Act 5, Autumn
The ends of the ashen scarf on her neck flailed in the strong wind as she made the unusual route home.
They really needed to be more discreet about following her around, less conspicuous perhaps about their distinctive appearance. These people couldn't blend in the crowd even if they tried with those identical dark suits they were always wearing. Tomoyo would be aware of those uniforms anywhere.
The young woman was tempted to make a wild run to the other side of the street and would have actually done so if the traffic wasn't as hectic as this day. Eventually, the late autumn rains had started to pour, torrential and troublesome to the swarming commoners in the sidewalk. It was starting to grow colder as well.
In her racing mind she supposed that she could still lose them if she would take that turn to the bazaar in the corner. But just before she could make another step, one of the uniformed men blocked her way, effectively intercepting her strategy just in time. Soon there were two more who had joined in, bowing in courtesy to the former heiress.
"You've been trailing me all day. I took the train more than once and yet you still managed to catch up. I must say you've impressed me." In spite of the ironic remark, she bowed back to them.
"Daidōji-sama wants to speak with ojōsama."
Tomoyo's eyes turned into narrow slits instinctively.
"What else does she want from me? Was walking out of that house not clear enough for her? I'm simply not an heiress anymore."
The memory of that night suddenly came crashing back at the same time as the thunder rolled in the horizon. Tomoyo knew that the moment she stepped out of the room, she officially renounced her identity as an heiress, and perhaps, even as an overly subservient daughter.
Sonomi Daidōji would not be the master of her own life.
Never again.
"We do not know the reason. But, please, come with us. Mistress is waiting in the car."
To know the matriarch had followed her around only gave her the impression that what she was going to speak to her with must be of grave importance.
"And if I refuse?"
Her mother's guards could only look at each other before they could respond to Tomoyo.
"We do not want to result to force, ojōsama," somebody finally replied but the former heiress knew the answer even before one of them opened his mouth.
The widowed leader of the Daidōji corporation never lost that scowl on her face even when she laid her sharp eyes on Tomoyo again. There was neither warmth nor longing in her curt greeting—the only civil way she knew when acknowledging her estranged daughter.
"I've made a mistake in just watching you turn your back on me that night. I am willing to forget about the ingratitude you've demonstrated months ago, Tomoyo, to set my pride aside only if you return to Osaka with me and forget this whole independence-nonsense," Sonomi stated evenly and almost without offense. Unperturbed, she turned to watch the building storm behind the opalescent windows of her luxurious limousine as if her mind was trapped in an illusion of a serene mid-afternoon tea time.
But of course, Tomoyo knew better than to succumb so easily. Behind the matriarch's carefully chosen words and deceptive body language were hidden demands she'd rather not think of at the moment.
"So that you can control me again? I'd rather starve than give up this freedom," her daughter retorted daringly, amethyst orbs flashing furiously in suppressed enmity. Months ago she would not have said these words out of sheer terror of her mother's reaction, but after the last straw of tolerance was spent, after that brutal beating she received for refusing that ridiculously impossible command, she simply shattered and unexpectedly found the nerve to retaliate. It was about time that she did anyway. However, the Daidōji mistress had not seen that coming, knowing that the submissive and reserved Tomoyo had never fought back at all and would never do so before.
Sonomi abruptly shifted from her seemingly lethargic position, painfully wrenching a handful of black hair. The irises of her dark heliotrope eyes seemed to have dilated all of a sudden.
Tomoyo let out a surprised cry of pain. Sonomi's face was too near to her own that she could feel the hitched, overwrought breathing on her skin.
"Then I'll make sure you starve to death," her mother whispered menacingly to her ear before she soundly slapped Tomoyo's face. "And when you do, you'll come crawling back to me."
The former heiress would not remember how she managed to escape from her crazed mother's hold and the bewildered men in uniform standing out of the car, not until she would reach the nearest train station to Tomoeda.
Suppi hadn't stopped mewling since the blue-black kitten heard the musical chimes in the front door, an apparent indication that somebody had arrived or had left the apartment.
But there was nobody else besides him in the building. The chimes, more than the suddenly excited activity of the cat, suspended his harmonious warm-up on the piano.
"Tadaima."
Daidōji Tomoyo's greeting wasn't particularly directed to him, especially when she said it in a distracted way with that small voice of hers.
"Okaerinasai," her only dorm mate in sight anyway greeted her back, claiming the energized fur ball in his hands before it could get any more restless on the floor.
The girl had come home utterly saturated and slightly disheveled, clothes clinging to her petite form like second skin and hair swept unevenly on one side of her pale face.
"Wei-san have been out since three o'clock, and the others are simply out for the weekend," Eriol supplied, feigning an afterthought and uncomfortably looking away from her figure.
Wei left previously for grocery shopping right after Syaoran had come for a quick visit to see how his former butler was currently fairing as a dorm manager. The other dormers who lived in the second story of the building were naturally elsewhere again.
But Tomoyo hadn't made any reaction to this volunteered information and only walked past him, either still unfocused or simply uninterested. There was something different about her today, and Eriol, possibly more than anybody else she knew that moment, could sense her unspoken anxiety.
"Daidōji-san," he started, wanting to stop her from walking away.
The name wasn't said in a particularly distinct manner, however that actually made her cease walking temporarily.
At the small movement she managed and the slight shift of her dark tresses, his eyes couldn't leave that noticeable bruise on her cheek.
"Did something happen, Daidōji-san?" The question left his mouth before he could stop it.
A full minute passed before she allowed herself to stir again.
"Nothing happened, Hiiragizawa-san," Tomoyo sighed her response. She didn't even look at him like Eriol expected she would, eyes downcast in her jaded reply.
Of course something happened. Look at her! His mind derisively countered for him. Nevertheless, he was fortunately considerate to other people's privacy more than anything.
The young woman murmured her excuse to leave the common room and left with a bow and a feeble good night.
Eriol Hiiragizawa and Suppi could only watch her turn her back to them.
Quick Notes:
-sama – honorific for people in higher position
ojōsama – young mistress
tadaima – "I'm home."
okaerinasai – "Welcome home."
