The river, the ocean… There was water everywhere she looked, and yet…
“I see you—”
Hinako started to sing but quickly stopped herself. As badly as she wanted to see Minato and talk to him, she knew the next time she summoned him might very well be the last—and the mere thought was unbearable. She’d already been through enough heartbreak for one lifetime; the last thing she wanted was to go back to the days she spent living in a fog.
On her bike, she pedaled to Siren.
“Welc—” Youko took one look at Hinako and switched off her customer-service smile.
“Have a seat wherever you like,” she muttered, gesturing around at the tables with a snotty attitude unfitting of a waitress.
Once Hinako was seated, Youko brought over a menu and a glass of ice water and then practically slammed them down on the table.
“At our café, we specialize in offering a wide variety of brewing methods for our coffee,” she explained, reciting her lines in a deadpan voice as she held up a visual aid. “Personally, I recommend drip coffee. But whatever you decide, make sure it isn’t the strawberry soda.”
“I’m impressed, Youko-chan!”
She scowled. “Did you come here to mock me?”
“Of course not!” Hinako replied hastily. “I just heard you started working here—”
“From who? Wasabi?” Youko asked quickly.
“Uhh, yeah…?”
“Did he say anything else?”
“Huh? Er… N-not really…?” she lied.
But Youko saw straight through her. “God, I wish I was a blue-ringed octopus! I’d bite his freaking face off!”
“Huh?”
“Nothing! Forget it!” For some reason, Youko’s face looked a little flushed…or was Hinako seeing things?
“So what made you decide to get a job here?”
“Well, I’ve decided I want to run my own café someday.”
“What…?”
“My brother’s biggest dream was to open a café, and I’m going to make it happen.”
She’s doing it for him? Hinako couldn’t believe it.
“So I figure I’ll work here part-time while I get my diploma. Do you know why coffee grinds expand during drip brewing? It’s because they release carbon dioxide. These gases are initially formed during the roasting process. Then, once the beans are ground up, the CO2 starts to escape at a faster rate until eventually it goes stale. So the more it puffs up, the fresher it is.”
The way Youko smugly parroted this information, she sounded exactly like her big brother.
“Once I graduate from high school, I’m gonna go and do some training at the main branch in Chigasaki. The owners are so old, they might kick the bucket any day now.” In contrast to Youko’s caustic phrasing, her eyes shone with warmth.
“You amaze me, Youko-chan,” Hinako said after a moment. It was the honest truth.
Youko had spotted her next wave up ahead, and now she was getting ready to swim for it. By comparison, Hinako was a total coward. She couldn’t even plan for tomorrow, let alone the rest of her life. Her biggest fear was losing Minato’s ghost.
Later, on her way home, Hinako passed behind the fire station. The firefighters were decked out in their full gear, doing rope drills. On a whim, she stopped her bike and watched them.
Wow… That’s incredible. They’re so high up, and the rope is so thin, but they make it look so easy!
“Go, go, go, go!”
“Wasabi! Hang in there!”
Gritting his teeth, Wasabi made his way across the rope bridge as the other firefighters cheered him on. And in that moment, he looked downright unstoppable.
✦ ✦ ✦
The Hinageshi residence was right on the water, with only the road separating it from the beach. In the empty lot next door, Minato’s Bakeratta sat forgotten. This building had housed three generations of Hinageshis thus far, and with its wooden shingle roof, weathered supports, and faded brown chest of drawers in the living room, Hinako could feel all the history behind it.
Following the traditional ritual, she placed a stick of incense on Minato’s memorial altar, knelt before his portrait, and pressed her hands together in prayer. Then she turned and bowed deeply to Youko, who was standing behind Hinako with a morose expression on her face.
“Why even bother paying your respects after all this time?”
“I’m sorry I didn’t come by sooner. I had a hard time accepting he was gone.”
Hinako had been present for the start of Minato’s funeral but ultimately ran out before they even lit the incense. She couldn’t bear the thought of having to look at his corpse.
“Where are your parents?” Hinako asked, glancing around.
“At work,” Youko replied. “They’ve only just recovered, so they can’t really handle reminiscing about my brother right now.”
Ah. Now Hinako understood why, when she requested a visit, Youko had insisted it take place on a weekday afternoon. “Sorry for making things complicated.”
“They’ve left his room the way it was… You wanted to see it, right?” Youko muttered, her face turned away.
“Right.”
For as blunt as she was, Youko was a sensitive and empathetic girl, and Hinako treasured her like a sister…but if she admitted this out loud, Youko would probably just roll her eyes, so Hinako kept it to herself.
As Youko opened the door to Minato’s room, Hinako’s eyes widened. The whole room was filled with books, books, books from floor to ceiling—with a tiny space allocated for some workout equipment.
“Everyone always thought my brother was born perfect, but the truth is, he worked his ass off. He just never let it show.”
The bookshelves were packed tight with firefighting workbooks, academic textbooks in every subject, books about coffee, books about running a café, cookbooks, and recipe binders labeled by type of cuisine.
“Growing up, our parents were always busy with work, so Oniichan had to make dinner for us. And in the beginning, the stuff he made was almost inedible.”
Youko recalled the story of Minato, wearing an apron that was too big for him, struggling to maneuver a frying pan full of burnt fried rice.
“Then he read a bunch of cookbooks and watched some cooking shows, and the next thing I knew, he was suddenly good at it.”
At his young age, he somehow mastered the wok and started serving restaurant-quality fried rice at the dinner table. But he always ate his food in silence, even if it was burnt black.
“And even after he was hired as a firefighter, he kept studying. His pet phrase was ‘If I don’t keep swimming, I’ll sink like a rock.’ I don’t know how he did it.”
Youko smiled and shook her head.
“After he died, a whole bunch of people came to pay their respects. And every one of them told us that he’d helped them in some way.”
Dozens of people had knelt before Minato’s altar—male and female, young and old. The Hinageshi family could scarcely believe it. There was an old lady who said Minato helped her after she threw her back out in the middle of the street…a teenage boy whose wallet he had recovered…a mother-and-child pair who he had reunited…a middle-aged man whose tire he helped change…a young corner store cashier who he had shielded after a customer started making a scene…a middle-aged woman whose wheelchair he pushed up a hill… Minato had impacted all of their lives, and his memory was alive inside each and every one of them. This had been the family’s sole silver lining in the midst of their grief.
“My brother’s goal was always to help people, and he first got the idea from a near-death experience he had when he was younger. See, the girl who saved him was even younger than he was. That was what inspired him to try to make a difference in the world.” As she spoke, Youko stepped into the room. “He would always say ‘A hero saved my life, so now it’s my turn to be the hero.’ That’s why he dedicated his life to rescue work.”
Youko pulled an album from one of the shelves, flipped halfway through it, and held it up for Hinako to see. “He said that experience changed his life and gave him a purpose.”
Inside were photos of the beach. One featured a young Minato and Youko wearing swim rings and facing away from the camera. He must have been in third or fourth grade in this picture. On the seat of his teal swim trunks was the silhouette of a sea turtle…
Hinako gasped in shock as her eyes widened. Meanwhile, a flashback rose up in her mind. Could it be…? Was Minato…him?
She dashed out of the room.
“What’s gotten into you this time…?” Holding the album, Youko sighed and watched Hinako go.