Morning sunlight spilled across the tatami mats, painting the room in gold.
Hikari was still asleep, her small hands curled around her stuffed rabbit. I watched her breathing quietly, my chest aching.
No matter how many times I told myself she was only my daughter, the truth kept breaking through. The way she smiled, the way she looked into my eyes, the way she knew every secret of my heart…
It was her.
The girl I once loved.
The girl I lost.
The girl who had come back to me.
As if sensing my gaze, Hikari stirred and opened her eyes. She blinked at me, then smiled the same soft smile that had once healed all my wounds.
"Papa… or should I call you by your name again?" she teased gently.
My throat tightened. "…Don't joke about that."
"But I'm not joking." She sat up, rubbing her eyes. "To everyone else, I may be your daughter. But to you… I'll always be me. The girl who loved you. The girl who still does."
I couldn't answer. My emotions were tangled, but the warmth in my chest was undeniable.
Hikari reached out, taking my hand in hers. Her fingers were so small, yet the way she held me felt exactly the same as before.
"Let's be together again," she whispered. "No matter what the world thinks. No matter what anyone says. You promised me once, remember? That we'd never be apart."
Memories rushed back—the night under the stars, her laughter, her final words in that hospital room.
"I'll come back to you."
She had kept her promise.
And how could I turn her away?
My eyes burned with tears as I pulled her into a gentle embrace. She was warm, real, alive.
"Yes," I murmured. "Let's be together. This time… I won't lose you."
In that moment, the boundary of father and daughter, life and death, past and present, melted away.
All that remained was love—pure, unshakable, eternal.