After finishing her sentence, Ume stood up and opened a rickety wooden cabinet to her right. The piece of furniture was so dilapidated that bundles of dried straw had been tied around it, seemingly to keep the frame from collapsing.
The interior of the cabinet was wiped clean. Tucked away in its deepest corner was half a desiccated rice ball. It contained a small pickled plum, its brownish hue now shriveled and dry, while the edges of the rice had hardened into a crust. It was clear the food had been sitting there for some time.
Ume reached in and pulled it out. As she looked at the morsel, she instinctively swallowed her saliva. This single rice ball was meant to be her rations for two days; she had eaten half yesterday, and this remaining portion was supposed to be her dinner tonight.
But... she glanced back at the pale-faced Kiyokazu. Gritting her teeth, she decided to hand the food to him. She didn't consider herself a good person, but she couldn't bring herself to watch someone starve to death right before her eyes.
Besides, she thought, Brother should be back tomorrow. I can handle being hungry for one day.
Placing the dry rice ball in front of Kiyokazu, Ume turned her head away, trying her best not to look at his face. "Eat this. Then get out of here before the sun goes down."
As luck would have it, the moment the words left her mouth, her own stomach let out a loud, traitorous growl.
Ume's face flushed a deep crimson. Overwhelmed by embarrassment, she dropped the rice ball by Kiyokazu's bedding and turned to leave.
But before she could move, Kiyokazu's voice stopped her.
"You're hungry too, aren't you? I can't finish this all by myself. Let's split it, half each."
Ume whipped her head around, ready to snap a refusal, but Kiyokazu cut her off.
"If you agree, I'll leave as soon as I'm done eating."
Ume froze. she turned back and looked at him, staring into eyes that were filled with genuine sincerity. She truly couldn't wrap her head around this person. He was clearly starving to the brink of death, so why was he insisting on giving her half?
She couldn't understand his logic; he seemed entirely out of place in this ugly, cruel world. Yet, she failed to notice that she herself was a stark contrast to the filth surrounding them.
Seeing that she hadn't left, Kiyokazu broke the rice ball in two, handed her the larger piece, and then—without a moment's hesitation—swallowed his own portion in one go.
In the sweltering heat of midsummer, the rice was already beginning to turn sour. The plum, for some reason, tasted bitter. The overall flavor was wretched, and the rice was so hard it felt like chewing on pebbles.
Kiyokazu didn't care. He ate quickly and with focused intent, making sure not a single grain was wasted, even picking the stray bits from between his fingers.
Watching him, Ume held her own portion, unable to take a bite. She knew he wasn't anywhere near full. But before she could make up her mind to give her piece back to him, he had already stood up.
Sun Breathing allowed his body to absorb the nutrients of the food with extreme efficiency. Though the amount was tiny, it was enough to sustain normal movement for a short period.
Seeing him stand, Ume's face flickered with surprise and alarm. Her hand moved instinctively toward her dagger, but remembering how he had insisted on sharing the food, she hesitated and held her position.
Kiyokazu noticed her subtle movement but merely smiled at her gently. "It's still very hot outside. I'd like to rest in the shade behind your house for a while. I have nowhere else to go. I'll leave when the sun sets, is that alright?"
He looked out the door at the blistering sunlight. It was the height of summer, and even the lush green leaves outside looked wilted and scorched.
"Suit yourself," Ume muttered. "Just stay out of the house. If you need water, ask me. Do not touch the water basin outside without permission!"
Kiyokazu nodded. "Thank you."
Ume didn't respond. She sat down where she was and began taking tiny, delicate bites of her half of the rice ball. This was a method she had discovered on her own: when food was scarce, chewing each tiny bite many times could trick the body into feeling more full than eating quickly would.
However, Kiyokazu hadn't even taken two steps toward the door before a chaotic clamor erupted outside.
The sudden noise startled Ume so much that her rice ball fell onto the floor.
Kiyokazu turned back to see her scrambling to pick up the food, her expression darkening as she looked toward the street. Within seconds, the muffled shouting became clear. He could hear the rough, violent barking of men and the panicked whimpers of women.
Ume's face was a mask of fear and disgust, though a glint of weary numbness—as if she were accustomed to this—flickered in her eyes. After retrieving her food, she sprang to her feet. Forgetting her wariness of Kiyokazu, she brushed past him and crouched down, peering through a crack in the wooden wall boards.
"What is it?" Kiyokazu asked, his voice low.
Ume didn't look back. Her voice carried a trace of suppressed anxiety. "It's the street managers. They're all goddamn bastards."
As she answered, her fingers instinctively clawed at the edge of the wall boards. Her knuckles were white, and the scratches on the wood suggested this was far from the first time she had hidden like this.
Kiyokazu's heart sank. A place like Yoshiwara was hell for most, and the area "across the Rashomon"—the lowest of the low—was even worse. Simply surviving was a struggle, even without the harassment of local thugs.
The footsteps and shouting grew louder, heading straight for their shack.
Through the crack in the door, Ume caught sight of a familiar, leering face. In that instant, she realized what was happening. She spun around, her face deathly pale, drained of every drop of color.
She looked at Kiyokazu, her eyes filled with a complex swirl of emotions, before she gritted her teeth and hissed in a low, urgent voice:
"Get out of here! Now! Those bastards realized my brother isn't home. They're coming for me! If you stay, I'll only drag you down with me! Run!"
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