《I Am A TS Reincarnation, But I Have A Kid》 Volume 2 - CH 1 2.01 | TS ÜžÉú¤·¤¿¤±¤É¡¢½Y»é¤·¤¿ by Chitu Bi (³à;±Ì) Translated by Astira In the lobby of the prestigious hotel where my blind date was to be held, there were over a hundred round desks with white tablecloths, surrounded by a row of gorgeous light blue modern chairs. And I, who was sitting there just a few minutes ago, was now being held in a princess carry for some reason. As I looked up, I could see a person with medium-length blonde hair that hung over both ears and yellow eyes with a dusky reddish hue, perhaps a characteristic of being half British and half Japanese. He was 175 centimeters tall and had a good aura, and his face was also small enough to be a model¡¯s with double large eyes and even the outline of his face that was sharp enough to be a model¡¯s. If there were 10 women, wouldn¡¯t they all look back at him? He was such a frighteningly beautiful man. In both ears, there were so many piercings that if he pierced even one more hole, his earlobes would be shredded to pieces. I was really impressed with the way he wore his earrings. ¡°Hal¡­¡± ¡°So, what¡¯re you gonna do?¡± ¡°~!! ~!!¡± The matchmaker one-sidedly talked to Hal, who was princess carrying me; but come to think of it, what was that person¡¯s name? This blonde dude didn¡¯t care at all and continued to ignore them. (Haa¡­ How did this happen?) In the glass-walled garden, Saki, the three-year-old child I was raising, was peering at me as if she was stuck to the window. (I¡¯m all dressed up, and you¡¯re going to ruin it!) Saki was wearing a catsuit with a big white ribbon on it, and her clothes were a pink one-piece, but the skirt, which went below the knee, was soft and fluffy like a dress worn by a princess. Oh, how cute. Wait, now¡¯s not the time to be fangirling. Saki-chan¡¯s grandfather, Daiki, and her grandmother, Hinata, were also by her side, smiling as they watched our little angel¡¯s behavior, who had started to stick to the glass. Apparently, they didn¡¯t intend to come between us. However, Saki-chan, Daiki-san, and Hinata-san were all drinking tea while happily eating the sweets on the three-tiered cake stand at the table seats in the garden, and they were looking into it. It seemed that she was curious about that now. ¡°¡­So, what are you going to do?¡± ¡°¡­This is the only way, right? Then I¡¯ll make up my mind.¡± I replied in the same volume as Hal, who asked with a whisper. ¡°¡­You won¡¯t regret it?¡± ¡°¡­Come again? It¡¯s for raising my lovely daughter, Saki.¡± After answering Hal¡¯s questions, we both nodded and turned to our matchmaker. They were still making noise, but I wasn¡¯t going to have any of that, so excuse me. I stared at my blind date, who stayed silent as if waiting for my response. And I took a breath and opened my mouth, as silence took over. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. But I¡¯m going to marry this man!¡± Before my blind date could say anything, he brought his face closer to mine and kissed me on the lips. (What are you doing out of the blue?!) No, more importantly, what¡¯s this pounding in my chest? Is this what people refer to being pulled out their bodies? Uh? Since I TSed, isn¡¯t this mental BL? Yeah, no. No, because although Hal is outwardly an 18 year old man, inside, he¡¯s a woman. So this isn¡¯t BL or GL, rather spiritually normal. Don¡¯t go to into too much detail. But the world is full of wonders, that the two TSs ended up marrying each other. So I was thinking, until I heard a cute and innocent voice from the garden. ¡°They¡¯re choo-chooing!¡± Saki, please cover your eyes. A/N (Author¡¯s Note) - This took me a long time to post because I was too confused about whether to start with a chapter or an epilogue. Here¡¯s the result. CH ss - 3 Addiction With Spicy Food ¡°We¡¯ve got vermicelli, bean sprouts and we don¡¯t have beef, so we¡¯ll have pork. And we don¡¯t have peppers, so we¡¯ll have spinach.¡± I took the ingredients for lunch out of the fridge, put them on the chopping board and used a knife to cut the vegetables into small pieces. ¡°Carrots and onions, too.¡± This was not what Saki ate for lunch, but the japchae I made for her. Well, it was more like japchae, because it was made with pork instead of beef, and there were no peppers or paprika. Spicy food could also improve appetite and relieve fatigue, which was a good thing. But you have to be careful not to eat too much, because too much is bad for you. As I was cooking in the kitchen, Saki came walking towards me, probably attracted by the smell. ¡°Coming down?¡± ¡°Lunch will be ready soon.¡± ¡°For lunch? (What are you making?)¡± ¡°It¡¯s a dish called japchae. But it¡¯s spicy, so Saki, you have fried noodles and vegetable juice.¡± ¡°One bite.¡± ¡°Huh? I¡¯ve already put in the soy sauce and I¡¯m making it for me, so it¡¯s spicy.¡± ¡°Red, eat it.¡± ¡°You want something red? Oh, the bean sauce. You don¡¯t want to dilute it?¡± ¡°Ai!¡± I was thinking of diluting the taste if Saki was going to eat it, but apparently she was interested in the japchae I was making.1 Hmm, I wonder if this is something I should give her? Maybe this could be another experience? After thinking about it for a while, I gave Saki an empty bowl to hold so that if she couldn¡¯t eat, she could spit it out immediately. ¡°Are you ready? If you don¡¯t like it, just spit it here. Okay?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± ¡°Now, open your mouth and say, ¡®Aah!''¡± As it would be dangerous to feed her too much from the start, I picked up a piece of vermicelli with my chopsticks and brought it to Saki¡¯s mouth. ¡°Ahhh.¡± ¡°How are you doing? Are you okay? If not, spit. Okay?¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡± It was a good idea to keep an eye on her to make sure she doesn¡¯t start crying because it was too painful. ¡°Oh.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± ¡°It¡¯s good!¡± ¡°Eh? Was it good? Really?¡± ¡°Kariya! (It¡¯s delicious!)¡± ¡°Oh, it¡¯s for adults.¡± ¡°It¡¯s a little bit crunchy!¡± ¡°Do you want something spicy?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± I thought about making japchae for Saki¡¯s lunch, but I was worried about her eating too much spicy food at such a young age, so I decided to serve it with a lighter taste. ¡°Karyakunai¡­ (Not spicy¡­)¡± The children¡¯s version of japchae was not well received, perhaps because the first one was more to her liking. And from the next day, I would ask Saki, ¡°What do you want for lunch?¡± And the next day, when I asked Saki what she wanted for lunch, she said, ¡°Kariya-no! (Spicy!)¡± and ¡°What do you want for dinner?¡± ¡°Spicy!¡± and ¡°What do you want for dinner?¡± ¡°Red food.¡± Every time, I scolded her, ¡°Don¡¯t eat too much spicy food, it¡¯s bad for you!¡± Why do we have to keep telling 3-year-olds to quit spicy food, as we do for adults who can¡¯t quit? In addition, after being angered, she lost strength from her whole body and lied on the floor and did not move for a while. ¡°Saki, today¡¯s lunch¡­¡± ¡°Kariya!¡± ¡°Spicy?¡­¡± ¡°It¡¯s so hot!¡± ¡°I told you not to do that!¡± ¡°It¡¯s hot and it¡¯s red!¡± Oh God, she lied flat on her back and started flapping her arms and legs. It was like she was a complete spice addict. [ T/N ¨C Japchae. It looks so good. ] CH ss - 4 Water Strider ¡°Kyaimoniyoiko! (Let¡¯s go shopping!)¡± ¡°Huh? Are you going out? It¡¯s raining now.¡± Saki, who was usually a recluse, seemed unusually eager to go out, but when I looked out of the window of my ramshackle flat, I saw that it was pouring. I would prefer not to go shopping in these circumstances. ¡°Yippee!¡± ¡°Oh, you want to wear your new cap?¡± ¡°Boots too!¡± ¡°You want to wear boots, too?¡± ¡°Boots!¡± I recently bought her a pink rain coat with patterns of ice cream and candy on it, and a pair of peach-coloured boots with a clear ribbon and lam¨¦1 on them, so she wanted to wear them out. Saki usually stayed at home, but if she wanted to go out, she could go with me without making excuses because of the rain. ¡°Hmm, where should we go?¡± ¡°Chupa?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve got all the ingredients for the dish. I don¡¯t need to go to the supermarket, do I? Yes! Shall we go to the candy shop?¡± ¡°Dagachi?¡± ¡°Yes, sweets. Let¡¯s go shopping with your allowance, Saki.¡± ¡°Three hundred! (Three hundred yen!)¡± ¡°Yeah, but I¡¯ll only charge you 100 yen, can you just get me one?¡± ¡°Ai!¡± Saki took out one 100 yen coin from the gap between the TV and the stand. No, I bought a cat piggy bank, but for some reason she didn¡¯t put any money in it, but hid it over there. ¡°I¡¯ll put the money in your wallet.¡± ¡°Come back, come back.¡± This was another wallet I recently bought for Saki. When she put money in it, the green frog swallowed the coin. The red lining made the inside of the bag look strangely realistic when opened. ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡± ¡°Ai!¡± As I stepped out of my ramshackle flat, a large puddle of water formed in front of me. And Saki went there straight. ¡°Splash, splash.¡± Saki kept stepping in the puddles with her favourite boots. As an adult, I didn¡¯t know what the fun there was, but her face looked satisfied. ¡°Don¡¯t go in the middle of the road, in case a car comes.¡± ¡°Ai!¡± We were at the end of the road, so we were still safe, but it would be dangerous if we suddenly jumped out and headed for the centre. I stayed out of the puddle and watched Saki from the side. ¡°Splash, splash.¡± ¡°Fun?¡± ¡°It¡¯s fun!¡± ¡°That¡¯s good.¡± Satisfied after a few moments of puddle-jumping, Saki and I held hands and headed for a nearby candy shop. When we arrived, Saki¡¯s eyes lit up when she saw all the different sweets in the shop. ¡°Sweets!¡± ¡°Yeah, you can buy a lot of things for 100 yen, so just pick the one you like.¡± Saki put a coins into the paper box and started to choose her sweets. Hmmm, I¡¯m not sure, but the experience of shopping with her own money would be exceptional. In the end, after much deliberation, she decided to buy more chocolate sweets. I was going to put my foot in my mouth if I didn¡¯t have enough money, but it just so happened that the candy that Saki had chosen was exactly 100 yen. Maybe my child was a genius. ¡°Thank you.¡± The old lady who ran the candy shop thanked me and we left the shop. ¡°Bright¡­¡± ¡°It¡¯s sunny.¡± Apparently the rain had stopped while we were shopping in the candy shop. Saki was a bit disappointed when the sky cleared up, but when I told her that the puddles hadn¡¯t disappeared, she looked happy to see them again. ¡°Splash!¡± ¡°Hmm? Do you like the puddle in front of our flat?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± It seemed that she liked the puddle in front of our ramshackle flat better than the one by the candy shop, so we walked slowly, hand in hand again. ¡°Hey, nyani? (Hey, what¡¯s that?)¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± In her favourite puddle, before I knew it, someone was playing before Saki. ¡°Oh, it¡¯s a water strider.¡± ¡°A water strider?¡± ¡°Yes. It¡¯s an insect.¡± ¡°Mr. Insect? Flying?¡± ¡°Probably. I hear some don¡¯t fly.¡± Saki and I crouched down and watched the water strider swimming. ¡°Why doesn¡¯t it fly?¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t fly.¡± ¡°Why is it here?¡± ¡°Huh? Is it because they¡¯re water striders? Don¡¯t they like puddles?¡± ¡°Come on!¡± ¡°Just like Saki, who likes puddles.¡± ¡°Ai!¡± ¡°So, Saki, are you a water strider?¡± ¡°No!¡± Oh, she denied it with all her might. In fact, I didn¡¯t know why water striders were in puddles, but it was interesting to see a child¡¯s perspective on such things. Saki and I kept staring at the insect in the puddle. Lame fabric is a type of cloth with metallic threads. Basically shiny cloth. CH ss - 5 3 o''clock Snack Tick, tick, tick, the second hand of the wall clock in the corner of the room turned for some reason. It was a house with a chimney, the same shape as a pigeon clock, with Pino standing at the left end, Ma-mero at the right end, and Squirrel peeking out of the window where the pigeons came out. The second hand was dark pink and the numerals brown, but there was a large heart mark above the 12, 3, 9 and 6, which was also peach-coloured but not pale. (She loves it.) When Midori found out that there was no clock in this shabby flat, she sent it to us, but it soon became Saki¡¯s favourite because of its lovely design. She loves pink so much that I was a bit worried about her future, lest she end up wearing a peach-coloured suit and flashing her camera around. ¡°Mochugu. (Soon.)¡± Saki had been lying down and staring at the second hand for a long time, but she couldn¡¯t read the clock yet, so what was she waiting for? ¡°Umu!¡± Saki¡¯s voice made me look at my watch, it was about to be 3pm in 5 minutes. My little angel¡¯s brow wrinkled up a bit, so I was worried that something might be wrong, so I decided to call out to her. ¡°Saki, what¡¯s wrong?¡± ¡°Mochugu¡­¡± ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± ¡°Oh, it¡¯s snack time!¡± ¡°Oh, snack time¡­¡± Jesus, I was worried, but I was glad there was nothing wrong with her. I haven¡¯t prepared any snacks! What should I do? ¡Á3 (three times.) Sumire had told me to take good care of myself as I would be modelling, so I thought I¡¯d cut back on the sweets. But that was my reason, and it had nothing to do with Saki. If I were to tell her that there would be no snack today, she would be sure to cry. (Um, is there anything in the fridge?) ¡°Snack? (What¡¯s today¡¯s snack?)¡± ¡°Let me see¡­ haha.¡± With my head working at full speed, I recalled the ingredients in the house. I was thinking of making some shaved ice to eat when it got a bit hot, so I remembered I had some strawberry and melon syrup. I had soda water in the fridge, so why don¡¯t I make soda? But would Saki be happy with that? It was not a snack, it was just juice. (Oh, yes! Yuki brought some ice-cream when we had yakiniku, so let¡¯s have some of that!) Saki tilted her head, wondering why I didn¡¯t answer right away. And the expression on her face was beginning to look uneasy. ¡°Oyachu, nyai? (No snack?)¡± ¡°Yes!¡± Trying to reassure her as much as possible, I quickly answered Saki¡¯s questions. ¡°It¡¯s cream soda today.¡± ¡°Cream soda?¡± ¡°Yes. Saki¡¯s is strawberry-flavored!¡± ¡°Yes!¡± ¡°I did it.¡± Technically, the drink was a strawberry soda and the ice cream was vanilla, so it was not all strawberry, but that wasn¡¯t a big deal. If you ate it, it was delicious, so the details were trivial. ¡°I¡¯ll go and make it.¡± ¡°Ai!¡± I went to the kitchen and prepared two soda glasses, put the strawberry syrup in one and the melon in the other, then poured the soda water over the top. Then I put ice cream on top, opened the tins I had bought to preserve the food, decorated each cup with cherries and put a straw in it and I was done. (Come to think of it, this vanilla is Hagen, isn¡¯t it?) It seemed a shame to use it for cream soda, but I was afraid I would get bogged down thinking about it, so I would leave it at that. Yes, as long as it tasted good. ¡°It¡¯s ready.¡± ¡°Oh, my goodness!¡± ¡°It¡¯s a cream soda.¡± ¡°Umu?¡± Saki was staring at the red liquid in front of her, wondering if it was the first time she had seen cream soda. ¡°Bad?¡± ¡°Huh? It¡¯s not poisonous! Why not?¡± ¡°It¡¯s squishy.¡± ¡°Oh, you¡¯re having your first soda.¡± ¡°Why?¡± Oh, I offered her a strawberry soda and she thought I was poisoning her. I was sad to be suspected, so I scooped up the red liquid with a spoon and brought it to my mouth. ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s good.¡± ¡°Really? Are you okay?¡± ¡°No, I¡¯m fine. If you don¡¯t want it, I¡¯ll just eat it all.¡± ¡°No!¡± Thinking I was going to eat the whole snack, Saki hurriedly scooped up the ice cream with a spoon and brought it straight to her mouth. ¡°It¡¯s good!¡± ¡°Delicious.¡± It was sweet, rich vanilla flavour that melted gently and coolly on the tongue. With a glass of melon soda, I could eat as much as I liked, as the carbonation washed away the stickiness of the ice cream. (I¡¯ll have to exercise later.) Saki kept eating her ice cream, but she got thirsty and sucked a straw for the first time. She sucked in the strawberry soda with gusto and then blew the soda out of her mouth. ¡°Chu¡­ chuwa!¡± ¡°Did you squeal?¡± ¡°It was chu-chu! (It was poison!)¡± ¡°That¡¯s not what I said!¡± Apparently, her first soda was too stimulating. After this, Saki was able to take soda in her mouth little by little, but I was left with the scar of being suspected of poisoning her. [ A/N ¨C I¡¯ll finish the SS episode next. ] CH ss - 6 With Saki ¡°To park.¡± ¡°Huh? Do you want to go to the park?¡± Having just returned from the holiday home of Saki¡¯s grandparents, Daiki and Hinata, yesterday, I felt the need to rest a little. ¡°Swing¡­¡± ¡°A swing¡­?¡± ¡°Noru! (Ride!)¡± Saki seemed to be bothered by the fact that she wasn¡¯t able to play on the swings and the slide when she first visited Daiki and his friends at their holiday home. I didn¡¯t want to push her too hard because she was still so young, but if my little angel was trying to overcome her weaknesses, I wanted to support her. I was sure that Saki¡¯s actions had nothing to do with the content of the cartoon that was playing on TV right now, where the pink-haired witch was happily riding on the swing with her friends. ¡°Okay, let¡¯s go to the park!¡± ¡°Ai!¡± Saki was all set, wearing a brown rabbit hoodie, black shorts, purple shoes and sneakers with pink laces. Me? I was wearing a black short-sleeved hoodie and the same colour gaucho pants underneath. I immediately bought a short-sleeved, thin fabric with a cool material because it was on sale online. And at less than 2,000 yen for a white and black set, it was a bargain. Gaucho pants are seven-quarter length with a wide hem and a loose silhouette, so if you were to see me standing with my legs together from a distance, you might mistake me for wearing a skirt. But it was different. I had never worn a skirt since I became Mika, and I didn¡¯t plan to in the future. From a distance, you might misunderstand, but this was a pants style, so it was totally fine. No, what was I talking about so passionately? ¡°Let¡¯s go, then. Do you want to hold you?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll be fine.¡± ¡°Okay. Tell me if it¡¯s difficult. Shall I hold your hand?¡± ¡°Ai!¡± I held hands with Saki and walked to the neighbourhood park. When I arrived there, I saw one other mom and what looked like two sisters, maybe six and four years old, playing in the sandbox. However, Saki didn¡¯t pay attention to that and headed straight for the empty swing set. (Is this okay?) This was the park where Saki and Yuki cried so much that I had an unpleasant image of this place, but since the little ones were trying to overcome their weaknesses, I had to make an effort too. I walked at the same speed next to Saki, who was on her way to the swing set. When I looked to the side, I saw a powerful glow emanating from the eyes of the small body, as if they had decided to do something. (I¡¯m starting to get nervous¡­) Maybe Saki had been bothered by the fact that when she went to the villa, Daiki asked her if she wanted to go on the swing with him and been worrying about the fact that she refused to go on the swing set with her grandpa. She didn¡¯t like the fact that she had to give up the opportunity to play with her grandparents. I explained to Daiki and Hinata about Saki¡¯s trauma, so they understood why she refused to go on the swing with them. Besides, we ended up playing treasure hunt and hide-and-seek at the villa, which everyone seemed to enjoy. ¡°M, My name is Noru¡­¡± Saki grabbed the chain of the swing and said determinedly, ¡°I¡¯m going to get on it,¡± but her expression was cloudy and she looked like she was about to start crying. I was right behind her, watching, but I couldn¡¯t do anything but cheer her on. What am I supposed to do? I was thinking, when I heard a child¡¯s voice from the sandbox. ¡°Mama! Look at this!¡± ¡°Oh, you¡¯re good.¡± ¡°What about you?¡± ¡°I¡¯m good at this too.¡± ¡°Hollow tunnel!¡± ¡°Yes!¡± ¡°¡±Watch me, mama!!¡± ¡°Yes, yes.¡± Saki had been staring at the sandbox since she heard the child¡¯s voice. I looked at the sisters, but they were digging a tunnel in silence, perhaps concentrating on the task at hand. ¡°Mama¡­¡± When I heard Saki¡¯s muttering, I naturally reacted. ¡°What?¡± After being called out, Saki¡¯s face became uneasy, but she looked at me with an expectant look and said the words she had just said once more. ¡°Mama¡­¡± ¡°Yeah, what is it?¡± ¡°Mama! Mama!¡± ¡°What is it?¡± In the past, I would have wanted to be called Dad, but before I knew it, I must have become Saki¡¯s Mom to the extent that I naturally responded. I may not be her real mother. We may not be blood related. But I¡¯m sure the love I¡¯m pouring into her is second to none. And Saki, who seemed to have understood that she had a new mother, smiled very happily. Her real parents, Itsuki and Midori, had passed away, but she still needed to have someone to call, ¡°Mama.¡± Saki was still a little girl, and she should have a mother who can spoil her. ¡°Mama!¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Come on!¡± ¡°You with me?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll ride with you!¡± ¡°You want to ride with me?¡± She pulled my hand vigorously and made me sit on the swing. ¡°Oh my God!¡± ¡°Cuddle? Oh, I see. Okay, come here.¡± While sitting on the swing, I lifted Saki, who was standing backwards in front of me, and put her directly on my lap. Was this what a kangaroo parent and child looked like? I blew away my nonsensical thoughts and supported the small body with both arms. ¡°Are you okay?¡± ¡°I¡¯m fine.¡± We never rocked it, we just looked at the scenery in front of us together, but we could ride the swings. I was sure people watching from the sidelines wouldn¡¯t understand how great this was. But I know. I know that Saki worked very hard today. ¡°Okay, let¡¯s go home.¡± ¡°Home?¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± Now that we were sitting on the swing, we could rock it another time. I would just have to get used to it. After dropping Saki off first, I walked up to her and squatted down to make eye contact. Then I reached out my right hand and gently stroked her head. Good luck with that. ¡°¡­¡­¡± ¡°Good job.¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡± ¡°You were great.¡± As I stroked her head and praised her all the while, a single tear spilled from Saki¡¯s eye. ¡°Ai¡­¡± Oh¡­ she wasn¡¯t crying because she was sad, they were crying tears of joy. That park had many bad memories, but it was finally going to be a place I liked. Because swinging with Saki was very special. ¡°Mama.¡± ¡°Yeah?¡± ¡°Thank you for swinging with me.¡± ¡°Ai!¡± ¡°Mama¡¯s weird!¡± ¡°Did I say something wrong? Is it?¡± ¡°Yeah!¡± ¡°Okay, well, let¡¯s go home.¡± ¡°Ai!¡± [ T/N ¨C I will not be translating vol. 2 as it¡¯s modern romance¡ªand I don¡¯t really like it that much (I read a few of the chapters) so I will be dropping it after this side story. I took so long to post because I¡¯m internationally moving and it¡¯s taking time to calm the chaos xD If anyone is willing to pick this up, DM me (Verii-Chan#3165) or just update a chapter, I don¡¯t mind. ] CH . It had been three days since Saki and I had our strange mother-daughter relationship. I still didn¡¯t have the courage to go out in revealing clothes, so I spent my days in black sweatshirts. But let¡¯s just say it was not dirty because I had three of the same colour and I was wearing them alternatively. And now, I was in a lot of trouble because I learned something new about Mika. That girl was unemployed. I found out about it the day after I met Saki-chan, when I received a message on my phone from a woman who was having a fight or something with that Satoshi guy. Her name was Yuki, and she seemed to have worked at the same company as Mika. I didn¡¯t know her surname because only her first name was saved in katakana. ¡°If she had been working somewhere, I wouldn¡¯t had have to find a job.¡± When I found my bank book, I found a large amount of money inside, but it seemed to be the inheritance left by Saki-chan¡¯s parents. The PIN was also written on a small folded piece of paper, and once I tried it at an ATM in an convenience store, I was able to use it without any problems. But it was money that needed to be saved for Saki¡¯s future, and I didn¡¯t want to waste it without doing anything if possible. I would need to find a job as soon as possible. Mika seemed to be working in the apparel industry, so I jokingly asked Yuki, who was working with her, if she could go back to work. But I gave up when I saw her reply. Her reply was, ¡ºAfter yelling at the director and grabbing him by the head while pushing him and yelling, ¡°Idiot!¡± do you think you can even go back there?¡» I thought she was too self-centred, but from what I could tell from her talk with Yuki, it seemed that Mika had gotten the better of a middle-aged male employee who had been pestering the women in the company. ¡°But still, grabbing him by the head is a bit too aggressive¡­¡± What kind of adult did that make her? However, it seemed that Mika was appreciated by all the employees, regardless of their gender, who had accumulated a lot of resentment against the middle-aged male employee. So, if such a heroic person bowed their head and went back to the company, I thought it would be better not to do so because it would ruin many things. ¡°Hide and seek¡­¡± While I was preparing dinner, a muttered voice escaped from Saki-chan who was watching TV. When I looked at the screen, I saw an angsty hero playing hide and seek with a group of kids. This anime was not aired today, but Mika had recorded it, and there was a DVD on the TV, so I played it. What the heck, she¡¯s got a good point too! I thought, but when I checked with Saki-chan, she had never seen this anime before. She waved his head around, recorded an anime but didn¡¯t play back the video, etc. I couldn¡¯t get a grasp of Mika as a person. Saki-chan stared at the TV and seemed to be very interested in playing hide and seek from the anime. Maybe she hadn¡¯t played it before. ¡°Saki, do you want to play hide and seek?¡± ¡°¡­I want to.¡± ¡°Okay. Where shall we play?¡± ¡°Home.¡± ¡°¡­¡­..¡± What a gutsy girl to try to hide in this six tatami room. ¡°All right. Do you want to hide? Or do you want to seek?¡± ¡°Hide and seek.¡± ¡°Okay, I¡¯m¡­ the seeker. I¡¯m going to count to ten, so hide.¡± ¡°Alright.¡± I covered my face and counted to ten, saying ¡°One, two¡­¡± aloud. ¡°Are you ready?¡± ¡°I¡¯m done.¡± It was obvious where she was hiding by the direction her voice came from, but it would be a shame to find her right away. ¡°I wonder where~¡± I had already noticed that Saki-chan was behind the curtain by the shadows that had formed there, but when playing hide and seek, it was important to be nervous that you might be found. So I went to the bathroom where I knew she would never be, and went to open the closet door. ¡°She¡¯s not here. Where is she~?¡± Then, as I gradually approached the desired location, I said, ¡°Could she be here?¡± As I said so, I slowly raised the back of the curtain, and the figure of a small angel appeared. ¡°Found you!¡± ¡°Kya¡ª!¡± Saki-chan was happy to have been found, and she smiled and was happy to see me. (Oh God, she¡¯s too cute!) After this, Saki-chan wanted to play as the seeker, so we took turns and I had to hide. I could hear the sound of her footsteps pacing around the room, searching hard. I hid in the tub, and my eyes met Saki¡¯s as she raised the lid slightly. ¡°I¡¯ve been found!¡± ¡°Found you!¡± Saki-chan looked happy again, as if she enjoyed looking for me in hiding. CH ss - 1 An Important Experience [ A/N ¨C I just thought of something, so here it is. ] ¡°Phew, delicious.¡± I was drinking coffee made with Colombian beans in my shabby flat. The black liquid on the low table contained no milk or sugar, but it was quite sweet and tasty. The waitress also taught me how to make coffee, but she explained in great length and I couldn¡¯t remember everything. ¡°But if the beans are good, even if you¡¯re an amateur, they taste so good.¡± ¡°Is it good?¡± ¡°Very good.¡± ¡°Drink. (I¡¯ll have a drink.)¡± ¡°Hmm, not quite ready for you yet, Saki? Bitter, isn¡¯t it?¡± Saki, the girl who spoke to me, was wearing a white rabbit hoodie and was inside a brown laundry box with a small stuffed bear. It seemed to be her favourite place to be these days. ¡°Just a sip.¡± ¡°Well, just a sip.¡± The wooden laundry box was about the same height as a shopping basket in a department store, but was slightly longer and more rectangular in width. It¡¯s knitting was so tight that it would not break unless something happened to it. But it was not safe for Saki to trip, so I held her while I took her in and out of the basket. ¡°Come on then.¡± I lifted Saki into the air, her arms outstretched in a waiting position, and sat her on my lap. ¡°The cup is hot, so don¡¯t touch it.¡± ¡°Ai!¡± Children do not understand that no matter how hot it is, they have to experience it. Saki once touched a griddle in the family restaurant and cried a lot. Fortunately, it didn¡¯t turn out to be a serious problem, but it was an incident that made me realize how incompetent I was as a parent. However, since then, Saki had understood what was hot, and she had become more careful, so it was not all bad. It¡¯s a very important experience for a child to be brought up by his parents and vice versa. I took the cup and brought the coffee to Saki¡¯s mouth. And our little angel¡¯s brow wrinkled as she drank the black liquid. ¡°Niiiiii¡­¡± ¡°I told you it was bitter.¡± ¡°Why are you drinking?¡± ¡°Huh? Because it¡¯s tasty.¡± ¡°It¡¯s bad, isn¡¯t it? Certainly, from Saki¡¯s point of view, coffee was just bitter and not tasty, so why drink it? Perhaps it was natural for her to wonder why I was drinking it. No matter how much you tried to explain to them how sweet it was, they won¡¯t understand, because it was already tasteless. ¡°¡­It¡¯s delicious when you¡¯re grown up.¡± ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Why is that? I don¡¯t know.¡± ¡°That¡¯s weird!¡± In fact, it was probably because her taste buds had changed since she was a child, but it was an important experience that Saki would have from now on. As a parent, I looked forward to that time. ¡°Saki, what would you like for dinner?¡± ¡°Meatballs.¡± ¡°Meatballs. You like meatballs, don¡¯t you, Saki?¡± ¡°Ai!¡± ¡°Do you think it might be bitter?¡± ¡°It¡¯s good!¡± Yes, that was what Saki knew. When I rubbed my cheek against my little angel, I got a soft, puffy feeling in return. ¡°Um~yu!¡± She¡¯s so cute. It was not a bad idea to have tea time every day if it makes her feel so happy. I was glad I made coffee today. ¡°Nyani? (What?)¡± ¡°It¡¯s nothing¡­¡± But I kept rubbing my cheek against Saki¡¯s. [ A/N ¨C I can¡¯t say for sure what day it will start yet, but from May, I¡¯ll be starting a sequel to ¡®I Am A TS Reincarnation But I Have A Kid.¡¯ My first thought was to finish it once I had completed it, but I came up with the idea of continuing it, so I decided to write it. It will be a comedic romance between the main character and her partner, so the genre will be reality/romance. Of course, there will be some heartwarming moments with Saki, and it won¡¯t be too much of a romance! It¡¯s not really a romance story, so it¡¯s easy to read. So, if you like, please read that one too. When the serialization starts, I will post another SS here. ] CH ss - 2 ¡°Saki, Chinatsu and Yuki have brought you a present.¡± ¡°Present?¡± ¡°Yes, a present.¡± When they came to visit us in our ramshackle flat, Chinatsu and Yuki bought her a toy phone from a department store. It was pink, Saki¡¯s favourite colour, and the standby screen had a row of magical girls with peach hair in the middle, blonde hair on the right and blue hair on the left, all of whom were on air on Sunday mornings. It was a children¡¯s phone with a variety of apps, but when you touched the camera, phone or other icons, it just played music. ¡°Here, Saki-chan. Here¡¯s a present from your sister Yuki.¡± ¡°Hey, I paid for it too, so it has to come from both of us.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry. Then it¡¯s a present from me and Chinatsu.¡± ¡°Aiya!¡± It was a toy phone, but Saki seemed happy to receive it. ¡°Phone chirpu!¡± [ T/N ¨C Yes she really said that. ] ¡°Huh? That¡¯s not just a sound. It¡¯s¡­¡± ¡°Why don¡¯t you pick up the phone, Mika?¡± ¡°Yes, you should play with her.¡± ¡°Eh? Oh, yeah¡­¡± Somehow Yuki and Chinatsu pushed me to play phone with Saki, so I held a real phone in my right hand. I was going to offer them some tea, but the black gal was doing it on her own, so I didn¡¯t think I needed to act. ¡°Moshi moshi.¡± [ T/N ¨C It informally means ¡®hello,¡¯ or ¡®hi.¡¯ ] Saki pressed the icon, and after the music stopped playing from her toy phone, our little angel started to talk to it. ¡°Hello? Who is this?¡± ¡°Saki! Three!¡± ¡°Thank you for introducing yourself. What can I do for you today?¡± She told me her name and age out of the blue, so I treated her with respect, as if I was on a sales call. Well, Saki seems to be satisfied, so I¡¯ll keep going. ¡°Today is a very important day.¡± ¡°You have something important to tell me today? Is it for me?¡± ¡°Cho! (Yes!)¡± ¡°Yes, what¡¯s that?¡± ¡°Cake, eat it!¡± ¡°Huh? You want a cake?¡± ¡°Ai!¡± Saki told me that she had something important to tell me, and it was all about her desire to eat cake. But this meant she wanted me to buy it for her, right? I didn¡¯t make cakes at home, and I usually ate them either eating out or buying them from a bakery. (I¡¯ll have to show her that I can make it by hand next time.) Because Saki thought cakes were supposed to be bought. But I didn¡¯t expect to be asked to deliver food to a child who was new to smartphones. I didn¡¯t work in a delivery service, but I couldn¡¯t blame my little angel for ordering from me. Okay, let¡¯s deliver. Saki was right in front of me, looking very excited. ¡°I want chocolate cake.¡± ¡°I¡¯d like a fruit tart.¡± Yuki and Chinatsu were always making requests, but today they had brought us a present, so why not be a little selfish? Yeah, that¡¯s okay. Now, I had to head to the recently opened cake shop in the neighbourhood with my wallet. ¡°¡­Huh? Why are you grabbing my collar?¡± ¡°See you later. I¡¯ll look after Saki.¡± ¡°Alright, Chinatsu.¡± ¡°Have a good day!¡± Saki sent me off with a big smile on her face because she knew I was going to buy her a cake. And although she was a nursery teacher, we were grateful that Chinatsu was there to look after our little angel without any worries at times like this. ¡°Hey, Mika, don¡¯t drag me.¡± ¡°I need a bagman¡­¡± ¡°Saki, help me!¡± ¡°Bye, Sofu-chou!¡± ¡°Oh, Saki, you¡¯re terrible!¡± ¡°Come on, let¡¯s go.¡± It seemed that in Saki¡¯s mind, Yuki was not coming back home. ¡°I¡¯m going to eat cake too. I¡¯ll be back.¡± ¡°Bye, Sofu-chou!¡± Saki was waving with a big smile on her face, but it didn¡¯t mean she didn¡¯t like Yuki, okay? It was just that she was convinced she was leaving, so she was saying goodbye. So don¡¯t look so sad, black gal. [ A/N ¨C At first I was going to change the genre and the style of writing and start a new series, but while I was thinking about it, I realized that it would be better to start a new series to attract new readers, but that would be rude to the readers who have been reading my work for a long time. So I thought not to do it. So I¡¯m going to change the title a little bit, add some keywords, change the genre and the synopsis, and I¡¯m going to serialize ¡®I Am A TS Reincarnation But I Got Married¡¯ as two chapters here. ] CH 1 Where am I? I¡¯m¡­ sure I got hit by a truck on my way home from work¡­ Yeah? I think I hear some voices. In a daze of consciousness, I listened carefully as I collapsed into a blank space. Was it the voice of a woman and an old man? ¡°I told you, I¡¯m tired of this! I¡¯m fed up!¡± ¡°But you¡¯re not dead, and you can get back to normal, okay?¡± ¡°You¡¯re a persistent old man! I¡¯ve had enough of you! Oh, there¡¯s a good one laying there. Why don¡¯t you put it back for me?¡± ¡°Well, if you say so, I¡¯ll say nothing more.¡± I wondered if the woman was talking about me. As I was thinking about this, an old man approached me. ¡°Hey, do you want to live?¡± ¡°Huh? Well, I don¡¯t want to die.¡± ¡°So be it. I¡¯ll grant your wish.¡± As the old man held out his hand, from the white space, I was enveloped in light, and I closed my eyelids involuntarily. ¡°Eh? Wait, it¡¯s too bright!¡± I shouted, and when I opened my eyelids again after the light had calmed down, I was asleep under the covers in an unknown room. I let out a sigh as I stretched to relieve my slightly stiffened body. ¡°Hmmm.¡± What was that? What was that high-pitched voice I just heard? It sounded like a woman¡¯s voice. (Huh? That¡¯s not my voice! What¡¯s wrong with my body?) When I lowered my head and looked at my body, I saw two berries on my chest that were not supposed to be there. (It¡¯s a big one¡­ No, it¡¯s not. This is not the time! Could it be that I died when the truck hit me? Remembering our earlier conversation, I¡¯m pretty sure I didn¡¯t say that I wanted to be in another body¡­) ¡°No, at least make it a man¡¯s body!¡± When I yelled in anger, a small body that seemed to be some distance away from me jumped! I moved. When I looked over, I saw a girl of about two or three years old looking at me anxiously. It was just the two of us, me and the girl, in what looked like a small apartment of about 1six tatami mats. I finally understood something¡­ or what this was about. ¡°I have become a woman and have a child¡­¡± Six tatami mats are equal to 106.75sq ft. CH 2 No, no, no. I hadn¡¯t even been with a woman yet, and I suddenly had a child? The girl looking at me had shoulder-length hair and big, lovely eyes. I thought she was going to be very beautiful in the future. No, that wasn¡¯t what I was supposed to think about now. The girl looked at me as if she had something to say. Let¡¯s hear it for now. ¡°Um, what¡¯s going on?¡± ¡°I have a stomach ache. Please give me something to eat.¡± 1(Words are still tricky for me to understand. Her point is, she¡¯s hungry and wants something to eat¡­ Hmm? Bento? In the morning?) I had a bad feeling, so I hurriedly jumped up and opened the refrigerator near the kitchen. (There¡¯s nothing in here but beer!) I looked around and saw smartphones, famous brand bags and clothes lying around, and cartons of cigarettes piled on top of the TV. (Instead of buying these things, why didn¡¯t she buy some vegetables or rice?!) I felt angry at the woman I met at the place where the god-like person was, but right now it wasn¡¯t about that, it was about food for me and the girl. (I hope she had some money! If she didn¡¯t, I would have to start by selling her designer bags.) I looked around the room and searched inside the brown branded bag near my phone and found another expensive looking wallet. (Thank God, there¡¯s 100,000 in there. But she¡¯s not in debt, is she?) Oh God. The girl was looking at me anxiously. Speaking of which, what was her name? But I can¡¯t ask that since we¡¯re living in the same house. It would be a shock for a girl to suddenly hear such a thing from her relative. ¡°Is there any food in the house? I will be quiet in my room.¡± (Is there any breakfast? Will she really be quiet in the corner? Huh? Why would she say that?) Such a small child was hungry, and she was trying so hard to keep it together, and the woman was fine with that? That pisses me off.) Because there¡¯s no way that¡¯s a good idea! ¡°Um, do you want me to go shopping with you?¡± Eh? I tried to smile as much as I could, but why did she freeze? ¡°Can I come with you?¡± ¡°Of course!¡± I wondered what kind of life she had been living until now. A bento is a single-portion take-out or home-packed meal of Japanese origin. Outside Japan, it is common in Chinese and Korean cuisines, as well as in Southeast Asian cuisines where rice is the main staple food. CH 3 ¡°There¡¯s nothing here but fancy clothes.¡± I was now wearing a black sweatshirt with a top and bottom, but when I opened the wood-grained closet in my room to change for going out, I saw that it still contained only brand-name clothes. Moreover, unlike the clothes that were scattered all over the place, they seemed to have been kept brand new and never worn. I felt bad about suddenly putting on new clothes without permission, so I picked up some clothes in the room and tried them on while looking at myself in the mirror on the side of the closet. ¡°I¡¯m so beautiful¡­¡± I had never seen her face before, but I guessed she was about 20 years old. She had medium hair that didn¡¯t reach her waist, but it was silver ash and a little girly. I tried on a few outfits, but the only ones I could find were ones that emphasized my breasts, so I decided to go out in my sweatshirt, not daring to wear it. I put on my sandals and walked out the door with the girl. I took a look at the exterior of the apartment I was living in and found it to be quite shabby, to the point of wondering how old it was. I didn¡¯t know the city at all, but somehow I knew where everything was. (Was it the woman¡¯s memory? Or was the gift from the man who seemed to be God?) I didn¡¯t know what to think, but what was even more mysterious was that I couldn¡¯t remember my original name. It may mean that I didn¡¯t need it anymore, but I felt a little sad. While I was thinking about this, the girl¡¯s stomach grumbled. (For now, we¡¯ll have to go shopping later and go to a place where we can eat right away. I¡¯ll cook for lunch and dinner.) A short walk from the apartment on a back street, there was a city street where you could get a cab. I wondered how educational it would be to put her in a cab at such a young age? I was thinking about it, and it took me a while to realize that it was me that the driver had asked about my destination. (Oh right, I¡¯m a woman now.) ¡°To Nerima Station.¡± ¡°Got it.¡± The girl hadn¡¯t been outside in a long time, and she looked at the scenery curiously for a moment through the window from the backseat, but soon she was staring at the driver¡¯s seat. Was she too hungry to turn her head? She said she was hungry and I felt bad that it took me so long to get dressed. I wish I could have carried her and moved her, but somehow the girl was scared of me? I mean, I could sense that she was scared of me, so I walked slowly until I got a cab. Well, my steps were too different, so I went slowly anyway. ¡°We¡¯re here.¡± The driver told me so, and I paid the fare and got out of the cab with the girl. From there, we walked just a short distance into a family restaurant, our destination. A waitress in a uniform said, ¡°Welcome,¡± as she led me to my seat. I sat down on a chair and unfolded the menu list to show it to the girl, who froze with her eyes on me and her mouth open. Maybe she couldn¡¯t believe this woman was being nice to her, but it hurt me a little bit because I was the one instead of her. ¡°Oh, uh, which one do you want?¡± Smiling to the best of my ability, I pointed to the menu list and showed her a picture of a kid¡¯s plate with several different types of dishes. The girl silently pointed to the one with the flag stuck in a omelette, and the rest of dish with potatoes and broccoli. I ordered a sandwich and a coffee, and there was a kids¡¯ drink space. ¡°I¡¯m going to get some juice, do you want to have orange?¡± The girl nodded silently, I think she hadn¡¯t been talking for a long time¡­ ¡°Here you go, Miss.¡± A little while later, a waitress brought me a sandwich and a children¡¯s lunch. ¡°Itadakimasu.¡± ¡°We¡¯re ready.¡± After I started to eat my sandwich, the girl, whose eyes were sparkling at the sight of the children¡¯s lunch on the table, brought a spoonful of omelette to her mouth as if she was trying to copy me. ¡°It¡¯s good!¡± Seeing the girl smile naturally as she let out a happy voice, I was really glad that I had come to the family restaurant. CH 4 After having breakfast at the family restaurant, we decided to go to a supermarket called ¡®C.U.¡¯ right next to the station. Maybe it was because I had a beautiful face now, but I felt a lot of stares from people around me, but they seemed to lose interest when they saw the girl I was with and realized I had a child. There was only beer in the fridge at home, so I just had to make sure I had a good balance of vegetables, meat, and fruit. The rest of the time, I would buy curry, pasta, and other retort foods for when I got busy. Of course, I was planning to make the basic meals of homemade food with love. (As I recall, I was quite a drinker in my previous life. Was that the reason I got hit by a truck?) I couldn¡¯t remember much about it, but I had a feeling about it. (Yeah, let¡¯s get rid of the beer in the fridge and the cigarettes in the room. I don¡¯t want myself smelling like alcohol.) 1If she was working at night, it would be an inevitable reason, but looking around the apartment, I didn¡¯t see any sign that the woman who was now me was working at a cabaret club or anything like that. Could it be that she was unemployed? I purposely left my phone at home because I didn¡¯t know how I would react if this woman¡¯s friends or other people contacted me, but I would check things out when I got back to my apartment. I was sorry if I was invading other people¡¯s privacy, but I had got a lot on my plate now that I suddenly had a child, so please bear with me. (We had children¡¯s lunch in the morning, what should we have for lunch?) With that in mind, the girl and I slowly made our way to the candy corner. (No, wait a minute. I was so excited about the children¡¯s lunch. Isn¡¯t this possibly raising the bar for lunch food? The girl is still happily holding the flag that was stuck in the rice with her right hand, but toothpick was removed because it was dangerous.) (In this case, I¡¯ll just ask her directly what she wants to eat.) I was about to ask, ¡°Hey, what do you want for lunch¡­?¡± when I saw her staring at a box of sweets. It was a story about beautiful warriors fighting against an evil organization that I had also seen in a previous life, and it was a very popular anime among little girls, adult men and women. The girl kept staring at the chocolate with the character¡¯s picture on it. ¡°Do you want it?¡± The girl turned to me when she heard me and opened her mouth, ¡°I can¡¯t be selfish if I want something.¡± Maybe this child had been holding back for a long time, even though there were things she wanted. I didn¡¯t see anything that looked like a toy in that apartment either. In that case, there was only one thing for me to do. ¡°Today is good.¡± ¡°Are you sure?¡± ¡°Yeah!¡± The girl smiled as if a flower had bloomed and brought out one of the sweets and put it in the basket. Maybe she wanted it because it contained a heart-shaped toy with an anime character on it. It was pink and seemed to be called a pact, and could be opened and closed, with a mirror inside. Some of them seemed to come with cosmetics for children. The fact that she wanted such a thing was very cute, just like a little girl. ¡°And what do you want for lunch?¡± ¡°Ochiru¡¯s bento?¡± Apparently, this girl thinks that rice is lunch. Someone please give me credit for not crying. [ A/N ¨C Thanks for the buzzes and the ratings! If you haven¡¯t done so yet, I hope you¡¯ll come and join us. You can read the second volume of the novel to find out why I wrote this. ] [ E/N ¨C Thanks to A for commenting about the missing chapter! ] Cabaret (noun) A form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. It is mainly distinguished by the performance venue, which might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. CH 5 After shopping at the supermarket, I called a cab again and headed back to my apartment. One thing I miscalculated was that it would have been quite a challenge to carry back the luggage that I could have easily carried when I was a man, but now that I was a woman, it was difficult. The cab driver was thoughtful enough to take it to the trunk, but I¡¯d like to think it was my imagination when he was looking at my chest when he did. ¡°Did I buy too much? Well, we can freeze the meat and fish we don¡¯t use. I¡¯m glad I live on the first floor. I don¡¯t want to have to carry all this heavy stuff upstairs.¡± The apartment had four rooms, one above and one below, and we lived in the first right corner. ¡°I¡¯m home.¡± ¡°I¡¯m home.¡± The girl and I took off our shoes at the door and went up to the room. ¡°Wash your hands and rinse your mouth.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± I wondered if she had become much more talkative in half a day. But then I thought about it and realized that the only time she had ever spoken to me was in the morning when she asked for her lunch. I couldn¡¯t deny she was still wary of this woman. I also washed my hands and rinsed, then put the food I had bought into the refrigerator. When I returned to the room after the whole process, I saw the girl had opened a box of toys and was happily fumbling with the pink pact. I¡¯m glad I bought her these when I saw her happy face, but why is she in the corner of the room? ¡°Come here.¡± Oh, she froze. She didn¡¯t have any scars on her body, so it wasn¡¯t like she had been attacked, so why was she scared of this woman so much? She was a mother, wasn¡¯t she? ¡°Eh?¡± My phone turned on, so I looked at it and saw some kind of messaging app that said, ¡°You told you you¡¯d be there in the morning today, but why aren¡¯t you?! You¡¯re the one who asked me to come, Mika! How are you, Saki-chan?¡± Oh no. It had already been read. I didn¡¯t even know what kind of friendship they had, so I didn¡¯t know what to say in response. From the message, maybe I was Mika, and the girl in the corner of the room was Saki-chan? After thinking for a while, I replied, ¡°I¡¯m fine,¡± and she immediately replied, ¡°I see. I wondered what would happen when Saki¡¯s mother and father passed away and Mika decided to take her in, but I¡¯m glad she¡¯s fine. I¡¯m glad you¡¯re doing well. Mika, you were so shocked that you couldn¡¯t even speak. I mean, listen. Satoshi¡¯s with another woman! Isn¡¯t that awful?!¡± Yeah, there was too much information to keep up with, and who was Satoshi? What did that mean? Saki¡¯s parents were dead and the woman (now me) had taken her in? What kind of relationship is that? I mean, in cases like that, don¡¯t you have to be extra nice and careful for them not to find out that you¡¯re not their real parents? Maybe I didn¡¯t understand it now, but one day I would be confronted with the truth. If they knew that they had been given a lot of love and affection at such a time, they would not easily turn to delinquency, right? I sat down and opened my arms to the small body still frozen in the corner of the room. ¡°Saki-chan, come here.¡± In response to my voice, the girl in the corner of the room walked over with small, tottering steps. (Maybe she thought I¡¯d be mad at her because I didn¡¯t smile when I called her earlier.) When I gently held the small body that came close to me, Saki-chan started to cry as if the tension that had been holding her back had been broken. ¡°Mama¡­ Papa¡­ uwaahh!¡± (Oh, she knew her parents were gone.) To reassure Saki, I gently pat her back again and again. I could feel her body¡¯s warmth radiating from her when I pat her, and I found myself naturally shedding tears with her. CH 6 Saki cried herself to sleep, and I put her down on her futon so as not to wake her. In the morning, they were a little far apart, like we weren¡¯t sleeping together. No, of course, we had the same room, or rather, only one room, and it seemed that Mika, who was now me, and her, slept on separate futons with a little space between us. ¡°Oh, we cried together¡­¡± It was like fate. I suddenly had a child, and Saki, who lost her parents. As I was putting the quilt over her sleeping little body, I noticed that she was wearing some very nice looking clothes. It was made of a soft white fabric with long sleeves on top and pants on the bottom, and the cloth was embroidered with small flowers in various colours. I was wondering about the date, and it seemed to be Saturday, April 10??, 2024, so it wasn¡¯t like I was transported into some weird era or something. I think I died before this, which meant I was living in the future as a different person. I looked up the clothes Saki was wearing on my phone and found that they were made by a famous brand of children¡¯s clothing. ¡°If she was buying her such nice clothes, she should have bought her at least a single toy¡­¡± I was beyond angry and even disgusted with Mika, who had been a substitute parent for Saki, but there was no point in complaining about someone I would never see again. No, I¡¯ll probably continue to spit venom every time I learn the untenable truth¡­ ¡°All right, let¡¯s make some lunch!¡± Trying to change my mood, I headed for the kitchen. I couldn¡¯t remember what my name was in my previous life, but somehow I remembered that I lived alone and that I was the one who cooked all the time. Maybe it was left to me by the godless old man to raise my child. ¡°What should I have? Hmm, we had Western food in the morning, let¡¯s have Japanese food.¡± I took the ingredients out of the refrigerator and started to cook. 1The menu consisted of white rice, miso soup with wakame seaweed and tofu, grilled ginger with cabbage, and simmered hijiki and green pepper for nutritional balance. After a while, Saki-chan woke up from the smell and looked at me curiously from her futon. ¡°What are you doing?¡± Oh, Saki talked to me herself! I didn¡¯t know if I was the only one who felt happy about that, but wasn¡¯t this a step forward in our parent-child relationship? ¡°I¡¯m making lunch.¡± ¡°Lunch? Don¡¯t you have to chill it?¡± ¡°¡­¡­.¡± Her point was, don¡¯t you heat your lunch in the microwave? I guessed that was what it meant, but I didn¡¯t know how to respond to this. I thought it would be quicker to show her, so I plated the cooked food on the dishes in the kitchen. I was glad to see that there were children¡¯s bowls and everything, but why does this mean that rice = lunch? (I guess Mika didn¡¯t cook until now¡­) ¡°Would you mind stepping aside for a moment so I can fold the futon?¡± I gently asked Saki-chan, who was still tilting her head and making a strange face, to move to the side. Thinking that it was a mistake not to dry the futon in the morning, I folded it together with the futon I was sleeping on, since it had been left lying on the floor. As I set up the low, square table against the wall and brought in the food, Saki-chan smiled happily as if to say, ¡°Wow!¡± Seeing this, I could feel my heart warming up as well. ¡°Let¡¯s eat. Itadakimasu.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s eat. What¡¯s this?¡± ¡°It¡¯s hijiki and green pepper stew.¡± ¡°Aww¡­¡± ¡°You don¡¯t like it?¡± ¡°¡­¡­.¡± I looked at Saki-chan, who turned over silently without saying anything, and somehow I guessed that she thought I would be angry with her if she was honest. But I didn¡¯t want to yell at her for that, and I thought that eating should be a fun thing to do. So I¡¯ll need to follow up with Saki in a proper way so that she doesn¡¯t feel awkward. ¡°It¡¯s okay, I¡­¡± ¡°I?¡± ¡°¡­I don¡¯t like green peppers either.¡± I felt like I had lost something important, but if I thought of it in first person like I used to in sales when I was an office worker, I would be fine. It shouldn¡¯t even matter what I look like now, and I don¡¯t want Saki to start talking about me, so yeah! This is education¡­ education! ¡°You don¡¯t like hijiki?¡± ¡°No, I don¡¯t like hijiki either.¡± ¡°So why did you make it?¡± ¡°They say it¡¯s good for you, but it tastes bad.¡± ¡°Bad.¡± Saki-chan was also trying her best to bring the green bell pepper to her mouth, probably because I was eating it while saying that. ¡°It¡¯s bitter.¡± ¡°Bitter.¡± Saki-chan and I laughed and chuckled together, making bitter faces every time we ate the green pepper and hijiki. ¡°Bitter¡ª!¡± After this, I gently patted Saki¡¯s head and gave her lots of praise for her hard work in finishing her meal. If you leave her, she would eat it, and that was fine, but she should be able to get recognized for her efforts. And so the two of us finished our lunch happily. [ A/N ¨C Thanks to everyone¡¯s support, we made it to the top 5 in the Human Drama genre and placed 4th. It may not be reflected yet, but I was able to surpass more than 100 novels. Thank you very much for all the ratings and buzzes. ] CH 7 [ A/N ¨C There are a few dark elements. I¡¯d like to keep it as heartwarming as possible, but for the sake of the story, please forgive me. ] After lunch, Saki-chan fell asleep again, and I tried to make as little noise as possible as I ransacked the room. I felt awkward because I felt like a thief, but since I was now inside Mika¡¯s body, I wanted to make sure that we could work things out without saying, ¡°This is an invasion of privacy!¡± ¡°Did she have anything like a driver¡¯s license or an insurance card?¡± The room was full of famous brand clothes, bags, some cosmetics, and other things that I was unlikely to use. ¡°There it is!¡± I searched for a while to find something that would help me identify myself, and in the top drawer of my wardrobe, I found her original driver¡¯s license, which was overdue for renewal, my insurance card, and a copy of my family register hidden under my clothes. ¡°She should at least renew her license¡­¡± After that, I did some more research and found out that the name of the woman who was now my body was ¡®Nonogami Mika Hanaka,¡¯ and for the first time I learned that Saki-chan¡¯s kanji was also written as 1¡®Saki.¡¯ Also, Mika¡¯s age seemed to be 20. ¡°We both are so young.¡± Saki-chan had just turned three, apparently. I vaguely remembered that I used to be in my thirties, so compared to that, both of us were young, and both of us felt like children. Was there anything else after that? When I was looking for it, I found something like a diary in my unsent mailbox in my phone. From the text on the page, it seemed that Saki¡¯s father was Mika¡¯s older brother, and he had died in a car accident in early March, which was a very recent event. ¡°I can¡¯t help it¡­¡± It seemed that her mother had passed away in a car accident, protecting her child, and only Saki, protected by her body, survived. I found myself in tears as I read the email. In addition, it seems that Saki¡¯s mother¡¯s parents had passed away early, and the only place she could go after losing her parents was Mika¡¯s place. ¡°How painful it must have been¡­¡± I read on, and it seemed like Mika and Mika¡¯s parents did not want to take Saki-chan in. ¡°She didn¡¯t get along with her family?¡± From the contents of the e-mail, I read that the Nonogami siblings were on good terms with each other, but their relationship with their parents was not good, and they were almost in a state of isolation. ¡°I¡¯ll stop reading any further.¡± My heart broke in the middle of reading the diary, so I stopped holding my phone and looked at Saki-chan¡¯s sleeping face. It was so adorable to see her still small body sleeping peacefully. She had been through so much pain in a young age, so I wanted to make her happy in the future. I was going to protect this child! I promised myself firmly. ¡°Okay! Let¡¯s take a bath for a change! And then I¡¯ll have to prepare dinner!¡± In order to refresh my darkened mind, I shouted loudly to get into the spirit. Well, I still hadn¡¯t gotten used to my high pitched voice when I said it¡­ ¡°Umu¡­¡± ¡°Oh, sorry. Did I wake you?¡± ¡°Uh-huh.¡± I hadn¡¯t made a sound before so as not to wake her up, but now I did it myself. The way she stretched out with her small body was so cute and it made me smile. (Maybe it¡¯s true what they say about children being angels.) Maybe she was still sleepy, but Saki-chan didn¡¯t wake up and slept until the evening. And then I saw her just lying there on the futon, saying ¡°Umu.¡± and ¡°Umph.¡± and turning over and over, and I thought, ¡°Huh? My daughter is too cute.¡± I took a bath with Saki-chan when she woke up at night. If I was a normal TS reincarnation, I would probably be cackling and giggling as I tried to find out what was going on, but with a child in front of me, I didn¡¯t have time for that. I even had the impression that the woman had long hair and it was troublesome to wash it. After we both drank milk, I heated up the hamburger and potage soup I had made in the evening and added bread and salad to it for dinner. I washed the dishes, laid out the bedding, and went inside. A lot had happened in one day, but it looked like I was able to finish it. Saki-chan was still a little far away from me, probably because she was afraid to sleep near me, but I hoped she would gradually come closer to me. ¡°Good night, Saki.¡± ¡°Good nwight.¡± [ A/N ¨C Yesterday, it became number one in the daily human drama ranking. Thank you for your support. ] ¡º†D¡» CH 8 It had been three days since Saki and I had our strange mother-daughter relationship. I still didn¡¯t have the courage to go out in revealing clothes, so I spent my days in black sweatshirts. But let¡¯s just say it was not dirty because I had three of the same colour and I was wearing them alternatively. And now, I was in a lot of trouble because I learned something new about Mika. That girl was unemployed. I found out about it the day after I met Saki-chan, when I received a message on my phone from a woman who was having a fight or something with that Satoshi guy. Her name was Yuki, and she seemed to have worked at the same company as Mika. I didn¡¯t know her surname because only her first name was saved in katakana. ¡°If she had been working somewhere, I wouldn¡¯t had have to find a job.¡± When I found my bank book, I found a large amount of money inside, but it seemed to be the inheritance left by Saki-chan¡¯s parents. The PIN was also written on a small folded piece of paper, and once I tried it at an ATM in an convenience store, I was able to use it without any problems. But it was money that needed to be saved for Saki¡¯s future, and I didn¡¯t want to waste it without doing anything if possible. I would need to find a job as soon as possible. Mika seemed to be working in the apparel industry, so I jokingly asked Yuki, who was working with her, if she could go back to work. But I gave up when I saw her reply. Her reply was, ¡ºAfter yelling at the director and grabbing him by the head while pushing him and yelling, ¡°Idiot!¡± do you think you can even go back there?¡» I thought she was too self-centred, but from what I could tell from her talk with Yuki, it seemed that Mika had gotten the better of a middle-aged male employee who had been pestering the women in the company. ¡°But still, grabbing him by the head is a bit too aggressive¡­¡± What kind of adult did that make her? However, it seemed that Mika was appreciated by all the employees, regardless of their gender, who had accumulated a lot of resentment against the middle-aged male employee. So, if such a heroic person bowed their head and went back to the company, I thought it would be better not to do so because it would ruin many things. ¡°Hide and seek¡­¡± While I was preparing dinner, a muttered voice escaped from Saki-chan who was watching TV. When I looked at the screen, I saw an angsty hero playing hide and seek with a group of kids. This anime was not aired today, but Mika had recorded it, and there was a DVD on the TV, so I played it. What the heck, she¡¯s got a good point too! I thought, but when I checked with Saki-chan, she had never seen this anime before. She waved his head around, recorded an anime but didn¡¯t play back the video, etc. I couldn¡¯t get a grasp of Mika as a person. Saki-chan stared at the TV and seemed to be very interested in playing hide and seek from the anime. Maybe she hadn¡¯t played it before. ¡°Saki, do you want to play hide and seek?¡± ¡°¡­I want to.¡± ¡°Okay. Where shall we play?¡± ¡°Home.¡± ¡°¡­¡­..¡± What a gutsy girl to try to hide in this six tatami room. ¡°All right. Do you want to hide? Or do you want to seek?¡± ¡°Hide and seek.¡± ¡°Okay, I¡¯m¡­ the seeker. I¡¯m going to count to ten, so hide.¡± ¡°Alright.¡± I covered my face and counted to ten, saying ¡°One, two¡­¡± aloud. ¡°Are you ready?¡± ¡°I¡¯m done.¡± It was obvious where she was hiding by the direction her voice came from, but it would be a shame to find her right away. ¡°I wonder where~¡± I had already noticed that Saki-chan was behind the curtain by the shadows that had formed there, but when playing hide and seek, it was important to be nervous that you might be found. So I went to the bathroom where I knew she would never be, and went to open the closet door. ¡°She¡¯s not here. Where is she~?¡± Then, as I gradually approached the desired location, I said, ¡°Could she be here?¡± As I said so, I slowly raised the back of the curtain, and the figure of a small angel appeared. ¡°Found you!¡± ¡°Kya¡ª!¡± Saki-chan was happy to have been found, and she smiled and was happy to see me. (Oh God, she¡¯s too cute!) After this, Saki-chan wanted to play as the seeker, so we took turns and I had to hide. I could hear the sound of her footsteps pacing around the room, searching hard. I hid in the tub, and my eyes met Saki¡¯s as she raised the lid slightly. ¡°I¡¯ve been found!¡± ¡°Found you!¡± Saki-chan looked happy again, as if she enjoyed looking for me in hiding. CH 9 Children were quick to adapt. At first, Saki-chan was scared when she saw Mika-san¡¯s (my) face, but recently she started to talk to me on her own little by little. She may not have understood it in her head, but as she was praised with a pat on her head when she ate vegetables she didn¡¯t like, or played hide and seek with her, she may have understood with her senses that the adults living with her were her allies. She didn¡¯t trust me enough yet to let me sleep by her side, but I was hoping that we could slowly build a relationship of trust in the future. Then, ¡°Got it? Is it okay?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a little low.¡± When I was cleaning my room, I found a digital height meter and tried to use it. The beeping sound I just heard was to let me know that I had finished measuring. The digital height meter was cute in the shape of a rabbit, and painted in pink. Saki-chan¡¯s eyes lit up when she saw it. Apparently, she liked pink. ¡°Can I use it?¡± ¡°Yes. I¡¯m going to measure you, and you¡¯re going to stand against the wall.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± I put the digital height¡¯s meter on Saki¡¯s head with her back against the wall. ¡°If it shakes, I can¡¯t get a good reading, so don¡¯t move.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± This digital height meter was so good that if you put it on your head, the speaker sensor would respond and measure you based on the distance from the floor. Since we were going to do this, I decided to measure mine and Saki¡¯s heights. Then, ¡°Oh, it¡¯s done.¡± ¡°Did you get it?¡± ¡°Eighty-nine, so it¡¯s a little low.¡± ¡°Uh-huh.¡± According to my phone, the average height of girls who were about 1 and 2 years old was 92, which meant that Saki was a bit short. ¡°You¡¯ll grow up.¡± ¡°I want to be a big girl soon.¡± ¡°You want to grow up fast? Then you¡¯ll have to eat a lot.¡± ¡°Alright.¡± When I gently pat her head, Saki-chan, who had been looking a little frustrated, squinted her eyes as if she felt good. It¡¯s not that she¡¯s too short, and I didn¡¯t think she needed to worry about it, but I didn¡¯t want to say anything unnecessary to a kid who wanted to grow up. If Saki-chan wanted to grow up, I, who was by her side, would only support her in that. After this, I looked up the average height of 20-year-old women on my phone and found that it was a little over 158, so I knew that Mika was a little shorter than that, by three centimetres. So, what was the point of this? I didn¡¯t know. ¡°What should we have for dinner?¡± ¡°I want to grow up.¡± ¡°Hmm, so you want a good balance of nutrition? Meat, fish, vegetables, milk¡­ and then¡­¡± I was desperately trying to come up with a menu for the evening, but the person who was the cause of my troubles was tilting her head. Saki-chan probably had no idea what nutrition was, so it was only natural that she would be confused. I wondered what kind of menu I should prepare for my child to increase their height. So I looked it up on my phone, and all I found were pages of supplements that I didn¡¯t know. They seemed dubious and I pondered whether it was true or not. I had a lot of respect for moms all over the country when I thought about how they carefully selected information from various sources, from these things to other things. (It¡¯s not easy being a mother.) I was as quiet as I could be, but at night, after Saki-chan had gone to bed, I moved to the bathroom without making a sound. An old colleague of mine once told me that sometimes children were awake when you thought they were asleep, so I had to hurry. It was strange that I could remember conversations from my previous life, but the faces of my friends and others were blurred. And I won¡¯t say what, but when I measured some things with a measuring tape, they were size F. ¡°No wonder my shoulders were stiff¡­¡± Saki wanted to be big, but she wanted to be small in a different way. Because it was in the way. [ A/N ¨C Thank you for reporting typos, buzzing, and rating. The feedback is also very empowering. Thank you very much. ] CH 10 ¡°Very well, sir. And then then there¡¯s¡­ Huh? Yes we¡¯ll take care of that for you¡­¡± Right now, I was on a call with a man whose face I didn¡¯t even know in a six-tatami room through a desktop computer. Because I started working for the future of my life. Originally, there was no computer in the house, but Mika¡¯s savings, apart from Saki¡¯s inheritance, were used to buy one. I didn¡¯t know much about machines, so I just went with the clerk¡¯s recommendation, but I liked it a lot because I could watch videos on a bigger screen than I could on my smartphone. I felt a little awkward because I was using other people¡¯s money, but it was for the sake of continuing to raise Saki, so I hoped they could forgive me for that. ¡°Yes, yes, I see. Then I will send you the documents later.¡± In case you were wondering, I did say it was a job, but right now it was a part-time job with an employee promotion. The hourly wage was as high as 1,500 yen, but since I would be in training for the first three months, I was currently working at 1,200 yen, which is 300 yen lower. Recently, I went to an interview with a fashion company that I saw in a job magazine, and I got the job, and I would be working from home in a call center doing web advertising sales for a department in the company. I was doing three things: making phone appointments, making sales calls to get fashion ads placed, and sending out materials. The advantage of this job was that you could work from home, appearance didn¡¯t matter, and you didn¡¯t have to pay for transportation. Besides, it was a job that I could do while taking care of my child, so even when I was not busy, I could enjoy my time with Saki-chan. When I thought about it, I thought I worked in a place that wasn¡¯t so bad. ¡°Now, if you¡¯ll excuse me.¡± After finishing the call with my sales partner, I let out a sigh of relief and took the headset with microphone off my head, and my angel spoke to me. ¡°Did you finish it?¡± In case you¡¯re wondering, the work was paid by the hour, so it was a 9am-6pm bind. I looked at the clock on the monitor screen and saw that the time displayed was 17:55, so I was almost done. ¡°Good night.¡± ¡°Thank you.¡± After measuring her height the other day, Saki-chan started to want to take care of me, as if she was trying to be a little older sister. But that kind of behaviour was childlike and adorable. And now my angel had something to get obsessed with, so I was going to let her continue doing it. ¡°How old are you, Saki-chan?¡± ¡°Three!¡± ¡°How old are you tomorrow?¡± ¡°Three!¡± ¡°Guh!¡± Saki-chan was so cute that I covered my mouth with my hand, turned my face back and writhed in agony as she thrust out three fingers energetically, trying to show her age as much as possible. Saki-chan had answered in a crisp voice, as if she is happy to be asked. Yes, now my little angel was obsessed with telling her age. (What is she?! She¡¯s too cute!) To give you an idea on how obsessed she was with telling her age, when I was at the supermarket, she even told the clerk who I didn¡¯t know, her age loudly. ¡°Saki-chan is¡­¡± ¡°Three!¡± I writhed again when I saw Saki thrusting three fingers up. CH 11 Saki-chan kept calling out her age over and over again, and finally, without me asking her anything, she started saying, ¡®Three!¡¯ without my asking. ¡°Haa, haa, ah, kawaii jinu (too cute to die).¡± ¡°Cute?¡± ¡°No, it¡¯s nothing.¡± Seeing Saki-chan tilting her head and asking me the meaning of my words was incredibly soothing to me. This took away the fatigue from the work I had just done. (Maybe she understands her age or something? Right!) Suddenly, I opened the famous brand wallet that Mika was probably using, took out three 100-yen coins and a 1,000-yen bill, and placed them in front of the sitting Saki-chan. ¡°Yeah? Your wallet is cute, don¡¯t you think? You like pink, don¡¯t you, Saki-chan?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Saki-chan saw the light pink purse and pointed to it with sparkling eyes. ¡°I love this!¡± I was sure she had seen it many times while shopping, but she had always been curious about the wallet. As a former man, I found it cute, and I was grateful to use it because it was not a crime. ¡°No, no. It¡¯s not the wallet I want you to see, it¡¯s this.¡± ¡°My wallet?¡± ¡°Here. Here¡¯s some money for you, Saki.¡± ¡°Money¡­¡± That¡¯s right. You can buy sweets with it. ¡°Sweets?¡± Oh? I thought she wanted money to spend on shopping because she said, ¡°I can¡¯t be selfish if I want something,¡± but, was it something different? Huh, she was still tilting her head, and didn¡¯t seem to know any better. I picked up a heart-shaped palette lying in the corner of the room and brought it to Saki-chan. ¡°Well, you know, you can get a lot more of these.¡± ¡°A lot?¡± ¡°Yeah. Let¡¯s play supermarket.¡± To help her understand shopping, I was to become the clerk and Saki-chan to be the customer, and we played a little. ¡°I¡¯ll take one thousand yen and give you five hundred yen back.¡± After a few moments of playing, Saki-chan seemed to understand, though she was vaguely remembering the time when she went shopping. ¡°Did you get it?¡± ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°When you gave me 1,000 yen, I got change so I could buy snacks, but when I gave you 300 yen, I didn¡¯t have enough money, right?¡± ¡°Mm-hm.¡± The sweets with the heart-shaped palette cost 500 yen, so I tried to imitate it where 300 yen was not enough money, but it was still too difficult for her to understand everything. I was sure she would learn to do the math and stuff, so there was no need to rush. ¡°So, Saki-chan, do you want 300 yen or 1,000 yen?¡± ¡°Are you an angel? You¡¯re giving me this?¡± ¡°Yes, I am. Which one do you want?¡± ¡°Three hundred!¡± ¡°I see.¡± Apparently, Saki-chan just liked the word ¡®three.¡¯ But if she had understood the value of money, she would have chosen the 1,000 yen bill. ¡°Yes. Then I¡¯ll give this 300 yen to Saki-chan.¡± ¡°Thank you.¡± What would she do with all this money? I looked at her and saw that Saki-chan had hidden it in the gap between the TV and the stand. Apparently, she understood the importance of saving money. Saki-chan finished hiding the money and came back to me. ¡°I still feel terrible.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry. That¡¯s Saki-chan¡¯s money, you know. I won¡¯t steal it.¡± It was sad that she didn¡¯t seem to trust me even a little bit, but I guessed it meant she considered my money as her precious treasure. Next time, I¡¯ll buy her a cute piggy bank or wallet. Of course, it would be pink. CH 12 The Little Genius Painter [ A/N ¨C I wonder if the main character is already Saki-chan? ] Today, I was still working as a home-based call center operator. I was still on the phone with the company that made the sales call, but I was getting a little tired of all the talk that had nothing to do with my business. ¡°It¡¯s good. Let¡¯s play sometime.¡± ¡°We don¡¯t do that kind of thing.¡± ¡°Your sister has a cute voice, and I think we¡¯d have fun playing together!¡± ¡°Um, this conversation is being recorded, right? Isn¡¯t the company going to get mad at me?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, as long as me and your sister get along, we¡¯ll be fine!¡± Before the call was connected, there was a warning message in a mechanical voice that said, ¡°This conversation is being recorded,¡± but it didn¡¯t seem to matter to the employees on the other end. ¡°Hey, let¡¯s play!¡± ¡°Ha¡­¡± There was a lot of pestering after that, but somehow I managed to finish my conversation with the man without incident, and I took the headset off my head. ¡°It¡¯s tough being a woman¡­¡± It was not even noon yet, and I already had a few similar conversations. ¡°There really are no good men here.¡± No, I was the same person I used to be, except for my current physical characteristics, but I knew I would have a stronger respect for women if I was in their situation. The only saving grace was that Saki-chan didn¡¯t hear what the other man was saying because I was wearing a headset at work. ¡°Okay, let¡¯s get ready for lunch.¡± After making a mixed salad with lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, and corn on the cob and onion soup, I boiled pasta and poured meat sauce over the noodles. I set the finished dishes on separate plates for adults and children. ¡°It was worth preparing the sauce two days in advance. Saki-chan, lunch is ready.¡± Huh? Whenever she smelled something at the time of the day, she would rush over and ask, ¡°Are you cooking?¡± But she didn¡¯t respond at all. I wonder what¡¯s going on? And when I went into the room, I saw the little painter had been born there. I bought some coloring books, food-safe crayons, and origami paper from the Internet, thinking that she would be bored if she just waited to watch TV or DVDs while I was working. And now, Saki-chan was crazy about drawing. ¡°¡­¡­¡­.¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡­.¡± I stared silently at Saki as she concentrated. ¡°It¡¯s done!¡± It took her about five minutes from the time she looked over the painting to the time she finished it. She was finally satisfied with the picture she had created. Saki-chan¡¯s eyes met mine as I crouched down with my hands on my chin and watched in silence. ¡°Oh, I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯m sorry.¡± ¡°Why are you apologizing?¡± ¡°Oh, I¡­¡± ¡°For drawing on the wall?¡± ¡°Yes¡­¡± Maybe it was just a child¡¯s way of thinking, but I wondered what would happen if I tried to draw a picture on a big wall. I guessed that was what it felt like. Her excitement won out over the fear of being rebuked. Even so, the fact that she was able to behave so well in front of Mika¡¯s face was a sign of growth, so I was going to praise her and encourage her instead of getting angry. That being said, I didn¡¯t want her to grow up to be a child who didn¡¯t think, so it would be better to gently teach her what she needed to fix, but that could wait a little longer. ¡°You¡¯re good.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°That¡¯s a bunny, right?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± ¡°That¡¯s a pretty picture, what about this one?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± ¡°A flower. Why is it black?¡± ¡°Colours!¡± ¡°You wanted to use it? That¡¯s a cool flower.¡± ¡°Right!¡± When I pat her head and praised her, Saki-chan smiled in satisfaction. ¡°Lunch is ready, shall we eat?¡± ¡°What is there for lunch?¡± ¡°Meat sauce.¡± ¡°Yeah!¡± Since this house was rented, I would have to erase the pictures that Saki drew, but I would keep them for a few more days. Besides, I thought I would take a picture of it with my camera and save it on my computer. After all, this was the beginning of my little genius painter. [ A/N ¨C Thanks to everyone¡¯s support, it became number one in the daily and weekly human drama rankings. Thank you very much. Thank you also for the typo reports, feedback, buzzers, and ratings. ] CH 13 Mika''s Victims On the evening of the day I ate meat sauce for lunch, I had some free time and was about to prepare dinner when I heard the doorbell ringing. (Uh, Who is it?) If it was a newspaper solicitor or a door-to-door salesman, I could just say no, but if it was a friend of Mika¡¯s, I didn¡¯t think I could play Mika¡¯s role well in front of them. (Oh no, oh no! What should I do?) As I was panicking, I heard a knock on the door of the house. ¡°Are you there, Nogami-sama? You¡¯re here, aren¡¯t you? The lights are on, and I can hear some noise from the TV or computer¡­ You¡¯re here, aren¡¯t you?¡± (Scary¡­ But her voice is a female¡¯s. Does she know Mika, after all?) Could it be Yuki? I thought about it, but it was very different from the impression I had gotten from her message on my phone, and she would not use honorifics with Mika. As I remained silent and said nothing, the knocking on the door, which had been gentle earlier, became stronger and stronger. Tak! There was a resounding sound. Was she there to collect some sort of debt? As I was wondering this, the doorknob starting to turn. ¡°Who are you?¡± I let out a gruff voice, feeling a little angry at the thought of breaking down the door to my apartment, and at her behaviour of trying to break into my house without permission. ¡°It¡¯s Mamori. Chika Mamori Chinatsu. Do you remember me?¡± No, I didn¡¯t know. But the fact that she asked if I remembered her, it seemed like I knew her. To be honest, I didn¡¯t want to talk much because it might bring out a lot of things, but if I left it like this, the door would soon be destroyed. ¡°Huh¡­¡± Letting out a sigh of contemplation, I opened the door and found¡­ no one there. ¡°Huh? Is this a prank?¡± ¡°Over here.¡± I heard a voice from a little below me, so I looked over to see a girl with bob cut black hair and red glasses was there. She was wearing a long-sleeved grey top, a black jersey with a white sidelines underneath, and a light blue apron. Maybe she was about 140¡å tall? And I was not going to say what, but she was probably an A. ¡°Please don¡¯t patronize me.¡± ¡°¡­¡­.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t sit there silently and try to avoid making eye contact with me. Do you think I¡¯m an idiot?¡± What was I supposed to do? Well, even though she was a little short, I could still see her, and to be honest, I think she was doing it on purpose. She was violently handling the door to my apartment and I was a little angry with her. ¡°Ch-ch-check?¡± ¡°Oh, Saki! You were okay! This girl didn¡¯t do anything to her!¡± ¡°Hey, hey, don¡¯t go in like that!¡± ¡°What¡¯s with the manly language? And is there something wrong with it if I come into your house? Oh, you¡¯re the kind of person who can¡¯t go out in public without makeup on. That¡¯s why I hate 1grayu.¡± ¡°No, I¡¯m not talking about that, I¡¯m talking about manners!¡± I mean, she was very prejudiced against gyaru, and she was kind of difficult for me. ¡°Oh, what? Nogami-san, did you just say that to me?¡± ¡°No, of course not.¡± ¡°No matter how many times I warned you about things at the park, you would always say, ¡°Shut up,¡± or snicker at my breasts¡­? Oh, by the way, you asked me who I was earlier. I think you asked me that?¡­¡± (Yeah, that¡¯s it. She seems to be a victim of Mika. And she¡¯s trembling.) How much common sense did the former owner of the body I¡¯m in have? In the room, I was holding my head and shouting in my mind, ¡°Mika-san!¡± and Chinatsu-san still trembling, saying, ¡°I can¡¯t believe this gal has common sense¡­¡± And then there were the three of us, Saki-chan tilting her head as she watched us. Saki-chan¡¯s popularity is so high that the main story is already becoming a dusty story with her, so if you see anything other than a heartwarming story, just think of it as a side story. Gyaru (Japanese: ¥®¥ã¥ë; Japanese pronunciation: [¨À?a?????]), a Japanese transliteration of the English slang word gal, is a Japanese fashion subculture. ¡­ An alternative explanation is that the subculture started with jeans brand Levi Strauss¡¯s 1968 advertisement campaign for a women¡¯s jeans line named ¡®Levi¡¯s For Gals.¡¯ CH 14 In a shabby apartment room, Chinatsu, who had come to visit me unexpectedly, and I were sitting across from each other, drinking tea together. Saki-chan was lying down and colouring. After some conversation, I found out that Chinatsu was a nursery teacher and was 22 years old, two years older than Mika. Today, since she had just joined the school, hadn¡¯t seen Saki-chan in a week, and she was worried, so she decided to visit. Maybe it was because I was now Mika. (Oh, I forgot to check if she went to preschool or kindergarten.) After taking a sip of my tea, I spoke to the child care worker sitting in front of me. ¡°I see, so you¡¯re here to check if I¡¯m being cruel to Saki-chan?¡± ¡°Yes. Oh? So, have you become an aggressive person? Or have you become an aggressive person at heart?¡± ¡°¡­I¡¯m giving Saki-chan¡­¡± ¡°You don¡¯t have to rephrase yourself. I understand that you¡¯re a bit rough around the edges.¡± Even though I didn¡¯t do anything, I got a lot of verbal abuse from the toxic nursery teacher because of Mika. But even though she hadn¡¯t been there for a week, Saki-chan said, ¡°Ch-check?¡± when she saw Chinatsu. She may have seen that I was taking good care of her, as she immediately said, ¡°I was surprised. I thought that we would definitely have to contact child and that our daycare would have to be pursued for responsibility by the public¡­¡± The reason why she came to my house in such a hurry was because she was very worried about Saki-chan¡­ I was thinking that Chinatsu was a passionate nursery teacher, but then she said something disturbing. What kind of reputation does this person, Mika, have in her mind? ¡°Huh? Was it really that important?¡± ¡°It¡¯s obvious. You know what? What did you eat in the morning, Saki-chan? If you ask her, she says, ¡°Bencho,¡± then what about at night? If you ask her, she¡¯s still the same. Furthermore, if she listens to her mom, such a small child has her body trembling. It¡¯s natural to wonder if you¡¯re being violent!¡± Hmm, isn¡¯t there something terribly wrong with this person? Sure, I¡¯m not okay about the lunch thing, but if they ask her about her parents, but she would remember the accident and get scared. ¡°It¡¯s you, anyways. I¡¯m sure you didn¡¯t cook today, and you¡¯ll probably just pack a lunch anyway. You need to be a better parent. ¡­It smells good, doesn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°Oh, it¡¯s almost dinner time, so when I was preparing tea, I prepared dinner as well. I¡¯m going to go finish it.¡± ¡°It¡¯s a lie¡­ There¡¯s no way this gal can cook. This is the smell that came from a different house, isn¡¯t it? I¡¯m sure I¡¯m right, aren¡¯t I?!¡± ¡°No, it¡¯s from us.¡± ¡°Let me have a bite!¡± When Chinatsu grabbed me by the arm and shook my body, I felt someone¡¯s stomach growl. ¡°¡­Did you hear that?¡± ¡°¡­Chinatsu, would you like to eat a plate, not just a bite? We¡¯re having curry today.¡± ¡°¡­I¡¯ll take,¡± ¡°Kari?!¡± ¡°Saki, that¡¯s right. Curry.¡± ¡°Eat it!¡± Saki-chan, who was engrossed in colouring, looked up the moment she heard the word ¡®curry.¡¯ There were two shadows following me to the kitchen, as if they couldn¡¯t hold out until dinner was ready. It was Saki-chan and Chinatsu. (We¡¯ve got one more kid.) After stroking Saki-chan¡¯s head for some reason, I went with the flow and did the same for Chinatsu, and she didn¡¯t say anything. Maybe her appetite won out, but would she be okay with that? ¡°Kari!¡± Saki-chan, who was pacing around my feet as if she couldn¡¯t wait to eat the curry, looked so cute like a cat. I guessed this meant the two of us were getting along better, right? ¡°Kari is good!¡± ¡°It¡¯s delicious.¡± ¡°Thank you very much.¡± ¡°Wow, I can¡¯t even cook, how can this gal¡­¡± If it was not authentic, couldn¡¯t anyone at least make curry? Could it be that it came in a box? ¡°Another!¡± (Oh, I can¡¯t believe that Saki-chan just held out her plate and asked for seconds.) Happy, I smiled and went to the kitchen to plate her curry. CH 15 You''re A Great Mom [ A/N ¨C In the fifth episode, when the protagonist thinks, ¡®Well, that means we¡¯re not related by blood,¡¯ I thought it was weird that he realized the relationship at this point, so I changed it to, ¡®What kind of relationship is that?¡¯ So now, I believe that Saki-chan is now blood related to Mika. ] After eating the curry, I had an after-dinner tea and talked with Chinatsu again. Saki-chan stopped coloring and started drawing in her sketchbook. When I glanced at it, it looked like it was curry that she was drawing. So, next time, I would buy her a picture diary to keepsake her daily memories. After dinner, we chatted about various things, and Chinatsu and I became friends, and without reason, I decided to teach her how to cook next time. ¡°Saki¡¯s parents are dead, aren¡¯t they? I didn¡¯t know that, and I¡¯m sorry I blamed you.¡± Hastily, I said, ¡°I¡­ don¡¯t mind.¡± I always talked to Saki-chan, but I had to address myself as ¡®I,¡¯ this time. It was okay if it was work, but if it was in my personal life, it was difficult to change your mind. Next time, I might have to practice saying ¡®I¡¯ in my mind. If I continued to use ¡®me,¡¯ then Saki-chan might get told by people, ¡°Your mom is so weird!¡± I was not sure if I could do that¡­ No, I was going to be a great mom! It was for Saki-chan! Huh? Now that I was a woman, was that normal? I was not sure anymore. ¡°But Mika and Saki are not related, right? I happened to hear you talking to someone named Yuki?¡± ¡°¡­¡­.¡± ¡°I thought you were violent because you weren¡¯t polite and wouldn¡¯t cook for me, but today, when I saw how Saki-chan was behaving, I understood that she really liked you.¡± ¡°¡­¡­.¡± ¡°I must have been narrow-minded too. There are many reasons why you can¡¯t cook for your child¡­ Thank you for making me aware of that.¡± ¡°Oh, uh, yeah.¡± What should I do? I didn¡¯t know where to start with this. It seemed like this story was good for Chinatsu, but not¡­ for me. My mind was in turmoil. I thought Saki-chan was Mika¡¯s niece, so they were blood related. That was why she took her in and raised her, but if not, then what the hell was going on here? ¡°When I was in the coffee shop, I heard that you were a foster child, right? You were taken in and Saki-chan was taken in, your life seems to be quite 1tumultuous, doesn¡¯t it?¡± I learnt a pretty shocking fact, but there was one thing that had been bothering me for a while now. ¡°Hey, Chinatsu-san. Why don¡¯t you fix your glasses?¡± It had been bothering me since a while ago, because every time she spoke, we were out of sync. Chinatsu quickly raised her glasses again, which had slid down, and muttered, ¡°They¡¯re my favourite,¡± as she averted her gaze. ¡°But Mika¡¯s story has convinced me. Saki was afraid of the rides at nursery school because of what happened to her parents.¡± ¡°Is that so?¡± ¡°Yeah, she was crying a lot.¡± Huh? But when I met Saki-chan for the first time and when I went for a job interview, we took a taxi together. I wondered what was going on, and when I looked at the person who was being talked about, I found her drooling and sleeping on a picture of curry that she had drawn herself. adjective ¨C excited, confused, or disorderly. CH 16 Not Ready For Your Debut In The Park? [ A/N ¨C We¡¯ll be back to the heartwarming times next time. ] On Saturday, as I was off work, Saki-chan and I decided to go to the park, and I bought a shovel and a small bucket to play in the sandpit. When I talked to Chinatsu, I realized that our little angel had never asked to go to a park, even when she saw images of them on TV or in videos. When I realized that, I was thinking about¡­ No, I was thinking about¡­ and I suddenly thought. (Huh? Come to think of it, will this body always belong to me? If Mika comes back, what will happen then?) As I filled a small bucket with plastic fishes, a toy shovel and toy pans, I thought about many things, but came up with no answers. But if there was a non-zero chance that Mika would come back, wouldn¡¯t it be strange for her to be not talking to me? No, but if she did, I wouldn¡¯t be alive then, would I? ¡°Hah, I don¡¯t know.¡± Was I me, or was I not me, what am I supposed to do?! Somebody tell me! ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± ¡°It¡¯s nothing.¡± ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°No, it¡¯s nothing.¡± I was in a state of overwhelm and used an incomprehensible Kansai dialect. And now, was I, I? Oh God, it¡¯s too much trouble now, so I¡¯ll just consider her and I one. ¡°Oh my God!¡± ¡°Do you like it?¡± ¡°Which one?¡± ¡°That¡¯s what I wanted to hear¡­ Oh well. Saki, shall we go to the park?¡± ¡°Like this?¡± ¡°Yes. Let¡¯s play in the sandpit. I bought you some toys.¡± ¡°Yes!¡± Saki-chan¡¯s eyes lit up when I showed her the toy set for playing in the sandpit. (Thank God. Apparently it¡¯s okay to go to the park. Well, as long as we don¡¯t get on the seesaw or the swinging thing.) Saki-chan often watched me cook, so she was happy to be able to imitate me when we played make-believe games. We changed into clothes that we didn¡¯t mind getting dirty, and head to the nearby park together. I was wearing my usual black sweatshirt, and Saki-chan was wearing a white longsuit with little light blue and yellow flowers scattered on it. ¡°You look great in that dress.¡± ¡°I love it.¡± The shoes that Saki-chan was wearing were the same light blue as her playwear, with a pink ribbon around them. Probably, that was her favourite outfit. ¡°We¡¯re here.¡± ¡°We are.¡± ¡°Okay, what do you want to do?¡± ¡°I¡¯m going to cook in the sandbox.¡± ¡°Cooking in the sandpit?¡± ¡°Yeah!¡± The park had a seesaw, a slide, a swing, and some kind of camel or something. Saki-chan didn¡¯t pay any attention to them. ¡°Here¡¯s your meal.¡± ¡°What¡¯s this?¡± ¡°Hotchkiss!¡± ¡°Huh? 1Leave me alone? Oh, pancakes, Hmm¡­ Oh, delicious.¡± ¡°And there¡¯s also a fish.¡± The pancakes and baked fish were quite unusual, but it was my fault for choosing to take them out, so Saki-chan was not to blame. ¡°It¡¯s delicious.¡± ¡°Yes, I like to cook.¡± ¡°I think you¡¯re going to be a chef.¡± ¡°Really?¡± ¡°Yeah, you¡¯re good at painting, too.¡± ¡°There it is!¡± We were playing together for a while, but then Saki-chan stood up with a shovel in her right hand and started to stare at the swing. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± ¡°¡­¡­..¡± ¡°Do you want to go on the swings?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t want to¡­¡± ¡°Don¡¯t you like it? You keep staring at the swings, don¡¯t you want to go on them?¡± ¡°I¡¯m going to go! I want to go on the swings!¡± (You mean you don¡¯t want to go on the swing set by yourself?) ¡°Kya!¡± She cried, and I held Saki-chan, who came closer to me. I patted her gently on the back and waited until she stopped crying and I could hear her sighing in her sleep. Apparently, she was so tired from crying that she fell asleep. Oh, I see¡­ Saki-chan had a memory of her real mother protecting her during the accident. Come to think of it, she didn¡¯t even say a word when we took a taxi together. Maybe that was why she had been holding back for so long, because she thought Mika (me) might have been angry with her. Saki felt safe in the presence of an adult who could protect her when she got into a car or other vehicles, but at the same time she was worried that she might lose someone, and she understood that instinctively. She had been at home all this time, so I thought that coming to the park would be a good way to get to know other kids her age. I was na?ve to think so. ¡°I made you cry¡­¡± Maybe Saki-chan was not ready to make her debut at the park after all the trauma she had been through. [ A/N ¨C Protagonist: ¡°Saki-chan, I heard you got 1,000 bookmarks.¡± Saki-chan: ¡°Bukuma?¡± Protagonist: ¡°Yes, they gave you a lot of recognition¡±. Saki-chan: ¡°Recoginiton?¡± Protagonist: ¡°Yes, yes. Let¡¯s say thank you! Thank you very much.¡± Saki-chan: ¡°Arigato!¡± ] Both hiragana are similar ¨C 1. ¤Û¤Ã¤Á¤ç¤±¤­ (what Saki-chan said) 2. ¤Û¤Ã¤È¤± (what Mika understood.) CH 17 A Good Day Off Today I was playing in the room with Saki-chan, trying to cheer her up after she cried so much on Sunday. Yes, my little angel was more comfortable smiling than crying, so I had to make her laugh at all costs. So I thought. What could I do to make Saki smile? This. Here was the answer! ¡°Tickle, tickle, tickle.¡± ¡°Aiya!¡± ¡°There you go, Saki. Make a little noise.¡± ¡°Kya¡ª!¡± I tickled Saki again and again as she lied down in the room. And every time I did, Saki smiled and let out a happy squeal. ¡°More.¡± ¡°More? Hmm, what should I do?¡± ¡°Motch ~o!¡± ¡°Oh, no. No more¡­! There you go, there you go!¡± ¡°Kya!¡± Saki-chan was on her back, and when I tickled her, she rolled around left and right. I loved my little angel who never said ¡®stop,¡¯ who enjoyed being forced to laugh, and who asked for ¡®more¡¯ again and again. ¡°Saki, what do you want for lunch?¡± ¡°I¡­ want more.¡± ¡°No, we¡¯re talking about lunch¡­¡± ¡°More!¡± ¡°Well, here¡¯s what you get when you don¡¯t tell me what you want! There you go, there you go!¡± ¡°Sorry!¡± I caught Saki from behind as she tried to crawl away from me, probably too tired to laugh. ¡°Where do you think you¡¯re going?¡± ¡°Just a minute.¡± ¡°Huh? More? You really like to be tickled, don¡¯t you, Saki? Here, rub it, rub it, rub it!¡± ¡°Kya! Aiya~¡± ¡°Huh? No? Do you want a ticklish place? All right. There you go.¡± ¡°Kya! Here~¡± ¡°Oh, you did it!¡± I was laughing and tickling Saki over and over again, when she finally did it back. It was strange to be tickled from someone else, but I was having fun and didn¡¯t want to think about anything else. ¡°A little bit.¡± ¡°That¡¯s it. Come on, Saki, tickle!¡± ¡°Kya!¡± ¡°Oh, where are you going? There, I¡¯ve got you!¡± ¡°Little by little.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not working.¡± ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Tickle, tickle, tickle!¡± ¡°Kya¡ª!¡± After this, it was around midnight and lunch was a bit late, but that was a secret from Saki-chan. When I was working during the week I couldn¡¯t concentrate on her, so it¡¯s nice to have a day like this once in a while. It was a good day off for me to play with such a lovely girl, Saki-chan. CH 18 Gal-Pal ¡°I¡­ am Mika. I¡¯m not¡­ I¡¯m Mika.¡± At night, to avoid waking Saki-chan, who had just fallen asleep, I whispered and practised calling myself in the mirror on the side of the wardrobe. I was not a woman at heart, but I could play the role of a woman if it was for the sake of my little angel. I had come to believe that if Mika were to return to this body, she would not be alive at the time, and that was not something to regret. Tomorrow was Monday, so we had nursery school, but did Saki-chan, who didn¡¯t usually go there, want to go? I asked her if she wanted to go to the nursery and she said ¡°Okay¡­ (I don¡¯t want to),¡± so I contacted Chinatsu on my phone and asked her about it. The experience of getting to know other children her age was important, but my little angel was scared of rides, and after the trauma of the accident, I thought it was better not to force her if I could stay at home with her. ¡°It¡¯s time for bed¡­¡± When she is older she would be able to take the bus or train on her own, but for now it was more important that she had a good time. ¡°Well, what should I do about the shopping? She might be afraid of riding a bicycle¡­ Besides, I don¡¯t think I should force her to take a taxi¡­¡± Staying home? No, no, that would make her a total hermit, and it would be unhealthy for her to stop going out at all at such a young age. I was troubled by a lot of things and I fell asleep, and when I opened my eyes to get up in the morning, I heard the voice of a woman I didn¡¯t know from outside. ¡°Good morning!¡± (Eh? Who is it? I locked the door, didn¡¯t I?) I jumped up in a panic and saw a¡­ something¡­ black gal in front of me. Her dress was a long dress that went down to her feet, her skirt had a slit on the left side that went up to her thigh, and the most flamboyant thing about it was that it was all leopard print. Her hair was blonde, waist-length, permed, and kind of fluffy. ¡°¡­Black.¡± ¡°Oh, you noticed? It¡¯s almost summer, so I went to the salon yesterday to get a tan.¡± (It¡¯s still spring! It¡¯s only spring!) There was a sudden intruder, but she didn¡¯t seem to be dangerous, and on closer inspection, it was Yuki, Mika¡¯s friend and workmate. ¡°I locked the door, didn¡¯t I? How did you get in?¡± I was reminiscing about how she used to depict herself as an icon on the messaging app, even though I used a tame tone as though we had never met. Wait, she was a friend of Mika¡¯s. I wondered if it was weird to use honorifics. ¡°Huh? Mika gave me a duplicate key and said I could come in anytime I wanted. Did you forget?¡± ¡°Oh¡­ That reminds me,¡± I didn¡¯t know about that, but I had to go on as best as I could. I felt like it was a hassle for her to be suspicious, and even if I tell her that in Mika, a man she didn¡¯t know had entered, she wouldn¡¯t believe me anyway. I was confused by the sudden appearance of this person, but I was determined to get through it somehow, when the black gal sitting in front of me suddenly jumped on me. ¡°Mika, long time no see! I¡¯ve missed you so much!¡± As she hugged me, I thought to myself, ¡°I don¡¯t see many black gyaru in Tokyo,¡± and then Yuki let go of my body and looked at me with a shocked expression. ¡°You¡¯re not wearing anything? No, you¡¯ll change your shape. Okay! Let¡¯s go shopping for clothes and stuff now!¡± Having been told that, I was not going to say what, but I was going to stare at the place where Yuki was. Huh, I¡¯d say¡­ C, at most. No, no, no, I could play the role of Saki-chan¡¯s mother, but what was the point of feminising myself? As I was shaking my head with my hand on my forehead, disgusted with myself, I wondered what she had misunderstood that Yuki shouted at me. ¡°What are you looking at?! Just so you know, I¡¯m normal! You¡¯re just too big!¡± Then Saki-chan, who had been asleep at the sound of the shouting, said ¡°Umu~¡±, rubbed her eyes and opened her eyes, then looked at me and Yuki and opened her mouth with a sullen look on her face. ¡°Shut up!¡± For the first time in her life, she had been angry at the age of three. This had never happened to me in my previous life. What an annoying gal-pal to upset our little angel. CH 19 Treatment Of Black Gals Saki-chan got angry when my annoying friend, or rather the black gal, Yuki, came to the house and made a lot of noise, but the little angel lay down on her back and started to slumber and sleep once more. Apparently, she was still sleepy. I checked the time on my phone, it was only 6am and I thought it was too early to get up and visit someone¡¯s house. Yuki felt bad and whispered to me, ¡°And Satoshi¡­¡± (So, who is this guy?) ¡°¡­so I¡¯m not going to let him off the hook until he apologises!¡± It sounded like a lover¡¯s quarrel between two lovers, and I wished I wasn¡¯t the one who had to listen to it early in the morning. And the fact that she wouldn¡¯t forgive him until he apologized meant that she didn¡¯t want to leave him, no matter what he said. ¡°Mika, I¡¯m hungry.¡± ¡°Yuki-san, have you eaten breakfast?¡± ¡°Haha. Why are you calling me with -san? Because I¡¯ve been dancing in clubs all my life.¡± ¡°Oh, yeah¡­¡± Apparently, she was so stressed out after a fight with Satoshi that she danced in a club until the morning. I thought she was too energetic to ask me to go shopping from there, but I decided to head to the kitchen without saying anything. ¡°I mean, Mika¡¯s so quiet today.¡± ¡°Yeah?¡± ¡°Yes. Because when I come to your house in the morning, you usually kick me out on my back.¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡­¡± ¡°From there, I would use the duplicate key to get back into the house, as we agreed.¡± ¡°¡­There are days when we¡¯re quiet.¡± ¡°I see. We¡¯re only human.¡± I thought Mika was too much of a tyrant to kick her out by kicking her in the back, but judging from Yuki¡¯s appearance, I guessed it was a regular exchange between the two. I thought I might have made her feel uncomfortable, but Yuki didn¡¯t come on to me, so I guessed there was no problem. ¡°What? Did you give up smoking? And the alcohol?¡± ¡°¡­Yes.¡± ¡°Mika, you never smoked before. I used to buy them because my boss used to shout at me that young people who don¡¯t drink or smoke are children! So I was a bit stubborn about it.¡± ¡°¡­That happened to me once.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t even drink alcohol, but I bought beer until my fridge was full. I told you it was useless.¡± ¡°¡­Yeah.¡± ¡°You even brought cartons and cartons of beer into the office, and people still think you¡¯re a heavy smoker and a drinker, you know?!¡± I was imagining a helpless mess of a man, puffing smoke in front of his little ones, always drunk, but apparently not. And from what I had heard, it sounded like the whole thing was just about being mean to the manager. She was already acting like a mere child! When I was thinking about this, I thought I heard Mika¡¯s voice in my head saying, ¡°Shut up!¡± I was sure it was just an auditory hallucination. ¡°Hey, Mika, let¡¯s go shopping after breakfast. I want to relieve some stress.¡± ¡°I¡¯m working today.¡± ¡°Oh, I thought you hadn¡¯t done anything yet? I thought you wouldn¡¯t be busy, so I came.¡± No, I was basically off at weekends, so I was not working¡­ but today was a weekday. If Saki-chan wanted to go to a nursery, I would take her, and if she was uncomfortable, Chinatsu would call me and I would take the day off so that I could move quickly. Did she want to go out and do some shopping? Maybe not, but what about a ride? ¡°Oh, so we¡¯re going shopping!¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± ¡°Um, what? Are you in trouble? I can help you with your love life!¡± ¡°No, I¡¯m thinking about Saki¡­¡± ¡°Mm-hmm¡­ What?¡± There was no such thing as a love story to tell someone who was currently in a fight with a man, but I decided to ask someone other than Chinatsu about Saki-chan¡¯s trauma. ¡°Okay, well, leave Saki in my hands, Mika!¡± When Yuki tapped her own chest and said leave it to me, our angel woke up, stretching herself. ¡°Good morning, Saki.¡± ¡°Good morning.¡± ¡°Good morning. Long time no see, Saki.¡± ¡°No?¡± ¡°Who is she? It¡¯s Yuki. Oh, I see. Saki was asleep the last time you came here, so she doesn¡¯t remember you.¡± Saki was more interested in the breakfast than Yuki, so she looked at me and asked me about the menu. ¡°What¡¯s there?¡± ¡°For breakfast we have croissants, salad, fried eggs and sausages. And yogurt.¡± ¡°Yogurito!¡± ¡°So, Saki, which do you like better, strawberries or aloe?¡± ¡°Yogurito!¡± ¡°Go wash your face.¡± ¡°Ai!¡± While Saki was washing her face, I took the food I had made to the table. ¡°Mika, strawberries for me too!¡± ¡°Here you go.¡± ¡°What? Hey, that¡¯s aloe! It¡¯s awful!¡± Despite saying that, Yuki seemed to enjoy eating it, so there was nothing wrong with it. Apparently, this was the way to treat this black gal. Thank God. CH 20 After having breakfast with the three of us, we all decided to go to 1Shibuya. We thought about taking the train to the city, but then we couldn¡¯t get off until we reached the next station in case Saki got sick. So I decided to call a taxi which would drop me off immediately and go to Shibuya. ¡°Saki, what¡¯s that?¡± ¡°Biridingu.¡± ¡°Oh, yes! It¡¯s a tall building.¡± ¡°I want to go there.¡± ¡°Oh, you see that guy walking his dog?¡± ¡°Doggie!¡± ¡°Saki, which do you like better, a dog or a cat?¡± ¡°Doggie!¡± ¡°I like them both. Both dogs and cats are cute!¡± ¡°Ai!¡± Yuki¡¯s technique was amazing, she didn¡¯t let Saki think that a car was a scary thing, and she kept on talking about other things. As I recalled, when our little angel got into a taxi, she would stare at the back of the seat where the driver was sitting. (I should have realized this sooner¡­) It was too late to regret it now, but at the time she was silently staring at a commercial playing on a small monitor and I thought she was absorbed in it. But I think the truth was that Saki was scared of being in a taxi and was concentrating on the monitor to hide it. Before, I thought she just didn¡¯t have time to look out of the window, and I felt terrible for not realising it. ¡°Ha¡­¡± ¡°Mika, what¡¯s with the sighing?¡± ¡°No, I¡¯m just feeling down¡­¡± ¡°Huh? You¡¯re starting to cook, and it seems Saki likes you. So why are you down?¡± ¡°Do you think so?¡± ¡°Yes. And you¡¯ve been looking at Saki with a worried look on your face. You look more like a father than a mother.¡± ¡°Uh, t-that¡¯s not true.¡± ¡°What are you so upset about? I was joking.¡± Yuki told me I looked like a man and I denied it, a little flustered. And I had rather be called Dad than Mum, but even though we lived in a tolerant world, wouldn¡¯t that make the world look at me a lot colder? I thought so. ¡°I mean, Mika, why are you wearing no make-up and a sweatshirt? How is that for a woman? Oh, Saki, there¡¯s a cat!¡± ¡°Neko! It¡¯s white!¡± ¡°Yes, you¡¯re all white, too. And your hair is getting darker at the roots, so why don¡¯t you go to the hairdresser?¡± It was great to see Yuki talking to Saki while keeping her occupied as well. ¡°Then you have to buy some clothes, get dressed up, and get a good husband!¡± ¡°¡­¡­.¡± I was amazed at how much communicative power the black gyaru had, but then she said something outrageous to me. I was a woman now, but I used to be a man, so I definitely didn¡¯t want to have a husband, but she was right, I should probably dye my hair. If Mika came back to this body, if she had changed and was not happy, I was afraid that she would follow me back to heaven or hell. ¡°We¡¯re here, sisters.¡± The taxi driver told us to pay the fare, and when we got off near Shibuya station, Saki suddenly started running, so we rushed after her. ¡°Hey, Saki! Where are you going?¡± ¡°Oh, my God!¡± ¡°Oh, Hachiko.¡± ¡°Hey! Mika and Saki, don¡¯t run so fast!¡± 2I could see the bronze statue of Hachiko, the loyal dog, near Shibuya station from inside the car, so maybe she had been thinking about it for a while and just started running. ¡°Come on, Saki, let¡¯s hold hands.¡± ¡°Ai!¡± I caught up with Saki, who had started running on impulse, and held her hand. I waited a little for Yuki, who was behind me, and when we were all together. We walked together to the statue of Hachiko. ¡°Oh my!¡± Standing in front of the statue, Saki reached out to touch Hachiko, but the dog, who was sitting on a high pedestal, didn¡¯t quite reach it. ¡°Do you want to stroke it? Here, come here.¡± I tried to carry Saki, but she still couldn¡¯t reach it, so I tried to carry her on my shoulders and she seemed to touch it¡¯s feet. ¡°Oh, my God¡­¡± ¡°Mika, let¡¯s switch.¡± Saki wanted to stroke Hachiko¡¯s head somehow, but this time Yuki carried her on her shoulders. This black gal was 165cm tall, which was not too tall for a woman, and she was wearing black thick-soled boots that made her look 10cm taller, so she was now 175cm tall. But it would be dangerous if she fell, so I decided to support Yuki from behind, keeping an eye on Saki. ¡°Good boy, good boy~¡± Saki seemed to be satisfied with stroking Hachiko¡¯s head, saying ¡®good boy, good boy,¡¯ but Yuki and I were at the limit and our legs are giving out. What on earth were the three of us doing in Shibuya? ¡°Good boy, good boy~¡± ¡°I can¡¯t carry you anymore.¡± ¡°You know, it¡¯s hard for me to support you¡­¡± I was sure it was just my imagination, but the way people were looking at the three of us was painful. But Saki seemed to be happy, so it was okay. Shibuya is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. As a major commercial and finance center, it houses two of the busiest railway stations in the world, Shinjuku Station and Shibuya Station. Hachik¨­ was a Japanese Akita dog remembered for his remarkable loyalty to his owner, Hidesabur¨­ Ueno, for whom he continued to wait for over nine years following Ueno¡¯s death. CH 21 After stroking the dog, we decided to go to a hair salon in Shibuya, which Yuki had booked on her own, and I dyed my hair. Not so long ago it looked like pudding hair, but now it was a beautiful silver ash from root to tip. When I was called ¡®Fuyuki-san¡¯ by the hairdresser in the shop, I wondered who she was talking about, but it seems to be Yuki¡¯s surname. Her name meant Snow, and that image alone might lead you to think of a fair-skinned beauty, but in reality she was a black gal in full make-up. I was afraid that Saki would be bored while I was dyeing her hair, but Yuki did a good job of following her around, reading her picture books and showing her pictures of animals on her phone. After the hairdresser¡¯s re-dyeing, the three of us decided to go to a clothes shop, where we were currently browsing in a shop selling children¡¯s clothes. ¡°Oh, it¡¯s hot¡­¡± ¡°It¡¯s because you¡¯re wearing a sweatshirt. Why don¡¯t you at least buy something a bit thinner? Oh, this is so cute! Which one do you like better, Saki?¡± ¡°This one!¡± It may be the sweatshirt, but it was still spring, and today it was as hot as summer. ¡°This one? Because it has a bear on it?¡± ¡°Ai!¡± ¡°We¡¯ll go here and buy some clothes for the kids and then we¡¯ll go and look at Mika¡¯s clothes. It¡¯ll be a bit cooler if you change what you¡¯re wearing.¡± Even though the person next to me was named Fuyuki Yuki, a name that reminded me of the cold season, the black gal with her skin baked in a tanning salon made me think that it was already summer. After a few minutes of playing with Saki, we bought some children¡¯s clothes and then headed to the adult clothing section. Before we got to the shop we wanted to visit, we had to stop and buy some things¡­ I was not going to say what, but why did I have to buy the top and bottom in leopard print pink? There were other things that Yuki chose for me to buy, such as nightwear that would keep the shape of certain things if I wore it to bed at night, and corrective stuff that would help my stiff shoulders. Huh? Leopard print? I was wearing it, damn it! Because the black gal said, ¡°It¡¯s impossible that you¡¯re not wearing anything! You can¡¯t wear nothing!¡± ¡°Oh, it suits you. Mika, you should buy that.¡± When we arrived at the shop, for some reason Yuki gave me the clothes she had chosen and I had to change in the trial room. ¡°It¡¯s kind of so-so¡­¡± I was dressed in a black and white staggered pattern that exposed my shoulders and almost my arms, with shoulder straps connecting the back and front. The collar, hem and cuffs had a single black line across them. Underneath were navy blue hot trousers made of denim fabric, and the shoes were long boots for spring and summer that were on sale. I also bought a pink diamond necklace in the shape of a heart, which was on sale. It was a little too cute an accessory, but when I bought it, it came with a stuffed bear, so I gave it to Saki, who wanted it. (By the way, I think this is the first time I¡¯ve dressed up since I got this body. ¡­It¡¯s for women.) In the meantime, I decided to leave the shop with a full set of clothes and a change of clothes. ¡°It¡¯s cooler than earlier¡­¡± ¡°I told you it was the sweatshirt. It was hot.¡± ¡°It¡¯s hot!¡± I carried the sweatshirt I was wearing in the bag the shopkeeper gave me, but just when I thought I might as well buy a bag if I had gotten so much stuff, Saki started to feel hot. It felt a bit cooler than earlier, but it was still very hot today. ¡°Is it hot, Saki? Then let¡¯s go get some soft serve ice cream.¡± ¡°Soft serve?¡± ¡°Mika, you¡¯re not¡­ Sure you¡¯ve never given Saki a soft serve before?¡± ¡°Maybe not¡­¡± ¡°Unbelievable!¡± Saki was still nodding her head when Yuki asked her to go out for soft serve ice cream. When I saw her, it occurred to me that I had never taken her to an ice cream shop or anything like that. ¡°What¡¯s soft serve?¡± ¡°Soft ice cream is a delicious cold food. Your sister Yuki will buy you one today.¡± ¡°Yes, and then it¡¯s sweet.¡± ¡°Yummy!¡± ¡°Want some?¡± ¡°Eat it!¡± All three of us were feeling hot and Yuki led us to a shop that sold soft ice cream to cool off a bit. ¡°Now it¡¯s Mika¡¯s turn to hold Saki.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. Come on.¡± ¡°Okay!¡± It would be nice to walk while keeping an eye on our little angel, but that would take too long, so today Yuki and I were taking it in turns to carry her around. ¡°Here we are.¡± ¡°Welcome!¡± Yuki took us to a very cute and trendy caf¨¦ in 2Harajuku. I was expecting to buy something outside and eat it, so this was too unexpected. Because everything in the shop was pink. ¡°¡­¡­¡± ¡°Mika, what¡¯s wrong?¡± ¡°¡­Nothing.¡± ¡°It¡¯s so pink!¡± (I¡¯m a woman now, I¡¯ll tell myself.) Saki liked pink, so she was happy with the decor of the shop, but it was a bit embarrassing for me ¡­who had only recently become a woman. But that was a small matter when you considered that it was for our little angel. ¡°All right, let¡¯s go!¡± ¡°Haha, why are you so excited? You¡¯re so weird, Mika.¡± We entered the restaurant and sat down in one of the four pink chairs. Saki and I sat next to each other and Yuki sat opposite of us. We each chose the soft serve ice cream we wanted from the menu list and called the waiter to order it. A few moments later, three stylish teacups were brought to us, each with what we had ordered: vanilla, strawberry and mixed. ¡°Come on, Saki, try it. It¡¯s recommended by your sister Yuki.¡± ¡°I¡¯m ready.¡± Then she grabbed a spoon, scooped up some strawberry soft serve ice cream and brought it to her own mouth, and Saki¡¯s eyes lit up as she ate it. ¡°I want to keep it!¡± ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s cold. How is it? Is it good?¡± ¡°Yummy!¡± ¡°Sweet, isn¡¯t it? Saki is so cute when she eats. Mika, can I have this?¡± ¡°No!¡± What¡¯s the matter with this black gal all of a sudden? I wouldn¡¯t give my little angel to anyone else! ¡°I want to eat this! Let me!¡± As Yuki and I stared at each other, a happy voice came next to us. ¡°Oishii!¡± Apparently, Saki had grown to love soft ice cream. CH 22 After having the soft serve ice cream, we went shopping again and then walked over to 1Yoyogi Park to relax a bit. The park covered an area of 540,000 square metres, with lawns, ponds, fountains, event spaces and sports facilities. The park was said to be the size of 11 2Tokyo domes. Near the station, there were many people moving around and it seemed to be very busy, but this park was in the middle of the city and it had a relaxed atmosphere. And there I was, sitting on the grass in the park, being dolled up by Yuki. ¡°Hey, Mika. Don¡¯t move!¡± ¡°Oh, I¡¯m sorry.¡± ¡°Oh God!¡± The black gal in front of me said, ¡°You can¡¯t leave your makeup because you¡¯ve bought all these clothes!¡± And then she started to put makeup on my face without my permission. ¡°Mmmm.¡± Saki was taking a nap in the grass. I saw a white hoodie with rabbit ears in a shop selling children¡¯s clothes, so I bought it and put it on her, and she looked so cute in it. ¡°All right, it¡¯s done.¡± When the make-up was done, Yuki opened the black palette she was carrying and showed me in the mirror how it was done. (¡­This is it!) When I saw Mika¡¯s face in the mirror, my thoughts were not ¡®I¡¯m beautiful!¡¯ It was not ¡­something like that, but it was something like ¡®even if you are originally beautiful, makeup can change you.¡¯ ¡°There¡¯s something a little off about this¡­¡± Originally Mika had brown eyes, but Yuki said, ¡°Because eyes are important for gyaru!¡± and she decided to buy brown coloured contacts and made me wear them right away. I was afraid of having a foreign object in my eyes, but when I put them on it didn¡¯t hurt as much as I thought it would. Maybe Mika originally wore coloured contacts and this body was used to the irritation of contact lenses. My only discomfort was the fake eyelashes glued on the top and bottom of my eyes. I didn¡¯t know if it was the eyeliner or the eye makeup, but Mika¡¯s natural double eyelids had been widened and emphasized to make her eyes look bigger than ever. ¡°Aren¡¯t those lips cute?¡± ¡°¡­Yes, it is.¡± My lips were a light pink colour, which made it look bigger, but at the same time it gave a cute impression. And it was called eyeshadow, but I saw that she used many colours on the inner and outer corners of my eyes. But at a glance, it looked like a light pink, didn¡¯t it? ¡°So, you can have orchid and chai bog, but I think, you know, eyeliner for teardrops, and then eyeliner¡­¡± Can someone please crack this black gal¡¯s code and explain it to me? I couldn¡¯t understand any of her words and I felt like I was talking to a foreigner. No, it was still better to speak English, just so you know what you¡¯re talking about. ¡°It¡¯s all about the eyes for a gal! Don¡¯t you think so, Mika?¡± ¡°Yeah¡­ yeah, I guess so.¡± I looked at Saki, who was lying on the floor, and gave her a good talking to. She had been lying on her stomach earlier, but now she was lying on her back, saying, ¡°Umyu~¡± like a real rabbit. (Come to think of it, I¡¯ve got a toy heart-shaped palette of children¡¯s makeup, but I¡¯ve never seen Saki wear it.) I never felt the need to learn make-up, but perhaps I should. As I watched the fountain rise from the pond, I knew I would have to do a lot of research on make-up, looking at videos and online information when I got home. ¡°Umyu!¡± ¡°Oh, Saki, are you awake?¡± ¡°Good morning.¡± ¡°Good morning, Saki.¡± ¡°Dari? (Who?)¡± ¡°Oh, my God! It¡¯s your sister Yuki. I bought you soft-serve ice cream.¡± ¡°Sofu-chou!¡± Shouting this, Saki pointed at Yuki. Apparently, in our little angel¡¯s mind, the equation black gyaru = someone who gives us soft ice cream had been created. ¡°After a bit of fun, let¡¯s go home for dinner, Sofu-chou.¡± I teased Yuki a little, thinking that it was hard to believe that we were in the city at the moment, with all the greenery and the pond. ¡°Hey, Mika, what¡¯s with the nicknames?¡± ¡°Sofu-chou!¡± ¡°No, Saki! It¡¯s Yuki.¡± ¡°Sofu-chou!¡± ¡°You¡¯re both terrible!¡± After this we played in the park for a bit and in the evening we had a hamburger and went back to 3Nerima. It was another nice and peaceful day. Yoyogi Park is a park in Yoyogikamizonocho, Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan, located adjacent to Harajuku Station and Meiji Shrine. The park is a popular Tokyo destination. The Tokyo dome is about 5 hectares, 0.05 km2. Families come to laid-back Nerima City to picnic under spring cherry blossoms and autumn gingko trees in Hikarigaoka Park, and to ride waterslides in Toshimaen, a vintage, cartoon-themed amusement park. Chihiro Art Museum displays evocative drawings by renowned children¡¯s illustrators. Pedestrian dining street Chuo-dori has casual izakaya pubs, ramen shops, and grill restaurants serving yakitori meat skewers. CH 23 At the end of the working day at the call centre, I stretched out to relax my body, which was stiff from sitting for so long. ¡°Uuu~n, I¡¯m so tired!¡± I was unusually busy today, but I had to work hard because I spent quite a bit of Mika¡¯s money when I went to Shibuya. Of course, I was going to save all the money when I get paid. ¡°Thank you very much.¡± ¡°Thank you, Saki.¡± ¡°Hide and seek?¡± ¡°After dinner, okay?¡± ¡°When?¡± Why, I wondered, did she not need to have dinner at night? No, from the way she was tilting her head, it looked like she was just baffled that she couldn¡¯t play. Saki liked the rabbit hoodie she bought in Shibuya, and she wore the two she bought, white and brown, alternately every day. Today she wore a white-coloured one with pink ears. ¡°Hey, which one?¡± Sad that she couldn¡¯t play, Saki curled up and squatted down. These days, our little angel wore a skirt or trousers underneath, but her hoodie was so long that she looked like a real rabbit in this position. But, I was in trouble. I wanted to play with Saki as much as possible, but I had to prepare dinner. As I pondered what to do, an idea occurred to me. ¡°Yes, Saki. Shall we go on a treasure hunt?¡± ¡°Treasure hunt?¡± ¡°Yes, yes. What¡¯s your treasure, Saki?¡± ¡°Bear!¡± ¡°Yeah, can you bring that to me, please?¡± ¡°Ai!¡± Saki got up quickly and brought a stuffed bear that was in the corner of the room, because she thought it would be fun to play with. The advantage of a treasure hunt was that you could do it while you prepared dinner, whereas in hide-and-seek you had to look for each other and hide. ¡°Bring it back.¡± ¡°Yeah, thanks for bringing it.¡± ¡°What are you going to do?¡± ¡°Can you wait a moment while I get ready?¡± ¡°Ai!¡± ¡°Now, Saki, close your eyes and count to ten.¡± ¡°Ai! One, two!¡± I took the stuffed bear from Saki and wrapped it up, covering only the top of it with a black sweatshirt. Then I put it in a bag I got from the clothes shop the other day and threw it in the wardrobe. ¡°1Juu, are you done?¡± ¡°Yes, it¡¯s done.¡± Saki thought it was a game similar to hide and seek and counted to ten to make sure she was right. ¡°Michuketa!¡± Maybe I should have taught her the rules first. ¡°Well, no, Saki, it¡¯s not that. We¡¯re looking for the bear.¡± ¡°Bear!¡± ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right. See how the bear is missing?¡± ¡°Did it go to the forest?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not going back to the forest. It¡¯s hiding.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°It wants to play hide-and-seek with Saki.¡± ¡°Play with the bear!¡± Saki¡¯s face lit up with joy as she played with her treasured bear. Her smile was so pure and bright. It was a funny story about a rabbit looking for a bear, but if you enjoyed it, that was all that matters. Now, the bear was hidden, so you had to find it. ¡°Saki?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Then Saki started to look for her stuffed bear. ¡°Hide and seek with the bear!¡± Strictly speaking, the game was different as it was a treasure hunt, but she seemed to enjoy it. ¡°Now, let¡¯s get ready for dinner.¡± When I was finished supper, I could ask Saki to hide the bear and teach her about real treasure hunting. So I was in the kitchen, taking ingredients out of the fridge, when I heard a voice from inside the room, ¡°Michuketa!¡± ¡°It¡¯s early¡­¡± This flat did not seem to be suitable for hide-and-seek or treasure hunting. One day Saki would want her own room and we might as well move out sooner rather than later. ¡°It¡¯s your turn to be the onii, bear!¡± ¡°Saki, you can¡¯t do that!¡± Apparently, teaching the rules of the treasure hunt came before dinner. ¡®Juu¡¯ is how to say ten in Japanese. (Ê®) CH 24 Saki¡¯s eyes lit up when she saw the clothes I had changed into. ¡°Kawaii!¡± ¡°Yeah, thanks¡­¡± After the treasure hunt and dinner, Saki really wanted to play with her bear. But there was one problem. The stuffed animal couldn¡¯t move. As a result, I ended up playing as a stuffed bear, which I had bought in Shibuya. (It¡¯s for winter, so it¡¯s too hot¡­) Saki never asked me to buy something, even if she wanted it herself. But she had a habit of staring at things she liked. I knew immediately that she wanted a toy heart-shaped pallet, a stuffed bear and a rabbit hoodie. The stuffed bear I was wearing this time was one of them. One of the reasons why Yuki and I went to Shibuya was to buy Saki something she wanted and to spoil our little angel, but I never thought I would be dressed as an animal. (This is so embarrassing¡­) I felt like I was going to burst into flames when an old man saw me buy it, but I asked Saki in Shibuya, ¡°Are you going to wear it? (Don¡¯t you want to wear it?)¡± Saki looked at me with such innocent eyes that I had no choice but to buy the stuffed bear outfit. I still couldn¡¯t forget the look on Yuki¡¯s face that day when she grinned at me and said, ¡°You¡¯ve changed Mika, buying such cute clothes!¡± One day, I was going to get back at that black gal, or rather Sofu-chou. ¡°Pretty!¡± ¡°Thank you.¡± ¡°Hey, bear, cutie!¡± ¡°Yeah¡­¡± If she was so happy, I would take my revenge on Yuki in moderation. At least Saki liked the treasure hunt, so we decided to continue. ¡°Saki, now I¡¯m going to close my eyes and count to ten and you¡¯re going to hide the bear, okay?¡± ¡°Ai!¡± I closed my eyes and covered my ears so that I wouldn¡¯t hear any footsteps. ¡°¡­Nine, ten. Can I start now?¡± ¡°I¡¯m done.¡± When I opened my eyes and looked around the room, I saw that an object had appeared where there had obviously been nothing before. The brown rabbit was curled up in a corner, probably imitating the way I hid it the first time. The animal inside was probably the stuffed bear. ¡°Hmmm, where is it?¡± ¡°Where is it?¡± ¡°Saki, can you tell me?¡± ¡°No!¡± I knew the answer, but I pretended to look for it, just like in hide-and-seek. I passed the time appropriately by going to the bathroom or toilet, or looking in the wardrobe. It was a bit ridiculous to think that a rabbit hid a bear and a bear found it, but who cares? I had spent some time looking around and I thought it was time to find it, but there was one treasure for me. ¡°Oh, I get it!¡± ¡°You got it?¡± ¡°Yes! The treasure is here!¡± Without looking for the stuffed bear in the corner of the room, I gently hugged Saki and lifted her up. ¡°Saki is my treasure.¡± ¡°Huh? No, I¡¯m not. It¡¯s the treasure.¡± ¡°Saki is the treasure?¡± ¡°No, it¡¯s the treasure.¡± I held her in my arms and rubbed her cheeks and got a soft touch from her little face. ¡°Umyu~¡± I loved this little angel, floating in the air and squinting her eyes as if she felt good. I was sorry about the stuffed bear, but for me, Saki was my treasure. [ A/N ¨C This is a sequel to the treasure hunt. I hope that my readers will find it a bit heartwarming. ] CH 25 After a long morning work, I took a lunch break. ¡°What¡¯s cooking?¡± ¡°It¡¯s an omelette.¡± ¡°Yes!¡± ¡°Saki likes omelettes, doesn¡¯t she?¡± ¡°Kya~¡± Since we started living together, I had tried to find out what Saki liked to eat, and I had cooked a lot of different dishes for her, but she was always happy when she had something that children liked. When it came to hamburgers, curries, stews and omelettes, there were times when she was jumping up and down. She also liked fruit, so I served it to her, but when I asked her what she liked best, Saki answered strawberries. The reason was, of course, that they tasted good, but they also looked pretty. I think that was what made her girly. ¡°Good!¡± ¡°Delicious!¡± Saki took a bite of the omu-rice prepared on the table and smiled very nicely. If she was so happy, it made me want to keep cooking for her. ¡°Thank you for the meal.¡± ¡°We¡¯ve had a feast.¡± As I finished my omelette and was washing the dishes in the kitchen, Saki came walking up to me. In her hand, she held a heart shaped palette. ¡°Makeup?¡± ¡°Makeup? Well, I can¡¯t do makeup.¡± ¡°You used to do makeup.¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡­¡± She tilted her head and asked curiously, ¡°Didn¡¯t you always wear makeup before?¡±, but it was Mika, not me. (What should I do¡­) I would like to make some excuse to escape, but Saki knew that after I washed the dishes, I would play with her until the next working day. Speaking of makeup, the only thing I could find out on the internet when I came back from Shibuya was that Orchan was Korean style and Chai Bog was Chinese style. (Is gyaru makeup a Japanese style then? No, now is not the time to be thinking about that.) ¡°Okay. Let¡¯s go in front of the computer so I can do your makeup.¡± ¡°Ai!¡± In the meantime, to get over this pinch, I decided to put makeup on Saki while watching a makeup video. In this day and age, everything was on the internet, which I really appreciated. ¡°Oh, there¡¯s a makeup video for kids. Let¡¯s try this.¡± ¡°Will it look good? (Will it make me cute?)¡± ¡°You¡¯ll be fine. Saki is usually without makeup, but she¡¯s still cute¡­¡± ¡°But you¡¯re cute, too.¡± I would have been grateful if she had said, ¡°Okay then,¡± but if she had said, ¡°But I¡¯m going to wear makeup,¡± I would have had to do it. The only makeup I had learned was from Yuki. I had learnt is gyaru makeup from Yuki, but there was no way I was going to turn Saki into a gyaru at such a young age. ¡°Let¡¯s get started.¡± ¡°Ai!¡± Watching a children¡¯s makeup video, I applied makeup on Saki. I hadn¡¯t felt this nervous since the first time I met this little angel. ¡°¡­¡­¡­.¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡­.¡± As I applied her makeup in silence, Saki didn¡¯t speak either, as if she could sense that I was concentrating. And our little angel¡¯s face, which was gradually changing, became much more satisfactory. For the first makeup I had done, it wasn¡¯t so bad, was it? ¡°¡­¡­¡­.¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡­.¡± ¡°There you go.¡± ¡°Are you pretty now?¡± ¡°I¡¯m pretty now.¡± ¡°Yeah!¡± I was just about to carry her to the mirror on the side of the wardrobe, instead of the one on the pallet, to give her a good look, when the doorbell rang to announce a visitor. ¡°Who is it? Is it Yuki?¡± I looked out through the peephole of the front door and saw Chinatsu, so I opened the door to welcome her. ¡°Saki, say hello.¡± ¡°Konnichiwa.¡± ¡°Konnichiwa, Chinatsu. What¡¯s up?¡± ¡°¡­¡­.!¡± After seeing Saki¡¯s face, Chinatsu seemed to blow up for some reason, and hurriedly covered her mouth and turned away. ¡°What the hell?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry. It¡¯s nothing. Saki, do you want me to take off your makeup?¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll make you even prettier.¡± ¡°Really?¡± ¡°Yes, really. So, why don¡¯t you take off that makeup?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± As I was walking back to my room with Saki in my arms, I heard Chinatsu say in my ear, ¡°What¡¯s with that too much makeup? What kind of comedian are you?¡± ¡°¡­Not good enough?¡± ¡°¡­Your blush is too thick, she looks like a mump. You¡¯ve got too much eyeshadow on and you¡¯re making Saki look pathetic.¡± ¡°¡­I¡¯m not very good at make-up.¡± ¡°¡­I¡¯m going to teach you how to do it, because I feel sorry for Saki.¡± ¡°¡­Thank you.¡± I was grateful to her for her consideration in whispering so that Saki could not hear us, but I was shocked to hear her say that it was not good enough, because I was satisfied with my own performance. But in the end, I had to learn makeup from Chinatsu after this. I¡¯m sorry for embarrassing you, Saki. CH 26 Apron Pockets ¡°Chinatsu, do you want to eat with us tonight?¡± ¡°Are you sure?¡± ¡°Yes. I¡¯ll make it all together.¡± ¡°Um, I was hoping you could teach me how to cook¡­¡± I seemed to remember that we had made such a promise. Could it be that she wanted someone to feed her a home-cooked meal? ¡°Boyfriend?¡± ¡°¡­No! I want to make this for my parents.¡± ¡°Why?¡± ¡°¡­I¡¯ve never fed them before, and my dad¡¯s been very insistent that he try my hand¡¯s cooking for once.¡± I see, it was a part of her filial piety. I felt really bad because I made fun of her for guessing wrongly. And since it was about her parents, she was very careful to whisper away from Saki so that she wouldn¡¯t hear. (When I first came here, I thought, ¡°What¡¯s this guy with?¡± but actually, Chinatsu is a very nice person.) ¡°Hmm, well, do you want to make hamburgers with me?¡± ¡°Mom and Dad like fish.¡± ¡°Like teriyaki yellowtail?¡± ¡°Would I be able to make that?¡± ¡°Well, we¡¯ll just buy the fillets and toss them with the sauce, and I think we¡¯ll be fine.¡± ¡°I¡¯d like to learn at least one more dish.¡± ¡°How about meat and potatoes?¡± ¡°Do you think that would be easy?¡± ¡°Except for the seasoning, it¡¯s just chopping and boiling.¡± ¡°I¡¯m in!¡± How was it made? I don¡¯t know if I¡¯ve ever put that much thought into cooking. ¡°Saki, do you want to have fish for dinner?¡± ¡°More fish? Omlette?¡± ¡°But you had an omelette for lunch.¡± Saki kept looking at herself in front of the mirror on the side of the closet, as if she liked the makeup that Chinatsu had done for her. I mean, why did she like omlette so much? Was it because it was with the children¡¯s menu in the family restaurant? If so, I would have to take her back sometime. I suppose I could make an imitation at home, but I¡¯m sure she¡¯d be more than happy with the real thing anyway. I asked Saki again, and she said fish would be fine for dinner, so Chinatsu and I went to the kitchen. ¡°Yes, I¡¯ll do it¡­ I can do it!¡± ¡°No, Chinatsu, it¡¯s just chopping vegetables, you don¡¯t have to be so enthusiastic.¡± I was afraid because her hand was shaking so much while holding the knife. I thought it would be okay to teach her how to cook instead of her teaching me makeup, but this might be harder than I thought. But while I was working, Chinatsu took care of Saki for a long time, and I wanted to repay her. And even though she was on paid vacation today, she came all the way to my house to check on me because she was worried about me. So, as a thank you, I would teach her how to cook and send her back home. As I was swearing such determination, Chinatsu took out one thing after another from her light blue apron pocket. ¡°Uh, Chinatsu?¡± ¡°¡­¡­..¡± Huh? I couldn¡¯t hear her at all. By the way, I heard that the apron was like a uniform they used at the nursery school, but they wore it even when they were on vacation. Maybe it had a calming effect on the mind? ¡°It¡¯s okay, Chinatsu. There are band-aids in case you need them, and juice in a carton if you get thirsty. There¡¯s also a phone to call an ambulance, candy to calm your mind, and chocolate if you need sugar¡­¡± Yeah, this was not calm at all, and the way she was pulling things out of her pockets one after another made me want to say that she was some kind of cat robot. What should I do? As I was thinking about this, the doorbell that rang during the day announced the sound of a visitor again. ¡°Hi, it¡¯s Yuki. I bought some really good meat. We¡¯re having yakiniku today!¡± I was just about to teach Chinatsu how to cook, when this black gal showed up at the most inopportune time. I thought about ignoring her and using the answering machine, but my little angel reacted to her voice. ¡°Sofu-chou!¡± ¡°It¡¯s Yuki. Saki, it¡¯s yakiniku.¡± ¡°Yakiniku!¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. Open the door.¡± Chinatsu, still trembling with her knife in front of the potatoes on the cutting board, made it look like it was going to be grilled meat today. 1¡°Sofu-choyaki nikyu!¡± Saki, I don¡¯t think it would taste good if you poured soft ice cream over barbecued meat. A combination of the romaji of soft-serve and yakiniku (grilled meat.) CH 27 At the entrance of the flat there was Yuki, a black gal, in the kitchen Chinatsu was shaking with a knife, and in the room there was Saki, jumping up and down saying ¡°Yakinikyu!¡± ¡°Huh? What¡¯s this little girl? Is she cute? Does she know you?¡± ¡°What¡¯s with this light-headed black gal? You¡¯d better choose your friends carefully.¡± Apparently, Chinatsu, who was trembling with a knife, reacted to the word ¡®small¡¯ that Yuki said. When the black gal spoke up, I looked back and didn¡¯t miss the twitching of her ears. How many times did she have to lift up her glasses that were falling down? Fix your glasses for goodness sake. ¡°Oh, my God! You¡¯re not supposed to talk to your sister like that.¡± ¡°How old are you?¡± ¡°You¡¯re 20 years old, Yuki.¡± ¡°I¡¯m 22.¡± ¡°¡­I¡¯m sorry.¡± It seemed that the age-based hierarchy had been settled¡­ Chinatsu said that she once heard Mika and Yuki talking in a coffee shop, and she definitely pretended not to know on purpose, right? ¡°Oh, and I brought a hot plate. You don¡¯t have one here, did you?¡± Apparently, after a bit of awkwardness, Yuki decided to pretend that what had just happened hadn¡¯t happened. At any rate, if this was the case, it would be better to teach Chinatsu how to cook some other time. ¡°I¡¯ll get ready then.¡± With that, Yuki made a beeline for her room and started setting up the hot plate on the table. I was scared of Chinatsu, who was still holding a knife behind me, but I tried to send her a signal with my eyes that I was sorry I couldn¡¯t teach her how to cook without saying anything. ¡°No, thank you. Let¡¯s do it another time.¡± It seemed that the signal I sent with my eyes had been understood. Chinatsu let out a sigh, put the knife back in the kitchen and went back to the room with me. ¡°Onyukyu!¡± ¡°Yes, Saki, it¡¯s a meat party. Your sister brought it, remember?¡± ¡°Sofu-chou, arigato!¡± ¡°It¡¯s Yuki. Don¡¯t just stand there, you two, sit down. There¡¯s enough meat for all four of us!¡± This was mine and Saki¡¯s house, but Yuki acted like it was her own. And before I knew it, she was preparing sauce, plates, and even white rice for everyone¡­ Shall we just take the high quality meat she brought and let this black gal go home? If you imagined the kind of person Mika was, you¡¯d think she¡¯d be forgiven for doing such a thing. The moment I sat down, I thought I heard a voice in my head saying (I won¡¯t do it!), but it must have been an auditory hallucination because Yuki was talking to Chinatsu and Saki was drooling and staring at the meat that was starting to cook. ¡°Onyukyu!¡± ¡°Saki, it¡¯s ready. Here, give it to me. How is it? Is it good?¡± ¡°¡­Whaa!¡± Yuki carried the cooked meat into Saki¡¯s mouth, and our little angel ate it, her face shining and holding both cheeks. Maybe her cheeks were about to melt. ¡°Oh, it melts in your mouth! It¡¯s a fillet called Chateaubriand. Is it good?¡± ¡°It¡¯s delicious!¡± 1 ¡°Well, I¡¯ve got another one for you, this time a special harami. How¡¯s that?¡± ¡°Whaa! It¡¯s soft! Yummy!¡± 2 Oh, Saki, excited by the taste of the barbecued meat in her mouth, was using a lot of words that she knew. This was a very rare phenomenon. I mean, wasn¡¯t it only possible to get about 600 grams of Chateaubriand from one cow? She had brought too much good meat. ¡°I didn¡¯t know you were an adult. I thought you were a child when I first saw you.¡± Hey, stop it, black gal. The matter was just settled a while ago, so why did you rehash it? You see, Chinatsu, who was trembling with anger, was pretending to be calm, and she was nipping at his glasses again and again, which weren¡¯t even out of place. ¡°Now, for your information, can I ask you what you saw in me that made you think I was a child?¡± ¡°Well, I mean, your height, and¡­¡± I didn¡¯t want to say where, but Yuki¡¯s gaze was fixed on one point on Chinatsu¡¯s life.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think so! What, that¡¯s just a bunch of fat! You¡¯re not that great either!¡± ¡°What? I¡¯ve got some!¡± ¡°Calm down, both of you.¡± ¡°¡±Mika, shut up!¡±¡± I didn¡¯t know why. I was just trying to stop a fight but they got angry. ¡°Yes, the haves don¡¯t know how the have-nots feel¡­ How would a person feel who was told at nursery school, ¡®You don¡¯t know which one of us is the preschooler?¡­''¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. Mika doesn¡¯t know what I¡¯m talking about. If I had something nice, even Satoshi would be¡­¡± ¡°Hey, hey, hey, you two! I¡¯m not sure what you¡¯re coming up with. Both Yuki and Chinatsu should calm down¡­!¡± I never said what, but they knocked me down, mounted me, and made me writhe. ¡°Nijiyakiyananyo, it¡¯s so fun! (It¡¯s fun, it¡¯s so lively!)¡± Yes, Saki, it¡¯s fun to play with everyone, isn¡¯t it? I was going to have to go door to door and apologise to all the people in my flat for making so much noise. ¡°It¡¯s starting to feel a bit weird¡­¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± Then get out of my way! This is yakiniku! And this is harami. CH 28 ¡°¡±¡±Feastu! (It was a feast!)¡±¡±¡± There was a lot going on, but we all ended up having a good time eating yakiniku together. ¡°Oh, there¡¯s ice cream at the end. I¡¯ll bring it to you.¡± Even though I was already quite full, Yuki went to the freezer without listening to anyone¡¯s answer and immediately took out the ice cream and brought a bowl and spoon for the number of people. (She was so fast I didn¡¯t even have time to stop her¡­) ¡°I¡¯m so full.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s delicious and you can eat it too!¡± And, hey, that ice cream was for emergency use. And it was H?agen¡­ and we needed a scooper to scoop the ice cream, which we didn¡¯t have. Well, Yuki and Chinatsu got on well after all, and it wasn¡¯t a bad idea to have dinner together. I think the black gal was a bit too excited for me today¡­ ¡°Here¡¯s your ice cream, Saki.¡± ¡°Ice cream?¡± ¡°Yes, it¡¯s cold. Cold.¡± ¡°Sofu-chou?¡± ¡°It¡¯s Yuki. No, it¡¯s not. It¡¯s not soft serve ice cream.¡± ¡°What¡¯s the difference?¡± ¡°¡±¡±¡­¡­..¡±¡±¡± The three adults couldn¡¯t answer Saki¡¯s genuine question, so they keep quiet. If you thought about it, what was the difference between soft ice cream and ice cream? ¡°Do you know Chinatsu?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± ¡°How about Yuki?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Neither of them seemed to know, so I checked on my phone. ¡°Oh, they have a different temperature.¡± ¡°¡±Okay.¡±¡± Chinatsu and Yuki didn¡¯t seem to be interested at all. Maybe the two of them had been able to eat well, but our angel didn¡¯t seem to be able to do so, so she tilted her head and asked me a question. 1¡°What is temeraturu? (What is temperature?)¡± ¡°Well, it¡¯s a measure of the warmth or coldness of an object, or in thermodynamic terms, a molecule or atom.¡± ¡°Are you stupid, Mika? There¡¯s no way Saki is going to understand what you¡¯re saying.¡± ¡°Haha!¡± I tried to explain it properly, but for some reason Chinatsu got angry and Yuki laughed at me. ¡°Why are you pretending to be so clever, Mika? That¡¯s not in your character.¡± I felt like I was being made fun of because I was the owner of the original body. What was I going to do with this black gal? As I was thinking this, Chinatsu crouched down in front of Saki, made eye contact with her and started to explain. ¡°Can I explain? The meat you just ate, Saki, was warm, right?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°And the ice cream you¡¯re eating?¡± ¡°Cold.¡± ¡°Yes, that¡¯s the temperature. Do you understand?¡± ¡°¡­Ai!¡± Maybe Saki thought the difference between grilled meat and ice cream was temperature, but maybe that was the best way to explain it to a three-year-old. ¡°You¡¯re too young to be doing this. You¡¯ll learn.¡± ¡°¡±Oh! (Wow!)¡±¡± ¡°Why are you clapping?¡­¡± ¡°No, Chinatsu is a preschool teacher after all.¡± ¡°What do you mean by that, Mika? I don¡¯t know. What do you do with your makeup? I¡¯d be happy to teach you.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t it bad that you couldn¡¯t teach me how to cook?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t mind.¡± ¡°What? What are you two doing? The latest makeup trick? That¡¯s not fair, I want to learn too.¡± ¡°No, it¡¯s not like that. Mika¡¯s makeup is so bad, I just want to teach her the basics.¡± Yuki nodded her head, wondering what Chinatsu had said. ¡°Eh? Mika can wear makeup, can¡¯t she?¡± ¡°Really? The makeup she did on Saki was horrible.¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t you do it?¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t do it.¡± The lack of involvement for me in this conversation was bad. I would have to make some excuse for this to Yuki, who had known Mika for a long time. ¡°You see, Yuki, I¡¯ve only been wearing gyaru make-up for a while now, so I¡¯ve lost the ability to do normal makeup.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know if that¡¯s possible. If you¡¯ve always been comfortable with it, then it¡¯s not so bad¡­¡± (Eh?) While we were talking, a single tear came from Yuki¡¯s eye. ¡°Oh, I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯m sorry, I was having so much fun earlier¡­ I guess I got a bit lonely after things settled down a bit¡­ I¡¯m going home!¡± ¡°¡±¡­¡­.¡±¡± While Chinatsu and I were surprised, Yuki ran out of the house. ¡°Mika, I¡¯ll watch Saki, you go after her!¡± ¡°¡­Huh? But I thought she wanted to be alone.¡± ¡°You¡¯ve known each other for a long time, haven¡¯t you? I think Yuki would want Mika to come.¡± ¡°¡­Okay. I¡¯m off!¡± As I put on my shoes and opened the door to go outside, I saw Yuki¡¯s back running some distance away, so I rushed after her. ¡°Yuki, wait!¡± We ran for a while, and when I had closed the distance, the back I had been chasing went to a nearby park. This was the place where Saki cried so much when she saw the swings, so I didn¡¯t have very good memories of it and hadn¡¯t been near it since that day. It was a place I didn¡¯t like, not least because of what happened to Yuki today. ¡°Yuki!¡± I grabbed the shoulder of the body that I had caught up with, and turned around to see a face with tears streaming from both eyes. ¡°Mika, Mika, Sa-Satoshi is¡­¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°He said he doesn¡¯t like me¡­¡± ¡°Right.¡± ¡°And he doesn¡¯t want to be tied down¡­¡± ¡°Oh, yeah.¡± ¡°Oh, my God!¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay. It¡¯s okay.¡± I didn¡¯t know what happened between her and Satoshi, but I gently stroked her head to comfort her as she jumped onto my chest. ¡°It¡¯s okay.¡± Yuki, who was crying for a while, ¡°Hic¡­ sniffle,¡± looked away from my chest and stared at my face. ¡°Hey, who are you?¡± Yuki¡¯s words made my heart skip a beat. [ A/N ¨C I don¡¯t know how many more episodes I have to do, but soon, volume one of ¡®I Was A TS Reincarnation But I Had A Kid¡¯ will be over. ] This looks really weird, but the brackets are to indicate what she meant, while she, in reality had a lisp. CH 29 ¡°Hey, who are you?¡± Yuki¡¯s words made my heart skip a beat. (It¡¯s not good, is she suspecting my identity? What should I do? x3) ¡°¡­Yuki, what are you talking about? I¡¯m Mika.¡± ¡°No, you¡¯re not.¡± ¡°Do you see me as someone other than Mika?¡± ¡°No, but¡­ you¡¯re different.¡± I tried to show that I was Mika, but Yuki seemed to be convinced that I was not real. This wasn¡¯t good, how would I get through this? Just as I was thinking this, I heard my phone ring. (Who is it at this time?) I brought my phone in case I couldn¡¯t find Yuki who ran out of the house, but I didn¡¯t expect it to ring at such a time. And when I looked at the incoming number, it was from the call centre company that hired me, so it would be wrong to ignore it. ¡°Excuse me¡­ Yes?¡± ¡°Hello, Nonogami Mika?¡± It seemed that it was a woman who made the call. ¡°Yes, but¡­¡± ¡°My name is Sumire Akikawa and I work as a secretary to the president. I¡¯m sorry to bother you at such short notice, but could you please keep the following Sunday open for me?¡± ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Because the boss wants to see you. Of course, you can take the next day off if you like.¡± ¡°Oh¡­ I see.¡± ¡°We will pick you up before noon. Your children can come with you, as they did at the interview. No, you are more than welcome to bring them. Now, if you¡¯ll excuse me.¡± I was told almost only the requirements and hung up the call, but I thought it was quite important to be called by the boss or something. Maybe I had done something I wasn¡¯t supposed to, and wasn¡¯t aware. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± I had been thinking about my work, but I was surprised when I heard from Yuki, who had another problem. ¡°¡­Nothing.¡± ¡°Oh, yeah. Let¡¯s talk about it. You¡¯re not Mika, are you?¡± ¡°Can I ask you why you think that?¡± ¡°Because it¡¯s strange. In Shibuya, you bought every piece of clothing I suggested, and even when I did your makeup, you were very quiet.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t that normal?¡± ¡°Mika would have looked at me when I was buying the stuffed bear and shouted, ¡®Do you think I¡¯m stupid?¡¯ And when I tried to do her makeup, she¡¯d say, ¡®Don¡¯t touch me!''¡± I didn¡¯t know what the original owner of the body was thinking, but I might still be able to fool her, so I tried to make an excuse. ¡°¡­I have changed since I had a child.¡± ¡°That¡¯s what I thought at first, too. You took Saki in, and raised her, and now you¡¯re suddenly all grown up.¡± ¡°¡­¡­..¡± ¡°But today, when we were having a barbecue, you didn¡¯t kick me out of the house. And you¡¯ve always worn makeup, so it¡¯s strange that you suddenly stopped wearing it.¡± ¡°¡­¡­..¡± ¡°And most of all, when I talked about¡­ Satoshi, Mika doesn¡¯t pat me on the head and comfort me like a person who¡¯s just being nice.¡± ¡°¡­¡­..¡± What was that? I felt like I had been told that all I had to offer was kindness. It was a shock to me in my previous life, and maybe it was the reason why I couldn¡¯t have a girlfriend or a marriage partner before. However, if Yuki was so convinced that I was a different person, it would be impossible to misrepresent my identity any further. (I¡¯ll have to give up on this one¡­) I didn¡¯t know what would happen to my relationship with Yuki from here, but if we could be friends after telling the truth, I would say it. If that was not possible, it was no wonder that our relationship would be over. ¡°Hey, let me ask you one more time? Who are you? If you were the real Mika, wouldn¡¯t you know what to do in a situation like this?¡± ¡°¡­¡­..¡± ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± ¡°I¡¯m¡­ No¡­¡± I didn¡¯t know anything about their routine exchanges, so I had to tell the truth. I was just about to say ¡®I¡¯ when I felt a shock in my body. I couldn¡¯t help but close my eyes, and when I opened my eyes, I saw two people in front of me, Mika, whose body had been my own a moment ago. (Huh? What¡¯s this?) Mika glanced at me, but Yuki didn¡¯t seem to notice that there were three of us. What the hell was going on here? When I was in a panic, I heard Mika¡¯s muttering. ¡°¡­It¡¯s like there¡¯s another me. It¡¯s weird.¡± It seemed that I had the same appearance as Mika. ¡°Mika, what¡¯s wrong?¡± ¡°¡­Nothing. Can I talk to you for a second, Yuki?¡± ¡°What?¡± Mika looked at Yuki and suddenly slapped the other woman on the cheek. Pang! It was the only sound that echoed through the park. (Huh? What is she doing?) ¡°Why are you crying? You decided to go out with Satoshi, didn¡¯t you? If you¡¯re going to get upset over a fight, then just break up with him!¡± ¡°¡­Mika¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°It¡¯s Mika!¡± ¡°Stop sticking to me, you¡¯re annoying!¡± ¡°It¡¯s you! I¡¯m sorry I doubted you.¡± ¡°Yuki, you can either cry or laugh. And I¡¯m not the one you should be apologizing to.¡± ¡°Guh¡­ I¡¯m going to Satoshi¡¯s!¡± (Huuuh? The two of them have a routine where she gave Yuki a slap to get her fired up? I couldn¡¯t think of anything like that.) ¡°See you, Mika.¡± ¡°Shut up. Go on.¡± ¡°Oh, by the way, the director thanked you, didn¡¯t he?¡± ¡°Me? Why?¡± ¡°After that incident, he was fired from his job as a manager and now works in a nursery. He¡¯s not the same person anymore. He says he owes a lot to Mika for giving him that opportunity.¡± (What¡¯s with that guy who gets hurt in places he doesn¡¯t want and then changes his mind on his own¡­?) ¡°Oh, well, whatever.¡± ¡°Well, I just wanted to let you know that everyone at the office is very grateful to you. I¡¯ll see you later! Thank you!¡± ¡°Yes, yes. See you later.¡± Yuki ran out of the park to go and see Satoshi. And then Mika, who was still there, looked at me and opened her mouth. ¡°Well, let¡¯s talk about this.¡± I never dreamed that I would meet Mika again in this way. ¡°Um, I¡¯m here too¡­¡± Whoa! There he was, my god-like grandfather. I hadn¡¯t noticed him at all. ¡°What do you mean, ¡®like¡¯? I am a God of the past!¡± Don¡¯t read my mind, you¡¯re invading my privacy! CH 30 Expressions of Affection As soon as I made eye contact with Mika, who said we should talk, I was drawn to her by some force. ¡°Whoa! Huh?¡± I shouted, but found myself back inside Mika¡¯s body. ¡°Wow, I knew I couldn¡¯t go back to normal. It¡¯s so weird.¡± ¡°Because his soul is already in tune with your body. I told you that.¡± Was it a spirit body in front of me? (No, but I can see them, so is it not the same?) In front of me, Mika, who had become a spirit, and Grandpa God are talking to each other. ¡°You let him in a while ago.¡± ¡°That was because he was very upset and you had the strength of will to do something about Yuki. It¡¯s only a matter of time before the problem is solved and you¡¯re back to normal.¡± ¡°Heh.¡± ¡°Um, Mika, are you a God?¡± I called out to them, who ignored me and started talking. ¡°Oh, sorry, I forgot.¡± ¡°Me too. Sorry.¡± This is terrible. She was the one who said we should talk, wasn¡¯t she? ¡°Oh, and I¡¯m pretty sure that Mika in front of you is a spirit. It is only my power that makes her visible. I¡¯ve also stopped time.¡± ¡°Oh, old man. You¡¯re very thoughtful.¡± ¡°Because you¡¯re too selfish, Mika. When this is over, go back to your reincarnation, okay? You already know where you¡¯re going to be born again.¡± ¡°Oh, you¡¯re so persistent! All right, all right!¡± He¡¯s still the annoying God¡­ Nothing¡¯s changed since the first time. I mean, don¡¯t make bad remarks like ¡®selfish¡¯ either, Grandpa, it¡¯s pathetic. But it was a good opportunity to talk, and I wanted to ask him about the mystery. ¡°Um, Mika, aren¡¯t you supposed to be back in your own body?¡± ¡°As I said before, it¡¯s impossible. Your soul is already more suited to her body.¡± I asked Mika and somehow the God replied to me. (Yeah, I don¡¯t know, but let¡¯s just assume that¡¯s how it is.) ¡°Well, Mika did try to enter the body a few times, so you might have heard some sort of auditory hallucinations.¡± ¡°¡­Oh, yes, I remember that.¡± Looking back, when Yuki came to visit, if I thought Mika was like a child, I would say ¡°Shut up!¡± or when we were having a barbecue, ¡°I won¡¯t do it!¡± when we were grilling. ¡°I think I know what you¡¯re thinking¡­ It was very rude, but I think I know what you¡¯re thinking.¡± I see, that¡¯s why I could read her thoughts when she tried to get inside her body. ¡°Let¡¯s sit down.¡± I didn¡¯t know where he got it from, but God took a brown staff that he hadn¡¯t held before, and with a flick of it, a cloud chair and table appeared. But there were four seats facing me and one on my side, so maybe someone would come. On the fluffy cloud table there was a white mug of tea and some cookies for the tea. ¡°Well, I¡¯ll fetch them. In the meantime, you can talk to them yourselves.¡± Then he disappeared like he teleported. For now, I sat on the chair and Mika sat on the second cloud from the left end, facing me. Then we both took a sip of tea. When we had calmed down a little, Mika spoke to me. ¡°So, why are you raising Saki?¡± ¡°Huh? Because she was there? Because she¡¯s cute.¡± ¡°I thought you were going to abandon her, thinking, ¡®I couldn¡¯t bring up a bunch of strangers!¡¯¡­¡± ¡°You can¡¯t do that! What kind of devil would you be to leave a scared Saki like that alone?¡± ¡°¡­If you had left Saki, everything would have been fine.¡± ¡°What do you mean? No, can I ask you a question first?¡± I was going to ask her what I had been thinking, or rather, I was going to vent my pent up anger on her. ¡°Why was Saki so scared of you, Mika?¡± ¡°I think it¡¯s because I was strict with her. It didn¡¯t work out so well¡­¡± ¡°Why were you so hard on her?¡± ¡°I¡¯m a foster child, and I don¡¯t get along with my parents.¡± (Right, I heard from Chinatsu that Mika wasn¡¯t a biological child.) ¡°If something happened to me, Saki would have to live on her own. So instead of spoiling her, I thought it would be better to raise her to be able to do things on her own.¡± ¡°¡­Why did you pack lunches?¡± ¡°It¡¯s better than what I make. Wouldn¡¯t you rather eat that than the bad stuff?¡± ¡°What about the¡­ luxury brand clothes that were practically brand new?¡± ¡°I just wanted her to be able to sell them for a good price when Saki needed money in the future.¡± What did that mean? Did she mean that she did everything for Saki, but in return Saki was afraid of Mika? ¡°Well, why did you die¡­ yourself?¡± ¡°Partly because I really wanted to see my brothers, but also because if I died, Saki, who was still very young, would be taken in by wealthy parents and raised there.¡± Oh, that was not what I was expecting. I thought that she abandoned Saki to die for more selfish reasons, but she didn¡¯t look like a bad guy. On the contrary, wasn¡¯t she an absurdly nice person? ¡°What? But weren¡¯t your parents against taking Saki in?¡± I found out about it when I was at Mika¡¯s house checking things out. ¡°I was there when it happened. If they knew there was no one to bring her up, they wouldn¡¯t be so cruel as to abandon her. Besides, they wouldn¡¯t have to struggle financially.¡± ¡°Your parents must be very wealthy.¡± ¡°That¡¯s why I said that if you had left Saki, everything would have been fine.¡± ¡°I see.¡± So I saw, Mika loved Saki so much that she was willing to give up her own life for her. As a result, it all backfired and she got scared¡­ ¡°Oh.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± ¡°You¡¯re not very affectionate¡­¡± ¡°Shut up!¡± CH 31 Of course! I grabbed one of the cookies on the table and tried to eat it. ¡°Whoa, that¡¯s good.¡± I was worried about not knowing the ingredients, but I was sure there¡¯s nothing too strange in the cookies, because the God prepared them. In front of me, Mika was drinking a cup of tea, a little depressed, as if she was aware that she was not good at expressing affection. But we looked the same, so it was as if we were talking to ourselves, which was strange. ¡°Oh, by the way, Mika, you don¡¯t call your parents mum and dad.¡± ¡°Shut up! It¡¯s just that when I called him ¡®Dad¡¯ in the past, he gave me a very, very sad look.¡± I was pissed. ¡°Gosh¡­¡± Mika, who was sitting in front of me, suddenly stood up with a serious expression on his face and bowed towards me. ¡°Huh? What? What¡¯s wrong with you all of a sudden?¡± Her momentum is so strong that I also rushed to stand up. ¡°I¡¯m sorry I said earlier that things would have been better if you hadn¡¯t been there.¡± ¡°What? Oh¡­ yes.¡± ¡°And thank you so much for letting me live with you and Saki.¡± ¡°It just happened.¡± ¡°But I¡¯m glad she likes me enough to look at me and say ¡®play¡¯.¡± ¡°¡­She still won¡¯t come near me when we¡¯re asleep in our room.¡± ¡°It¡¯s only a matter of time.¡± ¡°Is it?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Saki only came and slept with me when I said ¡®come here¡¯ or when she was tired of playing and had fallen asleep. She had never even asked me to hold her before. But I didn¡¯t want to force her, so I was waiting for her to ask me to sleep with her. ¡°I brought them here.¡± When Mika and I had finished talking, the God came back. There were two people behind me, a man and a woman I didn¡¯t know, but I felt like I knew them. (Oh, she looks like Saki.) They both had dark hair and the man had short hair, but fringes that covered his forehead. The woman¡¯s hair was puffy, but long, with hair down to her chest. ¡°Hello.¡± They greeted me with a smile and I replied. ¡°Hello.¡± ¡°I am Saki¡¯s father, Nonogami Itsuki.¡± ¡°I¡¯m Nonogami Midori, her mother.¡± ¡°Um¡­¡± He introduced himself and I wanted to do the same, but I didn¡¯t know what to say because I didn¡¯t know my name from my previous life and the real Mika was right in front of me. ¡°Oh, don¡¯t worry. We know from God that you don¡¯t have a name. Thank you for taking care of Saki in such difficult circumstances.¡± ¡°I¡¯m very grateful to you.¡± Well, it¡¯s weird to have two twins in this room. (Oh, and she looks exactly like Mika.) I looked at the God to see if I could at least say the name of my previous life, but he said ¡°You don¡¯t need your old name anymore.¡± He said that the body I had when he was a man was already gone, and when I met my friends, I would get to know them as Mika, so I could build a new relationship with them. (That¡¯s why it was a blur when I tried to remember the faces of my colleagues in my previous life. I knew it was God¡¯s work.) ¡°Why don¡¯t you all sit down for now?¡± At the God¡¯s word, we all sat down on the cloud chairs. Come to think of it, we had been standing and talking for a while now. On the other side of the chair, from the first left, the God, Mika, Itsuki and Midori were sitting in that order. ¡°We wanted to thank you for living with Saki.¡± ¡°No, not at all¡­¡± ¡°We¡¯ve been watching your life from heaven. Thank you so much for being so kind to Saki.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve scolded her for leaving her and coming here on her own, so please forgive her.¡± ¡°¡­Because I really, really wanted to see my brother.¡± Forgive me, but I understood that Mika was thinking of Saki, so I was not angry anymore. I¡¯d be more surprised if there was a heaven and they were peeking in on our lives from there. ¡°She¡¯s like family to me, Saki.¡± ¡°I¡¯m so relieved to hear you say that. I know I can trust you with her.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. Take good care of Saki.¡± ¡°You¡¯re always so good-natured, aren¡¯t you? Thank you.¡± Itsuki, Midori and Mika were all thankful, but for me Saki was family and I wanted to make her happy. After this, I talked with the Nonogami¡¯s about many things, but mostly about Saki. I also found out that Itsuki was 32 and Midori was 26. ¡°Huh? But if they live in heaven, won¡¯t Itsuki and Midori be reincarnated?¡± ¡°No, we won¡¯t be reincarnated. But in the future, when Saki passes away, she will be able to see us if she wants to. And when that happens, we¡¯ll talk about it.¡± I didn¡¯t know how I was going to raise her, but I was sure God would do a lot for me. And I didn¡¯t want to think about the future when Saki would be dead. For me, it was the present with her that counted. ¡°Well, that¡¯s enough of that.¡± After saying goodbye to the Nonogami family, a word from the God brung me back to reality. The silence of the park, where I had talked to Yuki, made the events that passed seem like a dream. I looked at the clock on my phone and saw that it hadn¡¯t even been an hour since the real Mika had appeared. ¡°Let¡¯s go home.¡± When I walked back to my flat, Saki was playing with a mini-puzzle that Chinatsu seemed to have. (That apron pocket really does hold everything.) ¡°Hello. How did it go?¡± ¡°I¡¯m back. Yuki is safe and sound. Thank you, Chinatsu, for looking after Saki.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t mind. Well, I¡¯ll be going home soon.¡± ¡°Yes, thank you very much for today.¡± ¡°If you want to thank me, you can teach me how to cook next time. And I gave the puzzle to Saki so she can play with it. Bye.¡± ¡°Goodbye.¡± Saki was concentrating on her puzzle, not even noticing that Chinatsu had left the room. When you looked at it, it seemed to look like that you just had to fit the pieces together, which was very different from the picture on the package. But her face looked like she was having a lot of fun. ¡°Saki, are you enjoying the puzzle?¡± ¡°It¡¯s fun!¡± ¡°That¡¯s good.¡± ¡°Where¡¯s Chin-chin?¡± ¡°Chinatsu¡¯s gone.¡± ¡°Where¡¯s Sofu-chou?¡± ¡°Yuki has left too.¡± Saki looked around the room, made sure no one was there, and then looked at me. ¡°Can I sweep with yuu? (Can I sleep with you today?)¡± (Are you feeling lonely after being so busy just now?) When I was sleeping, Saki looked at me a little like she was peeking at me, as if she wasn¡¯t sure if she should come closer to me, but there was only one answer. ¡°Of course!¡± I told her with the best smile I could muster, and Saki got the same look on her face. ¡°Let¡¯s go to sleep together.¡± ¡°Ai!¡± It had been a difficult day, but Saki¡¯s smile made it all worth it. She was such a healing angel. CH 32 I''m Sorry On Sunday, Saki and I were surprised to see a long, white car parked in front of our flat. ¡°Wow¡­¡± ¡°Whaa. (Wow)¡± A luxury limousine pulled up in front of a ramshackle apartment building, the doors opened and out stepped a woman with short brown hair and a grey pantsuit. ¡°Hello. My name is Sumire Akikawa and I¡¯m the secretary of the company. Mika-sama, Saki-sama, please get in.¡± ¡°Um¡­¡± ¡°Ai!¡± I wasn¡¯t sure if she was used to taking taxis or if she thought limousines were different, but I thought she was more interested. She even walked to the car before I did. ¡°Amazing!¡± When I entered the car, I saw a luxury ivory sofa stretching long to the front on the left-hand side, with another seat for two in the back. ¡°Juju?¡± ¡°We also have juice. Would you like an orange, Miss Saki?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± Saki asked if there was juice? She asked, probably because she saw champagne glasses and wine glasses on the black table in front of where she sat. ¡°Would you like a orange as well, Mika-sama? You can have alcohol after you¡¯ve spoken to the boss.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t drink alcohol, so juice is fine.¡± ¡°Yes, ma¡¯am.¡± ¡°Why are you calling me ¡®ma¡¯am¡¯?¡± It had been bothering me ever since, but Sumire was probably older than me, and I didn¡¯t live my life to be call me that. ¡°Even though you¡¯re a foster child, Mika-sama is the daughter of the president. Saki-sama is my blood relative and I don¡¯t want to be disrespectful to either of you.¡± I felt like I had been the meaning of life. ¡°I spoke to the Nonogami family a while ago and they told Mika, ¡®You can spend your savings as you like. We¡¯re not going to use it anymore.''¡± Even Itsuki didn¡¯t say I was the president¡¯s daughter, and Midori didn¡¯t tell me about that either. (Tell me!) I had heard that her family was wealthy, but I had no idea that Mika was the daughter of the president. Still, it would be nice to be told these important things in advance. ¡°But I had heard from your friend that you had left your parents¡¯ home, and I was surprised that you came back. The boss was very happy that you came to his company for an interview.¡± ¡°O, oh, really¡­?¡± Huh? An interview? ¡­Oh, that¡¯s right! The company that was hiring me now was Nonogami Corporation! And most of the brand name clothes in Mika¡¯s house were from there! (You should have known better, me!) Even if you put aside family relations, if the CEO¡¯s daughter came to the interview, you couldn¡¯t afford to lose her, and she would probably get the call centre job. ¡°I¡¯ve been working here since I graduated from high school, and since the boss was so stubborn, his wife used to ask me to send Mika some of our clothes, so I feel like a sister to you.¡± I heard that Sumire was only 26 years old. She left her parents¡¯ house when she was 17 years old, in her second year of high school, and since that time she had been taking care of me behind my back. I couldn¡¯t sleep with that thought¡­ Not that I ever was, to be honest. ¡°Go? (Where are you going?¡± ¡°To Saki-sama¡¯s grandfather and grandmother¡¯s.¡± ¡°Grandma, grandpa?¡± ¡°Yes. We¡¯re on my way to their villa in Karuizawa.¡± ¡°Karu?¡± ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right. Your grandparents live in Daikanyama, but his wife thought it would be more relaxing for us to meet in a place with lots of nature.¡± ¡°Saki, relax.¡± Our little angel had announced that she was going to relax, but I didn¡¯t think she knew what it meant, I think she was just saying it because the words were kind of funny. ¡°We¡¯re here.¡± It took two and a half hours from Tokyo to Karuizawa. Sumire led us to the villa, which had a wooden deck big enough for a barbecue, and the house was very stylish with its wooden exterior. On the veranda there was a white round table and chairs on the lawn, a slippery slope and a swing for small children to play on. ¡°Grandpa? Grandma?¡± Saki saw them sitting on chairs at a round table, having tea, and ran up to them, calling out. Maybe Sumire told her about them and she was looking forward to meeting her own grandparents. And when they saw Saki approaching, they both started to cry. ¡°Oh¡­ the child left by Itsuki and Midori. Yes, I¡¯m your grandfather.¡± ¡°I¡¯m your grandmother¡­¡± The two people crying with emotion were apparently in their sixties, but it was frightening that they still looked like they were in their late thirties or forties. Saki was carried by the woman and the man approached me. ¡°¡­It¡¯s been a long time. Thank you for coming.¡± They were also Mika¡¯s foster parents, her father¡¯s name was Nonogami Daiki and her mother¡¯s name was Hyuga Hinata. ¡°I¡¯m sorry¡­¡± Seeing Daiki¡¯s tears, I said my apologies. ¡°Oh, you¡¯re crying too¡­ I¡¯m sorry¡­ I¡¯m sorry. It¡¯s been a long time. Don¡¯t cover your face, let me have a good look at you.¡± ¡°You know, you¡¯re a girl too. You don¡¯t need to hide your tears.¡± ¡°Yeah, I know¡­ Sorry.¡± No, I was just too sorry that I wasn¡¯t the real Mika in front of them. I was really, really sorry. CH 33 ¡°It¡¯s hot¡­¡± The sun was shining brightly and the temperature was high day and night. I was currently working as a model in the company¡¯s photo studio. The photographer was Sumire, who had become my personal secretary. ¡°We don¡¯t have any employees coming into the office these days, and we¡¯re trying to save electricity to cut costs. We¡¯ve just turned on the air conditioning, so it should be cooler soon.¡± ¡°Thank you. How¡¯s it coming along?¡± ¡°It¡¯s pretty good. This camisole has a pretty flower pattern, but it¡¯s also very flattering because it¡¯s transparent around the belly. If you put it on the website, it will sell.¡± ¡°What¡¯s underneath?¡± ¡°It looks like ordinary hot trousers, but it¡¯s made of a cool material, so I think it¡¯ll be popular in summer. I¡¯d like to have one myself.¡± ¡°I see. I hope it sells.¡± The day I met Saki¡¯s grandparents, Daiki and Hinata, they apologised profusely. Apparently, Mika was taken in as a foster child to replace Itsuki, who had refused to take over as president at a young age. However, it seemed that she was unable to endure so much of the gifted education and was on the verge of a mental breakdown. And Itsuki, who was worried about this, sent Mika away from her parents¡¯ house. At first, Daiki was upset that Mika would leave without permission, but as time went on, he realized that he had put too much pressure on her and regretted it. And I they very apologetic. But now they were good grandparents and were spoiling Saki. ¡°The shoot is over.¡± ¡°Good night, Violet.¡± ¡°Good work.¡± ¡°Well, I¡¯m going home. I¡¯m going to buy these clothes, so I can wear them as I go, okay?¡± ¡°Yes. Yes, you can. Are you picking me up?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°You really cares about Saki, don¡¯t you? You even made some changes in the company.¡± ¡°Haha.¡± ¡°But the employees also thanked you for helping them understand the value of their wives and husbands. Sales are going well, and the new president is very popular.¡± ¡°Well, I hope so. Bye, Violet.¡± ¡°Have a good day.¡± (I said I¡¯d be able to pick her up at noon, but it¡¯s way past that time.) I left the office and took a taxi to Saki¡¯s nursery school. When I opened the gate and went inside, Chinatsu came running up to me. ¡°Mika, what are you wearing? That¡¯s too much for your parents!¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I had a bit of a shoot today.¡± ¡°New clothes? You should at least wear a shirt or something.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t get the buttons to close.¡± ¡°Gosh, why do I have to feel so defeated with mine¡­¡± ¡°Where¡¯s Saki?¡± ¡°She¡¯s over there playing with Keita.¡± When I looked in the direction Chinatsu pointed, I saw Saki and a boy laughing, not on the swing, but throwing a ball in that direction. (Who¡¯s that guy? Hey, you little brat, stay away from my daughter!) ¡°Mika, what a face you have. Don¡¯t be so possessive or Saki will hate you.¡± ¡°Ugh¡­¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. It was a long time ago when you were a man, so you have to be a good mum.¡± ¡°Yuki, you don¡¯t have children, so don¡¯t come into the school without permission. I¡¯ll report you.¡± ¡°Forgive me if I say I¡¯ve come with Mika to pick up Saki.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t hug me, it¡¯s hot. You black gal!¡± In the end, Yuki found out that I wasn¡¯t the real Mika and I had to explain from scratch. Chinatsu had always felt uncomfortable because she couldn¡¯t understand what we were talking about. So, when I told her that I used to be a man, she accepted it quite easily. By the way, Chinatsu was the daughter of a banker and Yuki was the daughter of a politician. Daiki told me that he and Mika had met each other when they were young. Well, when I told her about it, she didn¡¯t remember either Chinatsu or Yuki. ¡°Hey, let¡¯s go to the beach.¡± ¡°Oh, that¡¯s nice.¡± ¡°Well, Saki¡¯s here, so maybe we can go in the water?¡± ¡°And then the river and the mountains.¡± Yuki had been inviting us to play with her since she broke up with Satoshi. I met him once, and he was very flirtatious, even though he had a fresh appearance like a shoujo manga¡¯s character. It was really weird when Satoshi started hitting on me near Nerima station, but I had a good memory of Yuki, who witnessed the scene nearby, running over and slapping him. Well, that was the reason for the breakup¡­ The only thing she couldn¡¯t forgive was that he had tried to touch Yuki¡¯s best friend Mika, even though they were supposed to have known each other for a long time. ¡°Saki, I¡¯m coming home.¡± ¡°Ma! Hold me!¡± ¡°Come on.¡± When I called her, Saki came up to me and I held her in my arms. ¡°Saki, is there anything you want?¡± ¡°Yes? Something I want?¡± ¡°Can I be selfish?¡± ¡°No, it¡¯s all right. I¡¯ll buy it for you with the money I worked for. What do you want?¡± ¡°Yes, bear!¡± ¡°Huh? Bear?¡± ¡°The big one.¡± I didn¡¯t want to buy a real bear, because it would be difficult and dangerous to keep a big one. As I was thinking about this, Chinatsu told me that she meant a toy. Apparently, she didn¡¯t want a small stuffed bear, but something big enough to hold. ¡°All right. Okay.¡± ¡°Yay!¡± ¡°Saki, what do you want for lunch?¡± ¡°Omuraichu!¡± ¡°Omelette.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll eat it and I¡¯ll swing! (I¡¯ll go on the swing after I eat.)¡± ¡°Right, we¡¯ll go to the park and ride together.¡± I put Saki down on the ground and held her hand. ¡°Where is our home?¡± ¡°Grandma and Grandpa have built a new one. They even have a pink room.¡± ¡°Pink.¡± ¡°We¡¯re going to live in that house from today.¡± ¡°Yes!¡± ¡°Let¡¯s go home.¡± ¡°Ai!¡± [ A/N ¨C Thank you for reading. This is the end of ¡®I Am A TS Reincarnation But I Have A Kid.¡¯ Thank you very much for your kind comments and encouragement. Thank you very much. This is the last time I¡¯ll be doing this, so I¡¯d appreciate it if you¡¯d rate it and buzz it. Thank you also for reporting typos. ]