[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

Yanagijutsu
          Literally 'Willow Technique', Yanagijutsu is a specialist martial art developed in the late 2020's by Shiawase Personnel Protective Services.  Originally used almost exclusively by bodyguards for the younger children of high-ranking officials, it has since spread to other corporations as well as to the private sector.  Yanagijutsu blends elements of Tai Chi Chuan, Aikido, and Kenjutsu, and trains its practitioners to recognize - and either prevent or evade - incipent attacks.  It received its name due to the agility typical of its practitioners in avoiding close attacks - typically in order to get the user's principal out of the combat zone.
          Yanagijutsu members train vigorously in close combat both with and without weapons, especially to be able to draw and attack with a melee weapon at a moment's notice.  Their principals are frequently taught to cling to the back of their bodyguards, who wear special harnesses for just such a necessity.  This enables them to carry their protectee while defending against multiple attackers as well as with paired weapons.  It is not uncommon for such practitioners to bear dai-sho, the twin swords of the samurai, and such bodyguarding duty is often the task of especially-agile corporate samurai.  Yanagijutsu practitioners commonly also learn the Agile Defender Positive Quality, to capitalize on a high Agility.
          Available Techniques: Iaijutsu, Multiple Opponent Defense (Previous Attacks), Opposing Force (Parry), Two-Weapon-Style Defense, Willow Bend, Willow Sway


New Techniques
Willow Bend
Those who learn Yanagijutsu are trained early on to gain combat awareness, whether in regards to close or firearm-range combat. The initiative reduction of Full Defense becomes -7 instead of the standard -10.

Willow Sway
As stated, those who study the Willow Technique train specifically to recognize and respond to incipient attacks.  As a single Free Action, the character can use any two Pre-Emptive maneuvers (Pre-Emptive Block, Pre-Emptive Dodge, Pre-Emptive Parry), chosen at the time of use.  This takes -10 from the character's initiative score, and can only be done on the character's action phase.

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

Thoughts, comments, balance concerns?

[Lucean]

Definitely interesting from a flavor perspective.

I don't think though, that Willow Sway makes sense combat wise. You move and act differently for each defense. Block and Parry are exclusive, as you can hardly be armed and unarmed at the same time. Blocking also means that you go for the hand/arm, while with parry you concentrate on the weapon. Both can't obviously be used, when you try to entirely avoid the attack. Letting the attack drop off your weapon is not the same as dodging.

I'm not sure also, if Willow Bend is too good to be true, especially with Agile Defender. If you want to go for the stylized "moving just enough to avoid the hit" from many martial arts movies, I would suggest to add the drawback that a tie now goes to the attacker. It's rewarding, but also a bit riskier.

Did I understand you right, that while bodyguarding, the character would be supposed to be able to carry another person around? Not only would that be difficult because of the lifting/carrying rules, it should also severely hamper the mobility of the character. Bodyguards IMHO shouldn't dodge, they should use Protecting the Principle. But that would be just a flavor thing for me regarding the purpose of the martial art.

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

In regards to Willow Sway, you're mistaken on pretty much every count.  The point of all of the active defenses is 'do not take damage'.  Do not for a moment believe that a weapon parry is any different in execution than an unarmed 'block'; they have those names in order to differentiate themselves for the RPG, not because you can't execute an unarmed 'block' via a slap against their forearm in order to make them miss.  Nor are they exclusive - unless, of course, you feel you cannot act with an unarmed hand while your other possesses a weapon, or even with the hand that holds the weapon.  Having experience with rapier combat, I can say otherwise for both scenarios; I've successfully parried a rapier with my forearm, for god's sake.  And in all cases, especially with an art where the primary idea is 'getting out of the way', very often a successful block or parry is half-dodge - it's called footwork.  And in the game, no 'active defense' is exclusive from any other; if you can persuade your GM to convert a simple action into a free one (or even two!) you could have all three active defense actions going at once; the only thing preventing it is your initiative and when you get to declare them active.  You can, of course, house rule that they're mutually exclusive, but that isn't held up in the game - or in reality, either.

In regards to Willow Bend, I have no intention of giving the tie to the attacker; you're spending 5 points of karma in this case to shave 3 points of initiative cost from a wholly-defensive maneuver that eats up 10; it's a matter of training and inclination.  Or are you thinking that if someone uses Full Defense, the attacker should win ties?

And yes, the idea here is that the bodyguard is moving the target.  This in actuality should not require getting in the way of the attack; defense can involve either armor (Protecting the Principle) or agility (Dodge).  In SR, there is no current method to get someone else out of the way of an incoming attack except to blow TWO points of Edge via Lucky Duck; that is something that needs addressing, though a GM might use the Grab and Throw rules to imitate such things.  In regards to actually carrying an individual, we are not discussing (and the above does not describe) carrying an adult:
[

... bodyguards for the younger children ...

I am fine with proposing a 2- or 4-die penalty for lugging a kid around on your back; the weight will undoubtedly throw you off somewhat.  On the other hand, accounting for that weight is exactly what the practitioners are meant to do, so one can argue just as validly that having the kid on harness on your back is what you're used to.

           "Personnel protective services," I told him, even though he was back to keeping watch, looking down the hall and out at the rag-football game two dozen grimy kids were playing.  "So far as I know, they're the only ones the gun is given to; Springfield is a wholly-owned subsidiary, and all the parts and techniques were developed in-house.  I was assigned to Hitomi Shiawase.  For two years.  She's a good little girl," I added, looking over at Suno with, I guess, a certain amount of defiance, "no matter what Sadato-san or Tadeshi-san or the rest of her family do.  She's only eight."
          "You don't strike me as a bodyguard," Palakol mused, tucking the end of the bandage into the wrap, then carefully inserting it into its place in her medkit.
          "Tend to be big and bulky," Lawin agreed.
          "Bullet magnets," noted Pating.
          "Sniper bait," suggested Lawin.
          "Target practice," offered Pating.
          "Trolls.  No offense, Pala," added Lawin.
          "None taken," the healer replied with equanimity.  "Many of them are.  Well?"  She looked at me over the woefully tiny glasses she had to use for close work; far-sighted, which is okay for a mage, bad for a healer, and fixable anywhere but in the middle of this sort of poverty.
          "Sadato-san wanted someone who blended in," I admitted.  "And someone who could get her away from trouble, not wipe trouble out."

[Lucean]

Well, you asked for opinions, didn't you?
The rules make it very clear, that you can't block while wielding a weapon.

Full Defense and Block, Dodge, or Parry can be used in conjunction with each other.

And in addition I think this sentence only makes the three melee defense options compatible with Full Defense, not with eachother. Otherwise the boldened "or" would have been an "and".

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

I'm sorry - where do the rules make it very clear that you can't block while wielding a weapon?

Since you haven't included a page reference, I'm assuming that's from the main book - before the full-turn-lasting 'Active X' defenses were introduced.  Since main-book Blocking, Dodging, and Parrying were single-action defense aborts, yes, your words make sense up to that point - because someone isn't likely to attack you with both an unarmed and armed attack in the same action.

[Lucean]

CRB p. 192:

A Block action allows the character to roll Reaction + Intuition + Unarmed Combat [Physical] as her Defense Test. In order to use Unarmed Combat in this way, the defender needs to be empty handed.

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

And to me, that means at least one empty hand.  Dunno about to you; it could be argued that 'empty-handed' means both hands have to be empty, but it can be equally argued that it simply requires one hand empty.