This story is part of the Wanderer series.
Nozomi and Chiara let out delighted gasps as they leaned over the lip of the pot. Still somewhat boiling, the soup was richly colored, with blocks of tofu, some leafy vegetables, fishballs, and likely other ingredients sitting below the surface. Rin and Alisan leaned over, eying the soup with equal eagerness.
He smiled. “Prepared with local ingredients, adapted to our cuisine.”
Letting out an excited laugh, Nozomi fell back onto her futon, bouncing once as she picked up her bowl. “It looks delicious!”
“Go ahead.”
Picking up the ladle and straightening up to her knees again, Nozomi started fishing for the fishballs. As the others crowded above the pot, chatter picking up as they happily prepared for their meal, Karin walked forward from the doorway, stopping next to him.
“You may join us if you wish.”
Her former retainer put his fist across his chest, smiling meekly. “I’m sorry, princess. Duty calls us elsewhere.”
Glancing over at Suzuka, she received a similar, silent response. Her face slightly muting, Karin dipped her chin. “Very well. You are dismissed.”
Dipping themselves forward as they backed out the doorway, they simultaneously said to her, “Good night, princess.”
Sliding the door shut after them, Karin turned to join the others at the table, sitting down at the end, without a futon. Alisan, seeing her join, glanced down at the floor, then started looking about the room.
Noticing, Karin held up a hand. “It’s okay.”
Alisan returned her gaze. “Are you sure?”
“I am no stranger to the floor.”
“Ah!”
Karin and Alisan abruptly looked over as Chiara cried out, having spilled a little bit of soup over the ladle as she was bringing it over to her bowl. Rin, looking up from her bowl as she was cooling it, suddenly straightened.
“What are you doing?!” she scolded from across the table.
“Sorry, sor—!”
“Bring your bowl over to the pot! Not the other way around!”
Chiara continued to apologize over Rin’s voice as she lectured her. Given how she was still only bringing her bowl halfway closer rather than over the pot, she clearly did not listen.
“You’ll have to clean that!” Nozomi declared, in an almost bragging manner. “This is Alisan and Karin’s room, and you made a mess of it!”
Hearing their names, the two girls straightened, looking to speak, but Chiara, finding herself at the front of a blame, cried out first.
“Heh?! H-how?!”
“With a cloth!” Nozomi shouted proudly. “A wiping cloth!”
“Keep your voice down,” Karin calmly interjected, though there was a slight irritable edge to her voice. “There may be people next-doors.”
Nozomi quickly pulled back to her seat, with a beam on her face still. “Right, sorry!”
Rin smirked. “Who’s getting lectured now?”
Turning her head, Nozomi puffed her cheeks. “At least I’m not the only one!”
Chiara looked at the splatter of soup with shame. Alisan, sitting next to her, gently placed a hand on her arm, quietly coaxing her.
“Don’t worry about it. We can clean it up later.”
Nodding, she relaxed a little, eventually turning to her bowl as everyone settled.
The group initially ate with silent focus. Every few bites, Nozomi would spout a comment about the different delicious components of the soup, eliciting a response or two from Rin or Chiara. However, as their bellies were gratified and the conversation expanded, the table got lively again.
“But we had to skip our trip this year because of the conference,” Rin mumbled between bites. “Although…” She briefly glanced at Nozomi. “Maybe we can go once we come back from this.”
“Mm!” Nozomi mumbled as she took a sip. “That would be fun!”
“But it might be too late,” Rin mulled. “We need to sow the next rotation soon, so we can’t be gone too long.”
“Even a few days is fine!”
“It takes a day to go over there…”
“Not a day! If we go before the sun rises, we get there in the afternoon!”
“Basically a day. We need to clean the house when we get there, too. Remember?”
Chiara set down her bowl, stretching her neck to look over the pot at the two. “What was your mother doing while you were gone?”
“Yuka? She’s not—”
“She went by herself!” Nozomi eagerly answered.
Alisan raised her head a little, blinking.
Chiara’s eyes widened with surprise. “Really? She was taking care of it all alone?”
“I mean, that’s what she did for years before she adopted me,” Rin added.
“Oh.”
“It was her own retreat into the forest. I just tagged along when I joined the family.”
Chiara tilted her head a little. “Wait, what do you m—?”
“We help her out a lot!” Nozomi chimed. “So she shouldn’t mind, right?”
“Well, we missed a year while we were traveling the continents,” Rin reminded. “But yes, she doesn’t mind us. She’s actually happy.”
Nozomi turned her attention to the end of the table. “Karin, you have a brother, right?”
Breaking out of her silent meditation, she lifted her head. “Yes. He’s here.”
“I thought he looked familiar,” Nozomi mused. “Is he all right?”
“Yes.”
“What have you been doing since we split up?”
“Studying.”
Nozomi blinked with curiosity. “Studying?”
“Always.”
“Studying what?”
Pulling her chin back a little, she seemed to sigh, her forehead subtly knitting. “For this conference. For ourselves. Too many to list.”
“Oh!” Nozomi’s face lit up with realization. “So did we! Rin practiced fighting with me!”
Rin lightly frowned. “We didn’t spar just for this conference… We’re not here to—”
“I’m much better now! You should see!”
Karin dipped her head, closing her eyes and letting out a silent scoff. “Some day, perhaps.”
Rin straightened, seemingly taken aback by Karin’s encouragement. Then, she lifted an arm and grabbed Nozomi on the shoulder, lightly tugging her towards her. “Not here, you’re not! You’ll get too much attention!”
Nozomi grabbed hold of Rin’s forearm, but did not make an effort to escape her grip. “I won’t, I won’t, I won’t!”
Chiara laughed heartily as Rin started to shake Nozomi by the shoulder, her voice pitching up and down. Karin, disregarding Nozomi’s antics, opened her eyes and dipped forward to take a sip from her bowl. However, out of the corner of her eye, she caught something strange, as well as an unexpected sound. Sitting to her right, though Chiara’s loud laugh at the farther end filled the atmosphere, Karin noticed Alisan leaning forward, head dipped, shoulders drawn in. There was a soft, shaky sound rising from deep within. Taking a closer look at her face, Karin saw she was crying.
“… Alisan…?”
Alisan subtly flinched. Rin, drawn over from Karin’s unusually anxious tone, abruptly dropped her frown and gritted teeth when she also saw Alisan crying.
“Huh? What’s wrong?”
The rest of the heads turned to the green-haired girl.
“No… I’m… I…”
With a loud sniff, she drew both hands to her face to wipe her eyes. When she revealed it again, there was a warm smile under the sheet of tears.
“I’m so grateful to be back together again with all of you.”
Straightening further back, Karin let out a closed-mouth murmur, taken aback. Seeing her smile, everyone else eased up.
Nozomi leaned enthusiastically forward, slipping out of Rin’s loosening grip. “Don’t cry, Alisan! Be happy!”
“I-I am happy…”
“Then don’t cry!”
“I just… cry when I’m happy too.”
“Why?!”
Rin chuckled. “Humans are strange, aren’t we?”
Nozomi looked back at her. “Huh?”
Taking another sniff and a deep breath, Alisan chuckled with her. Looking up again, she realized she had the silent attention of the room. Nozomi stared at her with particular worry, unusually silent now.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to worry all of you…”
Though she laughed it off, Karin continued to closely observe her with a mixture of concern and empathy. Rin lightened her shoulders, bringing up a knee to casually prop her arm on top of it.
“You miss us that much, huh?”
“Yes… I was very lonely back at my village.”
“Ah…”