The Lost Shadow

Chapter 8 - Talk Under The Moon

With Amaya in the lead, Hideaki cautiously followed her. He kept a lookout for anything unusual. The mysterious blade person could be anywhere and even another weird beast could appear.

Amaya slightly turned her head while walking. She watched Hideaki who was looking around everywhere while he walked. 'What's he doing?' Slightly confused, she stopped. Hideaki who didn't notice her, bumped into her.

"Oh sorry, I didn't know you stopped. Hehe" Hideaki quickly apologized. He took two steps back and maintained a slight distance from her. Enough that he could see her plus everything in front of her. He needed to be able to see everything yet keep a proper distance. "What are you looking for? If you are busy you can leave." Amaya told Hideaki quickly. She flicked her snow-white hair in the air and continued to walk.

Hideaki gave an embarrassed smile and followed right behind her. After walking for a while they finally got to the village. "You can leave now. I am already in the village so you should be alright now." Amaya then turned around and walked away again. 'Why is she always speaking and then leaving? Does she not like me?' Hideaki followed her again. But he wasn't really following her, he needed to go to the core of town and buy some more food and other supplies.

"Why are you following me now? I said that I don't need you to take me all the way home." Amaya looked very irritated now. She turned and glared at Hideaki. Her hands were on her hips, while her hair was sitting on her shoulder. She didn't look anything like the noblewoman he saw the first time. She was completely different. "Umm, well, I need to go and buy some supplies, so..." Hideaki was kind of lost as to what to say. He needed to buy supplies, but he didn't want to embarrass her by saying he wasn't following her anymore. He didn't know what to say, even though it is a simple sentence.

Amaya's face started to get red in embarrassment. 'So he wasn't following me?' She stood there for a moment, thinking of how to reply. "Fine then. You can go and buy what you want, I will be heading home." she quickly turned around and left.

Hideaki just watched her leave with a blank face. 'Whatever, I am just going to go buy things now'. Hideaki started to walk towards the market area. He had 3 gold on him, so he had to use it well. There were many stalls around, some were selling seeds, others herbs. Some were selling animals and others, animal-related supplies. Hideaki who was injured needed to get some medical supplies first. Using 35 silver, he bought bandage cloths and herbal ointments for pain. Next, he went and bought some wheat seeds from some farmer and bought some horse food from a horse seller. He didn't have his horse with him so he couldn't buy anything else. He didn't have anyone to carry them with him after all. After he finished buying these supplies Hideaki was left with 2 gold and 15 silver.

Before Hideaki left the village, he went to make sure that Amaya was safe. Since Isamu was gone, Amaya was somewhat vulnerable. When he got to the large house, he saw Amaya walking back and forth in front of her home. Her beautiful white hair was flying behind while she walked. Her eyes seemed somewhat worried, but when she saw Hideaki some relief could be seen in her eyes. She walked over to Hideaki and looked him from top to bottom with her eyes. "Hello Amaya, I was just making sure that you were alright." Hideaki wasn't totally worried about her safety since nothing bad could happen. But he just did it as a formality since he was friends with Isamu. "Why are you outside, did something happen?" Hideaki was curious as to why she was outside. Did something happen?

When Amaya heard this, her eyes became somewhat red. She handed over a letter to Hideaki. On the top, it had Hideaki's name as the recipient. He didn't know who it was from, but he assumed it was from Isamu seeing Amaya's reaction. He was slightly worried, why did the letter make her get teary?

After reading through the letter quickly, his brows furrowed and his expression became dark. 'Seems like something has happened to Isamu.' The letter said that Isamu was seriously injured and was recuperating in a town not too far from theirs. The letter also stated that Isamu wanted to meet Hideaki in the town as soon as possible.

Hideaki felt that Isamu's injuries were related to the dojo. He looked at Amaya who was on the verge of tears. He stood there not knowing what to say to her. He had seen death and injuries many times, so he didn't know how to console others about it.

"Amaya, I will be going to the town that Isamu is recuperating in. Isamu wants you to stay at my place while I am gone." Hideaki knew that his place was safer than the town because it was further away from the village. But Isamu who wasn't even in the village was still attacked. So was it really any safer? "No, I want to see father too. If he is injured I want to take care of him myself!" Amaya quickly rejected her father's arrangements. She wanted to see her father. Although it says he was seriously injured, it didn't say how injured. Was his life at risk?

"Ok, you can come with me. Either way, I don't know how to get there. So you can be my lead. For now, let's head back to my home. We will leave in two days. We could leave tomorrow, but I need to prepare somethings before we head out." Hideaki had a feeling that the injuries were not real. He felt like this may be a trap. Isamu would not send it to his home if anything did happen. He would either directly send it to him, or he wouldn't send one at all. Although Hideaki was suspicious, he didn't tell Amaya about because he was still unsure.

"No, let's leave right now. What if my father gets worse?!" Amaya started to get anxious and mad. She hoped Hideaki would leave right away, this concerned her father's life. Hideaki didn't get mad, he just looked into her deep, midnight like eyes that had a tinge of red. "We will leave in 2 days. Preparation is necessary or your life could be endangered as well. Since Isamu told me to protect you, I will do just that, so please do me a favor and listen to me for now." Hideaki slowly explained to her in a gentle tone.

Amaya nodded her head unwillingly. She was however confused as to why her life would be endangered, but seeing the smile on Hideaki's face she did not ask. His first priority was preparing for the trip. "Let me grab some things from my home, then we can head to your place."

After waiting for a while, Amaya came out carrying a basket filled with books, and other items that she would use daily. Since there were so many items and they could get attacked at any moment Hideaki decided to use a small carriage for transportation. It only cost him 5 silver since the distance wasn't too great.

The journey went rather smooth, there wasn't any obstacle on the way which was quite fortunate for them. Once they got to Hideaki's home, Hideaki decided to let Amaya sleep in his room while he slept in the other room. However, Hideaki needed to read the contents of the book since he had yet to do that. Because Amaya was present, he couldn't take the book out, so he decided to go outside to the field. He planted the different seeds before he went and found a rock near his home. He sat down and opened up the book. Luck didn't seem to be on Hideaki's side that day because before he could even begin reading, he saw Amaya coming his way. He hurriedly put the book away and stood up. "Amaya, it is late you should be getting some rest." Hideaki was confused as to why she was still up. But when he saw the tear stains under her eyes, he didn't continue to ask. He called over Amaya to sit beside him.

"Hideaki, do you think my father is ok? He isn't even home so I don't know how he is doing, do you think he is getting proper care?" Amaya knew that Isamu had treated Hideaki very well, almost to the point it was similar to how he treated her. Because of this, she thought that she could only speak to him about her father. Plus, there was no one else to speak to.

Hideaki looked at the bright moon silently. He didn't answer her question right away because he just couldn't. Amaya also looked at the moon silently waiting for his answer, while a small tear fell down her face. Hideaki noticed the tear but continued staring at the moon. He then got up, to Amaya's astonishment Hideaki rubbed her head like one would a child's. "Amaya, to me Isamu is very important. Although I haven't known him for long, I feel he is someone who I want to protect. As for you, I feel the same. Don't worry about a thing, I will make sure that Isamu is fine." Hideaki smiled very gently and then started to walk away towards the house.

"Hideaki, do you have parents and other important people in your life?" Amaya suddenly asked. She wanted to know why he was lying alone that day and why he wouldn't return back to his family. She wasn't one to be nosy about others, but this man was getting close to her father so she wanted to know who he was.

Hideaki didn't turn around or stop walking. Rather his back was still facing, but his back seemed a lot more lonely than just a second ago. Hideaki ignored the question and slowly walked into the house. Amaya was able to notice Hideaki's sorrowful yet angry expression right before he went into the home.

Amaya continued to sit on the rock and stare at the moon. As the moon started to hide behind the clouds, Amaya got up slowly and walked away from the stone.