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

Chapter 292: Chapter 213

"Then why are they targeting you and not me?" 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 smell.

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 bloomed 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 Hajime focused the camera 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 time..."

"What do you mean?" Taira Sakurako asked.

"Well, what I mean 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 comment; 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 moment 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 disappointment, 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 someone, warmly welcomed 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 became diligent, went out to fish, and never came back. The villagers said he abandoned his daughter and ran away..."

"Mizuki was about seven or eight years old at that time, 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 met 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 medicine twice, yet the child wasn’t aborted; it was born with a disability, said to have mental problems..."

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

"Maybe out of a guilty conscience, after some time, 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 someone 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 same 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 time.

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

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

She had grown accustomed 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 home of her own and make it a new dream haven...

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

Now it appeared, it was merely 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 somewhat 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 momentarily stunned, intending to ask Mori Hajime, only to find the latter also staring at the dancer’s thighs. Unable to resist, he smacked Mori Hajime on the head: "Still looking! We’re working here!"

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

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

They shouted Taira Sakurako’s name 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 Hajime met up afterward, feeling somewhat disheartened.

Could something 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?"

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