Higanbana Samurai: Requiem

Chapter Six - Hanbei

Affection

The chirping of birds roused Hanbei from his thoughts, causing him to stretch with a faint smile before tucking away the book he had been reading. He had, with permission of course, borrowed it from the library. Roughly a week had passed since he first stumbled into the library after he had seen the princess training and elected to fix the floors for her. In that short time, Hanbei had moved his room into the west wing of the manor near that of Yura and the library, started doing light training with her to make sure his skills stayed sharp, and taken to going for walks around the grounds before breakfast.

As much as he wanted to see Hideyoshi, it was hard for him not to accept his new life in Requiem. Hideyoshi never left his thoughts but the manor was so peaceful and Yura largely left him to his own devices. They spent time with one another, often doing household work or having casual discussions over tea, but they never spent the entirety of a day with one another. Both of them, without ever having spoken to the other about it, had silently decided that they wanted their own space. But this particular morning, as summer was coming to a close, Hanbei had something he wanted to ask Yura about. Wandering through the halls to look for her, to his surprise, he couldn't find her. Aside from wanting to let her know he had to go pick up the sword he had requested from the smith in town, he had a question about the logistics of leaving Requiem to travel to other worlds and timelines. He had no interest in doing so at the moment but he did wish to understand how such a thing was to occur. Since she had initially mentioned in the prior week, she hadn't spoken of it again.

"Yura-san?" He called, stepping out into the courtyard. "Yura-san, are you out here?"

It was then that he heard a shriek, his eyes snapping in the direction of the sound as he realized what was happening. Sprinting toward her, he was just a moment too late to help as he had intended. Yura, who had been doing who knew what in the tree seconds earlier, had been surprised by his call and slipped. Instead of catching her as he had hoped to, however, Hanbei ended up being used as a cushion. Groaning as he opened his eyes, unable to see anything through the silky black hair that covered them, he moved his hand to try and brush her hair out of his face. As he brushed it aside, he noticed the princess's face was stained by a deep blush. Her face was also so close to his that, without the hair blocking it, he could feel her breath on his cheek. She leapt off of him and straightened up, doing her best to look dignified as she offered him a hand. Waving dismissively at her offer to help him up, Hanbei stood and dusted himself with a slight wince.

"You're surprisingly heavy for someone so thin. Are you okay?" He asked, watching as she seemed to look him up and down.

"... I believe so. And you? I'm very sorry I feel on you."

"I'm perfectly fine. Tried to catch you, so I suppose it was my bad."

"Thanks for trying, Hanbei-san. I hate to ask a favor of you after nearly crushing you but..."

"Whatever it is, I will do it if you explain to me how to travel to other times works. And no, I do not wish to go, I simply want to understand it," He explained, a bit defensive about not wanting to go even though she hadn't asked.

"Can I give you the short version?"

"As long as you don't leave out anything important, yes."

"Unless you choose to go on your own, one of us will eventually receive a note from the mysterious being in charge of Requiem. It will tell me where to send you and when. In order to send you there, I simply make you special tea and you drink it. It tastes fairly good, the only issue with it is that when you first enter the new time period as well as when you first return... you probably won't feel all the great. It takes a lot out of you to travel this way," Yura explained. "Now, all I need from you is to clean out the old storehouse on the other end of the grounds. Anything you find in there, just stack it up and burn it then make sure the room is clean. If you find something you like, which I doubt, feel free to keep it."