Description: Hotaru climbs to the shrine to speak with the man who Sakura has looked up to as a mentor for years. Having heard so much about Ryu yet never met him in person, a question weighing heavily in her heart sends her to finally seek him out.
No one in the surrounding area is quite sure just when the secluded shrine was built, or when it had been active. As far as anyone knew it had simply always been there, enduring a gradual decay as the years began to way ever heavier on the simplistic stone structure. Still, even in such a state the properly attuned individual could not ignore how the shrine had been constructed within the flow of its environment. Rather than trying to impose its presence on nature as many modern constructions were wont to do, the shinto temply had been wrought in accordance with the surroundings. The angles, interior and arrangement were all done with careful attention to how they would affect the flow of natural chi..whether they would complement or constrict it. In the end, it felt as much a natural part of the area as any tree or blade of grass.
While usually unoccupied, the shrine today houses a sole inhabitant; A simple wanderer taking a brief respite. His trademark duffel bag lays casually to the side and the King of Fighter himself sits in a contemplative state at the shrine's center with legs crossed, hands rested upon knees and his eyes shut in lucid meditation. The way in which this creation of man seemlessly integrated with the world from which it was birthed served as inspiration to the Wanderer for his own motives, of shaping his will to the natural flow of the world rather than imposing upon it and trying to re-order the way of things in a misguided sense of what would be 'better'. Rather than to control, he seeks merely to understand..and in doing so finds knowledge that becomes his power.
More in-tune with his surrounding than usual, the slightest breeze or trodden grass shall not distract his attention, but nor shall it escape his notice.
When one sets out to see many of the greats, one need only to seek out their palatial estates, their gaudy manors, their mansions built with the money that pours into their coffers from eager sponsors and massive prizes. Of course, in many cases, one would then just be turned away by the helpstaff. Fighting legends have no time to hob knob it with normal people, of course. Seeking out Ryu has proven to be a far more difficult challenge. There is no address to haunt. No cell phone number to call to leave nagging voice messages.
Instead, locating the living legend has involved a long adventure of itself. Asking Sakura for pointers was an obvious first step, but even the fighting fangirl admitted that at times Ryu can just plain be hard to find. But she was able to give Hotaru some general suggestions that helped her get closer. In the end it is the birds that help her. Small sparrows in the tree outside the shrine sing to each other, passing along rumors of a friendly human female in search of a man who matches Ryu's description. Birds are gossipy creatures, and it isn't long before Hotaru slowly begins the long climb up the stairs to the shrine itself. One of the feathered messangers rests on her shoulders, occasionally turning its head to play with her pigtail. Maybe it thinks it's some kind of silly looking wing.
She can feel it as she gets closer to the shrine. The nexus here. The confluence of energies that flow in and out of this place. Unlike the master who meditates at the top, she can only sense what is, but cannot quite understand why it is. Understanding is what she seeks, but she hasn't come to commune with the mountain. Though perhaps she should.
Cresting the top of the stairs, Hotaru walks into the courtyard, approaching the small building. The moment her eyes rest upon the meditating Ryu, the girl stops short. Dressed in her expensive, traditional Chinese styled outfit that she prefers above all other attire, she doesn't quite fit the humble shrine maiden look. Though there is something about her demeanor that has caused some to suggest that she could pursue just a career path sometime. Hands clasp behind her back as she stands silently, her heart racing. At last she has found /him/. But how will he react to having his peace disturbed?
Unlike other top-tier fighters, Ryu has had long history of generally shunning winnings or any attempt to profit off of his status, needing nothing more than what he has gained from the experience. While he has no servants or representative to rebuff eager fans, he is often just as well protected (Or perhaps better, some might argue) by his uncanny ability to simply drop off the Earth at a moments notice. Yet it is never out of a desire to elude anyone but simply a part of his own wandering nature. People were fine..but too many people tended to crowd and overwhelm a given area with their chatter and lives and simple problems, all of which did some part to disrupt the flow of energy and render cities a largely cacophonous, undecipherable mishmash of chaotic power flows to one of the King of Fighters' senses. Thus, he tended to go where people simply weren't on those many occasions when his journey necessitated private reflection.
While he does not understand the beasts of the world in quite the way Hotaru seems able, Ryu is no less aware of their presence and importance in the cycles of the mountain, and senses on the wind that carries a bird nearby the residual flow of different sort of energy. Not unnatural..simply out of a place, a visitor. In other words, one quite like himself.
His awareness of Hotaru's approach seems to affect him none. After all, he laid no claim to this shrine, nor would he attempt to. Other were as free to make tim here as he..but he had come here for a reason.
So, while Hotaru stands Ryu shall remain in solemn contemplation, his assumption simply that she too has come here for answers..though he knows not from someone rather than something. Despite the skill and power his status might suggest, his chi seems woefully ordinary in this state should she be able to sense it, matching and blending with the surrounding energy of the environment rather than standing out.
The truth is, he's... not what she expected, in person. He seems normal, familiar, simple. Just a man, clad in commonplace clothing, looking rugged only because that is how he lives. His ongoing meditations leaves Hotaru plenty of time to think twice about this, feeling nervous even approaching someone like him. Sure, it seemed easy when she talked with Sakura about him. Sakura had only good things to say about him. But now that she's here, by herself, facing him? If she didn't know his reputation, it would be a lot easier. Just a man whom might have an answer she seeks. But she knows his reputation, his record, his history as a fighter as much as anyone in the public might be able to know. And that's what makes it hard to so much as utter a sound.
How do you address someone like him? 'Sir' seems too simple. A single sound. He should have more than that. But then what? 'Excuse me mister living legend?' 'Excuse me Mister King of Fighters?' The girl spends a long moment studying him, settling on the way she decides someone like him would prefer to be greeted, based on his attire, his appearance, his habits. "Excuse me... Ryu," she states. There is no question there. She knows this is him. No question about that.
Her voice is steady even though her heart continues to race and her breaths aren't particularly clam. The bird on her shoulder takes flight then, leaving the human child alone to handle this. Bowing deeply, hands pressed together as part of a very formal gesture, Hotaru adds a moment, "Please forgive my intrusion. I had something I wanted to ask... A question I am try to answer... and I felt you might be able to help me."
Really, Hotaru spends enough time contemplating what she will say that Ryu has almost forgotten about her by the time she speaks. He knew there was someone there, of course and they hadn't yet left from his space, but his growing meditation had summarily swept all that by the wayside as his concentration grew even deeper. Yet her words..rather her plea serve as an anchor to the waking world to which Ryu gradually follows, eyelids calmly parting to reveal complacent brown eyes, holding the girl in an acknowledging thrall. It's not meant to the be intimidating in the slightest, for there is not hint of even slightest irritation in that lucid gaze...indeed, one would be hard-pressed to discern any particular emotion, which some might find slightly perturbing.
"A question.." For him? Is that what she was saying? Arising from meditation was a rather odd experience, not unlike waking from sleep. One might tend find the self a bit lagging in immediate perceptions and reactions, the natural crawl of reality builfing up tick by tick until it all came back in a flood of recognition.
Hm..who was this girl, anyways? He knew not her face, but she certainly seemed young..perhaps a little bit younger than Sakura. And yet she'd apparently sought him out specifically for whatever it was that she was seeking. "There is no intrusion here...this place is open to all who come with respect and a desire to know. If you have indeed come this far specifically to seek me.." A knowing tone in his voice reflect some knowledge of the fact that locating him is no simple task at times, "Then I certainly shall not turn you away with your question unasked, though I do not know how much help I may be.." Still, he seems perfectly amenable to trying, "Your name?" He'll add, almost as an afterthought.
Coming up out of the brow, the young fighter's eyes rest upon him once more, studying his face, his arms, his posture, his demeanor. As he mentions all are free here, she dips her head slightly out of respectful acknowledgement for his wise observation. Taking that as an invitation, the girl kneels down on the ground, just outside of the shrine itself, as if not ready to share the same floor space with one like him, for all of his unassuming behavior.
Her hands rest against her knees as she looks at the famous fighter, seemingly not so nervous around him as to be afraid to look at him directly for all the difference she believes there to exist between them. "My name is Hotaru Futaba. I am a friend of Sakura Kasugano... She has often mentioned you." He's probably not surprised by that at all. "I-... well, I know you spent time teaching her, acting as her mentor over the years. I know you were there to care for her, doing the best you could during what happened in Thailand to help her get back on track... You've taught her not just how to fight, but more than that."
Hotaru exhales slowly after speaking on for so much all the sudden. She did promise a question, after all. And finally it comes. "I... How... how did you decide that you could teach someone else? I guess... well, really, I want to know how I can know if I am ready for that kind of burden, that level of responsability for another... I don't know how to tell though. I feel inadequate."
Ryu's eyes alight with understanding when Hotaru explains both who she is and how she happened to find her way here. A friend of Sakura's...yes, that was about all he really needed to know. The question actually goes catch him off-guard, for it's one he's often pondered himself. Why did he take on Sakura as a student, truly? And when she was ready to go out on her own, which was closer now than further, would he take on another? Additionally there was the matter of Thailand, and if he had really done as much as he could have, or should have.
The question prompts more than a few awkward moments of silence as the wander furrows his brow in thought on how to answer her, his body and chi still maintaining form in spite of the exertion of his mind. "Truthfully..when I first began to take on Sakura as a student, it was to simply...get her out of my hair, as the term may go." Perhaps an odd thing for him to say of his only student, but he's hardly done, "She was extremely persistent in pursuing me and trying to learn. At the beginning I dismissed it as the simple zeal of her youth, thinking it would be broken against reality. I thought humoring her with a few lessons would either cause her to grow bored and move on to something else or make her realize she was dealing with something beyond her scope."
At that, the ansatsuken practitioner's stalwart demeanor is broken by the small slip of a smile, "But I was proven wrong. Just the opposite happened. Giving her a taste of this life only stirred her passion for the art, and I began to look past my assumptions and see the burgeoning potential in her that had been there all along, right undernearth my nose." Brown eyes reflect pensively, looking beyond the present into the past, "I had planted a seed in unexpectedly fertile soil, and although I was unprepared I nonetheless had a responsibility to see it through. Of course, it became not just my obligation, but my pride."
"So you see, Hotaru, I never expected to pass down what I know in such a way..particularly when I still see myself as a student. It just kind of happened." He regars her intently now, considering the girl's ending words, "You're young...as young as Sakura, at least. I won't tell you what to do...but to take on a student is a great responsibility.." His gaze wanders off to the side for a moment, "..And failure can extract a heavy toll. Upon the body, the soul and the heart..." Yet he's not one to take such a consistently pessimistic view, "But, so can they be so enriched by success."
Leave it to the small fighter to drop the real bombs when it comes to questions. She is different from Sakura even though the two have overlapping dreams in a sense. To improve, fight hard, and learn. But maybe also teach? Far more quiet, prone to listening instead of speaking. Thinking more than acting. Ryu's words are listened to in complete silence. The intensity with which the girl is looking at him suggests that she isn't letting anything he says slip by. The words of a living legend aren't taken lightly by her at all by her.
She smiles a little as he admits that he was proven wrong by the archetypical fighting school girl. Sakura's fighting spirit has been an inspiratin for her own endeavors. Seeing what she has been able to do has forced Hotaru to try harder, push her limits, and not give up. And really, that's all thanks to the chance Ryu took. "I... watching Sakura has always been a motivation for me. Thank you for doing what you could for her." Hotaru admits openly, bowing her head respectfully.
She's quiet then, thinking about the part of his answer that was very much directed at her. There is wisdom there. It just happened... but he didn't fight it. Not as hard as he could. He saw their paths intersecting and rather than chose another fork, finally accepted that was the way it was to be. Perhaps that is how she might need to think about it...
But as he said. "The costs of failure are severe. Life alteringly powerful, one might imagine, to accept the task of molding and guiding another soul only to come up lacking." Hotaru murmurs somberly, voicing her thoughts outloud. How would anyone recover from that? "The pressure seems incredible. But... the alternative; to close oneself off from another out of fear of what may happen, seems just as bad in the big picture. I guess... I guess there's no way to know for sure if we can do it. Because if we could tell how it would turn out, then we would be able to predict the future and probably be too busy doing that to teach anyone," she finishes with a faint, careful smile on her lips, her blue eyes glancing back up from her lap toward Ryu.
Well, Sakura had become much more tempered since when she started out...but she would likely always have that impetuous fire in some form no matter what. It just wouldn't be her without it. Ryu however is quick to deflect any overmuch praise upon him for her prowess, "I merely provided the path..Sakura was the one who tread it." It's her achievement to him, and he'll be taking part in them less and less as time goes on, he feels.
As the young girl responds, the King of Fighters grants the courtesy of hearing her out every bit as intently as she did him. Despite her youth, the recognition of the cost when one takes on a student stands out as a mark of maturity to the seasoned fighter, nodding his head at severl parts of her statement, "Oftentimes, just the fear of failure can be enough to take the tolls I have mentioned...and realize them as a result." It is a demon he has struggled with not only with his guidance of Sakura, but with the progression of his own spirit as well.
"Still, the road not traveled is always a poigant remind in the back of our minds...of what could've been." Still, he feels a measure of concern for Sakura's friend, wondering just what she might be getting herself into, "But as I said, you are still young. I find...or rather, I have been told that one should treasure their youth, and not endeavor to take on the reponsibilities of an adult too quick. You will have the rest of your life for that, and I do not doubt there will be many opportunities." A shrug punctuates the spoken thought, "Yet there is still sense in what you say."
As Ryu deflects praise for the part he played in Sakura's growth, Hotaru's smile softens, her respect for the man increasing every moment she spends in his company. She has her own teachers with the Sakazaki's, for better or for worse. But she can see now what drove Sakura to learn from this legend. Humility abounds, coupled with wisdom and experience. It's a powerful combination, before even considering his abilities as a warrior.
"Thank you," the girl states when he finishes speaking. He didn't provide a straight answer to her question because in truth, there couldn't possibly be one to offer. The hardest questions tend to be that way. There is a bow from her kneeling position, hands planted against the ground, and then the girl pushes herself to her feet. "You have given me a lot to think about. Or, rather, provided me with more perspective with which to consider what I was already thinking about. I... don't know what to do yet. But I feel better informed to make the right choice."
Once standing, the girl bows again. "Farewell," comes the parting as she turns, hands clasped behind her back once more. One of the nearby swallows comes to rest upon her shoulder as Hotaru approaches the stairs to lead back down to the bustling world of civilization at the bottom of the mountain. She wonders if she will ever see him again. This experience alone has shown her what great men can become. Powerful yet humble, wisdom coupled with experience... One last glance is cast over her shoulder toward the meditating Ryu, a quiet smile at her lips. Then, looking forward once more, the girl descends out of sight.
Log created on 22:12:07 09/08/2007 by Hotaru, and last modified on 19:29:28 09/09/2007.