Chapter 14

And the following day, we would turn thirteen—another step, another day closer to adulthood. Even so, Shizuki was as distant as ever. She still didn’t wear the hair clips the rest of us wore. Would she keep rejecting us, even after our birthday? I didn’t want that…! A wave of helplessness surged inside me, and I squeezed my eyes shut. I had to change things by the next day somehow. But how could I? If we were a normal family, then maybe things would fix themselves without us realizing it, like Minato said. But we weren’t normal. We were a family that had never known normal… As I was about to leave, feeling gloomy—I caught sight of a black car parked near the school gate. Wow… What a big car. Was that someone’s ride? A woman sat in the passenger seat, but I couldn’t make out her face. My gaze unconsciously panned to the back seat. “Huh…? Shizuki?!” I thought I saw Shizuki in the car and dashed out into the schoolyard without thinking, but before I could see if it was her or not, the car sped off in a flash. “Shizuki… That wasn’t you, right…?” Ba-dump, ba-dump… Each beat of my heart sent a dull pain through me. We’d agreed to always tell one of our sisters if we had special plans. I’d never heard Shizuki mention a woman like that before. All the girls here wore the same uniform, and lots of them looked alike from a distance, but…I couldn’t say 100 percent that it wasn’t Shizuki. Because…I didn’t know anything about Shizuki. Lately, I didn’t even know what my big sisters were thinking. “I’m…all alone,” I muttered and looked down. Plip…plip…fwish…fwiiish! “Eeep!” Rain suddenly started pouring like someone had dumped a bucket on me. The air suddenly turned oppressively damp, and I felt it pressing down on me. “Oh no…!” Where was my umbrella? More importantly, I needed to take shelter! I needed to hurry and get home…! FWIIISH! While I dawdled, the rain kept growing heavier, and my heart pounded faster and faster. Everything in front of me, behind me, left and right was chilly and blurred. I couldn’t see a thing. I hated the rain. I was scared. I was so scared! Just as I ran back to the entrance to take cover… “Ah!” Splat! I lost my footing on the wet earth and fell to the ground. The cold rain soaked my brand-new school uniform. Rain pounded down on my shoulders, cheeks, forehead, and hair without mercy. And then to add insult to injury, lightning flickered, and thunder boomed. Flash! Roar! My body trembled from within, like my heart was sinking into a deep darkness. “Help…” The rain grew fiercer, like something had snapped. I managed to crawl back to the school entrance, not even knowing if I was crying anymore. Drenched, I hugged my knees and curled up. I had bad memories of the rain. It had been the same time of year, back when I was in first grade. Like today, the storm hit just as I was on my way home from school. The rain dashed against the ground, and the wind howled, shaking the trees. The sky was dark as dusk, and thunder clapped with a tremendous sound. There might have been a weather alert. Lots of parents came to pick their kids up from school that day; the entrance was jam-packed with a riot of colorful umbrellas, raincoats, and boots. It was like a rainbow had appeared in one spot amid a deluge. No one came to pick me up. Before I knew it, I was standing there alone. Everyone had gone home and left me alone by the gray school entrance. I curled up and trembled in the shadow of a post. An older student who lived at the same facility was supposed to come grab me, but… That one day, they completely forgot about me. No one came to pick me up, no matter how long I waited. Each time lightning flashed, I was so scared, I squeezed my eyes shut. I’d timidly crack my eyes open again and find there was no one in the cold hallway. FWIIISH! There was only the never-ending sound of the rain. It was cold, and my body got more and more chilled. I thought I was going to die there, all alone. No matter how hard things got or how lonely I was, no one was going to come save me. Ever since, I always associated the rain with that same helpless loneliness. “I haven’t changed one bit since then…” My uniform was wet and muddy. I was freezing. At this rate, I might catch a cold, but I didn’t care. After all, no one would worry about me. I was completely alone… I drew up my knees and buried my face in them. Briiing, briiing, briiing… My unfamiliar ringtone broke me free of my gloomy thoughts. My phone was ringing nearby. Vacantly, I looked into my bag and noticed it glow. In the dim entryway, what I saw on the small, faintly lit screen made my eyes widen. Incoming call: home. “Home…?” With shaking fingers, I tapped the answer button. A chorus of voices identical to mine spilled from the speaker. “Mifu? Where are you right now? The rain looks crazy. Are you okay? Oh—” “Hurry up and come home. Do you have an umbrella? Want me to come pick you up?” “Don’t just take the phone from me, Ichika! Mifu, there might be a weather alert. The wind’s really strong, too… Mifu, you there?” “Hello? Mifu, can you hear me? Are you okay by yourself? Can you handle lightning?” I thought the two of them must have been taking turns with the house landline. My older sisters’ voices came through one after another. I pressed the smartphone to my ear and listened closely to them. Before I knew it, I had stopped trembling. Both Ichika and Nitori were worried about me… Right… I had a family waiting at home for me. Roar! Suddenly, a gust of wind blew into the entryway, lashing my wet bangs. Things were different now…so I needed to change, too! Fighting the wind’s volume, I shouted in a cheerful voice with all my might, “I’m… I’ll be okay!” I clutched my smartphone to my chest and raised my face, determined as I pressed the end call button. I wedged my phone in between the textbooks and my backpack to protect it from the rain. Bracing myself on the shoe cubby, I slowly stood. I slipped on my wet shoes and opened the umbrella I’d left at the entrance. My trembling feet managed a step forward. I could walk, barely. I could keep going without falling. One more step. When I left the entryway, the rain pelted my umbrella all at once. It was so scary…! But I wouldn’t let it beat me. Step by step, I planted my feet and went farther, farther, steadily farther… “!” Mustering up all the courage in my body, I dashed out into the rain, headed for home.