“Who’s this?”

“Some kid I found. He tried to kill me earlier.”

“Why is he here, then? Put him back where he was before.”

“Don’t be like that, Lady Kitsune. Don’t you think it’ll be more interesting if we had a little maniac fighting for us? We could finally bring in a new era!”

“Do you know what happened to the last man that made that decision?”

“A new era was brought in, just like he said!”

“By his bastard cousin after his death.”

“It’s still better than doing nothing all day. Draw up some plans including this boy’s…talents, would you?”

——

Almost a whole year passed; Taiyo disappeared in the summer, and it was spring now. Rei still didn’t think he’s really recovered from it—he only recently broke the habit of trying to wake up his brother every morning—but things were getting better. He didn’t know if he should be happy or not that not having Taiyo was worrying, but normal. Life was forced to go on without him.

Kyoumi and Sorai kept a pretty good eye on him—they didn’t want to let him help with work again, but he could just sit inside the office whenever he felt like it. When he wanted company but Maeko—the only friend he was on speaking terms with at this point—was busy, he went with his parents. Sorai tried to entertain conversation when possible.

Rei initially came in with a book, but got distracted by watching the sakura petals fall from outside. The window was just large enough that he could see them coming down—bright pink, full of color. Looking at them gave him some form of dread.

His attention was brought away from the petals when there was a knock on the door. Kyoumi and Sorai both looked up from their own work.

“You may enter,” Kyoumi said.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Rei could faintly recognize the man that came in; someone from the Hiroki family, although he wasn’t familiar enough with them to know his name. Kyoumi frowned when she saw him.

“You’re one of the Hiroki men,” Kyoumi noted.

The man nodded. “Yes,” he replied. He bowed to the royal family. “First, I would like to express some late condolences on the missing prince. We haven’t seen anyone odd coming through Hiroki’s bridge, so I regret to say I have no news on that front.”

The family fell silent for a moment at the mention of Taiyo. Sorai recovered first, unsurprisingly.

“For what reason do you visit, then?” Sorai asked Hiroki.

Hiroki gestured slightly towards Rei. “Might want to take the kid out for a second.”

“I can stay,” Rei said. He could easily guess what this was about, and it would be easier for his parents if they didn’t have to repeat it. There were only so many reasons, excluding the recent Taiyo situation, for someone from the Hiroki family to come halfway across the kingdom.

Neither of his parents protested to his statement, so Hiroki apparently found it safe to continue—albeit hesitantly.

“We did not see anyone strange,” Hiroki began carefully, “But I regret to say that we saw our least favorite army making another skirmish.”

Rei expected that answer; he glanced at Kyoumi, only to see her quiet. Sorai continued to speak in her stead.

“How many casualties?”

“We lost a dozen soldiers in a day-long battle; not our greatest loss. I don’t think Kuro lost in a single man, however.”

“Build up your defenses for now,” Sorai said firmly. “If Kuro comes back, tell us and we’ll start preparing some countermeasures. We can send word out to see if anyone’s willing to fight.”

“That would be enough, sir,” Hiroki replied. “That’s all I came to say. Be wise in guiding us, Queen Kyoumi.”

He bowed again and left. Rei closed his book and stood up.

“What do you want me to do?” Rei asked. The question mostly went to Sorai—Kyoumi was still processing the news, her expression only falling further and further.

Sorai cast a quick, worried glance towards Kyoumi, then looked back at Rei with a sigh. “Why don’t you go see if Nesshin Maeko’s free, or try to talk with one of the others?”

“I want to help,” Rei replied, frowning a bit. “If Kuro’s attacking, I can help fight—”

Kyoumi spoke up, quiet and firm. “I’m not sending you out there without good reason when we still don’t know where Taiyo is. If you want to help, you can give me and your father some time to think this through.”

Rei wanted—and tried—to protest a bit more, but Sorai stood before Rei could say another word. Although he didn’t want to relent, he knew aggravating his parents wouldn’t make it any better.

He gave them both a short bow in respect, then left. Instead of going into town, however, he asked one of the guards if they’d help him train. Something felt so wrong about how the sakura petals fell as Rei tried to make up for lost time; the whole time, he was thinking about Taiyo.

The feeling of dread only grew, as did some feeling of frustration.