Chapter 18
The dorm was quiet. It was a rare day off from their special assignments, so some of them were sleeping in happily. The curtains were drawn over most of the narrow windows, keeping the light of the noonday sun from interrupting the calm shadows of their sleeping area.
Miyabi was sprawled belly-first on her bed, her limbs spread messily over the sheets. Her blankets were half on the floor, and was only anchored to the bed by virtue of the fact that part of it was trapped under her body. The girl didn't snore, but a bit of drool was trickling onto her pillow.
Risako had somehow managed to flip positions in her own bed, her feet on her pillow while her head and part of her upper torso was flopping dangerously off the foot of her bed. The youngest girl of the group was clutching on to a handmade teddy bear with a death grip, seeming quite comfortable in her sleep despite the awkward position.
Yurina, as usual, had her feet sticking out at the end of the too-small bed, and her pillow was mashed over her face, with one arm thrown carelessly over said pillow. Judging from her position, she was most likely about half awake already and just reluctant to get up when she didn't have to.
Chinami was nowhere to be found in her bed. A further inspection revealed that she had fallen off sometime during her sleep, taking her blankets with her, and was currently curled up in a ball on the floor, blissfully oblivious to the world as she snored on.
"Back already, Maasa? I thought you weren't due back until later." Yurina mumbled as she moved her arm, letting the pillow slide off her face. Bleary eyes angled sideways to find her older comrade standing at the entrance to their sleeping quarters, which was part of a subtly separate building from the rest of the servant quarters in the Prime Minister's mansion, their current base of operations.
"Practice got cancelled, so I got leave to come back early." There was a hidden chuckle underneath that statement, and Yurina blinked sleepily. "What happened?"
"There was an accident involving that disgusting lecher who claims to be a teacher." Maasa sounded incredibly smug and self-satisfied, quite unlike her usually more reserved air. The lethargy faded from Yurina's body, and she rolled to her side, pushing herself halfway up to look straight at a gleeful Maasa, who looked like a cat that got the canary. "Huh, what? Really? Awesome!"
"I know." Maasa ambled over to her own bed, which was furthest into the room, right next to Yurina's, and opposite a currently vacant space. The 15 year old felt a sudden twinge, wondering if their former comrade was doing fine. They hadn't seen Maiha for over a year, almost two now, and it was difficult for the other girl to send messages back given the delicacy of her current mission, not to mention the difficulties of long distance communication at the time. Postal services were the domain of the wealthy, requiring horse messengers, and using pigeons did take a while, and there was no guarantee that the message would arrive safely.
"What happened?" Yurina asked eagerly, but keeping her voice low in order not to disturb the others.
"I think we all underestimated Koharu." Maasa quipped, flopping down on her own neatly made bed. "She packs a mean punch."
"Didn't you teach her that?" Miyabi had one eye open, and had rolled back onto her back. "And good morning to you too."
"It's afternoon. Or actually, just noon. Good noon?" Chinami cracked lamely as she stretched like a lazy cat, arching her back and getting onto her knees on the floor.
"That's just so lame. Try harder Chii-chan." Miyabi stretched as she sat up slowly, rotating her shoulder blades to loosen her muscles. Chinami stifled a yawn as she climbed back onto her bed. "Gimme a break Miya, I only just got up."
"I thought you guys were sleeping?" Maasa asked in confusion. Miyabi snorted. "You need to walk softer Maa-chan, I recognised your footsteps from down the hallway."
"Yeah...not even our Kuma-chan treads that heavily." Chinami agreed, gathering her strewn blankets. Yurina made a face. "I don't walk like a bear."
"Risako didn't react." Maasa pointed out, gesturing at the bed diagonally opposite hers. Miyabi looked to her right and shrugged.
"Rii-chan always failed that part of our training anyway, so that doesn't count." The other girls laughed.
The still unconscious girl in question stirred at the sounds, and on shifting her body, promptly slid off the bed as a result. It was only a credit to their extensive training that she somehow managed to not fall on her skull, instead ending up sprawled belly first on the floor, her stuffed teddy bear breaking the contact between her face and the floor. The other girls in the room giggled, and Miyabi lifted her eyes to the ceiling.
"How did she get into the group anyway?"
Despite the nasty words though, Miyabi was the one who walked over and hauled Risako to her feet, the younger girl rubbing at her eyes blearily, clearly still groggy after her rude awakening. "M'ning Miya..." She mumbled as she hugged the slightly shorter Miyabi reflexively. Risako, at the very least, was sort of a morning person, in that she didn't attempt murder when first woken up unexpectedly. In fact, she was more likely to hug whoever who woke her up first instead of reacting badly.
Miyabi couldn't help the smile that inched onto her face at the hug, and Chinami grinned, seeing an opening. Clearing her throat, the self-styled joker of the group proclaimed dramatically.
"And that, ladies, is why Risako is with us." She topped it off with a flamboyant flourish of the blanket she was holding at the hugging girls.
Miyabi threw Risako's teddy at her head.
Maasa and Yurina grinned as Chinami caught the tossed object with her blanket and bounced it back to Risako, who was finally fully alert and caught it easily enough, cuddling the stuffed toy close. Maasa looked around.
"Hey, where's Momo and Captain?"
"Momo woke up after you left this morning. I think she was going to practice with her new toys." Miyabi noted, strolling over back to her own bed. "And Captain followed out not long after Momo left." Miyabi ran her hands through her hair, trying to straighten it out. "Funny how Captain woke up so early when we get to sleep in for once."
"Love-love is in the air!" Chinami joked, while haphazardly rolling her blankets up and stuffing them in a corner. Miyabi snorted.
"Yeah, and the sun will rise from the west. What, are you mad?"
"Who's mad?" Momoko's voice rang out suddenly, making everyone jump.
"Where the heck did you come from?" Miyabi's eyes were a bit wide. "I didn't even hear you."
"Back door." Momoko grinned at Chinami, who whistled innocently. Yurina looked curiously over. "Did you modify the place illegally again?"
"It was Captain's idea." Chinami said defensively. "We just, uh, knocked a hole in wall behind the closet over there." She pointed at the innocent-looking wardrobe next to Saki's bed. "And replaced the back of the closet with a false wall. It opens out to the thorn hedges outside, so nobody in their right mind can come close enough to see the difference."
Risako blinked. "Then how do you use it if the thorn bushes are in the way?"
"We trimmed the thorns off on this side of the hedge, and there's a way out further down." Momoko explained as she went to her cupboard and started taking off her additional equipment.
"That still doesn't explain why I didn't hear you." Miyabi frowned, glaring at the offending closet-cum-secret-exit.
"Have you ever seen Captain use that closet?" Momo started by way of explanation. When everyone shook their heads after a moment of thought, Momo smiled.
"There's nothing inside but a couple of old blankets on the bottom to muffle the sound when someone steps through, and the doors are oiled frequently to make sure they don't creak. And I've always been good at sneaking."
"Wait," Maasa scratched at her head as a thought occurred to her. "If Chii-chan knows because Captain asked her to help, how come you know too, when the rest of us don't?"
"I caught Captain sneaking in at night through it once." The short girl said by way of explanation.
"Why weren't we told about this before?" Miyabi asked accusingly, feeling left out.
Chinami laughed. "We wanted to see if anyone else found out first on their own before we told everyone. But so far only Momo-chan passed the test."
"Pfft. Whatever." Miyabi walked over to her own space and picked up her fallen blanket, opening her own closet and throwing it in.
"Bad mood so early in the day?" Saki was sitting in her own now-open closet. Everyone jumped.
"What the...when did you get in?" Miyabi was sure that the closet had been closed just a few seconds earlier.
"Right after Momo did actually, but I stayed inside to eavesdrop on you guys." The tiny captain hopped out of her empty closet and shut the doors. "Oh, and I have good news people. Letter from Maiha!" She drew out a tightly rolled up piece of paper from a pocket.
That got their attention. Everyone scrambled over to crowd around Saki, eager to see what their former teammate was doing on her solo mission. Technically, Maiha wasn't really supposed to be contacting anyone during her deep cover assignment up in the northern lands, but the girl had always been sort of contrary to the rules. Actually their whole squad never did play by the rules even while in training, much to the exasperation of their handlers. However, one couldn't deny that their blatant disregard for rules and regulations of any kind made them very creatively effective in their line of work. Flexibility of thought was a must in their profession.
"When did you get the letter? We were sparring together earlier and I didn't see anything." Momoko asked curiously, leaning in as Saki unrolled the message.
"Because you weren't paying attention dear." Saki replied calmly. Momoko made a face at that.
"So what did she say?" Yurina poked her head over the crowd of shorter girls to look down at the message in Saki's hands.
The message, as it was, was finely detailed and written in code. A very familiar code for them, since they were the ones who devised it during their training period, as a unique identification code as well as their own private means of communication. Every member of their squad had memorised it and were sworn never to reveal it to outsiders, not even to their superiors. It wouldn't be much of a secret code if everyone else knew how to read it.
'Hey guys, I hope you're doing well. Am still stuck running around the forest in this stupid war. The enemy and our side just take pot shots at each other now that winter is starting to settle in early here, like it always does. The guns aren't firing well because it's so damp, both on our side and the enemy, and it's crazy to see the firing line suddenly break down because only one in 10 rifles are working. Snuck into enemy camp and shovelled snow on their gunpowder, now they can't use their rifles until new supplies come in haha. Am sitting in a tree writing this, did you know that the enemy never looks up on their patrols? Makes it easy to pick them off. It's damn cold up here and I had to steal the white fur coats off the enemy guards I kill. Damn cheapskates on our side not giving me any winter supplies, I had to scrounge for them on my own. Not that I want their winter clothes, mind. They look damn ugly for one, and they're in RED, for another. What kind of idiot wears red coats in a winter forest? Talk about being walking targets. Well if they want to be sniper bait, that's their problem. Well it doesn't seem that the war is ending any time soon, so I guess it's another season up in this godforsaken forest. Hope you're having more fun than me back down south. Love, Maiha.'
"It seems like she's enjoying herself." Saki quipped ironically as she looked up from reading the letter aloud. The rest were just grinning at Maiha's cynicism evident in the letter. The girl was probably bored because no one was good enough to give her a proper challenge. Maiha did always do well when it came to sneaking around for sabotage purposes, after all.
"Well at least she got an interesting assignment." Miyabi groused. "We're stuck babysitting Koharu and going out for the occasional mission."
"Oh Koharu isn't so bad." Maasa noted tolerantly. "And it's easier than doing other things."
"But boring, very boring." Miyabi repeated, moving back to her own area next to Saki's bed, Risako following behind her.
"Hey at least you got to follow Captain along for that assignment the other time. Yuri-chan too." Chinami pouted, poking her taller friend in the side. Yurina's eyes lit up at the mention of the assignment, sighing dreamily. "Mmm..."
"Well we didn't need to scramble the whole squad for a simple arson." Saki said defensively as she shooed the rest from her messy floor space. Chinami had to haul the daydreaming Yurina back to her bed, since the taller girl was spacing out again at the mention of arson.
"I wonder what warranted it though..." Momoko wondered aloud as she unceremoniously sat down on Saki's bed, while toying with the device strapped on her right arm, before pulling her sleeve back down over to conceal it.
"We don't ever ask that." Saki said just a bit sharply, kneeling down to pull a chest from under her bed. "It's against protocol."
"Yeah yeah, just follow orders, right?" Miyabi remarked as she quickly changed into more presentable clothing for going out, Risako doing the same over at her own closet.
"That's right." The small captain was rummaging through the chest, finally pulling a case out. "Aha."
"Well anyway, we're washing up and going out. Coming, Rii?" Miyabi called out to Risako, who was about halfway dressed and pulling on a blouse over her head.
"Don't stay out late, and make sure we can find you if necessary." Saki admonished as she kicked the closed chest back under her bed and tucked the case away in her pocket.
"We're just going over to the foothills to gather some herbs." Risako puffed out as she hurried to catch up to Miyabi, who was already halfway out of the door. With a final wave to the rest, the youngest ran out after Miyabi, who, knowing her, was probably already washing her face and getting ready to leave.
"Well, I'm out too. Need to see Konno-san for something." Saki surveyed the state of her floor space, then decided it was better to leave clearing up to another day. Glancing at Momoko, who was currently unashamedly flopped on her bed, she sighed.
"Momo, go sleep on your own bed." Momoko pretended not to hear her and instead hid her head under one of the pillows. With a roll of her eyes, the squad captain gave up and left the other girl alone. "Drool on my bed and die." Was the last thing she said before stepping out.
"Captain would never let me get away with that." Chinami observed. Maasa just smiled and took off her outer coat, before sinking into her own bed. "Wake me up for dinner later."
"Yeah same here." Momo mumbled from under the pillow. Murmurs of assent from Chinami followed, and she poked Yurina again, trying to get a response out of the currently spaced out girl. Yurina blinked. "Hmm?"
"I asked if you wanted to go steal some food from the kitchen now." Chinami repeated patiently.
"Steal? Why steal? We can just ask the cook for breakfast...uh, lunch." Confusion shone in the taller girl's eyes.
"But it's more fun this way!" Chinami grinned as she pulled on a plain set of clothes, before reaching into her cupboard for her trusty deck of cards, slipping it into her vest. "Come on, get changed."
"Get me something to eat too." Momo waved from Saki's bed, the pillow still covering her face. Maasa had already fallen asleep. Chinami nodded.
"Will do."
"Don't get anything with peas in it."
"Sure."
"Something with fish might be nice."
"Ok."
"Oh and I want..." Chinami threw a pillow at Momoko, hitting the older girl in the stomach.
"Go steal it yourself if you're so picky!" She huffed. Momoko removed the pillow from her face and laughed. "Thanks Chii-chan. You're the best." Yurina giggled at Chinami, who deliberately turned away from Momoko's grinning face with a snort.
"Let's go."
~*~*~
It was rare indeed, Koharu mused, that she was left alone for the day. Well, mostly alone. She remembered with distaste the fact that there were two burly guards outside her door, effectively grounding her within her spacious rooms. What did she need with guards in her uncle's own house? And the worst part was that Saki and the others were off for today, and she missed their company.
What was a girl to do with herself under such circumstances? That was the pressing question. Koharu looked around her room with a critical eye, trying to form a plan of action to get out of the room without tipping the guards at her door off.
Maybe it was the fact that in recent weeks she had been sneaking out more often with any one of the other girls, and it was rubbing off on her. Because Koharu figured out very quickly what should could possibly do under such circumstances, and she did it with little hesitation.
By the time the maid came in bearing the little lady's lunch, there was already no one left in the room.
~*~*~
The sun was mild out today, and puffy white clouds were skipping like playful little sheep across an azure sky. The temperature was just right, not too warm nor too cold. The droning voice in the background, too, was a perfect backdrop for a nap. Which was what happened, essentially.
A sharp rap on her knuckles brought her back to the world of the living. "Excuse me my lady, but please try to stay awake for the history lesson." The teacher, a kindly looking woman, smiled down at the sleepy face sprawled over a huge book.
"But I already know all about the Cheval Clan Wars and the Boer Uprising!" The girl protested, pouting cutely up at her tutor. The woman remained unmoved by the expression, having been rendered immune to it since she had been teaching the same girl for many years already and had gotten used to it. You just didn't give in to that adorable face, no matter how cute she tried to be, or else you'll just be falling into the same trap many others have dropped into.
The girl didn't give up easily, puffing up her cheeks and putting on her most pitiful look. "Please, you can test me and see."
Against her better judgment, the hapless tutor agreed to that deal.
20 minutes later, the girl was free, having successfully answered all the questions posed to her. All that time spent nose deep in one of those dusty tomes in the library on many a rainy day had finally paid off. She was off for the rest of the day.
Heading out into the extensive gardens of the estate, she stretched and grinned up at the sun in the sky. Such a wonderful day out, almost a pity to be mostly wasted on useless history lessons. Well, it was time to go out and enjoy the fine weather.
Michishige Sayumi, daughter of the Emperor's 12th half-sister, technically of royal descent but not officially acknowledged, due to the circumstances of her birth. The fact that her mother had fallen in love with a young guardsman and ran away with him, only to be accidentally recaptured 6 months later already pregnant with her, made Sayumi herself somewhat of a disgrace to the royal family through no real fault of her own, a bastard child only marginally tolerated because her mother had protected her from being thrown out of the palace when she was born. She had never seen her father, since he had been killed the night her mother was recaptured.
Sayumi never let all that get her down though. As a child, due to her mother's disgrace, they had been sent to one of the lower royal estates further down the mountain which held the main palace, and there she had grown up with much fewer restrictions on her than other children also of royal blood would have experienced. While in no way it could be considered a truly normal childhood, Sayumi came close to having one, much more so than her assorted royal but distant cousins would have had. Her mother largely left her to her own devices, preferring to spend her days quietly knitting with an air of somber melancholy. Sayumi suspected that it was due to the fact that her mother missed her dead father, and felt that it was terribly cruel of fate to have let her mother be a widow at such a young age.
Illegitimate child she might have been, but she had grown up well. All the servants assured her how pretty and adorable she was, not that she ever had any doubt herself about that. She was close to the small number of servants alloted to care for them, since they had pretty much helped to raise her since her mother was always somewhat detached from her upbringing. They lived modestly by royal, and even noble standards, and while Sayumi did receive the basics of a genteel education that a lady should possess, she had never been presented in court as far as she could remember. The time when she was born didn't count, since she couldn't recall a single detail about that particular appearance.
It didn't bother her though. From what the servants told her, the palace wasn't really all that awesome a place anyway. If there was anyone who really knew what the palace was like, it was probably the servants. After all, the royals and the nobility only paraded around the grand upper levels in the castle and its grounds, but the servants were everywhere and saw everything. The nobles never paid any attention to the nearly invisible servants in the background, and talked as if they didn't exist, so the servants of the castle probably knew more about every spoken word in every corner of the palace than did the most avid gossipers amongst the society ladies. Through her close interactions with the servants, Sayumi probably learnt more about the palace and courtly life than if she had been there to experience it for herself.
Despite having come of age a couple of years back, Sayumi had never had a ball celebrating that fact as many ladies would. Actually, she had never been invited to any balls or parties either. She and her mother had essentially been forgotten by high society. As far as the court was concerned, they didn't exist, and since there wasn't any benefit to inviting a disgraced princess and her bastard child, so that was pretty much it.
The fact should have stung her in some way, but surprisingly it didn't affect her as much as she had thought it would. Growing up the way she did probably had a hand in that indifference. She hadn't been brought up to expect anything, and in any case, she relished the freedom of her complete lack of social standing, yet being able to live comfortably and securely due to the incident of her birth. Sayumi often accompanied the maids down to the city on their off days, wearing more ordinary clothing of course, and in short, had what was essentially the best of both worlds when it came to both material comfort and physical freedom.
Strolling down past the dense hedges that bordered the modest estate in which she lived, Sayumi was having a wonderful time looking at the flowers and butterflies fluttering around the neatly kept gardens. However, her appreciation of nature was interrupted by some suspicious rustling further down the hedges, near the corner. Frowning, the 18 year old remembered that there was a small hole in the hedge near that spot that she herself had used on occasion when sneaking out without permission. Who could possibly be using it now?
Curiosity drove her forward to check, but she was ever mindful of the fact that whoever the intruder might be, they could be hostile, and was ready to call for the guards should the situation call for it. When the person wriggled through though, the face that greeted her was a familiar, albeit dirt-streaked one.
"Kusumi-chan! What are you doing here?" Sayumi exclaimed, rushing forward to help the younger girl up. They had met before, when Koharu, ever the curious person, had been exploring the lower estates with a bored Miyabi in tow while her uncle was in an important meeting. The two girls had hit it off almost immediately after Koharu had helped to rescue an injured rabbit from one of the palace hounds, and despite the age difference, they got along fairly well.
"Hiding from my uncle's cronies." Koharu replied, casting shifty glances behind her, as if fearing that her uncle's guards would suddenly burst through the hedge without warning.
"Why would you want to hide from Natsuyaki-san and the others?" Sayumi asked in confusion. Koharu sighed, brushing some dirt away from her face.
"Not them. Miyabi, Momo and the others are good company, but they're on leave today. I meant those armed thugs that work for my uncle."
"Oh." Sayumi shrugged, then eyed Koharu critically. "Did you grow taller again?"
Straightening up to her full height, Koharu looked herself up and down, before grinning back at the older girl. "I think so."
Sayumi pouted. "No fair, I'm older but you're getting taller than me!" Then she paused, before adding almost as an afterthought. "But at least I'm still cuter than you."
Koharu snickered at that, and Sayumi pushed the younger girl playfully. "You know it's true!"
"I'll beat you on that one day too." Koharu vowed in between giggles. Sayumi puffed out a breath and folded her arms. "You wish!"
The younger girl was about to retort, but a suspicious rumbling sound halted both of them. After a moment of silence, Sayumi cracked up in a fit of chuckles, and Koharu flushed in embarrassment, placing a hand on her midsection with a sheepish look. "Um, I kinda skipped lunch while getting away earlier." The younger girl mumbled while rubbing at the back of her head with an embarrassed expression. Sayumi giggled at the awkward look on Koharu's face.
"Come on, I'm sure Cook will make something for both of us." Reaching over, the older girl grabbed the younger's hand easily, ready to lead her to the kitchens. Before she did though, Sayumi paused and frowned critically at Koharu's face. The younger girl tilted her head in an expression of confusion, and blushed lightly when Sayumi's free hand brushed across the tip of her nose.
"You missed a spot." Sayumi explained, flicking the speck of dirt away. "Now let's go feed you up."
"You're just trying to make me fat so I can't be cuter than you!" Koharu accused as Sayumi hauled her along behind her, drawing a giggle from the older girl.
"Well~~ Who knows?"
"Sayu!!!"
Both girls were laughing as they dashed hand-in-hand across the garden.
Such was the spirit of youth.
Topic: All Aboard! [Chapter 26! --sorry for the wait] (Read 100246 times)