Uncomfortable Reunion

It was past two in the afternoon when a doctor attended to Himawari. He managed to discover that her tibia was broken. Calmly and dedicatedly, they managed to put a cast on her leg, which left her immobilized in bed. This gave her time to imagine, to overthink her future.

"Onee-sama…" Himawari whispered. Not because she wanted to see her, but because she thought about what her sister had told her that night.

Now that she had time to think, she knew that the failure her sister predicted was closer. Her bone was broken, which meant she would be bedridden for too long.

Tsushima-sensei arrived at her room to tell her that her father would arrive soon, that she should calm down. Finally, he told her that a nurse would soon arrive with some food.

"Has my fiancé come?"

Tsushima-sensei shook his head and, apologizing, left the place, leaving Himawari alone again. Soon, due to the number of injured, Himawari saw other people arrive at her room. She thought that perhaps she could distract herself by talking to those people.

Tired, sweaty, and dirty, Sachie finally reached an area where she could barely recognize as the place where she once grew up. She was able to distinguish that foreign candy store, which gave her the clue that she was close to home.

She continued walking, finding that even the destruction was similar, but with a clear difference: there was less chaos, people were trying to help the wounded, and a certain order was noticeable. Surely thanks to the army.

She couldn't stop crying when she arrived at her house, or at least what was once the place where she was born and raised. Her house was destroyed. She began to think the worst about her family. Now she really was alone, now she was truly without family.

"Miss… Sachie," a familiar voice made her turn around. There was Urara, looking at her with an expression of genuine surprise.

"Urara," Sachie replied, holding her gaze, and Urara, offended that she called her by her name, began to reprimand her.

"I told you that you should leave Shimizu."

"You are nobody to tell me what to do," Sachie replied unfazed. "Besides, my family…"

"Family?" Urara asked with a certain tone of sorprise and anger. "I remind you that you no longer belong to the Apricots."

"Where are they?"  

Urara sighed. She couldn't continue arguing; she told her that they were at the General Hospital. She warned her not to go near the place for any reason; there was no room for peasant girls.

"We shall see about that, Urara."

"Do you think that with your appearance you will be able to enter? Look at you! You are dirty, your appearance suggests more that you are looking for help than looking for someone important. If you dare to approach my daughter-in-law, I myself will take care of kicking you out of Shimizu, no matter what it costs me."

Sachie, filled with powerlessness, walked aimlessly, she was on disadvantage. Urara had a point, she was right about what did she say about her image. But she had to approach the hospital no matter what. 

If she went near, they wouldn't let her in, regardless of whether she said she was an Apricot. They would tell her she was lying, and if someone recognized her, they would reject her, just as Urara did.

Hunger was starting to bother her, her legs were tired, and she was running out of strength. In front of her, she could see a group of people who looked like a bunch of seagulls fighting over a piece of bread. They were making too much noise and seemed to be arguing among themselves.

Paying attention, she realized that a person was still trapped in the rubble. Even with her pain, even with her urgency to find a solution on how to enter the hospital, Sachie approached. A man around 50 years old was unconscious. What seemed to be his wife and son were discussing what should be done. The woman, who appears to be the wife, asked her son for help, but he had no idea how he could help.

The soin was complaining: he had left Aiko (his wife) alone with his parents, who were also asking for help. The man's desperation was visible, as he didn't know what to decide.

But Sachie was not there to get into family problems. She saw the unconscious wounded man on the ground, where employees were trying to move him, to prevent him from hurting himself more when he finally woke up. She could finally see who was surely the sister. A young girl, surely Himawari's age, who was looking fearfully at her injured father.

Without asking permission, Sachie approached the wounded man and checked his pulse. He was breathing irregularly and had some tachycardia. He organized the employees to remove the trash that had trapped the man and they got him out. Now that he was out she gave the order to move him in a certain way so as not to hurt him more. He had a slight blow to the head, and she immediately ordered water to clean the wound.

The woman and her son only watched the situation, surprised and unsure whether to interrupt. The major wound was cleaned, and despite not having medicines nearby, Sachie ordered them to go into the house to look for bandages or some clean cloth.

The woman, the mother, ordered that it be done as she said, and so it was done. By the time Sachie finished, the man began to wake up. Moments later, his wife explained the situation to him, how a strange peasant woman (she said while pointing at her) helped him.

"He must be taken to the hospital, and quickly," Sachie ordered the mother, who, nervous about receiving orders from a peasant woman, didn't know how to act.

"Kakeru, hurry!" the father shouted as best he could. Kakeru, his son, was more scared by the scream he didn't expect.

So, helped by some neighbours and the family's own employees, that man, was taken to the General Hospital, accompanied by Sachie.

Upon arriving at the hospital, they were attended to by a nurse who asked for the patient's name.

"Shibasaki Yuuta," his wife said. The nurse told them they had to wait while a room was assigned.

Sachie remained observing the family and turned to look at Yuuta's daughter. "Surely she is Haruna…" she thought, feeling something new in her chest. She didn't hate her, but she didn't like her presence.

Yuuta ordered that Sachie could enter with him. So the attending doctor let her pass despite her dirty and neglected appearance.

"She helped me," Yuuta commented to his doctor. "I want you to attend to her, to see that her health is stable."

While Sachie entered with the Shibasaki family, there was someone who saw her pass behind the family. He tried to get closer to confirm if it was indeed the person he was thinking of.

"Tsushima-sensei, Apricot-san has returned," a nurse said, at which the doctor immediately went to attend to Haruto.

Yuuta was put on a stretcher, and Sachie was praised for the bandaging and cleanliness of the wound. And just as requested, they attended to the healer who attended the merchant. Her knees were treated, and Sachie could finally rest.

"Thank you very much," Kakeru said while sharing a ration of food given by the nurses for the two of them. "We were so scared that we didn't know what to do."

"Kakeru," his mother arrived with some news. "The Takaharas have arrived; they want to see your father and Haruna."

Mother and son apologized and left Sachie alone. So it was true. The pain in her stomach came again and knew it wasn't from the crackers she was eating.

"So what Tsushima-sensei said was true," a silhouette approached Sachie, who immediately recognized the voice. "How dare you appear here after everything you did? Have you come to mock our misfortune, Sachie?”

Haruto looked angry; his judgmental gaze seemed to burn. Sachie saw her father dirty, tired, with some bandages on his hands. She did not get up, she was not intimidated; she knew why she had gone to that hospital. Not even that man's threats were going to intimidate her.