“There’s more to your mom than it looks. There’s reasons why she acts bitter, how she ended up that way… ‘wish to understand’... Maybe, I should do the same about my mother.”

The road cleared of traffic, while a band of blue uniforms surrounded Qawasumi and I on both sides. That woman, the one with the dress walked nonchalantly towards us followed by a few guards. Qawasumi gripped the sack of a thousand mon in her hands as the woman continued her way.

I pushed Qawasumi behind me. “Who are you?”

“So you don’t know me? But I know you, dear.” The woman stopped in her tracks as her dress fluttered behind. Her eyes shifted to Qawasumi, then back at me. “Greetings, Kaizenji Kawari. It seems my daughter has been snooping around with you. How was she?”

“You…” My eyes narrowed and I took a step forward. This woman knew who I was, and Qawasumi. It only took a couple of seconds for me to put everything together. “Miss Qawasumi’s mother.”

She put her hands together. “You do have a knack for putting things together. My name is Qawasumi Ayame, head of the Qawasumi Clan in Han’ei. Ruri, I’m sure you know what this means.”

Qawasumi Ruri blew a deep breath before stepping forward. This was the person she’d been avoiding all this time, I deducted. The very reason why she hated this city, why she disappeared from it for years. This was it. I remembered all those talks we had during our time in the original world, all those hints and gestures I never understood. Sorah’s concern for her safety and wellbeing.

“You can drop the act. Your face is just like my mother’s. A face that doesn’t want anyone to know what they're thinking.”

“Ruri, do you know who this man is?” Qawasumi Ayame spoke before Ruri could muster the courage to.

“He’s…”

“He’s a criminal, that Kaizenji Kawari. I turned a blind eye to you running away all this time, but seeing you with a miscreant makes me sick.”

She must’ve been notified through the Royal Marshal. Even though there was a bounty on my head I still didn’t enjoy being called a criminal or miscreant. I prepared my argument. It was a shot in the dark, but I had to stand up.

“Please don’t call him those things.” Ruri suddenly grasped my hand and kept me behind her. “Mother… It’s true, when I was little, I made many mistakes that ended in me being alone. But Sorah talked to me even when I didn’t want to play with others, and I learned. There are people that are willing to give me a second chance.”

“What do you want to say? You left your life here in Han’ei. Then you come waltzing back in here with a devil. I thought you hated everyone? Hated men and women alike?”

Upon hearing this, I noticed that Ruri held my hand tighter as it trembled greatly. She put her other hand to her chest. “I didn’t like this life here. Mother, you forced me to do things that I didn’t wish for, and I thought I hated you and everyone else. After all that happened since leaving I learned a lot more than staying here. I learned that maybe… I could understand you, forgive you—”

“I’ll forgive you if you leave that man and come home with me.” Her mother smiled with a beckoning gesture.

“Don’t twist my words!...”

“You’ve been gone without telling me for seven years, dear.” Qawasumi Ayame’s words cut through the air while the guards stood at attention. “And after feeding you, housing you, tutoring you, and keeping you safe, you decided to run away?”

Sure enough, I couldn’t gauge her personality and intention from her facial expression. It was what Ruri told me about. They weren’t here to welcome or greet her. Just pure spite. I couldn’t say anything. This wasn’t my fight.

“Mother, you did take care of me… And I’m grateful for that. Before that you lashed out at me and entered me into the Royal Archery Tournament. The tutor only spanked me, while you stood there. I don’t want any of that anymore…”

She clutched the money sack in her hand, as her grip on me never changed. Her mother’s face didn’t bend even a little bit. No motion of her eyebrows nor any change in her eyes. Qawasumi Ayame locked her gaze with me. “It appears that Kaizenji Kawari doesn’t know even the basic things about Ruri. Did you know, devil? Do you know how I conceived her all those years ago? I told her, that some violent groups of the Kokmin that night, a scrawny man broke into the Qawasumi Estate filled with vile lust. He crept into my bedroom—”

“Please stop!” Ruri’s eyes narrowed and her back arched over.

“He pinned me to the ground and did some merciless acts, as he planted his…”

Ruri shook to her very core, covering her ears and closing her eyes. Her shoulder’s shivered at the vulgarity while she lurched back and forth with a deafening whimper. Her eyes perplexed and retracted with rapid blinking. Her breathing unstable. She dropped her bow and quiver, the mon coins splattering to the ground.

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“Shut up.” I made sure that I said it crisp and loud. My fist did not tremble. It tightened up, only to make a sweet release as I stepped in front of Qawasumi Ruri. I did not hesitate nor feign ignorance of Ayame’s guards drawing their swords at my throat. I simply did not care. All of my anger which I had felt began to burst from my lips. Anger that didn’t come just from this confrontation. “You who tells your own child about your traumatic experience, yet talk about it as if it weren’t the most painful thing in the world… are no mother. Something so fragile, that even talking about it would crumple people of your sex, you mock your own child with this fragile topic to convince them to come back? You are no mother.”

As those emotions spilt out into words with an accent, I realized that my own mother had been like this on a lesser degree. I thought about redemption. I thought about whether I really had the right to stick my nose in others’ family squabbles. I tried so hard to know whether I could give back to my parents, or even reconcile with others that I’d wronged. Even those that wronged me.

“Bring him here.”

Qawasumi Ayame clapped twice while her guards cleared as they brought a young man struggling on the ground. He yelled and screamed as dust gave a pitiful gale. At first I’d wondered if it was the man she described, until I noticed the bow swinging around his back.

“Taqumi?...”

“Yes, that is his name.” She answered as two of her men threw him to the ground. Ayame leaned down and spoke to him. “So? How long have you been in contact with them?”

Taqumi attempted to break free of his mysterious glowing binds on his hands. He stopped after several people drew their weapons at him. “I don’t know, ma’am. I—”

She delicately placed a hand on his neck. “Tell us!”

“About three months. I’m sorry Kawari, I—”

“Ruri and the devil entered Han’ei and stayed here for three months. Happen to know that news of you two spread like wildfire in the central districts? By word of mouth, Kaizenji Kawari earned respect among the lower class as a diligent employee. People talked of a dopplegänger who had the face of the former esteemed student of the Imperial Court’s Royal Archery Academy—Qawasumi Ruri.”

Silence followed her revelation, while Ruri and I stood still. Taqumi stared at the ground with guilty eyes as the woman’s guards remained on standby. I’d made one mistake. We should’ve covered our tracks while spending our time in this city. I was so focused on making money and working that I conceived the notion that people could identify us.

“I should be sorry, Taqumi…” I ignored the woman’s information. My mistake had caused all this. “I—”

Ruri took hold of my hand and yanked me backwards. Before I processed my senses she struck one of the men with an elbow. She pulled me through the opening as her hair and equipment fluttered behind her. I pushed her hair away to clear my vision.

“Miss Qawasumi!...”

“Kawari, we’re getting out of here,” she said to me in a earnest voice void of nervousness. I couldn’t see her face.

“The money—”

Qawasumi Ruri held it up with one hand, her other tugging mine. “I got most of it while she was talking. So let’s go. Let’s leave Han’ei.”

I could hear the guards yell for us. As I glanced backward I could see a few blue-wearing soldiers racing after us. We reached the intersection of a busy street. Qawasumi peeked her head a few times before weaving us through the endless sea of people. The woman’s men followed after and faced the oncoming traffic as well. We were on the outskirts of Han’ei already. If we reached one of the gates in time, then we could escape by wagon or find somewhere to hide. However we couldn’t shake off the woman’s guards.

Keeping my gaze up, from one of the rooftops I noticed someone climb over. Was it more guards? As he planted his feet firm on the roof he took a bow and clicked some buttons on his chart. He drew his bow with an arrow. White, blue, and orange energy revolved around the arrow tip as it came flying towards the crowd. Many people ducked.

The multi-element arrow struck one of the guards and he fell to the ground with ice and fire. I looked towards the person on the roof. He’d escaped. “Taqumi! You don’t have to! Run!”

“Go, Kawari! I’ll cover you!” He shouted from the top, plucking more arrows from his quiver. Qawasumi continued to drag me along, so I couldn’t do anything. After all the effort in working in this city for months, time had finally come. It was time to leave this place.

“Does she know about the door?” I yelled one last time to the rooftops as Qawasumi and I became farther and farther from Taqumi. At first there was no response. If the door was compromised then I’d failed my first ‘quest’ ever given to me in this world. Had the door been destroyed by that woman… then I would most likely have no way back. My head drooped down to the side.

“I’ll defend it with my life, Kawari! That’s what we promised! Tell Time-Weaver to come back to compete with me one day!”

Qawasumi's grip on my hand remained firm as we darted through the alleyways and streets. I’d forgotten how strong she was from how she handled bows. The sun was sinking lower on the horizon, casting long shadows across the leaning buildings of Han’ei. We’d spent the entire day in the Kita District, so I wasn’t surprised as the sunlight wavered in the distance.

I couldn’t help but think about Taqumi, Qawasumi’s rival in her past. We interacted with him, therefore associating with us. That association got him captured by that woman. He did more than just aid us in our escape. He helped us back in the hostel, and was the first person to welcome us here. He even agreed to defend the door with his life. Yet we betrayed him at the last moment, and could do nothing.

As the city's outskirts came into view we spotted a group of wagons gathered near the road. They waited for travelers heading out of Han'ei. Qawasumi's grasp on my hand tightened as we picked up our pace, reaching the wagons just in time.

The drivers lifted an eyebrow, but Qawasumi's gaze was unwavering as she approached one of them with a pant.

"Sir. We need to leave the city as soon as possible," she said, her voice steady. Qawasumi dropped a few coins into the interior floor. The wagon driver hesitated for a moment and read the urgency in our eyes. He nodded and gestured for us to hop onto the wagon. Without wasting a moment we climbed aboard, finding a hidden spot among the cargo.

We could do nothing but run.