Chapter 1 (Mizu no Yakata)

Chapter 1
Chapter Information
Tankōbon:	Mizu no Yakata
Chapter Guide
Next	Chapter 2

Chapter 1 is the 1st chapter of Mizu no Yakata, a Kodocha spin-off manga.

Summary

TBA

Plot

Hiroto wanders the forest, having been lost in it for three days, and is exhausted and starving. Mako spies on him, initially mistaking him for Masato. Hiroto faints in the grass, and we transition into a flashback to a month before.

Hiroto Suzuhara is 14 years old. He's greeted 'good morning' by a female classmate named Tamami on his way into school, but he acts dramatically negative - telling her not to talk to him. Internally he thinks about how he could be bullied for being nice to her, because a classmate nicknamed "Crazy Okumura" likes her. In a further flashback, Hiroto explains how he was bullied relentlessly in elementary school, which caused him to make himself "ugly and unnoticable" in hopes it'd stop the bullying. So far, it's worked, though he feels sorry for his parents - who he feels he's betraying.

Just then, he's called in by a teacher and informed that his parents were killed in a car crash. At the funeral, all the attendees gossip about what will be done with the parents money, with no one offering to take care of Hiroto. He yells how he'll do everything on his own, and asks to be left alone.

At school, the Okumura confronts Hiroto about the tiny interaction he'd had with Tamami the other day. Hiroto stands up for himself, and Okumura starts to beat him - though he's able to run away, with everyone starring at him. At home, Hiroto decides he can't go to school, and thinks about suicide, but decides against it. He cries, and in a moment of vulnerability, thinks of his brother, and falls asleep.

Now the next day, he goes to hire a private eye named Genta Sakuma (who doesn't take him seriously, until Hiroto shows he can pay him well). He explains that he had a brother named Masato, though he disappeared 6 years ago. The private eye agrees to take on the case after hearing about Hiroto's woes.

A month later, Genta shows Hiroto his findings: that at the same time Masato disappeared, his girlfriend Mako, and Mako's friend Miwa also did. All three claimed to be going to Miwa's family's villa, though when the buildings were searched, nothing suspicious was found. Genta plans on interviewing some family members of Miwa's next.

Hiroto cuts his hair and stops wearing the fake glasses he had been after deciding to drop out of school, therefore making his goals to look "ugly" no longer necessary. He tags along with Genta to the interview of Miwa's family members. Her parents insist they don't know anything, so they move onto interviewing her grandfather, a former famous botanist. Genta intuitively can tell he knows something, so tries to persuade him into sharing (since he seems hesitant to). He does end up spilling the beans, that there's a villa that only he and Miwa knew about. He stopped being able to find the villa, feeling like the forest was closing in on him. He starts rambling about how Miwa was spirited away along with the villa, and that it's a punishment to have created a frightening thing. He gets more and more off the rails, but Genta asks him the location of the secret villa, which he shares before passing out.Genta is suspicious of the villa, thinking its too dangerous to go.

The next day, Genta goes to ask Miwa's grandfather more details, but is shocked to learn he commit suicide. His suicide note includes a warning, and Genta goes to tell Hiroto - but he's too late. He returns to a letter from Hiroto, thanking Genta for his work, telling him that he's heading to the villa.

Hiroto finds that a cheap compass he has doesn't work properly on his trek to the villa. He's desperate to reunite with his brother, thinking about how he has nothing to go back to if he can't find him. He falls asleep in the grass, and wakes up to a mysterious girl in a kimono. He explains his search for the villa and his brother, and he recognizes her as looking identical to Mako in the photos Genta showed him (though he assumes this isn't the case, since she'd be older now). The girl meanwhile tells Hiroto that he looks like Masato when he was younger, which Hiroto is delighted to hear - and the girl brings him to the villa to meet his brother.

At the villa, Hiroto meet Miwa, and is reunited with Masato. Masato brushes past Hiroto, instead asking Mako if she's gotten herbs for him (and gets angry when she replies she hasn't). The girl who looks like Mako explains that Masato is sick, but gets better with herbs (revealing she did have them, but is unwilling to give them to him yet), and she serves Hiroto some herbal tea. As they have tea, the girl in the kimono introduces herself as Mako, but this confuses Hiroto since she doesn't look 20. He brushes this off as her looking like Masato and Miwa's friend Mako - so she got it as a nickname - but she gets offended (spilling tea on Hiroto) and clarifying that she IS 20 years old. Mako decides they'll hold a party to welcome Hiroto.

Later Hiroto thinks about how weird everyone's acted, but how it's still better than being at home. Separately, Mako gives herbs to Masato (who eats them) only after he begs for them. Hiroto then helps Miwa harvest some plants (a mutated potato, and a tomato-melon) who explains that since her grandpa was a botanist, he researched and created vegetables that can only be grown in the soil near the villa.

Mako tells Hiroto to get Masato, and this time Masato is more receptive to meeting him. Hiroto cries, and tells him about their parent's death. Masato warns Hiroto to leave - that he might still be able to. He tries to tell him something about Mako, but she eavesdrops on their conversation.

Characters

• Hiroto Suzuhara
• Masato Suzuhara
• Mako Sonoda
• Genta Sakuma
• Miwa Nakagawa
• Miwa's Grandfather
• Crazy Okamura
• Tamami