When I opened my eyes I found myself at a strange place. It was snowing, there were piles of snow. But the scenery I saw just a few moments ago changed. ...Eh? ...but what was that that I saw...? Where was I just a few moments ago? Hana winced as she felt sharp pain in her head. She found herself lying in the snow in the middle of a busy street. If you could call that busy. All she could see were people in kimono, no cars, no horse carriages, only people. It looked like the street was made only for pedestrians.
Hana tried getting up but felt dizzy and fell back on the ground. Nobody seemed to mind a young girl lying in the middle of the street. Hana was too puzzled over her own situation to mind others. Lying on her back with her arms spread, Hana looked at the sky. The sky was bright blue, looked like it was the middle of the day. Hana closed her eyes and tried to reproduce in her mind what exactly happened to her. No matter how hard she tried, all she could remember was her harsh landing here. And her name. Age? She wasn't sure but she somehow knew intuitively how old she was. But the memories of her hometown, her occupation, even her hobbies were all gone. Just like the memory of how she got here. Hana felt so desperate she couldn't even cry.
- Hey, you're gonna catch a serious cold if you continue lying like this.
Hana moved her eyes to the left. A young boy, not more than ten-fourteen years old was standing next to her with a look of concern on his face. Hana rubbed her eyes with the sleeve and looked at him again. Despite the season, the boy seemed to be pretty lightly dressed himself - he was wearing a shirt, short pants, high boots and a thin coat. Yet he was concerned about her.
- Shino, don't go wandering off while I'm doing the shopping, - Hana heard a smooth male voice coming from behind the boy. He was soo joined by a young man not much older than the boy. Even though the young man looked like he wasn't older than twenty years old, his face expression beamed with maturity not common for his age. Actually, Hana turned her gaze back to the boy, this one was the same.
- Ah- are you okay, miss? It's really cold today! - the young man squatted next to Hana and held out his hand to help her lift at least her upper body up. At a loss of words, Hana silently took his hand and tried to get up but it was no good. She felt dizzy and plumped back onto the ground again.
- Please, be careful! Are you hurt anywhere? Shino, we need to get her to the doctor!
- N-no, I'm... fine. I d-don't need a doctor... - was all Hana could manage before her conscience left her.
She heard distant voices of both boys but was overcome with undefeatable drowsiness and drifted into slumber.
When Hana opened her eyes again - what is this deja vu - she found herself lying on a comfortable fluffy bed. The room itself was rather small, yet the only window was very big and didn't restrain the sunlight from brightening up the room. She could feel fresh frosty air coming from outside as the window was slightly open. It felt so peaceful Hana didn't feel like moving an inch. But at that moment she heard someone knock on the door. She immediately sat up.
- C-come in... !
- Pardon the intrusion, - the young man she saw earlier entered the room with the tray in his hands. He put the tray on the bedtable and sat in the chair next to Hana's bed. - How are you feeling?
- Better now... I think, - Hana couldn't really understand how she was feeling right now but this time things were slowly sinking in and she could clearly recall what happened to her. - Thank you... B-but where am I? - Hana tried to exclaim but ended up sounding rather weakly.
- The Satomi mansion, - the young man smiled kindly. - You collapsed in the middle of the street so me and Shino carried you here. Oh, we also have already called for the doctor and he examined you. He said everything's fine. You must have collapsed due to a big amount of stress. - The young man showed great concern on his face.
- I see... - Hana looked around the room and out of the window again, and then her eyes turned to the young man once again.
- Oh, come to think of it, I haven't introduced myself yet. My name is Inukawa Sousuke-
- Sou, is she awake yet? - the door suddenly opened as the man spoke and the boy Hana saw earlier came in.
- ... and the ill-mannered one here is Inuzuka Shino. We'll be under your care, - Sousuke smiled and slightly bowed. - Shino, don't barge into a girl's room without knocking first! Please have some manners, goodness gracious, - Sousuke gave out a loud sigh as he looked at Shino.
- Yes yes, - Shino seemed to have dismissed Sousuke's words and sat at the edge of Hana's bed. Before Sousuke could say anything about that, Shino turned to Hana and asked:
- How are you feeling? - The boy's eyes were straightforward and he looked right into Hana's eyes. This boy's eyes bore no lies, Hana thought at once. Somehow she already liked him a lot. On the other hand, Sousuke. There was something weird about him. At first glance he seemed to be sincere, yet there was something missing in his eyes, his facial expressions. The typical guy that you'd call 'mysterious'. Somehow it didn't fascinate her at all right now.
- I think I'm fine now, - Hana automatically covered her face in her hands as if trying to remember what happened again. She had no idea if that Satomi residence was famous and who exactly these people were but she somehow felt strangely at peace in this place. Hana looked at Shino, the boy sitting in front of her, she felt she could trust him. his innocently honest eyes and uncommon maturity made him look older than he actually was.
- Please, drink some tea. I've also brought some cookies, it must be enough for you to wait until dinner, - said Sousuke as he poured some deliciously smelling tea and passed it to Hana. Hana carefully accepted the cup and breathed in the scent before drinking it. The tea seemed to consist of a lot of herbs that made all the piled up stress go away at once.
At that moment Hana heard another knock on the door as she permitted the person to enter, she was left astonished when she saw the guest. It was a young man with golden hir and very serious expression on his face. The man beamed with incredible beauty and seemed to have great presence in the room. Hana could clearly tell this person was the head of the mansion.
- You seem to have woken up. We have already done a medical check on you, according to the doctor you're fine. If there's anything you need, don't hesitate to ask Sousuke or Shino or any of the staff, - the man's voice was gentle, yet confident and seemed to resound in this empty room. - My name is Satomi Rio, - the man bowed his head slightly.
- I-I... my name is Hana,... - ! Hana couldn't remember her family name. Struck with an urge to cry she instead took a sip of tea to stifle the urge. - ... just Hana.
- I see. Sousuke and Shino told me they found you unconscious in the middle of the street. What happened to you? - Satomi-san's voice was gentle but Hana felt he wouldn't accept it if she refused to answer.
- You know, actually... I think I don't have any memories of how I got here, - Hana finally said quietly as she looked at the cup. The room fell silent for a while. Hana lifted her eyes and glanced at Shino and Sousuke as the latter looked at each other.
- But is there anything you remember? - Shino turned to Hana. - There must be something. I'm sure, - Shino drew closer to Hana. Hana was amazed by the depth of this boy's eyes.
- So? - her thoughts were mercilessly cut off by Satomi who wanted to hear the facts.
- All I remember is that I fell down from the sky but I was at a completely another place just a few moments before that. I also remember my name and age... And..., - Hana bit her lip as she thought of family, - I don't remember anything else at all, my parents, friends, hometown - nothing, - Hana lifted her head and looked at Satomi who's expression didn't change one bit.
- I see, - he said after examining her with his eyes as if to check if she was telling the truth. - Then you are free to stay here as long as you please. Meanwhile, we'll find a way to return your memories. I have work to do now, so if you'll excuse me, - Satomi bowed slightly again and left the room.
- Satomi's stern as usual, - Shino said grumpily. He then looked at Hana again. - We'll help you look for your memories, so don't worry. I'll definitely succeed, - Shino gave a bright smile. Surprised as first, Hana smiled back. - Afterall, you see, I'm also looking for something, - Shino took something out of his pocket - it was a bit with kanji on it. It was glowing faintly.
- Shino! This is not something you must tell everyone about! - Sousuke raised his voice a bit but stopped in the middle when he noticed that the bead was glowing. He slid his hand inside his pocket and took out another bead. It was glowing as well. - What is this? - Sousuke's eyes widened as he looked at his bead. His bead had a different kanji on it.
- Dunno, from what I've noticed it glows only when something significat happens, like when we find another bead-bearer or something happens to him- - Don't tell me you have a bead like this, do you?! - Shino suddenly exclaimed and turned to Hana.
- A bead? No, I'm sure I don't have it... - Hana wasn't sure of anything anymore since she didn't have any memories of past and most recent past, but she was sure she wasn't carrying a bead right now.
- Ah, I see, - Shino sighed and stood up. - All the bead owners must be men, huh. What, how disappointing. And here I though we'd have a beautiful chick for once.
- Shino! Geez, - Sousuke stood up as well. - We'll be taking our leave now, Hana-san. If there's anything you need, please let me know. Please rest for today. We'll think of what to do together tomorrow, if you're feeling well, the dinner will be ready soon, I'll call for you, - Sousuke smiled and took Shino out of the room, leaving Hana alone and contemplating.
Hana finished her tea and lay back on a pile of pillows she had and looked at the window. The sun was already setting. It was winter, yet it was so beautiful and peaceful. Probably due to the location of the mansion she couldn't hear any noises from the outside. Hana closed her eyes but couldn't fall asleep.
Later on, Sousuke invited her to have dinner with them. New clothes were prepared for her - a pair of pants and a white shirt, and a sweater. Sousuke accompanied Hana downstairs to the dining hall which seemed to be really noisy.
- Hamaji, like I said, you don't need to cook anything for our guest, you're wishing for her swift recovery, not death, ri-gyaha! - Hana could hear a clear sound of a punch.
- Kaname, be quiet, - the girl smiled innocently. - These herbs are all for recovery. I'm sure she'll feel good right after drining this delicious tea! Oh, and here she comes!
- Hello... - I'm Hana, nice to meet you, - Hana bowed deeply.
- I'm Hamaji, and this is... - Hamaji pulled the blond guy sitting next to her closer by his ear, - Kaname. I'm Sousuke and Shino's sister. Nice to meet you!
- Nice to meet you! Wow, you're so cu-te! - Kaname grabbed Hana's hands and laughed for which got a big slap from Hamaji.
My my, looks like something's starting, Hana pleasantly thought to herself as she sat at the table.
A/N: Hi everyone! It's been a long time, yeah... I'm really sorry for not uploading any new chapters for my Aomine fic, but I've gotten lots of messages on tumblr asking when I'm going to update it. I can promise a new chapter within these two weeks if you can bear with me. While we're at it, I'd like to present a new fic based on Hakkenden by Abe Miyuki. I've been following the series for a long while and Genpachi's one of my top fave manga characters in general, so I've always wanted to write a fic about him. This will be different, I'm not sure I'll ever insert anything that would change it's rating to M, but who knows. I suspect this is going to be long. I also had to cut on the details and descriptions, not to bore you all, lol, because I can do that, rest assured.
This is just a prologue, there's no Genpachi in this chapter at all! But yeah, this is how it goes. Any reviews, comments, suggestions are very welcome!