“What do you plan to do next?” Haruto said.
“I am going to make sure that Keishin returns home.”
“And after that? The Shiikuin will not let your crimes go unpunished.”
“I have not thought that far yet.” Hana dug her hands in her pockets. Her fingers brushed against a cold orb. Hana pulled it out and wiped her mother’s blood off of it with her sleeve.
“A kioku pearl.” Haruto eyed the ocean inside the gem. “Freshly picked. Whose is it?”
“My mother’s. She gave it to me before we escaped. She said that it would show me the truth.”
“The truth?” Haruto leaned forward. “About what?”
Hana set the pearl in the middle of the table. It began to spin and grow bright, churning the ocean inside it. Rising waves cast shadows over the room’s paper walls. The shadows morphed, weaving a story from darkness and light.
Chapter Fifty-seven
The Choice Ishikawa Chiyo Stole
Twenty-one years ago
The map on Chiyo’s skin glowed in the rain and came to life over her reflection in the pawnshop’s pond. She traced the map with her eyes, knowing fully where every single road tattooed on her body led. She ran into the garden behind the pawnshop each time the sky grew dark, nursing the tiniest hope that one day, if she stood in the rain long enough, a storm was going to reveal a path she had missed.
“Chiyo.” Toshio walked up from behind her and held a coat over her head. “You’re soaked. Come inside.”
“Just a little longer.” Chiyo held out her hands to catch the rain.
“Come. I will make you some tea.”
Chiyo looked at her husband and watched his fate glow on his skin. She stroked his wet cheek, running her thumb over the path that led to her name. “How do you do it?”
“Do what?”
“Be content. How do you keep yourself from wanting more than what the Horishi has written?”
“I am sorry.” The rain streaked over Toshio’s face and made it impossible for Chiyo to tell if he was crying.
“For what?”
“For not making you as happy as you make me.”
“You do make me happy, Toshio.”
“Just not enough,” Toshio said, leading her back inside.
—
Chiyo waited for Toshio to fall asleep before she slid out of bed and crept downstairs. She took great care to avoid the stairway’s last step. The storm howling outside would have kept her husband from hearing the creak the step made, but she did not want to take any risks. Toshio was not going to understand why she needed to open the pawnshop’s vault in the middle of the night.
Chiyo could not get the choice that had been pawned that day out of her mind. It was the brightest one she had ever seen. Toshio had told her that if that choice had been made, it could have changed the world. Chiyo had lain in bed, listening to Toshio’s breath, counting down the minutes until she could see the choice again.
Her fingers swiftly found the notch on the side of the bookcase in the dark. She pushed it and let the bookcase swing open. The birds in the vault greeted her with a song. Chiyo hurried inside the vault, forgetting to shut the door. A bird perched in a cage to her right glowed brighter than all the rest. Chiyo unhooked its cage with no other plan than to get a closer look. The bird frantically flew around the cage and slammed into its bars. “I won’t hurt you,” Chiyo said, trying to calm the bird down. “I promise.”
The bird crashed into the top of the cage and set the other birds in the vault into a chirping frenzy.
“No…no…please be quiet. You’ll wake Toshio.” Chiyo glanced at the vault’s wide-open door. She hugged the birdcage to her chest and ran out.
—
