A two-lane road a few blocks away from the main street was busy at this time of day. Not only was this a busy residential road, but it was also often used as a bypass in case of traffic congestion on the main street, so there were quite a number of cars running up and down it every day. If someone left their car parked out on a street like that, it was only natural that they would get reported. It would just get in the way of too many people.
Aya was just doing her rounds in her small patrol car when she received word of the parking violation, so she had to turn around before heading out to where the illegally parked car sat.
She addressed a female officer sitting in the front next to her, who was currently confirming the location on the map, “So, have you figured out which way to go?”
“Yes. Turn to the left over there, then turn right at the end of the street, and we’ll practically be there.”
“Ah, thank goodness. You know, it’s already been a year since our GPS broke, but will someone fix it? Noooo!”
To think that the wave of cost-cutting would hit as far as their backwater little town… Apparently, it was pretty hard to get the funds to buy a new GPS system for a patrol car. Aya uttered a small sigh and shot a quick glance at her coworker’s belly.
“Hehe, look at that baby bump! Aren’t your clothes starting to feel a bit too tight?”
“Yeah, a little bit. Actually, I’ve removed all of the hooks on my skirt. You know, there are these suspenders, but small, so I clip them on where the hooks are supposed to be, and then the skirt does not slide around and it is easier on my stomach,” the woman popped a few buttons of her uniform jacket open to demonstrate.
“Five months, huh? Don’t push yourself too hard, okay, Mia?” Aya chuckled.
The female police officer nodded. It was Mia Oonari, only looking a few years older.
Maybe it had been the influence of the now-disbanded Champions of Justice, the Crow Rangers that had inspired Mia to become an officer of the law. Maybe it had been the “new path” that she had been looking for ever since that fateful day. Either way, after graduating high school, Mia had become a policewoman. She had been assigned to the Traffic Division, the same as Aya, where she displayed her characteristic sense of justice while throwing herself into her new job with impressive zeal. With her optimistic and cheerful nature, she had fit in at her workplace in virtually no time, and everyone adored her, including her seniors.
Then, when she had turned twenty, she had married Ren, who was twenty-nine at the time. Ren making his dreams come true by getting promoted to detective was probably one of the big contributing factors to that decision. He was going to get much busier and have a lot less vacation days, so it was a logical step for the two of them to get married when they always had to fight for those precious few minutes spent in each other’s company. They loved every precious moment they had together now that they shared a home.
And now, two years later, a new life was budding inside Mia. She was at the five-month mark at the moment. As for the gender, the doctor’s answer was a vague, “I think it’s going to be a girl, probably.” Well, as long as they arrived hale and healthy, it didn’t really matter, Mia would welcome them whether her baby turned out to be a boy or a girl.
She had actually wanted to continue working until it was almost time for her to give birth, but her husband, who was supposed to be the laid-back one out of the two of them, wasn’t taking any risks when it came to her well-being. He talked her ear off until she had agreed to quit her job starting next month. She had been considering taking a maternity leave, but her husband had begged her to just focus on her health and raising their child, so she decided to take the plunge and leave the force.
Well, it’s not as if him fretting over my safety like a madman is something that began yesterday, Mia giggled to herself, remembering the past.
“Oh, right, it might be a little too early, but your morning sickness has faded quite a bit, hasn’t it? So, we’ve been thinking that we should all gather and have a meal together sometime. It’ll double as your baby shower, too!” Aya announced with a big smile on her lips.
“Aw, that is so nice!” Mia returned the smile after scratching her head shyly.
“I see you and Subaru almost every day, but it’s been at least six months since I’ve last heard from Shou or Misaki. It’s probably because they left before I received the good news.”
“Yeah. But don’t worry, you aren’t missing anything. When you’re young, every time you meet up with your friends after a while apart, you think ‘wow, they’ve changed!’ But people their age, well, they don’t really change all that much anymore,” Aya giggled, making a sharp turn.
They must be getting close to where they needed to be.
Misaki had gotten promoted in recognition of his impeccable work ethics and was dispatched to work in a prefectural police department. It wasn’t as if his primary concern in life was the advancement of his career, but he did put in hard work, so both his work situation and his standard of living were improving in leaps and bounds.
Sayoko, who was now his wife, had moved to live with him immediately after their wedding. At the time, Mia, Aya, and Sayoko often used to meet up for a stroll around the town, some tea at a café, or to do some shopping. After Sayoko’s first child had been born, she had had no time to go out with them anymore, but Mia and Aya still managed to regularly scrape together some free time to go to Misaki’s to see her in person. Misaki was so busy with work they barely saw him anymore, but they were a regular presence in Sayoko’s and her baby’s life. Mia hoped that when she had her child, he or she would grow up to be great friends with Sayoko’s children.
Then there was Shou, who had also advanced to work in the prefectural police department. How he managed to pull that off is somewhat of an enigma. He was neither as passionate about his job as Misaki, nor had he booked any outstanding achievements.
“I’ve gotten assigned to prefectural police, toodles, guys!” he had uttered airily one day with his hand wrapped around a stunning beauty of a woman with a bright blush coloring her cheeks as he whispered words into her ear, and the next moment, he had been gone from his old police station.
Misaki, who had once again become Shou’s coworker, mentioned that he was now apparently in forensics and dating the chief’s daughter who happened to be the same woman Mia saw that day in the police station. His career path up until that point was also shrouded in mystery, so how he had managed to go from a regular police officer to a lab guy was anybody’s guess. Although everyone thought it might have to do with the shy chief’s daughter who was always fidgeting around Shou with a deep blush on her face.
The one thing everyone could agree on about Shou was the certainty that he hadn’t changed at all. He was as happy-go-lucky as ever, loved dirty jokes, and could be a bit, or rather, quite mean. According to the rumor mill, he was pretty hot stuff and he may have found his opposite in love fetishes with the chief’s daughter. Not that Mia really understood what that meant.
“Oh, he’s being ooh’d and ahh’d over like a celebrity all right. I have no idea what they see in that perverted sadist,” Aya, who had a lot of acquaintances in the prefectural Traffic Division had said once, rolling her eyes.
Eventually, the car stopped, indicating they had arrived at their destination. Mia wasted no time in getting right to her job; while jotting down the license plate number of the illegally parked car, she subconsciously found her eyes drifting up to steal a brief glance at the sky.
…Once, just for a short while, I sure used to fly a lot. I should probably pick this habit up again. Yeah! Taking Ren for a midair date seems like a fun idea. He’s such a worrywart though. I’m sure he will go all, “At least save it for after you’ve made it through childbirth safely, okay?” Mia mused to herself and chuckled.
Mia almost never used magic anymore. It came in handy in some situations, so she still resorted to it from time to time, but choosing flight over walking, or casting flashy spells didn’t happen anymore. She had no use for it now.
She wasn’t completely sure what she was going to do when her baby came though. After all, until now, the sorcerers had always passed their magic on from parent to child. Did she have the right to put a stop to this tradition in her generation? However, she knew very well she should under no circumstances teach her child that great magical art of darkness. …But then she inevitably ended up thinking that there was no meaning in teaching the child ordinary magic if she didn’t teach them “Miangia”. Mia was just the tiniest bit conflicted on the matter.