No Tiger, No Dragon, Just a Swallow [Ira, Kasha]

Man, this Soul Society place was weird. Not necessarily in the worst way Ira could imagine, admittedly. It was pretty much like Japan, but that was exactly what was so weird about it. He'd have imagined some other dimension was a little more...weird? Exciting?

Ah, well. He wasn't gonna sit around awkwardly while Yugiri had her tea with a friend or whatever, and he was a smart enough guy to not cause any trouble. Better to just explore, maybe even head to one of those little noodle stands he'd seen on the way in. Street food had to be as good up here as it was down there, right?

Plus, there were bound to be some fine ladies, too. Bonus and a half. Aha, and would you look at that? It was just that easy, a pretty lady and a noodle stand at the very same time. And some huge red guy on the way out in the seat next to her? Even better. Slipping right on in, Ira flashed a grin to the cutie as he read through the menu.

"Any recommendations for someone new around here?"

"The okonomiyaki is quite delightful."

Kasha mused and his eyes looked down at his half empty bowl. He wasn't that hungry today but decidedly wasn't going to leave just yet, it only occurred to him that there was a little pecularity about this girl but he couldn't place it, she wasn't a shinigami but she was walking around the Seireitei and she did not carry the air of a noble about her either - correction, she stated that she was new around here.

Was she a shino academy student? Though he didn't think there was another intake just yet so like the good fifth division member that he was, Kasha decided to scope it out just a little bit. Couldn't have another incursion on their hands, now could they? Though on a much more serious note, he was viewing this from the angle of this girl being a ryoka that had somehow managed to make her way in.

"New, hmm? We don't get many visitors up here."

He started with idle chit-chat to elucidate some details, at the very worst he was honing his passive interrogation skills.

"Oh, perfect, I haven't had a good okonomiyaki in a while."

Ira, perhaps to the benefit of both parties involved in this conversation, was not quite aware of the fact that he was being sized up in such a way. He made his order, getting a barley tea to go with it, and went back to focusing on his conversational partner. Damn, real cute voice too. It was a good thing he'd gotten used to his body reacting to attraction, or he'd have been mighty uncomfortable.

"Yeah, that's what I'd been told. I'm not here for long, just with a friend who's here to catch up with someone. You ever meet a Yugiri? Dark, white hair, not too tall?"

It may not have been considered the norm in polite society, but for an everyday guy like Ira, asking if you knew a potential mutual friend was just standard conversation.

"Disgraced Lady of Shihoin? I've only heard the story of her downfall, apparently she was quite the problem child but impressive nonetheless with her skills. She must be doing well for herself now."

Kasha said with no trace of any real feeling about the situation, he was more or less just stating it matter-of-factly. So Yugiri had amassed herself some kind of group beyond the Soul Society after she departed for Earth in that shameful banishment. That was interesting, Kasha had expected that maybe she would've ended up in the Fifth Division had she remained in the Soul Society and became more mature rather than chasing whatever fantasies were in her head.

"So how did you come to meet the Shihoin's mystery child?"

Ah, he did recall his teacher going on about Yugiri at one point. Something in regards to her prowess with hoho and her demonstration of something called Shikko. It was that which was where she explained the strange circumstances of that particular person, the becoming of a vizard and breaking the law at the time, the lack of parents but remaining in the fond eyes of the clan head and her goal of surpassing the Flash Goddess but beyond that, well he didn't care to ever go out of his way to meet her.

"Hey, just 'cause she's disgraced doesn't mean anything to me. She's living it good, traveling, training. Good times."

There was a faintly defensive edge to Ira's voice, though it was far from outright confrontational. After all, it wasn't as if this lovely lady had directly insulted Yugiri, and Ira wasn't exactly the kind of guy to rush to defend her honor like some valiant knight regardless. It'd take outright insults to get him to defend her, and that was on more of a familial principle than anything else.

"She and I ran into each other during a little spat in America. Crazy time, she showed some bigshot demon the ol' what for. I've been tagging along and training under her since."

In almost every instance, Ira tended to talk himself up. But, when it came to Yugiri, he was willing to fully concede the reality of the situation, that she'd pretty much just been carrying him along and teaching him as they went. Call it part of his gratitude.

"Ah, sorry miss, I haven't even asked your name. I'm Ira, Ira Holyfield."

"Oh?"

Kasha mused to himself over the reaction. They were quite close, weren't they? What was he talking about in regards to America though, something told him that if he dug a bit afterwards that he might uncover some details if he looked. For the moment he kept his attention on Ira; weird name by the way. Didn't get a lot of western ones around here. They were a bit awkward but he thankfully didn't struggle like some others might've.

"Koizumi Kasha. Nice to meet you, Ira. You have a cute name."

It wasn't exactly flirty, Kasha just thought it was the kind of name that he could visualise a housepet having and so it was cute to him.

Ira's grin grew just a bit wider at being called cute, though it was still fairly subtle. Not like he'd never been called cute by a lady, after all, and God knew he'd gone through much more forward from Ehefra. But hey, a compliment was a compliment, and he was always fine with that.

"Think so? Yours is pretty nice on the ears too. How's that written? I don't know near enough Japanese to try and guess it myself, but I've been studying pretty hard. Didn't know a damn word of it a year ago."

It wasn't said boastfully, per se, but Ira did admittedly take some pride in how quickly he'd picked up the language. After all, he'd really only known the basic trade pidgins before traveling with Yugiri, and he'd just gone from there. Made it easy to learn when she just spoke to him in Japanese all the time, anyway.

"Old Fountain, Flame Chariot."

He explained while taking a napkin to draw the kanji with his finger nail and leave a small imprint in the napkin, it was incredibly vague though and almost invisible with its faint lines.

"You speak well Ira for someone who's only been learning for a year. It's quite a difficult language to learn if you're not raised with it I believe, though other languages do escape me."

Now that was a lie, he was absolutely multi-lingual but the regular person did not need to know that detail. Maybe the hint for someone with a keen mind would've discerned that from the fact that he could pronounce Ira without his accent slipping into the name and giving it a third syllable.

"Ahh, I see, alright. That makes sense."

Ira allowed himself to look just a touch more confident at that praise. Well, if the pretty lady wanted to speak highly of him, Ira certainly wasn't the sort to deny her that opportunity.

"You think so? Thanks, it was kinda rough at first, you're definitely not wrong. Personally, I don't think too many languages are this hard, though I've heard that Chinese is even worse. Not that I've tried to learn it, so hey, I could just be wrong."

He wasn't the sort to pretend anything about his own knowledge, at least. He was confident, but not a liar.

"'Course, just learning one language is rough enough when you're dealing with training on top of it. You ever study any martial arts?"

"I do. I am apparently quite adept at it my peers say though I don't think it's anything to sing praises for."

Another little lie, while Kasha would've relished the opportunity to display the full scope of his hakuda and Hoo Kanmuri Ken he wasn't that rebellious. If he did that then he was no better than his brute of a teacher even if it was for more generous means and pacifistic in nature.

"You must be quite versed in it to be taught by a noblewoman. I heard that Yugiri Shihoin was apparently quite the skilled martial artist, am I correct to say that you've witnessed her shunko?"

He had never seen shunko itself but he imagined it was similar in principle to his teacher's technique where her fiery reiatsu was expelled behind her and gave her the name of Flowing Flame-like Bird albeit the fact that it was not combining kido made it less versatile and flexible as the genuine article.