“There’s nothing special aboutyou.”
You’re no one.
Nothing.
So he kept to the shadows, where he felt at home, and tried to be as invisible as the others made him feel.
“O genki desu ka, Ryu-chan?”
Ryuichi glanced up from his work to see the old barefoot woman in a mismatched kimono. Gray-haired Keiko. He had no idea where she lived, but it must be nearby. She always appeared whenever he felt glum, as if she magically knew his mood.
“Ohayo, Keiko-san.” He bowed politely.
She glanced toward the hall, where everyone was heading. “You’re not going the right way.” She took him by the shoulders and turned him around. “That’s where the party is.” She urged him forward.
In spite of his heartache, he laughed before he turned back to face her. “I’m not allowed there. I have other duties today.”
She looked horrified. “No! No! How can they have a party without the great Ryu-kyou? Do they not know who you are?”
“Apparently not, as I was told to go mind the horses for Lord Hiero’s guests.”
Her mouth fell open. “This will not do. It won’t do at all! Do they not know who you are?”
Ryuichi loved the way she made him feel. Like he mattered.
He gave her another smile. “It’s okay. The horses are probably better company anyway.” Given how most people treated him, he actually preferred the horses.
With a polite bow, he left her tsking and headed off to the stables to attend to his duties before he got into trouble again, which seemed to be his natural state of being. But it’d been good to see the old woman for a moment.
Keiko wasn’t mean-spirited. Nor did she make him feel bad whenever their paths crossed.
Never had he seen her be cruel to anyone. Yet others avoided her as if she were pox-ridden. He had no idea why she chose to remain in their village when she had no family here. If he had his freedom, he’d leave and never return to this godforsaken village.
Yet Keiko stayed for reasons only she knew.
He’d always wondered what had happened to her family. She never spoke of them, and no one else seemed to know anything about them either. It was awful to be alone in the world. That made him ache for her, and it was why he went out of his way to be nice to her whenever their paths crossed.
With a ragged sigh, he darted into the shadows as he saw Uchida Hitoshi and Niwa Kin heading toward him, laughing together in their finery. Like two evil little oni out to menace whatever innocent victim they could find. He even imagined them with horns growing out of their heads.
While they were the same age as him, they thought themselves his superior in every way. And everyone else’s, for that matter.
Even though he knew that neither of them was nearly as good with a sword or even chopsticks as he was. Something proven every day when they trained, and he knocked them on their rumps and they screamed that he’d cheated—which he never did. He didn’t have to, as they were just that incompetent.
Still, everyone thought they were great, and that he was nothing.
Because of the honor and reputations of their fathers.
Last thing Ryuichi needed right now was another encounter with either of their scathing tongues. Or worse, their fists.
“I wish they’d trip.” Those whispered words had no sooner left his lips than Hitoshi’s sword slipped and tangled with his feet. He gasped and fell into Kin. Entwined, they both landed in a disgraceful lump on the ground.
Ryuichi gaped at the sight as their sensei hastened forward to scold them for their clumsiness. “Dishonor on you both! Get up and clean yourselves before someone sees you!”
Still, Ryuichi stared at the fulfillment of his whispered desire. What were the odds?
It’d happened just as he wanted...
So focused on them and what had happened, Ryuichi wasn’t watching his own steps, which carried him straight into someone else.
