<div class="floatleft">(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/a/ac/Taro03.jpg)</div><strong>Name:</strong>Taro Ikeda (https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=257738.msg12730054#msg12730054)<br/><strong>Location:</strong>Track & Field<br/><strong>Time:</strong>Flashback - a few days before school starts, very early morning<br/><strong>With:</strong>Shizuma<br/><hr/>"Oh, I was almost done. Two or three laps more or less won't make a difference, and till school starts I have all day to go for another run. Don't worry."<br/><br/>It was nice to see her smile, he decided, especially after mentioning something that must have been very hard for her. Taro hadn't made many friends in middle school, but when his parents decided he needed a break and went traveling with him, Taro had missed at least a few people quite a bit.<br/><br/>"Well, you'll be back in uniform soon." His own smile was a bit crooked too. He had trouble imagining her in a school uniform. Her current outfit was just too remarkable to sum up a mental image of something else in its place.<br/><br/>When they reached his bag he dug out a towel and draped it over his shoulder while he searched for a bottle of water. He had just begun to screw off the cap when he realized how impolite he was being. His hand vanished in the bag again and came out a moment later with another plastic bottle. "Want some?"<br/><br/>After giving Shizuma a moment to accept or decline the offer, Taro opened his own bottle and took a few small sips, then ran the towel briefly through his hair and over his face.<br/><br/>"And no, I don't think its silly to miss home and all the small, normal ... average things. I mean you had no say in gaining powers or not, right? Must have been hard to be taken away from home for something that wasn't your fault." He sighed, shook his head at the world at large. "Good thing the special schools were abolished."