Indeed!<br/><br/>Please talk me through it again! I'd like to include it in "What do pole notice about you."<br/><br/>A few relationships to share from my sheet before i put this aside 'til tomorrow!<br/><br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Greatest Accomplishment (Large)</div><div class="spoiler_body"> Last year, as my Shugenja training was moving into a series of practicals and apprenticeships, I traveled the land with my sensei Agasha Isamu.  We came to a remote province.  The road north was haunted by a demon--the ghost of a man who died in a duel.  We researched what was known of him.  How an arrogant son of a nearby lord was testing himself by challenging passing soldiers.  An elderly ronin defeated him in a duel that slew him.  It seemed that his resentment over being defeated by such a lowly warrior had plunged his soul into Jigoku. Now, many years later, Jigoku had now spat him back out to seek his vengeance.  <br/>Three separate bushi had tried to slay the demon.  All were defeated.  The one survivor--who was now missing an arm--was able to tell us that he had outdrawn the demon and his katana glanced harlessly from the demon's flesh.  <br/>Digging further we learned that even now two shugenja were hunting the demon, but he avoided them and fled if they approached.  This led us to the theory that the demon knew himself to be vulnerable to magic.  The coward fled from those who could slay him and challenged those who could not harm him to duels to the death.  <br/>My sensei and I came up with a plan.  My large stature, powerful build, and tendency to carry a katana made it possible for me to be mistaken for a bushi.  Traveling to the road haunted by the demon, I unsheathed my katana and left it with my sensei.  I cast Tetsubo of Earth and reshaped the tetsubo into a kanta, then sheathed it.  <br/>Sure enough, the demon did not recognize me as a shugenja and challenged me to an iaijutsu duel for the right to use the road.  We drew and I was victorious.  Because my sword was actually an earth kami taken corporeal form, it could slay the demon.   </div></div><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">What holds you back:  (Sworn Enemy: Agasha Ryota)</div><div class="spoiler_body">    "I'm not certain where my rivalry with Agasha Ryota began.  Maybe it's his name?  Ryota means "stout, strong."  Where I am quite tall and burly--and was even as a child--Ryouta is small and slight.  I remember when we both began to study at the Agasha Ryu school together, we were friends.  He was a great admirer of my strength, and asked me to spar with him, help him learn the ways of weapons.  I was a great admirer of his quick wit and intelligence.  <br/>    Somewhere that friendship twisted.  Is it jealousy?  For a time, Ryota seemed increasingly frustrated that he could not match me in combat.  Where I was given careful praise for cultivating all my strengths, Ryota was chastised for studying something for which he lacked the aptitude.  Soon Ryota tossed aside his shinai during our sparring and dressed me down for failure to play attention to our real lessons.  From that day forth, he seemed constantly aligned against me, either berating me for my distraction or using skillful barbs to demean me for falling behind him as a shugenja.   </div></div><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">What makes you feel at peace? (Curiosity)</div><div class="spoiler_body">  Many curious people hunger to know what something is, or where it comes from.  The curiosity that drives me in the question, “Why?”  Upon finding that answer, I often want to know, “What else?”  “What else could work this way?  What else can i learn from this?  What else could i accomplish with this.”   </div></div><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Who have you learned the most from (Benten’s Blessing)</div><div class="spoiler_body"> Agasha Isamu-Sensei was a teacher to me during my basic training and my personal mentor in my last years in learning to be a shugenja.  He believed in me.  He taught me a great many things.  Most of all, he challenged me to look at things from different perspectives and different directions.  <br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Relationships with other factions in the emerald empire.</div><div class="spoiler_body">--Mirumoto Megumi: My finance and the daughter of my lord.  A maiden of sixteen, she is a mirumoto bushi.  She's very serious about duty, and can find me frustrating.  Where others see an innovative and dedicated young man with healthy amorous appetites, who’s minor failings in discretion with his flirtation can be dismissed as the clumsiness of youth, Megumi sees a flighty and distractible pervert. <br/>    In spite of this, Megumi can see things within me that are admirable and loveable, which makes my perceived failings all the more frustrating.  <br/>Megumi is extremely proper so she knows that I'm entitled to my dalliances and she is not.  This is, of course, patently unjust, and she tends to take that frustration out on me.  It expresses itself in her opinion that immature and need a good wallop upside the head.  <br/><br/>    Kakita Family of the Crane Clan:  “At court recently, I sought the company of three young students of the Kakita duelist school.  Kakita Naoki--a very lovely girl--her fiance ___ Isamu, and her cousin Kakita Akio.  Our conversation began pleasantly, with my charm and admiration for the Kakita Swordsaints winning their friendship.  <br/>    “It came to me with the instinct I'd been cultivating since adolescence that Naoki found me handsome.  I devoted special attention to the young Katkita with the silver ponytail.  After a time, the evening’s conversation shifted to Isamu and I competed to be more flattering and attractive to Naoki.  As I grew fairer and fairer in her favor, Isamu began to scowl.  His friendliness soured and after a while he began to insult my ideas on meditation and iaijutsu.  <br/>    “With skilled barbs, he awakened my pride and anger, ‘til I had agreed to test my ideas against both himself and Akio in rapid succession.  <br/>    “Akio and I squared off first.  We centered, and I could sense the superiority of his technique.  If we had been using actual blades, I would have forfeited and acknowledged my superior.  Knowing that I wouldn't likely be slain by his blows, I chose to continue the test.  <br/>    “We drew.  I took a painful bruise, and I learned.  It was well worth the price.  <br/>    “Centering against Isamu, I found that I could not judge who’s skill was greater, but that his anger was clouding his tie ot the void.  We drew.  Isamu defeated me and raised three welts on my body faster than i could concede.  <br/>    “I was extremely disheartened and found myself severely doubting the technique I was developing.  I thought myself almost evenly matched to Isamu, and was certain that his anger would leave him vulnerable, not be channeled into strength. <br/>“Naoki came secretly to my chamber and tended my welts.  Her gentle words restored my soul.  We shared passion that night and--though she left my chamber still a maiden--we were both satisfied.  <br/>“On the lat day of court, something else inspired me.  Before we could leave, Akio approached me.  “I have spoken to my sensei about your ideas and your techniques, Miumoto-san.  We are interested to see how you will develop them.  You will receive an invitation to the Topaz Championship for your Gempuku.  I hope that we can face each other again there.”  <br/><br/>Add one item of rarity 7!<br/></div></div><br/></div></div>