Chapter 19

16 We Four Sisters “All done, Shizu.” The purple hair clip rested gently on top of her black hair. Yep, it looked even better than I thought it would! I beamed at Shizuki in the mirror. Her hair tied half up, she slowly blinked again and again. “This hides the back of your neck and looks elegant and chic. It’s perfect for you, Shizu!” Nitori kept nodding, pleased with herself. “She really is cute.” Ichika hugged Shizuki’s shoulders and rubbed their cheeks together. “Super cute!” I hugged her from behind, and Shizuki gave a strange yelp and hid her face with both hands. The three of us older sisters laughed and took turns patting Shizuki’s head. Then we moved to the living room, snapped a picture of the four of us, and sent it off to Mr. Fujiyama. We’d successfully completed our independence mission: to wear matching items as a foursome. We settled onto the floor cushions and sighed in relief. “Who do you think that woman really was anyway? You seriously met up with her, Shizuki? By yourself? Where? How many times?” As Ichika shot question after question at her, Shizuki answered quicker than ever before. “Sh-she approached me on my way home from school, then drove me to a coffee shop, and we talked maybe twice…” “You shouldn’t go off with strangers. What if she’d kidnapped you?” “I’m sorry…but she looked just like us…” Shizuki’s shoulders drooped sadly. I remembered Urara’s face. She really did seem like a grown-up version of us, which made it hard to believe she wasn’t related to us somehow… …and it wasn’t just her face. “We can do a DNA test if you need proof.” The confidence in her voice had to mean something. “Is she really…our mom?” I asked. If she was, should we really have chased her off like that…? “Even…even assuming she is our real mother…” “Real mom or not, tryin’ to tear us apart makes her the bad guy. Even if that lady’s our birth mother, she’s not our mom!” Where Ichika hesitated, Nitori came out and said it straight. “I hate that old hag! What does she mean, ‘situation’? Helping ‘the one who’s most in need.’ Yeah, right!” Nitori clenched her fists, glaring with narrow eyes. “She probably asked people from the facility or school about us and snooped. Then she figured Shizu was the only one without a hair clip, so she would be the saddest and be easy to manipulate. Too bad! Shizu’s not some poor, helpless kid!” Brightening up in an instant, Nitori tightly hugged Shizuki and rubbed their cheeks together. “Fweeeh?!” Shizuki’s cheeks turned bright red as she grew flustered. Oh… Come to think of it, Minato had texted me about a woman who “kind of looked like me” asking about quadruplets. That must have been Urara. “Well…she could be bluffing about the DNA testing,” Ichika said, but she looked worried. “Hey, Shizuki, what do you think?” I’d started to feel anxious, too, and wanted Shizuki’s opinion. She might have picked up on something when she was talking with Urara one-on-one. “Um… Er… Well…” Shizuki went silent and looked down. There was a piercing glint in her eyes that hadn’t been there before. After a few seconds, she calmly looked back up. “I wasn’t thinking straight, either… That woman’s claims were illogical. Judging by her appearance alone, you can tell she comes from an affluent background. Even when it was just the two of us, a massive limo came to pick us up. She paid at the coffee shop with a black card. Even though she’s more than financially capable, she’s decided to take in only one of her biological children… Blood relation aside, I don’t think she has what it takes to be a parent.” We froze, our mouths wide-open. We were amazed to hear Shizuki, who was usually so quiet, speak so persuasively. After a little while, Ichika blinked several times and muttered: “Are you…a detective?” Shizuki hung her head shyly. “I like mystery novels… I didn’t like being at the facility or at school, so I spent a lot of time in the library.” Or so she said. That reminded me, when the letter from our mom came, Shizuki was the first to notice it had been put directly in the mailbox. Shizuki might be a genius! It made me happy to learn something unexpected about her. “That’s amazing, Shizuki! By the way…what’s a black card?” When I asked, Nitori smirked next to me and answered: “It’s just a black card.” “Huh, so it’s exactly what it sounds like.” “Just kidding. I think it’s a credit card only super-rich people have. I’m not sure, though.” Super rich… Like Shizuki had before, I also found myself thinking hard. Who…was Urara? Was she our real mom? If she was, why would she insist on taking only one of us? I squeezed the pale-blue heart-shaped pendant my mother had left me. She’d said she’d be back again soon… Maybe next time, we’d really be separated— “Shizuki, was there anything else you noticed?” Ichika asked, flustered. “Let’s see… Hang on a moment.” Shizuki brought back a large, white handkerchief from her room. “She gave me this. Yesterday, my bag got wet in the rain…and I happened to forget to bring my handkerchief to school… So she said, ‘I’ll give you this one.’ But…this handkerchief probably won’t provide any clues…” Shizuki’s shoulders sagged. “Can I see it?” I casually unfolded the handkerchief. It was a shiny, expensive-looking fabric, edged with lace— “Hmm?” There was some cute embroidery on the edges: pink, red, light blue, purple. A four-leaf clover with four different-colored leaves. So cute! It was the same colors the four of us liked. Huh…? But this logo… I thought I’d seen it before… Grooowl! “Whoa…!” Out of nowhere, my stomach growled like I was in a comic book. Everyone laughed at my bright-red face. Then Ichika clapped loudly, trying to brighten the mood. “All right, breakfast time. We’ll do our chores, then go buy some cake this afternoon.” “Cake?!” I looked up quickly. “Hey, Shizu, what kind of cake do you want?” “What…?” Shizuki opened her eyes wide and went quiet when Nitori asked. “Yeah. Today, I was thinking of buying your favorite cake, Shizuki. How does that sound?” Ichika took out the pamphlet from the cake shop and spread it open on the desk. There were pictures of lots of tasty-looking cakes: strawberry, fruitcake, chocolate, cheesecake. “Is that really…okay? It isn’t just my birthday.” Shizuki turned her head down, and Nitori patted her on the back. “It’s fine. This year, we’ll have your favorite cake. Next year, Mifu’s. The year after, mine, and the year after that, we’ll have Ichika’s favorite cake.” “I like that idea!” I was excited already. “And once we finish, we’ll loop back around and start with Shizuki again. Then it can be me, then Nitori, then Ichika.” “We’ll always be family, won’t we?” Shizuki said, realizing the obvious for the first time. “Yep!” “That’s right.” “Always.” We all smiled at her. It was clear as day, but it was still an amazing thing. Family stayed together. No matter how much time passed or what happened, we would always be family. “I…” Shizuki stopped to think. “I think I’ll go with the fruitcake.” She spoke so everyone could hear her. The reserved Shizuki who’d always said, “I’m fine with anything,” or “Either is fine,” was no more. I was so glad, I squeezed Shizuki’s hand firmly. Nitori smiled with satisfaction and hopped up. “All right! Tonight, we party together!” “A party?! All right!” As I stood, I threw my arms up in a big cheer. Bam! “Eek!” “Whoa!” “Ack!” One of the big balloons burst as I hit it with my nail! Everyone shrugged. A moment later, we slowly lifted our heads to see…