Page 34 of Water Moon

Chapter Thirty-four

Family

Haruto leaned against the wall, his lips pale. Sweat trickled down the side of his face. He closed his eyes, drawing tired breaths. “I wish I could tell you more, Hana,” he said, his voice frail, “but that was all that fragment of bone would reveal. If I had the amount I used when I folded time for your father, I might have been able to see where they had taken your mother. I’m sorry.”

“You have nothing to apologize for. You have already done so much for me. Too much.” Hana eased him back onto the futon. “I do not know how I can ever repay you.”

Haruto smiled up at her and stroked her cheek with his bandaged hand. “There is nothing that needs to be repaid.”

Hana stiffened at Haruto’s touch and glanced at Keishin. He looked away.

Haruto drew his hand back, his smile erased. “There is nothing to be repaid because we are no closer to finding your father than we were before I folded time. We still do not know where your parents are. The paper told us nothing.”

“No,” Hana said. “It told us the most important thing. The Shiikuin kept my mother alive. She was not erased.”

“What do you think the Shiikuin meant by ‘a punishment more fitting’ of her crime?” Keishin asked.

Hana shook her head. “I don’t know.”

The paper door slid open. Masako stepped through it. “It is time for you to leave. You have what you came for. Do not put my son in any more danger.”

Haruto pushed himself up from the futon, wincing as he sat. “They should stay. This village is the safest place for them to be while we try to figure out what the Shiikuin meant.”

“We?” Masako said. “This is their problem, Haruto, not yours. You should never have involved yourself in any of this.”

“I owe Ishikawa-san my life.”

“You owe him nothing. He would not have needed to save you if Chiyo had not—” Masako cast a sharp glare at Hana. “You owe her nothing.”

“Hana is family,” Haruto said.

“Not yet,” Masako said. “She is not yet your wife.”

“She will be. Her name is written on my skin as clearly as my father’s name was written on yours. Do you wish me to stray further from my path and anger the Shiikuin more?”

Masako shook her head and sighed. “Of course not. That’s not what I meant.”

“Then it is settled. Hana and her friend will stay with us while we try to find out where the Shiikuin took Hana’s mother,” Haruto said.

Hana gently touched his shoulder. “It is not right to put you in any more danger. We should leave.”

“And where do you intend to go, Hana?” Haruto said. “If you leave without a plan, you will only be giving the Shiikuin a better chance of catching you.”

“Haruto is right,” Keishin said. “Running blindly from the Shiikuin is not going to help us find your parents.”

“This is my house, and I will decide who can stay and who cannot,” Masako said. “Hana may stay, but I will not have an outsider sleep under my roof. He will be just as safe in the inn as he will be in this house.”

“I will go with him,” Hana said.

“No,” Keishin said. “You should stay here. Haruto needs you. If any of us comes up with any ideas about what the Shiikuin meant about your mother’s punishment, we can regroup.”

“Kei…”

“It’s all right, Hana,” Keishin said. “It’s for the best. I need some time alone to think.”

“About what?”

Keishin glanced from Haruto to Hana. “Everything.”

—

The bowl of okayu warmed Hana’s hands, stirring memories of the days when her father made the watery rice porridge for her when she was sick. He liked to serve it with eggs and sweet potatoes. Masako topped the dinner she had made for Haruto with a pickled plum. Hana scooped a spoonful of the porridge for Haruto. He waved it away.

“You need to eat something to get your strength back,” Hana said.

“I’m not hungry.”

“Just one spoonful?” Hana said. “Please?”

Haruto sighed. “Just one.”

Hana fed him the porridge.

“You do not need to take care of me, Hana.”

“I want to.” Hana dabbed his lips with a soft cloth.

“Do you?”

“Of course I do.”

“You did not even want to be here.” Haruto lay down. “You wanted to be with Keishin.”

“Because he’s a stranger here. I was worried about him staying at the inn by himself.”

Haruto stared up at the ceiling. “Is that the only reason?”

“What other reason would I have?”

“You care for him.”

“Yes,” Hana said. “As a friend.”

“Just as you care for me,” Haruto said. “As a friend.”

Hana gently placed her hands over his. “My dearest and oldest friend.”

“We will be married in one month, Hana.”

“I…know.” Hana had pushed the date into the back of her mind. Since Keishin had arrived, she’d found herself shoving it deeper.

“And you do not love me yet.”

“I do love you.”

“Not in the way a wife loves her husband.”

“I know that is what my father wanted for us, but we already have more than anyone in our world does when they wed. My father saw my mother for the first time on their wedding day. As did your parents. We have a friendship deeper than most people will ever know in their lifetime. Is that not enough?”

“I know that it should be,” Haruto said. “But it isn’t.”

“My mother learned to love my father. Whatever we do not have now, it can come later.”

“Will it? We have known each other all our lives. If you have not learned to love me yet, do you think that a ceremony at a temple will change anything? I just wish that…”

“What is it? Tell me.”

“It doesn’t matter.” He looked out the window at the darkening sky. “The only place for hopes and wishes is in the sky.”