After weeks of borrowed time in San Francisco—quiet mornings, shared training, small comforts that felt almost stolen—the mission finally ended. Departures would came quickly. Planes, goodbyes, and the anticpation of returning to duty, but most of all, back home. Somewhere between leaving American airspace and crossing back toward Japan, however, exhaustion caught up to Maki unlike ever before. Sleep came deep and unguarded, carrying with it something softer than memory and heavier than hope.