Adopted: Book 1 Refracted Sand [REWRITING]

Adopted Ch. 56 Followers

While they waited for Musa to prepare the arrangements, they sat at a table with tea and snacks he'd left for them, an odd act of mundane hospitality in this tense situation. Suzume was playing with a string, playing cat's cradle in a way that Akira had never seen before.

Suzume was irritated, bothered, emotional, but at the same time she was thinking clearer, her actions were more effortless and unwasteful. Jabari had been killed only a week ago and she had never let herself forget. After seeing his tapestry, the one he had gifted her, up there at the auction and also realizing the man who she had saved while failing to save Jabari was one of the people responsible for the raid that led to his death was all too much. Her mind raced. Her body was restless.

But she couldn't let it take over. She couldn't let anything happen to her family. The moment they disappeared past the horizon with their captors, Suzume felt herself change. A shift. She liked it. She knew what she had to do and she knew she could do it. A confidence she knew would leave so she held fast to it while it lasted.

"Suzume-san," Akira said now, leaning forward and Suzume looked up at him, her hands still moving, "do you remember when you stood up for a little girl against a group of sixth years on the streets? Back when you were attending the Institute?"

Suzume did. That was the time she woke up in a well. She didn't care to remember it and frowned as she answered, "Yes. How did you know about that?"

His eyes grew softer. "That was my sister Naoko. You defended my sister against some of the students who often teased me about being held back a year. When she ran back to the house covered in bruises and telling me about you and crying about how they took you, I went to search for you and found nothing. I prayed that you would be at school the next day and when I saw you I was relieved."

He rubbed his fingers around the cup in his hands and smiled, "Do you remember getting chocolates and notes from someone you didn't know at the institute?"

Suzume's tension subsided, her hands stopped, and her eyes were wide and bright like a child's. "Was that you?"

"That was me. I was trying to show my gratitude without getting you mixed up with my problems."

"It's so nice to meet you! I looked forward to your notes everyday!"

Akira laughed genially. "I'm glad! My siblings love chocolate so I thought you'd like sweets too, and made sure to include some for you each time."

Suzume dimmed slightly. "Every time? You never just left a note?"

"Hm, I don't think so? I missed some days but every time I left a note, I left chocolate too."

The door opened then and Musa appeared. "You can come out now."

Musa escorted the shinobi out into the desert only a few yards away from the sleeping town. There was a figure next to a camel close enough for them to see that it was the muscular woman. Musa told them to wait where they were for a few seconds so he could talk to her, and he went to do so.

Neha removed her hood as Musa reached her side. She sniggered. "You got blackmailed? By an 11 year old?"

"Not blackmailed, guilt tripped maybe, but not really that either."

"Guilt tripped?"

"Yeah, remember that time you went undercover as a merchant? The kid who got killed by Sora?"

Neha frowned. "Of course."

"Well, she's that kunoichi from the shinobi team who befriended the kid. I gave her my card so that I can help if she ever needed it, but I never thought she'd connect me to the Revolution. Look," he sighed, "she's just a kid. Could you go easy on her?"