Chapter 4

The twins try to blend in as they look for the woman who would later become their grandmother.

Ichiro continued to watch the Kenpeitai officer until he was out of sight. He only slightly relaxed believing another one would show up at any moment. Imperial Japan was very strict on its citizens and demanded loyalty to the point of using fear to keep them in line. Fear of being branded a traitor and jailed for having the wrong thoughts. Thoughts that could be considered anti-Japan even if the person only said they were against the war.

“How is it possible for time to reset itself? It doesn’t make any sense.”

Kanon’s face dropped. “But time traveling by walking through a cave does? When we walked out of the cave, it reset everything.”

“I don’t know. None of this is enough proof that things were reset.”

“That Kenpeitai officer looks too relaxed to be on alert because of us. If he was on alert then he would be watching everything around him.”

“Are you even sure that’s him? It could be just another officer.”

“Fine. Let’s test the theory back at the cave.”

The twins returned to the clearing with the sakura trees. Kanon jumped up to grab the lowest hanging branch. She used all of her weight to break the branch that snapped close to the base. Without saying anything she motioned for her brother to follow her to the cave. They stepped into the cave, going deep enough for Kanon to be satisfied that the reset would be triggered. They returned to the tree and the branch was no longer broken. Ichiro looked around at the other trees.

“Are we sure we’re looking at the right tree?”

Kanon slowly shook her head at him, not sure whether to swear at him in Japanese or English. She was even tempted to use some of the words she picked up from watching Korean dramas.

“How are you not convinced?”

“I’m just trying to think logically.”

“You’re trying to think logically after walking through a time-traveling cave?”

Ichiro held up his hands in mock surrender. “I know. I know. I’m just trying to understand everything. As if time travel wasn’t enough, now there’s a reset button when we go in and out of the cave.”

The twins returned to the city still careful of any Kenpeitai that may be lurking nearby. They tried to stay out of sight of most people because of their clothing. Kanon kept an eye out for clothing they could steal but nothing she saw would benefit them at all.

“Hiroshima is a big city, we don’t even know where our grandmother lived,” Kanon said.

“I think I remember something about her living near the castle.” Ichiro continued to look around. His method of looking around was unnatural and nowhere near inconspicuous. He suddenly stopped and looked at his sister. “If we find our grandmother, what should we say? We’re your grandchildren from the future?”

“How about relatives from Chiba? It’s not really lying.”

“It may work unless they are close with their relatives and would know if we weren’t who they believed we were. Besides, do you even remember our grandmother’s maiden name?”

Kanon bit the side of her lip and looked to the side. “Ho-something. Ho...shi...Ah! Hoshino. Yes, her last name was Hoshino. It uses the kanji for ‘star’ and ‘area’.”

“Okay, so we roam around Hiroshima looking for a house with a Hoshino nameplate. Not hard at all.”

Kanon rolled her eyes at her brother’s obvious sarcasm. That was his American side coming out. “We could ask someone but then again our appearances may deter them from helping us. We need to find some…found some.”

Ichiro watched his sister creep into the yard of a nearby house. She carefully climbed onto the low hanging veranda and swiped some clothes from the clothesline. There wasn’t much there and with an unknown amount of time she couldn’t be picky. Ichiro tapped his fingers against the cement wall that separated the house from the street. He kept a lookout for Kanon while it seemed she took her sweet time. No one was in sight on the street. His real concern was the people in the house. Kanon could hear people inside the house. They were just on the other side of the door. She carefully stepped hoping the wood wouldn’t creak. She grabbed matching clothes and a nearby bag to use for their modern clothes. Ichiro ran over to grab the clothes from her so she could hop over the railing. The two had darted around the corner into a narrow alleyway to change clothes. Despite having era-appropriate clothes, they still felt out of place. Kanon wore a dark blue school uniform that was almost just right. It a little snug in some areas but the skirt was fine. Ichiro wore a brown military uniform that was a little too big for him. The cuffs of his jacket covered half of his hand but he felt his black boots would grab the most attention since they didn’t match. Both were still a bit damp for them but it felt good in the heat.

“I hope this doesn’t cause us more trouble,” Kanon said looking over her new outfit.

“Why? You afraid that someone will report stolen clothes that match the ones we just swiped?”

Kanon shook her head. “No. I’m afraid our uniforms will attract more attention because someone may get suspicious if we don’t do or say something we’re supposed to. It can’t be helped because there weren’t any other clothes to steal.”

“We’ll deal with any issue about our clothes when the time comes. Can’t worry about something that may or may not happen.”

Kanon nodded. “What do you want to do about looking for our grandparents?”

“We know they survive the bombing so we don’t have to worry about that part. I guess we can just observe them.”

“Where do you want to start looking?”

“We can start from the castle and work our way outward. I do remember her saying she used to visit the castle grounds often and played around it. She said she was very sad it was destroyed by the bomb because of her fond memories there with her friends by the time it was rebuilt she wasn’t a kid anymore.”

“Okay, let’s start there.”

The twins emerged from the alleyway still in front of the house from which they had stolen the clothes. Suddenly, the door to that house swung open. Standing in front of the twins was the owner of Ichiro’s stolen uniform.