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Ogata didn’t know why he agreed to this.
He could have so easily told the kid no, yet here he was.
Did Koharu even know how to shoot? Why did they even ask?
Didn’t they have their own group they stuck around? Wait. Why did they ask him? They did have their own group they usually tagged along with. The fact Koharu was with him right now, of all people, was even more surprising considering who they hung around with. He would have expected Kyōma to have, at the very least, mentioned him once to the kid.
Maybe he did. Maybe he didn’t.
He didn’t care enough to pry.
Maybe a little.
“Mr Ogata, there’s a duck over there!” They pointed out.
Before he could even look, Koharu started speaking again.
“Do you know anything about my father?”
Ah. So this is what this was all about. Made sense—why else would they want to speak to him?
He didn’t know much about Koharu, only that they were looking for their father who is supposedly apart of the 7th division. He wondered why they would go through such lengths to look for their father, considering that they joined the hunt for the gold.
He finally replied, after some thought, “No. You haven’t given much detail.”
“I don’t know a lot myself, too! I never actually met him.” They explained, in an oddly cheerful tone.
“Really?” That piqued his interest, ever so slightly.
They nodded, before continuing, “Yeah! My mama said he must have been a soldier.” He could make out the implications of that.
“She died. So I want to find my father, so he could take care of me!”
Oh. Ogata didn’t know what to expect with this kid, but it wasn’t that, that’s for sure. Koharu was horrifically blunt.
“I didn’t really know my father either.”
What the hell? Did he seriously just say that? Right now?
He didn’t realise he had even replied until he had finished his sentence. It was too late to take any of it back.
Koharu seemed to just stare at him, as if insisting he continue.
There wasn’t a simple way to back out of the conversation now, he might as well go on.
“I guess I did eventually meet him. You’ll find yourself disappointed if you do too, though.”
Giving them advice now too? He wasn’t even sure where he was going with this.
“Why?”
“He doesn’t love you.”
Perhaps he could have phrased it less harshly—but they needed to hear it. It was the truth.
Why else does a man leave a woman he’s had a child with? It was simple. Koharu clearly hadn’t figured that one out yet.
“Because your father doesn’t love you?” Koharu asked, looking him dead in the eye.
He was at a loss for words. Did they seriously just say that?
He should just shoot them right there.
No—they were just a stupid kid. It would be irrational to kill them for pointing out the obvious. He didn’t need to make more enemies while he was still getting used to having one eye.
“Let’s just hunt some ducks.” He said flatly, walking off like they didn’t just ask that.
It seemed like they took the hint, and followed along without another word.
“Do you know how to shoot?”
“Kyō taught me!”
Perhaps they could get along, after all.