Shokatsu Yu
Sunswept Plains — Riverside
With the two girls having run off downstream to go wash up, Sho and Saito were left behind near the shallows with little else to worry about. The former, of course, could not actually wash the clothes he said he would without
having said clothes, but it was probably only a matter of time before one of them returned to hand them off to him. Hopefully.
"Well, I suppose there's nothing left to do but wait, huh?" he asked, taking a seat near the edge of the water and staring out towards the hills before his gaze panned back towards the river, an odd silhouette briefly catching his attention for naught more than a moment. As he turned to look upstream, though, the sight of something occasionally breaking through the water and diving back down in the distance caused him to cautiously rise back to his feet, one hand on his weapon in caution. Whatever was diving up and down seemed to be coming closer, and even if it was ultimately something harmless, the swordsman thought it was better to be safe than sorry anyways.
Eventually, as whatever it was drew close enough to make out its form, Yu could tell that it was a younger boy—in his young teens, at most—swimming downstream towards them. He seemed to be lingering underwater for longer periods of time as he drew closer, but to what end only he could really tell them.
The boy's attention, though, seemed to be on something else even as he drew closer, and it was only after Yu finally decided to call out to him did he finally seem to notice their presence. Pulling himself ashore, the boy shook himself off and looked at the two, a mix of caution and curiosity in his gaze as he kept his distance from the two present.
"Uh... Hello?" he asked, glancing between the two swordsmen, "Is there... Something you need from me?"
"Nothing in particular; just curious as to why you're swimming around at this time of day. Shouldn't you be... I don't know, back home or something?" Yu responded as he gestured towards the setting sun.
"Oh. Ah... I suppose I should. I was just... Looking for something important."
"Something?"
"A, um... A sword. My dad's. It, uh... It fell in the river a few days ago, and I've been searching for it ever since."
"A sword, huh... I think I saw something odd over there," Yu said, pointing over to where that silhouette had been.
There was a brief pause as the boy glanced between Yu and where he was pointing before nodding and diving back into the water. There was a brief pause, however, before he came back up, scrambling away from the water as some sort of large fish snapped away at his heels.
"That's it, I think. But, uh..." he trailed off, his chest heaving as the fish seemed to pause for a moment before sinking back out of sight. Seeing this, Yu looked the water before turning back towards Saito, one eyebrow raised in curiosity.
"Huh. Any ideas?"
@Sho Minazuki