Making the Best of Time (Takeru)

There was something about ditching that was bittersweet. On one hand, he was ditching practice. He was missing out on practice and lessons, a waste of money if he was being honest. It also meant if his parents found out, he'd be reamed out for wasting his time and money. On the other hand.

"Order up! Number 83!"

Judai raised his hand and was rewarded by a steaming bowl of ramen sliding expertly in front of him. He gave his thanks, snapped open his chopsticks and dug in.

"Mmm."

Judai slurped up his noodles feeling content. Mostly. The enjoyment of his meal lasted for an enjoyable few moments before the bitter part of this outing hit in.

"Geez... what am I doing?" Judai let his head slump onto the counter. The counter felt cool to his head, but it did nothing to rid him of his guilt and restlessness.

He was feeling odd lately, like something was nagging at the back of his mind. He just couldn't tell what the problem was. So without a solution, he choose to ditch martial arts practice today and hope that he could kill the thought with idle play. So far, it had not seemed to work. He sorely needed a distraction. A commotion, someone to talk to, a robbery, anything really.

Takeru walked in expecting just another day of eating in solitude, but when he saw Judai...
"Oh! Hey Judai. How are you doing?" Takeru said, sitting down next to him as he ordered his bowl of ramen as well.

Alright, that would do life, that would do. Judai mentally gave whoever was pulling the strings of life his brief thanks as a distraction showed up.

Now then. Judai twisted his head to look over at the guy who sat next to him and just kind of greeted him. He didn't immediately recognize him, so that sent a few warning bells in his head. He was sure that the boy was not a part of his class in school. Could he be a part of the dojo? No, he'd be in class now rather than ditching like Judai was. The kid was tiny. How did he forget about meeting someone that short.

"Oh, hey." That's right, keep it generic. If he didn't mention the guy's name or his lack of knowledge of it, he'll never know and it'll give him time to recall it. "I'm doing... alright." Yeah, like he'd believe that. Judai had his head slumped against a counter next to a half eaten bowl of ramen. He looked about as alright as the owner was happy about his poor manners. Quick, add to the statement!

"Just... eating. I don't get the opportunity to eat much over here. So I'm just taking advantage of my free time." Wow, so many lies in that sentence that it hurt. Still, that last bit was true, so hey not a complete lie.

"What about you? Do you live by here?" Seriously, where had he seen this kid before?

"Who, me? No. I live in Sunlake Palms. You can't miss my house. It's the last one on the main road to the forest." Takeru said.
"But... why so glum though? I mean, i'm here. I'm your friend, Takeru, remember? Guy who you saw a while back that played the whole Moonlight Sonata for you on request?" He asked him.

Oh right, this guy. Judai faintly recalled meeting the tiny pianist down in the BackLight. The classical music was a bit odd on the random stages on the street. That was an odd meeting, but it kind of blurred together with the rest of that day. He was kind of surprised that Takeru remembered his name. He must have been like a single person out of hundreds in the streets that day. Though maybe the request was out of place. He did say that he did not expect someone their age to know classical music.

"Hahaha... yeah." Judai lifted his head up and gave the guy a sheepish smile as he propped his head up onto an arm. He wasn't really feeling up to it, but if he kept up the gloom and doom, this was bound to start an interrogation. "I guess I was just a bit lonely what with eating all alone."

Geez, was a single meeting and a request to play a song all it took for this guy to think they were friends? Judai envied Takeru's acceptance of other people. He didn't think he'd call someone that he met once on the streets a friend.

"But anyways, I'm just burning some time over here, but what brings you over to Little Tokyo?" Judai asked as he pointed his chopsticks at Takeru. "Did you come all the way over here just to grab some noodles?"

"Me? Kinda. That, and to pick up the newest copy of a few manga series I enjoy reading." He said, holding up a shopping bag.
"Besides, I don't like eating alone either. Food's better when you have someone to eat it with, no?" He asked him.

That was a really wasteful reason to come all the way to Little Tokyo, if Judai was going to be honest. There were bookstores all over Endymion and most of them sold manga. Judai could not really see a point to coming to the Tokyo Strip for manga.

"Huh, okay..." Judai said scratching his head. He nodded at the cook that took his ramen bowl and pointed out at a drink before dropping a few bills onto the counter. "That seems kind of odd. I mean, is there no bookstore near your place or are you looking for something old or obscure?"

"Though, I guess I can't say much, since I'm just burning some time here on the Strip." Judai grinned and shook his head.

Really, there was no real point to being here. If he was going to ditch, just sticking around Little Tokyo was a bad idea. In fact, once the dojo lesson was over, he'd have to bail pretty quickly so that people would not see him and just start asking why he did not come to class. Worst case scenario, one of the instructors saw him and contacted his father.

The cook by with his drink and Judai accepted his drink with a nod of thanks. He took the a sip and gave a halfhearted shrug in response to Takeru. "It really depends. I find that eating alone isn't that bad. It just depends on my mood. A lot of time I like eating with people, but sometimes you just want to focus on your food. Not something you can do when talking to another person." Judai preferred eating with people, but sometimes the energy it took to be polite was too much.

"So what have you been up to lately?" Judai asked as he leaned back into his chair. "Anything interesting?"

"No... not really, no." Takeru said. How could he tell him? About the personas, and the demons, and all of that? He'd be thought to either be crazy at best, or at worst, arrested by some undercover cadet.
"Are you sure about that? Something about him... I don't know... resonates." Twelve said.
"Resonate... how?" Takeru said.
"I don't know... I just.... never mind. Forget I said anything." He said.

Well, wasn't this a thrilling conversation. Judai had to suppress the twitch above his left eyebrow. This guy did not seem to want to speak much. Judai wracked his brain for any other conversation bits, but he hit a blank. Heck, he even took a large gulp of his drink to burn some time. Takeru just looked to be deep in thought.

Judai tapped his empty glass on the counter a few times and contemplated a refill. Seeing the tiny boy in front of him deep in thought, Judai made his decision. "Alright, well I finished my meal and you seemed to be engrossed in something, so I'm going to get going before it's too late."

The last thing Judai needed was to leave after his lesson was finished. A quick glance at the clock told him that he still had a little bit of time, extra if they pushed over time, but there was no downside to leaving early. The last thing he wanted was for the class to get out and get discovered by someone. That would lead to some awkward conversations and that sounded exhausting.

Judai stretched as he got up and gave a short wave to the short boy, his pinky and ring finger closed in a pseudo salute. "Enjoy the noodles and your books."

His piece said, he jammed his hands into his pockets and walked out of the shop.

[Exit]

"Hm. See ya around." Takeru said, smiling.
"Huh. Now I know..." Twelve said.
"What? What is it? Is it about earlier?" Takeru said mentally.
"...keep an eye on him. Don't ask why... just... keep an eye on him." Twelve said.
"Alright. Fine." Takeru said, getting up as well.

Soundtrack:
Theme of Sawada (1)/The Reluctant Hero~Moon suite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOZgQKDZ3i0

Exit. Mission Complete: Grade: B. Not bad.