30 Home 2

"You look terrible." My dad said as I walked through the gate.

"It's been a long two years." I replied.

"For you and me both. Come on, let's get you inside." He said while nodding towards the mansion in the distance.

My dad's stern expression was nowhere to be seen. A face which I could only describe as 'relief' took its place.

But even seeing my dad's face did nothing to alleviate my nervousness, I didn't know where or how to start talking about what happened. It felt odd, not knowing what to say.

As we walked, neither of us said a word. I kept staring at the road in front of me with my head hung low, afraid to make eye contact. I couldn't explain it, but I wasn't sure if I could look him in the eye.

"We thought you died, you know?" My dad was first to break the silence.

"Sorry," 

He took a glance in my direction before talking again.

"Everyone was worried." 

I remained silent.

Sighing, he said "Well, whatever. At least you're back in one piece. Even if you do look worse for wear." 

'Almost two pieces, actually.' I internally added.

I didn't know whether I should tell them the full story of what happened. How would they even react if I told them I lost my arm and grew it back.

'Would they even believe me if I did? Or would they think I lost my mind on that mountain? Who knows, maybe I actually did.' I thought to myself. 'Maybe I'm still dreaming.'

*

After walking the remaining stretch of the road in silence, we arrived at the front door of the mansion.

My dad knocked on the wooden door, prompting a servant on the other side to open it. 

"Oh, sir! What are you doing back so early? We thought you were surveying the guards." The servant said, a little shocked from seeing my dad.

"Haha, you'll see in just a moment." 

I stood there for a bit, staring at the house which I'd spent a good chunk of my life in. It was definitely bigger than I remembered.

'Maybe they added a new wing or two? I was too distracted before to notice, but the road was also patched up. I wonder what else changed.'

"Are you coming?" My dad's voice snapped me out of my thoughts.

"Huh? Oh yeah." 

I made my way up to the door, swallowed a lump of saliva and walked in. Seeing one of the housekeepers, I bowed to show respect. After all, this was the woman who looked after me when my mother wasn't there, way back when.

She tilted her head slightly and gave me a questioning look.

"Oh my. And who might this handsome young man be, and why does it look like you found him on the side of the road? Is he a new recruit? I thought the recruiting season just ended though." 

My dad scratched the back of his head while awkwardly laughing.

"Don't you recognize him, Ano?" He asked the woman who only looked at me in confusion. "Look closer."

She did as instructed and narrowed her eyes until they were reduced to slits, only then did she recognize me.

Once she did, she gasped and remained silent for a few moments.

"R-red eyes. You… Yukiko?" She asked with a slight stutter. Her hand moved up to her mouth to cover her shocked expression.

"That's me." 

Ano was visibly confused. Obviously she didn't expect to see me today, but what I didn't expect was that she couldn't recognize me. 

"You look… terrible."

That was number 5.

'God, is it really that bad? I haven't even seen my own reflection yet but I can't look that dirty.'

"Young master, I would give you a hug, but on second thought, I'd rather you take a bath first. Wait right here, I'll go prepare one." 

"No need, Ano, we need to see the rest of the family too." My dad interjected. "Can you gather everyone in the dining room?

She paused for a second.

"Of course, silly me. It'll only be a few minutes." 

As she began walking away, she turned around one more time to talk to me.

"It's really good to have you back." She smiled.

"It's good to be back." I smiled back.

We began walking again until we reached the dining room, whereupon we sat down on the tatami mats at the end of the table.

We waited like that, in awkward silence for everyone to arrive. I really didn't know what to talk about. And I wanted everyone to be there when I did.

"So, how are the new recruits this year round?" I asked to break the silence.

Surprised, my dad snapped his head in my direction.

"Since when do you care about the state of this household?" He laughed.

"Just asking." 

"Well if you really want to know, a lot of the recruits left after you did. They either found the training too hard or just found something else to do. That's usually the norm though, about half of the total number of recruits drop out after their first year." 

I gave him a look that told him to continue, at which he sighed. He had never been a talkative man.

"The recruits this year have been somewhat special." He reluctantly added.

"How so?" I asked, finally having found something interesting to talk about.

"How should I put this? Have you heard of the neighboring warlords? The ones we've been on neutral terms with" 

"The Ashikaga house?" 

"That's them."

"So, what happened?"

He hesitated for a second.

"You see, a couple months ago, something unbelievable happened. Allegedly, the young lady of the house flipped everything on its head. She seized the title of clan head for herself, which aside from her being a woman, wouldn't be out of the ordinary in this day and age.

No, what made this case so extraordinary, is that she not only killed the former head of the clan, but everyone else who had a valid claim to power too." He explained.

I blinked a couple of times to make sure I heard that right. 

'What kind of GOT-esque scenario is this? And how did she kill all those people?" 

Seeing my confused expression, my dad continued on.

"It's unbelievable, I know. The only people that are still alive are her mother and bastard brother, leading a lot of people to speculate that they were behind it all, only using the young lady as a front. After all, she is supposed to be around your age.

But, if it is true, that would mean we not only have the first female warlord in recorded history, but also the youngest one."

My mouth was hanging wide open in disbelief.

'How did she do it? I really want to find out now.' I thought.

"That's unbelievable. But how does it relate to our recruits?" 

"Right. The internal conflict left a lot of the clan's soldiers dead in its wake. The young lady is currently dealing with manpower issues, so, she made a deal with us. Her soldiers get to train along ours, in exchange for a hefty sum per head." 

"Sounds tough, how are you managing?" I asked.

My dad looked at me in a strange way again.

"You're different now. It's almost like you care about what's going on here."

I frowned and urged him to answer my question.

"I can't manage all the recruits obviously, but your grandpa decided to give us a hand." He shrugged.

I slammed my hands on the table

"Grandpa did what?!" I was shocked at the notion of the old fart being able to actually help people.

"My reaction precisely. Well, he's good at making recruits quit. I don't know how you put up with it all that time." 

I scoffed.

'I probably wouldn't have if he actually trained me properly. Oh well, maybe it's for the better. I learned valuable lessons that would've been wasted if they were just handed to me on a silver platter.' I thought.

"Anyway, how is-" My sentence was interrupted by the sounds of footsteps and chatter coming from outside the room.

I could hear three voices having a pleasant conversation while walking along the corridors.

"How was training?" Hanabi asked.

"Same as usual since that geezer started training us. Shit." Tatsuya replied.

"Hey, don't talk like that about your grandfather." My mom said while tugging on Tatsuya's ear, causing him to yelp in pain.

"Ok ok, I'm sorry."

Hanabi laughed at the scene in front of her.

"So why did Ano want to gather us here?" She asked, interrupting the two.

"No clue." 

"I don't know." 

Upon hearing that, I looked at my dad, wide eyed and he did the same. A look that was basically screaming "She didn't tell them!?"

The family reunion was about to turn into a nasty surprise party.

The sliding door opened and three figures were standing outside near the doorway.

"Oh man, I'm really hungry th-" Tatsuya stopped his sentence mid way through and started head on at me, then at dad, then back at me.

So did mom and hanabi.

"Who's this hobo?" Tatsuya asked while pointing at the strange man sitting across from his father.

'Someone wants their ass beat.' 

//////////

A/N

Chapter 30. I didn't think I'd make it this far. Thank you all.