"If I were important enough that they wanted to be sure I stayed with the clan, and married another priest to hopefully provide many children gifted by the kami...they could have done that. But I'm here. So..." She pauses, looking for words that fit the ideas rolling around inside. "So there's some other purpose the clan has for me that's more importan than that...good will from the Phoenix, maybe."

"But here's the thing, being understood isn't what I chase anyway," she gestures at the tattoos. "I want to understand. I'm trained and bred to understand _stars_. It seems like people should be so. much. easier." She lifts her hands from the water, palms up and raises them to the sky. "And they're not. It's so frustrating sometimes."

She lowers her hands with a small splash. "So...I guess almost anyone will be a challenge at least. I just hope we kind of like one another, and I can work from there."

"How about you? There seem to be a lot of warriors around, but is that what you're hoping for as a match? Someone who really understands what you're facing out there?"

"People" Shoan nods sympathetically "They are....difficult, even the good ones are complicated. I'm always glad to hear that other samurai share my....frustrations?"
Watching the Osprey's motions with some amusement

"Kind of liking someone is a good start, perhaps better than the alternative anyway. I kinda like a few of the samurai I have met here, maybe that is a good sign. I will pray that you find a samurai who is an honourable match and likable."

She shrugs slightly at the question, sending out small ripples
"A warrior might be easier, as you say, having someone who knows what my life is, what it means, that would make for a good partner I think. But you don't have to be a bushi to understand, you just have to be able to see, or to listen. A courtier or a shugenja who would bring my family honour is more than enough."

"Then I hope you find yourself paired to such a samurai. Honorable, able to listen." She nods, quiet for a moment before dipping a finger into one of the spreading ripples and watching the interference patterns propagate against one another.

Then she speaks of the extinct elephant in the room. "So many Spider here is a bit concerning. I've heard nothing particularly likeable about their worlds to think they would be...pleasant places to live. The ones I've met have been polite and even interesting, but..." Her own shrug complicates the ripple patterns.

"I would not want to speak ill of samurai I do not know."
But she does anyway

"The Spider are on their whole an insult to the foundation of Rokugan the heavens and the universe itself. They're not all bad, I grant you, but when they're friendly it's the friendly face of a black widow."
Well, except for Satoru, he actually seemed quite reasonable.

"Bushido is the lens through which I see my life, they make a mockery of that. It is...difficult to accept that."

There is something that draws her to these bluntly told truths as the Lion sees them. It's...refreshing. So many tiptoe around the topic. Mumei lets out a breath she hadn't been aware of holding. "I can't really say that you're wrong." Probably the Phoenix would argue the theology of the whole thing, but she wasn't that kind of scholar.

"I've never really discussed that with any of them that I know" Well, the one that I know "...Courage and Compassion, and so on. Maybe I shouldn't be surprised that they haven't come up more at a miai." She thinks about that for a moment. "They don't come up often, period. They're just sort of this underlying fabric everyone wears with varying degrees of success or dedication."

"Using the tenets as a lens so...hmm, purposely or directly. Is that duty or passion?" she asks, harking back to the tattoo conversation.

"Yes" That was probably a joke

"As a Lion my duty is to bring honour to my clan and my family, that is a responsibility. But as a samurai I choose to live by the code, not because it is easy, but because it is hard."
A very slight note of frustration creeps into Shoan's voice

"Many samurai in the empire no longer seem to value what the kami handed down to us. What is a samurai without bushido? A thug? A hemin? Less? I have passed samurai in the street who are little more than merchants with swords."

Mumei smiles slightly at the initial response. It was a fair joke.

She thinks of a Yasuki met just the day before who might resemble that image and nods slowly. "I think it admirable. I think many would say they value that code who don't examine it often or closely. Myself included. We, Osprey, focus so much on our connections to kami and stars that there's less room for that examination."

"Some things are built in. It takes courage to walk the way again and again, but I'd have to think a while about the rest."

"It's alright Nakauchi-san, I try not to hold other samurai to my standards, you needn't worry I'm being judgy. It's hardly a good look to be judgemental in a bathhouse anyways. The Osprey have their role in the empire, fulfill it with honour and you are already an exemplary samurai. I wouldn't say it takes courage to walk the way though, just stubbornness."

Her lips quirk
"I have been told I am stubborn, but I refuse to listen to that no matter how many times I hear it."

She smiles "No worries, I didn't think you were. Being judgmental that is. I will take you at your word with regard to stubbornness."

A bit more serious, "But I was speaking more of a different Way. The one we yank ships through is...it requires more than stubbornness. Only the Navcom allows one of us to control forces that once took 100. The ritual is known as Opening the Way, based upon the lesser invocation Walking the Way."

"It's a lot of power. And a lot of lives that will be lost if you screw it up, even once. I've stood and watched the path tear and bend through space as the Elder Navigator yanks everything through. It's a bit terrifying."

"Ah, yes, that is....quite different. I might not understand the spirits but that does sound....confronting. It will make you feel all the more accomplished when you have mastered it. Perhaps one day you'll navigate a fleet I am serving on through space?"

"Might. We're a small clan, but even then we produce way more Navigators than we have ships of our own." One reasonably fertile family could probably fulfill all the Osprey's own Navigator needs. "So we're all over the place."

"And I do look forward to it. It's fearsome but also...I don't know? Attractive? Alluring? I watch the ritual and want to reach into that flow, despite knowing it would tear me apart with my current skill." Pensive, she asks, "Is any part of a warrior's work like that? Where it's very dangerous and possibly very painful, and yet... something other than duty draws you toward it?"

"Hmmm."
She chews her lower lip for a moment
"For me.....maybe not Nakauchi-san, I'm sorry."
Trying to work out how to explain it

"Your duty is fearsome but....despite that there is mystery and maybe even something beautiful. To me, being a soldier is just my duty. I don't enjoy hurting people, even the perfect shot that saves my comrade kills someone else. I know some samurai take pleasure in battle, but...."
A wide shrug
"A life is a life, it's a heavy thing to carry around when you take it from someone else."

""No...that makes sense. And..." she frowns in thought, lips pursed. "It's admirable. To immerse oneself in duty despite the weight it will bring without joys to lighten the load."

She will not say that it's a blessing to have born to a different duty. Her heart would have been trained in sterner directions if she'd been born to be a bushi.

"Apologies, I've steered kind of a dark direction for bath conversation." She inhales and slips entirely beneath the water, emerging several moments later, blinking water from her eyes. "I should like to start a new direction with a splash fight, if that's alright by you." This is said with all the dignity of requesting a duel.

“No apologies are necessary Nakauchi-san, unless of course you fail to put up a good fight in this splash fight.”
Shoan pushes herself off the wall and strikes a formal splash duel stance... which looks more than a little ridiculous.

Mumei laughs, "I shall do my best!" Her stance...is seated. After a pause for battle to be joined, she stands spinning as she does--A less graceful movement against the weight of the water, but effective for allowing her to scoop and throw the water as she goes.

The famous osprey spin spray! It hard started and ended many a splash fight, or so Shoan had heard.

“Not ba-“ blub blub “but” blub “Can it stand before the thunder wave?”
Shoan brings her arms together in a slow motion clap through the water to send one large wave straight at Mumei.

The slight dancer is lifted by the wave, washing against the edge of the pool, hands flung up before her face. The gesture is rather useless, as the entire strength of water is its ability to wash around all obstacles. "gahh...blurble!"

It could be worse. The Unicorn were known to manage flanking waves in competitive water fights.

Elbows braced against the pool's edge, she employs last ditch resistance....flutter kick turbulence maneuver! Sending a score of small splashes to overrun the defense!

Mumei's eyes grow huge as she has just a split second to see the oncoming wave. She could fight it, or...ride it. The latter carried a lot less risk of slamming against the stone side of the pool, so she leapt up, trying not to be thrown under it entirely as she swallows warm bath water. ewww.

She's able to roll with it as she hits the stones of the floor, coughing water and laughing as she stands to bow to the superior opponent. She was tossed from the ring of the pool, after all.

The pool of significantly diminished water volume. The staff were going to be so pleased by the way they've washed the floor down.

"Congratulations Murame-sama. Seldom have I faced a battle in water that I've lost!"

Shoan tries to pretend that she doesn’t see the horrified looks of the bathhouse attendants.

“You are very kind Nakauchi-san, although I’m sure at your full splash potential I would not have stood a chance.... and um, I hope being deposited on the ground was not overly painful. I... used a powerful technique not usually used outside the Matsu bathhouses.”

The lion slicks some hair out of her face as she jumps up on the edge of the now somewhat depleted pool. And... there might have been a smile, but probably not. Shoan did not smile often.