4 We’re the Same, but Different Two hours later… “Phew…” We’d finally finished unpacking. I flopped down in my room and looked up at the wood-grain ceiling. It was interesting to think about… We were sisters but had totally different amounts of stuff. Ichika had four boxes. I had four, too. Shizuki had just one box. And Nitori’s things filled twelve whole boxes! Why was there such a gap? We’d only just met, but I was already starting to see our unique personalities shine through. We were quadruplets sharing the same genes, with the same face, but when I thought about it, our personalities weren’t alike at all. “…We’re the same, but different, I guess.” The more time passed, the more curious I got about my sisters. What other differences would we discover? I stood up and headed downstairs. “Ah… I’m starving.” When I heard that, I peeked into the living room and saw Nitori sprawled on the floor. It was no wonder she was tired after unpacking twelve whole boxes. She noticed me, stretched with an “oof,” and rolled over. “Oh! Let’s order delivery. What do you want, Mifu? I’ll get tempura soba.” “Huh?!” I gasped, startled. I had never ordered soba for delivery before, but it sounded pricey…! I blinked in silence, and Ichika, who’d been cleaning the kitchen, came over and folded her arms with an exasperated look. “Are you kidding? There’s no way we’re ordering delivery. We’ll cook for ourselves. We’ll buy the ingredients at the supermarket.” “What?! We’re cooking?” This time, it was Nitori’s turn to blink in shock. We invited Shizuki, too, and the four of us left the house, headed for the store nearby. “What’s on our menu, then?” “Let’s see. Cooking rice takes time… How about kitsune udon? And rolled omelettes made with dashi.” “You can make those, Ichika?!” I shouted. The only time I ever made food was during cooking class at school. I remembered struggling with a kitchen knife; I wasn’t very good. “My foster parents taught me.” Foster parents…! That meant she grew up in a normal home, not a children’s home like me! Unfazed by my shock, Nitori just said, “Huh,” and kept the conversation going like it was nothing. “You lived with foster parents? What was that like?” “Hmm… Two or three kids stayed in the same house, so we all took turns doing chores…” “Wow, that’s amazing!” I could hardly believe it. I’d assumed everyone else had grown up in facilities like me. Ichika had lived in a foster home and managed chores; she was becoming even more dependable in my eyes.
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“I’ve got high hopes for this meal.” Nitori linked arms with Ichika and giggled. “I can only make basic stuff.” Ichika gave a shy smile. “Were you in a facility, Nitori?” she asked, and Nitori replied with a light shake of her head. “Nope, I wasn’t. At first, I lived in a facility in the Kanto region, but when I was four, I was adopted by the Ikeyas in Osaka.” “Adopted?” “Sure was. Until not long ago, my name was Nitori Ikeya, not Nitori Miyabi. On paper, I was my mom and dad’s real kid. Of course, things are different now.” Sh-she was their real child, officially?! She had a family…unlike me. They may not have been related by blood, but she had a mom and dad…! I went silent, even more stunned than before. Then Nitori joked cheerfully as ever, “Sure, I’ve made my grand Kanto return, but I dunno if I can shake my Kansai accent at this point. You know what they say, the soul of a child at age three is the same at a hundred. Or was it four? There’s four of us, so maybe we’ll go with four.” When we were unpacking, Nitori had twelve boxes. I was sure those boxes were filled with clothes, toys, and comics that her adopted family had bought for her. She must have been very loved…like a real daughter. And yet… “You finally got adopted…and had a mom and dad. And now you’re stuck living with us… Are you really okay with that?” I asked timidly. Nitori’s face immediately darkened. Her lips were pursed, and her brow furrowed deeply. Wait…did I just make her mad? But she snapped right back to her usual jokey self, grinning and bursting with even more energy. “Duh-doy, I’m okay with it! We’re quadruplets, right? It’s gonna be interesting for sure. I even texted them, ‘Thanks for everything, Ma and Pa. I’m gonna live with my sisters now!’” “Really? Are you sure you’re not lonely?” Ichika seemed worried. “Not even a bit!” Nitori swung her and Ichika’s joined hands back and forth wildly. Then she stopped and asked mischievously, “Are you sure you’re not lonely, Ichika? You did just leave your foster folks, after all.” “I-I’m not.” After a short pause, Ichika looked ahead sharply. “There’s someone I look up to. They started living alone this spring and became fully independent, so I thought I had to try my best, too. That’s why I decided to participate in this program.” I wonder what kind of person Ichika looks up to. Oh, maybe she—… “What? Who’s this person? Spill the beans! Is he your boooyfriend?!” “Shush. It’s not like that. It’s none of your business.” They stopped walking and eyed each other dubiously—but the only thing staring back at them was the exact same face. “Pfft.” Maybe they thought, She’s not intimidating at all or It’s like staring into a mirror. My big sisters burst into laughter at the same time and started walking again like nothing had happened. I was glad they didn’t wind up fighting… I guess looking the same had its perks. I let out a relieved sigh and giggled, too; I couldn’t help but find it funny. “Right, so what about you, Mifu?” Nitori’s attention had turned to me. “Where were you before you came here?” “Oh, um, I always lived in a facility…” “A facility, huh? Did it ever get lonely there?” I looked away from Nitori as she cocked her head curiously. If I was being honest, I’d say…I still felt kind of lonely. This had all happened so suddenly. I’d had to leave the town and home I’d grown up in. I’d had to say good-bye to my school friends, and my kind teacher, too. But… “I…liked the facility. But it was sad being on my own, and I felt so unsure about so much…then I found out I had real sisters—a family—and I was just so happy!” Thinking back to the moment I met the three of them made me feel like my chest was gonna burst. That joy overflowed, spreading to each and every part of my body. “So I’m just so, so happy right now!” I smiled from ear to ear and squeezed Ichika’s hand tightly. “So happy.” “Yeah, same here!” They both smiled back at me. Having a family really was heaven. “Hey, Shizuki? Were you in a facility before?” Ichika turned around and asked Shizuki, who was trailing about a meter behind us. The look in her eyes made her seem lonesome as she watched us holding hands, and she whispered, “I was always in a facility, too,” in a voice so small, it seemed the wind might carry her words away. Then there was silence. “You’re…just like me,” I said, trying to smooth things over, but there was no reply. There was a chill in the spring breeze, and it whooshed around the four of us. Maybe Shizuki was still nervous after all…? The conversation trailed off, and then… “Well, we’re here.” …we arrived at the large supermarket. The automatic doors slid open, and cheerful music poured out. “No splurging, okay? We only get a fixed amount every month.” Ichika gave us a quick flash of the wallet with our money. “Got it!” Nitori gave a peace sign and made a beeline for the candy counter. “Geez…” Ichika picked up a shopping basket with a practiced hand. A basket! Right, you had to carry a basket when you went shopping. I tried imitating her and holding a basket myself. Just doing that made me feel like a grown-up. Shizuki seemed confused by the store, cautiously looking around. Hee-hee-hee, I never knew the supermarket was such a fun place. All right, time to shop! “Ugh…some eggshell got in.” “Sorry, sorry.” “The green onions are only cut halfway. They’re still connected.” “Sooorry…” After we went grocery shopping, the four of us went home and made lunch together. The kitsune udon and rolled omelettes tasted great. But…as I’d feared, everyone except for Ichika, who was in charge of seasoning, failed miserably at cooking, Still, none of it mattered after we all ended up eating together. We decided to take a break after we practically licked our bowls clean, when Nitori suddenly took out four gifts. “Ta-daa!” Each of them was cutely wrapped with pretty wrapping paper and slender ribbons. “What’s this?!” Ichika and I cried out in unison. She sounded startled, while I sounded excited. Even Shizuki’s eyes seemed to widen a little. “Open them!” I gently unwrapped the package that Nitori gave me…and out came a light-blue hair clip. Ichika got a pink one. Nitori’s was red, and Shizuki’s was purple. “We all match! Wow. They’re so cute!” I wasn’t expecting a present at all; it felt like all the glee and excitement were going to spill out of me. “You bought these at the supermarket without us noticing? Geez, when did you…? How much were they?” Ichika shot off a bunch of questions, looking troubled.