Chapter 341: Accompanying Her to the End of Her Life

After seeing Alek and the others off, Kamikawa Mitsu went to the Pacific Ocean as usual and merged the divine-demon essence blood into the Earth.

After finishing this, he returned to Arakawa Ward.

"Right, Chie said we're out of seasonings at home, I need to go buy some."

Kamikawa Mitsu walked down the street, heading toward his convenience store.

Nowadays, relying on Kamikawa Mitsu's reputation, the convenience store owner had already opened a chain of stores.

And Kamikawa Mitsu had become the convenience store owner's partner. The owner, on the grounds that Kamikawa Mitsu managed the convenience store so well that it turned into a chain, had pulled Kamikawa Mitsu into partnering up to run convenience stores together.

The current Kamikawa Mitsu had transformed into a boss.

"Hm?"

Coming up to a utility pole, Kamikawa Mitsu stopped in his tracks.

A missing-person flyer was pasted on the utility pole. Looking closely, wasn't the flyer one that Matsuka Chisato had put out?

Seeing that the glue on the flyer hadn't dried yet, it was clearly only just pasted up not long ago.

"Has Matsuka-san still not found this girl?" Kamikawa Mitsu's brow twitched.

Thinking that Matsuka Chisato had helped their family plenty.

"Tomorrow when I'm free I'll ask Matsuka-san, see what she's looking for this girl for."

……

The next day, noon.

After lunch, Kamikawa Mitsu pressed the doorbell of Matsuka Chisato's home.

Ding-ling-ling.

The doorbell rang several times, but no one came to open the door.

"Not back? Isn't Matsuka-san on leave recently?"

Kamikawa Mitsu recalled what Chie had told him yesterday — Matsuka Chisato had recently taken three days off. He had assumed she was sick, so he planned to come visit and check on her, and also ask her why she was looking for that girl, to see if there was anything he could help with.

"Nisan, are you looking for Matsuka-san?"

Kamikawa Chie walked out from the house.

"Mm." Kamikawa Mitsu nodded. "Yesterday I saw on the road a utility pole with a flyer Matsuka-san had put up. I planned to ask and see if Matsuka-san needed any help."

From yesterday until now, after he bought the seasonings and came back he had shut himself in his room, thinking about how to use that immortal corpse, and hadn't paid attention to whether Matsuka Chisato had gone out in the morning.

"Matsuka-san went out early this morning to hand out flyers, she probably isn't back yet."

As Kamikawa Chie spoke, she pointed at her own dark circles:

"Nisan, I saw this morning… Nisan, Matsuka-san is back."

Out of the corner of her eye, Kamikawa Chie, who had been about to speak, saw the apartment gate — Matsuka Chisato walked in, one arm hugging a stack of flyers, the other carrying a takeout fast-food box.

Not long after.

Upstairs in the apartment building.

Matsuka Chisato, with dark circles under her eyes and exhaustion written all over her face, saw the Kamikawa Mitsu siblings as soon as she came upstairs to her door.

"Kamikawa-kun, Chie-chan, good afternoon."

"Matsuka-san, your dark circles are really heavy, did you stay up late?" Kamikawa Chie stepped forward with concern. "I say, Matsuka-san, why are you eating fast food? You stay up late and eat fast food, that's no nutrition for your body. There's still food at our place — it's lunch my nisan made, really delicious. Don't eat fast food, come to our place to eat."

After lunch.

Matsuka Chisato set down her chopsticks with both hands, pressed her palms together, and showed a satisfied smile, her exhaustion easing a little. "Thanks for the meal. Kamikawa-kun, the food you make keeps getting tastier and tastier. You cook this well, I'm afraid I won't be able to eat fast food anymore."

"Matsuka-san, if you like eating it, you can come to our place often from now on. It's just one more pair of chopsticks anyway, and I always cook too much. It's perfect for Matsuka-san to eat together."

Kamikawa Mitsu smiled.

Kamikawa Chie on the side chimed in:

"Right, Matsuka-san, if you're busy just come to our place to eat. Nisan always makes a lot when he cooks, I can't finish two bowls of food. You help us digest it — wasting is shameful after all, and eating outside fast food isn't nutritious."

Matsuka Chisato, who was on very good terms with Kamikawa Mitsu and the others, did not refuse. While helping clear the dishes, she said happily:

"Then it's settled since you said so. I'll accept with pleasure — don't blame me later for eating all your food."

Kamikawa Mitsu, who was washing the dishes, looked over:

"We used to often go mooch meals at Matsuka-san's place, this time it's Matsuka-san's turn to come to ours — that's called reciprocating courtesy. By the way, Matsuka-san, your dark circles are so heavy, did you stay up late? You rarely used to stay up late."

Being a doctor, Matsuka Chisato had always maintained good daily routines and self-discipline.

In the years they had known her, the Kamikawa Mitsu siblings had rarely seen Matsuka Chisato stay up late with dark circles.

"I stayed up late posting missing-person notices online looking for Junko, but unfortunately there haven't been any results lately, it's driving me crazy."

Junko, full name Hanaue Junko, was the name of the girl in the photo on the flyer Matsuka Chisato had put out.

Immediately after.

Matsuka Chisato did not hide it, and told the story of her looking for Hanaue Junko.

These past days, she had been looking for Hanaue Junko, and taking three days off was also to have more time to look for Hanaue Junko.

Unfortunately, she had come up empty-handed the whole time.

The reason for looking for Hanaue Junko was not that Matsuka Chisato had any blood relation with Hanaue Junko, nor any entanglement — it was purely that Matsuka Chisato was helping someone look for Hanaue Junko.

Ten days ago, a female patient came to Arakawa First Hospital.

This patient's name was Hanaue Yuchiko, and she had leukemia that had already worsened.

Matsuka Chisato was the doctor in charge of her case.

Although recently the bodies of humans worldwide had been greatly strengthened, some acute illnesses couldn't just be cured on a whim. Leukemia was incurable — after all, Kamikawa Mitsu had subtly strengthened humans, not given them a sudden explosive boost. That would be forcibly squeezing out potential, which would backfire.

At that time.

When Matsuka Chisato took over Hanaue Yuchiko's case, it could be said there was no cure, and even slowing the illness was impossible. The other party had little time left — probably only a few days to live.

But she still did her utmost to save Hanaue Yuchiko.

During the treatment process, she discovered that Hanakami Yumiko had no family visiting her; originally, Mikaori Shōka had prepared to notify her family and make arrangements for her end-of-life care.

Upon asking Hanakami Yumiko, Mikaori Shōka learned that Hanakami Yumiko's husband had died many years ago, leaving only a daughter.

And the daughter had quarreled with Hanakami Yumiko half a year ago and run away from home, never returning since.

Hanakami Yumiko had never told her daughter about her leukemia, and with the daughter having run away, the daughter had never come to the hospital.

Even after being hospitalized and learning her time was running out, Hanakami Yumiko felt no fear of death—only daily murmurs about her daughter, worrying whether her daughter, who had been gone half a year, was doing well.

Not seeing one's mother for the final time is undoubtedly the most painful thing in the world, and Mikaori Shōka did not want to see such an outcome.

She wanted to help Hanakami Yumiko find her daughter, so her daughter could see Hanakami Yumiko one last time.

Yet, even until the very end—five days ago—she had not found Hanakami Juniko.

And Hanakami Yumiko died that day, calling out for her daughter until her final breath, thinking only of her daughter, with only Mikaori Shōka accompanying her through the last moments of her life.

Mikaori Shōka could not forget that day.

……

(PS: Readers might think, "What the hell, Cold Moon? What are you trying to do with this plot? It seems useless, the tone suddenly shifted—why did this turn into a modern drama? I just ask readers to please keep reading.")