Bagmati River

Natsuki, a young woman working for a publishing company, receives an anonymous postcard with a picture of Mt. Everest printed on the back. It reminds her of her brother Kenji, a well-known mountain climber who went missing 2 years ago attempting to climb Everest, who she hasn’t seen in 10 years. Why did Kenji ever go to the mountain? What kind of person was he? Natsuki realizes she doesn’t know her brother at all, but she believed the postcard to be sent by him, and decides to got to Everest to find the answers to her questions.

Natsuki starts her journey by researching Nepal and discovers the postcard was from Lukla, her first solid clue to finding her brother. Her first flight was into the Kathmandu airport, where she meets a young man who is friendly and speaks a little Japanese. She is hesitant to follow him as he leads her to a bar full of dangerous-looking men and she runs away, determined to find a different guide. Her next flight is on a small prop plane that takes her through wondrous clouds and rugged mountains to Lukla. At her lodge she begins to ask around to see if anyone knew of her brother Kenji. A local says there is a Sherpa who knew her brother, who was currently at the Everest base camp. The man’s name was Man Bahadur Gurung, though she was told he goes by “Mr. Man.” To make her way to the base camp Natsuki heads to the next town, Namche Bazar, where she begins to have symptoms of altitude sickness. Despite feeling ill, she does her best to climb the mountain, before reaching her physical limit and collapsing. In her foggy headspace she hears her brother Kenji’s voice and believes him to be carrying her, which is the last thing she sees before passing out. As she regains consciousness she sees an elderly man watching over her. She realizes she is back at the lodge because he is the one who saved her. She thanks him and asks for his name as he begins to leave, and he says he is Man Bahadur Gurung. Natsuki asks about her brother and Mr. Man, who speaks Japanese fluently, is able to tell her about himself and Kenji’s climbing adventures, but when she shows him the postcard he does not know whether or not it was, in fact, Kenji. She is then relocated to a hospital, with no further leads on her brother.

When she is better, Mr. Man says that there is a place where he wants to take Natsuki. Together they get in his car and he drives them to their destination- Nepal's largest Hindu temple Pashupatinath, located on the riverbank where the Bagmati River, which originates from the Himalayas, joins the Ganges River. Natsuki asks Mr. Man why he brought her here, but Mr. Man gives no answer in reply. Instead, Mr. Man and Natsuki witness the burning dead on the holy Bagmati river. She has the answers to her questions now.