Yoshiko's 20Qs

1. No clan--Yoshiko's ronin. Her parents were dismissed from a branch of the Utaku shortly before she was born.
2. Her own. They were formerly Utaku but...
3. Bushi, for whatever that means to the rest of society, being ronin and all.
4. Others would describe Yoshiko as a pretty girl in her late teens or perhaps early twenties--she has the kind of face that could belong in either category--with a lean, muscular body, tanned slightly from harsher living, and having waist-length black hair usually tied into a high ponytail. Her clothing is cared for, if well-worn, and she tends to keep both her daisho and her yumi on her as much as possible, especially while out hunting. Her fingers are long and dextrous. Her eyes are blue, a holdover from a gaijin intermarriage four or five generations in her family's past and a disconcerting sight for many native Rokugani.
5. Yoshiko's primary motivation is seeing (at least) herself reestablished into the Utaku family; she has heard plenty of stories of the Battle Maidens and thinks they would make a fantastic fit for her, in spite of her advancing age and lack of horses for riding. She keeps that desire buried most of the time, though, instead telling people that ask that she would love to travel the length and breadth of the Emerald Empire and offer her sword to any that would take it.
6. She's embarrassed to say anything about it, but...there was a fox she used to see constantly while her family eked out their new life in the fringes of the Shinomen Mori, and it stuck around while she hunted and foraged enough times for her to think it tame, or maybe even a real kitsune spirit, so she would talk to it constantly. It probably knew her better than her parents did.
7. Her greatest strength is probably her tenacity, her desire (and capability) to persevere once she's set her mind to something. That's also a flaw, but a greater one is probably her tendency toward hedonism; after enough time of doing without, when she is exposed to a lack of want, she tends to go a little nuts. She lost her virginity at fifteen this way, for example.
8. Yoshiko is all for bushido, seeing it as both the goal and means to regain respectability in the eyes of the Great Clans. Still, she sometimes pays only lip service to some of the tenets--particularly that of Compassion (jin), as she feels none was shown toward her parents, having only heard their side of why they were excommunicated as ronin.
9. Yoshiko thinks the Unicorn as a whole are pretty awesome--especially the Battle Maidens. Still, even being able to just learn from the sensei of the Moto family would be a leap up for her. She's old enough now to have lost some of her youthful hot-headedness toward the clan for striking her family's name, considering it a consequence of the general Rokugani culture and its mores and rigidity.
10. No, she is not married. Who would want a ronin bride, anyway? Besides, she's too wild for her parents to properly "train" for the role of wife.
11. Yoshiko's natural honesty puts her at odds with the Scorpion, as told by her parents, but as she hasn't really met any it's a superficial prejudice. She also thinks that the Phoenix are a little too sissy for her tastes.
12. Yoshiko owes her loyalty to herself, first and foremost, and then probably her parents. She still carries a bit of respect for that fox from her childhood, as well, even though she hasn't seen it in years.
13. Yoshiko's favoritest thing is probably "experiencing life," as she puts it--those few times when she has a koku or three in hand and the time and ability to spend it in a big-city environment. Her least favorite thing? Menial chores. She's good at doing them...they're just booooooring.
14. Yoshiko is brimming with energy most of the time, so her hands are usually in constant motion, carving or skinning or tying or sewing or chopping or...
15. Having not been up in true polite society, Yoshiko is a little more prone than most to wear her emotions on her sleeve.
16. Having no chance to practice it, Yoshiko is unsure of how she'd handle having someone reporting to her in the first place, much less if and/or when they screw up.
17. Her parents would describe Yoshiko as a half-grown woman-child, capable at times of being studious and polite but preferring to be rambunctious and hard-headed, even at her age. Then again, they're ronin, and unlikely to be asked their opinion of her in the first place, so...
18. Yoshiko's highest ambition is to be re-accepted into the Unicorn so as to join the Utaku Shoujo. Again, she keeps that hidden, preferring for people to see her highest ambition as earning heaps of money by selling her sword. It's a goal she wants to achieve on her own, not through charity.
19. Yoshiko is not formally religious, although she venerates the kami as most should.
20. She hopes the answer to this question is "of old age, with family around her," but is well aware (and prepared to accept the fact) that the answer is more likely to be either "alone and forgotten" or "with a sword sticking out of her guts."