Shiba Haru sat on the edge of a large koi pond eating a rice ball, flicking the odd stray rice grain into the water for the fish. He seemed to be staring through the water not seeing it or the fish.

I should have asked him, only myself to blame. I shouldn't even have needed to ask him, I should have paid attention to him, asked questions back then and remembered them today. If I fail to become a samurai will it be because I didn't pay enough attention to my brother?

Although it was another windy day, Sakura had come to the garden to practice drawing the koi pond and the koi who dwelled within.
And maybe capture the spirits activity in her art, as well.

"Oh!" she comes across a seemingly familiar Phoenix sitting there already. "Shiba-san," she greets and gives a proper bow, rather large sketchbook clutched tightly to her chest.

Haru turned at the sound of the unfamiliar voice and then stood to greet the woman properly with a deep bow.

"Good afternoon Asahina-san, I hope this day finds you well."

Noting the art supplies he takes a long step the side.

"My apologies, I am in the way of your view. Have you come to paint to pond? I will try to stay out of your light. I am Shiba Haru it is a pleasure to meet you."

"Oh!" she makes a surprised squeak and blinks. "Shiba Jiro-san's brother! Right!"
There was a near audible facepalm from behind her that she ignored.
"No, no, please stay! You're no trouble at all! I was just, um, going to sketch? some ...it seems nice? And serene?" Was it a question? It sounded like a question.
"Have you ...how are you ...um. Is your stay with us going alright?"

There was equally forceful mental facepalm on the other side of the conversation.

Jiro is this going to be another one you've been seducing?

"Ah, yes we are twins.

Please by all means."

He took another step to the side and gestured to the water's edge. A gust of wind reminded him of how difficult the weather would make things for her and quickly moved to the other side of her, trying his best to block the wind with his body.

"It is a serene location, even Kaze-no-kami has come to witness it. Are you enjoying the event so far?"

It took a minute for Sakura to realize the courtesy of Haru's movements to shield her, but she flashed him a smile when she figured it out.
"Should we sit? I- um, I mean, yes? It's been challenging, but that's sort of the point, I think? I've enjoyed watching the various competitors revelations of their... various... strengths?"

"of course"

He gestured for her to sit first and once she had he sat facing her, wind to his back but made sure not to stair at her to much; turning to look at the pond frequently.

"Challenging is right, we really are a collection of the empire's brightest. I've seen a Mantis ride and shoot as well as a Unicorn, watched a cousin show a surprising mastery of architecture and watched you this morning preform an excellent tea ceremony. It is humbling to say the least."

Sitting her sketchbook on her lap, she flipped quickly to a new page and used her left arm to lightly hold down the spent pages from rustling. Her right hand then retrieved a pencil from behind her ear where it had been tucked, she tapped it lightly on the clean page while she studied the pond.
"You've performed admirably as well, Shiba-san! May we all have our moment to shine...
You, um, I spent some winters in Phoenixlands? Though my aunt and uncle are called Asako, I'd love to learn more about the Shiba? And um. About Shiba Haru-san?"

"And I would be delighted to learn about you."

Haru was fighting a losing battle against the wind but he was determined to block it from disturbing the art.

"What would you like to know? Where in Phoenix lands did you visit, you must have come through my hometown unless you traveled by boat."

She gave a shy smile at that, and looked back from the pond to him in subtle consideration.
"Maybe I did? Um. There was, um, boating? I mean, I travelled mostly by it, by boat. But also, um. Oh! Is this it?" she lifts her elbow to flip back in her sketchbook to near the beginning, to a very traditional inking of an early winter day; though mostly black on white, there are touches and what seem like smears of pastel colourings where Haru might recognize certain levels of known spirit activity in his hometown.
The drawing itself isn't extraordinary by any means but shows an obvious talent and grasp of technique. It bares obvious signs of being fussed with extensively, lines drawn over and over again to get them just so.

Haru studied the piece carefully.

"THAT looks a lot like Mori Kage Toshi, which makes a lot of sense if you took a boat it is the closest port city to Kyuden Asako. The composition of this is lovely, you must have been there around sunset when the spirits are more visible. It's a beautiful place but nothing like this."

He gestured around him but his tone suggested he meant all of Crane lands.

"Is painting your primary focus?"

"It is! I did that piece this past winter..." Sakura confirmed, colour touching her cheeks then, and she looked over the work but saw imperfections still. When Haru looks up, she begins flipping pages back to the blank one again and smooths it over.
"Thank you. Even though I live here... I mean, not here, in the garden, um, obviously, but here like, in Tsuma? It never gets old.
Oh! I um, yes? I mean.. I don't have a focus? I ...just find painting most captures what I see? I um, well maybe you saw? Uh, shadow puppetry is a new interest of mine?" Broad pencil-strokes begin to take shape on the paper as she talks.

"Shadow puppets? That is quite interesting, the Crane can turn anything into an artform can't you? I hope I can see that some time. I suppose deft fingers would be useful in that and in painting, you must be quite skilled with you hands. Do you practice any other arts?"

She grinned a little bit at that, "Well, I mean, I guess? I'd love to show Shiba-san." The sketch of the pond and garden around it began to come together bit by bit. "I do! Um! Rock gardening? I did that at the shrine the other day, to help out? Um? Bonsai? Woodworking? Tapestry? Ikebana?" Were they questions? They sounded like questions.
The secondhand embarrassment in the ephemeral air was almost palatable as her so-called ghostly chaperone shook his head.

"And you? Um, Your brother, he's the artisan? I think, uh, Kasumi-san? Said you were training as a bushi? That's exciting! I hardly know how to hold a, a weapon?" her nose wrinkled a bit.

Haru chalked up the strange feeling to just one of those things that happens around girls.

"Please, you can call me Haru. You may practice more disciplines than even my brother you must be very talented. Yes I will be a bushi assuming we all make it out of this week in one piece. I trained at the Shiba Guardian school to be a yojimbo, I have also dedicated myself to the art of iaijutsu. So being invited to the Topaz Championship with the legend Kakita Toshimoko-sama here...it's a great honor to be here."

A blink of surprise. "Then to you, I am Sakura?"
The exterior of the pond complete, she began work on capturing the movement of the water with the wind, and of course, the focus on the koi fish.
"I'm sure you will make your lord and your family proud! It is an honour, isn't it? I didn't think, well, I wasn't sure, or, I assumed being here and competing was outside my reach?" she considered for a moment, pencil pausing.

"I worry some think I'm ...Am I here because of my own merits, or because I'm supposed to be here, given my immediate family? It's just... it's expected, that I'm here, so here I am, and I'm grateful." Holy awkward mess... "But I'm happy you're here, too!"
Smooth recovery, child...
Shut up.

"We are all here because of our merits, if you have a connection to the dueling academy and the artisan academy that just means you are extra special as those are both revered institutions who don't not show their favor to just anyone. Were you classmates with Kakita Yuji-san by chance?"

he watched her work, focusing on the movements of her hands and comparing it to those of a swordsman in his mind.

Her gaze drops to focus intently as the imprint of her pencil works to make the koi just. perfect. The drawing came out satisfactory, but not amazing. Much like Sakura, herself.

"Hm? Oh! Yes! That's right, we were! Not, um, super close, but a grand acquaintance, one I'm happy to know. Has he asked you about assisting with his project?" Her pencil froze and her eyes ticked up to the Phoenix, interested.


EA5 Painting the koi pond | TN: 2 | Success: 2 / Opportunity: 1 / Strife: 1

1 opp spent to -1 strife

"Indeed he has, on the night of our first day of tests, he shared a cup of sake with me and I came up with something for him on the spot. It lacked the subtlety that a good poem should have but I managed to work a double meaning into it so I hope he finds it passable. I'm sure whatever you gave him will make it look childish in comparison."

She gave a small smile at that, "I love a poem with multiple interpretations.... Oh, mine? No, no I doubt that very much, Haru-san. I, I um, I haven't, I mean, it's not ready? I'll get it to him..." her nose wrinkled just a little, looking down at her sketch once more and beginning to fix some lines she decided weren't just so.