Nobunaga was quite pleased with the change in behavior of his wise. Finally she addressed him with honorifics and acted as a woman ought to behave. Still, he clearly felt that there had become a rift between them. For the last couple of weeks he had barely seen her and although he was pretty sure she wasn't a spy, there was something else. He was determined to figure out what it was. With the new behavior of his wife also came some other things. They didn't talk like they used to and she was deliberately playing boardgames worst than before just so he would definitely win. He didn't need her pity to win. Nohime had become quite good at games, but most of the time she was no match for Nobunaga. He hated to only think it but his wife has become dull and boring. On the other hand, she did put more effort in her appearance. Nohime used to wear as pain as possible kimono's and never wore her hair up or put make up on. Not that she needed it. She was a natural beauty that could warm up the coldest of hearts. Now she wore beautiful kimono's with intricate designs on them, had her hair in a new hair style every day and wore make-up. She was beautiful. He didn't mind it one pit, he liked it that his wife was putting an effort in looking nice for him.
Harumi slowly woke up. Her body hurt from the strange sleeping position and she was cold. She could have sworn she had closed the door to outside yesterday but she had been so tired that she didn't know it anymore. She tried to sit up. Only then she noticed that her wrists and ankles were tied up. Scared she opened her eyes. She lay in the hard floor of a wooden box. There were no windows, only a small wooden door at the back that was closed. They were moving. She had to be in a carriage.
"HELP!" She started to yell while she tried to free herself from the ropes, to no avail. The only thing she managed to do was hurt her own skin on the rough ropes. With her feet she started to kick against one side of the carriage to make more sound. After a moment she heard two male voices laughing.
"I guess our guest is awake." One man said to the other while they kept on laughing. Was she being kidnapped? Harumi couldn't believe it. How could this have happened? She became dizzy from the anxiety and lied down again. Trying to get her breathing under control. Draining all her energy now wouldn't help her. She had to save as much as possible so she could escape as soon as the right moment presented itself. But she couldn't do nothing while she was being adducted. She tried to free herself from the ropes but they were too tight. Her wrist stung from the rough rope. On some places the skin was raw and a bit of blood colored some places of the rope crimson.
Harumi had no idea how long it took before the carriage finally stoped moving. She heard the two men speaking with each other but couldn't hear what they were saying. After a while she heard one of the men opening the lock on the room. Harumi wormed herself to a corner at the back wall of the carriage. When the door finally opened she saw past the man that it was already dark outside. He placed a bowl with some sort of porridge in the carriage before closing the door again. No way in hell was she going to eat that! It looked disgusting. Unfortunately her stomach had other plans. When they started moving again her stomach began to sing the sound of their people. Her stomach growled so loud the two men could probably hear her. She reminded herself about her plan to gain as much strength for when she could escape. Awkwardly she wormed back to the other end of the carriage were the porridge was. It smelled horrible. But the worst part was, she was still tied up. With tiers in her eyes she bowed over the small bowl and began eating as if she were an animal. Never in her life had she felt so humiliate, ashamed and degraded.