I didn’t want to believe it—but all the evidence pointed toward the impossible. By all accounts, it seemed I really had traveled back in time to World War II-era Japan. The moment I came to terms with that…my vision blurred, and I blacked out.
“…Whoa! Yuri?!”
“Are you okay, dear?!”
I could feel Akira’s sturdy hands gripping my shoulders to keep me upright, but it was too late. The last thing I saw before I lost consciousness was the vague silhouette of Tsuru’s concerned face looking down at me.
“Ah, there we are… Are you waking up, my dear?”
I could feel something cold and wet on my forehead. When I opened my eyes, I could see Tsuru’s face smiling down at me. A few moments later, I realized that I’d fainted, and tried my best to sit myself up again.
“Oh, no, no!” said Tsuru, laying me back down. “You shouldn’t try to move just yet.”
She wiped the sweat from my face with the same damp cloth that had been lying on my forehead.
“I bet that feels nice, doesn’t it?” she said. “I just went and drew up some nice, cool water for you from the well.”
“Oh, thank you…” I mumbled. “You didn’t have to…”
Appreciative though I was, the mere notion of drawing water from a well only served to remind me that I was no longer in my own time, and I had to squint my eyes in protest to keep myself from fainting again.
“What was your name again, dear?” asked Tsuru. “Yuri-chan, was it?”
“Yes, that’s right…” I said.
“Where do you live, Yuri-chan? I haven’t seen you around here before.”
Of course she hadn’t. I was from somewhere very, very far away. I had no home to return to in this time—no place I belonged. The thought made tears begin to well up in the corners of my eyes.
“Oh no… What’s wrong, dear?” asked Tsuru, gently rubbing my back. “Wait, don’t tell me… Are you from the next town over? Did you lose your home in the air raid a while back? Oh, you poor thing…”
Her kind hospitality pushed me over the edge, and I began to weep.
“You know, I lost some of my relatives in those bombings too…” she said with a sigh. “I’m just glad my shop here survived. Otherwise, I don’t know what I’d even have to live for anymore. I guess every dark cloud has a silver lining, doesn’t it?”
Did she say, “air raid”? Those are still happening? Even way out here?
She made it sound very recent, too. Said she’d lost family members, even.
What kind of hellish world had I woken up in this morning?
I didn’t want to be here. I wanted to go home. To my own home, in my own time…
“…I’m sorry for all the trouble,” I said. “Thank you very much for your hospitality.”
I stood up and bowed my head deeply to Tsuru—then rushed out of the mess hall before she had a chance to respond.
Retracing my steps the way I came, I somehow managed to find my way back to the air raid shelter. I threw open the door and ran inside.
But nothing happened. I hadn’t been taken back to my world.
“No… You can’t do this to me!” I shouted. “Let me go back! Let me go home!”
Now on the verge of sobbing, I scoured every inch of the narrow underground shaft—crawling on my hands and knees, banging on the walls with my hands, kicking my feet into the ground—desperate to find an exit of some sort. There had to be a way out.
“…Why isn’t anything happening?”
No matter what I did, I couldn’t effect any change whatsoever.
I collapsed in a defeated heap on the sharp gravel floor.
Wait a minute. When I first realized I was in another time, it was right after I’d woken up, wasn’t it? Maybe if I went to sleep in the shelter again, I’d wake up back in my own time. That would make sense, right?
Tears streaming down my cheeks, I lay down on the ground.
I hate this… I hate this… I hate this… Let me out of here!
My mind was so distraught that it was difficult to fall asleep, but eventually, I got so exhausted from bawling my eyes out that I was able to pass out regardless.
When I awoke, I was still in 1945.
So I started sobbing profusely and fell asleep again.
It made no difference. Apparently, there was no going back.
“I’m so thirsty… And I still haven’t eaten anything…”
I staggered to my feet and walked out of the shelter.
I didn’t know what time it was, nor how many days had passed while I was in there.
“Guess I’m just…stuck here, then…” I mumbled to myself as I tottered aimlessly beneath the bright blue sky. My tears had all dried up by this point, so at least my vision was clear.
Suddenly, I remembered that I’d left my book bag at Tsuru’s place. Thinking I should probably go and retrieve it before I did anything else, my shaky legs started to take me down the dirt road in the general direction of the Tsuru-ya Mess Hall.
“Oh my goodness! Yuri-chan!!” Tsuru cried, rushing out to greet me as soon as I stepped through the doorway. “Where have you been?! I was worried sick!”
“Huh…?” I said. “You… You were?”
Why would she worry herself this way over a random stranger like me? Unable to take her words at face value, I simply stared at her dubiously—but she paid it no mind.
“Well, come in! Come in!” she said, urging me into the back. “My goodness, look how filthy you are… Just where have you been sleeping? We’ve got to get you cleaned up!”
She led me into the backyard, where a large washbasin was sitting. She filled it to the brim with water—then indicated for me to step inside.
“Go on!” she said. “Wash yourself off, dear.”
“Huh…?” I said, baffled. “H-here? With… With hose water?”
“What’s the matter? Didn’t ever bathe in cold water at home? Well, don’t worry—it’s summer, so it’ll feel quite nice, trust me!”
“But… We’re outdoors, though…”
“Worried about Peeping Toms, are we? Don’t be; that fence is there for a reason!” Tsuru sounded utterly unconcerned. “Now, go on! Take those filthy clothes off!”
“N-no, no, no! I’m sorry, I can’t! I’m not about to get naked outside!”
I shook my head furiously from side to side. Tsuru looked at me blankly.
“What do you mean, dear?” she said. “You’ve never taken a bath in the backyard?”
“N-no! Of course not!” I said.
“My, you must come from a very well-to-do household, then… Well, all right. In that case, follow me, dear.”
She led me back inside to what I could only assume was the kitchen.
In a corner of the dirt-floor area of the room was a large mound of clay—which I could only assume was one of those old-fashioned kamado wood-fired stoves—with two holes in the top that held a cook pot and a kettle respectively, and a cave-like opening in the bottom stuffed full of firewood.
“You can wash off over there,” said Tsuru. “No risk of anyone seeing you in here.”
“D-do you not have a proper bath, or…?” I asked.