Akira had placed three of these caramels in my hands; apparently, he’d gone out of his way to retrieve some of his precious military provisions as a gift for me.
“I don’t know what to say…” I said. “Thank you very much.”
Touched by this unexpected show of consideration, I bowed my head and thanked him once again. It was only after I looked back up again that I realized the other men in uniform who’d come in with Akira were now eyeing me curiously. I assumed they were also soldiers, probably stationed at the same base as Akira.
“Hey, she’s a cute one,” said one. “When’d you hire the new poster girl, Tsuru-san?”
“Sheesh, Sakuma… How long have you been hiding her from us?” said another. “Trying to make a move before the rest of us had a chance, huh?”
“Hey, little lady! How would you like some of my chocolates, too?!” said a third.
“I’ve got some cookies, if you want ’em!” said a fourth.
The tall, burly men all gathered around me and started handing me even more sweets, piling them one after another on my open palms.
“Hey, come on, you guys! Don’t crowd her!” said Akira, shooing the other men away. “Sorry about them, Yuri… They’re harmless, I promise.”
Even after they took their seats at the table, though, the military men continued to barrage me with all sorts of questions.
“So your name’s Yuri-chan, eh?” said one of them. “How old are you?”
“Fourteen,” I said.
“Dang, so young… What school do you go to?”
“Oh, uhhh…”
I wasn’t really sure how to answer.
“Come on, now,” said Akira, coming to my rescue yet again. “Let’s leave the poor girl alone and just order our food, shall we?”
Relieved, I took their orders and headed back into the kitchen to deliver them.
“Seems you’re quite popular with the customers, Yuri-chan,” said Tsuru.
“Oh, please…” I said. “I haven’t done anything, really.”
“Hard to believe my little shop’s finally got its own poster girl!”
Tsuru seemed very amused by all of this.
I kept an eye on the soldiers’ table after that, picking up bits and pieces of their conversation from afar. It seemed they were indeed all stationed at the nearby base that Tsuru had mentioned previously. I’d always had an image in my head of military men being a bit older—but these were all boys in their late teens or early twenties, tops. According to Tsuru, this particular group came to eat at the mess hall quite often, either after their training or on their days off.
“Man, that hits the spot!”
“I don’t know how you do it, Tsuru-san…”
“Tastes just like my mom used to make!”
“Well, when you think about it, Tsuru-san is kind of like a second mother to us.”
Tsuru watched from the kitchen, a warm smile spreading across her face as the men shoveled her food into their mouths with fervor and enthusiasm. Once they were finished eating, she walked out onto the floor and made idle chitchat with them for a while. Personally, I was beat, so I didn’t participate in the conversation. Instead, I opted to take a seat in a corner of the mess hall and just space out for a bit. Before long, though, Akira noticed this and got up from his seat to come see what the matter was.
“What’s wrong, Yuri?” he asked. “You seem a bit down.”
“Huh?!” I said, startled.
“Your complexion’s not looking so good, either. Are you still feeling unwell?”
I shook my head. Akira crouched down to my level and smiled at me.
“Well, it seems like the lunch rush is over, so you probably won’t get any more customers for a while,” he said. “Why don’t we step outside for a bit of fresh air?”
He led me out of the shop by the hand before I even had a chance to answer him. As we passed through the curtains, I looked back over my shoulder to see Tsuru waving goodbye, apparently giving me her blessing to play hooky.
There were quite a few people out and about. Everywhere I looked, I could see people dressed in kimonos or monpe or dirty, tattered undershirts. On either side of the road were rows of old wooden houses, all of which looked liable to collapse at any given moment. Out here on the streets, there was simply no avoiding the harrowing truth that I was trapped in a very different world from my own, unable to return home.
Hearing me let out a despondent sigh, Akira tilted his head curiously and looked over at me. He didn’t say a word, though; he just kept on walking.
Where was he even taking me, anyhow? By the time I realized something was up, we’d already walked quite a ways from the center of town and all its hubbub.
We were now walking down a cool, shady path winding through the nearby woods, surrounded on all sides by the lush summer greenery. Eventually, the path started angling upward at a gentle incline; apparently, we were heading to the top of a hill.
Akira—who’d taken the lead and was walking a few feet in front of me—suddenly turned and looked back at me with an easygoing smile.
“You doing all right back there, Yuri?” he asked.
“Oh, yes…” I said. “Just fine, but—”
“Don’t worry. We’re almost there.”
The incline began to level out; we were approaching the plateau. The thick greenery on either side of the trail began to thin, and I could see a bit more of our surroundings. When I lifted my gaze, I could see a bright blue sky peeking through the vivid green canopies. It felt like the first time in quite a while I’d actually looked up and appreciated the sky.
“Yuri,” said Akira. “Over here.”
I looked back down to see him beckoning me over. I jogged to where he was standing, just a few steps ahead of me.
“Well?” he said, turning his head as he spread his arms wide open. “Have a look.”
I followed his gaze—and couldn’t believe my eyes.
“Oh my gosh!” I shouted, unable to contain my disbelief.
At the top of the hill was a wide-open field of flowers—it must have been thousands upon thousands of lilies, covering nearly every last inch of the rocky summit, their white petals gleaming dazzlingly in the bright summer sun.
“This is incredible…!” I exclaimed. “I’ve never seen anything like it!”
I’d only ever seen lilies in florists’ windows, or in bouquets—never in the wild, and certainly never in such great number. An almost chokingly sweet fragrance floated on the air, enveloping us completely. Wanting to get a closer look, I ran over to the field of flowers. So charming, with their smooth and elegant petals. Their leaves such a deep green, their life-giving veins running down their lengths. Their stems straight and narrow, pointing straight up to the sky.
“It’s so beautiful…” I said. “I can’t believe it…”
As I stood there spellbound, I heard a chuckle from over my shoulder.
“You like it?” asked Akira.