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She focused on the best of thesein her periphery

They were never s And she had never truly noticed

Ōka the plastered buildings, beneath the thatched roofs, listening to the sounds of the workers as their children squabbled for food and their loved ones returned ho day’s work

Ōka meal near a small fire just outside their tiny home He handed Mariko a sickle and bade her to follow hih they orkers intent on continuing their reaping They squatted alongside the tall waves of grain, angling to one side to watch the faht she saw the yellow eyes of a fox, lingering in the shadows, searching for scraps

The children were dirty They ser

It was clear their mother was injured She limped as she went to scoop out tiny spoonfuls of ave her a bowl of food, "you eat I’olden wheat aas far as the eye could see

"No, lanced at her husband, willing him to stay silent

When the ive her half his share

Thankfully, most of the other children did not notice They sht But the eldest girl knew better She pushed her bowl beside her parents’ and quietly began scooping soht startled Mariko Cut at so beneath her heart For so irl who saw things no one else saw Who noticed the world not as it was, but as it should be Her gaze drifted to the ser children present

At the face of the eldest girl, and the tiniest grooves that now gathered above her brow

Mariko had countless fond le one of the but contentment at mealtime

Perhaps my mind saw only what it wished to see

A cold hand of awareness took hold of her throat In none of thosethat same contentment in any of her father’s workers When Mariko had wandered past the gates of her family’s home, into the fields and paddies beyond, workers had often coiven her had been wan Aged As a child she’d often asked why they looked sad Why they didn’t smile more

Her mother had told her they were ed her back inside This was the way of it A daie for their lord’s protection and care, the people working the lands offered the daimyō tribute

Was it possible Hattori Kano took more than his fair share?

Mariko recalled her father once saying how ungrateful his workers were How he provided them with food and shelter and a place to work And still they were unsatisfied

The Black Clan intended to redistribute her family’s wealth Back into the hands of those orked the fields Tilled the soil Reaped the harvest

All so Mariko could wear fine clothes and attract the attention of the ehtness of the sentiranted their fair share These were her family’s people, her family’s lands

But when had Mariko ever once planted a seed or worked in the dirt when it was not out of personal interest? Not until she’d come to the Black Clan’s encampment had she even learned the basics of how to live on her own Indeed this was the first time in her life she had ever held a sickle And even noas for the purpose of subterfuge

As Ōkami had first pronounced that day Mariko had been tasked with carrying firewood, she’d been useless

It was the truth of it all that had grated her nerves so thoroughly Horong it was that Mariko would fight so veheainst accusations rooted in truth Had Ōka lazy or slovenly or stupid, she would have laughed

But when he’d accused her of being useless, it had stung

Mariko wouldn’t be useless now She saw the truth

She could , they were still her family

No matter what it cost Mariko, she would warn her brother

Somehow

THE RAID

They plan to raid the storehouses in the dead of night

That was all the servant had said to him Kenshin had chased after the old rabbed hi him around