[color=ed1c24][center][h2]Akeno[/h2][/center][/color]

The Elwet tasted better than she had expected. The smell coming from the bird as it had been cooking as already assuaged most of her concerns, but Akeno had definitely still been expecting it to taste worse than it did. Honestly, aside from a slightly off earthy flavour that made her feel like what she was eating was a little unclean, it wasn’t bad.

More worrying than the taste was the strange sensation that had begun in her stomach as she continued to eat; something in her gut began to roil, the feeling somewhere between an involuntary clench and a flex of some kind of muscle deep in her abdomen. It was more than a little disconcerting and Akeno was initially afraid that she was having some kind of reaction to eating the strange creature, but once she began to experience these waves of sensory information and memories that were not her own she caught on to what was happening.

Sharp horns and a pointed beak digging into flesh.

Heat washing over her face as she breathed fire from her mouth.

A murderously intense gaze, staring down her opponent.

This was her skill; the skill of all Orcs in this world. The ability to gain the powers of whatever they ate. Akeno hadn’t expected it to be a physical thing, but apparently it was and if it was going to feel like this every time she ate something, she would have to get used to it.

Deliberating as she continued to eat, Akeno eventually decided to choose the [b][Fire Bolt][/b] skill. The skewer thing might be useful in close combat, alongside her karate, but she didn’t exactly have any claws or horns to work with; though she couldn’t discount the fact that she might grow them on taking the skill. Murderous Gaze was interesting; if it had the effect of paralysing whatever saw it in fear or scaring it away like she thought, then it would be useful for avoiding dangerous situations, but she couldn’t be certain of what it did or how effective it would be.

Fire was fire though. It was simple to understand and would give her an extra avenue of attack. Plus, what kind of martial artist would she be if she turned down the option of getting her own Hadouken or Sonic Boom equivalent?

Finishing up, Akeno threw the remains of her food onto a pile with the rest of the bones and stood up to stretch. Lazash watched her as she did and asked her a question about where she was from. [color=ed1c24]“Did the Japanese give it away? I’m from Miami, but my parents are both from Tokyo. I’ve never been there myself, but I know the language.”[/color] It was all she spoke at home after all; her mom had never put much effort into learning English, even after living in America for as long as she had and in spite of the fact that her husband had been fluent even before leaving Japan. Her stubbornness about it always annoyed Akeno as a child, since it meant she had to learn twice as many words and remember to switch between the two all the time; she recalled it being one of the first things she had rebelled about as a child, though it had lasted long.

Akeno appreciated being bilingual now. Even if it wasn’t exactly useful or come up very often outside her family, it was just a nice skill to have. Or had been, before dying and being reborn in a place where the language and the country it came from no longer existed.

[color=ed1c24]“What about you?”[/color]

[@Zeroth][@Crusader Lord][@Kazemitsu][@ERode]