Kyozo was now going back to Japan leaving the South Seas and Thursday Island. A steamship of about 100 tons headed up north between New Guinea and Indonesia Islands, and passed over the equator.
The ship repeated to get refueling at Palau, Guam and other several ports, and arrived at Kushimoto Port in early March after a half-month voyage.

The newly-married couple of Kyozo and Kuma began their belated life in Miwasaki, in the new two-story house with a suitable view of the sea just beyond the side street.
Kuma is now at the age of twenty-five eight years after their wedding ceremony at Hachiman Shrine.
Kyozo's relation with the Arafura Sea would continue through his new boat "Hinomoto-maru" for the picking of pearl oysters.

He went offshore daily on his hand-rowing boat. With no interest in fishing, he dove into the sea and bagged fishes with the underwater gun of a bamboo pole that he had invented by himself.
On the way back home, his "bottsuri" (a basket for fish woven by bamboo) was heavy with sea breams, flatfish, gure, shrimps, and abalones, ... Kuma's parents of the Sanoh family and neighbors were the recepients of his charity every time.
This fishing was in fact his passtime. His main daily task was to work both at the field on the hill near Koyazaka Slope (a part of Kumano Ancient Roads) and at the rice field just west of Hachiman Shrine.

His eagerness to devise anything did not change on land, either. In the field he tried to develop a new variety sweet potato in his own way. Without a change of sweetness, he harvested many pieces of Norin-one sweet potato as large as a pumpkin, which was a topic of conversation in town every year.
In the rice field, he had steadily prepared for biannual cropping how and what to fertilize, how to cultivate, when to plant the first cropping, and so forth.
He cultivated a two square-kilometer field by himself with no help of a cow. Kuma helped him while managing the grocery store.

As a sequel to the story, a couple of years after the war, he succeeded in biannual cropping for the first time around Kii Peninsula, and this was reported by major newspapers.
But after several years he put it back to once a year, for several reasons such as the expense adding up to more than double the amount of harvest, and less chance to go fishing.
Above all, the true reason seems that he was tired of it after the achievement of his target. He was eager in his original way, but at the same time, "he takes interest in something easily, but it rather fades quickly."

Relaxation, entertainment, friendship, ... such mental pleasures were irrelevant to Kyozo, while his life with Kuma was the happiest matter to him. Their life continued in the two-storied wide house that was formerly an inn. The double bed on the second floor, ordered from a long-established trading company in Kobe, was the couple's castle solid and comfortable for sleeping.

The beloved wife was a glamorous lady at the age of twenty-five. A remaining trace of a girl in her shy smile, she had already matured with a fair figure. In addition to her natural good looks, her face with long bound black hair had a slight sex appeal, and her formally skinny body was well-propotioned.
Kyozo enjoyed himself in bed as if he was in heaven. Kuma rewarded him for his hard work in the Arafura Sea.

The new husband put his face on the bride's black hair with his hand gently on her breast. He caressed her as tenderly as patting an important pearl oyster even with a hand rough as a pine cone. Kuma gave herself over to happiness by being embraced by her beloved husband. .....

Kyozo remembered the Arafura Sea with Kuma's head on his arm.
He began to talk in a hoarse voice while lying on his back and looking up at the ceiling. This had been his work until just recently. Kuma listens intently with her eyes closed.

"The Arafura Sea was a nice sea. You see, the sun beats down on us everyday. It is so glaring that you cannot open your eyes. The sea is rippling a little and is brilliant in colors of blue, green, and yellow, ..."
"When you dive into the sea, you find the bottom transparent as far as your eye can see, and coral reefs spread out into the distance."
"I work quietly and gently so as not to break the coral. I imagine a fairyland is such as this. I would really like to show it to you."
"Many and various fishes are swimming. Large and small. You will surely be surprised. The same kinds of fish gather together, coming and going here and there. They are just like birds and animals around the hills and fields."
"Various marine lives are crawling on the sea bottom. Fixing your eyes in the dim atmosphere, you can see them. Some are slow and others are fast. All of them are sweet. Seagrasses all around are swaying and small fishes like butterflies and birds are flying swiftly. It is as if you are walking around a hill or a field. It is just a paradise making me forget the work."
"The largest pearl I picked was much bigger than a thumb. I really wanted to show it to you then. I heard it was sold at a huge price. The one larger was insect-eaten. ..."
"I will tell a story of sharks tomorrow. It should be scary!"

Kyozo's story is not limited to the sea bottom. Thursday Island, New Guinea Islands, Caians Town and Father Baike, interactions with local people, ......
The story faded away, and Kyozo was sleeping with regular breathing. And then he begins to snore.

At first this snoring bothered Kuma. He breathed in with a noisy nasal and stopped breathing for about one minute at the most. After that he breathes out suddenly at a stretch. Then a nasal and a regular breathing continue for a while, and intermittent snoring followed.
Kuma accepted it as one of the souvenirs from the Arafura Sea, and she felt him rather adorable. She became used to it before long and did not mind it.

Kuma wished to open a grocery store, not satisfied with only farmwork. She seemed to have investigated the surroundings in her own way.
The wide entrance part of their house was revised to be space for the Wozumi Grocery Store. Their house used to be an inn, so it had a good space for such use.
Though the requirement for opening a store was severe under the controlled economy, she was able to get every neccessary license for alcohol, tobacco, salt, sugar, miso, soy sauce, and so forth, so she was able to manage a store with most of day-to-day goods.

Kyozo was in charge of purchasing under the direction of the purchase ledger Kuma made, and Kuma was a manager of the store. The couple who did not even go to elementary school could manage a ledger, and even more Kuma's modest attitude, consideration and naturally good care, which made the store the favorite for most of the town people. Later they employed a female clerk.

After they opened the store, the Miwasaki Fishery Cooperative was involved in a complicated case, but this is a story for the next chapter.