Liver Donation Scandal and Daisuké's Runaway Disappearance

Daisuké’s liver-donation crisis ends not in the hoped-for transplant but in his father’s death, and the failure of the family’s appeal becomes the turning point in Daisuké’s life. He had tried to accept his role as the dependable son, yet the combined weight of expectation, fear, and unresolved resentment leaves him unable to remain with his family. He leaves town, severs contact, and refuses to discuss them again; his disappearance also abruptly ends his relationship with Misuzu.

Family Expectations and the Donor Crisis

Daisuké’s family had already assigned him a difficult place in the running of their inn. His elder brother, although expected to inherit as the first-born son, had left for Tokyo and started a restaurant with friends. When that business failed and the brother returned with substantial debt, their father agreed to pay it off on the condition that he take over the inn. Their parents promised the elder brother the title of managing director and Daisuké that of vice president. Daisuké understood that the practical burden of the business would still fall to him, and worried that the arrangement would damage his relationship with his brother. He loved him, but did not believe that love was returned in equal measure.

The old imbalance sharpened when their father, aged seventy-one, was diagnosed with advanced liver cancer. A transplant from a brain-dead donor could not be awaited, leaving a living relative as the only possible donor. The elder brother was ruled out because of fatty liver; Daisuké’s liver was healthy. The apparent fairness of choosing the healthy son concealed a familiar inequity: his restraint and diligence made him available for a risk his brother could not take.

The operation carried serious risks for both recipient and donor, including the possibility of death. Daisuké’s father, who had never before bowed to him, gripped his hand, cried, and asked him to fulfill his duty as a son. His mother and brother did not explicitly demand that he agree, but neither told him he was free to refuse. They said they wanted the father to live, held discussions in Daisuké’s absence, and made no effort to ask the father to reconsider. When Daisuké visited the hospital and encountered those conversations, he understood their urgency and shared their wish for his father’s survival.

Consent, Death, and Departure

Daisuké eventually agreed to donate, telling himself that he would do so by his own choice rather than merely surrender to pressure. His father was overjoyed, and thanked him—the only time he ever did so. His brother promised him the entire inheritance, and their mother seemed happy. For a moment, the family’s expectations appeared to have been answered by gratitude and promises of recognition.

But the father’s cancer had advanced faster than expected. While Daisuké hesitated over consenting to a dangerous procedure, the opportunity passed; the transplant was already too late. His father died, and the surviving family members mourned together. Yet neither his brother nor his mother offered comfort for a decision that had become pointless. The failure was not simply that Daisuké could not save his father. He had faced a life-threatening choice under the pressure of the family’s unspoken expectations, then found that his sacrifice could neither change the outcome nor repair his place within the family.

Daisuké later tells Kido that he had wanted to save his father, but had grown increasingly afraid as he learned more about the procedure. After the death, he felt that something inside him had been broken beyond repair. He cut off all contact with his family and left town, wanting to get as far away as possible. He declared that he had no intention of seeing them again and that this would be the last time he spoke about his family. The decision to leave is therefore both an escape from the family’s demands and a refusal to keep reopening the wound through explanation or reconciliation.

Misuzu and the Sudden Disappearance

The departure also ends Daisuké’s relationship with Misuzu. After his father’s funeral, Daisuké remained with his family for a time, while Misuzu had moved to Tokyo. They continued to meet about twice a week and were seeing one another. Then Daisuké disappeared without a conversation about breaking up. Misuzu received no email or call afterward; his telephone number had been disconnected.

Misuzu connects his flight to the way his brother treated him. Kyoichi called Daisuké a “little shit,” failed to appreciate his work, and could not accept that Misuzu would date him. He resented his brother’s position as the one able to save their father, yet became impatient when Daisuké hesitated. Kyoichi said that the operation’s risks were no big deal and that Daisuké should stop acting like a drama queen; if Kyoichi’s own liver had been suitable, he claimed, he would have kept quiet and accepted the risk. He said this to their mother, and Daisuké overheard. Misuzu understands why someone treated this way might run away, though her fear that Daisuké could have been harmed remains speculation, not a confirmed explanation of his fate.

What the Absence Leaves Behind

Kido believes Daisuké may still be alive and promises Misuzu he will try to find him. The promise gives the disappearance a continuing place in the investigation, but the available account does not resolve what became of Daisuké. His refusal to speak further about his family also means that the story of his departure is preserved through partial testimony: Daisuké’s own account of the donation crisis, Misuzu’s memory of their relationship, and her recollection of what he overheard from Kyoichi.

Years later, the absence still shapes the family’s next generation. Yuto resists changing his surname from Taniguchi after Rié tells him she will return to her maiden name. He explains that classmates and students at school know him as Taniguchi, and worries that changing it again would make him repeatedly correct people. More than convenience is at stake: he asks whether he can keep the name so that his father is not forgotten after his family turned away from him. His request shows how the family rupture, which Daisuké answered by disappearing, persists as a question of memory and belonging for the child who knew him as a father.

Yuto’s grief also appears in quieter acts. He notices his grandmother looking at the aquarium in the shed and proposes goldfish, offering to look after them. Rié recognizes his thoughtfulness, while also seeing that he is carrying losses he does not readily express. She reflects that he lost his brother, grandfather, and the man he believed was his father, and that caring for the fish and his younger sister, reading, and writing help him endure what he cannot easily say.

Narrative Significance

The crisis turns on the gap between apparent choice and choice made within a family’s expectations. Daisuké insists that he consented freely, but the circumstances surrounding that consent—his father’s plea, the family’s silence about his right to refuse, and the brother’s contempt—complicate any simple account of filial sacrifice. The father’s death then reverses the meaning of the promised reward: gratitude and inheritance are offered, but neither can undo the operation’s failure or restore Daisuké’s trust.

The event is also a hinge between private estrangement and the larger story of identity. Daisuké’s departure leaves Misuzu without an explanation and his family without contact; later, Yuto’s insistence on retaining Taniguchi turns that absence into a question of whether a father can be remembered through a name. The crisis therefore remains present after the hospital episode has ended—not as a resolved family history, but as a rupture passed on through silence, attachment, and the effort to understand what the missing person meant to those left behind.