It's a warm summer afternoon, not quite as warm or muggy as a summer day in Okinawa, but warm enough to make Riku think of one. He's just finished cooking up a dish of chanpuru, which he set out on the kitchen table for whomever might want some lunch. And now he's sitting on the back porch, a book on entomology open on his knees, and a baseball and ( Read more... )

Riku might be fairly quiet, but he's not entirely hard to find: most mornings, he's on the front lawn, armed with his wooden practice sword, practicing the form he's learned with Hisoka. He's getting better at it, and he's starting to experiment a bit, though he's still a bit cautious about it. He wants to get the basics down pat before he moves on ( Read more... )

On a cool day in the early spring, perhaps a few days after Easter, Riku is out on the lawn before the house, armed with a wooden practice sword, swinging it about. His form is still largely his own, but he's polishing it as best as he can.

He'll keep an eye out, looking for Hisoka or Melou, hoping to have some partners to spar with.

Back-dated ( Read more... )

Maybe she spies him on the Mansion lawn, armed with a wooden practice sword, swinging it and thrusting it at an imaginary foe. But it isn't just play-fighting. His movements are purposeful, like those of a young knight, practicing for the day when he might slay a dragon. But if she approaches, he will stop on catching sight of her, and lowers his ( Read more... )

Continued from HereRiku hurries for the back porch, carrying Utena in his arms. The scent of her blood is making him a bit edgy, but he manages to contain himself. He has to help her, he has to find someone to help her ( Read more... )

Riku admitted it only to himself, but he sometimes found it a little hard to relate to kids his own age. Perhaps it came from the way he'd grown up quickly due to all the abrupt changes he had had in his short life, or perhaps it came from growing up helping clear tables at Omoro, the restaurant his dad owned ( Read more... )

Riku might have been born in Okinawa and lived there most of his life, but his adoptive dad had been born in the USA before resettling in Okinawa after George had served his country in Vietnam, and the family lived not far from the American military base near Koza. Thus, the Fourth of July has some significance to the little guy, at least as a day ( Read more... )