Lemon Incest c15

There was no need for her to waste her time thinking of such frivolous things. It must just be that Mio and Shougo were trying to fill the hole that was left behind from having been separated after twenty four years, and that was why they were suddenly so close.

After all was said and done, she was glad to have reunited them.

If she could see Mio’s father now, he would likely be joyous of the change of events. His beloved daughter was getting ready to set sail. If he had been alive, his eyes would have probably been moist with tears, and he would have been shaken by deep emotion.

She remembered back to Mio’s words when she suggested that she find herself a lover aside from Kusuda-san. She had no desire for one though. Now, as it had always been, the only person she wanted was Keiichi. Even as the years layered on and she would one day reach an age when she would be considered an elderly person, she had the feeling that she would forever be consumed in her love for him, and would live her life submerged deep into her memories of him.

The meeting that had been scheduled on the afternoon that Mio and Shougo planned to go on the drive to Yokohama was cancelled. Her day was originally short enough as it was, so now that the urgent meeting had been cancelled, she decided that she should take advantage of this to have a relaxing night off for the first time in a while.

Mio looked up to her, as always. Whenever she had the chance, she chose to stay at home to cook dinner for herself instead of going out to eat; this had become a habit of hers.

In addition, she would make boiled spinach with soy sauce dressing and simmered hijiki. And a miso-soup with tofu and plenty of vegetables. To top it off, she would have a fresh skipjack tuna tataki. That would probably be more than enough.

Turning on the TV, she listened to the evening news as she began dinner preparations in the kitchen. Without even realizing it, she had begun humming. There was plenty of relaxing time for her tonight. She hadn’t made plans to meet up with anyone, and there was no one to bother her. It was a little disappointing that she couldn’t see Mio, but because of this, she was able to have time to herself.

She had just finished boiling the spinach and was checking the status of the simmered taro roots when the phone in her living room began to ring.

“Hello?”

“Oh, so you were back early today, after all. I’m glad.”

“Ah, yes. She told me.” Misao replied. “Did something happen? Did she cancel on you at the last minute?”

“I just got here a bit early. I called her just now, and she said that she was taking a shower, and asked if I could wait a little longer.”

“No, that’s all right. If possible, I was wondering if you could come down here.”

“Just until Mio-san comes out, please come down here to take a look at the car; it’s a Jaguar. You’ll be impressed. It’s something I borrowed from the owner of the café where I work part time.”

“Please,” he said to her with an unusually eager tone to his voice. “It won’t take long; I’d just like for you to see it.”

She turned off the oven, took off her apron and slipped her feet into the sandals that were at the entranceway. She locked the apartment door and took the elevator down to the first floor.

“Well aren’t you dressed sharply today. Dressed like that, you look like some young aristocrat.” She joked.

It’s fine; they were close siblings. There’s nothing wrong with that, she told herself.

“You could say that,” Shougo smiled. “So what do you think? It’s a pretty sweet ride, don’t you think?”

“He has two other cars like this. Can you believe it?”

“Would you like to hop in?”

“Of course.”

There was no music. The car with its engine turned off had an almost eerie silence to it, and it felt as though the even the faint sound of someone swallowing would echo in the enclosed space. Although there were likely to be cars passing by on the street, she couldn’t hear their sounds even as she cocked her ear to listen.

He didn’t reply. Even though he had invited her to come down here so that he could brag about the car, he looked as if he wanted to say that he had no interest in cars. In that instant, she felt an indescribable sense of discomfort take hold of her.

“What?”

His side profile caught the light of the entranceway, and it looked as if he were sparkling.

“I just got a call from Mio just now saying it’ll probably take her another twenty minutes to get ready, so we have plenty of time to talk.”

“If possible, yes.”

He didn’t reply as he continued: “The truth is… this is just my guess. It really is just my guess, but lately, I can’t help but think that it may just have happened like how I imagined it to… and I was hoping that some day, you could hear me out about this.”

“It’s regarding my biological father… Shimada Keiichi-san. Oh, I’m sorry, I still haven’t been able to reach the point when I can refer to him as ‘father’ yet so I still call him Keiichi-san… at any rate, it’s something to do with his death… there’s something that comes to mind.”

“I can’t recall exactly how many years ago it was… there was a night when my mother… oh, I’m referring to the person who raised me, but there was a night when she waited up for someone. I was around seventeen when this happened, so that would probably make it seven or eight years ago. Any other day, she would have gone to bed by eleven, but that night, she didn’t even take a bath. She hadn’t even changed out of her regular clothes into her pyjamas and she had left her makeup on. For hours she glared at the phone in the living room.

I remember thinking it was strange for that person to call so late at night. I didn’t know if that old friend was male or female, but I couldn’t recall her ever having friends who would come to visit her so late at night… But that day, I didn’t give it much thought, and I went back to my room after that. In the end, the phone didn’t ring and from what I know, she went to bed without ever having left the house.”

He nodded. “If memory serves me right, Keiichi-san’s accident happened on the Tohoku Expressway, right?”

“Did he have any acquaintances who lived in that direction?”

“Exactly where did the accident happen? Could it have been a place that could lead to Utsunomiya if you got off the high way?”

“It was raining,” she said. “And the car slipped; they told me later he was going thirty kilometres over the limit. The car was completely destroyed. I’m the one who went to identify his remains, since I thought that for Mio it would have been too heavy of a burden to do so. But it’s strange… I don’t even remember what he looked like that day. I knew that his body was badly damaged, but I can’t remember what it looked like. All I have now are memories of the time when he was still alive.”

“I really have no proof of this other than my gut instinct,” he said. “Even if the road could have been one through which Utsunomiya could have been accessed, that doesn’t necessarily mean that was where he was headed.”

In her jumbled mess of a mind, she thought long and hard. In the past, although she had thought long and hard about Keiichi’s accident, as well as the history of Shougo’s life until now, there was never a point when she had tied the two together; she was embarrassed that she hadn’t seen the connection.

And it could have been that one day, she had decided to give him a call. She didn’t know if the woman used an alias or if she told him of the truth from the very beginning. Either way, this woman named Tomoko had called Keiichi and told him that she had her son, that she wanted to tell him of the circumstances after they had met, and that he should come without telling anyone.

“When all was said and done, it was probably shortly afterwards that she found out about his death without having ever been able to see him.”

“Are you saying that her guilt accelerated her illness?”

She bit down on her lip. There was no turning back the hands of time. Keiichi, and this woman named Tomoko who had raised Shougo had both died.

“Hey,” Misao said as she glanced over at the entrance way, expecting Mio to show up at any moment. “Please let me ask this though. Why did you tell me this?”

“Oh that girl,” a wry smile formed on her lips. “She even opened up to you about something like that?“

“You don’t plan to tell Mio this?”

“Why not?”

“It may be true that it takes courage… but I’d say it probably took you just as much courage to tell me.”

“You’re probably right,” he said. “But this could be said as well: the last action he took on this Earth was something related to Mio-san, after all.”

“I have to thank you,” he said quickly.

“For reuniting us.”

“We’re siblings, and it’s probably the case that we’ll probably never part form here on out.”

“What are you doing here, Misao-chan?”

“I’m really sorry. I didn’t realize the clock in my room had stopped. I thought it was weird that it wouldn’t move from 5:20 but the moment I realized it had stopped, Shougo-kun had already arrived here. Wow, Shougo-kun! What’s gotten into you today? You’re dressed to the nines. Are you planning on heading to some sort of party?”

“You look dashing.”

“Well then, I’ll be heading back.” Misao said.

“I was just in the middle of making simmered taro roots. If you feel hungry in the middle of the night, why don’t you stop by to come have some?”

“Feel free,” she said. “The only condition being, don’t come knocking on my door at three or four o’clock in the morning. No later than midnight, do you hear me?”

“Well, I won’t hold my breath then. I won’t keep you any longer. Be safe out there.”

Shougo looked at Misao straight in the eyes, as he gave a meaningful nod her way.

That was the last time she ever saw Mio.

Chapter end