"International swim meet," Kei answers, doing a graceful backstroke. "I hope to go to the Olympics someday."
Her eyes get really big as she smiles at him, "Wow! That's fantastic! I bet your momma is very proud of you." She looks away for a moment, an almost pained expression on her face.
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Though she's maybe not quite as graceful as Kei, she matches him stroke for stroke as they swim together in the pool. "So, you must have been doing this for a long time. How old are you now?" Oh my God! Baka!! Why did I ask him that?! Unable to take her words back, she just blushes as she tries to hide it by dunking her face in the water.
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Kei stops mid-stroke. "No...she isn't...I've been doing this for about 8 years, I turned 16 two months ago."
She looks confused, "But.....but I don't understand. Why wouldn't she be? If you love something and you're really goid at it, which obviously you are, why wouldn't she be proud of that?" Yama seems perplexed.
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"She thinks my time would be better spent going to the university and becoming a doctor...like my dad was," Kei answers. He turns and resumes swimming.
She shakes her head, "I'm sure she feels that way, and I can understand how she might feel that way, but you have to follow your own path. You are you Kei, you're not your father. You have to do what makes you happy. If this is what you want to do, then University would just be a waste of time and money. Well, I'm proud of you. When you make it to the Olympics, Ill come watch you okay?"
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"Alright," Kei says with a smile.
She smiles back at him, "Ill make a huge sign that says "Go Kei!!!!" in huge bright colors."
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Kei blushes. "Y-you don't have to do that!"
She gets a very impish grin as she looks at him. She nods her head emphatically, "Yes I do Kei-kun! Ill make sure you have someone cheering you on." She nods her head in her signature, that's that way.
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When the boy first arrived, Miyuku opened an eye, watching the initial exchange. Accessing him as no threat, she smiles to herself, noting Yama's body language as she closes her eyes.
When the woman with the katana's comes to the pool and the boy goes to her she studies the woman, her dark sunglasses hiding her eyes as the takes in her movement and weaponry.
When the boy returns later, she can't help but be slightly amused though also a little suspicious of what, based on physical resemblance, was most likely the boy's mother.
Kei shakes his head and keeps swimming.
She crosses her arms as she kicks her legs to stay afloat. "Well, Ill be there anyways. Just keep reaching for your goal and you'll make it Kei-kun." She shakes her head and laughs as she catches up to him and continues her swim.
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"So you're in the tournament, huh? That must be exciting. Have you had a fight yet?" Kei asks, trying to shift the topic of conversation.
She smiles recognizing what he was doing and deciding not to push the issue she just nods. "Yup....had one this mornin in fact. That's why we're relaxing now." She smiles as she switches topics easily enough.
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"Ah, it's good to pace yourself," Kei says. "Some people just overdo it sometimes. Or they underestimate people based on how they look."
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She smiles sweetly, "Yup, they sure do."
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She stops swimming and yawns, "Well....I think I'm about wore out. Ill get out and let you train in peace. I just wanna go lie in the sun a bit before we go eat."
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Yama swims back to the shallow end of the pool and walks out of it. She wrings out her tail a bit and then walks back over to where their lounge chairs are. She picks up her towel and drys off a little before laying the towel on the lounge chair and then lays on her stomach on top of the towel. Sinking down into the chair she sighs.
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Kei swims for a little bit longer before getting out of the pool. He stops by Yama's chair. "It was nice to meet you, Yama. I haven't gotten to talk to a lot of people..."
He smiles and heads to the elevator.
"Making a new friend?" Miyuku says quietly, her eyes still closed as Yamaneko settles down.
She turns her head and smiles at him, "You too Kei. I'm sorry it's been so boring for you, but I'm sure you'll be seeing me around. I love swimming and will probably be here almost every day, more or less. I'll talk to ya later. Have a good afternoon and good luck at that meet, I'm sure you'll do great." She waves as he walks back to the elevator, just sort of watching his lean muscular form as heads back. She's so busy watching him leave that she barely hears Miyuku. Her heart seems to be pounding out of her chest and she can hear the blood in her ears.
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Once he's out of sight she turns her head the other way, and sees Miyuku staring at her. With a dopey grin on her face she asks, "Huh....what? Did you say something Miyu-chan?"
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"Distracted?" Miyuku says, her smile widening.
"What? Who me? NO...No....no no no. I'm fine." She hides her face in the towel as she feels the heat come to her cheeks.
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"Uh huh...I guess that's why your tail won't stop moving." she replies with a coy grin. "Handsome boy."
"S~&~....." She says quietly while trying to bury her head in the lounge chair. How does she know when I don't know myself? She tries really hard to calm down and stop her tail from twitching. Taking a few deep breaths to try and get rid of the redness in her cheeks that had nothing to do with the sun, she turns her head just slightly and regards Miyuku with one eye. "Wa....was he? I didn't really notice. He's a good swimmer though. Kei's goin to the international swim meet. He wants to swim in the Olympics." BAKA Baka baka!!! Why can't you just shut up.?
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She looks at Miyuku and crinkles her nose while smiling a little sheepishly at her mom, "Ya really thought he was cute?" The pitch of her voice cracks slightly as she sqeeks out her question.
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"Well swimmers are usually in great shape, and yes he was cute." Miyuku says with a smile looking over the top of her sunglasses. "Besides, there's nothing to be embarrassed about.....it's not like you meet boys your age that often."
She cringes slightly, was her awkwardness that obvious? "Well....I guess I just.....oh I don't know. Maybe going to school wouldn't have been such a horrible thing. At least then I'd kinda know how to at least talk to him without sounding like a blithering idiot." She puts her face back down into the towel and makes her body go ridgid as she balls her hands into fists in her frustration.
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"I'm pretty sure you didn't sound anything like an idiot little one, besides...he was looking over his shoulder at you when the elevator doors were closing." Miyuku says, briefly reaching over to give her daughter's shoulder a squeeze.
"And no, nobody's looking right now"
She nods, her shoulders arched and tense, "If...I didn't sound like an idiot, then why do I feel like one? I...I don't understand why I'm feeling like this. I'm....I'm flustered or something, and that's not me...it's just NOT." She pounds a fist into the lounge recliner for emphasis. "I hate this feeling."
She sighs a bit huffily and in a bit of her pouty voice asks softly, "Was he really lookin at me?"
"Yes, he was. Though he was trying not to show it." Miyuku says comfortingly. "You're just a little flustered and that's normal."
She shakes her head, her face still hidden in the towel, "No....it's not normal. I'm supposed to fluster them, not the other way around. It's my job, it's what I do. To keep people off their guard, to get close to them without them suspecting anything. What good am I like this?" It comes out in almost a whine as her body shakes. I don't know what to do with these feelings. Why am I feeling like this?
Miyuku sighs. This was definitely not the setting she'd planned on having this talk. "Because you're becoming a woman. And part of that is realizing that just like you can have a pretty strong effect on someone else, they can do the same to you if they appeal to you. And I'm pretty sure just from the red in your cheeks that you're noticing things that didn't matter before. It's only natural Yama-chan."
She pulls herself off of the lounge chair and sits down next to her mothers chair. She lays her head in her lap, the way she used to when she was upset as a little girl. "But....but what if I don't want them to matter? This is what matters to me, winning this competition and helping us and Tree. All these feelings are just a distraction, one that we can't afford right now. He's a nice boy, I really don't understand what his mother's problem with him swimming is, other than it's not what she wants him to do.....but, it should be his choice shouldn't it? Why can't she just support him.....the way you support me? You would never tell me that what I want is stupid, or that I'm wasting my time." She clinches her fist against the lounge and growls, "And I'm doing it again....aarrghh....why can't I stop thinking about him? This is bad....very very bad."
"She probably wants him to have a good life and thinks academics is way to that for him. I'm sure she see's herself taking part in the tournament as a sacrifice for his future." she strokes her daughter's hair. "No I wouldn't tell you what you want is stupid, just like feelings aren't stupid, they just need focus. Right now we're not in a fight, it's ok that you're thinking about boys." she says with a smile. "As long as you're focused while we're being shot at it's ok."
She sighs, "I guess so....but she wants him to be something he doesn't want to be. It's like she doesn't see him as a person....but a copy of his father. His father is gone and was some kind of doctor and he says she wants him to be a doctor like his father was." She looks up into Miyuku's face, "Maybe she thinks she's doing the right thing, but she's going about it all wrong. If I wasn't interested in doing this, it's like you would make me. I just hope she realizes what she's doing before it's too late. Some of the people that play in these things don't think twice about killing people.....what if something happened to her? He's got no one else, what would happen to him? Does she even think about that?" She sighs again as she looks back down, "I don't know why it bothers me so much....but it does. I'll keep my head in the game though. I'm not gonna let anything get in our way. There's too much at stake."
Upon Taro's return, Kehanu said, "Well, I don't see any extra holes in you Kid, you must have won. How'd she take it?"
The day passes without much incident, except for five hundred people being sent home from the tournament, a good number of those dead. Yet, no real waves have been made in the standings. Around midnight, vendors start making their way into town and Shibuya takes on a different feeling. People mingle in the streets and the nightlife replaces the tension of the day.
"Alright I guess, she almost took my head off in the beginning. It was awesome." Taro replies between bites.
She gets up and sits back down on her own lounge chair and looks down, "Do you need some more time in the sun, or are you ready to go inside?"
"I'm good." Miyuku says sitting up. Her energy levels were back to full and she'd be fine for the next 48 hours. "What would you like to do now?"
"I think I just wanna get a shower and get changed. Maybe eat something and then take a nap? I was kinda wanting to see what its like at night with the vendors and everything. If that's okay?" She glances up to look at Miyuku through her hair.
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"That's fine.. I'm sure a shower will be the perfect thing to clear your head." Miyuku says gathering up her bag and towel.
Wrapping her towel around herself, she puts on her flip flops and walks quietly with Miyuku back to their room.
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Once in the room, she takes off her flip flops and heads into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her. A few minutes later the shower can be heard running.
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