Wild Ideas [Kyo, Izumi]

It'd been a decent while since Kyo had to do much of anything in terms of bigger assignments, and frankly, he wasn't the sort to be too upset about all that. He still had all his regular lunches with Kasha, still took Asami out to dinner when they had the time, but even with those typical diversions it felt like he had extra time to kill.

Did he mind that? Nah, not really in the slightest. If anything, it gave him a lot of time to actually improve rather than just going through the ropes. Training for combat, training in the shinigami arts, but perhaps most ignored until recently, training in the arts. He'd managed to keep up with his poetry, at the very least, but now he'd been able to start looking at other forms again, and he'd heard a rumor that he really couldn't pass up. A member of the 2nd division, ostensibly the very same painter his father had purchased multiple pieces from over the years.

Kyo was certainly a smart enough man to know the value of learning from a master, and as such, he found himself now in the 2nd division.

"Kamishiro Izumi?"

While he would have typically burst in with all his usual noise, he was for once going out of his way to seem respectful, polite. That was only natural in a situation like this, after all.

"Eh? What do you want?"

She responded, the shihakusho lazily put together with no real care other than to be properly dressed for the duty. This whole shinigami thing was such a bore, just something that got in the way of her own passion. It did come with some perks though such as learning how to mess with the spiritual energy, one thing that did bother her about it was the fact she felt hungry all the time. How many years had she gone without needing to eat? More than a few times she had fainted from not eating and ignoring it.

Putting down the sheets of paper which she had been painting on, something she'd likely throw away despite the fact that any of the nobles that existed around her would spend many a pouch of kan for but it was just doodles and if it wasn't good enough for her then she'd throw it away like the trash it was. That's the way of the Cherry Blossom Lady, if it didn't truly capture the beauty of the world then it wasn't something she wanted to take pride in.

"Sorry for coming unannounced, but I didn't think making some big announcement would really be worth doing."

Kyo's eyes briefly moved over the works she'd set down, though he felt as though it was an invasion of privacy to actually give them any serious study. Instead, his gaze returned to Izumi herself, his eyes respectful but not overly serious. He had a feeling that wouldn't be the right way to deal with someone like this.

"I've been a fan of your work since I was pretty young. I was hoping you'd have the time to talk about your paintings."

Asking for something absurd like being taught outright by her would have been a stupid request to make, and frankly, Kyo's pride really wouldn't have allowed for it anyway. Even if he was planning to learn from her, he didn't want to just get taught like a child.

She looked him over, he was pretty sculpted wasn't he? Like a statue of Susanoo that was carved in a perfect embodiment of masculinity from a quick glance that had the wild and ruggedness of a storm. While she would jump at the opportunity to paint and capture that burly aura of his on a canvas.

Unfortunately that could wait since she was already in the midst of this, so finishing the quick brush stroke that looked reminsicent of a butterfly among the rest of the drops.

"Since you were young, huh."

She didn't really care much about fans or the revere that people attributed to her work. If she was famous or if she wasn't then it wouldn't bother her. All she needed was her brush and something to paint on and she'd have been satisfied with herself.

"And what do you want to know?"

"I'm curious about your inspiration more than your process. They say an artist's creations are the best way to look through their eyes, but you're probably practiced enough that you know the limits on how true that is."

Pulling his spear from his back, Kyo set it down, offering the poems etched into the shaft for her inspection if she so wished. It wasn't necessarily a request that she look at it, but it was there if she felt so inclined.

"My father recently spent quite a bit on a piece of yours. I wouldn't go around telling people this, but that's the captain of the 7th, isn't it? I'm amazed she was willing to pose for that."

He wasn't entirely sure that everyone who saw it would immediately notice, if only because Elyss didn't always give off the atmosphere that the painting had carried. Besides, it wasn't as if it was exactly like looking at a photograph or anything. He doubted too many people would make that connection.

"My inspiration is to capture all of the world in my brush strokes. For its beauty to be carried over with a single stroke and to convey the simplicity of life and its mystique in art that reflects the world."

She conveyed while glancing at the shaft, not spending too much time admiring his artistically decorated length. Wordplay wasn't exactly her forte but she did respect the artistic quality of it. So moving her eyes from that long piece of art she looked back up at him and his query as to her model. Thankfully Elyss was a memorable piece of art and not easily forgotten.

"Mhm, Elyss was the model. She was quite the exceptional model and very beautiful. I feel like my piece didn't capture the truly ferocious and rough nature of her though that she showed me afterwards. If I could do it again..."

Izumi mused to herself while thinking about how battered and bruised the red-head had left her afterwards. She skirted the line between monster and man, that made her even more exceptional in Izumi's eyes.

Kyo naturally thought on her words, and in some ways it wasn't all too surprising an answer to hear. Not that he'd necessarily anticipated some deep, life-changing answer. He knew perfectly well that coming in here and expecting some sort of deep philosophy would have been asking for failure. Not that he minded, of course. Part of art's beauty was that it could come from anyone.

Of course, he was caught more than a touch off guard at the implication of Izumi's words afterward. Honestly, he wasn't entirely sure if that entailed just violence, or something else, and he really didn't want to know, either. But it didn't stop him from laughing at the thought, a boisterous and earnest laugh that was, at its core, much of who Kyo was.

"In a lot of ways, I think it's nearly impossible to capture that sort of nature in any art. After all, wouldn't you say her whole nature is being unbridled and uncontained? Trying to capture it will always come up short."

"Nearly but not impossible. If an artist resigned to such pessmistic thoughts then there would be no reason to pursue it. If you compare it to any achievement then it's the same, that's my only goal and even if it was impossible to capture that in my art then I would invent a way to do it otherwise."

She pursed her lips, a little annoyed by the implication that she couldn't capture something in her works. If she was more vain then she might've taken it to heart and find that as a sleight against her character but instead she just dipped her brush into the ink to her side and resumed painting.

"Heh, I guess that's true. No sense in being an artist if you can't pursue it to the very end, huh? Then again, I guess that applies to life on the whole. Why bother if you're not giving it your all!"

Kyo liked that outlook she had on things. Realistically, he would probably even say it was attractive, though being a spoken for man, on top of the rest this woman's energy, made that thought not even cross his mind. He did respect it, though.

"Well, I'm not here to interrupt your work. I just wanted to talk to you for a bit, learn a little of how your head works. Oh, by the way, I get the feeling my father will probably be wanting to buy another piece from you soon, just as a heads up."

Personally, Kyo wouldn't have spent as much money on a single artist, but he wasn't going to tell his father that.

Pursuing her lips as she pulled back her brush and frowing in dissatisfaction, the artist took the paper and tore it from the pad before scrunching it in her dainty hands.

"How my head works? I guess it's simple."

Nodding to herself to affirm the facts, she did not think of herself as particularly deep or gifted, she just loved art and maybe she did have some philosophical views on the matter it was just her chosen lifestyle.

"Hmm. Another one of my pieces?"

She put the wooden tip of the brush in her mouth and bit on it a little. A little perplexed at the topic, she painted only what she wanted to paint and commissions were rare - let alone any consistent releases of her work.

"He'll have to wait I guess."

The Cherry Birch Lady was beholden to no one after all.