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"Watch the rests and ties... you keep missing them!"

...

"Rei, excellent tone, but I'm looking for a little more legato with a rich feeling...can you do that for me?"

...

"Rei! I know you're better than that, finish it with energy!"

The bell had rung and it was time to go home. Orchestra class was Rei's favorite and he knew that he had to practice more after he got done with his homework. It was a great way to end the day after a stream of boring classes, but he knew it was worth the time to focus in them. A light smile rested across his face as he walked past the huddles of children making their way back to their home or cram schools. With his violin case in his left hand and his one strap bag on his left shoulder, it was now time to have a short snack before walking back home. In fact, luckily there was a small crepe shop nearby that he had loved called 'Go Crepe!' just about a few blocks down the intersection. A bit on the introverted side he decided to walk alone this time without casually talking to various other students on his way back, and since his home was closer to the natural parts of Osaka he would be taking a little shortcut today after his delightful purchase.

Rei made his way into the crepe shop, getting the usual small sized crepe with strawberries and a light stream of chocolate that rolled down the pastry. With that a light fluff of whipped cream bowed on top of the fluffy desert dish. He ordered it to go so it would be much to his liking to walk and eat with some beautiful scenery. He walked out of the shop, the bell twinkled a high "C" as he made his way towards the nature trail. Nobody really took it, so this was definitely a first for him.



The light colored bark mixed in with the sounds of birds humming and singing their songs calmed him down as he entered, almost as if they were giving him a warm welcome. A slight breeze entered through the forest as if a breath were blowing into a wind instrument, the branches waved his entrance dancing gently like a lovely waltz were playing. He smiled and took a gentle bite to his crepe after cutting a piece off with his plastic fork. He continued his journey back home, humming Chopin's Piano Nocturne in E flat major. "Hm...hmmm...hmhmhmmmhm..."

Notable Music:

It was warm today, well relatively warm at least. Nina had been camped out relatively all day. She had left early to get some more mechanical pencil lead but on her way home had decided to spend the rest of her day off the charts in the forest. Since she didn't want to hang out on the path, due to the occasional passerby, she had jumped the rails with a backpack full of notebooks, novels and a few 3DS games and her bunny Shu-shu and wandered off into the trees. After deciding she was far enough away she had set up camp, laying out a blanket in a small clearing between three trees and setting out all her goodies.

But by now her camp was much less orderly. Notebooks lay open, some with half scribbled thoughts and poetry and others with stories in them, a small pile of manga was stacked off to the side after being finished and candy wrappers lay scattered around. At the present time Nina was propped up against a tree with Shu-shu sitting happily in her lap while the girl busied herself with Animal Crossing. She had headphones on and was humming along to one of her favorite songs, Universe by Maaya Sakamoto. During the parts with piano she would pause her game and try to play the notes on an imaginary piano. She had been trying to learn the song by ear for almost a week now and even then she had only gotten the first few seconds of piano down.

Eventually she got bored and got up, holding her rabbit in both arms and dancing around her camp as if she were with a partner, singing a little louder then she would normally dare since her headphones were in and she couldn't hear herself.

Notable Music :

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Rei crossed over a small bridge that connected the two hills on each side with each other. Below the wooden foothold there was a small river that rolled down the hill, and off in the distance was a building in the near distance. He never knew what it was or how to reach it, but it looked nice whenever the sun grew close to it and the building was silhouetted from the light that touched the back of it's walls. He stopped and stared at the beauty that it drew for a few moments before remembering the practice and work that needed to be done. He took another small bite of the crepe and continued along the nature trail hence forth. He passed a couple of strangers along the way, mostly young adults who had realized that sometimes cities could sometimes be a little overwhelming despite the excitement they got as college students. After walking a few feet forward, he heard someone's voice. It wasn't too far away, but it wasn't coming from near the trail either.

He then noted that it was coming towards the right side of the path, only to examine that it was somewhat in the direction of where the building was, but nowhere near close to it. After walking down a small slope from the path, he started to tread through tall grass that stood in his way. It was a little itchy, each blade lightly scraped past his skin as he pushed it past himself. Once he left the small patch of grass, there was a short clearing up ahead were some trees stood. The voice started to grow in velocity, he was definitely closer. He walked past a few of the trees only to spot a peculiar girl alone amongst the trees. She didn't look in any way japanese, but in fact had hints of a european flair to her ( or so he thought ). But suddenly she stood and began to sing a bit to herself.She was definitely a beautiful singer, unique and definitely not like the cookie cutter japanese pop singers. But he wasn't sure what song she was singing and he grew a little curious. The voice was rich with youth and sensitivity and it was a very gentle soothing timbre. He smiled a little bit, staring at her for a few moments, noting the small rabbit that stood within her arms. He definitely wanted to say something, but he wasn't sure if she could speak japanese or not. He was a little shy on creating conversation with others, but he could definitely fake his shyness a bit if the conversation is initiated. He then decided to see what this girl was all about, her voice was really pleasant.

"You have a very nice tone." He said, making his way closer to the young girl. He held his plate of half eaten crepe in one hand, his other hand gripped his violin case tightly as it rested on the side of his leg. The sun continued to lower ever so quietly, creeping to the horizon as if it moved when people didn't look at it.

Nina spun around for a few minutes more before she noticed she had company, at which point she began to trip. She tried to catch herself but had to overstep herself so she didn't step on one of her open books and this was her downfall, literally. She tumbled, her earphone getting knocked out of her ears in the process, and landed unceremoniously on her face. Shu-shu flew out of the girls arms mid-fall and landed not far away, completely unhurt and surprisingly un-phased. The lop-bunny simply looked around for a moment before hopping back to her owner and nibbling on some clover nearby.

Nina, who had been laying there with her face buried in the grass, quickly sat up and scurried to her feet, attempting to fix her hair and clothes all at the same time. "Ah um, hello. S-sorry about that..." she began in English but as she turned she realized her blunder and tried to fix it, " Hello, sorry about that." she repeated in awkward Japanese. It was clear she was flustered and her eyes began to dart around, looking for something she was missing. Right! Shu-shu! Spotting the rabbit nearby she scooped the creature up. It seemed unworried and continued to nibble at a bunch of clover is had brought with it.

"Um... C-can I help you? I mean i'm not in your spot right? Or um.. I'm sorry if I was bothering you?" She seemed confused by her own words for a moment before she shook her head. That didn't make sense. Why would she be sorry? She didn't do anything right?

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"Oh....no.... um..."

He noticed that her clumsiness took over a little too quickly and there wasn't enough time to react to her fall. He just kind of stood there and watched with somewhat of an embarrassed look on his face. He didn't mean to make her so surprised like that. Was it his fault? But then when she started stumbling over her words, he had soon realized that her japanese was actually quite decent, although some inflection of a foreign accent popped out, but it was impressive indeed. "Ah, um... no you weren't bothering me." He said softly and a light smile painted over his face. "I couldn't help but hear your voice, it sounded really nice. It was far from being bothersome." He said with somewhat of a stiff posture. He looked at the small rabbit and eyed it with delight. "...hey there little fella." He beckoned out to the small little fuzzball of a creature, giving it a shy wave.

"How long have you been singing?" He asked blatantly unable to give her much time to take in the previous compliment. He looked at the girl's surroundings more closely, noticing that she had made herself home to the woods with the blanket, manga, and various other things she must've brought along with her.

Nina was caught off-guard by the question and began to laugh awkwardly, she had barely even hear the compliment through the sound of her silently scolding herself. Her face slowly grew a little pink. "Er well... Ahah... You heard me singing? Um well I suppose... Ever since I was little um... Here!" She exclaimed, thrusting the rabbit at him after spotting him eyeing her camp. "Her name is Shu-shu. You can hold her if you like. I mean if you want to." It was such an abrupt gesture that Shu-shu actually seemed bothered for a moment, squirming slightly before it began lazily munching again. The rabbit seemed fairly used to this sort of treatment.

Hoping the boy was at least partly distracted by the bunny she began to feel around behind her with her foot, kicking closed her notebook lest they reveal some of their secrets and stories. While there was nothing truly embarrassing amidst the pages there were many things that Nina had sworn never to show another human being unless they were perfect ( which by her standards they weren't ). "She uh... Won't bite or anything. She's nice."

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"Ah... alright... oh sorry, I called her a guy before..." He wasn't really prepared to be holding anything since he had a crepe in one hand and a violin case in his other. But he decided to set the violin down and then placed the half eaten crepe on top of the case so it wasn't sitting close directly on the ground. He grabbed the rabbit underneath the pockets underneath it's fluffy arms and started to pet it's head gently with his other hand. He hoped this rabbit wouldn't...surprise him with any attacks of any sort. He looked at the young girl quietly and he replied to her embarrassed statement from before. "Oh, since you were a kid, huh? Anyways, it sounded excellent..." Before he could really continue into further dialogue however, a man had walked out from the bushes...

His stature was quite tall, and he definitely looked to have some kind of bulk. Not necessarily fat, but he was just big-boned. He could've been european or american due to his facial features and his height, but Rei wasn't necessarily sure where he was from. He just wasn't japanese. He had somewhat of a business suit on, why he was walking in the woods confused the heck out of Rei. What was he doing all the way out here? "Excuse me..." He said in fluent japanese. 'What was with all of these foreigners today?' Thought Rei, were they like tourists or something? Maybe the man was the girl's father... there were so many questions and ideas running inside of his head.

"You two need to leave this area now. I'm going to ask you this one time, so listen. This is a forbidden area... I better not see you two here again, you hear?" Since when? Rei had never seen any signs or fences around the area, this was a public location. Rei looked at the man quietly, not sure how the girl would react to such a request. Rei stroked the bunny quietly, a little shy to speak up against the man.

Nina spun around at the sound of another voice, a jolt of anxiety coursing through her. After eyeing the man for a moment, however, she calmed a bit, frowning and putting her hands on her hips. There was a confused expression in her face. "Um... May I ask since when? It's not fenced off and there are no signs. At least not that I saw." Her japanese was nothing like that mans, a little more shaky and it was clear she wasn't yet fluent in it, but she spoke with a certain level of confidence (whether it was forced or not was a mystery). While she spoke Nina went about gathering her things. It was clear she wasn't going to oppose the man but she wasn't afraid to voice her curiosity and perhaps her annoyance.
Meanwhile Shu-shu had busied herself sniffing at Rei's hand. Perhaps she could smell the crepe he was holding before but after a moment she gave his finger a little nibble. Not hard but certainly hard enough to startle a person at the least.

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Rei looked down at the rabbit with a smirk on his face, feeling the tiny nibble on his finger. He began to pet it, trying to distract it's attention to the feeling of his hand scratching gently on it's head. "Well... you see miss, this place is highly likely for upcoming earthquakes, as this spot is on an incredibly dangerous fault. I suggest you don't stick around here... " He said with sternness in his voice sounding a bit bit rough in syllables as if mixing russian and japanese together at once. He put his hands inside of his pockets and stared at the two, waiting for them to take their leave. Rei stood there, not sure if they should argue with him or not and decided to go along with the man's suggestion. But then, he grew a little more curious and the man's reasoning didn't necessarily make much sense. "I understand your concern, but there are earthquakes all over the country. That can't be the only reason..." Rei stood tall ( or as tall as his 5'8 body could muster... ) attempting to rival against this tall bulky individual. He knew his country in and out and began to explain some things to this /foreigner/... "Also, aren't japanese buildings built with infrastructure to keep them safe underneath the base?" He asked, testing the man's knowledge on how much he truly knew about Rei's culture.

The man nodded and looked at the young boy with confidence, not fazed by these two young folks. "Well, you see there's a building around here built by a foreign company, and they used a more european style of building it, you know what happened at the Fukushima Nuclear Plant a few years ago? The company that built the plant was by an american company so they put the nuclear reactor in the /basement/ since the company prepares for tornados activity, but since the natural disasters here involve tsunamis instead the generator was flooded once the water hit the plant. The top of the buildings were fine, but the reactors and generators in the basement were destroyed all thanks to a foreign company's building plan. Same thing goes for this location... if an earthquake hits and the building collapses, people in the surrounding area could be severely hurt. We just haven't closed down the area yet..."

The man had a point, but what building was he necessarily talking about? Maybe it was the one he saw from the bridge... but it was quite far and they weren't even close to it. He looked to the girl, not sure what to do at this point. He stood there silently, waiting in silence hoping this man would go away in the next few moments, but if he continued to pester them he would be forced to turn back to the path and head home.

Nina thought for a moment."The last tsunami was a while back if I recall. If it were truly a nuclear reactor in that old building it would have been secured as soon as possible. They wouldn't have waited to so long to section it off. Especially if they were expecting some kind of disaster. They would've had it blocked off immediately and since nuclear radiation is such a danger the fences would be far enough away that no one would be able to enter that park. After all nuclear radiation affect areas miles from site of release. That tells me that you're lying or that your company needs to be sued for endangering the lives of everyone in the general area." She stopped after a moment, a tiny smile of satisfaction on her face which what quickly suppressed in favor of a more innocent look. "That's just my opinion though."

By now Nina was rolling up the blanket she had laid on the ground, brushing off clinging leaves and bit of dirt, and carefully packing it back into a rather large size backpack. "Anyways, I'll take your word for it, lies or not. I'll be able to find the truth or at least some theories on the internet later." She casually swung the backpack over her shoulder and took a few steps towards Rei. "I think we should do as he says. No need to start a fight." She smiled weakly at the boy before glancing down at Shu-shu. "She likes you."

( whoops sorry about the wait, here we go... )

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The man grunted a little bit and looked at the young girl in annoyance. "Who said it was my company, I'm just spreading the word to people nearby. Wouldn't want to see you get hurt, now would we?" He asked, glaring into their eyes, making sure they were looking right at him while he said that. He took out a small golden stop watch, eyeing it closely watching as the hands fade through the reflected sunlight that laminated through the glass. It was incredibly beautiful, a lovely renaissance pattern was enscribed on the back of the watch, which faced both Rei and Nina. With a sudden turn, the man began to walk away venturing away from them and walking back through the trees to catch his next set of wanderers nearby. ".... that was...odd. Are you sure you want to leave?" Rei said, petting the small rabbit that rested within his hands. "By the way... What's your name miss....?" Rei asked right after her comment on Shu-shu. He looked into her eyes, it was rude not to let your eyes wander off during the middle of conversation.

"I'm Rei." He smiled, bowing slightly attempting to keep his distance from her. She was quite a pretty sight for him, there was something incredibly different about her that he couldn't quite catch from the girls he had always met in japan. Maybe it was her sense of justice or something...

"Well... We probably should. But I have other places I could set up." Nina watched the man go, arms crossed and a rather irritated look on her face now that he had left. Once he was out of eye shot she stuck her tongue out exaggeratedly in his direction in an act of childish defiance. At the question of her name Nina turned to the boy, fully ready to answer when she noticed him staring right into her eyes. She shifted uncomfortably, avoiding eye contact. When he bowed she jumped a little. For some reason she still wasn't used to the customs of this country even after being here for so long. To her everyone was so needlessly formal. "Uh.. My name? Name... Nina. My name is Nina."

Nina stood there staring for a moment. In fact she completely spaced out for a moment before shaking her head violently and putting on a nervous smile while a little colour came to her cheeks. She stuck out her hand in the attempt of a handshake with this new boy. "It's um... Nice to meet you, Rei. You have a nice name. I'm watching an anime where one of the characters is named Rei. He's kind of weird though... N-not that your weird or anything... uh..." Her hand sunk a little, her face turning bright pink. "Um. I'm sorry. I'm really awkward hahah...."

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Rei wasn't sure what kind of anime the girl was talking about, "Oh...I see. Do you like anime?" He asked curiously, unsure of what the girl truly thought about his country's entertainment. "Nice to meet you Nina..." He stated with a soft smile on his face. He could tell that the girl was becoming a nervous wreck so he gave a re-assuring nod as if he were going into another bow, but his head stopped mid-way. A calm smile grew on his face and his eyes were keenly staring into hers, however on occasion they would flutter about not giving her full eye-contact. He was a little nervous as well, meeting new foreign faces like this, of course. Her japanese was quite impressive, so he assumed she must've studied somewhere around here as an exchange student. "No...please, don't be scared. May I ask where you are from? Are you an exchange student?" He started to walk back towards the trail where he had come from, expecting the girl to follow him until they decided to part ways.

He continued to hold the rabbit in his hand, but remembered that his violin was in the grass behind him. "Whoops I almost forgot..." He went back and nested the rabbit inside his right arm, while he picked up the violin case, balancing the small plate on the side of his violin. It was kind of difficult at first, but he managed to make everything balance out somehow. Shu-shu seemed rather content and relaxed as he carried it with great care and sensitivity. He didn't want to drop it so he held on to it like it were his child. He began to pet it softly again, making sure it wasn't going to try to spring out of his grip or squirm to escape.

Nina was caught off guard by his passive response and smiled awkwardly. "Er.. yah. It's pretty good... Well... Not that magical girl stuff or the um... Gundam? Giant Robot... stuff. I'm not so fond of that. Or the fan service ones. Those are kind of dumb." She rambled for a few moments under her breath until he asked her where she was from. "Oh uh... That way." She pointed to the south, in the direction of her home. "Er and no... Well... Not exactly... My mum's kind of a weeaboo so we moved here about five years ago. And i've been home schooled forever so that just sort of continued. My dad said that bullying is bad in schools here. Especially for foreign students so I didn't get to go to real school like I was supposed to in high school." She followed him carefully, keeping about a step behind him. At one point she noticed he was struggling with how much he was carrying. "Er... Would you like some help? I could carry something for you?" She offered sheepishly, hands at the ready in case he were to drop anything. Nina kept a careful eye on Shu-shu but one she saw how carefully he carried the little rabbit she smiled softly and relaxed a little.

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He started to wonder again what that man was talking about, and if the building really was all that dangerous. There wasn't anything around here, but it continued to badger in his mind. But then Nina began to speak again... Rei found himself chuckling to himself to the comment about Nina's mother. "Hehehe, anime must be popular overseas. Well if you want you can help me finish the last bit of my crepe if you wish..." He sighed from his last giggle and then he began to try to speak english to her. As he balanced the wobbling plate on his case his head turned back to hers and a grin started to spread across his face. Maybe this girl was from america? He wasn't quite sure but he started to mutter out english. "Aru....you... posuchiburi...america?" He asked her in his incredibly poor english. The smirk on his face lifted even higher, finding his speaking skills clever, although he wasn't sure how she should react to it. But at the same time he felt he was making a fool of himself, so his face turned slightly red in embarrassment.

"Ahh um... Ok." Nina murmured, carefully taking the crepe and eyeing it a moment before taking a cautious nibble. She caught his grin out of the corner of her eye and glanced at him for a moment, expecting him to say something. Well he sure said something alright. Nina stared at him for a moment, pausing mid bite to try and process what she had just heard. It took her a moment but she eventually lowered the crepe, a little grin on her face. She looked for a moment as if she were trying her hardest not to laugh but she couldn't help it and eventually began to snicker. The snicker turned into a giggle which quickly turned into a full out laugh. "N-no." She managed between giggles. "I'm not from America hahaha. I'm Danish hehehe. I'm from Denmark." She smiled at him, her face a little pink from laughing. "That was adorable. Too cute." Nina took another bite of the crepe. "Thank you for sharing this. It's very yummy."

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"No problem..." He stated with a warmness in his heart, he was glad that Nina enjoyed the crepe. He then looked at her curiously and wondered if the girl remembered anything about her home country. he was also unsure of what the language sounded like from that country. But a few musicians popped up in his head, one stuck out however, Carl Nielsen. He was famous for his conducting skills... and more importantly for his virtuoso violin skills. He couldn't really play much of his music, he wasn't that skilled to take on difficult pieces such as his, but he would soon be on his way. As they kept walking he noticed that they were nearing the path in just a few paces forward. "Ah, well, I guess this is where we part." He stated in a polite manner, shifting the arm with Shu-shu closer to Nina to grab her dear rabbit. "It was nice meeting you Nina..." He stated with a smile. Deep down however, he really wanted to learn more about her, but he couldn't stay for too much longer. She was rather...interesting. And her voice... was just beautiful.

Notable Music:

Nina caught his eye briefly and gave him an awkward smile. However, for most of their walk together she remain quiet, observing their surroundings as they walked. Her attention turned back to him when he spoke. "Oh, already?" she asked, looking a little disappointed. It took her a second to realize Rei was trying to give her bunny back but once she did she took the little mammal from his arm and cradled it carefully in her own. "Er... It was nice meeting you too." Nina smiled in return but there was a hint of sadness in it. This boy was the first friendly company she had received in a while and she wasn't eager to relinquish it. She wondered for a moment if she should ask for his cellphone number but promptly began to talk herself out of it. What if he doesn't have a phone? And more importantly what if he doesn't find me interesting enough to continue talking to? Wait.... Maybe she could just say something subtle. "Maybe we'll see each other again sometime?" she said, smiling and petting Shu-shu softly.