Disclaimer: All credit goes to Shingo Nanami and フクロウ. Enjoy.

贈物

A Gift

Part Three

Kasane x Nobunaga

"Thank you so much, Nobuyuki-san!"

The overjoyed Kasane thanked Nobuyuki over and over again.

After Nobunaga and the others finished their errands, they all began their journey back to the castle.

"Isn't that great, Katane!?"

"It looks good on you."

"As they say, clothes make the man."

As she changed into the clothes she had received from Nobuyuki, Kasane's face glowed with joy.

The only kimono she has back at the castle was just a plain, dull white one. To think she would receive such a grand gift after falling into the river, maybe this day isn't too bad after all.

"...You look content."

Nobunaga gazed down at her from his horse with a small smirk on his face.

"Well of course…"

Of course she was always happy when receiving presents.

However with this cute clothing it was all the more reason to be this overjoyed.

The anger she had toward Nobunaga had now disappeared from this surprise.

"Hmph…"

As if finding something funny with Kasane's words, he faintly smiled.

She found his behaviour to be rather suspicious, but decided not to think too deep into it.

"Nobunaga-sama, just before I asked one of the townsman…"

Gorouza began his report of his findings from the townsmen he talked to earlier.

As Nobuyuki was not part of the discussion, he lowered the pace of his horse and moved closer to Kasane to speak to her.

"What's wrong, Nobuyuki-san?"

"Well… Actually that kimono, I wasn't the one who picked it."

"Eh? But earlier…"

"It was actually Aniue who told me to hand it to over to you… The truth is that Aniue himself picked it and bought it for your sake."

"That Tono-sama did…!?"

Kasane said incredulously as her eyes widened.

"I had tried to refuse, but he it seems that he's uncomfortable of being thanked to."

"...But there was no need to do such a roundabout way, he could have just handed it to me…"

"Well, Aniue isn't all that honest after all. He might feel embarrassed after all."

"Emb-..."

Kasane frowned at the unbecoming vocabulary.

She couldn't see him getting embarrassed though.

"I see… so Tono-sama…"

"...Are you glad?"

"Eh!? No, it's just that I found it unusual of him."

Nobuyuki became restless at her words.

He asked her whether or not she was happy by this, but instead he received a 'I'm happy, but not particularly' type of answer… …. …. So in the end his head became tangled up.

"Make sure that this conversation is a secret between just us, alright?"

Placing his forefinger over his lips, he pleasantly smiled.

Kasane nodded.

"Tono-sama!"

"...What."

Kasane called after the lone Nobunaga, who had pulled up ahead of everyone.

Hearing her voice, he answered back from his horse.

"Tono-sama was the one who bought this kimono, right?"

"... ... So you heard from Nobuyuki."

Hearing those words, his eyes narrowed.

That Nobuyuki, he did something unnecessary.

He clicked his tongue in annoyance.

"Eh? Ah, no! It was just a w-woman's intuition!? Nobuyuki-san is totally non-related to this! !"

After such an obvious reaction he lost his motivation to become angry.

"Um, well, thank you very much… for the kimono."

"Hmph."

Returning his gaze toward the front, he ushered the horse to move forward. ]

"You should have just told me in the beginning."

"I only thought that was unnecessary."

"'Unnecessary' you say… if you told me, I could have given you something in return."

"'Something', like what?"

Kasane tilted her head at his question.

"Eh? … … … ... … I'll make Tono-sama's favorite dishes for dinner, something like that…?"

"... …"

"...Uwa, what's with that 'you're-giving-me-something-worthless' face."

As she pointed out his discontent, Nobunaga only snorted and cut off that conversation.

"Do you know the reason why men, but clothing for women?"

"...Eh? No, why?"

Hearing the expected reaction from her, Nobunaga faintly laughed.

"In order to take off the clothes they bought from the woman."

For a moment Kasane froze at this words, her gaze turned to his direction.

"... … … EH!?"

Like a boiled octopus, she turned bright red and raised her voice in astonishment.

"It was a joke."

"O-oh, I see…"

As he spilled out a dry laugh, Kasane looked up at him.

For Nobunaga, in his monotone and unchanging expression, to joke it was difficult to actually pinpoint if he was serious or not.

"For you to wear that, you look no different than of the young girls here."

"Really?"

Kasane gladly smiled at him.

"Maybe I should wear the hair ornament Toukichirou-san gave me next time…"

To Kasane's soft murmurs, Nobunaga twitched.

He suddenly dropped from from his horse to Kasane's level.

Right under his sharp eyes, Kasane began to run cold sweat down her body.

"Strip."

"... … … … … … WHAT!?"

"I'll burn this thing in along with the firewood in the stove."

Saying that, Nobunaga grabbed and pulled onto her clothes.

"Kya~! What are you thinking! Stop, you're just joking aren't you!?"

Raising her voice, she desperately resisted as if her life was at stake.

"A-aniue!? What's going on!?"

Suddenly seeing the development of Nobunaga's reckless actions unfolding before their eyes, Nobuyuki and the others hurried forward.

"P-please be careful not to do such things in public!"

"You're wrong! This is definitely not the situation Nobuyuki-san is thinking! !"

As the blushing Nobuyuki scolded his brother, Kasane quickly quipped in.

"...Hmph."

Losing interest, Nobunaga stepped away from Kasane and climbed onto his horse.

Uninterested, he rode off by himself once more.

"...Wh-what was that all about…"

As Kasane fixed her disheveled clothes, she watched his retreating back dumbfoundedly.

"What did you do…"

Kuranosuke asked with a withdrawn expression.

"I don't know! He suddenly told me that he was going to burn it so I should strip…"

"Did you say something that might have offended him, Kasane?"

"Eeeh? For me to make Tono-sama angry… I only said that I thought of wearing Toukichirou-san's hair ornament with these clothes next time…"

Listening to her explanation, the answer came to him. His eyes widened.

"...Could it be, that hair ornament is the reason?"

"The hair ornament Toukichirou-san gave me?"

"...Though he may look like that, Aniue is quite possessive. There was a time when we small when a cat that Aniue raise came close to me instead of him. After that, Aniue was in a bad mood for the rest of the day."

"S-so I'm on the same level as a cat?"

"...Nobunaga-sama might be possibly thinking of you like that…"

Unable to deny any of that, Gorouza spilled out a wry smile at her.

"...Then, shouldn't you apologize?"

"By the looks of it his mood is already rock bottom after all."

"Uuuu… F-fine… I just need to go, right, just go and…"

Pressed by Gorouza, Kasane once more approached Nobunaga.

With a clear displeased aura oozing out of him, he glared down at Kasane.

"...Um, well, ah…"

As she fidgeted, she hurriedly sputtered out words.

It seemed as if anything she would say was fuel for fire.

Anyway did she really do something wrong in the first place?

"Be clear."

His irritation became even more terrible at her pointless chatter.

To that stern voice, Kasane braced herself.

"I-I happier when I realized Tono-sama bought these clothes for me than the time when Toukichirou gave me that souvenir, j-just a little bit…!"

Blushing red, she speedily spoke out.

"... … … What's with that 'little bit'."

Nobunaga frowned.

"Eh? No… there wasn't any deep meaning to it…"

As Kasane flusteredly raised her hand to the back of her head, Nobunaga looked up.

"...Enough."

To think that she could have heard his voice soften just there, she must be being bigheaded.

"...Out of respect of the honesty of your face there, you can put off burning that kimono."

With those words and that smile, the feeling of her heart jumping must be, most definitely be… her imagination.

Well then, I hope everyone enjoyed this last bit. Now... well it was only one vote, but I shall work on 'Cat and Sake and Jealousy' next. Erm, those who like the chapter 'Permission From Her' might like this one. Now I will be gone for a little while for study abroad. So in the meantime, I don't know if I'll get good connection or what's going to happen there. So therefore, I apologize beforehand if there is a small hiatus. However when I return home, things will be updated on a daily basis like before. So until then, I hope everyone has an enjoyable day!