Hayakawa [i]did[/i] bounce back the question. This meant that Rio was suddenly very interested in her chamomile tea as she took another delicate sip, her left eye briefly twitching from the drink having cooled down quite a bit. Luckily it seemed like the pink haired girl was too distracted by the outside to really notice, but Rio was still in another pickle. How was the woman going to answer? Laugh it off with a 'hey, me too'? No, that'd be embarrassing. Lie about it and pretend she had a team? No, that's a bad idea as well. She'd need to think up of a name, and if the other girl asked and snooped around Rio would be caught very quickly. Avoiding the issue was clearly the best option here...

[color=94ffad]"Ah, I see. As I recall, the PARA line came into production after my Union. Brawlers, right? That means you must pilot a lot of different types of GEARs. It's impressive you're able to handle your new one so well, then, even if you had some prior experience."[/color]

The compliments weren't entirely empty, as it was quite a feat to be able to switch GEARs at the drop of a hat, considering every single one has a bit of customization attached to it and weapons functioned slightly differently. Sara must be quite knowledgeable with how to utilize all kinds of GEARs, so she must also have an excellent idea on what to do if the team were to face them on the field... maybe Rio should bring that up with Atlas at some point. Though it left a bit of a sour taste in Rio's mouth- Hayakawa seemed to be able to do just about anything. She had arguably the best performance in the simulation with a relatively foreign GEAR and was able to give tactical insight to just about any team composition- although the latter of those was just Rio's assumption. Maybe she should just change the topic for now...

[color=94ffad]"It must be pretty odd to have not had a team last year, and then be thrown into this one... though I can't say I regret my choice just yet. We certainly have a very... interesting cast of characters, don't we?"[/color]

Rio didn't honestly want to think about how 'interesting' some of her companions were. Laudat and Atlas were tolerable, but Gurevich was absolutely insufferable. She hoped somewhere that he went ahead and joined another team. Sure, his replacement Yasumi looked to be just as bad as Laudat in the slacker department, but at least he didn't get on her nerves with every breath he took. Not yet, anyway.