Of Love and War
Chapter Seven
"Explanations"
Shinozaki walked amongst his good friends, enjoying the banter as it went back and forth around him about
Makoto and her friends.
"Ryo, you were practically DROOLING! You can't say you don't find that Lady Ami very attractive. It isn't
even conceivable, in fact"
"I already said she was attractive, what more do you want of me"
"You must think she's more then just attractive, you stared at her the whole"
"I did no such thing"
"You did actually." piped in Shinozaki.
"traitor" breathed Ryo "Speaking of staring, you stayed very close to the portrait girl during that whole walk."
Motoki turned to more fresh prey.
"Oh, Motoki- we forgot to mention that Shino-kun now owes us an explanation about that-" Mamoru put in
quickly, "In return for saying nothing about those drawings, we were given an IOU for that very interesting
explanation that he will recount for us"
"Right. I forgot about that." mumbled Shinozaki.
What can I tell them? Oh boy. This is gonna be interesting
"Well, um. She's my little sister's friend"
"No, she's not."
"What are you talking about?"
"She was trying to stick up for your reputation."
"Fine. Do you want to tell this?"
"Certainly not, however you have to actually tell us."
"And how will you know?"
"You're not very good at lying."
Ryo-kun sounds like Mako "Fine. She is the daughter of my mother's best friend.
We grew up together. She's as close to me as my sister. Understatement. She's a good friend. She was as
close to a sibling as I had for a while, until my sister came along. I hope he can't tell when I'm half-lying
I promised her I would come back and I didn't. I promised a lot of people I would come back, actually.
However, she could hold it against me and no one else can abolish my chances of becoming a Planetary
Knight. Yet another understatement. She shouldn't know about those drawings because she is very
sensitive about portraits. End of story." Wow, I'm good at understatements
"Not quite. You promised a full explanation. Leaving things out is not a full explanation" sparked Motoki
"and a well written letter-" reminded Ryo carefully.
"Alright! sigh When she was little, around six or seven, she sat for her first portrait. After it was put on
display, idiotic suitors, some at least 30 or 40 years old, came seeking her hand. She hates portraits now.
She hasn't had a single true one painted since then. She always pretends to have some blemish or deformity.
No painter will risk displeasing her parents with that so, they give up"
"How do you know that?"
"She's always been proud she hasn't had one painted. Every time she used to foil a painter she'd send me a
letter, gloating"
Motoki seemed quieted by this explanation and he said nothing further about the pictures.
The group trotted onwards toward the Elite Knights' wing, having returned to the previous conversation of
trying to pry some admission from Ryo.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Interesting? Review it! If you liked it, REVIEW! If you didn't, TELL ME WHY!
Thank you!