The Romance of Oblivion:Past Lifetimes

Chapter 37: Shadow of Naginata Blades

"Stand up."

"No!"

"If you dont stand up, I'll punish you again!"

"I will bite oniisan if you dare!"

"Dont even bother, you little- Ow! Why did you bite it?!"

"Brother is being harsh on me!"

"You just promised to follow everything I said, now stand up!"

"Wont! Please stop punishing imoto! Uwu~"

imoto-little sister

Ishi who is cutting a vegetable get to hear the siblings fighting, but why does it sound different to her? She cant help but peek a little outside, Ishi dropped to the floor. What level of childishness do her young miss have?!

Yun Ren Xie just bit her brother's hand, she was like a chibi with cat ears.

"Soma! If you dont let go now, I will force you to go back home!"

Yun Ren Xie released her bite, she saw the bite mark on Saito's hand. Just as she raised her head, she can see how angry her brother is. Her eyes turned watery, hoping Saito will soften a little.

"Im sorry." she admitted her mistake. Saito is more stubborn than she thought. "I just wanted to buy food for brother and met Souji on the way. He even help me catch the thief that stole my money pouch."

Right, just after she helped Hijikita finish the fight, Yun Ren Xie reached out her hand for him to stand up. The man did not hesitate though and held her hand but after he got up, Hijikita did not let go. He even squeezed her hand which shocked Yun Ren Xie and made her look at him. Currently, he is also staring at the masked girl.

Such strange clothing and even the naginata she has, it have a hilt coloured in all black while the blade is made up of transparent red material but he can tell it was very sharp since it can chop of a head with one wave.

Yun Ren Xie hastily pulled her hand away and jumped upward to reach the rooftop. She made it to the other side of the buildings and quickly changed her cloth. She was at the market once more when a thief stole her money pouch and that's when Souji came. It was also Souji who said he was on a break for patrolling this day and voluntarily helped Soma.

Saito flicked her forehead to get his sister's attention. "See? There's even a thief outside and Im pretty sure there are hundreds of them. Behave or else." he threatened.

She nodded fervently, Yun Ren Xie have learnt a lesson. There are two kinds of people around her, the kind one's and the strict type.

When Saito saw how she reacted, his carefree attitude is back once more and smiled gently at Soma. "I like kyoho the most, did you bring any?"

"Oh! I have! I bought a lot!" her eyes sparkled endlessly.

"Let's go eat."

At the estate of Hijikita, Soma Kaozue is with him. They were both drinking sakura tea while sometimes glancing at the stack of papers beside the wooden table. "You little prick, how can you manage to read all of this love letters?!" Kaozue raised his voice while looking at the letters with a sneer on his face.

"Not reading them. Also, would you mind your manners? Even if you are a rank higher than me, Im still older than you. Dont call me little prick." Hijikita just focused on his tea but soon he stopped and stared at the reflection within. His eyes were really emotionless, like the girl who saved him.

Rip!

Hijikita looked in front of him only to find Kaozue is not there anymore.

"Oh, here's a good one!" Kaozue just opened one of the letters and tore its seal off. "Dear Hijikita, I have been secretly watching you from afar and it is what I can only do for now. You cant seem to notice me yet but because you keep going out with Okoto and sleeping with Asami, I feel more discouraged."

Hijikita went to Kaozue with heavy steps and took the paper, tearing it apart. "I thought you dumped that Okoto already. And boy! Why are you still with that Asami whore?!" Kaozue shook his head showing how disappointed he is. He continued to open every letter until he found something interesting.

"You, stop meddling with those. Its not even worth for you to read. Dont try filling your empty skull with nonsencial stuffs." Hijikita tried to snatch the letter once more when Kaozue stood up and pushed his head down on the floor. Kaozue held Hijikita's head whiled pushing it close to the floor then sat next to him. "You sure not interested with this?"

"Bastard! Let go of me or-"

Bam!

Kaozue was really daring to make Hijikita's face hit the floor. He slowly reduced his strength and smirked, even though he is younger than Hijikita, its not a great fence to stop him from trampling  over his superior. "What did you say? I didnt hear it though. Let me read this one."

"Damn you idiot!" Hijikita cursed. He was just going easy on this Kaozue, the last wisp of patience snapped as he increased his strength to break free.

"A bright red petal, dark slender branch, the willow green leaves, and the deep purple plum." Kaozue read the letter. It was clearly a poem for plum so Hijikita stopped struggling.

"Why stop? Continue." Hijikita frowned when Kaozue kept silent.

"In unison they created, the alluring nature's beauty, under the plum tree, come when the dragon awakes?" Kaozue did not clearly understand. When the dragon awake? Who wrote this poem? He looked at the last part of the paper and found an interesting name, Shadow.

"Kaozue, who wrote that?"

"Heh. The name is mysterious. She's not writing a love letter but a poem with two meanings." Kaozue let go of Hijikita's head and gave the paper to him.

"So she knew I like writing poems about plums. Then, why add a dragon?"

The next morning, Yun Ren Xie is walking by the small garden and settled down under a plum tree. "Baoshi, do you think Hijikita will know what that letter means?" she asked while learning looking at the barks of the plum tree's aged trunk.

'Host, Hijikita is from Japan. Im pretty sure he dont understand a Chinese beliefs.' from the void, Baoshi is staring at the progression bar of the first mission. Its been six days since they've arrived at this plane and the first mission is yet to be finished, how much time does it have to take for the third mission to appear? In her last guide, the system always provide three mission earlier but why in Yun Ren Xie's current state she still need to finish the first mission?

"Your right. How in the world can I seduce him if were not even meeting in the slightest!" Yun Ren Xie was really angry. Her nails even dug some parts of the tree bark. Also, she have been bored to death, Yun Ren Xie cant help but complain.

Suddenly, another mischievous thought popped in her mind. Just like in China, why not use another secret identity to lure the target? Since the Tokugawa Shogunate is still around this year and Japan have closed down its connection to the outside world, there are numerous crimes around so she decided to help the Shinsengumi from guarding Kyoto.