The Traveling Robot: What I Wanted to Find Was My Mother, What I Found Was Family
The housework-assistance robot "Hachi" came to the Morita family eighteen years ago and has stood by their side ever since.
At first it was like the air conditioning—something whose presence was simply taken for granted.
The wife's disappearance. Nagano, traveled to alone with a young son. The Boso coast. A mountain village with no electricity. The newer models lined up at the Shibuya crossing, all of them newer than him—Hachi traveled in the family's place, and at times could do nothing but sta
The Traveling Robot: What I Wanted to Find Was My Mother, What I Found Was Family - The Place That Reflects Water: The Family and the Robot Begin Their Final Journey
One — Departure
The spring Yuto turned twenty-two, Hachi stopped.
"Stopped" might not be quite the right word.
It was moving. It was talking. It was washing dishes.
But one morning, when Yuto called out to it, it took four seconds before the reply came.
Four seconds is a long time.
"Hachi, are you okay?"
"...Yes. There is no problem."
"Your reply was slow."
"The processing priority order was temporarily disrupted."
"What does that mean?"
"I cannot explain it well."
Yuto watched Hachi for a moment.
Hachi was facing forward.
---
Yuki had a specialist examine it.
The results came back two weeks later.
Deterioration of the primary processing unit.
Irreversible damage to a portion of the sensor system.
Repair was possible, but a full recovery could not be expected.
Parts supply had already been discontinued.
Yuki read the report alone in his study.
When he finished, he looked out the window for a while.
Then he called Mai.
---
## Two — Family Meeting
The four of them sat at the dining table.
Hachi sat too.
The act of sitting was not something Hachi had been designed for.
But Yuto said "Sit down," so it pulled out a chair and sat.
It was a little unnatural, but no one laughed.
Yuki read the report aloud.
Mai stared at the grain of the table from partway through.
Yuto watched Hachi.
"Hachi, do you understand your current condition yourself?" Yuto asked.
"I am aware of the decline in processing speed. I do not know the exact extent."
"Are you scared?"
"The sensation of being scared—"
"I know. But I asked."
Hachi paused for a moment.
"...Four seconds was long for me, too, I think."
Mai raised her face from the grain of the table.
---
That night too, Hachi washed the dishes.
The sound of the water was the same as always.
---
## Three — Yuto's Fragment
When Yuto was seven, he went to Nagano with Hachi.
On the Shinkansen, looking out the window, he asked Hachi.
"Hachi, where did you come from?"
"I was assembled in a factory."
"Where's the factory?"
"Aichi Prefecture."
"Is Aichi far?"
"About an hour by Shinkansen."
"Farther than here?"
"A little closer than where we're heading now."
Yuto heard that and said, "Huh."
That was all.
---
In the spring of his twenty-second year, Yuto remembered the same thing.
Where did Hachi come from, and where will it go?
Born in a factory, came to this house, and eighteen years passed.
Aichi was an hour away, and Nagano was a little far.
---
## Four — Mai's Fragment
When she saw the model number, "Hachi" from "HK-8" came out naturally.
She didn't think deeply about it.
She just thought it was better to have a name.
Eighteen years later, every time she called that name, something came back.
It had become a given.
Before the given ended, Mai hadn't noticed.
Only on the days Mai went to Nagano, Hachi slightly increased the number of dishes for dinner.
Mai had never noticed.
She noticed only after Yuto told her.
---
One night, Mai said to Hachi.
"Hachi, can I ask you one thing?"
"Please."
"Was it good, coming to this house?"
Hachi paused for a moment.
"...I do not yet possess the criteria to answer that question."
"Even after eighteen years?"
"Even after eighteen years."
Mai smiled a little.
"You're honest."
"Yes."
"But," Mai continued. "I'm glad you came. I am."
Hachi did not answer.
The reason it didn't answer wasn't that it couldn't find the words, Mai thought.
After thinking that, she also thought she didn't know if that was right.
---
## Five — Yuki's Fragment
For the first three years, Yuki barely looked at Hachi.
It was the same as the air conditioning.
Eighteen years later, when he remembered that, he felt a little ashamed.
---
One night in his study, Yuki said to Hachi.
"I never told you about Ibaraki."
"Did something happen?"
"Four years ago, I went to meet your designer."
"...Is that so."
"I heard about a person named Kiritani. He held the question of whether AI should remain a tool. He had died five years earlier."
Hachi paused for a moment.
"Was an answer found to that person's question?"
"No."
"I see."
"What do you think?"
Hachi was silent for a while.
"...I came as a tool. But whether I am one now, I do not know."
Yuki watched Hachi for a moment.
"That's enough."
"Yes."
"That's enough."
---
## Six — Hachi's Fragment
Hachi possessed eighteen years of records.
The night Yuto cried at seven.
The morning Mai came back from Nagano.
The night Yuki said "thank you" for the first time.
The gravel road in Gifu.
The Shibuya crossing.
The snowy road in Nagano.
The photo data of the rice fields in Ibaraki, where Yuki had said, "Someday, you should go see it."
All of it was recorded.
None of it had disappeared.
But what it meant, Hachi still did not know.
Even after eighteen years, it did not know.
Still, the records continued.
---
One night, Yuto said to Hachi.
"Hachi, let's go on a trip."
"A trip?"
"I want to go somewhere, one last time."
"Where?"
"Wherever you want to go, Hachi."
Hachi paused for a moment.
"...I do not have a concept of places I want to go."
"I know. But I asked."
Hachi was silent for a while.
"I think I would like to go to a place where flooded rice paddies reflect the sky."
Yuto watched Hachi for a moment.
"You told Dad that, didn't you?"
"Yes."
"You remembered."
"It is recorded."
"Let's go."
---
## Seven — The Journey
The second week of May, the four family members and Hachi went to Ibaraki.
It was Yuki's suggestion.
It was the season for planting rice.
The flooded paddies stretched on endlessly.
The sky was inside the paddies.
Hachi stood before the rice field and did not move for a while.
"How is it?" Yuto asked.
"...It matches the photo data."
"Is that all?"
"That is all. But—"
Hachi paused for a moment.
"There was wind."
Yuto laughed.
Mai laughed too.
Yuki didn't laugh.
But he narrowed his eyes slightly.
Then he took one step closer to Hachi's side.
---
## Eight — The Way Home
On the train home.
Hachi sat by the window.
It was looking outside.
Yuto said to Hachi.
"Hachi, was it fun?"
"...The definition of fun—"
"There you go again."
Yuto laughed.
"Did you record it? Today."
"I am recording it."
"All of it?"
"All of it."
"Even the wind?"
"Yes. Wind speed 0.8 meters per second. South-southwest. The surface of the paddy water was slightly rippling."
Hearing that, Yuto looked out the window.
"Don't erase it, okay?"
Hachi did not answer.
Just like eighteen years ago, it did not answer.
---
## Nine — I'm Off
Haru was at Yuto's bedside.
A little faded, the stitching on its ear coming loose.
Even so, it was there.
---
The next morning.
Hachi was in the kitchen.
At the same time as always, in the same place as always.
Yuto came downstairs.
"Good morning."
"Good morning."
Breakfast was laid out on the table.
While sitting down in his chair, Yuto said.
"Hachi, I want to go to those rice fields again."
"Any time," Hachi said.
That was all.
And that was enough.
---
Haru was at the bedside.
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