Bowing, Keisuke showed his sincerity. Noticing I was not doing the same, he grabbed me by the back of the head. Now I was bowing too. "Forgive us for our rowdiness today, Mio-sama! We will take those words to heart!" he shouted loudly. I cringed. She seemed to enjoy it. She gave a light giggle before walking off to continue with her day. He then let me go. "You have to bow when the elders pass by. That's standard respect." he griped at me. I just apologized and thanked him for reminding me. He sucked his teeth, but the praise warmed his heart a bit. "Just pay more attention, alright?" he said. I nodded and he was no longer mad at me. Keisuke was a simple guy at heart, but he was a good man. We were then told to report to the elders. I made sure to do all the formal bowing correct this time. It seemed that they had lost contact with both Haruka and Kazuya. Naomi was beside herself with worry and anger. We were ready to go and search for them. The first stop was finding Haruka. We already knew where the refugee camp with all the blue haired people was. That was our priority.
Getting there was fine. However, they were all pretty quiet as opposed to last time. We walked around the camp. They were all very nervous as we got closer. Keisuke shook me and pointed me to the side. I was mildly annoyed by that. "What is it!?" I snapped. He pointed and I saw a glimpse of a young woman in a purple yukata and a hair pin. This clan all had a distinct look. I knew right away that it was Haruka. We followed after her. She was walking around seemingly aimlessly. When she saw us, her eyes furrowed. I approached her slowly. "Haruka of Kirume Clan? This is Keisuke and I am Nagisa Tsuyoi. We are here to retrieve you." I said just as slowly. Haruka was just about to draw her blade on me. "Your mother, Naomi-sama is very worried about you." She blinked in confusion. "Yes. I'll return with you." We took her with us. I did notice we were followed from a distance by a man with blue hair. That would have to be an issue for a later date. When we got her back to the village, her mother embraced her. She scolded her and asked Haruka why she stopped contacting them.
Haruka
Haruka was still confused. "Why was I even sent there, Mother?" she asked. That was not good. I just remembering entering the camp. I passed by one who looked like he might be a ninja, then I was woken up by Nagisa-san and Keisuke-san." "That settles it. There are all types of people in the refugee camp." I said as I reported the man who followed us out. "Do you think they are hostile?" Naomi asked. "I don't know if they are hostile, but it will be a tough sell to resettle them." Keisuke said, "If they have people who can wipe memories and control people like Haruka, no lord or village head is going to want to take them in and risk being made a puppet." I agreed with him completely. She sighed and said "Well that answers that. I guess Haruka can report this to the mayor. He'll probably tell us to either kill or let the camp wither on its own." That was totally fair. It was not like the members of the camp were likely to give up one of their own. We still had to go and rescue Kazuya. If he was also not responding or checking in like he should, he could be in danger as well. It was up to us.
