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Rideback: Fire and Water
Chapter 5
Training Tamayo
Two weeks have past since Tamayo sealed the deal at the Rideback Pro-Shop and life hasn't gotten any easier for Rin. It's Saturday morning around nine am and Rin is missing Shouko more than ever. Sitting in the chair by the window in her dorm room she held the framed picture of her and Shouko, the one with Shouko smiling and making a piece sign with her right hand while her left rests on Rin's left shoulder. She's taken to talking to it in leu of having the real Shouko to talk to.
"Oh Shouko, God I miss you so much. You'd think it would get easier after all this time but it's not." She held the picture to her chest and hugged it wishing she could hug Shouko for real. "And after all this time I'm still so confused. I still don't know if I can love you the same way you love me. I mean... I know I love you but... I almost wish I could love you that way. At least then I could tell you that in a text message and then maybe you'd come back to me."
With her right hand she began tracing the outline of Shouko's face in the picture as if trying to caress her cheek then held the picture tight against her chest again saying "Oh god Shouko I need you. I need you in my life."
After crying on the picture for a while Rin finally wiped the tears from her eyes and said "Well, I guess that's enough wallowing in self pity for one day. I better get down to the rideback club to give Tamayo more ballet training. I sometimes wonder if she asked me to teach her this stuff just to keep me busy."
~RB~
Outside the rideback clubs garage Tamayo is practicing on Agua while Rin is standing by wearing her helmet so she can instruct Tamayo through the helmet radio.
"Okay this next one is called a grand jeté en tournant."
"Okay that sounds like big turning jump."
"Well yeah but the literal translation fails to mention the key part. The split at the top of the jump. This is the one I used to take out the Cobra brothers."
"Oh sweet. Okay what do I do?"
"Start out like the fouetté jeté and then basically just go into spread-legs form in the top of the jump but you have to remember to shift back to standing form for the landing or the landing will be really hard."
Tamayo rode about twenty or thirty meters away to give her self some room and then started back and launched Agua into the grand jeté en tournant as she got closer to Rin and land it it perfectly.
"Tamayo That was perfect! Wow, I have to admit I'm really surprised how fast you're picking this stuff up." said Rin.
"As much as I hate to say it, It's not me. It's Agua. Agua's learning this stuff way faster than I can. It's like she figures out what I'm trying to do and then just does it right for me."
"Oh Okay." said Rin glancing towards Fuego. "I wonder what new tricks I can learn."
"Hey hey, Wait for me to catch up then we can both learn new tricks together."
"Okay, You got a deal. Partner." Rin said happily.
Tamayo rode over to where Rin was standing and took off her helmet to talk face to face and said "Look uhh... I've been avoiding bringing this up because I know you've been having a tough time these past few weeks but... Have you heard from her at all?"
The smile instantly disappeared from Rin's face as she said "No. I've called her a few times but she never answers. I send one text message everyday but she hasn't replied to any of them. I'm starting to worry that she'll start seeing my texts as harassment."
"You don't think maybe she changed her phone number do you?"
"No I don't think so. When I call it does connect. She just doesn't answer. And when I text they seem to get through. I mean they don't get bounced back or anything."
"Man I'm so sorry Rin. And I'm sorry I brought it up. Seems I ruined the good mood you were in. Why don't we call it a day with the practice and just go for a ride around the city for a while. What do you think?"
"Yeah sure. That sounds nice."
~RB~
After about an hour or so of cruising aimlessly around the city riding on railroad tracks, the tops of walls and just about any unusual path they can think of they find themselves riding on top of a hanging tram track part of which runs over a park.
While over the park Rin spots something disturbing.
"Tamayo wait! Stop! Look over there!" Rin hollered.
"Where?"
"Over there in the park. You see, way down there?"
Off in the distance at the edge of the more wooded area of the park Tamayo saw what got Rin so upset, a group of four rideback thugs harassing an innocent young couple just trying to enjoy the nice weather in the park.
"Oh crap. Okay, Let me give my brother a call." said Tamayo but before she could finish Rin had already leapt off the track and was racing toward the scene.
"Rin wait! Oh crap. Come on Agua. Lets see if we can keep up."
and with that Tamayo leapt of the track and raced to catch up with Rin.
"Rin are you insane? Have you not learned anything?"
"I'm sorry I can't just turn a blind eye if I can do something." said Rin.
"You know what Okakura's gonna do if we wind up on the six o'clock news right? He's gonna flip out and take our Type Ls away. Do you want that?"
"You don't have to come with me." said Rin.
"Damn it Rin... Okay you take the two on the right and I'll take the two on the left." said Tamayo.
"Leave us alone please. We don't want any trouble." said the man of the couple.
"Relax all we want is your money." said one thug.
"Yeah and maybe your wife. hahaha" said another thug.
Just then Tamayo's Agua flew over the heads of the couple and using the jump she'd just learned earlier that day knocked both her targets off their ridebacks while Rin rode in between the other two doing a donut sweeping the legs out from under the other two ridebacks.
"Holy Crap! It's that rideback girl from the news." said one thug.
"Yeah only now there's two of them. Let's get the hell out of here." said the other thug as all four of them ran for the woods leaving their ridebacks behind.
"Amazing how often the dogs with the loudest barks turn out to be total wussies." said Tamayo.
"Oh my god. Thank you so much." said the woman of the couple.
"Rin we have to go too. We can't be seen here."
"Right." said Rin and turning her attention to the couple said "Please forget you ever saw us. We weren't here okay." and then rode off with Tamayo.
"Well... Okay." said the man not really understanding why.
~RB~
On there way back to the campus Tamayo kept trying to impress upon Rin the seriousness of getting involved.
"Rin look, I know you just want to help and that in it's self is not a bad thing. You're a good person so I understand how it's tough not to act but. You were mistaken for a terrorist last time. We're not cops on patrol.."
"I know that Tamayo. I really don't need a lecture right now." said Rin.
"I'm sorry. I just don't wanna see you get in any trouble again." said Tamayo.
~RB~
Back in her still all too empty dorm room Rin had a hard time keeping her mind from wandering to Shouko while reflecting on the days events.
"Maybe Tamayo was right. It is risky. I wonder what Shouko would have had to say about all of this." she thought.
Rin then pulled out her little red cell phone and began typing the following text message.
"Hi Shouko. It's me again. I'm really sorry if these text messages are becoming a bother. I don't even know if you read them. I miss you. Please call. Well, it's getting late. Goodnight Shouko. Hope to see you soon."
Rin's thumb pushed the send button and then she put her phone away and started getting ready for bed.
~RB~
It's Saturday morning around ten am and another week has gone by. Rin still hasn't heard from Shouko although she does occasionally see her in the hallways but Shouko always seems to avoid making eye contact and Rin doesn't push the subject for fear of upsetting Shouko, especially in public. Meanwhile Rin has continued Tamayo's ballet training and they've been practicing every day after classes and thanks to Agua's abilities Tamayo has been picking it up at an alarming rate.
Okakura was sitting in has office in the building opposite the campus cafeteria when out of the corner of his eye he noticed some movement through the partially open blinds on his window. Opening the blinds more he saw Rin and Tamayo dancing by on Fuego and and Agua. "There's something you don't see every day." he thought before turning his attention back to his laptop.
Having danced their way all the way back to the rideback club Tamayo and Rin both take a bow on their ridebacks and then dismount.
"Wow! Tamayo, That was awesome. You're really getting good at this." said Rin.
"Thanks. And you know. I don't mind saying. I been kinda having a blast too. Who knew ballet dancing would be so much fun." said Tamayo smiling for a change.
"Well, I did." said Rin.
Tamayo chuckled and said "heh, Yeah I guess you did. Thanks for teaching me all this stuff Rin."
"It's been my pleasure." said Rin.
Tamayo grabbed a couple of Ikki beers from the fridge and said "Hey! Think fast!" and tossed one to Rin.
Rin caught in in Fuego's hand and said "Oh thanks but I'm really not much of a beer person."
"Go on. Try it." said Tamayo who then took a swig of her own and started laughing and said "It'll put hair on your chest. haha"
Rin chuckled a bit and said "Well, okay." then took the beer from Fuego's hand and pulled the tab of the can releasing a hiss accompanied by a surprise spray that splattered her face.
"ha ha ha, sorry Rin." said Tamayo.
"That's okay." said Rin before taking a swig. "It's not too bad. At least it's cold." she added.
Thinking about all she'd learned from Rin Tamayo remembered the commentators words at the end of their last race. "Oh man I can't wait to see what happens next year!"
"Holy crap Rin, we are going to be so unstoppable at next years race. They might as well not even have the race. Just hand us the trophy when we get there." said Tamayo.
"Okay but which one of us would they hand it to?" asked Rin.
"Okay so the two of us have to race but everyone else can go home! hahaha."
Rin's eyes suddenly widened. "Oh wow, Tamayo I've got a great idea!"
"What?"
"Maybe we could do some kind of exhibition show before the race. Or maybe after? or between the preliminaries and the race." said Rin excitedly.
"What kind of exhibition show?" said Tamayo suspiciously.
"Ballet. We could perform a ballet on our ridebacks." said Rin.
"uhh no." said Tamayo bluntly.
"Oh come on. Why not?" begged Rin.
"Well, first of all the rideback crowd aren't exactly avid ballet fans." said Tamayo.
"Yeah but this would be ballet on ridebacks." argued Rin.
"Well yeah but that doesn't even matter because second of all Okakura would never go for it." said Tamayo. "You know how paranoid he is about these Type Ls getting any kind of attention."
Rin's recent glow dimmed a bit at the realization that Tamayo was right about that. "Yeah that's true but the biggest problem with ridebacks is too many people think of them as just weapons that terrorists use. I think this is exactly the kind of attention they need."
"You might be right about that. Look I'm not against it at all. If you can get Okakura to go for it I'm in." said Tamayo.
"Really? Oh Thanks Tamayo. I'm gonna go talk to him right now." said Rin running for Okakura's office.
"Don't get your hopes up!" yelled Tamayo.
Rin stopped for a second to turn and yell "Too late! And thanks for the beer!"
Tamayo looked at the the beer can sitting on Fuego that Rin only had two sips of. "And she didn't even finish it. I hate when people waste my beer!" she said grabbing Rins beer and chugging it.