Sitting in a ramen restaurant a man opens his jacket and pulls out a pack of cigarettes. He calmly opens the box and pulls out a cigarette before he can find his lighter, a elderly woman walks up to him holding an envelope with an ajisai crest seal on it. "Who are you?" asks the man, "I'm a friend of your wife and childhood friend Aoi" says the elderly women, the man looks over with a shock face expression next looks down at the envelope and takes it out the elderly women hands as the man proceeds to open the envelope he quickly stop to notice on the front of the envelope is his name written with a kiss mark next to it as he aggressively opens it and pulls out a letter in Aoi handwriting.
Dear Eiji
How have you been old friend/husband? I'm hoping your well
sorry to tell you this on short notice but if you're getting
this letter I'm sadly to say this to you dear but I passed
away, I know you're probably frustrated about getting
this letter from me among the grave and I completely
understand it if you hate me for suddenly disappearing
on you one day but that's not important now I'm here to
tell you about… your daughter, well our daughter.
As Eiji continued to read the letter he slowly drops the letter and tears run down his face while clutching his fist so hard it's bleeding. The next day Eiji drives up to a house on the countryside with a Bouquet of flowers while holding a stuffed bear, the house seemed old and looks like was decoying, when Eiji turned opening the front door he couldn't it was almost as if it was stuck on the other side, he made several attempts at trying to open the door but failed when he sat down on ground leaning against the front door saying "what's with this door" as he catches his breathe next the door knob turns and Eiji falls back and sees a little girl who's wearing a shirt that's too obviously big for her, messy hair and wearing Aoi wedding ring around her neck. The little girl backs up but doesn't say a word she just quietly states at Eiji as he gets up on his feet,
Eiji then kneels down to the young girl height and says "Hi little one, I'm Eiji your father I know it's hard to believe -" before he could continue his sentence the little girl grabs his sleeve and gently tug on it and turns her head to a room and points at it saying "Mother". Eiji stands up looking towards a room in distance and slowly walking to the room when he sides the door open inside was a body being covered up by a bed sheet with a plate of sliced apples next to the body, a little girl walks into the room sits on her knees next to the body saying "Mother is just sleeping, she's really been exhausted because of work and she had a really bad cold" after the little girl says this she goes over to the refrigerator and grabs two cans of ice tea and gives one to Eiji saying "Mother always told me
"when guest come over always get them some tea or something to drink" as Eiji reaches his hand out to grab the drink but instead puts his arms around the little girl secretly crying, "What's wrong mister? Is the tea not good enough?", "No, no, no the tea is wonderful" says Eiji as he looks at Aoi's lifeless body, next Eiji pulls the sheets uncovering Aoi body and is in shock to see Aoi died with a smile on her face.
Eiji looks back over at sheets and cover Aoi body back up thinking to himself ("Aoi I love you, you deserve a proper burial") Eiji stops hugging his daughter and walks over to Aoi body and bridal carries her lifeless body outside with his daughter following in toe, "Mister where are you are you going with my mother?" asks Eiji daughter as she tugs on his button up shirt
Eiji stops in his tracks and looks at his daughter saying "It's time to go home my little princess" as he holds back his tears. Eiji lays Aoi body in the the back seat of his car and picks up his daughter putting her in the front sit, putting the seatbelt around her he walks over to the elderly woman and tells her "I'll be back with boxes for their belongings and thank you for delivering Aoi letter and final words to me" as a few tears drop from his eyes, "I got a question, why didn't anyone take Yuaia in if y'all knew about Aoi corpse being in the house and how did you know where to find me?" asks Eiji, the elderly women walks closer to Eiji leading up against his ear, softly whispering into it "because-" ,as Eiji gets in the car his daughter looks at the rearview mirror seeing the elderly women and some of the town's folk waving goodbye.
While driving back to (new Tokyo) when they arrive at Eiji house, he parks his car in the garage and unfasten his daughter, Eiji picks her up and brings her to the kitchen, scratching his head and asks her "You hungry ummm? Sorry I forgot to ask you your name?" Yuaia, Eiji smiles he goes through his refrigerator and decides "How about pizza tonight" Yuaia shakes her head in excitement, Eiji shows Yuaia to her room and puts a kid's cartoon show on for her while he goes make a call to Aoi elderest brother to make arrangements for Aoi funeral.
Later in the day Eiji calls his baby sister to come watch Yuaia while he plans to go get Yuaia and Aoi belongings outta that house. Three knocks at the door, Eiji opens the front door his sister practically tackles him to the ground saying "Where's my little niece at ?" she gets off her brother and helps him up "she's in the living room watchi- before Eiji could even finish his sentence his sister dashed to the living room and bear hugs Yuaia tighty in her arms, Yuaia tells the women "I cannot breathe", "I'm so sorry sweetie, I'm just so happy to have a niece, my big brother finally had a child, I was so worried my brother would never have kids, oh where are my manners I'm your aunt Yuaia" as Eiji sister looks and talk to Yuaia
Eiji gets in his car and opens the garage door and went to get some from a nearby store then drove back to the house Aoi and Yuaia lived in when he got there Eiji first grabbed Yuaia things it wasn't much besides a few clothes and three stuffed animals that was old and ripped up some of the stuffing even fell out and the mad hatter bunny ear fell off. Eiji put her in a large box and moved on to Aoi things he found some clothes and a two aprons one with a rose on it
when he got to the closet there was Aoi wedding dress in it and her old high school uniform. Eiji pulls out the wedding dress and looks at it he sighs when he goes searching through the dresser in the room he finds a photo book of him and Aoi together flipping through the pages he finds some of Yuaia pictures from when she was born till now and a most recent picture of her before he got the letter because it has a date on it.
Eiji closes the photo book instead of putting it in a box he put the photo book in the front seat of the car along with Aoi wedding dress. While Eiji drives back to his house he starts having flashbacks of him and Aoi together from when they first met, middle school and high school together, their dates, trips, the proposal he did at their favorite amusement park, and their wedding
Eiji finally makes it home he brings in Yuaia things first when was calling out to his sister and Yuaia no one answered he looked into the living and saw Yuaia and his sister sleeping on the couch together with the tv still on
he than walks over and turns the tv off then goes to his closet and pulls out and blanket, Eiji puts the blanket over his daughter and sister as they slept he put Yuaia things in her room but Aoi things in his room and hangs up Aoi wedding dress and put the photo book on top of his dresser.
After Eiji sister and Yuaia wake up, Eiji's sister said "Alright it's time for me to go, I got my own kids to go home to and watch" so she gives Yuaia goodbye kisses and leave it's already 6:07 pm, "Yuaia you'll be sleeping in my bed tonight and tomorrow we'll get you some furniture and a bed tomorrow okay?" says Eiji, Yuaia replies "Okay", as Yuaia went to bed
Eiji goes back to his car and grabs Aoi corpse putting her on the ground with the blankets still covering her. He quickly pulls out his phone and dials Aoi eldest brother to ask him, "how soon can we have Aoi funeral?", "Don't worry I got everything set up so don't worry Aoi will have a proper burial, tomorrow morning I'll be sending over the morticians to get Aoi body" replies him, shortly after Eiji and Aoi eldest brother discussion. Eiji sister sends him a text message reading
Hi little bro, sorry for not treating your situation little more seriously, I just wanted seem cheerful in front of Yuaia so she wouldn't suspect something's up a child that young shouldn't experience the lost of their mother this way. I know I only seemed happy that you have a kid and only interested in her without talking to you, just letting you know if you ever need a shoulder to cry on I'm here for you
As Eiji reads his sister text he leans against the wall covering his face as tears runs down, trying his best to hide his tears, next Yuaia walks over to Eiji and wipe away his tears with her hands smiling gently, "It's okay Daddy, everyone cries and don't worry I'm here now" as she says this, Eiji hugs Yuaia once more.
After Eiji had finished crying, he put Yuaia to bed giving her a kiss on the forehead, started to think back to what the elderly woman said "Because we all wanted to take her in but Yuaia refused to leave her mother side, trust me when I say she'll probably escape our houses a lot and run back to the house and sleep next to her mother. All we did was watch her brought her food, water and even hammy downs and we watched her closely as I went to go deliver you the letter and Aoi told me where to find you" as she says this reaches into her back pocket pulling out another piece of paper "with this list of places you'll most likely be at and what time, not just that, a photo of you from the wedding papered clipped to the list" the elderly women chuckled as she looked at the picture. As she pictured how things would've looked if Aoi was still alive and both her and Eiji was playing with Yuaia.