"Ah, a fair mindset."

A smile.

"I'll admit, it's one I can struggle with. Perhaps because I grew up with so many brothers and sisters. There's always comparing amongst that sort of thing as to who gets the attention, who's your mother's favorite, who your parents are the most proud of... that kind of thing. If nothing else, just to get a word in edge wise, to stand out."

"But do you have to keep doing it even though you're a woman now?" He looked at her curiously. "I mean, I have some references too, but I'd rather new moments define me more than the old ones."

"I... It's not so easy for everyone to move on, Moto-san. I can in the moment, perhaps, but I don't want to burn all my bridges, my heritage and my upbringing. If I'm going to be told constantly I'm not worth as much as my siblings, that I don't belong, that I was a mistake, then the way I see it, I could either move on and leave it behind or prove myself a worthy person. While there is something noble to moving on, to defining myself by my own merit and those of my lord, it feels cowardly and like giving up to just let things stand, to take what I was given meekly. Like I am validating it by not confronting it and disproving it."

"So, is there a point beyond which you will have proved any such claims wrong? I mean, it's not like totally misunderstand you. I sort of live in my father's shadow, and following in his footsteps in more than one regard, but my need to outdo him, or anyone for the record, has never been to strong. And I still often find myself a winner of this or that. So maybe these two things are not as connected as you think, and moving on from one doesn't mean forsaking the other?" He thought about it more. "Sorry if I am rambling or overstepping myself."

Tenma shook her head, "No harm done. I'm the one who brought so much up, after all. Let my On slip. I should probably leave it at that anyways, not let a first meeting turn into a therapy session. Besides, not feeling as up to swimming now as I was a bit ago."

Standing up again, the Bayushi girl affixed her mask back on before bowing, "I hope you don't think it rude of me for having brought such things up then closed them so suddenly. If I get to know you better over this miai, perhaps I will see about the merits of what you said, and the tough questions you asked. After all, if I'm to get married, would I want to carry my baggage into such an arrangement? I think not."

"It's alright!" He rose too and smiled at her as if nothing of the described kind happened. "I have some heavy stuff in my past too, but I am used to dealing with all that, also through my music. If we keep meeting, maybe we'll get back into that, but for now I am just happy I've met you." He mused. "But you know, perhaps we could do something fun here still to not part on a lower note. How about some splashy diving jumps?" He looked at the spots for those.

The pool was nothing fancy, no diving board or diving platforms. It wasn't a kiddie pool though, so it was a uniform five meters deep, certainly not too shallow for some splashy stuff. Tenma looked around herself after nodding, "You have a good point; I hadn't thought about it since things are so basic, but maybe I can engineer a way to do a dive that's worthy."

She finally spotted her inspiration; One of the ladders leading out of the pool.

"In fact, I think I have an idea. Especially with the mood I'm in."

"How risky is the idea? Should I spot for you or something?" He smirked, not really risk-averse himself. "Or just sit back, watch and admire?"

"Hm... well, biggest issue is no chalk for my hands, but that's hardly a big issue."

Walking over to the high handled pool ladder Tenma squared it up, nodding before gripping on at it's top. From there, she proceeded to treat the two handles like a pommel horse, doing a series of fast rotations around them. Slowly getting her legs higher and higher until they were above her head, she ended in a handstand on the two bars facing the pool... before she proceeded to flip forward off them and dive hands first into the pool after one rotation.

A slow clap greeted her back. "My turn. Make some space there, Bayushi-san!"

Ruhe took a ran-up, catapulted himself high from the rim of the pool, took two tumbles mid-air before splashing in quite smoothly, almost perpendicularly toward the water, quickly diving toward the bottom before springing back.

[No rolling, but an Agility 4 Daredevil jump]

Tenma treaded water as she watched this, giving Ruhe a thumbs up as he surfaced, "Very nice! I particularly liked the underwater handstand walk before pushing off."

"I bet I liked your handstand more." He chuckled. "Seems to me that in that you're more artful while I am just a bold monkey."

"Different style, but still bold and daring. I certainly liked it."

She grinned infectiously.

He grinned back, immediately infected, swimming up to her a bit. "Maybe we could do this more often, some crazy physical things like diving. My primary experience is in stage diving, but I am open for new things."

"Oh, you've been crowd surfing?"

She didn't seem to much surprised as extremely curious as to the stage diving bit.

"I'd like to try that some time myself, speaking of trying new things."

"Yeah, it's awesome, you should try it. I'd take you to a real concert for that, but can't get one here, I'm afraid. Though I play at the local Crab place every now and then while here, maybe one night they'll turn up in sufficient numbers."

"Yeah... well, one day perhaps. Anyways, thank you for the pool time, and the wonderful dive there. I'll definitely keep trying crowd surfing in mind the next time I hear about a concert I can make it to that I'm interested in!"

Swimming back to the ladder, she climbed up and out of the pool before turning around and holding out a hand.

He got out after her and accepted her hand for a shake. "Make sure of that!" He chuckled. "Glad we've met, Bayushi-sama. Until next time!" He had taken her silhouette in sometime just before that, what was colouring his smile now.

Giving him one little salute after grabbing her towel, she made her way into the women's locker room.

/exit scene?

Ladies to the right, gents to the left.

/scene!