木村京之介清光。 "My past has tasted bitter
For years now.
So I wield an iron fist. Grace is just weakness,
Or so I've been told.
I've been cold, I've been merciless. But the blood on my hands
Scares me to death.
Maybe I'm waking up today. I'll be good, I'll be good.
And I'll love the world like I should.
I'll be good, I'll be good." haedal.
With his apology, there was no more reason to be angry–or at the very least, that was what Seungyeon thought, her eyes still wary as she scrutinized the male lightly. He did seem rather sincere at the apology, after all. Clearly, he was more than capable that what he let on, considering that he had managed to mine out such confidential information about herself, which only pertained to members of her own household.
“I should be addressing you as Lord Kimura then.”Seungyeon’s eyes flicked up towards his rather assertively as she dropped into a formal bow of the noble ladies of Joseon. “ Please–don’t call me My Lady. Seungyeon would simply suffice.”
Half of her was truly curious. How did he even manage to do it? Seungyeon suppressed the flicker of curiousity in her eyes, her lips thinning slightly into a pursed line lightly. His talk about women being able to wield swords and weapons, write freely and learning literature sent a sharp pang of indignance on her chest, the very thought of displeasure against what was her culture causing her her throat to bob tightly, long lashed eyes quivering and slightly alarmed.
She would never tell him this–but the free spirit that resided within her, agreed with him in its entirety.
“Is it–Is it really like that back in your home?” Raw hunger bled into the tone of her voice, curiousity mixed with something of a half-hearted disapproval mingling into her delicate but pretty features. “I mean no offence, but all your women are allowed to wield swords, weapons, read and write?” Her voice almost fell into an awed whisper. “If it is, then–how..how wonderful.” Her voice hitched slightly at the thought of her own restrictive culture, lightly wistful and dreamy. But his next words made her narrow her pretty eyes almost sharply.
“Mostly, when people say that they’re someone not to be worried about, they are someone to be worried about. So don’t try that with me.” She scoffed slightly, unsheathing the sword with practiced ease, graceful and fluid as a steady stream as she allowed the sword to become something more like an extension of her own arm, languidly moving through a few slashing and thrusting sword techniques to loosen up her body. A strange grace dominated the sword techniques that Seungyeon had demonstrated–starkly different from the sharp edged techniques of the males, and a sweet, softer but equally deadly edge of precision to the blade that she wielded. In fact, under her demonstration, what was a stoic and blunt sword technique, composing of simple sharp thrusts became a movement more like a gentle but fluid dance, quick, lively and yet sharp.
It was her own edge that Seungyeon had incorporated into the sword techniques she had stolen from her brother’s lessons, her own twist of what she felt was the true essence of the Muyedobotongji and the way of the sword.
Seungyeon gave a mild exclamation of admiration as she stopped, letting the sharp side of the blade rest against her palm, her eyes glittering and smile spreading as she lifted the blade to the light almost excitedly.
“You have a wonderful sword.” She breathed, reverent in admiration. “ Its–Its just perfect in its balance and weight.” A light huff of disappointment escaped her lips. “ I wish I had a sword like that.” She passed the sword back to Kiyomitsu with a soft sigh and a gentle shrug. “Pity, really. Perhaps I would have danced for you if we weren’t in such an open area. Anyone would be able to see me disgrace my name and family name by performing the sword dance for a unmarried male, or even a male. Swords dances by tradition are only danced by the gisaengs, and not noble ladies.” She lifted her eyes lightly to his, holding out the sword with a gentle smile for him to take. “ Perhaps another day, Lord Kimura. If you’re ever willing to exchange information for a dance, the offer will still stand–just in a more private space than out in the open fields like this.” She paused for a moment. “Out in the open, we never know what eyes and ears might hear–or what little birds would transport the news of me meeting you and performing for you back to my father. If that happens–you’d probably see me disowned, give or take a few days. Or married off to be tamed.”
His face was rather relaxed as she spoke, his eyes keeping focused on her face and her body language. Her emotions and thoughts on what he had said about the women of his home land were clear: she seemed almost envious. It was as if she wanted to seem put off by the thought, but the truth of the matter was that she envied their freedom. Or so he could assume.
“It is this way back home. Not all women, no. Mostly the noble women. There are also samurai women who receive the same amount of training as the men. With men away so much during the wars, wives and daughters must know how to protect the home and their children, though. My own mother often carries daggers on her when we are home. It’s hectic back home, but there’s quite an amount of freedom.” He narrowed his eyes as she seemed to prepare herself to perform for him. His own curiosity began to rise up again.
He raised his own chin slightly as he watched her begin to move. So, the rumors were true. She could dance with a sword, which meant she may be able to fight with one, though performing with a sword and fighting with a sword were not exactly the same thing. Still, his lips curled into a smile once again as he watched her. It gave him a sense of satisfaction for his assumption to have been right.
“Thank you,” he murmured with a smile as she complimented his sword. It was a fairly fine one, though not as nice as his father’s own sword of course. Though, his sword would become Kiyomitsu’s in the future, eventually. “Perhaps, if you ever come across information that might interest me, I could do another trade with you as well. Information in exchange for your very own sword, hm? One suitable for your body size as well.”
What an interesting trade that could be. Where would she hide the sword from her family? Well, that wasn’t really any of his own concern. Anyways, it was obvious that he had not quite seen the extent of her swordplay talent. It was a disappointing ending to her performance, to hear that she was stopping before anyone might catch her performing for him, but he could understand her worries.
“A shame, really. I would have hoped to have seen more of your talents today, but I can understand your hesitation. Perhaps another time, then.” He paused in his words then, glancing around them before leaning in closer to her. “Just between you and I, but I believe it’s always good to have a few secrets up your sleeve. You never know when something like this might benefit you in the future.”
“There are seven emotions: joy, anger, anxiety, adoration, grief, fear, and hate, and if a man does not give way to these, he can be called patient.”
A trip back to Japan was something that Kiyomitsu often looked forward to. It had been some time since he had stepped foot on the earth of his home land now, and he was anticipating meeting up with the other men and women that he had grown up with in the capital. Boys that he had practiced sword fighting alongside of; girls that he had imagined that one day he might marry (or take as a lover, either way really). Those were the things he had enjoyed prior to the numerous back and forth trips from his home land to Joseon, which he dreaded each time.
Now, he didn’t hate the other land. Hate was a strong word, and his father had taught him not to focus on his own strong emotions. Those made him weak. They gave his enemies a chance to catch him with his guard down. No, he didn’t hate Joseon, but he would much have preferred to stay at home, regardless of the bloodshed and fighting. Regardless of the fact that, had he spent more time in Japan, he might have found himself bleeding to death on a battlefield somewhere, or with his head cut off and stuck on a spike.
Perhaps, then, Joseon wasn’t so bad of a place to be spending most of his own life. Yes, it could have been worse for himself. He got the riches and clothing without the bloodshed and fighting. He got to come home and be pampered and called Kiyomitsu-dono or Kiyomitsu-sama. And, then, he got to flee back with his family to Joseon, where he merely watched the noble families there deal with their own issues, while he practiced his arts and listened to his father talk of court problems. So was the easy life of a Japanese lord in a foreign country.
Not so easy actually. He still found himself in trouble from time to time, whether it was by his own fault or by some rumor that had been spread because a foreign son was a much easier target than one of their own noble sons. He also probably should not have been trying to sleep with married noble women but... arrogant boys will be arrogant boys.
Somehow, he always managed to get out of trouble, probably because his father was a foreign dignitary from Japan and he had the power to convince other daimyou back home in Japan from constantly pirating Joseon shores and plundering small coastal villages. It was always good to have a father who really had your back.
Now, when his ship landed back home in Japan this time around, their first stop was of course the capital, near where his father’s buildings and lands still were. The capital was also Kiyomitsu’s birth place as well, and this had all led to his zokumyou, Kyonosuke. It roughly meant ‘one who helps the capital’ and Kiyomitsu often took this role of his rather seriously. His first loyalty, always, was to his home and emperor, no matter where he lived at the time.
The excitement of seeing his old friends and comrades soon died down, though, as he actually did begin to meet up with them once again. Now mostly all in their early or mid twenties, the boys and girls he had once played and grown with as a child were almost all married and with young children of their own. Some of them had even died in battle, or in fires set to their homes. Some had been taken as hostages by other warlords, with no way for him to know how they were doing now.
“You haven’t been married yet, Kiyomitsu?” One male friend of his had asked, after explaining his new rank and his life as a married man, already with two children. One boy and one girl. Had things really changed so much since he’d last spent time back home? It almost felt shameful to answer no to his friend’s question.
The girls he’d once imagined marrying as a child, too, were almost all married off now as well. This was bound to happen, he had figured, considering his mother and his father had never arranged a marriage for him back home. They’d wanted a marriage for him in Joseon. A political tie between the two kingdoms, of course. This was not really a new idea for any kingdom, whether it was Joseon, Nippon, or the Great Ming Empire.
New feelings began to overwhelm him instead of the usual joy of coming home. Anxiety, fear. He didn’t often feel these things normally. But how could he not worry? Everyone else was married. Everyone else had children. And yet, here he was, reaching his twenty fourth year, with no marriage even in sight for him.
“Do not worry, Kiyomitsu. Perhaps your father is waiting for a Joseon family to approach him first. Or, perhaps, he will allow you to choose someone for yourself,” a cousin of his in Japan had tried to console him. Of course, these arguments were valid. But, worries he had never focused on were now bubbling up in his own mind. He needed a son. Soon. Because, if something were to happen to him, his brother and his lineage would take over their family, not his or his own lineage. He couldn’t have that, now could he? How awful, to think that his legacy could be wiped away so easily without a wife and a son.
His father, on their trip back to Joseon, seemed to have picked up on these worries eating away at his eldest son’s mind. Another scolding ensued, of course. “You have to control your emotions. You let any of them take over you, and you lose control of yourself, and then you’re in no position to hold any control over anyone else. Patience, Kyosnouke. Everything will come to you, if you have patience.”
Didn’t her father manage to contain all these rumours? She did recall him saying something along the lines of such rumours being repressed–unless one of their servants serving him had saw it fit to let something slip. Seungyeon nearly gritted her teeth in chagrin at the thought, her dark but long lashed eyes flickering lightly as she eyed the male before her a little balefully.
“You have quite the knowledge of our noble customs and culture, and yet–you still ask me to perform for you. With a sword.” A wry smile flitted across her pretty face. “What if I don’t know how to even wield one, and these rumours were something merely something baseless and made up by someone else?” It ticks Seungyeon off but yet pleases her at the same time that the strange male has asked her to perform for him, a deep sense of shame overtaking her lithe body at the pleased thought of being able to perform for someone else.
What did he expect her to be? A gisaeng instead of a noble lady? Not that Seungyeon found the idea of gisaengs offensive, per say. She often did admire their freedom their ability to learn so much knowledge and yet come away without the trappings of a noble family. How free they seemed to be–
But still–the ability to wield the sword yet again, to feel its heavy weight against her very palm–was more enticing to her free spirit in spite of her reservations, having been recently and heavily trapped by the countless amounts of etiquette classes she had had to attend, in lieu of her father finding out of her secret in learning swordplay all on her own.
“But let’s be a little fair. I dance for you–you tell me something that I want to know. How does that sound?” She lifts the sheathed blade from his hand, whirling it with a sharp snap of her wrist to land lightly on his shoulder, shoulders straight and beautiful eyes proud. “If not, we can forget about you ever asking for this..favour. Furthermore, I still have learnt of your name either. The provision of a name is a basic courtesy, is it not?” She tilts her head, wind rustling through her skirts lightly as she hummed. “I’m Lady Bae Seungyeon–the youngest daughter of Vice Supreme Commander Bae.” She dropped into a perfect form of a formal bow, noting his rich clothes and luxurious appearance. “It is pleasing to make your acquaintance.” Now that was entirely a lie–there was nothing pleasing about making his acquaintance. At least, for now, considering that the male had simply marched up to her and demanded rather brusquely that she dance for him with a sword, as though commanding her to do so. Seungyeon’s pride itself had been hurt, but her delicate features smoothed over quickly and lightly, replacing such momentary displeasure with a sharper, piercing expression than her usual blase face.
This is what he had wanted; to find out if the rumors were true. To have someone elses secrets all to himself. Kiyomitsu’s lips curled into a small smile, his eyes narrowing slightly as he listened to her words. Pride was something that all humans found important universally, wasn’t it? He had cornered her alone and poked at her pride, both as a lady, but also her own personal pride. The pride she probably held towards her talent with the sword, if the words whispered to him were true.
“Forgive me, my Lady,” he began, his voice soft and his hands grasped behind his back after she had taken the sword from him. “I mean no disrespect when I ask this. Actually, perhaps it’s my own culture speaking, but I believe it’s rather important that a woman know how to protect herself. Don’t you think so? Home is quite different from here. Women warriors, poets, writers.” Perhaps, when the endless wars and conflicts back home were resolved, things would be different, but for now, a woman wielding a sword or ink was only a strange thing for him to come across here. And it thrilled him.
The fact that she didn’t know his name did not surprise him in the least. He was, after all, not someone of extreme great importance here in Joseon. Back home, perhaps, where he longed to be, his name and rank would be much heavier, but here, it was not. And perhaps, because of that, here was safer than there. In Japan, someone might well be after his head, but here, he was free to watch the story unfold without worrying for his own life necessarily. At this point, at least.
“Kimura Kiyomitsu, eldest son of Deputy Kimura. Not someone you should worry about, you see. Just curious about you. I know who you are, and about your family and such. The pleasure is mine." There’s a hint of amusement in his voice during his last sentence, as though he was aware that this was not quite a pleasure for her. Though, his mind was more focused on the trade she had proposed before. She would dance with a sword, for some knowledge that he might have? About himself, or someone else? It was a curious proposal, and he hoped that the rumors of her skill were true, just to satisfy his own curiosity.
"I’m only honest when it rains. If I time it right, the thunder breaks when I open my mouth. (I wanna tell you, but I don’t know how). I’m only honest when it rains. An open book with a torn out page, and my ink’s run out. (I wanna love you, but I don’t know how).
There was a rumor floating around that he had heard. Perhaps it was none of his business, but he couldn’t help but to be interested in it. He knew from his childhood and from his father’s stories that upperclass women or samurai wives were often skilled with knives and swords, but he hadn’t really heard of a woman here having any skill as far as swordplay was concerned.
He couldn’t help in that case but to approach the subject of the rumor, a young lady known as Bae Seungyeon. It wasn’t often that he was able to approach daughters of other families for personal reasons, but even a had his ways. Or more like, he knew where to find her in particular. Maybe he thought that he was excused from some customs due to his foreign title. However he had done it, he had managed to find her alone.
“Little birds told me a secret,” he began quietly, “about you. It’s not really proper for a lady to be practicing the sword, is it?”
His voice trailed off as he approached her, and he extended his hand out, a sheathed blade in it for her to take. His eyes narrowed slightly in curiosity as he studied her face as he spoke. It was hard to discern from Kiyomitsu’s voice if he was being threatening or not, his voice actually lacking any sort of strong emotion. His father had been helping him to work on that.
“Part of me doesn’t even believe them. So, go on. Show me. Can you dance with a sword?”
Hi I’m new here. I like to make soft and kind muses with dark twists so hellooo. Introducing Kimura Kiyomitsu, the twenty four year old eldest son of Deputy Kimura. I really enjoy historically driven plots and roleplays, and I love the Sengoku period (which would be happening over the sea in Japan at right around the time that this rp is set), so I’d love to learn a little about what was happening over in Korea at about this time. I understand somewhat how Japanese/Korean relations were then, too, so I’m interested in that aspect as well for our muses.
Most of the muses will know him as Kiyomitsu unless otherwise plotted, where they may be allowed to call him by his more casual given name of Kyonosuke (if they grew up together or are family ex: his brother). I imagine he’ll be on good terms with most muses since he’s been on his best behavior here, but if you have a muse who is a little more cautious or distrusting, they might pick up that he’s not being completely honest about his thoughts or motives most of the time.
More Facts:
Grew from a loud and rambunctious child to a well mannered and artsy adult.
Fidelity? lol what’s that?? Loyalty WHO?? This kid doesn’t know the definition of loyalty, whether it’s to a person, lover, country, or religion.
Loosely based on the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu who started the Edo period in Japan.
10/10 would backstab someone without them knowing and then smile to their face.
Out here to fuck shit UP.
But really he’s not that bad.
Mostly just has his own agenda and doesn’t care for anything that doesn’t interest him.
Once he has something he likes, he is actually rather loyal to it.
Genuinely cares for people less fortunate than himself.
Most of his views are going to be based on the way his family probably would have been raised in Japan. IE: The tradition of shuudou, where male members of the samurai class sleep together to form tighter bonds and ties. This mean he might be sleeping with males, but regardless of how the other half feels, it’s strictly business.
tangentwithtanner
turnnoffyourmind
vaporwave
