Blaise once again walked by Saito as they patrolled Kyoto. Neither of them were bothered by the silence between them. Blaise had already known that Saito was a quiet man and as a result he did not think much of silences. Blaise actually would have been very happy with the quiet companionship after spending the morning with Bella, but she still couldn't decide what to do about the Shinsengumi or how she should treat them.
As they walked, Saito began to eye her thoughtfully. He may not be the best at communicating with other people, but he was observant enough to note the small frown on Blaise's face and the stress in her eyes.
He briefly considered asking her about it, but he assumed that someone as private as Blaise seemed to be would chafe under such an inquiry. It bothered him more than it usually would to not be able to read the young man's thoughts, but he, with difficulty, resigned himself to possible never knowing what he was thinking.
Just as he had resigned himself to the silence, Blaise asked, "Hey, what's up with the people in this town?"
"What?" Saito asked, startled.
"I noticed it yesterday, that the people in this town seemed to be giving us a wide berth. At first, I assumed it was because they could hear my accent when I was talking to you and wanted to avoid the foreigner. But they're still avoiding us today, and I doubt that they would be able to recognize me after only seeing me one time. So, what gives?"
Saito worried about how Blaise might react to the information. Oddly enough, while he didn't entirely trust Blaise, he did respect him enough that he would rather not lie to him unless it was necessary. Besides, he seemed like a steady enough man, so Saito didn't expect him to panic when he found out.
"The Shinsengumi was originally called the Roshigumi." Seeing that his words meant nothing to Blaise, he continued to say, "We were a unit made up of ronin from Edo. Many of us are not of samurai birth."
Blaise looked at him suspiciously and said, "That doesn't sound like enough for them to be so scared of all of you."
"No, it isn't," he admitted. "When our group was first formed, there was a man among our ranks who had a bad reputation," he slowly explained.
"Huh, so even here, I'm gonna get a bad rap," Blaise said thoughtfully before shrugging. "Well, I guess I just can't go anywhere without getting blacklisted by my neighbors."
Or without running into people who I can't trust.
As was quickly becoming their habit, the rest of the patrol passed quietly with little conversation, and Blaise quickly went in search of sister at the end of it, despite her exhaustion from barely having slept the night before.
Susumu seemed to take pity on her though and quickly began to play with Bella while Blaise rested against a tree trunk, still uncertain about what she was doing here.
Yeah, so another short chapter, but my relatives are here and I have some homework to do. Lucky for me though, that two of my hardest classes are going to be mostly review from here on out, so I won't have a lot of work from here on. So I should be able to write more this week after my relatives leave.
So Happy Easter, and I'll hopefully see all of you soon.