It was the eve of her eighteenth birthday—and still, he hadn't come home.
Misao wrung her fingers anxiously as she stood out on the Aoiya engawa watching the bustling crowds in the street moving about their day.
Perhaps he was on his way.
Maybe he had already arrived in Kyoto but had taken up a room elsewhere?
She contemplated.
Then shook her head.
Like any other inn has as exceptional accommodations as the aoiya…as if.
A small plaintive smile tilted the corners of her pink lips upwards as her oceanic blue-green eyes once again scanned the faces that came ambling up the dusty road that led past the aoiya.
"Misao!"
She grimaced slightly at Okina's firm admonishing voice, calling her back to the present.
"It isn't fitting for a young woman to dawdle out on the engawa all day."
She kept her back to the old man; arms tucked securely around slender waist, long loose braid tossed carelessly over one shoulder. She looked the same—but at the same time, didn't. Her girlish figure had morphed into an hourglass of womanly curves over the last year, her hair had darkened a shade, her eyes were a delicate almond slant that replaced the round wide look of innocence and even her face had given up its round plumpness for a delicate heart shape that had the comeliness of newly-blooming womanhood.
"He should've been home by now—he should've been home six months ago, Gramps!"
The old man closed his eyes, folding his arms in front of him, preparing for his granddaughter's annual tirade.
"I just don't understand what was so damn important that he had to suddenly pick up and go—for two years!"
"Aoshi Shinomori is a complicated man, Misao; you should know that better than any of us here. When he gets it in his mind that he has to go, nothing can stop him—not even a young girl's naïve and cherished desires." He spoke the last part carefully.
Misao scoffed.
Of course he would have to bring that up.
"It's not like I ever smothered him, Okina-san. I took him tea for kami's sake! Day after day I went to the temple and I would sit with him for…hours! And then I would leave quietly, I never asked him once if and when he was coming home, not Once! And if he had truly wanted to be left completely alone, he could have told me and I would have respected his wishes, he knows that! But up and leaving in the middle of the night without so much as a stupid letter that wasn't even addressed to me might I ad, is—I think—a little extreme if all he wanted was some space!"
Okina shook his head as he observed his granddaughter; eighteen, beautiful and stubborn as always. There was much about her personality that had changed and he honestly didn't expect it ever would. She would continue to grow up, mature—perhaps—but the essence of Misao, her heart and soul would always remain the same; no one could ever change her mind; the Meji era would have to be overthrown in a single night in order for that to be possible and that certainly wasn't happening any time soon.
"Give it time, my dear please—tomorrow is your eighteenth birthday, it's a special occasion! You want to enjoy this time and remember it for years to come. Believe me you get old too fast and before you have time to slow down and realize it, you've already turned seventy and lost most of your hair!" The old man chuckled as he stroked his long, white beard thoughtfully.
"You know what? You're right. I'm not gonna keep sitting here pining, waiting and wishing for that ass to come back!"
Okina cringed at Misao's crass language.
"If he wants to keep wondering the face of this earth, isolated and alone for the rest of his life then fine—what the hell do I care?! I have my whole life ahead of me and I'm gonna live it!" With that, Misao turned on her heel and marched to her room, slamming the shoji behind her.
Okina heaved a heavy sigh. "Aoshi, for your sake, I hope you never come home; because that woman—she's a firecracker that's waiting to explode."