Mirumoto Ryujin ground his teeth silently, staring ahead as if the horizon was his dueling opponent of the day. It wasn't a look of anger, or disappointment, or even eagerness. It was the look of calculated violence. Ryujin's ancestor, the first Mirumoto, lived in his eyes and the look had unnerved even older and more experienced samurai in his adult life. "You're doing it again." Ryujin blinked and looked at the smiling shugenja in the cart by which Ryujin was riding. The recrimination had come from his long time, close friend: Tonbo Jubei. They were close enough that they even occasionally laid hand on one another in passing, had known each other while still children, and thus it was that his friend could speak to him in such a familiar way.
"Half a day into the festival, Jubei." Using his friend's first name, another sign of close familiarity and friendship in the culture of Rokugan. Even if it was on the tail end of a complaint. "We were a half day into a week long festival and we get ordered, of all places, to the Carpenter's Wall. What did you do? What did I do? Kei-sama wouldn't even see me. She just sent a messenger with a stack of orders as tall as my tanto is long." He shook his head at his own words. Ryujin, Jubei, and Jubei's yojimbo Tonbo Usagi had served with distinction in the War of Dark Fire. Even with the bit of recklessness Ryujin had displayed at first after... he shook his head gently at himself, avoiding the memory of his wife as completely as he could. She'd been at the towers when they fell, and though the two hadn't been particularly close it still felt sore to know she was gone.
Still, the Dragon Clan bushi had gotten himself together in short order and begun employing his unique take on all things tactical, exercised the powers of his friend in shaping the battlefield, and mitigated the unnatural nature of the Yobanjin deaths through clever planning. His men had taken it to heart and in the course of the battles he'd developed the habit of taking in stragglers from devastated and depleted units after battles, the swiftness of the enemy's advance keeping anybody from sending down orders to reassign those individuals, until he had twice the number he'd started out with. And then more. When it was all over he'd ended up with 83 nikutai and hohei under his command both officially and adopted. That had been mere days ago and so the string of troops behind and ahead of him on the road had become his for a lack of reassignment. He couldn't help but wonder if having so many (but not as many as the core units of his Clan's armies) had been the reason he'd been selected to respond to the reports of his Clan's allies, the Crab, of a disturbing increase in Shadowlands creatures coming toward the wall.
"Apparently she knows you," Jubei responded easily as he returned to reclining atop the baggage in the cart. The little man was more than capable of riding a horse but very much didn't care for the experience if he could find a satisfactory alternative. His smile could infuriate most anyone else in a matter of moments but Ryujin found his eternally sunny disposition an excellent counter point to his own, more serious and less gregarious personality. "You'd have been in the dojo at the embassy practicing the Thousand Years of Steel in an hour or two more. Besides, if she'd waited any longer you'd have soldiers puking off the sides of their horses."
Ryujin glanced over his shoulder at the bulk of his men and the forty ashigaru that marched behind that. More than a few looked grin around the edges as they attempted to come down from the 'celebrating' they'd been right on the cusp of overindulging in when he'd begun gathering them up to set on the march. That had resulted in a lot of men just barely sober enough to keep their opinions of the orders to themselves. An entertaining aside to the unpleasant need to inform them they had their marching orders. "Still would have liked the choice, ignoring a celebration in favor of self-improvement is vastly preferable to a long ride through Crane territory."
"Through Crane territory?! That's your grievance? Not that we are on the march itself, not that we are headed to the Kaiu Wall, but that we have to ride through the lands of the Crane Clan?" Jubei asked incredulously.
"Isn't that enough?"
".... yes... I suppose it is at that." Jubei rubbed his chin idly as he considered the question and his answer. Most of the Crane clans operated on a level of politeness that was just a smidge beyond his friend's ability to maintain interest. Not that Ryujin was a complete cad, he just didn't suffer the procrastination that came from high society lightly and that tended to rub the elites a bit wrong. His cousin, Kei, had long kept him out of the direct path of such things. Using Ryujin, rather, to deal with harsher and more practical people of rank. The Unicorn and Crab ambassadors, for instance, greatly favored the young warrior and Ryujin did a fine job of keeping them entertained for long stretches.
"You've completely forgotten what we were just talking about, haven't you." Ryujin said.
Jubei blinked and looked up, in that way he did when he'd fallen back into his own mind once again. The Crab and the Unicorn coming to visit the Dragon lands was a far cry from... whatever they'd been discussing... "Uh, where's Usagi?" Yes, distraction.
"You sent her looking for your luggage about half an hour ago, neglecting to look under yourself as that is where it all happens to be. Don't worry, she didn't notice either." Ryujin hadn't been anxious to inform her of the oversight, the two of them had a general policy of polite disinterest in one another. Ryujin saw her assignment as a bit of a slight toward his stewardship of Jubei and Usagi saw Ryujin as meddling in her duty. It kept Jubei perfectly safe, and more than a little entertained, but the two grated on one another in a quiet and casual sort of way. Ryujin turned in his saddle to address one of the samurai riding behind the wagon. "Ride back down the line, find Tonbo Usagi, and inform her that her charge has located the missing items."
"Yes my lord."
The man turned his horse out of the lines and rode toward the rear at a trot while Ryujin returned a discomforted expression forward. "That's going to take some getting used to."
"Kei's the family daimyo and the Clan Champion. She has no children and you're her only living relative until she does. You're the heir apparent, unless she makes the effort to saddle that on somebody else. Which, considering she tapped you to go represent the Dragon in responding to the disturbing reports from the Crab lands..." Jubei shrugged, his sound words just barely making it out before his eyes began to wander to the scenery once again. "I wish that woman would find my things already, I could be making some lovely drawings in my field notes."
"Your things are under you, Jubei."
"Oh... well, you're quite right, wonderful."
Ryujin merely shook his head to himself as his shugenja friend started digging through the pack in search of his desired materials.