"Looks like someone checked out early."
The sudden remark snapped Takeda out of his own head.
And he realized that he had been so deep in his thoughts that he didn't even hear anyone come up on him.
He also didn't know just how long he had been standing in place.
The team had returned from their latest expedition an hour before, and they had just finished their debriefing with General Blade. Cassie, Jacqui, and Kung Jin had already headed home, but he had stopped by the on-base canteen to grab a bottle of water; the ride back to the Shirai Ryu temple was a long one, and he liked having a drink on hand.
"I'm fine," Takeda started, as he recovered himself as quickly as he could. "I was just distracted is all."
General Blade, who was pouring herself a cup of coffee, didn't seem to buy his act in the slightest.
Takeda could only hope that she was feeling merciful enough to not push him on it.
"Yeah, looked like it," Sonya replied, seemingly offering him such mercy, as she set the coffee pot back. "I know how you feel about the comparisons, but you're just like Kenshi in that aspect - always getting distracted by something."
Admittedly, while he had initially rejected such comparisons, Takeda was beginning to lighten up on them.
After spending time with his father, and learning from the man, he had come to understand Kenshi in a different light.
It was still a learning process, but it was a bit of a healing one too, for the both of them.
But now that the General had brought it up, Takeda felt like this was an opening for him.
"General Blade, if I could request some of your time, I'd like to ask you something," he started, "- preferably off the record, and just between us, if possible."
The General wasn't an expressive person.
But he could see the slight rise of one eyebrow at his request.
"Go on," Sonya prodded.
"Do I look like my father?"
His question seemed to have caught the woman off-guard, given the lift of both eyebrows now.
"It's an odd thing to ask, I know, but when we were flying back earlier, we were talking about our families, and I got stuck on the idea," Takeda continued, feeling the need to explain himself now. "Jacqui was talking about how she takes after her mother, but because she has a lot of her father's traits, she's more like him. And Kung Jin said that he looked a lot like his father, but he got his mother's height, so he's taller than most of his family. And Cassie-"
"Cassie got my looks through sheer luck in the genetic lottery- thank God," Sonya finished. "I can't say the same about her attitude unfortunately, but I'll take what I can get."
Takeda felt himself more at ease now with the General's addition to the conversation.
Perhaps she could see where he was coming from with this topic now.
"You do look a bit like Kenshi when he was younger," Sonya continued. "It's hard to say though since he never really showed off much of his face back then, and he's taken a lot of facial damage since then as well. You do have his hair though; if you styled it the same way he does, I think the similarities in your face would pop out more. I can tell you for certain that you don't have his eyes."
He chuckled at the General's remark.
"No, I don't suppose I do," Takeda nodded. "But that's a good thing."
"You look more like your mother, which is also a good thing."
It was his turn to be caught off-guard now.
"What-" Takeda started, and then failed to get much further than that.
He fumbled to start over, to say something a little more coherent, but he kept stalling out each time.
"I met Suchin before," Sonya spoke, sipping at her coffee, and filling in the question that he couldn't ask. "When I invited Kenshi to my wedding, he brought her as his plus-one. Well- he actually snuck her in, but I couldn't complain; she kept him in line during the reception."
Takeda found it difficult to believe that General Blade had met his mother.
But he found it even more difficult to believe everything else that the General was telling him.
"Do you- do you have a picture of her?"
"I don't think I have any from the wedding, at least not on hand, but I should have other pictures of her in a file somewhere," Sonya answered.
"In a file?" Takeda repeated.
The General took a long drink from her cup.
And he got the impression that she was doing so to buy herself time.
"I shouldn't admit this, but since this is between you and I, I'll divulge some information," the General spoke. "The Special Forces was highly interested in Kenshi, especially after the Tournament, but he tended to drag his feet and resist when he was pressed to officially join rank. I managed to sign him on as a contractor, and that was good enough for a long while. But because of his actions, and our interests, the Special Forces had him under surveillance- at least when we could locate him. Once Kenshi became involved with Suchin however, he became very easy for us to locate; but because of his involvement, we ended up putting Suchin under surveillance as well while they were living together."
The revelation of the Special Forces being so invasive was not exactly something Takeda wanted to think on.
It had him wondering just how much of his own life was being recorded while he was on base.
But if that surveillance could get him a picture of his mother...
"Can I get a picture of her?"
"I'll have to go through some of my old hard drives, but I should be able to give you something by tomorrow."