Volume 6 Prologue

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Edited by Kashima

♥

I still remember that day very well.

It was the day a new life was born into this world.

It was the day I witnessed the miracle of life and how precious it is.

That said, I wasn’t the one who gave birth, but…

“Onee-chan!”

It was about 15 years ago.

I was still a student at the time, and after receiving a phone call, I rushed all the way from school to the maternity clinic where my sister was hospitalized.

I swung open the hospital room’s door.

“Ara, Ayako.”

My sister, dressed in her hospital gown, was lying on the bed.

The moment she saw me, she tried to sit up, but I hurriedly stopped her.

“Ah, don’t mind me! Just relax, you must be exhausted.”

“Well, if you insist. You’re early by the way.”

“I rushed over after school was over.”

“You didn’t have to come over so fast.”

“Of course I did.”

She had a slightly fatigued look, but she still had her usual gentle smile. Thank goodness. I heard from my mother over the phone that both the mother and child were fine, but seeing her like this made me feel relieved once again.

Miwako Niozaki.

Ayako Katsuragi’s biological sister, in other words, my sister.

After she got married last year, her surname changed from ‘Katsuragi’ to ‘Niozaki.’

She said that she wanted to enjoy her newlywed life with just her husband for a while, but a few months later, she gave birth to a new life.

And today, my sister successfully gave birth.

“…Uwa.”

Right next to the bed.

There was a small bed on wheels for newborns, and in a clear basket-like case—a baby wrapped in white underwear.

Wrinkled face.

Tiny little hands.

Feather-like fluffy hair that swayed every time she moved her face.

A puzzled look in its eyes as it looked around.

A small figure so lovely that it had captured my heart entirely.

“S-So cute~!!”

What’s this?!

It’s super cute!!

Is it okay for such a cute creature to exist in this world?!

“Uwah… Everything’s so small. Cute, this can only be described as cute.”

“Fufu. Calm down a little.”

“Oh right, what’s the gender?”

“A girl, just like the ultrasound said.”

“A girl, huh… Well, she has a really cute face. Oh, don’t you think she has your eyes?”

“All newborns have the same face, you know?” Said my sister with a bitter smile as I was excited.

“Hey, Onee-chan… C-Can I hold her?”

“Go for it. Just make sure to hold her head properly.”

“I-I know that…”

I reach out for her nervously.

I had learned how to hold her properly in advance.

I gently lifted her up, being careful to not let her head fall back. Fortunately, I managed to hold her properly without her crying.

At first—I thought she was light.

The tiny little baby should be really light.

I couldn’t believe that a person this small could be heavy.

But gradually, I realized the weight in my arms.

It’s heavy.

The weight of a single human life.

The life that my sister has been nurturing in her belly for 9 months…

“What’s wrong?”

“…Nothing, it’s just, kind of unbelievable… This baby was inside of you just a few hours ago, right?”

“That’s right. I thought… I was going to die giving birth to her a while ago.”

The exhaustion on her face suddenly became more noticeable.

“So it was hard?”

“You could call it that… It was brutal.”

“Brutal?”

“It was painful, tough, just about everything was brutal… A kind of pain that only those who have experienced it can understand… The labour pains were unbearable and never-ending… At the time, I decided it would be better to cut.”

“C-Cut?!”

“It’s called an Episiotomy… It’s an incision made so that the baby can pass through more easily. I heard that it heals faster if you cut it beforehand rather than forcibly giving birth and tearing it open. But the one thing I didn’t expect… was that they’d do the incision with something scissor-like and without anesthesia…

“S-Sounds horrific…”

“They said that ‘it wouldn’t hurt,’ and sure enough, when they did, I was fine… but the sutures after that hurt a lot… and even now, the stitches hurt like hell…” She said, with a face that looked as if she was dying.

Just thinking about the pain of the wound… I inadvertently got pigeon-toed.

“…B-But look, Niozaki-san took time off from work to be here, didn’t he? It must have been reassuring to have had your husband next to you, right…?”

“I was grateful for that, but… the harsh truth is, having a husband next to you during childbirth doesn’t really do anything. I was dying back there and hearing him talk just made me think ‘You’re talking as if it’s someone else’s problem.’ Even when I asked him for a massage, he missed the places that needed help, and right after I gave birth, he just pointed a camera at me even though I had no makeup and looked like a mess…”

“U-Uwaahh…”

My usually gentle and quiet sister is usually pretty easygoing.

But she’s scary when it comes to childbirth.

It’s not just about happiness.

There’s also a deadly struggle to give birth to a life.

“…But, you know.”

After taking a breather, taking a gentle look at the baby I was holding, she said.

“No matter how painful or agonizing it may be… Once you look at the baby’s face, all you think about is love.”

“Onee-chan…”

The blissful smile on her face also warmed my heart.

Childbirth is a deadly struggle.

It’s not just about happiness.

But—It’s definitely a happy thing.

“Ah, that’s right. What about the name? Did you pick one yet?”

“It’s written there.” She said and pointed at the table in the corner of the hospital room.

There was a paper with her name written with a calligraphy pen.

‘Miu’

“…Miu, right?”

“That’s right. Written as beautiful (美しい) feathers (羽), Miu (美羽).”

“Wow… What a cute name. I see, so you’re Miu-chan, huh? Miu-chan, Miu-chaaan. I’m your auntie, Ayako.”

I looked once again at the baby in my arms—I looked at Miu-chan.

I called out to her, but of course she didn’t respond.

She still had a puzzled face.

“Did you come up with the name, Onee-chan?”

“That’s right. We agreed that if it was a boy, he’d get to choose, but if it was a girl, I’d get to choose.”

“Is there a story behind it? Or a way you want her to grow up?

“More or less.”

“What is it? Tell me, tell me.”

“Fufu. Well, you see—”

With a very happy face, but at the same time with the look of an innocent child that had done something bad, my sister told me the origin of the name she had given to Miu.

And to be honest… It was a bit anticlimactic.

But, I thought that was very much like her.

I thought to myself that if she can think of a child’s name like that, then she’d be a good mother.

I was confident that this baby, Miu, would grow up to be a splendid person.

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And we’re back. I’m doing things a little differently this volume, so let me know what you think about the translation throughout the volume. My goal for now is to do 1,000 words per day on this novel, only skipping out on days where I cannot physically work on it, so hopefully it will be done in a month or so. Also, illustrations coming some time when I’m not lazy, though for once, they only spoil some minor things.