“Yes.”
“And you were there. Your foot was bleeding.”
“I had stepped on—”
“Glass.” Keishin blinked and stared at Hana. “I…I remember.”
Hana exhaled, throwing her arms around him.
Keishin held her tight. “Are we safe?” he whispered into her hair.
“For now. We are still falling.”
“Falling?”
“Through the well.” Hana drew away. “This is a detour. We could not go directly to any of the places I knew. Those places would have been easier for the Shiikuin to find. I am hoping that they will lose our trail if we stay here for a while.”
“How long?”
“Until morning,” Hana said. “And then we will need to go to Haruto.”
“Hana…” Keishin hesitated.
“What is it?”
“If the Shiikuin were able to find us at the minshuku, don’t you think that they could have found out about Haruto too?”
“No.”
“But—”
“No.” Her voice caught in her throat. “He’s safe. He has tobe.”
Keishin watched her draw short, ragged breaths through pale lips. He nodded, allowing Hana to believe the lie she told herself. When running for your life, honesty was a luxury. Courage, even the false kind, was not.
—
Keishin and Hana sat at one of the convenience store’s counters, waiting for their instant ramen to be ready. Other customers walked past them without casting a sideward glance.
Keishin lifted the ramen bowl’s foil lid. “It’s ready. Just give it a stir.”
Hana stirred the noodles with a plastic fork. “It does not look like ramen.”
Keishin smiled. “Go on. Try it.”
Hana cautiously brought a forkful of noodles to her mouth. “It is…not bad. But it is not ramen either.”
“Definitely not like any ramen you’d find in your world.” Keishin laughed. “And that’s a good thing.”
“Why?”
“Because nothing in that bowl is remotely good for you.”
Hana swallowed another forkful. “It is fortunate that none of this is real then.”
“I should probably eat every single thing here while I don’t have to worry about making myself sick.” Keishin scanned the shelves.
“That looks interesting,” Hana said, pointing to a frozen-drink machine. “Why is it colored blue?”
