[Open] Nothing like fresh air.

She tilts her head to the side curiously as she asks, "What's wrong with Bias?"

Izumi glances at her for a second before responding.

"In it's totality, not much. It's when we apply them inappropriately and with little forethought. For instance xenophobes dislike all foreigners and wouldn't give them the time of day. Not even trying to learn about them as a person. They could have made a friend, a business partner or even just find a person to keep them company. Instead they squander any chance ofthis just because they dislike foreigners so much."


Izumi takes another bite of the Dango and sends it down before continuing, his multicolored eyes begin ti meet hers as he turns to proceed. A gleam can be found within them, showing an amount of interest in the question posed.

"It's not all bad.  Most biases—like preferring to eat food instead of sandpaper, or assuming someone on fire should be put out—are helpful. It's just when you rely on them so much you make very ignorant and rash decisions that they become so."

Chiharu continues the discussion but her gaze is quite distant as she says, "I think there's a difference between bias and prejudice. Bias concerns preferences and subjective decisions while prejudice is where you assume something to be something it may or may not be based on previous experiences."

She then takes a decent bite of her food and upon swallowing it, she looks over to finish with, "But I agree with you, everything has it's place, even oppinion."

"While they do have distinct differences and prejudice has more than one factor governing it's reason for being. They have their moments where they cross and influence one another. The real reason I tend to avoid as much bias as possible is that I'd like to keep my options open. I'd like to try as many things as possible as I live on. Keeping it narrow would bore me half to death. The other half dealt accordingly by life's wear and tear. I'd like only the latter to be a factor."

Izumi looks back at his Dango and smiles downwards at it

"I take some time to visit the familiar nonetheless, no harm in it occasionally I think."

Chiharu begins to look off into the distance again.
"Yeah..."<I know what you mean>

...

She snaps her head back over to Izumi as she says, "Hey, speaking of trying different things, wanna trade?"
She holds out her last stick of teriyaki and continues with, "This was done a bit differently than I've had before and I'm kinda curious to see if they made that as well as they did this."
She lets out a look that says, 'whaddaya say!'

Izumi stares at his final stick and sees no reason why he shouldn't. He looks back at her after a few seconds and seems to shrug as he states,

"Sure, as much as this is my favorite, I also don't see any harm in parting with it." 

He reaches over to grab the stick of Teriyaki and switches it with the Dango in his hand. The trade has been made. 

"Very well, tell me how it is."

As chiharu take the dango, she does a little half-nod and smiles.
"Will do"
Taking an entire one of the balls in a single bite, she ends up with, quite litterally, a mouthful making her delay her assesment for a long moment as she finishes chewing. After her last few chews, which were slightly exagerated at the end, she was finally able to say, "Preetty good. A tad bit chewier than what I'm used to, but the flavor is great... It's nice to have a dessert with this little mini-meal we had here."
She looked over to say, "So, where are we heading after this?", and then positioned the next ball on to the end of the stick and bites off half of it. She continues to look at Izumi while doing this, patiently waiting for an answer.

Izumi bites into his chicken and calmly takes his time after going through the motions of chewing, he looks lost in thought as he tries to remember something. 

"There was something not too far from here that I wished to show you, very few people really know about it. One could say it's one of the secrets of this town I had aforementioned.  In all honesty it's just a forgotten about part of this park. Going off the trail reminded me of it. Once we're done here, it's going to just be a few more minutes." 

Izumi points at the general location as he returns to a neutral position.

"It's toward the northeast of here. That however is up to you, we can also head back or go anywhere else. It is only a suggestion." Izumi looks back at her with a slight smile. Taking advantage of the pause, he takes another bite, bringing his food down to it's last piece as he moves it up on the skewer.

"Sounds interesting..."
Chiharu finishes off the food before giving a definite answer.
"I trust your experience to know the most interesting places. So, I think I'll contnue to let you lead."

"Very well. Whenever you're ready, we'll head off."

Izumi takes care of his final piece of food as he then gets up and turns to face her.

"One thing to note, while this is a bit off the trail, I am most assured that the ground is level. You won't be tripping up a storm this time around" Izumi gives her a playful look as this is said.

Looking only a tad embarassed, chiharu replies with a smile, "Hey, I only tripped once!"

She then gets up and prepares to follow Izumi.
"So when did you first find this place your bringing me to?"

"Probably no more than three months ago. One day I got really bored and decided to walk the whole distance of the park since I didn't find much else to do. Classes were canceled that day I believe." Izumi states nonchalantly as they begin to walk.

"Do you remember why?.. That the classes were canceled."

Izumi pauses for a second to think and looks quite silly as he looks up slightly to do so. He returns his head to a neutral position once he remembers.

"National holiday, don't recall what the day was however. Nothing serious."

Izumi keeps track of where they are and notes that they are close to their destination.

"We're close, it won't be much longer until we're there."

Chiharu remains silent as they walk along, being perfectly comfortable just enjoying her surroundings.

Izumi notes the dead air, as much as he dislikes dead air he abstains from saying anything about it as a quick glance details that she seems quite content. He looks back and once he stops near what looks to be a dead end. He reaches through the shrubbery and finds the weak spot in the fence after a while. Izumi then steps through and calls from the other side.


"You remember where I just was? I am going to need you to walk through that space."

Chiharu easily follows his lead through the fence.

"What is this place?"

Who's there.... A old man in his seventies with silvery wisps of hair that can be seen through his Captain's hat cries out from the distance. He looks quite strange in his old sailor's clothing and slouched posture. Adorned with an eye-patch he steps down from where he is usually perched in the pagoda overlooking what seems to be a very detailed traditional Japanese zen garden. He looks at the two who just infiltrated into his secret garden. Ah, if it isn't little Izumi, and... He stares at the girl for a second, and laughs boisterously. Oh, who might this be?

Izumi cuts him off before Captain Kawakami says something that might embarrass him.

"Good Afternoon Captain, this is my friend Chiharu. We came to see your garden. Sorry if this came unwarranted, I just thought this was an interesting place to take a friend. You never said to keep it a secret."


That I didn't. I probably should have but she seems like she'll do no harm. The former captain of the SS. Makinami stares at the girl for a few moments before welcoming her. Ah yes, yes, where are my manners, Name's Taizo Kawakami, a former sea captain. This here, is my Zen Garden. I help tend to it and make it nice for tourists who come to visit. Generally speaking it's a tourist only attraction, however this little rascal found it out. Since you're both here would you like some tea or something... or shall I take you both on a tour of this garden?

"It's nice to meet you, I'm Kinai."
Chiharu shrugs and looks over to Izumi.
"What do ya think?"

Izumi turns to face her.

"Well, there is something here I saw him work on the last time which I believe would have been completed by now. If we go on this little tour of his which doesn't really take long we could probably get him to show us. That's the real thing here. What I am looking for anyways."

Chiharu reveals a smile and says, "If you don't mind showing us, I would love to see what you've been working on."

Izumi looks at her somewhat sharply... knowing he's going to get berated before looking back up at the captain.

Hmm, I wonder who told you that I was working on something... The captain stares at Izumi quite sharply but then lightens up miraculously.

Sure, sure fine. If you'll just follow me for a second, we'll be right there. He turns to lead, his cape swaying a bit as he turns and he begins walking forward, checking to see if they are following a few steps after he begins. Izumi starts to speak not much thereafter.

"For a second, I thought I was going to get quite the scolding, he didn't really want me to mention it. Anyways, I suppose we should follow him now that you took the initiative to get to the point for me."

He sighs a breath of relief and starts walking.

With a barely constrained mischievous grin, Chiharu lets out a small giggle and says, "What can I say, I'm a straight forward person."

"I thank you for it, it's getting sort of late and I believe we'll be heading back after this, I didn't really want to have to go through all of that again." Izumi nods his head and smiles before turning around and walking again. Through the vibrant garden they went, arrays of various native and foreign species are spotted along the path. To their left lied a large traditional building which would service the tourists that came through to see. Various species of small animals can be spotted on some of the vegetation and once they reached the small bridge which was suspended over the gardens main water supply a host of butterflies flew out and surrounded the trio for a bit before subsiding. Finally, they reached their destination after ten minutes of walking.

Now, then. Just wait here as I try to get this door open. Might take a while, the door is quite stiff... Cap. Kamakawi sighs as he slowly begins to pry the door open.

Izumi turns to face Chiharu, unaware that one of the butterflies from the bridge was perched upon his shoulder.

"This takes quite a while, not to mention he absolutely refuses assistance." Izumi sighs. "I suppose we'll have to just deal with it."

Thinking back to a story she remembered where someone picked up a butterfly from its perch on to their index finger, and chiharu attempted to do the same thing. She remained silent as she took a step closer to Izumi, and slowly lifted up her hand towards his shoulder, but as her hand is inches from the butterfly, it makes its escape.
<Damn!>
Upon realizing the context of her action, now that her hand is fairly close to his face and she's been staring at him while slowly approaching with great care, she winced a little and said, "This looks pretty silly doesn't it?"