor from my enemy. I need every weapon I can get." She looked away, up to her father as he was walking towards the pair.

Matsu looked back up to Phi.

"If you do join with the Kami Bayushi... would you want to still be the sensei to me?" Her voice lowered, a whisper only meant to be heard by the killer woman. A peek at the young girl still beneath the growing woman of a warrior.

[Nozomi]

"I'm glad your father is honest with you about that. A child should know their parents." there was a distance to how she said it. Her own were so much a distant memory for her now. A painful, distant memory. But she pushed that down, back down into the waters of the rivers she'd fled across as a child. "I call myself a killer, but I am not bloodthirsty. It is a job that needs doing. And I am good at it. Just as I have every reason to believe your father is very good at it. He still wears that name with pride, after all."

Reaching up, she tapped her lips. "A general must be ready for everything. We don't do armies... but we do raids, and we had to be ready in case there were guards, in case the weather turned, in case they were sneaky scum, or the sort who might offer terms to avoid a fight. You need every tool, but you do not need to be every tool." An important caveat. "Though this will be a good tool for you regardless. I do not know if you can keep your Honor intact, though they say Akodo is ... good at that, so you may be able to do this without always sacrificing."

She cocked her head and then there was a soft laugh. "I would be willing, as long as I was allowed to do it, yes. I can't help you much with the spear, though. I like my little tonfa far too much for that, but I do know the bow well."

[Noriaki no Yamadono]

"I dare anyone to get in the way of me seeking you out." The fierceness in Matsu's voice was palpable, matched by her wide grin.

"I could always use the help and practice with the bow. I've also skill with the sword, my fists and feet, a knife. It all is just... so interesting." She nodded, while the big man approached.