Several days passed after Hana’s encounter with Yukizasa.
Thankfully, the pain in her arm had receded, and the bruise had faded to the point where it was largely unnoticeable.
She had intended to hit him if she ever ran into him again, but apparently, Saku had gone to talk to him in person and had punched him in her stead. Out of consideration for Saku, she figured she would let this one go.
However, she wouldn’t forgive that guy a second time.
She had steeled herself to be ready to take him on at any time, but realistically, it wasn’t every day one could lay eyes on the Sankourou successor, and the days passed by peacefully.
Then over lunch period one day, Hana was paged through the PA system.
“Ooooh, they want you in the principal’s office. What did you do?” Suzu asked teasingly.
But Hana drew a blank. “Nothing. I don’t think I did anything, at least.”
She was on her best behavior in school, relatively speaking.
Her grades weren’t stellar. That was a sore spot for her.
“They’re not gonna chew me out for failing all my classes, right?” Hana said.
“Well, it’s not a great look for the wife of the Ichinomiya lord.”
Suzu didn’t deny it, so the possibility wasn’t zero.
“Saku already gave me an earful. I don’t want to hear it from the teachers, too. Maybe I should pretend I didn’t hear it.”
“You can’t. If you don’t go, you’re giving them more to scold you about.”
It seemed that in Suzu’s mind, Hana being chastised was an inevitability.
Hana wanted to go less and less.
However, Suzu was right. She wanted to avoid a longer lecture, so she went to the principal’s office obediently.
When she got there, she knocked on the door. She didn’t have to wait long before she heard someone say, “Come in.” She opened the door and nervously walked in, her mind racing to find excuses for her poor grades.
Her gaze was drawn to the two people sitting on the sofa, and her eyes widened.
Opposite the principal sat Hana’s parents.
Seeing the two faces she never wanted to lay eyes on again, her brows furrowed automatically.
“Why are you here?” Hana demanded in a low voice, her anger simmering.
The principal stood and said, “Calm down. I don’t know what misunderstandings you have had, but you shouldn’t worry your parents. I’ll excuse myself here, so please make up.”
“Come again?” She scowled, not following what he was talking about.
He left the room with a smile.
Most likely, her parents had fed the principal a pack of lies. After he disappeared, laboring under whatever false impression he had been given, the smiles vanished off her parents’ faces, replaced with glowers filled with loathing, as if she was their enemy.
Theirs weren’t expressions one would give to their own daughter.
Granted, the same could be said of Hana. She glared at the two with an irritated face unbefitting a child seeing her parents.
Behind her stood Aoi and Miyabi, invisible but on guard. Unlike Saku, her parents showed no sign that they had noticed the shikigami.
Ah, but it was too pitiful to compare them to an Obsidian practitioner like Saku, so she revised her thinking.
The two people Hana had never wanted to see again.
It would be easy for her to ignore them and leave. She could just as easily have Saku wield his authority as the clan lord and order them not to come near her. However, they had purposefully come all the way to her school, and she wanted to know their intentions.
If she ran, next time, they might summon Hazuki instead, and that was just not okay. She decided to hear them out and sat down on the sofa across from them, throwing one leg over the other.
Her father instantly reacted to her arrogant gesture. “How dare you take that attitude with your parents?!”
His rage failed to move Hana. She projected an air of What’re you gonna do ’bout it? and didn’t change her demeanor one bit.
“I don’t consider you my parents, so it makes no difference,” she said dismissively. “So? What is so important that you got the principal involved?”
“Isn’t it obvious?! Go talk to Lord Ichinomiya and win his favor for the family. We have given you ample time, and yet you have done nothing. If you call yourself an Ichise, you should work for the sake of your family!”
Hana’s heart froze over in an instant.
She was disappointed.
She was surprised she could still be let down by her parents at all, but miniscule though it might have been, she had held a flicker of hope.
Hazuki, whom they had cherished so dearly, had fled the house. Might they be worried for her?
Hana thought nothing of herself. She had given up long ago in that regard.
But Hazuki wasn’t the same as her, right? Or so she wanted to ask her parents.
Yet their concern wasn’t for the child they had raised, but for the family name.
Had they said a single word of worry for Hazuki, Hana might have revised her opinion of them.
However, reality was cruel.
There was no sign they were going to mention Hazuki at all.
Hana had crossed beyond anger to utter apathy.
“I shouldn’t have to explain something as basic as this!” her father yelled. “Now that you’re the clan lord’s wife, entice him and promote the Ichise name! You’re so useless!”
He showed no trace of regard for Hana.
The complete lack of respect for her feelings was shocking.
Who did he think he was, blaming her like this?
What optimism to believe that she would act on behalf of the Ichise name though he had never treated her like part of the family.
The gaze Hana trained on her parents was horribly cold.
“Are you stupid?” she sneered.
“What did you say?” her father demanded.
“Why should I have to seduce Saku for your sake? There’s no way I could do something so outrageous. Just because you are shameless doesn’t mean that I am.”
“Who are you calling shameless?!”
“Who else but the two of you?” Hana said sternly. “You treated me as an outsider all my life, and now you come slithering to me as if you’ve changed your tune. That’s what I mean by shameless. Get it, birdbrain?”
She dumbed down her insults so that fools as thickheaded and cowardly as they would understand.
Her father gaped in shock. Then his face flushed red with indignation.
Hana hoped he would burst a blood vessel and pass out then and there. She no longer had the slightest hint of affection for her parents.
“You are an Ichise! It is only right that you sacrifice for the family!” he shouted.
“Hmm, but when I went back to pick up Hazuki, didn’t you say I had no place in the house anymore?” Hana drawled. “In other words, I’m not an Ichise. Besides, I’m married to Saku now, so my family name is different.”
Ichise, schmichise. Go to hell.
She wouldn’t give a damn if the family were to fall to ruin.
“You plan to throw away the family?!” he demanded.
“What do you want me to say? Would you be satisfied if I said yes? If so, I’ll say it as many times as you want. I don’t need this sham of a family!”
“H-how dare you!”
Hana’s father swung his hand back in a broad arc. Needless to say, he was aiming for her. He was going to slap her.
However, Hana didn’t try to dodge, but merely glared back steadily at her father. Aoi and Miyabi leaped into action.
A split second before his hand struck Hana, the door burst open.
The intruder was someone unexpected. It was Yanagi, her older brother.
“Stop right there, Father,” he said.
“Yanagi… Why are you here?!”
“I have told you time and time again, Hana is Lord Ichinomiya’s wife. She is the lady of the main family whom we are obliged to serve. How dare you presume to raise a hand against her?”
“N-no! This is… It’s discipline! I am merely disciplining a child who refuses to obey her parents.”
“Lord Ichinomiya knows that you were scheming to contact Hana,” Yanagi said. “If you don’t want to anger him any further, leave immediately.”
“Whose side are you on?!”
“Leave.”
Their father was cowed by Yanagi’s tone, which brooked no argument.
Their mother grabbed his arm worriedly. “Dear. Let’s end it here for today.”
“Shit!” he cursed.
He shot Hana one more sharp glare before exiting the room.
Once they were gone, Hana let out an exhausted sigh. Yanagi walked up to her. She watched him approach warily. The invisible Aoi and Miyabi had their guards up as well.
“Sorry, Hana. Are you okay?” Yanagi asked.
“Uh, y-yeah…,” Hana said, shaken by the concern he was showing her.
It might have been the first time he had said a kind word to her.
Yanagi scanned her over to see if she was telling the truth.
It was rare for the two of them to be so close, for them to make eye contact at all, at least in Hana’s memory.
“I didn’t expect them to come all the way here. I’m sorry I didn’t stop them,” he apologized.
Hana was shocked by his show of remorse. “It, uh, it was nothing. I’m fine…” She could only muster trite words in response.
“I have been summoned by Lord Ichinomiya, so be careful on your way home. If possible, go together with Hazuki.”
“S-sure…”
After hearing her reply, Yanagi spun on his heel and left.
Hana found herself speechless for a moment. Out of concern for her, Aoi and Miyabi manifested themselves.
“You okay, Master?” Aoi asked.
“Master?” Miyabi chimed in.
“I’m okay. Just a little surprised.”
To think Yanagi, who she had hardly ever spoken to, would be worried about her.
Their conversation had been almost like that of regular siblings.
She had thought that Yanagi considered her a stranger—as she did him—but just then, he had seemed genuinely anxious.
There were truths Hana had yet to discover. About Hazuki. About Yanagi.
In various ways, she may have been blind until now.
She had lost sight of what was true and what was false.