CHAPTER 302: CHAPTER 223: WELCOME HOME

"And then what happened?" Minamoto Tamako couldn’t help but wipe her tears.

As Ito Mayu recounted the past, the residents showed expressions of nostalgia, occasionally interjecting to add some small details, making the characters in her mind even more vivid.

"Koizumi really liked eating dumplings, she would always chew on them non-stop..."

"Yes, and she loved to paint too, all the village posters were drawn by her..."

"Sometimes when I tapped her on the shoulder from behind, she’d get startled..."

The residents of the town back then are now all middle-aged, sitting on the edge of the cliff with their husbands or wives, chatting about the past with bitter smiles.

That lingering sadness, like a wet sea breeze, roars past, leaving behind nearly transparent grains of salt, which accumulate over time, forming a thick white crust.

Ever since that ferry left the harbor, Koizumi Mizuki has been like a lost soul, standing day and night on the cliff, gazing at the horizon.

Her boyfriend jumped ship with their daughter halfway, their whereabouts unknown. The crew sent a telegram thinking they must have drowned, reporting it as "cargo damage."

Perhaps out of guilt, or maybe because Koizumi Mizuki picked up a kitchen knife, Mr. Tsuchiya didn’t continue to entangle with her but instead relayed the news of the damage, pretending to be sympathetic by offering a trivial compensation.

Afterward, Koizumi found a job as a lighthouse keeper, watching the harbor day and night.

Whenever there was a ferry entering the harbor, she would run to take a look, repeatedly spelling out Sakurako’s name with awkward hand gestures. Both crew members and fishermen knew her, and when they disembarked on the return trip, they were accustomed to shaking their heads.

Ito Mayu also grew up, entering a rebellious phase, yearning for the big city. Every time she argued with her parents, she would go to the lighthouse to find Sister Koizumi. The latter could always make her feel a gentle strength, silent yet firm, as resilient as wildflowers in the cracks of rocks.

"Why do you keep waiting? Sister Koizumi, have you never thought about... starting over?"

She lowered her head, sitting side by side with Koizumi Mizuki on the lawn. Upon hearing these words, Koizumi gently spelled out with her hands:

"She will definitely come back."

"I will always wait for her."

...

This wait lasted for three years.

Seasons came and went, the cold and heat unrelenting, as Ito Mayu spent three years of her youth. In spring, she’d go to the hills to pick flowers, encountering Koizumi Mizuki guarding the cliff, shouting: "They won’t come back! Sister, go home!" When winter snowed, as she came with friends to build snowmen, she found Koizumi still sitting there, covered in a thick layer of snow.

As white as salt.

...

On the day Ito Mayu graduated, she went to see a movie with friends. The film being screened was "Hachiko Monogatari," which she had never heard of before but knew it was about an Akita dog.

As a country girl, she couldn’t relate to the movie. Adopting Hachiko wasn’t a rare thing in the countryside, she too had raised an Akita dog, which was temperamental and stubborn. It later ran away, and she was sad for a few days, but soon it was over.

However, when she saw Hachiko waiting day after day at Shibuya Station, tears inexplicably fell.

Her friends laughed at her for being melodramatic; in the cinema, no one else was moved. The film was misplaced for an audience in a rural town, everyone seemed sleepy, only Ito Mayu was in tears.

"Don’t you think it’s cruel?" she asked her friend, "To let it wait for someone who won’t come back, what’s the point of such persistence?"

Her friend couldn’t answer, finding Ito Mayu strange, overly serious, did she really get moved by a foolish dog?

Suddenly wanting an answer, Ito Mayu bid farewell to her friends and took a bus back to the town. Her parents were delighted to see her return, eager to keep her for a meal. But she couldn’t wait a moment and inquired about Sister Koizumi’s recent well-being.

Unexpectedly, her parents looked uneasy and hesitated. After much questioning, Ito Mayu learned that a few detectives from the investigation department had come to town, claiming to fight against violent gangs, constantly troubling Mr. Tsuchiya and his gang members.

Koizumi Mizuki saw reliable police arriving in town and thought of asking the investigation department to help find her daughter. Mr. Tsuchiya worried she’d report it to the police, so he obstructed her in every possible way, often bringing people to intimidate her.

People offered her a suggestion, advising her to contact a newspaper to publish a missing person notice rather than waiting alone, thus avoiding angering Mr. Tsuchiya and inviting revenge.

Koizumi Mizuki went to Shizuoka Prefecture alone, pleading with a newspaper to publish a missing person notice, yet reluctant to reveal her full address, fearing her daughter might encounter Mr. Tsuchiya’s people upon her return home.

The editor-in-chief found her pitiful, softened, and agreed, removing the joke column in the corner of the newspaper, replacing it with a small missing person notice.

The investigation department learned of this, visited Koizumi Mizuki for questioning, and repeatedly assured her they would ensure her safety.

In written exchanges, Koizumi Mizuki truthfully recounted all she had been through to find her daughter. The investigation department stationed one detective, while the others returned to submit reports, complete procedures, and mobilize reinforcements.

That night, Mr. Tsuchiya bribed the stationed detective, dragged Koizumi Mizuki out of the lighthouse, summoned all residents to witness, and in the square where bonfires were lit on Hot Spring Street, had people beat her with sticks.

"This is the consequence of snitching!"

Mr. Tsuchiya made an example of her, only stopping when residents knelt, begging him to spare the barely alive Koizumi Mizuki. Afterward, he went to the local police station to arrange matters in advance, filing a missing persons report for Koizumi, to keep her from appearing before the police again.

That day, Ito Mayu cried herself hoarse, unable to find the answer she sought.

The residents called in a surgeon for emergency help, but Koizumi Mizuki, teetering on the edge of life and death, couldn’t pull through after two days.

As she was about to close her eyes for the last time, everyone gathered around her, sobbing quietly, only then realizing that the once coal-like girl was part of their family too.

In her final moments, Koizumi Mizuki used her hands to convey her last wishes.

Though everyone said it was impossible, claiming it couldn’t be done, they quietly remembered her words. They had complained countless times before, saying Koizumi Mizuki was a burden, better if she starved sooner.

But in fact, Koizumi Mizuki never went hungry for a day; she grew up in this convergence of mountains and sea, and when they buried her beneath the lighthouse, it was as if she had finally returned home.

That short stone pillar served as Koizumi Mizuki’s tombstone.

...

"If one day"

"The person I love, or the person you love"

"Returns from the other side of the sea to the cliff"

"Please shout"

"Her name"

"Welcome home"

...

Taira Sakurako stood on the deck, the cliff ahead shrouded in darkness, the sea breeze wailing, like a ghostly realm.

The sea swayed, she held onto the railing, turning to ask the crew how much farther — the dancing girl claimed Koizumi Mizuki had a relic for her, so she followed to the port, taking a ship around to the cliff side.

The crew glanced at his watch, saying ’soon,’ just as he’d said half an hour ago. Taira Sakurako grew wary, her hand stayed in the paper box, gripping the gun handle since boarding.

She had grown accustomed, accustomed to malice surrounding her, accustomed to her life being tossed about. As Fushimi Roku said, the world is full of thorns, to survive, one must adapt. Escape holds no meaning, and she had no path of retreat to even flee...

At that moment, dawn broke.

The first beam of light pierced the sea surface, like Moses parting the Red Sea, darkness splitting between the cliff and sea, flocks of returning seagulls flew by.

Taira Sakurako’s gaze fell by the lighthouse, where a group of unfamiliar people stood, shouting towards her in loud voices brought to her ears by the sea breeze:

"Sakurako——"

"——Welcome home!"

Taira Sakurako turned around, showing a puzzled look. The crew sheepishly scratched his head, "Sorry, we lied to you, Koizumi couldn’t leave anything behind..." he paused, collecting his expression, seriously continuing: "But she wanted her daughter to know before she passed, that she was always here waiting, never giving up, there existed a harbor that once belonged to you."

Indeed, every incomplete soul is searching for a home.

There will always be someone, waiting just for you.