Spider-Men 2: Crisis On Infinite Earths

CHAPTER-26: Message Man

ARUSH KUMAR'S POV:
Thursday, May 7th

"Sounds like you did pretty well." Hinami told me.

"Never doubted myself."

"Shut up." Hinami's face always went blank whenever I joked about this topic. "Anyway, looks like you're decently skilled at saying whatever seems to be on your mind."

"Everybody's good at that..."

"Well, you would think so- check Mimimi, she's super personable, but is she really good at saying what she's thinking?"

"I get it. She's better at agreeing with others around her."

"Then there's Hanabi. She has no problem speaking her mind, even to a fault..."

"I know..."

"You've talked to a bunch of people. How many people can pull of her vibe?"

"Not that many come to mind, but my brothers... They definitely can. But excluding them I guess it's rare? Seems like people do find it hard to say what's on their mind."

"It's ultra-rare in fact. That's your weapon, your strong point, your killer technique. If you ever find yourself in trouble, fall back on that skill."

"I'll try to."

"Notice anything else while boosting your conversational skills?"

"Lemme think..." I put a hand on my chin, and thought about the question. "Yeah I did... The division of conversation roles." I said, remembering the morning conversation. "Nanami always starts the conversation with 'Check this out, so yesterday...' basically introducing new topics. And then, someone expands on it- often times it's you. I mean, everyone in the conversation contributes in some way, but only a select few like Mimimi or you starting a new topic. In short, for a conversation to flow freely, you need two things- bring in new topics, and expand on current ones."

"Hexactly! Once you have a grasp on both those combos, conversation will be second nature."

"Wait a sec, that's the second time you've said 'Hexactly'. What does that even mean?"

She froze up. She actually froze up.

"Fine... I give up. It's a sort of a bad habit of mine. Don't you dare laugh." she said, putting a hand on her hip. "It's a line from a retro game I used to like when I was little; Go Go Oinko. An absolute classic. But first you'll think it's just a cheap knockoff cash grab of Mario, but it actually has a great story and its theme is about whether fighting is justified or not. But-"

"Okay, I get it. I don't wanna hear more."

"Right, we're going off topic." she walked towards the board and wrote down the two points I had just said. "Here."

"Flashcards?" I checked them out and saw that they contained a list of topics. "You wrote these all down? For me?"

"That way, you'll never run out of things to talk about. Also, you can have this."

"A pocket recorder?"

"Sure, give it a listen. I secretly recorded our conversation. It's good to have a feel for the way you talk."

"Uh, sure."

"Now, about our plans for tomorrow."

"We have classes tomorrow."

"I mean after classes. We'll have a lot of free time... We'll meet at Keyaki Mall at 4PM sharp. You'll spend the entire day with me."

Yeah... I don't see that happening.