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"Your timing is simply perfect. I've just begun to crave some tea to counterpoint these pickled vegetables." Out stretches a hand, and you deposit the can of tea in it.
"I don't doubt it," you answer. "With all that food to wash down, I don't know if I've brought you enough tea now."
Naragasa only answers your joke with one of her tiny smiles, and takes a drink of her tea.
Once you've sat down beside her and begun to eat your own meal, and just before the silence grows long enough to become awkward, you change the subject.
"You said Ogata-sensei was doing a job for your family," you remark, raising the topic you've been tempted to speculate on since you first saw her. "It must be a remarkable one, with the way he was acting; in three years I've never seen the principal look humble once. What kind of a family do you come from, if you don't mind my asking?"
It may be too personal a question to ask, on such short acquaintance, but the girl has been using you for her entertainment all morning. You feel you're owed at least a bit of satisfaction for your curiosity in recompense. For a few seconds, though, Naragasa gives no sign of having heard your question. She only looks out at the clouds, silently eating.
"I do not mind," she eventually murmurs. "The Naragasa family is very old. Our name, in fact, derives from our origins as an appendage of the Imperial Court at Nara, before the capital moved to Kyoto."
"Really?" That is a surprise, even when you'd already assumed she came from a background both wealthy and traditional. Very few families still exist that can trace their lineage that far back.
"At least, that is the family legend. Historical documents from so long ago are rare, and the story has grown unverifiable."
Naragasa offers you a smile, and makes a slight shrug of her shoulders. Is this another joke in the vein of her suggestion that she'd never seen landscaping other than a traditional garden?
"Is there a verifiable history?" You ask, an eyebrow raised. You'll have to take whatever she says with a grain of salt.
"The first Naragasa we can be traced to with any documentary proof was a wealthy textile merchant in the Edo period." Naragasa pauses to eat a bite of her food, and you realize with surprise that half of her monumental lunch is gone already. You've hardly seen her eat, but the feast of traditional dishes in that box has vanished at a startling rate. "A simple thing for such a man to fabricate a more dignified lineage for himself, wouldn't you agree?"
"Certainly." The difference is semantic, in your eyes. Edo or Nara, a family with money that old is a rarity. She does have a point, though. "Textile manufacturing has been close to the paper trade since ancient times, and a papermaker would certainly be well-placed to forge documents."
