Raimundo Pedrosa and Kimiko Tohomiko's 'Into the Rush Now'

A Pretty Girl as His True Silver Lining

That was around the time when a new voice had up and added itself to the mix.

New voice: Ah, just lay off of Rai for today, Omi. Matter of fact, lay off of him all week, if you can help it.

Then, Raimundo's forest green eyes shifted in the direction of the voice and onto one of the other instructors of the gym, a cocky hotshot of a guy named Paulo D'Argento from Italy or France or some country in middle to eastern Europe who Raimundo could not tell whether he liked or hated. Raimundo knew that half of the trainers in the gym wanted so badly to spar against Paulo and that the other half were just smart enough not to even try. He was the only trainer among them who had bested Omi in a martial arts match, but Raimundo contributed to most of Paulo's win against Omi since the Brazilian had been training with the little bald one's combat routine the longest and could read his moves like a book.

Granted that Raimundo had originally wanted Paulo to best Omi so that his little bald friend could grow some modesty, but that backfired on Raimundo when Paulo showed his true colors and took all the credit for himself and left poor Raimundo out to dry. Raimundo was so angry with Paulo for playing him for an idiot into telling the guy all about the weak points in Omi's moves, that the Brazilian hated the eastern European more than Raimundo liked Paulo, he was so arrogant. Paulo was even more arrogant than Omi, himself, was, for that matter. The only true differences between Omi's and Paulo's arrogance was that while Omi was truthfully unaware of just how mindlessly conceited he could be towards others, Paulo was not only perfectly aware of his own arrogance, but he turned out to also be really quite proud of even his own ego.

When Paulo was finally hired by the ignorantly-naïve-to-a-fault head instructor of the dojo gym, Raimundo's dark and troubled thoughts from back when he was taken in by Omi, despite being a full three years older than the little bald guy in question, had not only returned to the poor Brazilian, but had also become even worse than they had ever been before. By the time Paulo had been hired at the gym, even the good days Raimundo had had with Omi as his newest and only friend in New York City were suddenly behind him.

But then, Raimundo's eyes drifted beyond Paulo and just out the window to a street suddenly, yet steadily growing busier. The slums were a lot like the neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in which he grew up, Tubarão. So, he knew that the slums of New York were not exactly the most decent or tourist-prone spot in New York. That was why a girl who looked around his age stood out.

Initially, the girl's bouncing pigtails caught the Brazilian's attention. The factor of her appearance that held onto his attention, however, was the way her face looked. She looked a lot like her mascara was doing a lousy job of holding up. There also seemed to be a slight bit of desperation within her eyes. Her eyes were even a light shade of blue, almost like the sky above them all. Ultimately, Raimundo surprised himself simply by exactly how he could tell just what color the girl's eyes were, especially from so far away. The Brazilian's eyes wandered up and down her form, sizing her up just as he had been trained to do with everyone in his life. That was when he noticed a sheet of paper in her hand onto which she was gripping very tightly. Raimundo did not fully register it happening, but he even drooled slightly at the very sight of her.

Raimundo Pedrosa's brain: She's probably a lost tourist or something.

Suddenly a voice interrupted Raimundo's thoughts. It was a guy's voice to be exact, and it was so much less welcoming to Raimundo's ears, eyes or any other part of his face that welcomed any one of his senses than the sight of a pretty girl, or any girl for that matter. Of course, it had to be Paulo.

Paulo D'Argento: Like what you see, Raimundo?

Raimundo suddenly snapped his eyes back from the girl to Paulo. The younger guy looked smugly at Raimundo, and he decided that at that particular moment in time at least, he had hated the arrogant Paulo so much that the Brazilian wanted to kill the eastern European.