“ARE you angry?” Manabu asked, but Miharu didn’t deign to reply.
He knew the answer without having to ask. To drive the point home, she continued to give him the silent treatment on their drive home from the Tsujikawa mansion.
“I guess it’s only natural for you to be...mad,” Manabu conceded with a dry chuckle.
Miharu gave her fiancé clutching the steering wheel a death glare from the passenger seat. But she quickly looked away, her gaze falling upon balled fists over her lap rather than the night lights gliding by the car outside.
“...I feel sorry for Satsuki.” These were the first words out of Miharu’s mouth. It sounded as if she were on the verge of crying. Her mind replayed the events that happened only minutes ago at the Tsujikawa mansion.
✦ ✦ ✦
A month after her birthday, Satsuki had to decide who she would marry and Shindo would be released from his position as retainer. She quietly endured listening to both announcements. Then Miharu pressed Tsukasa to change his mind and Manabu scolded her for it. After Shindo escorted Miharu back to her seat, Satsuki, who had been standing at the time, finally collapsed into her chair under all of the strain!
“Satsuki?!” Tsubaki leapt from the sofa in uncharacteristic haste.
Manabu, Miharu, and Tsukasa all rose from their seats. However, Shindo reached Satsuki before any other. He scooped the swooning girl protectively in his arms and begged Tsukasa, “Please excuse us! Talk of engagement and marriage came so unexpectedly, I believe the Miss is overwhelmed. Please resume the discussion another day... Please, Master Tsukasa!”
The engagement wasn’t the part that made Satsuki faint. She was unable to bear the fact that she was going to be separated from Shindo. Miharu and Tsubaki realized that. Deep in his heart, Shindo undoubtedly knew the truth as well. He also wanted to collapse from the shock, but put on a placid mask and acted as if Satsuki’s woes were due to the engagement.
“Very well. I’ve said all I meant to say, so this discussion is officially over,” Tsukasa decreed.
Hardly waiting for Tsukasa to finish uttering the last word, Shindo lifted Satsuki up with both arms. As if to apologize for leaving before the guests, he bobbed his head to Manabu and Miharu.
“Please excuse us,” he said in a somewhat preoccupied voice before carrying Satsuki out of the living room.
✦ ✦ ✦
“SHE was raised to keep such a firm grasp on her position in that mammoth of a company, it’s outright sad...” Manabu whispered melancholically. He was looking straight ahead, the car stopped at a red light. “That’s why...I’m sure she’ll understand...”
Did Miharu notice the pain etched in his profile, illuminated by the city lights and cars in the other lane?
“This is her...fate...” he whispered.
✦ ✦ ✦
“WOULD you like to rest in bed?” Shindo asked.
Satsuki softly shook her head and replied, “I’d prefer...the sofa,” in such a weak voice it nearly faded to nothing.
“As you wish,” Shindo answered and shut the door to her room behind him while still holding her.
When he tried to put her down on the sofa in the center of her room, Satsuki clung onto Shindo with both hands. It was clear she wanted to stay like this, held tenderly in his arms. Although it was apparent to Shindo, he nonetheless put Satsuki down on the soft, silk blanket spread across the sofa before dropping onto one knee.
“Aren’t you exhausted? If you wait a minute, I will bring you something cool to drink,” he offered with his usual gentle smile. He used the same voice overflowing with love for Satsuki as always.
“Shindo...”
But after what they just heard, the way Shindo was acting the same pricked at Satsuki’s heart.
“Shindo...are you okay with this?”
“Okay with what?”
Satsuki gave him a flat stare, not saying a word. She didn’t have to spell it out for him. He didn’t have to ask for clarification. He knew what Satsuki was asking. He knew without turning the question back at her. Was he okay with being separated?
“...I was told the same thing back on my sixteenth birthday,” Satsuki said, recalling the events of two years prior as she gazed into Shindo’s eyes.
This wasn’t the first time Tsukasa brought up talk of betrothal. He presented the idea once when she was approaching her sixteenth birthday. But Satsuki threw the mansion in an uproar by disappearing from the property without a trace. As a result, Tsukasa decided to abandon the idea that almost made him lose his daughter once before.
“I asked you what you thought back then too,” Satsuki went on.
Two years ago, only the betrothal aspect was brought up. There was absolutely no mention of revoking Shindo’s title as retainer. Yet at that time, Satsuki was so distraught by the prospect of picking a fiancé, she asked Shindo, “How do you feel about me getting engaged?”
“Do you feel the same now...?” Satsuki’s misty, narrowed eyes were on the verge of shedding tears. If she wasn’t careful, she was bound to start wailing in a fountain of tears.
Shindo sorrowfully returned her gaze. His own heart wrenched with such agony, he wanted to break down crying himself.
“Miss...I...” Shindo hesitated. His hands briefly squeezed her arms tight, but then he thought better of it and pulled his hands away. “If it will make you happy...then I have nothing to say... Especially if it proves beneficial to the Tsujikawa legacy.”
A massive wave crashed in Satsuki’s heart.
Bang! The large French doors burst open and swung wildly back and forth! Yet there was no wind.
“So you’re still saying the same thing...” Satsuki’s voice trembled.
She was so upset, her powers lashed out. Recognizing as much, Shindo tried to coax her, but she would have none of it.
“My...happiness...” she faltered in a voice that no longer hid the sobs. Rustle...! Wind gushed into the room! “...can’t be found...” she continued, trailing off. Satsuki glared at Shindo, the tears dried from her eyes. And then...
The room was plunged into utter darkness with a loud clang.
“MISS!”
The room was shrouded in darkness. No, that wasn’t quite right. The only conceivable explanation for the room to be engulfed in darkness was for the lights to go out. If that were the case, Shindo would still barely be able to see things in there. At the very least, he should be able to see the face of the girl right in front of him. But Shindo was blind as a bat! With his vision completely encompassed by darkness, all he could see was the color black. He couldn’t see so much as a single speck of light.
“What’s going on?”
In an attempt to see something, Shindo held his hand directly in front of eyes that were supposed to be wide open. But no matter how close he held his hand, it remained undetectable. Why, it wasn’t the room that went dark at all. Shindo’s eyes temporarily lost all sensory perception.
Shindo could feel movement in the air before him. Interpreting it to mean Satsuki was rising from the sofa, he extended both arms in an attempt to catch her. Alas, his arms flailed fruitlessly in the air before returning to his sides empty-handed.
“Miss?!” he cried, turning his head to either side; unable to see a thing.
Shindo knew all too well what was happening. The only person capable of doing this was Satsuki. She temporarily stole Shindo’s sight.
“Where are you, Miss?!” Shindo demanded, futilely running his blind eyes across the area.
There was no doubt he was in Satsuki’s room. He was certain she moved somewhere away from him. Never in a million years would he have believed Satsuki capable of something as heavy-handed as stealing his gift of sight. Yet that was exactly what she just did. What would possess her to do such a thing?
“Miss! Where did you go?!” Shindo shouted.
Why would Satsuki do that? The answer was obvious.
“Please come back! Miss!”
She wanted to vanish from his sight.
A sharp pain raced through Shindo’s eyes, making him crumble to his knees as he cupped one hand across both eyes. After pressing against them for a few seconds, he removed his hand as the pain subsided. Slowly, he opened his eyes.
“...Miss...?”
Satsuki’s familiar room appeared before him once more. His vision was fully restored. The sofa was now absent of her presence however.
Shindo approached the French doors Satsuki opened with the turmoil in her heart and stepped onto the veranda. He placed his hands on the railing and checked to make sure she wasn’t hiding to the left, right, or even beneath the railing. While blinded, he didn’t sense her bedroom door open and close. If she went anywhere, it meant she jumped off the veranda.
The mansion was built with high ceilings, so even though this was only the second floor, it was still a formidable distance from the ground. Even Shindo would find recklessly jumping from such a height difficult if not for the bushes and shrubbery below.
On the other hand, it was an easy feat for Satsuki. She wouldn’t even need to stop and think twice. All she had to do was slightly alter gravity’s pull on her when she jumped. Why, she did just that on several occasions when she was little to sneak out of the mansion. Shindo had to put a stop to that bad habit by sternly telling her, “It would be bad if anyone saw, so don’t do that anymore.”
“Where...did the Miss go?” Shindo looked up at the sky from the veranda and asked the air.
Whenever Satsuki went missing, the trees, flowers, and air surrounding her very being always served as Shindo’s ally. The trees would rustle, the wind would offer a gentle breeze, and the air would open the path to her. That was why Shindo could always find Satsuki when no one else could.
It was proof Satsuki gave her heart to Shindo in its entirety. Precisely because she loved and trusted him wholeheartedly, the air served as his ally. Because he was the one person she wanted to come find her, the wind and trees would lead the way. But now...there was no response.
“...Please tell me... I’m begging you...” The hushed rustling of leaves in the trees effortlessly drowned out Shindo’s desperate whisper.
At the moment, Satsuki didn’t even want Shindo to find her. She didn’t want to see him. As a result, the air didn’t come to his aid.
Wrought with frustration at not being able to find Satsuki, Shindo briefly dropped his head. But he quickly popped back up and studied his surroundings. Precisely because of all the time he spent at Satsuki’s side, there were some things he knew about her. There were things he knew because the trees and air always assisted him.
For instance, the trees were acting “lonely.” The only time the trees ever came across lonesome was when Satsuki wasn’t on the property. In general, Satsuki leaving the property without Shindo was unthinkable. However, there was one place she would go on her own.
“Is that where she went...?”
Shindo jumped off the veranda.