Within A Grey Twilight

He did have better things to do, since Shino declared that she had absolutely no intention of doing anything here. When it came from her mouth as it was, he bought it. He didn"t need anything else, given that he has had years of knowing her. It was easy to know when she was lying and when she was sincere.

Before he heard a knock on the door. He opened to find himself staring at Masami and Yuki. Surprised, he let them inside without another thought. Followed by a young boy, with his hair tied into a ponytail. He could guess that it was him who worked for Mamoru, at least by looking at the situation of it. Masami will not have known how to come here, neither will Yuki.

"Did you lead them here?"

"Yes, I happened to be the one who left you the note." Nice to know that it was him after all, since he had never managed to catch a glimpse of the person or even how it was done. But he knew that it was either in the early morning or late at night. All the other time he had spent within the room, and someone will have seen him otherwise.

"Thank you. Give Mamoru my thanks." The rest didn"t need to be heard and he closed the door. Turning back to them, thankful that it was so prompt. He closed the door and went inside where Masami had sat down alongside Yuki busy taking a sip of drink.

"Where is Kisuke?" Shino asked them. Going out the door, to look for him. None of them stopped her, never really liked her in the first place.

"Probably somewhere outside." Yuki took a chance to drink. At this rate, his entire pot will be gone even before evening. Which surprised him at how thirsty they were, as though they had spent most of their time on the run. And he figured that was why they were here, or at least why they were not meeting anywhere else.

"So, what is it? I"m prepared for anything at this point." He took a seat down, knowing that the worst was coming soon. It was the best to expect the worst of news as there was no way you could be disappointed. Yuki did not speak but gave a look to Masami, realizing that this was best left to her. Or that she didn"t know the full extent of the issue as it was.

"Junri is a spy." If she was a spy, then he knew who else was. And this was important news. Masami"s face was serious, clear that she was not kidding. And if Yuki had kept her silence then it was true. "And that we have spent nearly two days running from her."

Then that meant the separation was intentional, he was not fully able to read the boy because of the lack of any interaction. And he had not done anything, his leavings were mostly known to them as nothing more than just for errands. And when no one showed up to either arrest him, he simply a.s.sumed that nothing was wrong.

Then what was the point of biding his time, they were isolated and lost. No one will miss them. Unless of course they were in a similar position, which will change it all. Because he couldn"t send any signal or perhaps his duty was to keep an eye on his actions and ensure that he never went further.

His eyes widened. Before he ran to the door, with only a single look Masami caught on. They needed to find Hajime, it was important. And he could start with Shino. He knocked on the door once more, where it was opened by her when she was just about to pack. He said nothing about her leaving, he didn"t really mind whether it was sooner or later.

"Do you know what he is doing?" Yuki asked. Masami simply sat there, knowing that he intended to do.

"Shino."

"I forgot that she was his cousin." Which was not too forgettable given how similar they were at the end of the day. Both of them did have many similarities after all.

"Either way, he is putting everything together." Even as Masami did not know how much he knew, and whether Shinrou at Okiban was in any sort of trouble. Likely so given how fast he took action.

"I suppose he is." The door opened to reveal Shino there.

"What? I"m almost done packing." And intended to leave, in her the fact that she did not want to drag out the visit. Something was really really wrong.

"You know what I mean." He narrowed his eyes on her, while she gave a smirk in return. Yuki kept her silence, even if she did not know what this meant. This was not a time for any more jokes, now they were putting their lives on the line.

"You mean my dear cousin?"

"Yes." Even if she was not involved, Hajime could have asked for her aid. At least in distracting and covering up. And she was always one good at this sort of thing, as her trip here was part of her own scheme to escape her guardian. He knew that she was one who could keep secrets and plans to herself.

"Come on in." If anything, this only cemented that she had made a deal with Hajime. Kisuke was at the side, away from all of this mess. Busy with his sketchbook, drawing on it without even looking up. Masami went inside to find herself looking at Kisuke.

"I made a deal with him of course and by this point he must be somewhere close." But nowhere given that she was not looking anywhere at all. Although he knew that she was worried that she will be held captive and might want to drag this out as long as possible.

"I"ll let you leave, since you don"t really have a stake in this. As long as you tell me." She gave a smirk, knowing that this was something that he will do. "I promise." He added it as an a.s.surance, even if she knew his character has been anything but likely to betray it.

"Thank you for the kind gesture." She gave a wide smile. "Either way, he asked me to stall you. Junri sent him a message and hence they are meeting, though as I know it the place it quite far."

She took out a small mark, marking out the two sides of the city. Given the time he was gone, she was right to say that he was close. Junri chose her location, but Hajime did not. Clear that the owner knew his name but not allied with him, after all the inn owner was an acquaintance of him. Which meant that it will be a good choice if he were to escape through her.

"Either way, Hajime said the idea was to make sure that you were not with Masami and Shinrou. Shinrou as I can guess is in Okiban, so it was much easier." The idea of having him choose the inn helped matters intensely as well, even as Masami began to worry. Quite a bit. Perhaps she made an a.s.sumption, but with her still free he didn"t think it was fatal. Either way, it was more of a fault on his side rather than anywhere else.

"Did you know it from the beginning?"

"Not really, at least not until after we met with that fortune teller. I caught him doing certain things." Which she simply didn"t bother informing him, then again she was not his friend in any form. Thus, he knew that this was not her fault. She was not obliged to, and he was too careless.

"I see, anything else?" There was not a guess, if he put two and two together than Hajime worked for Sasaki. Something that was easy to guess, since it made no sense for Junri and Hajime to do so otherwise.

"Can you help me now." He nodded. She grabbed all her stuff, which had now been modestly kept into a single trunk. Kisuke helped her with taking most of it down, before it was just him doing most of the work at the end of the day. While Shino watched from the top. He did have the feeling that most of them were empty in the first place.

"Pack my things first, I need to handle something." Masami gave her nod as well as Yuki. Before they left.

He went to find the innkeeper, heading to her room. He knew that she will be there and left most of the day to day matters to her rather capable a.s.sistant, Ruri. Who had mostly ran it.

He knocked on the door of the innkeeper. She opened it in bewilderment. "Can you show her the trapdoor?"

"Of course, then I suppose I need to do it for you too."

"No, I don"t." He shook his head. Knowing that he needed to wait to the very end, he needed to ask Hajime what he intended. "Though is there any rooms which links to a pa.s.sage?"

"I can arrange it for you." She called her a.s.sistant who came up in an instant before giving her the same advice.

"Thank you, Takarsan."

"It"s nothing, just be careful." She patted him on the head. "Be careful, and watch out for yourself. Many people are still after you."

"Follow me." She did not say much. While Masami and Yuki also followed having packed up everything in the room, with full intentions of seeing him to the end regardless of what happened. He took in a deep breath knowing that this was unavoidable. At least by all means. The moment he knew Sasaki was against him, he should have guessed something like this.

And perhaps even what happened during that day had been a plan, he was willing to recognize that it was planned from the start. But without any information, he could not really tell from the first place. If anything, he did need to know what else had been a plan for him.

"You both must have known each other for quite a while." She said while walking, still surprising him as it drew him out of the thought.

"We do go quite far back." Even as she made a raised eyebrow on him, perhaps guessing that he could not have been older than twenty at any point. And going far back meant that he had been a child when he knew her. As much as that was the truth.

Just before they arrived. "If anyone looks for me, just bring them here."

"Of course, tea I presume." He nodded, ready to ask for it. "The door is there, you just need to push it through."

Masami tested it out first, taking the chance to bring their things to it. There was not any loss, at least through an early check. With Yuki being left inside to guard it, and she not having anything to complain. Later on was a far better time, than when they were potentially in huge danger.

"You know what to do." She nodded. She had taken her blade from inside, surprised that Kazuho managed to keep it from being known. But it was better too, she could be able to defend him if things got hard. Even as his hand ensured that his pistol was within reach.

"Here is the person you"re looking for." Ruri put down the tea pot in front of them. Knowing who they were looking at, Hajime who walked in. He had his hands wrapped over each other and leaned. Before he walked inside, and took a seat across Kazuho.

"Shall we get started?" Kazuho looked onto Hajime.