The next day, as soon as class began, Yamashiro Takuma wrote a new word on the blackboard.
Retelling. The two characters were not large, yet Che stared at them for a long time. The teacher had only handed him that word after school yesterday, and today it was placed before the entire classroom, as if to say that this was not a reminder for any one child, but a threshold the whole class had to cross.
Kiyo looked at the blackboard and quietly asked Morita Yu, "Does this mean saying what someone else said all over again?"
Morita Yu nodded. "Probably."
"Then am I naturally talented? I'm usually really good at copying how other people talk."
"That's called parroting."
Kiyo looked wounded. "Is there really that much difference?"
Hearing that, Che's lips twitched faintly, but he said nothing. Yamashiro Takuma had already turned around, holding a stack of short slips of paper. He had clearly prepared in advance.
"Today, we won't rush to answer questions." The teacher placed the slips on the podium. "First, we'll practice receiving what other people say exactly as they said it."
A child in the front row raised a hand. "Why can't we just say what we understand?"
Yamashiro Takuma asked in return, "Are you sure what you heard was what the other person meant to say?"
The classroom fell quiet.
"A lot of arguments do not happen because someone was bad from the beginning, nor because someone deliberately wanted to cause trouble," Yamashiro Takuma said slowly. "They happen because people hear half a sentence, then let their minds grow it into a different other half. When ninja carry out missions, being half a step off in intelligence can put someone in the wrong place. You practice it here in the classroom so that someday,