bye bye

After their little test Nobunaga believed there was really nothing going on between them except for friendship. He even complemented them both on their strategy. After that the weird tension disappeared. That night Nobunaga stayed in Harumi's room. This was the second time she slept with someone in the same bed, and it was a lot less awkward than the first time. During the next weeks Harumi saw Nobunaga more often. He kept to his promise and stayed at her quarters at least once a week. Most of the time they played games or do their own thing. Nobunaga was a strategy master so he won almost all of their Karuta and Menko games. Although Nobunaga kept on winning, Harumi noticed that with all the practice, she also became better at the different games they played. To her surprise she also noticed that she didn't hate Nobunaga's company. She tried to suppress that feeling. One way or the other, she would go back to her own time so she didn't want to get too much involved with the people in this era. That would only make it harder for her to leave them behind. Since Nobunaga came to visit her more ofter just like Hidemasa Harumi had less time for her research. Not that it really matters, she hadn't found a single thing. She had found some other interesting things though. One afternoon she stumbled upon a few books that were misplaced in the library. She had found some accounting books of the castle. Those books would normally stay in the office of one of the officials but some made their way to the library. Since economics was one of Harumi's passions she took them with her so she could study them and she how the finances within an ancient castle are done.

On a bleek morning Nobunaga announced that he had to go and deal with a dispute in one of his newer conquered regions. He, together with some of his warlords and a slamm army of a few hundred soldiers, left the next day. It was weird. Nobunaga hadn't said anything about it before hand to her or didn't even come to her to say goodbye. She could slap herself. How did that man weaseled his way into her heart? Of course he didn't care for her, how could she be so stupid to think that he did? Just because he gave her some attention! She decided that she wouldn't let it get to her and just try that much harder to find a way back to her own time. But to no avail. She couldn't find a thing and she already had been searching for weeks. Something that she did found was something wrong with the financial books of the castle. It looked like someone was draining money from the castle into their own pockets. She had no idea who it could be, but she was determent to find out who was behind this. There were a few people in the castle that Harumi knew couldn't have done this, one of which was Niwa Nagahide. Nagahide was one of Nobunaga's retainers and very loyal to him. Since he had just came back from a mission he wasn't accompanying Nobunaga this time. Secretly he gave her more books about the financials of the castle and help her investigate. Eventually they wound the culprit. Katsuro Honzo had the position of castle treasurer for a few years. He got the job after his father went into retirement. She had the guy locked up in one of the castle prison cells but didn't really know how to go from there. Of course he should pay back the money, but he also had a family that had nothing to do with all of this and she didn't want them to become beggars for something the pater familias had done. Well, this is something Nobunaga can figure out once he is back Harumi though to herself when she was reading another book in the hopes of finding some clue about time traveling. Frustrated she threw the book to the side. Again, nothing. She grunted while she rubbed her face violently.

"Is everything okay Nohime?" Rike-chan asked while she picked up the book.

"It's nothing." Harumi murmured. She finally got used to people calling her Nohime and responded to the name like it was her own.

"I know you have been worried for Nobunaga-sama, but he is great at winning war. He will come back." Rike-chan tried to comfort her. That wasn't what was bothering her at all but it was easier to agree than tell the truth. In these books she would never find the answer. Maybe her fist idea about looking for the real Nohime would be a better plan. Since Nobunaga and a lot of his warlords weren't here at the moment it would be a lot easier to sneak out of the castle. She could just go around villages and stuff and ask people if they had seen someone that looked like her.

At that moment Lin-chan barged in the room with a wide smile on her face.

"I just heard the news!" She exclaimed. "Nobunaga-sama will return tomorrow morning!" Both Rike-chan and Lin-chan were happy because they thought Harumi had been in a foul mood because her husband wasn't by her side. Harumi on the other hand heard her new plan fall into thousand pieces. No! She couldn't give up. Tonight, after dark when everybody went to bed she would sneak out of the castle and find the real Nohime no matter what.

That evening Harumi was very on edge. She didn't want to let her maids know about this plan and wanted them to leave as soon as possible so she had some time to prepare herself. She said she was very tired and they helped her in her sleeping kimono a lot earlier than normal. When her maids were finally gone Harumi got up and put one of her kimono's on. It looked like a five year old had dresses herself for the first time. Harumi couldn't figure out how to tie the obi correctly and the kimono itself was also not as snugly tucked in as when her maids helped her. It didn't really matter though. She went to the small kitchenette and grabbed a sharp knife. She also grabbed some bread and other stuff she might need like a warm overcoat. Luckily the moon was almost full so she could easily see what she was doing whit out turning on any light. She snuck true the garden to the wall that closed off the castle to the rest of the world. She hadn't noticed it, but the wall was pretty tall. She tried to jump and pull herself over the edge but that was easier sad than done. With the stiff and uncomfortable kimono it was almost impossible.

"Do you need a hand?" A low voice asked behind her when she was about to try again.