barrayar | idk I guess I still play this dumb asshole

Overwhelming really is a good word to describe her with, but fortunately she isn't the first of her type that he's met, and her enthusiasm is tame in comparison to some of the people he met and got to know in the past few weeks. He tries to smile at her as naturally as possible when she lifts her head and their eyes meet.

Honestly, now that the initial surprise has eased up, he's confused but not bothered. She seems like a nice girl, if only a little strange, , and a little bit of strangeness does no harm. As far as he knew, the Shindou name went back more than a century; it would make sense if it had branched off from other name or had a name that branched off from it.

He just has to get to know her, then it'll be like getting to know Okatsu, or Kinoshita, or Jeanne, or Liu Bei.

"I'm thirteen right now, in my second year of middle school. I play the piano but at school I'm a member of the soccer club. What about you, er -- Shimizu-san?"

How soon is too soon to call someone by first name? Does it matter if they're supposedly relatives?

Strange but nice is a fair assessment of Raimei. She's quickly getting her energy back after the earlier blurted fumble and leans in intently as she responds.

"Just Raimei!" she chirps back. "So you're the well-rounded type, huh? And younger than me! You'll make me look bad." Raimei offers a quick wink to show that she's teasing, although it's not far from the truth. She skips a ton of school and isn't in any clubs. Good thing she doesn't have any parents.

"I'm fifteen and just starting high school! Mostly I hang out with my friends and my brother," who are all ninja, "and practice with my sword." The way she rattles that off makes it sound like it's a perfectly normal use of time for a teenage girl...

The way she says it makes it sound just so normal, and Shindou in fact takes it as something relatively ordinary. It could just be the way she worded it.

"Iaido? That's a pretty impressive choice of activity too." Raimon Junior High had a kendo club, but this was his first time meeting someone who did iaido. At least he's assuming it's iaido. Unless she was a student from Sengoku Igajima... but she didn't seem to be from the area at all.

"Do you have anything you like to do with your friends?"

Edited 2017-01-17 22:38 (UTC)

"Um... right, iaido!" Sure, let's go with that. It's not too far off, and trying to explain that she's all about combat applications will just make her sound crazy. "My mama taught me when I was little, actually. It's a traditional Shimizu family talent!" Raimei smiles throughout this whole statement, without any flicker of grief.

That's so much easier to pull off now than it had been years ago...

"Well, Miharu-kun's family runs an okonomiyaki restaurant, so he cooks for us sometimes. But he's such a blank-face, I'm always trying to drag him and Thobari-sensei out to do things."

He's warming up to her already. He was no Kirino, he wasn't as good at casual chatter or socializing as his best friend, but he wasn't shy. It helped that she showed up a much easier time than a few months ago, too; Holy Road is over, Fifth Sector has been disbanded, the revolution was a success and he's been able to move without crutches for a few weeks, too. He can't help but feel that he would've been such a terrible host if she appeared in the middle of all that.

Listening to her talk about her friends, he finds himself smiling, relaxed, as he takes another sip of his tea and sets it down.

"Not everybody is immediately outgoing. It's good that he has a friend like you. I was the same way before I started soccer, as well, and even then, until recently..." He shakes his head. "But a teacher as well?"

Raimei's foremost strength is definitely how easy it is for her to relate to people. Miharu and Kouichi and even her brother are not the easiest people to get close to, and yet she's managed it with all of them, unerringly. She's trying to be more observant of others now so she does abstractly notice him relaxing, and is glad.

Putting a finger to her mouth in thought, she speculates out loud, "Hmm, how to explain Thobari-sensei...?" She could say he was the teacher for their ninja club, which was their ostensible surface-world cover. But instead she finds herself smiling widely and saying the truth: "Ah, I guess he's a family friend! For Miharu, and myself." Something with unexpected, deep pain behind it, but the sort of pain that comes with a healing wound. It's good, that they know about Thobari-sensei, now. Their secrets are all over with.

The war is done. Sometimes that doesn't seem real.

"But Banten is pretty small, so he's actually our teacher, too. But don't give Miharu too much sympathy-- he's not shy, he's just lazy! Mr. No-Effort. Do you have any friends like that?"

He chuckles at that. Not an unfriendly sound.

"I don't think we have anyone like that on my team. Perhaps one overenthusiastic one we can't always keep up with, but that's the opposite. Everybody is motivated and go all out for our sport."

Their adviser once referred to their team as the wind of revolution, but that term applies better to just one boy, he thinks. Tenma was the one who changed everything for them with his forward-looking eyes and unwavering enthusiasm. Before that...

"At least, we are now. Until a few months ago, most of us couldn't give our all because we were afraid to stand up against something we felt was an absolute authority, and we didn't make the effort to fight back against it until recently, when someone showed us the way."

That sounds pretty dramatic for sports.

Raimei exhibits her usual lack of brain-to-mouth filter by saying a moment later, brow furrowed, "That's pretty dramatic for sports. What kind of authority was that? You can't let some arrogant jerk with a complex keep you down, if that's what it is!"

She smacks a curled fist into her other palm, not like a punch but straight down, to make a point. Guess who serves that role on her team? Not knowing when to quit was basically Raimei's job.

Her lack of filter doesn't make him falter one bit. The smile hasn't faded from his face, and his expression seems to wordlessly say, I thought you'd say that. Truth be told, that is in fact exactly what he's thinking.

"I have noticed that soccer seems to get a little more... excitement, I suppose you can say, than the other sports. I've talked to classmates from different clubs, and that's the impression I've gotten."

None of them have had to travel through the time-space continuum because somewhere in the future (two hundred years from now, to be specific) the pursuit of stronger and stronger soccer had given birth to a genetic mutation that resulted in children being born with psychic powers and consequentially short lifespans, and how discrimination against those children had pushed them to guerrilla warfare.

... He's glad it's just one sport.

"That threat is already gone. The current captain of our team wouldn't ever let us play so half-heartedly again."

Her face scrunches up in disgruntlement, before relaxing into a steady, quieter concern. Raimei's life is such that threat is a loaded word for her, and she doesn't exactly focus on two things at once.

"Was it really a threat? Because, we're family now! Maybe you're not a Shimizu, but I'll totally beat up anyone who's threatening you, Shindou-kun, just say the word!"

"Y-you don't have to beat up anybody, Raimei. And you can call me Takuto as well -- as you say, we're family now."

He makes a mental note to word things a little differently, since she seems to be the type to take words like 'threat'... very seriously. Almost literally.

"Youth soccer was under the control of an organization in the government called the Fifth Sector for a few years. It was recently disbanded with the appointment of a new executive."

idk I guess I still play this dumb asshole

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