Hotaru was right as they had talked about her and he learned some things from Mera as well. He didn't want to pry too much into her past, especially since they didn't have quite all the answers to it right now, he didn't mind telling about his travels a little.
Larel tilted his head a little before bringing a hand to his chin as he tried to think of a story to tell Hotaru, he was silent for a moment digging through his memories for one that hopefully wouldn't be too boring. He smiled a little as one came to mind before grinning turning his attention to the far wall, taking a moment to collect his thoughts.
"Well one that comes to mind is when I was serving my first master....I don't think I have the right to say his real name after my actions and perhaps not even speak of him so I hope you won't mind if I refer to him as Kuroki-san."
Larel cleared his throat before crossing his arms over his chest and closing his eyes as he started the story.
"Kuroki-san was a daimyo I served, who was intent on unifying the land and during his campaign we encountered two other daimyo who were locked in a stalemate with one another for each other lands. Both were equal in terms of troops and had more than enough supplies individually, we found out that the two had actually been engaged like this for months and hadn't moved though their hatred for each other was well known among their people. Kuroki-san considered not getting pulled into the whole dispute but the people were suffering from their actions. Their samurai were causing trouble in the villages causing all kind of chaos and the men they put in charge weren't exactly much better as they were fine so long as they got paid, even if innocent lives were lost in the middle. Noticing that Kuroki-san decided to act and try to end the rivalry between the two, he called both of them to his castle and tried to negotiate. I sat in and watched with my sensei-"
Larel stopped for a moment wondering if he had mentioned the ninja who taught him, he nodded his head as he had talked about her before continuing.
"I mean my mother and the two daimyo had no intention of coming to an agreement and almost got into a fight right then. After that Kuroki-san told me we were going to take the land from them if talking wasn't going to work. We'd have more land and could stop the problems in the villages at the same time, I didn't mind the idea and started to get our troops together but Kuroki-san told me that I was going to do it on my own as he didn't want our troops getting killed over an outside dispute. I didn't know what he meant by that and when I asked he smiled and told me to think about it."
Larel brought a hand to his chin smiling a little as he enjoyed the next part of the story and remembering the events brought a small sense of nostalgia back to those days.
"It took me longer than I care to admit to realize what exactly he meant by it but it came to me while I was watching two birds fight over a piece of food, a third one came and swiped it while they fighting and by time they realized it the third bird was long gone. I needed to get the two of them to fight one another and then we could come in during their dispute. I got to work immediately and spread ill rumors between the two, simple things like one side was running low on supplies, the others troops morale was low, I sent false letters making sure the other side would get them and wrote bad things about their wives, daughters and sons and about them as well. I didn't think it'd work that quickly but Kuroki-san told me that by sunrise they'd attack each other....and he was right. At sunrise the two had gathered all of their troops and met on the battlefield."
Larel lowered his hand chuckling a little thinking back to the look on the two's faces as they stared each other down, but he shook his head needing to finish.
"Anyway the two went at each other relentlessly and right in the middle of the battle we attacked them on both flanks and forced them to surrender. Kuroki-san took their troops into his own and the two daimyo was added into his army. Back then I mostly handled things with my sword so I didn't understand why he wouldn't just kill his enemy and even volunteered to do so. Kuroki-san told me then that a daimyo that couldn't see the world around him wasn't fit for the title. The two men may not be good rulers but they had experience that Kuroki-san saw when he watched them fight, that is was important to observe more than the outer action of a man....hmmm....actually I had forgotten the meaning of that moment....I haven't thought about that in so long."
Larel reached up and rubbed the back of his head chuckling a little.
"I suppose I spoke more of Kuroki-san than myself but that was my life at one point, doing things like that was common. We took over a whole country in three hours using that once, the look on the daimyo's face was wonderful."

Alari nodded with a smile hearing it was okay before he glanced at the building having it confirmed Mera was inside, hearing what she was probably doing his shoulders drooped a little. He did like seeing Mera in her cloak but he was going to miss her kimono, a small sigh escaped from him but he didn't say anything as he noticed something seemed to be bothering Mary and he wasn't going to bring up such a thing right now.
When Mary started talking again he turned his attention to her his eyebrows lowering a little in worry as he listened, he folded his hands together as she mentioned their friendship and he smiled in response before turning his attention forward closing his eyes as she mentioned Mera as well.
Reaching up Alari removed his glasses before opening his eyes, a dull red glow coming from them as he cleaned his glasses with a white handkerchief.
"Would you mind if I mentioned something Mary?" Alari asked a small smile on his face. "It's merely my opinion but I agree that you should be more independent though I wouldn't say so in front of Mera and I can understand being frightened as there are many bad things in the world."
Alari put his glasses back on giving them a little push before he continued looking over at Mary.
"However I wouldn't put aside the dependence on your siblings, perhaps physically but not emotionally. It's okay to stand on your own two feet but doing so alone is hard and most times very painful. In the end everyone has to walk on their own eventually, but it's the bonds we make during our time together that helps move us forward when frightening things present themselves. It's the knowledge that though bad does exist in the world there's just as much good alongside it and you've got just a little bit extra of that from your siblings and hopefully from Kaori and me. You are right that you shouldn't compare yourself to your siblings, there's only one Mary and she's irreplaceable thus comparing her to anything else is an impossibility."
Alari shrugged at this with a smile considering it common knowledge before he reached over and put a hand on her head.
"You'll be fine because you are who you are Mary. Do what you feel is right as that what matters in the end. I believe in you, Kaori believes in you and I'm positive your siblings do too. Anytime you want and only if you want, you can complain to me anytime so don't worry about that. I'm sure your siblings wouldn't mind either...I'm sure Kaori would try at least but no guarantee....anyway I'll stop there I don't want to chew your ear off with all my talking."
Alari removed his hands and stood up from the bench before brushing off his bottom and stretching looking back at Mary once he lowered his arms.
"I'm happy we could become friends too Mary and I think Mera had good company before us if you guys were with her." Alari said with a smile. "I'll take any optimism over recent circumstances as well."
Alari crossed his arms closing his eyes for a moment as he didn't want to linger too long so Mera came out, it was their personal time together after all.
"During the fireworks Kaori saw something in you, he wouldn't tell me what but he took it upon himself to try and bring your smile back. He worries about you too Mary, and it takes something extremely interesting to keep Kaori's attention so that's a miracle in itself."
Alari turned to walk away but stopped for a moment and rubbed the back of his head.
"I suppose I worry too but that comes with caring about someone so it's a natural reaction. Having someone worry about you isn't something one misses until no one does it anymore....I'll just stop, I really will start sounding like an Oji-san if I keep talking."