The New Winds

Sasaiko, after completing some cleaning, finds a calm and quiet place and tries to center herself again.

I did well with it not long ago--but my heart is still pounding! she thinks.

It does not go as well as she might want it to (Meditation 8), however.

Frustrated, and still sweating, she thinks Why am I so fucking stupid at this?

He sees Sasaiko meditating and watches at her said without interrupting, even if the attempt apparently was failing by how nervous her posture was. His father always meditated when he was home, but he never asked to be teached on how to do it.

Her eyes snap open, and she recognizes Aiichiro.

She bows.

"Sorry about that. How're things?"

He bows, too.
"Don't excuse yourself, you did not wrong. Could you help me? I think you would be the best person to do so."

"If I can, yes. What's the trouble?"

"I think someone is spreading gossip about me. You know what... they talked about." He looked embarassed. "Could you help me track who did it?"

"I might be able to, but I have not been attending to rumors. Unpleasant as it might be, my friend, I would need to know what is being said.

"The path of investigation depends on the nature of the crime, after all."

"So basically people I never said a hi started to treat me differently, and I noticed people whispering on my back that I'm the nice boy, and... Anyway, I think someone likes me."

"You're worried that someone likes you? Isn't that usually a good thing?" she asks.

Boys are so dumb sometimes, she thinks.

"Maybe? I don't know." He looks around to see if anyone was eavesdropping. "I mean, what if they do?"

"Then they do, and you have either a friendship in the making or a resource to put to the use of your Clan--or both. And that's to the good, yes?"

Unless it's that Mantis boy, she thinks.

"I think... Yes. Anyway, thank you, Toritaka-san."
He bows.

Boys! she thinks with exasperation.

"Well, it wouldn't be good to have a friend you don't know is one, would it? So I'll see what all I can do to help."

Sasaiko looks about for someone to ask to start investigating.

(Querying GM)