Language problems (Karashi)

[Sora Inoue]

The student Sora had next training session intrigued him. This was going to be their first day, but he was well aware of Miss Karashi Usaki's power in advance. Omnilingualism. She could understand any language. A rather desirable and fascinating power when he stopped to think about it. He just had to have her work on focusing on one language when surrounded by several, and to communicate in them fluently.

One problem though.

Sora wasn't very good with languages. Japanese had come naturally to him for obvious reasons, some small talk in Korean and Mandarin was something he picked up, and English was a work in progress. Earlier he had stopped at the school's vast library to pick up a few "How to speak _____" books and audios. He had skimmed through them to pick up a few small phrases to practice with her. His laptop was also brought along to play CDs and find some foreign text. One plus side of this was maybe he could pick a few languages whilst teaching her.

He sat at the table in the training room with books stacked neatly and his laptop closed but ready for use. A few water bottles and candy bars were tucked away safely in a messenger bag. If he learned anything from his years of training it was that mental training was just as quick to cause hunger as the physical training. With a deep breath he patiently waited for his student to arrive.

[Karashi Usaki]

Karashi was both excited and nervous for her first training session. She had heard good things about her trainer, but she had also heard bad things, so she really didn’t know what to expect. She clutched her books tight to her chest, wondering what her mentor was going to be like. Would he be of her own descent, or would he be a nationality completely different from her own? She sure hoped that he would be nice to her. Kara had had a rough week, and she was not ready for an adult to yell at her.

Kara took a deep breath, and walked into the room. What she saw was a man sitting at a table, with books stacked high and a laptop on the table, closed. She froze in her steps. Her eyes went to the stacks of books on the table. Was this a joke? Did this man really think she was going to learn all of that in one sitting? She considered just turning around and walking back out, but she knew better. Karashi frowned, and then remembered her manners.

“Oh, I’m so sorry Sensei! My name is Karashi Usaki! I was told that you are my mentor.” Karashi bowed, as was custom of her native homeland. Her mentor seemed of Asian descent, so she figured that it was only right that she bow in greeting. However, she cursed at herself mentally for not giving him the official Japanese greeting in the native tongue. What the hell was wrong with her? Karashi had been off all this week. Maybe that was why she had been made fun of all week…