The only reason why he had been able to keep this assurance was because Hokuto managed to call up and charm the ticket office into booking him a last-minute seat to Kyōto and send him flying out of the apartment and into a taxi to Shinagawa station with a travel bag packed in record time. Since the unknown force that had brought Subaru back to his past had not included a corresponding work schedule in his memory Subaru had been forced to improvise an excuse of absentmindedness and, in the flustered conversation that followed, assure that he would take the next train out and fulfil his duties that afternoon. Not three days ago, the very Friday after which he had woken to find himself and his entire world nine years in the past, he had received a call from the Sumeragi main house asking why he wasn't in Kyōto as expected to perform the shrine purifications in preparation for the anticipated influx of proud parents and young children on the weekend. He let his gaze and thoughts drift from the woman seated in front of him. The impression didn't really work on him anymore – Subaru had grown up in this house, had his earliest lessons in this very room.ĭespite its familiarity and comfort, it was Subaru's being here in the first place that was the entire reason for inner agitated state. Everything in the room was elegantly simple, designed to give the impression of quiet wealth and heavy tradition. He tried to find something to focus on, but there wasn't much. Subaru was far too polite and well-trained to fidget however his eyes roamed restlessly. In front of him his grandmother was performing a tea ceremony, slowly, like an artist arranging a tiny bonsai. The thirteenth head of the Sumeragi clan knelt on a cushion that wasn't quite thick enough to counteract the hardness of the tatami-covered floor. The whole atmosphere of the room – indeed, the entire compound, a little piece of old Japan in a time where the past retreated further and further away – radiated the most utmost sense of calm. There was no sign of any servant around, and even if had been the men and women who attended the Sumeragi were as collected and dignified as the family members themselves. Leafy trees shaded the lake beyond the veranda, the water rippling with an errant breeze that spun the clouds into translucent veils in the blue sky. The warm, slightly tangy scent of tea wafted through the late autumn air, adding to the aura of peace and serenity that pervaded the Sumeragi family home.