Episode #10 "Fate and Love"

Aired: February 14, 1999

Note: This episode is begins Yoshimori's trip with Shiori to Kagoshima. It it the trip that he had promised her and her mother when they were in Hokkaido. Miki promises Hiromu that she'll bring the both of them back, while Hiromu threatens to report the whole thing as a kidnapping.

Synopsis Yoshimori decides to sit next to Shiori on the train. She looks up at him and a brief smile appears. "Just as far as Shimonoseki," she tells him. Yoshimori and Shiori both settle down for the evening in the sleep train. Meanwhile, Hiromu discovers that Shiori is once again missing from her room. He visits Miki at her noodle shop, and tells her that Shiori has run away on a train with Yoshimori. Miki remembers that Shiori had told her that she'd like to take a trip to Kagoshima to give her mother a proper burial. She tells Hiromu that she'll catch up with Yoshimori in Shimonoseki by taking a plane, and also take Shiori back home. Meanwhile, Hiromu discovers that Shiori is once again missing from her room. Hiromu receives a call regarding election votes, and hurriedly leaves, having seemingly forgotten about Shiori.

On the train, Yoshimori goes to get Shiori something to drink. What he actually does is calls Hiromu, who is busy with his campaign. He tells Hiromu that while he's getting off at Shimonoseki, Shiori will continue on to Kagoshima, to where her mother lived with Shiori's grandmother. He asks Hiromu to pick up Shiori, but Hiromu replies that he is unable to because of the campaign. He threatens Yoshimori, telling him that if he doesn't get off at Shimonseki, he'll go back to prison. He tells Yoshimori that he'll send someone to pick her up. When he returns, Shiori surmises that he called Hiromu. She asks what he said. "When you're done in Kagoshima, you go home," Yoshimori replies. "No," Shiori says, as she pulls the curtains over her bunk bed. The opening credits roll.

The train rolls past Akashi station. Shiori peeks out of her bed, then sneaks a peek into Yoshimori's bunk. He awakens and asks her what's going on. She just offers him some fruit. She tells him of the days when she colored her calendar. "I think, as I colored each day, I was waiting for you to come back to Kiyosumi...Each school break I'd come back to the place I hated because I believed you'd come back. I just knew you hadn't abandoned me." She reminds him once again of the time he promised to take a family trip to Kagoshima. "Tommorow we part ways," Shiori says before going to bed. "I won't cry."

Miki flies into Shimonoseki. Meanwhile, Hiromu is defending his campaign against a smear attempt. Apparently, some people believed that Shiori had been kidnapped. The train arrives at Shimonoseki. Yoshimori and Shiori say some brief words of goodbye. Shiori thanks him, saying "Bye bye," in a somewhat broken voice. Miki runs to the station, and gets there just as the train pulls up. Yoshimori gets off the train, and begins walking down the platform. He spots Shiori, who tries to follow him along while inside the train. Yoshimori begins to have a look of anguish, and when he spots Miki walking towards him, he quickly turns and gets back into the train. Miki yells out to him, but to no avail. She becomes disheartened. He sits down next to Shiori and says "Let's do it. Let's take that family trip. Let's go see the Southern Cross." Shiori takes out the bottle of her mother'ashes and places it on the window sill.

The train whistles as it passes a seaside town on its way southwards. The two of them get off before arriving in western Kagoshima, in order to avoid being caught by one of Hiromu's cronies. Back in Kiyosumi, Miki reports what happened to Hiromu. He expected just as much. Miki tries to defend Yoshimori, but Hiromu tells her that it's too late--he will report to the police that Shiori has been kidnapped. "What if the same thing that happened six years ago happens again?" Miki exclaims. "Then I'll certainly kill him," Hiromu replies. Miki becomes angry, and promises to bring both of them back.

Yoshimori and Shiori ride along the coast on a bus. They end up at a small inn where they made a reservation. The innkeeper remarks on how grown Yoshimori's daughter is. For added effect, Shiori says "I'm hungry, papa." It is now evening, and in their room, the two settle in for the night. Yoshimori moves his futon away from Shiori's, much to her dismay. She offers him a beer, but when she tries to pour herself a glass, he stops her. She wonders if it was okay to call him "papa" earlier that day. "I wonder if we looked like honeymooners," she remarks. Kahori's mother's town is revealed to be Bonotsu. They decide to take the train there the next day. Yoshimori tells her to go to sleep, but when she says she's not sleepy yet, he looks at her, then turns the lights out.

Yoshimori doesn't go to sleep. Instead, he goes down to the docks. Shiori, who hasn't slept either, joins him. She takes some pictures of him. Shiori asks him how much he loved Kahori. "A lot...I loved her a whole lot," he replies. Shiori then asks him "What am I to you? The daughter of the woman you loved?" "I guess so," replies Yoshimori. "Can't I just be a woman to you?" she continues. "You're about ten years too early," he replies. "I guess. My breasts are still pretty small." The two of them take a walk before retiring to bed. In the middle of the night, Shiori awakens and walks over to Yoshimori. She examines him, then places a light kiss on his lips. She then hurriedly races back into her bed.

The next morning, the two of them have breakfast. Meanwhile, Hiromu is talking to the policemen. He explains that Yoshimori has kidnapped Shiori. "I can't imagine for what purpose he took her away!" he moans. The policemen promise to help him get back his daughter. Miki, true to her word, flies to Kagoshima to track down Yoshimori and Shiori. She remembers what Shiori said--"Once each day when the tide went out, there was an island you could walk to..." Yoshimori checks out of the inn. The next train to Bonotsu isn't until noon, so the innkeeper offers her van to him in order to expediate their trip. The two of them head off for Bonotsu. On the way, Shiori sings along with a song by Puffy.

Miki encounters roadblocks as she drives through Kagoshima. The police are on the lookout for Yoshimori and Shiori. Meanwhile, Yoshimori shuts off the radio in the middle of a Chisato Moritaka song, and tells Shiori to call her father. Yoshimori wants her to tell him that as soon as she takes care of business in Kagoshima, she'll go back home. He pulls over at a public telephone. Shiori calls her father, who is busy campaigning in a minivan, waving to the public. He tells her that the police are looking for her, and that Yoshimori is now wanted for kidnapping. Shiori then tells Hiromu that she's in love with Yoshimori. "Long ago, I loved him as my father, he taught me dodgeball, he read to me, he taught me lots of stuff, like a real father...But now it's different...Very different. No matter how much you try to interfere, my feelings won't change!" Hiromu tells her that there's now a manhunt out for Yoshimori. "He's going back to prison. If you love him, come back here immediately. Or, if you insist on staying with him, then I really will kill him." Shiori abruptly hangs up on him. She tells Yoshimori that the police think that this is a kidnapping, and she asks Yoshimori what they should do. "It doesn't matter. Let's go," Yoshimori replies.

Yoshimori and Shiori drive off, and they see that roadchecks have been set up to stop the two of them. They continue to drive along the coast, and as the camera pulls back from their vehicle, a view of an island near the shore is shown. The two finally stop and ask a woman where the Machimura family grave site is. The two come upon an area which used to be the gravesite of the Machimura's, until a landslide. Now there is nothing there. Shiori decides that she can't bury her mother there. The two sit by the sand. "Is this the end for us?" Shiori asks. "You've decided to leave me," Shiori says. "No, I don't want to!" she continues, as Yoshimori begins to walk along the sandy beach. "You still think of me as just a child!" she exclaims. "If I'm never to see you again, then at least look at me as a woman!" Yoshimori stops for a moment, looks at her, then continues to walk. He continues to walk, but Shiori grabs him in an embrace. "I can't live alone anymore! It's like living death!" Shiori says as she embraces Yoshimori. "I love you," she admits, then repeats. Yoshimori embraces her.