Sohma was minding his own business in the hallway and thought of what he could do with his free time. As he thought of that, he spotted a small figure passed by the corner of his eye.
"Hm? Is that the kid? " he wondered what she was doing and decided to follow them.
This was the first time she had come out of her room since she had been brought here. From afar, he watched as she was looking around suspiciously. She was likely trying to avoid the residence here and wondered why. Was it because they're all adults?
He followed her a bit more and eventually she was at the entrance.
"I guess she wanted to go outside," he thought as he skillfully approaches her without making a sound.
She puts her hand on the door and manages to slide it open to reveal the garden outside.
"Beautiful day outside isn't it?" Sohma exclaims happily, standing right next to her while the girl gave him a look of an animal trying to recover from a heart attack.
"Sorry, did I scare you?" he asks as she nodded violently and he let out a chuckle.
"Hahaha, sorry again," he looks down at her and noticed that her face was still pink from her fever.
"Hey, have you taken your medicine?" he asked and the girl nodded in response.
"That's good but even though you've taken your medicine little girls still need to get some rest. Let's go," he tried taking her hand but she pulled away.
He looked at her to see her holding her own hand in fear as she stared at Sohma cautiously. Sohma then remembered that she is still trying to settle down so he quickly thought of something else.
"Oh.. then.. how about I just show you," he awkwardly points at the direction they were going and the girl looked back at the forest before following after him.
They continued to walk through the hallway while Sohma kept an eye out for her. She has been awfully well behaved the whole time and, of course, was extremely quiet. She didn't go anywhere out of his sight or run away from him and she didn't try anything to annoy him but she was still putting a long distance with him. Maybe if she keeps this up she'll be like this for everyone. Just as he thought about that, they arrived at her room and when Sohma slides open the door, (Y/n) was there cleaning and putting away the bottles and bandages.
"Oh! (Y/n)!" he flashes a smile at her.
"Good morning Sohma!" she greeted and stood up, walking over to them.
"Hello there, where have you been?" she looked down at the little girl.
"She was exploring a bit and I found her so I decided to take her back here to rest again," Sohma replied in her stead.
"Hmm..." (Y/n) bend down and look at her from up and down.
"Hey, if I'm free. Do you want to go to town with me? I want to buy you some new clothes so is that okay?" she smiled sweetly while the girl tugged on her hood to hide her face but she still nodded.
"It looks like she likes you!" Sohma happily says.
"Although, I still think she's afraid. Did you manage to find anything about her parents?" (Y/n) asked.
"I went out into town and so far there's no one that lost the kid that fits her description," he replies disappointingly.
"But I was thinking, you guys did say that you found her before we met your aunt. Is that right?"
"Huh? Oh yes! We did," (Y/n) said.
"Well, I thought about it and I'm wondering if Lady Rui has lost a child just in case. It might seem weird but I'm just having a hunch," he suggested while (Y/n) looked like she was deep in thought.
"Now that I think about it, I could ask her about it," she said.
"That's great," Sohma said but then he noticed that the girl was gone. She wasn't at his or (Y/n)'s side, inside the room or anywhere in the hallway.
"Where's the kid?" they both looked around but she had disappeared.
With Hyosuke, he was on his way to the stables to help out with Mizuki with taking care of the horses. Though he decided to go first since Mizuki still needed to finish his last report to Yoshitsune before taking care of them. Hyosuke thought he should do it slowly so Mizuki would have the chance to take care of them after he came back. Just as he was about to reach the stables he notices a black figure standing just outside. The figure was small of course and then he realized that the figure was covered in a black hood and the height was a child. Curious, Hyosuke walks over to them.
"Hey!" he exclaims making the girl jump and she quickly turns around to face him.
"Oh! Sorry, did I scare you?" he asks and she only made an angry look to glare at him. Apparently, for her, weirdoes have been popping up out of nowhere and scaring her.
"So what are you doing? Did you come here to check the horses?" he asked with a playful smile on his face that managed to convince her to respond with a small nod.
"Really!? Why don't we check the horses then? I was about to take care of them anyways so wanna join me?" he offers her. The girl looked like she wanted to as she kept looking over at the horses at the stables. But putting her hand to her chest and clutching it, she shook her head.
"What? Why not? Come on!" Hyosuke then suddenly grabbed her hand and dragged her forcefully towards the stables.
Shocked, the girl tried to break away from his grip and suddenly the horses in the stables started going wild by screeching and stomping their hoofs.
"Wha-?" Hyosuke let go of her and quickly rush over to calm the horses, giving the chance for the girl to escape into the forest alone.
"H-hey! Calm down!" he petted one of the horse's snouts but all them were in a complete panic.
Just then, Mizuki appeared with a shock expression "What happened!?" he yelled at Hyosuke.
"I-I don't know! They just went crazy!" Hyosuke shouted back but without another word they tried their best calming down all the horses in the stables.
Kazemasa was making his way back to the mansion, after sending a letter to a nearby village from Yoshitsune, by sending Jasper in the forest. Jumping from tree to tree, he scanned the area he was in but as soon as he passed by a large tree he found the girl crouching on the floor and stopped on a thick branch. Looking down, the girl's had her hood off her head, revealing her white hair and she was crouching on the floor as if she was looking for something.
"What are you doing here?" Kazemasa said from there and the girl quickly turned around while covering back her head again.
He looked down at where she was crouching and realized they were both at the spot where Hyuga and (Y/n) found her. He knew this since Yoshitsune told him and a few others to investigate here to find out what happened when she was still unconscious.
"What are you looking for?" he asked as the girl had a painful expression on her face. She must be in trouble for coming here.
"If you don't have anything to say then we might as well go back. It's dangerous to be out here alone," he walked over to the girl to pull her up but she refused and pulled away from him.
"What are looking for?" his tone was now stricter from annoyance but he really needed to get the girl back.
The girl hesitated but she held out her hand that had a black shard on her palm. Kazemasa bends down to her height and took the shard, looking at it a bit closer. He didn't recognize the shard of course but a black shard. Then he remembered something about Sohma saying that Hyuga found some black shards on the girl's hand and put it in a pouch.
He looked at the girl who was making a face that looked like she was about to cry but she really was trying her best not to.
"Hey girl," Kazemasa called out to her and she looked straight at him.
"A comrade of mine found something that probably belongs to you. We can go back and I could ask him to give you the pouch," her eyes widen when he said that and Kazemasa could've sworn he heard a tiny 'Yes!' from the girl's lips.
He stood up and they decided to walk back to the mansion. They walked side by side but he noticed she was staring at him the whole time.
"What is it?" he asked her but the girl looks away.
"Nothing," she muttered as they continued walking.
She probably was looking at his face that had a scar on one of his eyes so he must have looked terrifying to her. Not only that but with his katana at his side must be even more intimidating.
Looking down at the girl he realized that she didn't wear any shoes. If she came that far into the forest just to search she could've at least wore (Y/n)'s shoes. Then again, that might be stealing and she was already dressed as a thief. But to be going out alone when this forest is dangerous to search, whatever she was looking must have been valuable to her.
"What?" the girl finally spoke realizing that he was staring at her the whole time.
"Nothing, sorry..." he said and continued to walk on.
They finally arrived at the mansion and as soon as Kazemasa slides the door open, the girl ran off inside in a hurry. Kazemasa couldn't help but scratch his head awkwardly as he watched where she ran off too. Then he sighs thinking he probably has scared her.