Ai was... bored? No, maybe bored wasn't exactly the way to describe the current feelings that were plaguing her. Lonely? Definitely. She had contemplated for a while now how she could be surrounded by so many people and yet feel so utterly alone. She shouldn't. She should be happy. She didn't want or need for anything, was left alone to draw at her hearts content any time she wanted. Didn't really seem to have much that was expected of her either... But still, she was lonely nonetheless. To the point to where, despite her social awkwardness, she actually was currently venturing around, looking for the female she had drawn the other day, the one who had been with Raijin.

She had been wandering the halls for a while now, of the temple, hoping beyond hope she wouldn't have to go knocking on Raijins door. The last thing she wanted to do was be a bother. Hell, it had taken her long enough to bother for someone for the material to make the new robes she was wearing, in all their warm red, gold, and beige glory. But, she was willing to risk it at this point; as she wanted to be able to at least meet the female more properly, perhaps even give her the drawing she was still carrying around within her sketch book, which was currently pressed against her chest, like she was afraid of dropping the thing or something.

She hummed while she wandered down the hall towards Raijin's room, the same tune she was always humming.

Himitsu was just nonchalantly chillaxin' outside of Raijin's room like a balla' when sudden she heard soft footsteps. She was bored, and Raijin's room was a bit stuffy. She couldn't really say that a change of scenery was what she needed, though. So she had just been sitting there, reading a small medical book in braille, waiting for Raijin to awaken. She did not, I repeat NOT, want to deal with zombie or grumpy Raijin, nor did she want to be rude and disturb him.

The footsteps grew louder until the person walking was in the same hallway as her. She closed her book and looked toward said person. "Hello there. May I help you?"

'Well, that was easier than I thought it was going to be.', was the first thought that crossed Ai's mind as she saw the very person she had been looking for sitting outside of Raijin's room, compared to being in it. That meant she didn't have to knock and bother her cousin. Awesome! She stopped her humming and she put the most friendly smile she could across her face, her head tilting a bit to the side in her curiosity. "Hello, I'm Ai. I met you the other night..."

She paused a moment, thinking again over why she had been looking for the female. She glanced down at the book in her arms, and then to the book the female had. "I um..." Annnd stop. Her social awkwardness was kicking in, but she wasn't about let it defeat her, nope, nope, and nope! She took a deep breath, figuring on trying this again. "I um, drew you.. I draw people a lot. I was wondering if you'd like to have the drawing? And well.. I guess, I was hoping to meet you." In her mind Ai was all kinds of cheering at the brass balls she was pulling off with this whole conversation thing, and after a mental pat on the back she continued, "But, I don't want to disturb you.. if you're reading or something."

"Oh, Ai-san. I remember. You are Raijin's cousin. I am tremendously apologetic for how I reacted the other night. You just startled me is all." She smiled gently. The girl had several awkward pauses in her speech pattern. Not a good trait. She lacked confidence. Himi herself had a dulcet and soft tone of voice, but she was firm and didn't stutter. She was, what her mother had called decorous, where as Ai's speak was unbecoming of her.

"Oh you drew me? That's really kind of you, and I would love to accept it, but I must refuse in the most courteous of ways. For art, unless it is a sculpture, is albeit bland and pointless to someone that lacks the means to appreciate it. Please, do not take offence, and also, don't fret. You didn't disturb me at all. I was only brushing up on my Ijutsu."

Ai sat herself down nearby Himi, leaning her back against the wall, and moving her robes around her feet so that nothing showed that shouldn't be. The entire time she listened to Himi's words and pondered over them. Her mind churning them over and over again until finally, something just.. snapped in place like a rubberband. Sculptures have... feeling to them, details that could be touched, where as most other mediums of art did not. Was this woman.. blind? 'I should ask her, just to be sure...', came one little voice within her head. 'No, you shouldn't, Ai. It's rude, and you might hurt her feelings.', came the other mental voice. Ah yes, the battle between what was right, and what she wanted to do. Joy.

So, for now she was just going to ignore it... yup, ignoring things always worked. Once she was comfortable, all while leaving a good foot or so of room between the two, she glanced at the book once more that Himitsu had. "Is it hard? What you're studying, I mean? Would you mind telling me a bit about it?" Her head tilted again as she asked her questions, hoping she wasn't being annoying, her gaze locking onto Himi's face for a moment, her mind taking mental note of details she had missed previously. The idea that she hadn't got the drawing just perfectly made her want to redo it, made the last one less than perfect, and she didn't like imperfection.. not when it came to her art work.

While she waited for Himitsu respond she opened up her sketch book, turning to a fresh page while untucking her pencil from its hidden spot within the books binding. She began to draw once more, her pencil making an gentle scratching sound against the paper as she did so, glancing at Himi from time to time. Her social awkwardness was beginning to ebb away, it easily showing as her words came more easier than before, and her actions became more comfortable. "I hope you don't mind... I just feel like I need to do my drawing over again, I missed some things before, and I don't like to settle for less then perfection..", she said by way of explanation to the sketching.

.oO (Excuse any spelling errors, this school comp doesn't have a spell check.)


"Well, Ijutsu, otherwise known as Medical-ninjutsu, can be hard to some. To me, it is quiet easy. I love learning about the way the human body works, it's just so fascinating." As she explained why she liked it a fire of passion was lit in her blind eyes and a small smile grew across her lips. It was a smile that was tainted with some sadism and a seemingly reminiscing like happiness. "I mean, not many people know multiple ways to put someone in cardiac arrest, or rescue someone from it. Che, the way it was taught to me by my mother was a strictly no-violence type of style, but in this time, people need to be offensive and defensive."

Himitsu felt Ai sit down and shift around a bit. The girl wasn't right on top of her, but she was still partially in the two foot radius of her passive sensing. She could hear (and feel) the scratch scratch scratch of pencil on paper. "No, I do not mind you drawing me. I am honoured to be the choice for your artwork." She pushed her bangs back a bit and picked her book up and handed it to Ai, offering it. "Here, it's not exactly a beginners book, but it's not hyper-advanced either. Feel free to ask me questions if you don't understand something." If Ai took the book and opened it, she would find the pages to be blank with the exception of raised bumps. Its contents were written in Braille, a physical language that only Himitsu could read.

Ai listened, fascinated by what Himi was telling her. She herself knew how to kill people of course, a quick chop off of the dead did anyone in. But something like that? She could never dream of possessing abilities like those. Her mouth opened slightly in awe, even while she kept up her sketching. "I like drawing you.. you're very pretty.", she said by way of explanation for her choice. "And you interest me.. ", she added on, smiling gently.

She paused in her sketching as Himi handed her the book. She took it gently, not wanting to risk ruining it or anything, and very carefully opened it. She saw the dots on the pages and tilted her head. She had heard of Braille, of course, but had never tried to learn it, and silently she cursed herself for being so close minded. "I don't know how to read Braille... " She turned her gaze from the book to Himi, sudden inspiration hitting her. "Would you teach me how? I'd love to learn! And if you agree to it, I'm really quick at learning new things." Yup, her drawing was going to have to wait until later.. especially if Himi agreed to teach her; as Ai loved nothing more than being able to learn new things.

"You think that I'm pretty?" She looked down, turning her head away and smiled, blushing slightly. She wasn't used to getting any sort of compliment ever. She lifted her hand to hide her smile. "Thank you Ai-san."

And she had forgotten that Braille wasn't a widely used, seen, or understood language. Damn blindness killed her sometimes. She turned her head to point her gaze at Ai’s face; an optically enabled person wouldn’t believe she was blind. “How about we do a trade? I’ll teach you Braille, if you can describe to me what colours are like in a way I can understand.” It seemed like a fair trade to Himi. Knowledge for knowledge.

Ai's smile grew more at the thank you and she gave a nod without thinking about it, adding on a "You're welcome" afterwards. She looked at the book once more, flipping through a few pages and just staring at the dots that otherwise meant nothing to her. Then she listened closely as Himitsu proposed her deal, knowledge for knowledge; she'd teach Ai braille if Ai would explain colors to her in a way she'd understand.

Ai contemplated the deal for a moment, playing with it in her head. She knew it was going to be slightly difficult, but she was more than willing to do it. "Deal! I'll do my best to explain all about colors in exchange for you teaching me Braille!", she said softly, but extremely happily. There would be no getting rid of the smile that spread across Ai's face now as pure happiness flooded her at the concept of getting to learn something new.

"Okay. The cover of the book reads 'Intermediate study of the Human Nervous System' if you run your hand across you can 'feel' each letter. This book is printed in letter by letter translation, so, it'll be fairly easy for you to read." She grew silent in thought. What colour did she want to learn about first? Well, people always talked about the sky, they called it a thing named blue. "What is blue?"

She ran her fingers over the pages for a moment, again, this time in contemplating of how to explain the color blue. Her head tilted slightly as she did so. Her mind went over several different ways, and she played with each and every one for a moment to figure out if it would be good enough.

Inspiration hit her and she smiled brightly. "Blue is like.. ice. It's a cooler color. It's a color that represents calmness along with comfortable power." She tilted her head again, not thinking of anything else she could add for the moment for the color blue. So, she simply stared at Himi for a moment, waiting for her next color question while continuing to lightly run her fingertips over the braille on the book's page.

"Tell me when you're comfortable reading the title. The places with no bumps are spaces between the words." She stopped and thought on what Ai had told her. Blue. Comfortable power, calmness and ice? Blue seemed pretty, and nice. From the way Ai described it, Himitsu might become fond of blue. "What about purple?" She asked, eagerness tinting her voice.

She ran her fingers carefully and slowly over the title several more times before smiling, having placed the bumps with the actual letters and spaces in her mind. Go photographic memory! "I think I got the title..", she said softly, smiling, and secretly pleased with herself.

She then thought over the newest color Himi had asked for her to describe. She played with it for a moment in her head, going over random, yet well known things that were purple. "Purple is.. well, purple is calming and yet powerful. It's the color that King's used to wear long ago. It's the color of royalty in a lot of places. It's also the color of lilacs. If I had to put it to a taste I would describe it almost like chocolate, despite the fact that chocolate is not purple; a luxurious luscious color." She then smiled again, pleased that she had come up with such things to describe it.

She then reopened the book, running her fingers over the top of the first page gently, trying to match the letters she knew from the title with the ones of the first sentence. "So, what's next?"

"On the first page it reads word for word," She paused for a second and reached over, feeling the first page. "The nervous system is the part of an animal's body that coordinates the actions of the animal and transmits signals between different parts of its body." This is what she read word for word off the page, and it was only the first sentence. "If you want me to reread it, I will."

Taking a short pause to digest what Ai had told her, she raised an eyebrow. She liked the sound of purple, it seemed like a comfortable colour to gaze at from what information she currently had. "What about white, or black?" She had heard different things from many people. Her own mother had explained to her that white and black were not true colours, but her father had told her that they were indeed colours.

Ai ran her fingers over the page several time over again, slowly. With each set of bumps she put together a word for them, mentally referring to the letters she had already memorized off of the title page and adding to them with the new ones she was learning. Thankfully she was a fast learner, and she hoped to soon be good enough to read it on her own. Though, she was also sure it was going to take lots of practice. "I think I got it... well, that sentence anyway." she giggled softly.

Her head tilted then at the newest set of colors Himitsu asked about. She removed her fingers from the sentence for a moment so she could better concentrate. She'd tackle white first, then tackle black. "Hmm. Well, white is like light. It represents purify, and goodness. It's pure. Some people try and claim its not a color, but I believe it is, because you can use it on darker colors and it'll show up."

She then turned her lightning blue gaze on Himitsu, biting her bottom lip as she thought over the idea of black, and how she could best describe it. "Black could best be described as darkness. You can't see through it. Sometimes it is considered an evil color, but most people these days tend to like to wear black so it's no longer true. If you mix a lot of colors together, like with crayons, you tend to end up with black after a while." She stopped there, figuring that would be enough to describe black, and if it wasn't she could always ask more questions. 'I hope I'm explaining this well enough, I don't want to confuse her.', she thought to herself.