The Daughter Of Hideyoshi

Chapter 12

Mitsunari sighed as he started to clean the spot again. "But I will tell you this Harp. You see that man again, you either run away or you fight him. Do not let him take you, alright?" he said as I nodded. "Alright. I won't," I said, as the room fell silent. Mitsunari started to dab my knee with a wet cloth. At first, it didn't hurt that badly, but after a few moments, the soapy water started to sting a bit. I winced at the pain for a moment, as I settled my head back on the bed. "You alright?" he asked as I nodded. "Yeah, just stings. I'll be fine," I said, as I went back to my thoughts. My mind went back to what he said when he noticed me on the way home. "Mitsunari," I said, breaking the silence once again. Mitsunari looked up from my knee, as he went back to work. "Yeah?" he asked as I studied the ceiling. "How did that man know me?" I asked as the room fell silent once again. "Um. You probably ran into him once before and don't remember it. Probably when you were little," he explained. I took in what he told me, which made me think more. I wonder if the army knew him on a more personal level. "Would dad know?" I asked as Misunari shrugged. "I dunno. Your dad knows a lot of different people," he explained. I sighed as I studied the ceiling again and the little round light that sat in the middle of it. I pondered more on the topic but stayed silent due to not knowing what to say next. I heard the splash of water as a clean towel was placed on my knee.

"Almost done. I'm just going to wrap it quickly. Alright?" he asked as I nodded. "Alright," I said as I just lied there, thinking. I thought about some of the things that I had since I was little, that I brought with me when I came to live with the army. My curiosity wandered about the topic as Misunari sighed. "Alright. Just take it easy on it and limit running for a while" he said, as he stood up and started to take care of his mess. I sat up and looked at the fresh bandage as I turned my knee to examine it. "Thank you for taking care of it better," I said, as Misunari turned to look at me. "No problem. I just wanted to make sure it was properly cleaned," he explained then went back to work. I stood up as I started to walk around the room. I could still walk, but it was more like a limp than a normal walk. "Well. Defiantly can't run for a while," I said, as to let myself know. Mitsunari turned towards me. "Definitely no running. I suggest not to leave the territory until that wound is fully healed. Other than that, it might be better to walk around more. Just stop if it started to hurt too much," he said. A part of me felt like it was more of an order than anything, but I knew how it was when I got hurt. The army was always cautious about things like this.

I walked around the room as I examined the walls much better while I made my way slowly towards the door. I looked at Mitsunari as he was cleaning up the things he took out. "Need some help?" I broke the silence. Mitsunari glanced at me quickly as he shook his head. "No, I'm all set. I don't have much to clean up," he said, as I gave a slight nod. "Alright, just making sure," I said, as I gave a wave and walked out of the room. "Just take it easy and get some rest. Be careful not to bump the knee into anything," he said, as I nodded. "I won't. Thank you," I said, as I exited the room completely and started to walk down the hallway. I made sure that I walked carefully and didn't bump my knee into anything. Every once in a while, I glanced quickly at my knee to make sure that it wasn't unraveling as I walked. I took a deep breath as I looked up again, walking slowly to get used to the injury. It was more of a limp than a walk, but no pain appeared when I took my next step. I sighed as I continued down the hallway, wondering what to do next. I took a glance at my knee, seeing the pant leg bulging out because of the bandage. It didn't look normal compared to my other knee. It looked like my knee swelled three times its own size, making it very noticeable that it was the knee that was hurt. I took a deep breath as I looked up and continued to walk down the hallway.

I took a deep breath, bored at the pace that I was walking. I walked slightly slower than I normally did, seeing how I didn't want to hurt my leg even more. I would take a step and then my leg would dip down for a few seconds, seeing how my knee wasn't as strong as usual. It felt like all my strength was ripped right out, unable to return back into it. I held the wall like before, feeling like I could drop right there and then. I stopped for a moment to regain my strength while holding the wall next to me. Slowly, I got used to standing on it, while I leaned up against the wall. I stayed like this until the slow ripping pain eased out and I felt comfortable being in this position. I pushed the wall away from me as I lifted slowly into a standing position once again. I inched slowly away from the wall as I started to walk back down the hallway. Once again, it started as a limp then turned into regular walking again. A slight pain stretched through my knee, making me slow down for a little bit.   

Finally, I made it into my bedroom, inching my way in. I felt my knee become weaker, so I took a seat on the bed. I slowly bent my knee, feeling the pain stretch throughout the whole thing.  I winced as it throbbed, bending my chin down as if it'll help relieve the pain. Slowly, I straightened my knee, feeling the pain as it stretched itself out.  A little tear fell from my eye before I realized that I was crying from the pain. I fell back and lied down on the bed, pulling my left leg up, then struggled with my right. I lied down perfectly straight, then lifted my right leg up in the air. The knee throbbed a bit, so I kept it straight and still as can be until the pain stopped. Slowly, I bent my knee until it started to hurt and straightened it back out again. I did this for a few moments, then finally put it back down on the bed. I kept my knee strait to ease the pain. I took deep breaths as I lied there, which gave me something else to focus on rather than the pain. Once my knee was back to being comfortable, I sat up and placed my legs on the floor. I sighed as I looked at the closet, seeing a lot of my clothes hanging up. Shirts and pants hung up in the closet, as well as a jacket and a dress. I tilted my head as to wonder what still contained inside it.  I pressed my hands on my bed as I pushed up into a standing position once again. I hung on the dresser to keep my balance before I fell back down. I looked down at my knee as it throbbed for a few moments, then released. It was like it felt better to stand up, rather be sitting down. I took a little step, then limped as I made my way closer to the closet. 

Once I got to the closet as I rested myself up against my desk for support. I slowly turned and started to look at the clothes that I kept inside. It was full of bulky jackets that held some type of felt inside. Each jacket was different in both color and material. I looked next to the jacket as I saw a few flannels. They were all the same material, but different in pattern and color. Each one was a soft material and a tad bit too big for me.  I looked on the floor of the closet to see some shoes.  Sneakers and boots lined up in a neat square on the right and a cardboard box on the left. The box had a dress that fell off of the hanger and landed on the upper half of the box. I picked up the dress as I stretched it out, looking at it for anything that might've got onto it while it was on the floor.  I didn't see anything wrong, so I grabbed a free hanger and hung it back onto the hook.

I looked at the box again as I pulled it out. It was a tad bit hard, seeing that it was wedged between two containers, but not enough to squish it. It was made out of thick cardboard, heavy enough that it didn't bend into itself. I pulled it out until it was completely out of the closet. The box looked warned out,  with dust all over the top. the upper lid looked bent out away from the rest of the box. I opened the box to look inside, seeing a bunch of things that I had from before I moved into the army. I picked through the box to look at each item. The first Item was a blanket, looking like it was tightly knitted together. It was made out of soft, light pink yarn. It looked hand made but it felt like it was made out of a factory. I opened it up to look at it, then I folded it back up like before and moved onto the next item. 

The next couple of items were just different tee shirts with cute little animals printed onto then. Some were shirts, both long and short, some were pants and some socks. I unfolded to look at each one as I studied them in confusion.  Why would the army keep some of my clothing back from when I was a kid?  I refolded the clothes as I put them with the blanket, similar to the way I found them. I looked in the box again to see a little picture book lying on the bottom and a stuffed animal right next to it.  I pulled out the book as I looked at it. A light yellow cover with a few animals printed on it. the book didn't have a title on the front cover, due to it being warm outside. I flipped through the book slowly, seeing that some of the pages were either ripped out or cut in half.  Carefully, I put the book down and looked in the box again to find something else lying next to where the book was.

I pulled it out to see a little stuffed cat. It was big enough to cuttle with but small enough to cuddle with. I turned it around to examine it more, feeling the soft material all around it. It felt like it was filled with stuffing, but had some beads in all the paws and the end of the tail. The eyes were black marbles with purple circles to show where the purple ended. I looked at it in confusion as I looked at the other things. "Why would the army keep all this stuff?" I asked myself in confusion. It made me think back when I first started to live with the army and how we went back to the camp. Many questions started to run through my mind, which got me even more confused. It made me think back to the people that we saw on the way back home. I looked out the window as I thought for a moment. "Who were those people?" I asked myself as I watched the passing clouds.  I shook my head as I placed everything back in the box and pushed it back in the closet. I struggled to get up as I started to turn around. "Maybe dad would know," I told myself as I walked out of the room, wanting to know more information.