The sun was almost set when Chiori finished with her job as the village head and helped solve people's problems, a quarrel here and there, little misunderstanding, and so on. But when she checked the house, she could not find Chikara anywhere. She thought that her grandson was probably helping in the gas station since the new worker there was such a cute girl. So, she decided to walk to the gas station and looked for Chikara.

The gas station was quiet and the pretty young girl was there with another part-timer, but no sign of Chikara. She looked around in case he was at the back or at the garage, when the girl talked to her.

"Chiori-sama, was Chikara busy today? I know that he's preparing to go study, but he promised to have dinner together today, and I was wondering if he forgot…" The girl, Kyoko, was a pretty one, and she was going to be even prettier when she got older and she was a nice girl too.

"Oh? I thought he was here since I couldn't find him anywhere." However, Chiori suddenly got this uncomfortable feeling in the pit of her stomach, and she tried hard to ignore it. "Would you mind calling Chikara to see where he is, Kyoko?"

"Of course, Chiori-sama." Kyoko took out her phone and started to dial Chikara's number. But it also didn't go through. 

"Strange." Kyoko tried to call Chikara again but the call still didn't go through.

And this time, Chiori started to feel uncomfortable. She then decided to follow her gut feeling and asked for her employers to help her find her grandson.

"Kyoko, Jin, please close the shop and help me find Chikara, will you? I have a bad feeling about this." 

Kyoko and Jin – the other part timer – looked at each other then they nodded before they closed the shop. They knew that Chikara was a responsible boy, and he would never just disappear like this and make his grandmother worried.

"Where should we start, Chiori-sama?"

It took a while for Chiori to think about where a young boy would go alone, but then one thing came to mind. Ever since he was young, Chikara was always fascinated by this place, and even got caught a few times breaking and entering the place even after a stern warning.

It would be a good place to start.

"Let's start with the abandoned building near the forest. The one that used to be the temple of the God of Fire, Kagutsuchi."

Time flew by so fast, when Azusa opened her eyes the sun had almost set. She groaned in frustration because she didn't expect to pass out for this long.

She dragged herself up and forced herself to go to the bathroom to take a cold shower to clean the sweat out of her body. She longed for a bath but that would mean that she would definitely pass out from exhaustion if she did, so she settled for a quick shower. The bath could be done later at her new house, probably.

She chose a simple black sweater and a pair of jeans with knee high boots, then tied her long hair into a ponytail before she walked out of the room and went downstairs where the bar was full with people.

"Oh my god, Azusa! You look so beautiful! Are you going out with Toru?" Hideo was so excited when he saw Azusa, he spoke with a voice louder than usual.

The statement caused people to ooh and aah from excitement, although a few of them who wanted to approach Azusa looked disappointed. The same happened with those who wanted Toru for themselves.

Good.

"Hideo-san, you might as well announce that with a loud speaker." She pinched Hideo's arm. She knew that Hideo did it on purpose so that those people who wanted her and Toru knew that they had no chance and left them alone.

"I'm helping you and Toru, you know." He grinned as he gave her a glass of straight whiskey. "Liquid courage. You look like you're about to keel from excitement."

"I never knew that you're this observing, Hideo-san." She smiled as she rolled her eyes from his teasing. She thought she hid it well, but apparently Hideo's eagle eyes missed nothing. Except for the reason why.

She took the glass and drank the whiskey in one gulp, and the warmth immediately seeped into her bones – giving her some kind of a solace.

"Thank you." She put the glass back on the counter. "I'll see you later."

"No hurry! Take your time!"

She just chuckled and left the bar to enter her car before she drove to the direction of her house.

The kitchen in Azusa's house was perfect.

It was big and modern and had all the tools that he favored, with the familiar placement too. It was like his own kitchen and he felt so comfortable there.

He put the grocery bag on the table and started to prepare the hibachi grill first to get the brickette going, before he prepared the meat.

The huge fridge was full with things that he would have bought for himself – beer, water, yakult, some sweet soda stuff that somehow he knew that Azusa loved, mochi ice cream in the freezer, and a lot more including fresh vegetables, fish, meat and so on.

He closed the fridge and walked into the walk-in pantry where he could find the finest sushi rice, normal rice, long grain, short grain, every kind of flour out there, many types of breadcrumbs, condiments, sauces, Kewpie mayonnaise, sesame dressing, mostly his most favorite things.

After he picked up some stuff to make the food, he wondered how on earth that most of the stuff here was actually his favorite and the ones that he constantly used. Was this a coincidence? Just like when Azuma knew about his favorite food?

He tried to shrug it off and get it out of his mind, and instead focused on cooking the best meal he could for the first date.

Toru finally decided that he would not cook the spicy dishes. He didn't want to cause things to go awry before he could know Azusa better. What a mood killer it would be.

So instead he grilled the A5 wagyu that he got from the fridge, and he also prepped some barbecued teriyaki chicken, potato salad, and rice along with some miso soup. He preferred to go safe for their first date and omitted the raw garlic too in case Azusa would be put off by it.

He was putting the marinade on the chicken when he heard the car on the gravel outside, and he decided to welcome Azusa. 

He washed his hands and walked to the front door when it opened and there she was, a vision so dazzling he was out of breath for a moment before he walked toward her and… should he kiss her? Or gave her a hug? Or just shook her hands? 

Toru was so flustered and it seemed that Azusa understood as she chuckled and fell into his embrace.

"Tadaima." I'm home.

He suddenly had this sense of dejavu, where he was in the same situation like this, and it felt so strong that he couldn't help but hold Azusa tighter.

"Okaeri." Welcome home.

The contentment sigh from Azusa filled his every being and he knew that this was where he was supposed to be.

Home.

Alongside this beautiful woman.