Chapter 49

Azuko has gone mad!

This was the only source of amusement among the fishermen who had been feeling gloomy for a while. To them, a woman who mumbled to herself, neither worked hard nor found a husband, must be mad.

Many people secretly lamented that Azuko, once one of the most beautiful women on the island, had now become a madwoman that everyone avoided. No matter how beautiful she was, no one would marry her.

Rumors spread, but only Azuko knew that she wasn't mad. Yet, she wished she really was.

Whenever the familiar and kind fishermen went out to sea, Azuko could see the intertwined threads of fate on them. Today, Azuma would catch half a net of sablefish, and tomorrow, Eiji would catch a batch of dead fish killed by bio-waste pollution.

Whenever Azuko spoke of these predictions, they would change. Azuma would arrive early at his ideal spot, only to scare away the sablefish that were swimming downstream. Eiji, half-believing, would miss the batch of dead fish.

Was this a real prediction or a false one?

Azuko was confused, and others began to doubt her sanity.

Until Azuko predicted someone's death!

"Uncle Yokoyama, you really can't go out to sea today, something bad will happen!" Azuko pleaded with the old man.

Yokoyama Masao naturally didn't believe her. With over thirty years of experience fishing, how could anything go wrong? He smiled at Azuko, feeling pity for her, and regretted that such a good woman had gone mad.

Yokoyama Masao went out to sea and never returned.

"Monster!"

This was the new name the people of the island gave to Azuko. Even her family began to look at her with strange eyes.

Azuko was distressed, and what frightened her even more was that her period was late!

Thinking of men, Azuko felt she had no place to stay on the island. She decided to find a man.

The man's name was Ikuuma Heizaburo, a gentle and refined man, fifteen years older than Azuko, and seemed very reliable.

After telling her family, Azuko, pregnant, went to Tokyo to find Ikuuma Heizaburo. When she arrived in Tokyo, she was devastated to find that Ikuuma Heizaburo had been lying to her all along. This man was already married.

Ikuuma Heizaburo was initially very flustered by Azuko's appearance, but when he learned of her superpowers, he became very excited.

During this low period, if Japan reported the emergence of superpowers and guided public opinion, perhaps Azuko could become a symbol to boost national morale.

Ikuuma Heizaburo secretly rented an apartment in Tokyo to hide Azuko. This was the happiest time for Azuko. Chizuko was born, a very cute girl.

The two raised the child while studying superpowers. Azuko's mastery of her superpowers improved over these three years.

In 1950, Ikuuma Heizaburo publicly announced the results of the superpower experiments, attracting widespread attention. The general public was curious, the remnants of militarism thought of human experiments, and Shintoism viewed it as a flood of beasts.

Ikuuma Heizaburo's ambitions were not fully realized, so he had to take Azuko and Chizuko on a national tour to gain the attention and support of the wealthy, making it seem like a performance troupe.

Over five years, Ikuuma Heizaburo received sponsorship and faced criticism. The Japanese government ended negotiations and adopted a policy of "rest and recuperation." The media, receiving the news, suppressed all factors that could affect the country's recovery. Ikuuma Heizaburo's public performances fell within the scope of media attacks.

It was the third public performance in Yokohama. The arrival of a large number of media made Ikuuma Heizaburo think that the experiment had finally received attention, but he didn't expect that these people had come to disrupt the show.

"Fraud!"

"Low-level magic!"

"I won't be fooled!"

"Dr. Ikuuma, you've been fooled!"

"Stop fooling us!"

Condemned by the masses! Even though Azuko had experienced countless public performances over five years, she could no longer bear it. She stood up in fear, wanting to find a place to hide amidst the pointing and whispering, covering her ears to avoid hearing and seeing.

Ikuuma Heizaburo, a professor of psychiatry, naturally knew that Azuko had suffered from mental exhaustion for a long time. It was quite ironic, wasn't it, that a person with telekinetic, predictive, and clairvoyant superpowers would suffer from mental exhaustion.

All Ikuuma Heizaburo could do was protect Azuko's safety to the best of his ability, not out of affection, but for his own future.

"A fisherman..." The lead reporter from the Tokyo Daily shouted the loudest and stood the strongest. Just as he was about to spout more offensive words, he suddenly felt his throat constrict, his heart stopped beating, his vision went black, and he instantly lost his life.

"What happened?" The others were stunned and gathered around the reporter.

Someone placed their hand near the reporter's nose and shuddered, shouting in disbelief, "He's dead!"

"Let's go!" Ikuuma Heizaburo sensed something was wrong and tried to protect Azuko and leave, but when he turned around, he saw their daughter. Azuko immediately understood and cried out, "Chizuko, it was you!"

Ikuuma Heizaburo's reputation was ruined, and he was expelled from Tokyo University for adultery, disappearing from the public eye.

Chuci, an outsider, knew where Ikuuma Heizaburo had gone, but the innocent mother and daughter, Azuko and Chizuko, were pointed at and criticized by the world, and some even wanted to kill them because of their extraordinary superpowers.

The mother and daughter returned to the island and lived with their parents. If things had continued like this, perhaps in a few more years, everything would have settled down. Azuko would have been a single mother, and Chizuko would have been a girl from a single-parent family.

But on that day, Azuko and Chizuko predicted the eruption of Mount Myoban!

Azuko, unable to persuade the villagers near Mount Myoban to evacuate, suffered a complete mental breakdown and jumped into Mount Myoban to commit suicide, leaving Chizuko, a nine-year-old orphan.

The following year, Mount Myoban erupted, and Chizuko was sent to school by her kind uncle. During this time, she fell in love with Tōyama Hiroshi.

At this point, Chizuko was no longer the naive girl she had been as a child, nor was she like her father, a utilitarian. This eighteen-year-old Chizuko possessed a rare beauty, like any other girl, she loved to laugh, play, and liked handsome boys.

If things had continued like this, Chuci would have felt relieved, but he knew this outcome wouldn't happen; something unexpected would certainly occur.

And the unexpected did happen, and the reason was irresistible.

Ikuuma Heizaburo's initial reason for retiring was tuberculosis, so he went to the South Hakone sanatorium, where he really did contract tuberculosis, a new type that mutated irregularly during the second infection.

Due to treatment, Ikuuma Heizaburo spent all his savings and had to seek help from his family.

Yes, for such an absurd reason, Chizuko fell back into Ikuuma Heizaburo's hands.

"Ah~~" Chuci shook his head, not in the mood to continue watching, and temporarily exited the memory.

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