Tokyo: Rabbit Officer and Her Evil Partner Chapter 292 - 213

"Then why are they targeting you and not ?" Minamoto Tamako gently lectured, "You should learn to look for problems within yourself!"

Fushimi Roku treated her words as if they were wind; he wasn’t interested in hearing them, his ears directly blocked his sense of sll.

He could see that Taira Sakurako’s journey to find her family wasn’t going smoothly, and in all likelihood, Minamoto Tamako would eventually find out the truth—before that happened, he needed to think of a story in advance to fool Minamoto Tamako.

Each person was lost in their own thoughts; Taira Sakurako and the three-person group of reporters led the way, while Fushimi Roku and the Minamoto Tamako’s strange ninja duo followed behind.

They crossed mountain paths, heading to the coast, where early cherry blossoms blood on the cliffs under the Ishiraki Lighthouse, their petals falling like snowflakes onto the ink-colored ocean.

Taira Sakurako had an inexplicable premonition; she felt as if she had reached the end of her journey. There was only a small house by the coast, the lighthouse was not yet lit, and the afterglow of the setting sun lingered on the horizon.

Mizutani Hiroshi remained silent while Mori Haji focused the cara on her profile; she reached out and knocked on the door, which opened with a creak. A middle-aged man answered.

"Ah... Miss Koizumi..." He scratched his head, saying, "You’re really not here at a great ti..."

"What do you an?" Taira Sakurako asked.

"Well, what I an is, she’s been missing for many years," the middle-aged man said. "I took over her duty as the tower keeper, and I’ve never seen her return."

Taira Sakurako did not comnt; no one knew what expression lay beneath her mask. Mizutani Hiroshi stepped forward and inquired if there were any other leads.

The middle-aged tower keeper pondered for a mont and said, "Go ask Mr. Tsuchiya. He is the chairman of the Town District Autonomy Association, and it was he who reported the disappearance... If you’re looking for clues, he probably knows more than anyone else."

"Oh..."

Mizutani Hiroshi felt a slight sense of disappointnt, believing the other person was shirking responsibility, and by then they would still be doing pointless work. Out of professional habit, he casually asked, "How was Mr. Tsuchiya’s relationship with Miss Koizumi?"

"Pretty good, I guess?" the tower keeper said. "He’s a jovial person, and he gets along well with everyone."

Upon hearing this, Taira Sakurako and the others returned to the town district, headed to the residential area, and visited Mr. Tsuchiya.

The latter was a benevolent elder who, upon learning that Taira Sakurako and others were there to look for soone, warmly welcod them and started talking endlessly about Koizumi Mizuki’s past:

"Her mother died in childbirth, you know, in these remote mountain areas, it’s hard to get a reliable delivery doctor..."

"Her father Koizumi Taro was a drunkard, and no fisherman dislikes drinking. He was a decent drinker, just a bit lazy. One day, he suddenly beca diligent, went out to fish, and never ca back. The villagers said he abandoned his daughter and ran away..."

"Mizuki was about seven or eight years old at that ti, right? Hmm, about your age, roughly..."

"Everyone took care of her because she always liked to feed seagulls on the rocks, so everyone called her ’Seagull Girl’..."

"Although life was poor, it wasn’t to the point of starving; occasionally people would help Mizuki out. That child grew up eating food from many families, I suppose..."

"It’s a pity, later she t the wrong person, got involved with a wandering traveler, got pregnant, and her reputation in the village worsened..."

"Afterward? The traveler abandoned her! She wanted to have an abortion, but it was too late. She took dicine twice, yet the child wasn’t aborted; it was born with a disability, said to have ntal problems..."

"Mizuki didn’t want to raise the child, so she gave the child away."

"Maybe out of a guilty conscience, after so ti, Mizuki wanted to find the child again. She couldn’t get in touch with the man who adopted the child, so she had to ask the newspaper to print an article. She waited for three or four days with no results, and simply gave up..."

"Who would have thought that she’d been missing for so many years, and soone is still looking for her..."

"By the way, what is your relationship with her?"

...

As Mr. Tsuchiya finished speaking, the charcoal stove in the room crackled, and oyster shells on the iron net burst open, but no one responded.

Mizutani Hiroshi hadn’t expected that the search for family would end this way.

—The daughter searched tirelessly, only to learn that her mother had abandoned her long ago.

Thinking of this, he turned to look at Taira Sakurako, who still sat with the sa posture as when they entered, wearing a mask, revealing no expression.

"It’s nothing."

Taira Sakurako softly replied, "Just a relative, that’s all."

She got up, bowed to express her gratitude, and prepared to leave. Mr. Tsuchiya looked surprised and tried to keep them for the night, as there were no trains or taxis at that ti.

Taira Sakurako insisted on leaving, and Mizutani Hiroshi and Mori Haji quickly followed. The forr quietly comforted her, "Well, looking on the bright side, at least she is your mother..."

"No need to comfort ," Taira Sakurako said as she walked, "I’m already used to it."

She had grown accustod to being abandoned, which is why she always kept a distance from Fushimi Roku.

Especially when Fushimi Roku said, ’Look, "Fushimi Sakurako," from now on, when people ask, we’ll just be family’... Those words weighed heavily on her, making her exceptionally uneasy.

On the road back, she couldn’t help recalling her dream: to find a cozy little ho of her own and make it a new dream haven...

Taira Sakurako once reserved a place for that never-t woman in her future plans.

Now it appeared, it was rely her wishful thinking.

...

After the touring performance, Izu Town continued with a bonfire party.

Taira Sakurako walked through the bustling crowd, the sea breeze carrying the scents of pine resin and sea salt. Tourists laughed and clapped, local residents sang along to the music, and a dancing girl whirled beside her, making her feel sowhat out of place.

Mizutani Hiroshi instinctively glanced at the dancer’s thighs, and when he looked back, Taira Sakurako was nowhere to be seen. He was montarily stunned, intending to ask Mori Haji, only to find the latter also staring at the dancer’s thighs. Unable to resist, he smacked Mori Haji on the head: "Still looking! We’re working here!"

Mori Haji snapped back to reality, looked around, and subconsciously asked, "Where did she go?"

"You ask ? I was just about to ask you!" Mizutani Hiroshi furrowed his brows.

They shouted Taira Sakurako’s na at the bonfire party, but no one responded; Mizutani Hiroshi felt slightly uneasy and suggested they search separately. They asked around for a long while, but everyone shook their heads, saying they hadn’t noticed a masked little girl... Many people wore masks at the bonfire party, how could you tell who was who?

Mizutani Hiroshi and Mori Haji t up afterward, feeling sowhat disheartened.

Could sothing have happened?

They were about to report the incident to the police when a man and a woman suddenly stopped them: the man was wearing a navy blue expedition jacket and carrying a long wooden box on his back; the woman was in a dress, with a tuft of hair bouncing on her head, looking quite anxious.

"Where is she?"

Minamoto Tamako, disregarding following them, demanded directly, "Weren’t you traveling with her? Where is she?"