Sord tiem

It took Lethe a moment to realize why Fuuen would lose her. And then it hit her, with ultra pale skin and a fashion sense leaning towards white clothing, she could quite easily just poof into nothing. It made her giggle, but then she would get a face of sudden understanding and raise her leg up. The way her leg moved was as if it wanted to do some super flashy move to show off her leg, but was restricted by the biology of the leg itself, and so the graceful move was marred by a sudden jolting stop.

"I wear black boots!" She exclaimed, showing off the thigh high boots partially hidden by her skirt. Then it was name time, and Lethe chewed on his name for a second, knowing she had a feeling about it.

"Fuuuen...Like the wind~" she'd coo, putting her leg down so she could dance about in the wind, like a leaf. "I'm Lethe. Like....umm, something, I forgot"

Fuuen couldn't help but wonder if the woman had some understanding of the meaning of his chosen name, or if it was simply the fact that said name was almost onomotopaeic. Well, consider that one more topic that he didn't think was necessarily prudent to pursue. He didn't mind the woman's demeanor, but he wouldn't pretend he expected her to keep up with every topic that crossed his mind.

"Yes, I do suppose that you do. I will have to keep an eye on your legs when we travel there, then."

He would have been a liar if he said he did not see the aesthetic appeal of them, and even the appeal beyond that. However, he was a man of principle, and acknowledgement of the objective attractiveness of a woman did not mean he felt any compulsion to think further on the topic. Fuuen was many things, but 'beholden to physical desire' was quite certainly not one of them. Frankly, his interest was more on her form, on the fact that she clearly had some innate grasp of advanced form despite lacking any mastery over it.

"Lethe, hm? That will be easy enough to remember, then."

In truth, Fuuen didn't know why he was even bothering to walk through this place with her. He was a shinigami now, and it was well within his capability to simply leave this realm right now. But there was something at least moderately pleasant about walking and talking, so he would allow it for a bit longer, at least until he was absolutely certain that it wouldn't be a regrettable action to take her along.

Dancing and spinning around, Lethe would hum to herself, a beautiful and elegant tone in singing as she had in talking. Keeping close to Fuuen while never bumping into him. She was like his own personal Moon. After a short while of the spinning orbit, she'd leap into the air, body twisting as some invisible foe got taken the fuck out by a kick to the neck that had Lethe's entire body weight thrown into it.

Of course, that didn't go well for her because despite the lack of recoil from actually hitting something, she still strained herself with a sudden and radical move.
"Ow" was a simple word, Lethe holding her back and stumbling on after Fuuen like a kid who had done something awesome and was now dealing with the fact that awesome tended to hurt. She awkwardly looked to Fuuen to see if he would make laughing mockery or sad support or just keep moving. He was an interesting new figure, and she wanted to know more about him.

If he were a less self-controlled man, Fuuen might have chuckled at the sight of Lethe falling in such a manner. Not necessarily because of the act of falling in itself, but rather because of how remarkably animated she had been throughout it. She was like a child, in the most endearing sort of way.

"Do you practice that sort of thing often?"

Frankly, he wanted to know more about her, particularly in that regard. One didn't display that sort of grace with no practice, and yet she clearly did exactly that. It was peculiar, to put things exceptionally likely, and Fuuen was always the sort to look further into peculiarities.

"...Often as in, relative to my existence? Because I haven't been alive long enough to do things often" Lethe commented, wriggling her hip so that the pinching strain was a bit less pinching. "I popped in around the First of May. I don't know what I was doing before that, probably nothing. In a literal sense"

She'd get her stride back after adjusting and then just walk to not make it any worse than it had been before.

"Relative to my existence, not particularly. I do it about an hour a week, maybe two if I feel up for it. I fit it around my job hours. The hope is that one day I will feel better about myself from being better about myself. No luck so far, but we will keep on"

"I think 'often' is always a relative term, personally. But yes, that is what I meant."

Fuuen did, of course, take note of the mention of her age. It struck him as at least faintly peculiar, though he was aware enough of the denizens of the realms that the idea of anyone being so young and looking as she did was not entirely alien. Discomforting, yes, a touch. But not alien.

"I make a habit of training as I travel. I suppose if you continue to travel alongside me, you will have a bit more time to learn than simply working around a job."

Fuuen was a very smart person, it seemed. He spoke well and knew things that Lethe had never thought about. Often was relative to the being, with contextual inclusions dictating the scale of how many times a thing was done. Once a day was often, if you had been doing the thing a week or a year. Most very smart wind man, yes yes.

And to further brighten her day, she was even offered to train with the guy as they wandered together.

"That would be cool~ I love learning new things! It makes me feel really happy when I grasp a new thing. I learned cooking pretty well, and stuck nails in being a Waitress"

Though Fuuen was hardly so rude as to say it outright, it didn't take much of a genius to discern that this woman wasn't all there in the head. Not in any particularly damning way, but her age was fairly apparent.

"Well, I can teach any number of things, though it seems footwork is your preference. I do know a thing or two about cooking as well, though. We can trade secrets, hm?"

He was still focused primarily on building rapport for now, not really walking anywhere in particular for the moment. It wasn't as if he expected to run into anyone out here, anyway.

"Hmm" Lethe spoke, as if to announce she was thinking. A few seconds later, this announcement bore fruit as she spoke her thoughts. "Doesn't everything have a preference for footwork? Like, if you can't move properly, then nothing is going to work, no matter how fancy or amazing it is. And if you have a mastery of movement then you can shore up a lack of power or capability by ensuring you remain in the perfect position, while denying your enemy the same"

"When you think about it, footwork is the core of all martial arts, and indeed, all life itself. Wouldn't you think?"

"Not necessarily. There are many styles which are built on principles of denying the footwork of others, on keeping them from being able to take advantage of you through fleetness of foot. Those are, of course, specific styles and techniques, which not all will have access to. Footwork is a core fundamental of martial technique, but I think that it is put onto something of an unwarranted pedestal by many."

Fuuen had no intention of actually shooting down the woman's point or anything, and his tone was far from chiding, merely offering her a point of disagreement. If anything, he rather welcomed this discourse. It was rare he found anyone to talk about this with, and rarer still that the conversational partner actually knew what they were talking about in any capacity.

"If footwork were indeed core to all life, then I think there would be many cursed from birth not to live at all. Footwork is a vital skill, but even those with no aptitude for it in the slightest can surely make up for that failing. It is no more or less crucial than all other aspects of technique."