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The first time Hinoka tried sneaking out of the castle to rescue Corrin, was when she was seven.
That night, she couldn’t sleep.
Every time she tried, she would toss and turn with the antsy feeling that she could be doing something more. She felt so restless.
It had been just over a month since their lives were turned upside down. Their father died–no, was murdered–and their sibling Corrin was taken to Nohr.
In the turmoil that followed, Hinoka could only watch as her stepmother did her best to settle the dust with the help of a few retainers. Her older brother Ryoma came back alive, but refused to eat or talk for several weeks. Her younger siblings, too young to understand anything, were now without a father.
After crying all the tears she thought she had, she decided she was done crying. She was the second princess of Hoshido, she would do what she could to help. She reasoned that if she could get Corrin back, her family would be whole again.
She had heard rumors that Yukimura, their strategist, devised a plan to get Corrin back, using… less savoury means. She decided that she wanted to help them, so she quietly got out of her bed and snuck out of her room.
She had planned to sneak to the stables, hoping to catch whatever plan Yukimura had in progress. But she didn’t get very far before a castle guard stopped her.
“Lady Hinoka, where are you going?”
“Uh… Just going to the bathroom,” she lied.
The guard gave her a look, “The bathroom is that way,” he pointed in the opposite direction.
Hinoka stammered, trying to think of an excuse. She did not think very far ahead.
“What’s going on here?” Yukimura’s voice interrupted. The guard told him how he found the young princess wandering the castle halls.
Yukimura knelt down and looked the little girl in the eyes, “It’s way too late for you to be up, young lady.”
“I…I couldn’t sleep, I kept thinking about Corrin,” she finally answered somewhat truthfully.
Yukimura was silent. Finally, he patted her head, “Don’t worry Lady Hinoka, we’ll get them back.”
“Really?” Hinoka’s eyes lit up. “Then, then here!” She took a hairpin from her pocket and handed it to him. “Show this to Corrin, this will convince them to come back!”
Yukimura accepted the gift with a sad smile. “Let’s get you back to bed.”
The second time Hinoka tried to sneak out of the castle, was when she coerced her new sister to show her a route back to Nohr.
Yukimura’s plans to get Corrin back didn’t work. Instead of them, a blue-haired young girl stood in their place.
“You’re not Corrin,” Hinoka huffed, when this girl was introduced to them.
“Hinoka!” Ryoma reprimanded her.
“Her name is Azura, please be kind to her,” Mikoto told the children. Hinoka glared at her.
At first, Hinoka was hostile to this new girl. After all, she was just a replacement. But one day, she found out that this girl did live in the Nohrian capital, where Corrin was supposedly taken.
“You know where they are, right? Take me to them,” she demanded.
“...”
Azura was a girl with few words. Hinoka didn’t know how to interact with her sometimes, when she would just stare back blankly.
“Come on, I’ll let you play with my favourite doll,” she even tried bribing.
Again, Azura just stared at her, expressionless.
Frustrated, she grabbed Azura’s arm and pulled her along. It didn’t matter yet how to get to Nohr; the first thing they needed to do was get out of the castle anyway. They can figure out the rest later.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
They didn’t get very far. Ryoma stood in their path, arms crossed.
“I’m uh… taking Azura to see the town!” Hinoka exclaimed. Ryoma raised an eyebrow and looked at the girls.
“Is that true, Azura?” he asked.
Azura shook her head, much to Hinoka’s annoyance. “We’re going to Nohr,” she said calmly.
“Oh really now,” Ryoma glared at Hinoka.
In a panic, she tried to run away… and was promptly grabbed and dragged back to the castle by Ryoma. She growled at Azura, who stuck out her tongue at her.
And that was the end of her second attempt.
Over time, the pain of losing Corrin had dulled. But it never went away. Hinoka still thought that there was a way–there must be a way–to get their sibling back, one way or another.
When she was eleven, she chose a day when both her mother and brother were busy entertaining some important guests. Finally, there would be no one getting in her way. She was more prepared this time too, as she gathered a bag of food and water for the journey.
Quietly, she made her way down the empty hallways, careful to avoid the rooms where those guests were staying. She made it as far as the courtyard, and breathed a sigh of relief. She took one step, and felt small hands grabbing at her leg.
She looked down, and to her dismay, a young Sakura–who had just turned four–stared up at her with big innocent eyes. The young child laughed and reached upward for a hug.
“Sorry Sakura, not now,” Hinoka tried to push her little sister away while trying not to attract attention.
“Big Sister Hinoka!” another little voice called out. Hinoka gulped as she saw Takumi barreling toward her. “Play with us!”
Hinoka groaned inwardly. She had accounted for Ryoma and Mother, but failed to account for interference from her younger siblings.
She tried very hard to explain why now was not a good time to play, but it only resulted in Sakura bawling, calling every guard and servant in the vicinity to come see the commotion.
This attempt too, ended in failure, and an earful of lectures from Ryoma.
Not long after that, Hinoka decided to take up being a sky knight. With a pegasus, she could simply fly to Nohr, and nobody could catch her.
Queen Mikoto was adamantly against it. She was worried that the kind-hearted Hinoka was ill-suited for combat.
But it didn’t matter. Hinoka was stubborn, and she trained in secret. She wasn’t very good at hiding it though, and word soon got to Ryoma.
He sighed in exasperation. “Are you sure you want to do this?” To be honest, he was surprised she even wanted to hold a weapon. The Hinoka he knew was gentle and timid, and didn’t even want to hold a knife.
She looked away, pouting. “Yeah. It’s not fair that you get to play with a cool weapon and I don’t.”
Ryoma, barely an adult himself, opened and closed his mouth a few times. He didn’t know how to explain to her that it wasn’t his choice that he now possessed their father’s sword.
Instead, he groaned. “Fine, then show me how serious you are. Practice one hundred swings with the naginata every day for a month. If you can do that, then I’ll help you convince Mother. But if you can’t, you have to give up being a sky knight.”
He had hoped this challenge would discourage her.
But to his utter surprise, Hinoka kept her word. She practiced every day, rain or shine, for a full month. Upon seeing her calloused hands, covered with scratches and bruises, Ryoma had no choice but to keep his word.
Elated, Hinoka kept practicing. It took months of hard work, but finally she got to a point where she could ride her pegasus with confidence.
And the first thing she did, was try to find her way to Nohr, to Corrin.
But she was careless, once again. Her pegasus refused to fly in the middle of the night, making a racket in the stables. As she struggled to get the beast under control, a voice called out to her from the entrance.
“Hinoka? What are you doing here this late?”
Queen Mikoto stood there with a look of concern. While she relented and allowed Hinoka to become a sky knight, she was still fearful she would do something reckless, like flying out in the middle of the night.
“Nothing,” Hinoka replied, trying to ignore her.
“You’re not trying to… go find Corrin, are you?”
Hinoka gritted her teeth. “Don’t tell me what to do! You’re not even my real mother!”
She regretted those words as soon as she said it, but it was too late to take them back.
Mikoto’s face fell, her lips pursed into a thin line. “That’s true,” she replied in a quiet voice, “But I still care about you.”
The young girl didn’t know how to reply. She was too stubborn to admit her mistake and apologize, so she simply stormed off.
They didn’t talk for a few days after that.
Hinoka was glad Ryoma never found out about what she actually said; she had a feeling he’d be furious if he did. He did however, find out about her escape attempt.
“Hinoka, can you please just.. stop.”
She did sort of stop attempting to go rescue Corrin, but not because she gave up. As Hinoka got older, she realized how naive her younger self was. They wouldn’t just let her waltz into Nohr, she needed to be much more prepared.
When she was fifteen, she finally felt she was prepared enough. She was confident with a naginata, and had a good bond with her pegasus.
Today was the day. It was the day before the anniversary of when Corrin was taken. How amazing would it be if she brought them back for that!
She had prepared supplies for travel, already snuck into a saddle bag stashed in the stable. She looked at a map and prepared a route, it didn’t even look that far if she flew straight there. As for the Nohrian guards that surely waited, she would simply blow them away with her naginata. Then all she had to do was scoop up Corrin onto her pegasus and fly home.
She waited until dinner time, and excused herself for not feeling well. While everyone ate dinner, she snuck to the stables to get ready. If anyone asked, she was simply going for a leisure ride to calm her mind.
It was easy, almost too easy, to leave the castle behind atop her pegasus. She was surprised by how far she made it.
As she flew towards Nohr, or at least, where she thought Nohr was, according to her map, the sun sank below the horizon. Her pegasus started to act uneasy.
“Woah there, it’s alright,” she patted his neck, soothing it.
Suddenly, a gust of wind caught her off guard, was she flying too high? She gasped as drops of rain hit her skin. Her pegasus whinnied.
“Wait!” she cried out as her mount descended. It seemed like he didn’t want to fly in the rain.
“Ugh, what now…” she groaned as they landed. The rain was coming down harder, and it was hard to see in the dark. She led her pegasus under a tree. Maybe they could just wait out the rain.
She started to wonder what her family was doing. Did they even notice she was gone? Nah, they were probably too preoccupied with thinking about Corrin. She giggled to herself, imagining walking into the throne room and surprising everyone that she had rescued Corrin.
An ominous growl interrupted her thoughts. She peered into the darkness, trying to see what it was. A wild animal? Her grip tightened on her naginata.
Staring back at her were pairs of glowing red eyes. The rain had subsided, and the clouds parted, allowing the moonlight to illuminate several large, misshapen bodies coming out of the woods. They look humanoid, but are unmistakably not human.
What…what are those?
Hinoka stared at the grotesque monsters in front of her. Terrified, she shook like a leaf as she held out her naginata in front of her, her knuckles white as she gripped the weapon with all her might.
The monsters, unfazed by her threat, roared and came toward her.
Am I going to die…?
She closed her eyes, and tears streamed down her face.
“Hinoka!”
She gasped and looked up as streaks of lightning lit up the darkness. Ryoma, leading a squad of soldiers, came running toward her and her assailants. Relieved, her legs gave out and she fell to the ground. Tears blurred her vision as she watched her brother and the others dispatch these hideous things.
They were both silent on the way back home. Hinoka could tell that Ryoma was angry with her. She avoided his gaze as he pulled her up and helped her back onto her pegasus. She knew she was in for it when they got back home.
When they got back to the castle, Ryoma pulled her into her room and closed the door behind them.
“Sit,” Ryoma pointed to the floor. Hinoka sat obediently with her legs tucked under her. He sat in front of her, crossed his arms, and stared at her. Unable to meet his intense gaze, she looked at the floor instead.
Silence hung in the room for what felt like an eternity.
“What were you thinking?” Ryoma finally spoke up, making her jump.
She continued to stare at the floor nervously and didn’t reply. This wasn’t new; Ryoma had lectured her many times before. But somehow, this felt different.
“Do you have any idea how worried we were?” Ryoma continued. “Mother was beside herself with worry, and I had to insist on going to put her mind at ease.”
A mixture of emotions swirled inside her. She was ashamed that she had to be rescued but relieved that she was alive, frustrated her plans ended in failure yet again, and annoyed that she was getting blamed for their mother’s troubles.
She blurted out something she probably shouldn’t have.
“Mother doesn’t care about me. All you guys care about is Corrin.”
Suddenly, the air in the room crackled with static electricity. Her hairs bristled and stood on end. She looked up, and gulped.
The fire in the lanterns in the room exploded, threatening to spill out of their container, causing the shadows to sway ominously.
Ryoma’s eyes flashed with anger, his lips twisted into a frown.
“Do you think we wouldn’t care… that I wouldn’t care if you got yourself killed?!”
Hinoka gasped and looked back at the floor, frozen in fear. It was rare to see her brother actually angry. He had always been calm, patient, and kind. She had seen him exasperated, frustrated, annoyed, but never full out angry.
Her lips wibbled. She realized that this time, she had really caused him trouble, and that if he hadn’t come to rescue her, she’d probably be dead right now.
She burst into tears; her shoulders shook as she sobbed into her hands uncontrollably.
The electric crackling subsided, and the fire went back to normal, as Ryoma sighed, seeing her reaction. He palmed his face as he sat back.
“Hinoka, please…” he said wearily, “Even if we get Corrin back, it’s meaningless if you died in the process. I don’t want to lose anyone else. Losing you would break us… would break me.”
She looked up at him through her tears. It was only now that she noticed how tired and defeated he looked. Now that she was older, she was finally starting to understand the pressure he was under, trying to fill their father’s shoes and hold the family together… and she was not helping, by adding one more worry for him.
And that thought caused her to cry even harder, having realized how inconsiderate she was.
“I’m… sorry…” she mumbled between hiccups.
He stared at her silently as she cried, composing the words in his head. Finally, he shuffled closer and gave her an awkward pat on her shoulder.
“Look, I don’t mind you causing me trouble, that’s my duty as your older brother. But…” he gave her shoulder a squeeze, “If anything happened to you, I don’t know how I’d ever face Mother and Father.”
She wiped her tears and nodded.
“So let’s stop these little escapades, ok? I’ll make sure we get Corrin back one day.”
A lump formed in the back of her throat. Despite everything, she didn’t want to stop. It had become her purpose in life, what else was she to do?
She shook her head and pleaded, her breath shaky from her sobs, “No, I can’t give up! It… it’s what keeps me going.”
Ryoma looked taken aback at her words. He stared at her pleading eyes.
“I know I will… continue to… cause you and Mother… to worry but….” she said between gasps, “I want to… get stronger. I want to help… protect our family too.”
At that, Ryoma relented. He heaved a deep sigh.
“Then how about this,” Ryoma handed her a handkerchief, “You need to train a lot more before trying again. I can help you with that if you like.”
He looked her in the eyes; he decided that if he couldn’t stop her, the next best thing was to make sure she was ready.
Hinoka nodded. She never wanted to feel like that again in front of an enemy.
“Also, don’t go off alone,” he ruffled her hair, “Find some capable retainers to go with you.”
Retainers… She liked the sound of that.
“Lastly,” he stood up and walked toward the door, “Make sure you go and apologize to Mother.”
Hinoka did not stop trying to get Corrin back after that. She started volunteering when there were reports of Faceless attacks, hoping there was a clue to get Corrin back.
But she did keep Ryoma’s words in her mind, and made sure she was ready.