“The two of you seem to be…um…close.”
“We are. We have known each other since we were children.”
Paper rustled behind her. Hana turned. “Haruto?”
The paper door on the floor swung open. Haruto emerged from it and gracefully stood up. A paper satchel was slung across his chest. “How was the trip? I hope that it didn’t cause you too much discomfort.”
“It was…uh…good,” Hana said.
“You have always been a terrible liar, Hana.” Haruto smirked. “It is one of the things that I like most about you. I spend mydays distilling honesty from history. It is refreshing when I do not have to work so hard to see the truth.”
“And it is the same thing that I have always appreciated in our friendship. You have always told me the truth. I am counting on your honesty today.”
“As I am counting on yours.” Haruto looked her in the eye, his tone turning serious. “Stop lying, Hana.”
“Lying?” Hana tensed. “About what?”
“Before I tell you anything about your father, I need you to tell me who this man really is.” He turned to Keishin. “And why he is with you.”
Hana pulled her shoulders back. “I told you the truth. His name is Keishin, and he is—”
“A friend I have not seen or heard of…” Haruto walked up to Keishin, drawing himself to his full height. “Ever.”
Hana stepped between them and gripped Haruto’s arm. “Who he is isn’t important right now.”
“I think it is.” Haruto drew his arm away. “How do you know you can trust him? What I know about your father puts us all in danger.”
“You can trust me,” Keishin said. “I promise. I’m only here to help.”
“ ‘Only here to help’…” Haruto repeated Keishin’s words slowly. “And where did youcome frombefore you camehere?”
Keishin shot a glance at Hana. “I—”
“I think you already know where Keishin’s from,” Hana said. “He’s risking his life to help me. Do you think anyone from our world would do the same?”
Haruto lowered his head, shaking it. “I would,” he said softly.
She cupped his face and looked into his eyes. “Then trust me. And him. Tell us what my father wanted from you.”
Haruto walked to the window and gripped its sill, his nails digging into the paper it was made of.
“Please, Haruto,” Hana said.
Haruto sighed and turned to face her. “He wanted an answer to a question that had been haunting him for a very long time. He wanted to know if your mother was alive, and he believed that the only way he could do that was to see what really happened the day the Shiikuin came for her.”
“My father wanted you to turn back time,” Hana said.
“No, Hana.” Haruto sat at a table and pulled a small sheet of paper from one of the colorful stacks laid on top of it. “He wanted me to fold it.”
Chapter Twenty-six
The Favor
One month ago
Haruto emptied a paper kettle into two origami cups that cradled the steaming tea as well as any cup or bowl made from clay. He looked up from the cups and smiled at Toshio. “I wish you had told me that you were coming. I could have brought some of the rice cakes my mother sent me.”
“I am sorry to have dropped in unannounced,” Toshio said. “I didn’t realize that I was going to push through with this until I found myself standing outside your studio. If you had not stepped out from the bamboo grove when you did, I would be on my way home.”
