Kelvin sat on the crystalline floor with his legs splayed and his hands pressed into the ground between them. His tail coiled about languidly as he looked side to side. Takashira floated about a yard in front of him. Her eyes were sweeping over him, widening and narrowing from time to time. She hummed curiously as she eyed him. Kelvin slowly started to fold into himself as her scrutinizing continued. She widened her eyes suddenly as if she had exited a trance.<br/><br/>"Oh!" she started "umm, are you okay? I'm not hurting you am I?"<br/><br/>Kelvin scratched at his elbow "no- uh, not really. I just-... what are we doing anyway?" he was looking at a spot on the floor, trying to discern what color the ground actually was. Takashira shrugged and her face was hard to read.<br/><br/>"I was trying something," she said nonchalantly "What's up with your face ?"<br/><br/>Kelvin's eyes widened. Was he that transparent? "W- what are you talking ab- .... look can we just get started?" Kelvin fumbled defensively.<br/><br/>"We have started!" She chirped "but I'm gonna include pretty soon. Just a sec," and with that her face became serious again as she continued her weird scanning and humming. Kelvin was starting to get irritated. His tail was flicking with a little more vigor than before. After a moment, the sound of a tiny giggle came from Takashira. She was looking at Kelvin with an amused look on her face. Kelvin was beyond flustered for some reason.<br/><br/>"You know, you're pretty adorable for a Z-fighter. How old are you?"<br/><br/>Kelvin straightened up.He looked as if Takashira had just spat in his face. "I'm thirty-eight thank you very much!" he spat back at her. Instead of being apologetic, she made a noise reserved for people watching babies. His tail thrashed around in displeasure.<br/><br/>"You're still just a baby," Takashira sung "I bet you couldn't stop being cute if you tried," Cute? That was a new one. Kelvin was trying hard not to tense up; with all the soreness he could strain something. He opened his mouth to reply but Takashira had already moved on.<br/><br/>"Do you speak another language?" She asked with a weird cadence to her voice. Kelvin was taken aback and his anger was replaced with confusion.<br/><br/>"Nothing fluently," he thought about a few rushed lessons he's had learning alien languages "Why?"<br/><br/>Takashira hummed as if his response was odd "Well, your thoughts are not very easy to read. Not the complex ones at least,". Kelvin's eyes widened.<span style="font-style: italic">That's what she was doing!</span>He thought.<br/><br/>"<span style="font-weight: bold">Yes it is~</span>" a voice in his head replied, mocking his shocked tone of realization. He yelped before glaring at her. He was less than amused by this. Takashira had a smug grin plastered on her face.<br/><br/>"By the way, spicy food is pretty good," Takashira stated as further proof "I make a crushed pepper noodle bowl with shrimp and peapods like you wouldn't believe!" she said giddily. Kelvin watched her contain her excitement at the thought of having a food-related conversation. He wanted to be angry at her, but the opportunity to chat about things like this were rare. Clarinet didn't see the value in foods taste, only its nutrition; 'Why would you willingly put something in your body that would make you weaker?' or something along those lines.<br/><br/>"Yeah?" he Kelvin replied. He leaned forward, tucked his feet towards his hands and let himself float off the ground a bit. Takashira went bright-eyed for a moment. "Think you could whip some up while we're here?"<br/><br/>"I'll think about it," she rushed. Her mind was already moving to something else "Are you fully grown already or....?"<br/><br/>Kelvin actually wasn't sure about that one. He scratched his head "I guess so." it sounded more like a question than an answer. "I grew up around Saiyan kids and they stopped growing around .... 16 or so? If I go by those metrics, I guess I am, but I haven't really changed much since I hatched. I grew this shell when I was about 11 or so,"<br/><br/>"You grew up with Saiyans? Were you adopted or something?" Kelvin went blank at the question and sunk back towards the floor.<br/><br/>"Uh, no I- just lived there for a while... my family-... The Z-fighters are like my family, but I'm not sure if many of them share the sentiment," Takashira looked at the boy with pity. She'd been a Z-fighter for decades and had no idea who this kid was until a few months (moments?) ago. It didn't take reading his mind to know he was trying to comfort himself.<br/><br/>"What about your friend?"<br/><br/>Kelvin brightened up at the thought "Clarinet? I've known him for a while now but I don't feel like I really know him. I ask him questions and he's really open about answering them, but... I don't know. Seems like we don't really think similarly. I dunno, maybe I'll figure more out when we get to Namek,"<br/><br/>"I got it!" she almost whispered to herself. Kelvin made a curious face as he caught the gleam in her eye "What?"<br/><br/>"Your emotions!" she almost shouted "Your abilities aren't just part of your biology, your emotions are how you control them!"<br/><br/>Kelvin gave her an amused but wary look "I've never shot laser beams out of my eyes because I was pissed at someone,"<br/><br/>"Well, that's not necessarily what would happen," Takashira chuckled at the thought "but you do seem to have some control over your ki when you're upset, or excited,"<br/><br/>Kelvin looked at her dumbly before placing his feet on the ground and shrugging "I don't know if it would be too healthy for me to start cycling emotions while I'm in the middle of a fight."<br/><br/>"No, no we just need to find out what does what and then I can teach you a few tricks to triggering that" Takashira tapped her chin for a moment before standing up. "Alright, I think we're ready to start!"<br/>_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________<br/><br/>Korin had managed to slip away from the training for a few moments, his paw dragging along his whiskers for a moment before he felt a presence behind him. Two presences actually. He tapped his cane against the tiles. "Alright, alright. You've thoroughly whooped Yajirobe, you've made decent progress, so I think it's about time that we've moved on to the next step."<br/><br/>Kelvin groaned aloud, but he could barely contain his excitement. It felt like forever since he'd seen Clarinet. Partly he missed him... mostly he wanted to show how much progress he had made.<br/><br/>The Sacred water jar, floated in front of Takashira for a moment before dropping into her outstretched hands. Yajirobe took his place over by the rest of the tower's inhabitants Korin stopped in mid-motion before speaking<br/><br/>"Now, you two are a team. So I think it's time you worked like one,"<br/><br/>Kelvin took the moment to try out his instantaneous transmission. He flickered to Clarinet's side "We aren't gonna win this by brute force. Not with Takashira on their side, trust me,"