Treein

On their wedding anniversary, Mrs. Sato stepped out to buy some groceries, only to find herself transported forty years into the future.

Confused and still holding her groceries, Hana Sato was taken to a community service center, where she was picked up by her husband who had aged into an old man.

Jun Sato had lived as a widower for forty years, believing that his young wife had disappeared and likely died. He never expected her to return one day, her appearance unchanged.

"Ah, Sato Sensei, is this young lady your granddaughter?"

"No, she's my wife."

"Your... wife???"

And so, rumors spread among Sato Sensei's students that the gentle and kindly Sato Sensei had, at his advanced age, remarried a young wife, tarnishing his reputation for decency in his later years.

...
— Will you still love me when I'm no longer young and beautiful?

Transmigrated: Love Across Four Decades

Listening to this segment alone, it might seem like a very ordinary travel tale. Hana asked, "And then?"

Hana fell silent. Usually, you'd expect someone to mention such a trip first if something extraordinary had happened. 'But nothing happened? Why would he recall this trip first, then?'

She didn't know that a single, lightweight white feather and a conversation with a strange old man had almost saved that weary young man. By the lake under the snowy mountain, Jun had once clutched the white feather as if grasping onto some hope.

"We shall meet again," because of these words, he had kept the feather safe all this time, even... until now, the feather was still there.

Hana had a sudden stroke of insight and asked, "Do you still have that feather?" As she asked, she simultaneously thought that it must have been a long time ago, and it probably was gone.

Flower