Chapter LXVIII.

Saien Natsume couldn't help but gaze at the blonde woman secretly, as they were walking their way together through the village, having just completed all their purchases.

He couldn't understand how Hayate Shigeizumi could have cheated on someone like her. She was so kind. She was such a strong person. She was beautiful both outside and in her heart. She was the incarnation of perfection. She was simply marvelous.

After Ayane, he would never have thought to think of someone as being fantastic as this in his life. But there was no other way to qualify the blonde woman. She was simply outstanding.

Her husband was certainly not able to see straight! 

'Uh, Saien, I'm really sorry but do you mind to wait for me here for a minute?' she asked him, suddenly, causing him to break out of his thoughts. 'I need to use...' 

Tsubasa Shigeizumi had paused down and was thumbing over her shoulder at the public lavatory. 

They were quite far away from the Asagiri home, and the blonde woman couldn't hold it anymore.

'Oh, yes-yes!' he told her, rapidly, and without losing a minute, he took the bags that she was carrying in her arms.

'I'll be out in one minute,' she assured him, her expression a bit embarrassed, and turning around, she hurried for the door of the tiny building.

'Take your time,' he called after her. 'I'll be waiting for you on the side of the building.'

'Hai!'

And on this, he moved onto the small alley on the side to wait for her there, leaning against the side wall.

***

The public lavatory was gender-separated. The female section was a room with three toilet compartments on the one side and a set of lavabos on the other. 

Tsubasa made as quickly as possible. 

She was washing her hands at one of the lavabos when, abruptly, an unexpected person made eruption in the room. The blonde woman was astounded to see a man in this section, but not as much as she was when she realized that he was someone that she knew.

'Kazetani-san!' she exclaimed. 'What are you doing here?'

The man was aged fifty-two. He was quite short and had broad shoulders. He was clothed in a tie and suit, his gray hair as disheveled as his clothes, giving the impression that he had not been to his house for days. 

The man's expression was filled with anguish as he stared at her, moaning out her name. 'Tsubasa-sama!'

Her heart accelerating in her chest, the blonde woman took a few steps backward, getting on her guard.

'I have followed you till here.'

Her heart shook. She continued to back away until she had her back pressed against the back wall of the room, completely alarmed now.

'Tsubasa-sama! You have to give me my job back!' the middle-aged man told her, in a pleading tone, and crossing the distance between them, he clutched at her hands.

'Wha- What are you doing?' Tsubasa stammered, scared. She tried to pull her hands away, but in vain.

'I have dedicated my whole life to the Zaibatsu! You know it! Please, I want to return!'

'You know that I can't do this,' she told him, honestly, in a murmur, in spite of the fright that he was inspiring her. 'You have committed several frauds. But as I already told you, I'm not going to hand you over to the police because I respect your age and time of service. And you can rest assured that your daughter's studies will not be affected by this.' 

'But that's not what I want!' he shouted on top of his voice, stomping his foot in outrage, causing her to jump.

She was absolutely terrified by this instant. 

Adrenaline pumping through her veins, she managed to shove the man backward. The latter stumbled and fell on his back on the ground. Without losing a second, Tsubasa took to her heels to run for the door, but the man didn't allow her to leave.

'You're not going anywhere!' he snarled at her, and seizing her by her ankle, he threw her on the ground. Fortunately, she didn't hit her chin on the hard floor. Her hands had shot out in front of herself to lessen the shock. But hardly, had she caught her bearings again that the man had flung her around to climb on top of her. 

He was holding a knife in one of his hands now and he seized her by her wrists with the other to prevent her from fighting him off.

Tsubasa was petrified with horror.

'The Zaibatsu is my whole life! It's true that I made a few mistakes! But you had no right to ask me to resign! You've ruined my career! I'm going to kill you!'

Just as he had been about to bring the knife down on her, out of the blue, he received a large kick in the face.

The blow sent him flying backward, the knife slipping out of his hand, crackling on the tiled floor.

'Tsubasa, are you alright?!' Saien exclaimed at her, with alarm, and crouching down, he helped her to sit up. 

But the blonde woman was way too shaken to be able to speak or even form a single thought. Her mind went completely blank for a few seconds, until she saw the middle-aged man jerk to his feet to attack the red-haired male with the knife.

'Saien, watch out!' she cried out, and instantaneously, the latter's head snapped around to look at the older man. 

In a reflex, Saien jumped to his feet, his hand going out to pull Tsubasa to her feet as well to back away with her, but the middle-aged man had managed to cut him at his left upper-arm. 

Saien's wound was bleeding profusely.

'What's happening here?!' a voice gasped out, in all of a sudden, and the blonde woman looked around to see a young man standing outside of the entrance, holding all their bags, his expression horror-struck.

'Call the police!' Saien exclaimed at him, urgently, but this didn't stop the middle-aged man from trying to attack the red-haired male again. He swung his knife at Saien one more time, this time managing to cut him at the ribs. 

'Saien!' Tsubasa-sama screamed, even more horrified.

The red-haired male fell on his knees on the ground, clutching at his abdomen with his arm in pain. He was losing a lot of blood from this new wound. But as she tried to approach him, he spread his other arm out to ask her to keep away for her own safety. But she didn't listen. As he tried to get to his feet again, she caught him by his arm to bring him her support.

The middle-aged man was in tears by now. His expression was a mixture of anger and deep torment. He was holding his face with his one of his hands and pointing the knife at the two of them.

'Tsubasa, stay behind me!' Saien told her, stepping in front of her and spreading one of his arms out again protectively.

By that moment, the police arrived.

The young man had called out to two police officers who were making their rounds in the village. They pointed their guns at the middle-aged man, and Saien and Tsubasa got out of their way immediately, as they moved up to the man to disarm him and pass the handcuffs on him. 

The latter didn't pose any resistance. Torrents of tears were gushing down his face. 

'I'm sorry! I don't know what took over me! I'm really sorry!' he apologized to the blonde woman and red-haired male as the police were taking him away.

'Oh, Kazetani-san...' Tsubasa murmured to herself.

***

'What's taking them so long?' Shunsui muttered, tapping his foot agitatedly on the floor, where he was standing against the kitchen counter, with his arms crossed over his chest.

'Why did she have to go with him, anyway?!' 

We were still at the house of the Asagiri. The soup was ready and we were waiting for the blonde woman and red-haired male to arrive for us to head back to the ryokan all together.

'I have an ugly feeling,' Shunsui asserted, and I looked at him, anxiously. He had stopped tapping his foot now and was staring gravely at the floor. I had to admit that I was having a strange feeling in my heart too.

'Same here!' Gōjun asserted, and just like Shunsui, he seemed quite agitated. 'Let's go search for them!'

As we were about to bid Sakurae-san goodbye and head for the door, suddenly, the latter opened on its own, and everyone gasped out in shock at the sight of the blonde woman and red-haired male. The latter didn't have his shirt on anymore; it was thrown over his shoulders. Part of his abdomen was bandaged, as well as his left upper-arm. Tsubasa-sama was helping him to walk; his good arm was around her neck.

No one was breathing anymore. 

My heart was pounding in my ears.

'Okā-san, what happened?' Shunsui demanded at her, his tone frantic, and rushing up to her, he helped her support the red-haired male's crushing weight. 

Breaking out of my trance-like state, I rushed to her side too, together with Gōjun, the latter replacing the blonde woman by the older male's side.

'I'm going to tell you everything,' she told us, urgently, 'But I think we should make him sit first.'

Turning to the young man who had accompanied them till here, she thanked the latter heartfully for his help.

'It's nothing,' he told her, humbly, and Momose and and I eased him of the grocery bags that he was carrying, after which the young man left.

When Tsubasa-sama had finished recounting to us what had happened, we were all petrified with shock.

She could have died! And Saien-sensei as well!

'Oh my god, Okā-san!' Shunsui exclaimed, breathlessly, and sending one of his arms around her, he pulled her against him in a hug, while he cradled the back of her head with his other hand, pressing his lips over her forehead in a kiss. 

Gōjun moved behind the woman to hold her from behind in a hug too, and he laid a kiss upon the back of the blond woman's head, while I embraced the three of them all together.

If something had happened to her… I would have died! 

And Saien-sensei... He has behaved like a real hero. There was no word for me to express my gratefulness towards him.

***

Later…

'Good heavens! You smoke like a chimney!'

At the sound of Shunsui's voice, Saien Natsume took a glance over his shoulder to look at the reddish-brown-haired young man. 

The older male was sitting on the side of the ryokan, on top of the wooden balustrade which delimited the property, smoking a cigarette while gazing at the forest. 

Shunsui had just rounded the corner of the building and was coming towards him, watching him with a critical look.

'Hah! You can talk! I've seen you grab god knows how many smokes since this morning!' Saien retorted at the teenager.

Shunsui made a grimace and moved to place himself next to him, leaning against the balustrade, but without looking at him in the face. 

Scratching the back of his head and blushing a little, he told the older male after a few seconds, in a mumble, 'By the way, I- I wanted to thank you for having protected my mother.'

Turning his face the other way too, with his cheeks reddening just equally, Saien replied, 'You're welcome.'

There was a minute of silence between them, before Shunsui straightened up again, declaring, almost sulkily, 'Well, that's all I had to say,' and thrusting his hands in the pockets of his jeans, with his face still a bit red, he started to walk away to get back inside of the building.

'Oh, by the way, Shunsui, what do you think of the name Botanmaru?' Saien called out to him, abruptly, and pausing down, the reddish-brown-haired young man gave the man a bewildered look, answering, 'I don't know, why?'

Grinning mischievously, Saien pointed out to him, 'You had sworn that you would change your name if you do not succeed to get me kicked out of the school by this week! I thought that Botanmaru would be a good name for you!'

'Oh, please, shut up!' Shunsui shouted at him, peeved, and flinging back around, he flounced away, cursing the man under his breath, while the latter laughed to himself in good humor. 

***

A short while later…

'Ah! Watch out!' Saien-sensei told me, catching me by my shoulders as I bumped into him.

'I'm sorry,' I apologized. 'I wasn't looking in front of myself!'

'Where are you going?'

'I'm going into the kitchen to prepare tonight's dinner.'

His face scrunched up a little and looking at the boys where they were sitting at the small table in the hall and playing poker, he called out to them, 'Oi! I thought that Hime is your little protégée! But you treat her like your slave, yes?!'

Eh?

Cringing once, I looked at the boys, smiling nervously. They had stopped playing to look at the red-haired male and I. 

'It's- It's alright,' I said to the red-haired male. 'I really don't mind to cook.'

'Just be quiet. I told you that I've got your back!' the man told me, in a murmur, winking at me, before he called out to the boys again, 'Come on, now! Let's get moving! We're all going to help Hime in the kitchen!'

'Why should we listen to you?!' Shunsui muttered, grumpily.

'Well, it'd be with pleasure!' Tsubasa-sama declared, cheerily, and pulling the reddish-brown-haired young man and Gōjun by their ears, she yanked them to their feet, informing them that they were coming along, and that there was no place for discussion.

The two young men grimaced unhappily, but none of the two dared to complain, for they knew all too well how much the blonde woman could be scary when she wanted. 

This made me giggle.

A few minutes later, we were all inside of the kitchen, and I had assigned to each one of us a different task. Shunsui and Gōjun got to work reluctantly. 

'I didn't know that you can cook!' I heard Tsubasa-sama said to Saien-sensei at one point, and immediately, my eyes shifted onto the two of them from where I was standing in front of the refrigerator, to gaze at them for a minute. 

We had discovered that the red-haired male was extremely good at cooking. He knew several different cuisines, and I found that I had many things to learn from him. 

Tsubasa-sama and he were interacting gaily with each other.

Shunsui had told us that he had seen the red-haired male at the cemetery the other day. Everything left to think that the latter would visit his defunct wife everyday to bring her flowers. 

Both Tsubasa-sama and he have loved someone with ardent love. I wondered how it felt like to be loved by someone this ardently.

As I took a glance at Gōjun, suddenly, my eyes fell onto the state in which he had put the pineapple he was cutting. 

I flinched, my mouth going agape.

'Gōjun, what did you do?!' I asked him.

'What is it?!' he demanded at me, grouchily. 'You asked me to cut off the pulp and remove the eyes. That's what I did!'

He had cut large pieces of flesh along with the pulp and he had pierced the pineapple so deeply to remove the eyes that there was practically nothing left of it, except for an amass of crushed fruit. 

'There's nothing left of it to eat as a salad!'

'Oh, that's enough! I'm fed up!' he muttered, peevishly, and putting his knife down, he headed for the door, telling us that he was going outside to smoke a cigarette, because he badly needed one.

Taking a deep breath, I sighed, shaking my head. 

'Well, we can still use the pineapple as a smash to prepare something else.'

I moved up to Shunsui after that where he was standing in front of the stove, taking care of the eggs.

My mouth fell open again as I took in the number of pieces of eggshells in the frying pan.

'I'm sorry. I'm not good at it!' he told me, awkwardly, and picking another egg up, he held it above the recipient to break it with a spoon, but only for half of the shell to end up in the frying pan along with the white and yolk.

I cringed.

He's not doing it right!

'Agh! I'm fed up!' he growled, and turning off the gas, he took out his box of cigarette and turned around to bring one to his mouth and light it up, only to walk out of the room, calling at us over his shoulder that he's had enough of it for the day.

Holding my face with my hand, I shook my head once again.

Yare! Yare!

***

Everything that Saien-sensei had prepared was absolutely delicious, and I didn't miss to compliment him on it. At every compliment that he received, the man didn't miss to cast at the boys a haughty smile to unnerve them. Shunsui and Gōjun were still brooding after their fiasco. 

When we were done with dinner, I made my way back into the kitchen to do the dishes and Tsubasa-sama tagged along with me to help me, while the boys and the red-haired male headed for the game hall, Shunsui impatient to affront the sensei in a small table-tennis match. 

Even if the reddish-brown-haired young man would still sulk at the older male and vice-versa, and they would not lose a single occasion to provoke each other, I had noticed that something seemed to have established itself between the two of them on this day and, without any doubt, for ever after. Tsubasa-sama had noticed it too, and this rejoiced us.

After we had washed all the dishes and cleaned the kitchen, Tsubasa-sama left to join the gentlemen in the game-hall, ready to affront the winner of the match, while I decided to take a dip in the onsen. 

I took all my time. I had tied my hair up in a chignon with the Kanzashi Gōjun had gifted to me. The water felt so good.

A quarter an hour had gone by when, suddenly, I heard the door slid open. Turning around, I expected to see Tsubasa-sama, but only for it to turn out to be Gōjun!

My eyes went wide at him, my heart skipping a beat, my face going tomato red. 

Instantaneously, I flung around, clasping my hands in front of myself and gasping, 'Gōjun!'

Just like him, I was only in a towel!

I guessed that he must have thought that I had already left for my bedroom. 

My heart was beating so fast that it was the only thing that I could perceive for a minute, until I felt the water shift behind me. 

It was Gōjun who was entering the onsen with me!

I took a glance at him over my shoulder, my face heating up completely.

'Gōjun, what- what are you doing?' I stuttered, without daring to think that he might have followed me here intentionally. 

I was staring back in the front again now, but I could hear him moving towards me. 

When I felt his presence right behind me, with our skin almost touching, my heart jumped to my throat, and instantly, I lowered my hands and started to make a rush to get out of the onsen, telling him, 'I- I was about to leave!' 

But he didn't allow me to go. 

Hardly had I taken a step forward that he caught me by my left wrist from behind to yank me to a stop, and at the same time, pull me against his chest, while he grabbed my right shoulder with his other hand.

'Gōjun…'

I held my breath.

Letting go of my wrist, his hand moved up to cup my chin, still from behind, and turning my face to the side, he brought his lips over mine, sealing our mouths in a kiss. 

I pressed my eyes shut; my heart fluttering.

The kiss lasted for a minute, before he let go of my chin to bring his mouth on my neck, his hand sliding down my left shoulder to close around my upper-arm. 

At this, my eyes blew wide open, my heart going completely wild.

His mouth was all over my neck and shoulder.

Pressing my eyes shut again, I shook his hands off me and made a small run to put some distance between us, while I exclaimed, 'Gōjun, stop! Why are you always bothering me like this?'

I thought I heard him gasp a little and I opened my eyes, but didn't look at him, keeping my back turned onto him. 

When he let out a second gasp, this time I heard it very clearly.

'What is that scar on your back?!' he demanded, in a grave tone, and my heart skipped another beat. 

Crossing the water up to me rapidly, he sent his left arm around my waist from behind to hold me into place, while I felt his other hand come down upon my back, or more specifically, on the upper hem of my towel, preparing to pull it down.

'Gōjun, what are you doing?!' I exclaimed, panicking at the idea of his removing my towel and, at the same time, troubled at the memory of the cause of the injury that had left that scar on my back- in the form of a straight mark that went diagonally from my right shoulder blade to the end of my ribcage, just above my waist. 

Gripping the front of my towel tightly with one of my hands and breaking out of his grip, I ran out of the onsen to enter the changing room, disheveled. Grabbing my clothes, I was about to dash for the second door in the room to go get dressed in my bedroom but, just like I feared, Gōjun came after me.

I turned half around to look at him, my heart shaking a little.

'How did you get that scar on your back?!' he demanded at me, with a severe look. 'Let me see it!' 

'Gōjun, stop! Leave me alone!' I told him, with angst, and had been about to dart for the door, but he caught me by my waist from behind once again, preventing me from going anywhere. Pulling me down into a sitting position on the floor with him, I felt his other hand slip past my shoulder-blade to under the hem of my towel. He yanked it down roughly, lowering it to my waist. As he did this action, my towel came loose, but I managed to hold its ends tightly together over my breasts just in time before it could have fallen off completely; blushing madly. 

'How did this happen?' he asked me, his voice softening, and tears welled up my eyes at that moment.

'It was a few years ago,' I murmured, staring at the ground. 'My mother and father… They were having a terrible fight. He picked up a knife. He wanted to cut her at the face. I jumped in the middle to protect her and...'

A small silence fell between us, before he released me to get to his feet, telling me, 'I've got one equally!'

Looking at him over my shoulder, I saw that he had turned away to show me the multiple scars that he had on his right shoulder-blade.

I had noticed them before, but I had never dared to ask him how he had obtained them.

'A souvenir of my mother. She was having a fight with my father. I mean my biological father. I tried to separate them. She started to take on me. She threw a bottle at me. It hit the wall. I was standing too close. The shards dug into my flesh when the bottle broke.'

Oh, Gōjun…

Kenren Shoran had told me about his biological parents; that, it had even happened to them to show themselves violent to him. 

Grabbing his clothes, he made his way out of the room to clothe himself, while I got dressed too on my side, both of us tacitly giving each other rendezvous outside of the ryokan. 

A few minutes later, when I came out onto the side of the building, I found Gōjun sitting on the branch of a tree, not too high up, smoking a cigarette, while he was gazing at the starry sky. 

Moving up to the tree, I sat myself down at the foot of it, leaning against its trunk, to gaze up at the sky too, both of us keeping each other company in silence. 

Thank you for reading!