The afternoon stills, the wind's breezing halted.
It is the kind of afternoon Hori Kyoko hates, looking after the big manor of Hori clan by herself. The eldest daughter of Hori household, Kyoko-hime, as the servants and others address her, looks up at the untainted blue sky, clouds aside, stowing away from the merciless sun from her weapon room. She is rubbing her tsurugi with a slight vacant look, eyeing the shining blade and lifting it once in a while to look for any missed spots.
Not that she has something to do anyways, but wait for the day to change. These slow afternoons, while her tutors take a summer break and while she could not bring herself to move her muscles for practice with other samurais in her house and while Souta, the sweet little brother pampered by Kyoko-hime herself and the samurais and servants, plays on the yard…..
"Kyoko-hime, Kyoko-hime! It's terrible!" huffed the young woman, one of the servant. She looks terrified and is about to burst to tears.
She immediately feels alerted. Putting the blade to its cover, she gestured her to start talking, just to be informed that her brother is..gone.
"Hime-sama, I just tried to find the ball that rolled down under the house. The next minute after I retrieved the ball, Souta-sama was gone!" panicking, she tells Kyoko the story. The hime nodded. All the other servants and samurais have started looking after her instructions to every inch of the house, hoping to find the young master safe, curled to his figure on his sleep after exhaustion. They hope so, or young Okiku might befall a severe punishment.
The orange rays shine through the healthy leaves of the ginko tree on the yards. The ruckus is slowly dying, as the samurais hopelessly shake their head in defeat of finding their young master. Kyoko herself had searched the spot where Souta played the last time.
She bit her lips. Perhaps Souta climbed the wall and went outside. Bearing this possibility, she looks after a spot possible for the kid-brother to hop on and climb the smooth stone wall when she then spotted a small rock, a bigger garden stone, and a lowly-hung branch of the ginko tree on a quite hidden spot from her eyes before. Enough for the boy to cling to trees, climbing the trees up and jump into the wall, descending to the outer world from there.
"Everyone, find Souta outside the house!" she shouted hastily. Before the twilight ended! She cups her forehead and massage her temple a bit, hoping that everything is not too late. There are fields, vast fields out there, and not to mention the forest. She would need them to even go to the nearing town, an hour walk from here, to find Souta for sure. Young boy from Hori family. She can only pray her brother comes back in one piece, alive and kicking.
As the shouts of the men calling after her brother begins to sound distant –they have gone to the woods, she noticed—she waits on the porch. She could tell her servants and especially Okiku weeping, hoping that they return with the young master.
"Excuse me!"
Kyoko leaps almost instantly upon the voice and runs to the door. In her desperation, she hopes that whoever and whatever the sound is, is about Souta. She arrives shortly, followed by her servants, only to see the bleeding nose and his vacant expression.
"Young master!" the servants shout, hastily come and pick the bleeding kid. His kimono dirty with soils, his hair combed with leaves, the blood on his nose fresh. They quickly retreats with Souta to the insides to tend the bleeding nose, as Kyoko sighs, feeling that the burden has subsided.
In front of her now, a jet black-haired young man with black kimono stands still. His hair grazing his shoulder, left unkempt, unlike how the rest of men in this era style their hair. As late afternoon winds blow gently, she can see his hair revealed his ears, sunshine reflecting the shining things in the lobes.
The samurai's ears are full of earrings; she counts four sets of earrings on each ear. On one ear the ring-like earrings, on the bottom-most hung talon-like earring. On another, similarly styled, with something resembling the shape of cross, as she had seen it numerous times on the European books her teacher brings.
The young man looks at her, deep black orbs fixed to hers. His face shades a boyish look, but his jaws tight, lips pursed into a thin line. He does not look like a samurai, albeit the sword hanging on his left hip, with a face as fine as the ones she saw on the capital; the art show where a young man acts as a woman.
She has forgotten how many times had passed, but she could see on the backgrounds, the men has returned from the fields as one of the servants had called back right after they found Souta. The young samurai in black once again looks at the hime thoroughly. He then bows timidly, forms a thin smile.
"Then, I'm leaving. Keep an eye on him next time."
With that, he whisks away, stepping out of the yard, and walks to the gate of Hori clan manor.