Yes, she does. Her return gifts find her waiting for you - in a now somehow
extra tidied-up room - for the opportunity. When the you point out that it was just some fruit that she doesn't have to worry about repaying, her response is that the fact that it was from you means that it was certainly not '
just some fruit' even before accounting for time spent in gifting or the meaning behind the gift.
At this point I would put forward a reminder that Hime basically always talks as if she's at a formal event with an audience scrutinizing her every move and waiting to pounce. So she tends to give formal reasoning on why honor/tradition/protocol dictated that she
absolutely had to do something and it
absolutely has no bearing on what she wanted to do,
winkwink. This is to say, it tends to have a lot of courtly doublespeak and deniability, and requires some reading between the lines as she gives a formal justification (read: plausible deniability) for something she intended to do regardless.
Anyways, in the case I just pulled up, her gift is her giving you what amounts to a private concert for her playing the Koto, capping off with a rare crack in Kinu's armor:
Or she might give you a luck charm she made herself, described as "a small effigy of a fox, meticulously put together from rice straw and complete with a tiny red bib tied about its neck." Or yes, trail
rations, which I must correct a misconception on: Trail Rations are not Trail Mix. By the game's own description,
Trail Rations are a nonperishable meal for three. She made that herself specifically to give you something she made that was non-perishable and that you could eat on your journey both for sustenance and as a reminder of home. As she herself explicitly puts it she made it utilitarian due to your circumstances.
And then of course there's the mystery gift. No idea what it actually is, but it's described as a large gift-wrapped box, the contents of which she chose in hopes it would be useful on your travels...and which the scene makes clear she put way too much time into getting the presentation perfect. "The wrapping may be simple, but it's clear that Kinu's spent an inordinate amount of time on the gift's presentation — there's nary a wrinkle in the cloth wrapping, and the bow about the top is incredibly elaborate."
Alternatively, she can give you a peck on the cheek. Side note, if you have Kiyoko in your party, she knows how to throw Kinu off her game and has variants for a few of the scenes, including gifting Kinu with berries (which is rather cute), and her Koto recital. But to keep things short, let's stick with the kiss on the cheek.
You ask in a later post how you can trust that Hime's affection is genuine. For what it's worth, Cait seems to believe it (berries scene), noting that conveying the degree of caring she hears in Kinu's speech artificially tends to take a lifetime of practice.
More than that, however, I think I mentioned something about Hime's dialogue requiring one to read a bit more between the lines? That's not entirely figurative. What she says is only part of the story being told. We see more of it in reading about how the physical details play in, how your character reacts, how she reacts to that reaction. Hime's better at intuiting and empathizing with others than Shoujo, and on that does make her a slightly tougher nut to crack, but she's certainly not a black box. For all that she couches her speech in justification and formality, she's no more a heartless Machiavellian than Shoujo is.
But back to the point, let's take a look at the return gifts themselves. The kiss on the cheek is difficult to put a price tag on, but it's a rare explicit show of affection nonetheless. Even if we take her at her word about equivalent value, what does it say to you that she thinks the equivalent value of you giving her a peach, a handful of wild berries, or a melon - things you probably picked up in the woods as an afterthought while walking to the den - is a
private recital? A meticulously handmade effigy of her own creation? A meal for three for you to take on your journey? Whatever was in that package that she spent so long trying to make look perfect? Does that not speak to the value she puts on the simple fact that it was a gift from
you?
Kinu's older, but whether she's Hime or Shoujo, she's still very much the same girl that desperately wanted you specifically to be proud of her as a child. And while Hime is more stolid and a stickler for manners and decorum, that trait is still evident in the excitement she shows when she gets to show you her art, when she gets nervous when it's time for you to voice your opinions on her recital. It's evident when she was visibly on edge after you confront her about not telling you about her engagement, knowing full well that her father and her fiancee had some bad blood between them, and when she tries to hide her blush when you cap off that conversation expressing how important it was to you to be able to attend that wedding.
She goes about it in a roundabout way, but she'll still ask you for "what should I do" advice in light of everyone telling her that Nakano is a hopeless cause, despite feeling in her heart that she can help him (variant shogi dialogue). The scenes repeatedly make it clear that - and I quote - "underneath [her confidence] you can tell that your fox-daughter is absolutely begging for your recognition and approval". Any time she shows off her music or artwork, the scenes describe an apprehensive excitement. When you express an interest in seeing some of her art, "Kinu visibly brightens, her ice-blue eyes lighting up and ears perking with energy. Does she... does she look
embarrassed?""
For clarity, I am not trying to sell you the idea that Hime is superior to Shoujo. I have no interest in that pissing contest, neither directly nor by proxy. The two are simply different and whichever a given person prefers is going to depend in large part on which values they personally put a premium on. What I am disputing is the idea that Hime doesn't obviously care for or respect you. That she plays it closer to the vest than Shoujo doesn't mean that she cares less.
