Guest: I honestly haven't given thought to the possible pairing. Though I understand what you mean; he is a good pairing option in stories. Much better than the Varia (because they're nuuuuuts).
Animagirl: …But she's not Takeshi. It wouldn't make sense for her to be just like him; she's a different person. And no, no baseball or tennis for her!
Also, thanks to Girl-from-stars and belladu57 for reviewing! :)
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Age: 11
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My muscles burned and ached, though all the blame for that rested on me. I'd gone awhile without doing any sort of gymnastics for a while – unlike what I'd promised Matsushita-sensei – and it was a bit of a strain to get stretched back out. Even if all I was doing at this point was a backbend, but still – it seemed I'd overestimated myself in terms of thinking I'd have no problems with this.
"Oof," I ran a hand through my somewhat unruly hair once I was back upright, "No pain, no gain, Takara."
With that said, I rotated my shoulders before arching back into another backbend before pushing with my legs and flipping over, the grass cool and soft on my hands. A few people shot me odd looks as I went through the motion again, only faster, and I considered whether doing this in the park was the wisest choice.
I probably could have used tou-chan's dojo, but it seemed almost wrong to practice my gymnastics in there.
Besides, there was nothing wrong with doing flips and cartwheels in the park – it was a perfectly normal to see kids messing around like this in parks. Though I suppose the key word was kids, while I was just a single kid without any friends or adults around to watch me. Which was, admittedly, a valid concern. Though it's not like this type of thing wasn't seen often – kids being on their own around town, that is.
"Takara-chan? What are you doing?"
I blew a strand of hair from my face before smiling and letting out a laugh, "Practicing my gymnastics – kind of, anyways. What brings you to the park, Kyoko-chan?"
"Oh, I came here with onii-chan!" And I swore the air around her shimmered as she smiled before gesturing to the local sports store, "He needed some new strings for his boxing gloves. Once he comes back we're getting ice cream!"
"Uwah, sounds fun," I stretched my fingers before raising a hand, "Which reminds me; I gotta get home to help tou-chan out."
Kyoko smiled again before reaching out to grab my sleeve, "Oh, I almost forgot! Do you want to have a sleepover with me and Hana-chan this Friday at my house?"
That was a good question; did I want to sink further into the plot by doing just that? The answer was quite simple, and had nothing to do with the plot. Because I like Hana and Kyoko; they were good kids, good friends. Besides, I hadn't had a sleepover since I was a preteen in my last life – it was something that I would love to experience again, if I was being honest with myself.
"Mmn!" I flashed Kyoko a smile, complete with a scrunched nose, "I'd love to! I'll ask tou-chan when I get home, for sure!"
A few minutes later when I was a good piece away from the park I could have sworn I heard a faint yell of, "EXTREME BRAINFREEZE!"
So, I laughed.
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"It is extremely nice to meet you, Yamamoto-chan!"
I wasn't sure what to feel or how to react when Sasagawa Ryohei was the one to answer the door; I had never dealt with someone as passionate and, well, odd as him before. And it was odd because he had accidentally saved me from bullies (that I could have handled, thank you very much) and didn't even know it. So I just smiled my nose-wrinkling smile –
"It's nice to meet you too, Sasagawa-san!"
His smile got brighter in response as I walked in and waved at Sasagawa-kā-san as she peeked around their kitchen's doorway with a smile before saying that dinner would be ready shortly and welcome, Takara-chan. It was almost bittersweet, the feeling I got from that, as I had lost my mother in my previous life – and in this one. As a result my eyes had drifted and had apparently landed on some of Ryohei's boxing paraphernalia, since he'd called out excitedly to me a moment later.
"Do you box, Yamamoto-chan?!"
"E-eeh?" Was my ever eloquent response once brown eyes and white hair swallowed by line of vision. It took me a moment but I finally managed to properly answer, backing away slightly so I wasn't as crowded, "No, sorry, I don't box. I practice kendo, though."
Before he could respond, another person made their presence known – and that person was none other than Hana. And being Hana, she had no qualms with grabbing my shoulders and all but shoving me up the stairs, calling out behind her –
"She's not interested in your boxing nonsense, Sasagawa!"
A very loud and not so quiet response followed, "NONSENSE?! BOXING IS EXTREME!"
"Mah, Hana-chama," I called out half-way up the stairs, "You can quit manhandling me now."
"I am not manhandling you."
None the less she did let go and we managed to make it the rest of the way to Kyoko's room without interruption, where she was waiting with a smile.
"How are you, Takara-chan?"
"Oh, I'm fine now that Hana-chama's man hands aren't touching me." Kyoko only blinked as I smile and Hana scowled.
"The only one here with man hands is you, Taka-baka."
Though she started off scowling, her scowl lifted into a smile at the end and she joined Kyoko and I as we laughed. It stayed that way for a while, us laughing and poking fun (though it was mainly Hana and I doing the poking), when Kyoko pulled out a box of assorted nail-polishes to use before we were called down for dinner.
In the end Kyoko had shimmery pink nails, Hana's were a bright red, and I'd gone with a pretty blue. There may or may not have also been splotches of nail polishes on my and Hana's faces by the time we were called down for dinner.
Dinner where I got hit in the face by a stray pea from Ryohei's plate, and where I may or may not have beamed him in the forehead with one from my own in response. I also may or may not have stepped on a sniggering Hana's foot.
Completely accidental, of course.
Just like it was a complete freak accident when Ryohei (because of another stray pea had hit me in the face and I needed retribution) and Hana woke up the next morning with faces covered in shaving cream.
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I'm not sure how I feel about this. Because the only super-energetic characters I've written are Rock Lee and Gai. Hurrrr.
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