Last month, I lost my beloved husband and daughter.

It was a freak accident. During summer break, having secured a long vacation, I suggested, "Let's go on a trip, just the three of us." It was our first trip with our daughter, and perhaps I was too caught up in the excitement.

A car driving the wrong way collided with us head-on.

I hit my head hard. My consciousness flickered awake from the jolting of the stretcher, and as I managed to turn my head, I saw my husband lying in a massive pool of blood and my daughter with her neck bent at an unnatural angle.

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I met him back in university. Growing up in the countryside, I had always loved nature. Since there were no friends my age around, my only friends were the forests, the rivers, and the creatures living there.

That didn't change even as a university student. I worked part-time alongside my studies and spent every long break traveling alone through Japan's wilderness. That was my life.

Summer break of my sophomore year. The man I met at an inn during my travels was a bit eccentric. For instance, he kept his wallet in a Ziploc bag. When I asked why, he said, "So I don't have to worry if it gets wet." If I casually mentioned something I was curious about, he would return the answer tenfold along with new knowledge.

That chance encounter didn't end at the inn; we started touring nature together. It turned out he loved traveling too and had been all over. Since we were the same age, we hit it off immediately. We started keeping in touch...

And then... for someone like me who loved traveling alone, I gained an irreplaceable travel companion. Then another person, a tiny life, was born to us. I was at the peak of happiness.

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A few months later, the funeral ended without the reality of their deaths truly sinking in. My family worried, but I didn't feel like going back to my parents' house. I wanted to be alone. Returning alone to the house where the three of us were supposed to return filled me with an indescribable emotion, and I fell into self-despair. Forcing my leaden body to stand, I looked in the mirror and saw a wreck of a person. From outside, bright light had begun to stream through the gaps in the curtains before I knew it.

I'm going on a journey.

To the place where I met him, to the nature we toured together, and to the destination the three of us wanted to go. The duration will be six months. With that, I will end this journey. And when it ends, I will go to where they are.

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That's what I had decided.

On the first day of the trip, at the inn where I first met him, the person I encountered was a kind young man.