Returning home

As we sat on the open roof tram, watching as scenic sights whizzed by, Irina turned to look me in the eye. "You sure about this?"

"Yes. Don't get me wrong, this doesn't mean I'm calling it quits, rather I want to at least get something off my chest."

I'm sure Irina already knows, since I was required to provide the information, but I didn't exactly have the greatest relationship with my folks. We could never see eye to eye. "A vlogger, you say!? Rubbish, get married to someone that makes a good living if you don't want to work that badly!" and "What a stupid delusion. The school system clearly failed if you're wanting to spend your life posting videos and photos of yourself online!" were some of the phrases I'd constantly hear. It's not like it was always like this. My childhood was filled with nothing but happiness, making it all the more saddening my folks decided not to think of my happiness when I became an adult.

One day, I applied for a passport, and as soon as I got it, left the country without every saying a word. I even ignored calls from them until a few weeks into my travels, but all I got was angry yelling and orders to come back. Guess I could understand the anger, but come back, no. Traveling the world was my dream, in fact it was the only thing I felt I could do with my life.

It may seem weird to imagine it, but I was once one of the shyest most timid girls around, even had the typical messy long hair and glasses. I was terrified of having to get a job that involved customer service, as I feared all it would take was one bad customer to ruin it all. It's not like this was unfounded. Once at a school festival, I encountered a rude bastard who wouldn't stop yelling, and eventually I snapped and started cursing and stomping frantically, making things worse. I'll never forget how much I cried in the counseling office as everyone heaped their disappointment on me.

That incident there made me realize I couldn't fit into society "normally". If I was to live a successful life, I'd need to do it in my own way. With the rise of social media, becoming an influencer soon became a viable career path, but when I suggested it to my parents, I was denied. Regardless of their true intentions, I took their denial as them not wanting me to be happy and to make a living doing something I wanted to do.

Thus, the tensions only grew, and contributed to me running away from home. It might seem weird that a shy and timid wreck like me would want to travel the world, but there is a loophole out of that. My fear was always ending up in a role where I'd have to provide service to others, namely direct in-person service. Knowing my flaws and fearing a repeat of the school festival incident, I shyed away from it. But now, I'm the tourist. Sure I'm still providing service in the sense that I'm filming videos for people to watch, but I can handle online denizens. After all, words on a screen are just words, and even if some asshole makes a video about how much they hate me and want my channel taken down, it wasn't being said directly to my face. Sure those things pissed me off, but now I could vent my frustrations without worrying about anyone complaining.

And speaking of my videos, I was making great bank. My people skills were steadily improving as well, giving me confidence I made the right choice in my life. Yet my parents still seemed to be opposed to my lifestyle. One day, an ultimatum came when they decided to try and bring me back home forcefully. Desperate, I remembered that shortly after the Türkiye incident, I looked up stasis companies and recalled the name of the one that seemed most legit, Jantar. I wasn't too far away from where it was located, so I decided to travel there by car as I feared setting foot in an airport might lead to me being forcefully sent back home.

When I got to Jantar, the staff there were welcoming and didn't so much as try to stop me from wanting to go into stasis. Though I guess it made sense why, it was their business after all. But all I was doing was running, and now I had run 500 years away from my problems. But naturally, there was a sense of guilt and sadness. Even though 500 years had passed, and nothing may be the same, I feel it's long overdue that I stop by home at least... to check in...

...

I feel I've got myself to blame for Hana wanting to return home, but maybe it's not a bad thing. She helped me finally appreciate life here, so maybe she feels she needs to go back to her homeland, just to get rid of that sense of guilt she feels she has. In her notes, she specifically asked to be revived in an era where things are perfect and trivial disagreements are a thing of the past. She also was abundantly clear that we do not revive her prematurely should someone demand we do.

Not sure exactly what the employees of the past dealt with, but the company policy was seemingly iron tight in that only the word of the client would be obeyed. Anyone claiming to be acting on their behalf was ignored. That being said, if someone did have a relation to a client and wished to have something entrusted to them when they were revived, we would hold onto whatever it was after ensuring it was safe and keep it in a small stasis pod with an ID code linked to the corresponding client's pod.

Just like with our main clients, if someone entrusted us with a certain item, we were only allowed to give it to an amberstasie when the specified time arose. For Hana, that meant I would not be able to give her the things her parents seemingly left us until she reached the site of where her home once stood.

I'm honestly a tad frightened. I don't know how Hana will react, but I have to help her overcome this. She's made me appreciate the world, so it's only right I help her solve her problems.

...

The tram finally came to a stop as we reached our destination. "Welcome to Hokkaido!"

After 500 years, I was back in Japan, back in Hokkaido, the land I once ran away from so long ago.

There were plenty of amazing futuristic sights, but I had to ignore them in favor of my mission; returning home, or at least to where my home once was. No guarantee it would still be standing after 500 years. But lo and behold, there that old cobblestone house in the woods was. It looked run-down, but oddly preserved.

Irina let out a heavy sigh, and briefly warped away before returning a second later with a glowing cubic box. "Jantar was commissioned to give this to you only when you reached this location. I'll warn you, the box's contents might cause depression and sadness... Do you want to open it?"

The somber, worried look in Irina's eyes told me this might be a heavy load, but I was done running. "Open the box."

Irina nodded and opened the box. As I looked inside, my eyes began to widen and tear up. Inside were various things from home I forgot to bring with me when I left. My stuffed animals, old blanket, books, and photos. Countless photos.

"We were also instructed to inform you of a message left on the phone within. It was from the client, Mana Mangetsu."

I didn't hesitate and grabbed the phone. I recognized it as my mother's, looking the same as it did back then. It still turned on, and didn't even have a passcode allowing me to access it. A Viewtube channel was already pulled up with a playlist of videos, simply titled, "Hana, please watch. We're sorry."

I could already feel the tears beginning to flow, but I didn't turn away, and pressed play.