Calloused fingers took to her waist, pulling her forth with a gardener’s tender touch.

“Your gentleness knows no bounds — thank you.” Hisashi lightly bowed his head. “We should eat, there is much to do. And you, are one of them..”

The samurai lightly taps her rear with his fingers.

“Only if they allow themselves to grow out of it,” Hisashi posits a truth that encapsulates them both, “It took me years to see that.”

He reached for the faucet to turn it off, collecting a blanket of silence with which to articulate his thoughts.

“Seito has resigned himself to the same fate as I. And yet, he now lives in a world where allies are most needed. I fear that he makes more enemies than friends at school.”

“When they realized Seito could not speak, they allowed it. The two of them are studying alone, but what I fear is far deeper than what most would fear.”

Hisashi spoke without ever turning, focusing on the task at hand.

“Seito is not ready for this intimate kind of socializing.”