[the academy]

[kurosawayoichi]

Lunch at the academy is about as Yoichi had expected. Enough of the classes split off down familiar lines - tiers of nobles, merchants, district people... the usual little clusters, huddled about in the academy courtyard. He even manages to recognize a few of the face. Minami's daughter, whatsherface. The Sato heir over by one of the Takenaka sons, which isn't a pairing he expected to see. The Takenakas are at least from just outside the Seireitei, and run a respectable shop there. ...And the patriarch of the family has run up a respectable debt with the Kurosawas. He'll be keeping a close eye on that one, he thinks.

They all get a brief, polite greeting as he passes by, though its accompanied by a far too wide, sharp-toothed grin. Strangely, it doesn't seem to engender much in the way of warm welcome for him.

It does however get a couple of other students to courteously abandon a bench in the shade of a tree, which is good enough for him. How kind of them.

Since it's unoccupied now anyway, he settles there in the shade with his lunch. It's a good a place as any to people watch from, really.

Comments

[fukumorihitomi]

Hitomi intends to make the most of her first day at the Academy, and that includes socializing. She'd like to make some friends on her own terms, not just the neighbor kids, or her family, or business partners' children. They don't keep her from making her own friends or anything, it's just... she hasn't really had a chance to. But now she's here doing her own thing. Before and between lessons she chats with whoever she feels like. Some of them are from families she recognizes (and in one case she even rediscovers a girl she played with a couple of times when they were both much smaller), most of them are not. But now it's lunchtime, and most of the others have broken off into little groups already. Hitomi isn't surprised.

...But she doesn't really feel like intruding into a group just now. She considers the other lone students she sees. One guy sitting in the shade of a tree catches her attention. Isn't that the Kurosawa heir? Hitomi can almost hear her uncles worrying from here. Well, why not? She approaches, lunch in hand. She stops a respectful distance and smiles cheerfully at him. "Good afternoon. Is anyone sitting there?" she asks, gesturing at the empty half of the bench.

[kurosawayoichi]

There's an instant while Yoichi just regards this girl with faint surprise. Someone actually asking to join him. Well.

"Good afternoon," He answers in his mildest nice voice and smiles. He considers the empty bench beside him for a moment before scooting over a bit further on it. "Not presently."

She looks vaguely familiar in a way Yoichi can't quite place. She's not related to any of the families the Kurosawas deal with directly, probably. But he still can't quite shake that he's seen her before somewhere.

[fukumorihitomi]

He sure does have a mouthful of very sharp-looking teeth. If smiling like that was supposed to get her to leave, it failed. She perches on the bench next to him. "Thank you. My name's Hitomi Fukumori. It's nice to meet you."

For good measure, she holds out her hand to shake. Hopefully the Kurosawas aren't one of the really old fashioned families that would take that the wrong way. She's already bumped into one of those kids today.

[kurosawayoichi]

Yoichi slowly raises his brows at the offered hand. Shaking hands is a thing generally done by equals, or roughly that. It's the sort of thing that would make many others of his class or higher at the very least upset.

...But this is Yoichi, so instead he looks at that hand of hers dubiously just long enough to make the moment an uncomfortable on. And then he lightly shakes it.

"Yoichi Kurosawa." He pauses for a beat. Her name rings a bell. He doesn't actually know much about the Fukumoris, besides they're respectable merchants and there's a ton of them. "One of the Fukumoris in the Shin'ō Academy, huh?"

[fukumorihitomi]

Hitomi wonders if she made a mistake. But he shakes her hand anyway, so it can't be too bad. "Well, there are so many of us it was only a matter of time, statistically speaking," she says with a little half-shrug. She's honestly a little surprised there aren't more of her family in the ranks. There really are a lot of them.

"So, how are you liking classes so far?" This isn't the most graceful conversation Hitomi's had, but small talk is always a little tougher with strangers.

[kurosawayoichi]

Yoichi manages a crooked smile that's at least a little less immediately toothy. "I guess the odds of it are pretty good." And if asked, he could probably come up with actual approximate odds.

"They're alright," Yoichi shrugs lightly. He hasn't been to any of them enough to have any particularly strong opinions. However... "Captain Aizen's calligraphy course might actually be a test in surviving extreme boredom, however."

[fukumorihitomi]

"I figured I might as well be the outlier, right?" Hitomi responds to that crooked smile with a serene one of her own. Since she is actually hungry, she starts unwrapping her lunch as they talk.

"Oh, you weren't a fan either?" Hitomi smirks at him. "The class itself probably isn't bad, if you can hear anything over all the lovesick sighing." She's been hearing a lot of gushing over Captain Aizen, and she just does not get the appeal at all.

[kurosawayoichi]

Yoichi isn't even particularly hungry, at the moment. His lunch is treated as more of a mild curiosity he mostly ignores. "It had to happen at some point."

"One student looked as if they'd faint if he glanced their way." He scrunches up his nose a little bit in distaste. "And no, the class is bad. It's like being instructed by a lifeless doll. He's so... bland." It's not quite the right word, but it's close enough.

[fukumorihitomi]

A quick glance down at the actual contents of her lunch is... slightly disappointing. Oh well. Hitomi isn't here for the food. She takes an experimental bite. Yeah, about like it looks. Not very good, but it'll do.

"Only one?" she asks after a moment. "Well, I guess it's nice to know I didn't miss anything."

[kurosawayoichi]

"Only one that I saw." If there were more, Yoichi didn't notice them. He was too busy desperately trying not to doze off in the middle of class. "Oh, just a lot of toneless droning from the Captain."

He's skeptical of his own lunch. If nothing else the rice looks okay. Blander than Aizen, but okay. They can't really mess up rice that badly, can they?

[fukumorihitomi]

"I didn't see any, but I heard from at least two of them after class." Hitomi pauses to take another bite. She's eaten worse. Usually only when her sister Sayuri cooks, but still. "I can't say I understand the appeal."