38 The Missing Girl Part 2 (1/2)
As soon as I reached the port, I saw Hanako rushing towards me.
”What's the rush, Yuuji?”
”Mio's missing.”
”Wha-?!?! T-That's impossible!”
”I've got no time to explain. If my intuition is correct, she should've come here before she went missing.”
I immediately grabbed Hanako's hand and led her towards one of the workers stationed at the port.
”Eiichi-san!”
”Well, well. If it isn't the older Miyamura. What's your business today?”
As our family carry goods from the mainland to the island, we obviously have workers working for our family. Eiichi-san is also one of them. He is the one in charge of the process of unloading the cargo and keeps track of what they contain. Though he might look young, he is over 60 years old now.
”Has Mio been here today?”, I hurriedly asked him.
”She sure did! She asked one of the sailors to take her to the mainland in that family boat of yours. Ya' know? The one with blue stripes? That little missy sure did surprise me. Didn't expect her to know about that boat.”
Crap, I shouldn't have told her about that boat when we went to the park a few weeks ago.
”Eiichi-san, do you have any boats that are able to go to the mainland right now? I need to go after her!”
”Sorry, boy. All of our boats are out to restock supply from the mainland. They'll be back in a few weeks.”, replied Eiichi-san.
I slumped my shoulders. I should've known that before she left, she must've made adequate preparations.
”Well... There's a single boat left, though... But I'm not sure if you'll like it.”
”Please, Eiichi-san! I need to get my sister back!”
”Ah... Be warned that the boat is quite dirty, you know? Don't complain if you get dirty!”
”Thank you very much, Eiichi-san!”
”Oh, and tell me about that 'getting your sister back' on the way to the mainland, won't ya'? I'm quite interested in what happened.”
And thus, Hanako, Eiichi-san, and I embarked on a journey to bring Mio back.
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”Ah~ So that's how it is! Good luck, kiddo!”, said Eiichi-san after he heard about the whole story.