Chapter 6-

"Dear Bishoujo," the note began. "I’ll be back soon. Don’t worry. Keep going with out me. I’ll catch up." Kumo’s hand writing is awful. He also uses sentence fragments. He didn’t even sign it.

"Where’s Kumo?" asked Heza. She had been up for fifteen minutes and just realized something missing. She wasn’t a morning person.

"He left a note under my pillow." I handed it to Heza.

She handed it to Kei who was making toast for breakfast (he had bread with him and tongs to hold it over the fire with.)

"That still doesn’t explain where he is." Said Kei. "Do you want to keep moving without him ?"

"I guess so. We’ll go on to the next town and stay at an inn until he catches up. I trust him to find us." I said.

"Well, Kurai… How should I put this?… He doesn’t seem the sort of person to be able to find things easily without loosing his way. But if you trust him, then…" said Kei, who was obviously politely trying to tell me that he didn’t think Kumo was all too smart.

So we set off. Kumo-less.

As we were walking I decided to get to know Heza better.

"So do you have any siblings?" I asked.

"Mhhm. Nine. I really miss them."

Kei joined the conversation. "As I told Kurai, I have a brother. He’s only a year younger than me, but we’re very different. We argue a lot. When I was old enough, I moved out mostly just to be away from him. We get along better this way. Whenever I see him now we don’t have much time to argue. Well, don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate him. It’s just that we have very different opinions on certain matters."

"Kumo and I are only children, no siblings." I said "Oh, there’s the town gates!"

As we walked toward the gates I noticed something. We weren’t just missing Kumo! We were missing my rat too!

"What’s wrong?" asked Heza. .

"Rat’s missing." I choked out

"Oh dear. Could Kumo have taken him?" asked Kei.

"He…he must have. I shouldn’t worry. Right, Heza?" I looked Heza for help.

"Kurai. It was a wild rat. Even though there’s a chance that this had something to do with Kumo, it probably wanted to go back to being free. I mean, it had nothing to do with you! You were so kind to it! Animals just need to be free." She tried to assure me.

"Okay." I said sadly.

We into the town. Luckily the building closest to the entrance was the inn. I walked up to the

counter to pay for a room.

"I’ll take care of it." Said Heza and she gently pushed me away from the counter.

"Are you sure? I’ll pay for next time then." I said.

"No, I’ll take care of it." Said Kei.

"Oh, no. It’s not right for you to pay. If it was only you, you’d be sleeping outside and wouldn’t to pay anything. We’re not going to let you pay for…our need for comfort!" insisted Heza.

The innkeeper was starting to drum his fingers on the counter. He sighed a few times too.

"Yes, but I’m another mouth to feed. A burden. You didn’t have to bring me along. "

"But-"

"I will not hear another word about it!" Kei then lifted Heza slightly off the ground and put her down next to me.

"Ah!" was all Heza could manage and, blushing, glared at the back of his head as he paid for our rooms.

"Thank you so much, Kei." I thanked him as we walked up the stairs to the inn’s second floor, where the lodging was.

"Yes, thank you.’ Said Heza as well. She must’ve just been really surprised by Kei moving her over in such a way before, because she sounded truly thankful now.

As soon as we reached the top of the stairs, Kei stopped at the first room, which, oddly enough was numbered as ‘Room 5’, and let himself in using his keycard.

"This is my room and if Kumo ever shows up, he can sleep on the floor in here. You girls are two doors down in room… twelve?" Kei said as he read the room number off a sheet of paper given to him by the innkeeper.

"Really, why do they even bother numbering the rooms? There should be two beds in there. Well, I’ll see you girls tomorrow." And he closed the door.

We walked to our room and I slid the key card. I happily flung the door open, then suddenly all traces of joywere gone from our faces and we just stared.

‘Two beds’? Ha! There was one bed, if you really wanted to call it that and a rather- rinky-dink were the only word that came to mind, really- cot on the floor next to the bed. When I say next to the bed, I don’t mean feet away, I mean that whoever took the ‘bed’ was going to have to step on whoever was in the ‘cot’ if they had to get up. The room was just that small. It was obviously only intended for one bed and nothing else.

This couldn’t possibly be Kei’s doing, could it? Neh. All the rooms must be like this. However, I must remember to take a look at Kei’s room tomorrow.

"I’ll take the cot." Said Heza as she walked in and put her bag down on the cot.

"Well, if you’re sure." I said. I really wanted the bed so I wasn’t about to argue.

I followed in her in and was pleasantly surprised to find the room did have a bathroom. Just a toilet and sink, but a bathroom nonetheless.

I started to unpack. Just taking some things out of my pack and putting them under the bed to get them out of the way, really. I realized I really didn’t have that much. Only a few necessary things that either Kumo gave me or we bought and my old school uniform.

"Seira fuku! How cute!" said Heza as I was looking at the tattered, filthy thing. "I’ve always wanted to wear one."

"Your school didn’t have them?" I asked, surprised. I’d never heard of any school other than a university not having uniforms.

"I was taught at home." She replied.

"Oh, cool. Come to think of it, I haven’t been to school in over a month. I wonder if everyone is wondering where I am. He probably made up a story about it to tell the teachers. Knowing Him, he probably made it out so I killed my parents and now I’ve been locked up or executed.’ I felt a pang when I mentioned my parents, but it had been over a month. Someday when I’m older and have more power and resources, I’ll get back at Him.

"What? What happened to you? You never told me this before! I mean, you did mention your parents were dead, but I didn’t expect anything like this!"

"I’m sorry. It’s been so busy since we’ve met. I haven’t told Kei-kun the whole story either." So I told her the whole thing. Being kidnapped from school, learning of my parents’ murder, being locked up, being beaten, and Him.

Heza was silent for a while. "I really don’t know what to say. That’s just terrible. And you don’t even know his motive for all this?"

"Not really. He just said all these things to me that made no sense. He was probably mad. A shame at such a young age."

"Well, there’s no use dwelling on it right now. It’s still only early evening. How about we look around town? I’ll buy you something if it’s not too expensive."

"Alright." I said trying to cheer up a little after the depressing conversation. "Kumo and I were on our way to buy supplies before we got sidetracked with your little quest. I still only have what I’m wearing and my old uniform."

As we passed Kei’s room Heza said to me, "What do you think he’s doing in there? It’s too early to go to sleep."

"He probably just doesn’t want to be bothered."

"But why? There’s nothing to do in there if his room is anything like ours. "

"Well, why don’t we go in and see?" I raised my hand to knock on the door.

"No! Don’t!" cried Heza.

"Why not? Why do care what he’s up to so much anyway?"

Heza just kept walking down the stairs.

"So. What do you need?" asked Heza once we were out in the street, which was surrounded but shops.

"Clothes. Also, we could use more food. We can’t keep living off Kei’s kindness."

As we walked around town looking for an interesting shop. It occurred to me that I still knew so little about Heza. Why did she need that cup from the palace? Is she now wanted too for stealing the cup? Are we outlaws together? Or will the theft be blamed on me? If I am blamed, will The Prince pardon that as well, like he did with my breaking and entering? It’s all too much. I decided to try not to think about it and just focus on spending time with my new friend.