To her coworkers, Charumati was a woman of few words and refined tastes. The elegant pastels and neutral tones of her wardrobe gave her an air of dignity and class, which were further encouraged by her stoic expression and soft voice. She was the last thing from exuberant, and it was often speculated that she could keep a straight face even during a manzai performance. It benefitted her position to allow people to think this way, so Charu never went out of her way to correct anyone.

In fairness, she had always been a serious, soft-spoken individual. Even before her training in traditional Galgori ways, her mother had often remarked how bland and uninteresting she was.

But there were two things that her coworkers would find particularly surprising: her love of all things cute and fluffy, and her secret admiration of the retired probender, Jeong Seina.

The probending scene was something that Charu, usually, thought quite little of. On principal, she was against the sport — it very explicitly excluded nonbenders from ever competing without any regard for whether or not they would have been physically capable of standing toe to toe with some of the bending competition. Without the ability to bend, a person would have been automatically disqualified. There was no provision in nonbending rules that would allow for a nonbender to be creative in their use of the environment or personal skills in order to play.

But Jeong Seina was different. She had been a young woman when probending was established as an official professional sport, and followed with secret interest the journey of a young man who, despite the odds, was able to cultivate a relationship with both benders and nonbenders alike without flaunting his abilities, or acting as if he was any better or worse than anyone else.

He made a legacy for himself as a champion of "the little guy"; his charitable contributions to the disenfranchised were well known. In fact, he held the record for the highest cumulative donation total to the children's charity in the entire history of probending. 

And so, it was a straight back and head held high that Charumati stood in line to his training gym. In her hands she held a manila envelope containing something she had thought she lost — a first-edition magazine with Jeong Seina on the cover, celebrating his first-ever official probending victory. She loathed to part with it, especially after having found it in her attic after so many years, but with the Monks restricting her assistance to the Temples, she had no choice; she would get Seina to sign it, and then sell it anonymously at auction.

She wasn't expecting him to still be larger than life in person. She wasn't a small woman, by any means, and underneath the frill of her blouse and flair of her skirt, she was strong and muscular. Seina still put her to shame, and she wondered idly what it must be like to spar with him.

He stood by the doorway, speaking to those entering his gym. Charu paid no attention to the quizzical looks she received — or rather, her pastel yellow blouse and grey cotton skirt received — and stepped forward, inclining her head in a gesture of respect. 

"Excuse me, Mr. Seina? I was hoping to talk with you for a moment, if you had the time."