Weekday. Early morning.
"Cough! Cough!"
"...37.8 degrees. Ruby has a slight fever. Aqua, thankfully you don’t have one, but you’re not dizzy or anything, right?"
"No. I just have a bit of a cough."
Kaoru nodded at Aqua’s answer and looked at the thermometer with worried eyes. They said summer colds were going around, and in the end, the twins hadn’t escaped them either.
A few days ago, they had eaten together as a family with Rentaro... and then just yesterday, Rentaro had been unable to go to work because of a bad cold.
Kaoru had immediately felt a bad premonition when he heard, and hurriedly made the babies take vitamins and drink warm water before putting them to bed, but it wasn’t enough.
Thankfully, Aqua was fine apart from a slight cough, but Ruby’s condition was worse, with a low fever on top of it.
"...Ugh! This won’t do! Kaoru, I’ll at least—"
"No, Ai. I’ll go. Don’t worry and head out. You said you have a broadcaster interview today, right?"
"Ngh... but... huh..."
"I only have an ad meeting this afternoon, so it’s actually easier on my side. Don’t worry, Ai."
Ai’s face, already full of concern in those starlight eyes, was painted with anxiety and sadness. Seeing the twins, who had never really been sick before, suffering from a cold made her want to be the one in pain instead.
Kneeling by the bedside and stroking Ruby’s hot face, Ai started fidgeting with her fingers as time drew near, looking uneasy.
Watching that, Kaoru reached out and hugged Ai tightly, kissing her cheek as he did his best to soothe her anxiety.
"It’s okay, Ai. I know you’re worried, but you’re their mother. If you waver now, the babies will only get more anxious. I’ll stay right beside them. Don’t worry and go."
"Mm... Kaoru, if anything happens, call me right away! Okay? You got it?"
"Got it. I’ll report every hour—no, every thirty minutes."
Kaoru smiled to calm his wife’s worries. Ruby also quietly opened her eyes, met Ai’s starlight gaze, and gave a small smile.
"Hehe. Mama, Ruby’s okay. I’m used to this."
Compared to the horrible pain that had attacked her every morning and night in her previous life, a cold like this was nothing at all.
Ruby smiled as usual, acting like it was no big deal, in the familiar way she always did for the mother who worried about her.
Whether that smile came from a habit carried over from her past life, simply to keep others from worrying, or from Ruby’s own sincere feelings, even she tried to figure out the reason behind it.
Without even realizing that she had drifted once more into emotions buried in the past.
"......"
However—
Ai’s starlight eyes, which had been quietly fixed on her daughter’s, lost their brightness for a moment and turned cloudy.
Why?
A sorrow and pain too deep to put into words stabbed through her heart like a spike.
Ai, who had been staring at Ruby without saying a word for a moment, then...
"Yes, I’ve decided—☆ Mama’s taking the day off too!"
"Ai!"
With a smile as dazzling as starlight itself, she stroked her lovely daughter’s cheek.
At Ai’s bombshell announcement, not only Kaoru but even Aqua, lying on the opposite bed, jumped in surprise and looked at her.
"Mama... Ruby’s fine. You can go. It’s nothing serious. If I take my medicine, I’ll get better soon—"
Ruby’s eyes shook violently. This couldn’t be happening. If she was sick and ended up blocking her favorite’s schedule, there was nothing more painful than that—
A cold didn’t matter. If it came to this, Mama would stop loving me. Again...
Ruby clenched her teeth and hurriedly pushed herself up from the bed, trying to show that she was fine.
Seeing that, Ai was even more shocked than the family who had heard her announcement. She pressed Ruby back down, covered her with the blanket up to her neck, and said in a firm voice, while her starlight eyes sparkled.
"No! Ruby is sick, so she needs to rest! I’m Ruby’s [mother]. Who else would take care of my sick [daughter] if not her [mother]?"
"......"
Ai’s resolute voice pierced straight through Ruby’s heart and shook her deeply. Ruby looked up at Ai, her face and eyes flushed from the fever, tears gathering in her gaze like mist.
Those words about always staying by her side to care for her and protect her when she was sick were so moving that Ruby almost wanted to throw herself into her arms and cry like a fool.
But she couldn’t make Ai, who was already worried and had even given up her schedule because of her, worry any more.
Still—just one more time, to hear that answer again, Ruby asked in a trembling voice.
"Really... Mama won’t leave Ruby?"
"Mm-hm, I’ll stay by Ruby’s side until you’re all better. If there’s anything you want to eat, tell me everything—☆ Mama and Papa will make it deliciously together!"
"......Hehe. I’m happy..."
Only then did Ruby finally relax and recover her bright smile. The tears that had gathered in her eyes rolled down with a happy smile.
Ai wiped Ruby’s tears away, carefully brushing them off with a gentle, motherly hand and stroking her forehead.
"......"
Aqua’s blue eyes watched the tender scene between mother and daughter with a dizzy, drifting look, as if swimming through the past.
They seemed the same, but they weren’t.
It was only a cold. And the bond of love and attachment between guardian and child was certainly real.
And yet, the prickling pain stabbing at Aqua’s heart still would not subside.
If that child had ever, even at the very end, felt a mother’s unconditional, boundless affection and love...
Then she wouldn’t have died so terribly alone, so lonely, all by herself until the end.
She wouldn’t have closed her eyes while desperately craving love.
The affectionate sight of the two of them kept bringing back precious ties from his past life.
The bitter regret that kept piling up, wave after wave, came crashing in like a tsunami and tormented his mind.
Aqua could only bite his lip helplessly and lower his head.
-
A nearby well-known pediatric general hospital.
Though it was midsummer, the hospital was crowded with children who had caught colds. Summer colds were that widespread.
As expected of a major hospital that had endured twenty years despite the pressure of the so-called high-nosed upper-class mothers living nearby, all reception was handled by reservation.
Of course, just as there are levels even among cold water, reservations were also divided by status.
Even among the high-nosed mothers, there were tiers, but it was also true that there was an out-of-reach class beyond them.
The parents of that so-called higher tier could make a direct reservation with the hospital’s chief director and be seen without going through the usual process.
The high-nosed mothers clustered together, and as Kaoru held Ruby tightly in his arms and told the receptionist the twins’ information, they all buzzed and whispered among themselves.
"Yes, your daughter is... 37.9 degrees. Your son is... 36.8 degrees. The chief director will see them personally. Please have a seat and wait."
"Thank you."
Kaoru took the masked twins and had them wait on the chairs. He had barely managed to stop Ai from following along, and had asked her instead to make egg porridge for the twins.
Ai had flashed her starlight eyes and confidently said to leave it to her, but for some reason Kaoru couldn’t shake his unease.
After waiting a little while, their names were called right away, and Kaoru scooped the twins up in both arms and carried them into the examination room.
The diagnosis, of course, was a cold.
After hearing from the chief director that they would be fine after taking medicine and resting for a few days, Kaoru let out a sigh of relief.
He seated Ruby and Aqua on chairs for a moment and went to the reception desk to get the prescription.
"...Cough, cough."
"......"
Aqua watched Ruby coughing behind her mask with worried eyes, then went to the nearby water dispenser, got some warm water, and handed it to his little sister.
"It’s warm water. You need to protect the lining of your throat, so drink it."
"...Heh. Thanks."
Ruby smiled shyly at Aqua’s delicate care as he looked after her again like a big brother, lowered her mask, took the paper cup, and drank.
Her scratchy, irritated throat felt much better.
"I’m going to the bathroom for a second. Can you tell Dad?"
Ruby nodded and finished the water in the paper cup, then let out a small sigh and turned her gaze elsewhere.
The hospital was really crowded. Every person getting off the elevator widened their eyes in surprise at the number of people waiting.
Kaoru still had five people ahead of him, so there was still a while to wait before he could get the prescription.
She had just thought she’d tell Kaoru she needed the bathroom after drinking the water and was about to get down from the chair and walk over when—
"Tendouji Marina...-ssi? Tendouji Marina...-ssi?"
At the familiar name being called from the reception desk, Ruby jerked her head toward the sound in shock.
Like a meerkat, she whipped her head around and stared at one spot.
Her eyes shook violently.
"M...other?"
If her ears weren’t deceiving her, the name she had just heard was definitely Tendouji Marina.
Her heart thudded so hard it felt like the blood in her whole body might burst through her skin.
Ruby got down from the chair, then climbed back up, and finally stood so she could see over the counter, looking toward reception.
"Yes!"
Ruby’s eyes slid over to a woman in her late thirties, who was quickly walking toward reception.
The little girl’s face twisted strangely, with joy and awkwardness coexisting on it.
A cold ache spread through one corner of her heart. Her mother was listening to the receptionist with a look of concern and affection Ruby had never once seen directed at her, nodding along.
As if she intended not to miss a single word and listen to everything... it made Ruby feel a cold sense of deprivation.
But Ruby tried hard not to acknowledge that feeling.
Because this meeting with her mother from her past life, this meeting with the bond of blood, was a fated encounter Ruby did not want to let slip away lightly.
The young Ruby looked at her mother with starlight eyes filled not with hurt or disappointment, but with apology and regret.
So you were in Tokyo all this time... Ah. So there’s no reason to go down to Miyazaki Prefecture anymore. Mother, too... you’ve gotten a few more wrinkles. Why are you at a pediatric hospital?
She had so many questions she wanted to ask. So many answers she wanted to hear. But Ruby did not speak them aloud.
If only she remembered me. Even though I was a lacking, ugly daughter who only ever caused pain. I want her to remember me and still...
love me.
However, cruelly enough.
The shadowed smile that seemed almost like a smile did not last long.
A boy who looked to be three or four years older than her, about elementary school age, ran up to her and said brightly, "Mom. Dad came to pick us up! Yume’s coming too!"
"Shoto. Didn’t I tell you not to run? What if your cold gets worse?"
"Hehe. I’m fine. I took my medicine, so I already feel better."
At the boy’s cheerful answer, she smiled back with a warm, sincere smile of [sincerity] and [love] that she had never once shown to the forgotten existence that had been her daughter, and gently stroked her young son’s head.
"Oh my! Even so, no. You two just need to grow up healthy. Don’t get sick. If you grow up healthy, that’s all I could ever ask for."
Ruby’s smile shattered like fragments of broken glass.
Without even realizing that she was right here.
Holding her young son’s hand, Marina passed by in front of her.
Ruby lifted her blurred eyes and looked at her.
Marina never once turned back toward this side, even at Ruby’s gaze, and stood in front of the elevator with her son.
"Haa. Haa—"
Ruby’s lips behind the mask turned pale blue. It was hard to breathe. Was it because of the mask?
Just grow up healthy.
That smile she had never once shown to the not-healthy [Tendouji Sarina].
The love you had so desperately wanted to receive—why were you giving it so easily to another child?
What was I to you, Mother?
Did you love me?
Do you... remember me at all?
Her heart hurt so much that just as Ruby was about to collapse into the chair, clutch her chest, and burst into tears—
"Ruby? Are you okay?"
Dad?
No.
It was too small and fragile a hand to be Kaoru’s. But the ocean-blue eyes, the brilliant golden hair shining like the sun, and the warm, gentle gaze that worried about her and held her close were exactly the same.
The blurred vision—the dizzying heart—the aching chest—
"...Ah."
All of it returned to normal as if it had been a lie.
Aqua’s startled face filled Ruby’s vision. Seeing that expression, the face of someone dear from her memories flashed over it for a moment, overlapping.
Ruby blinked a few times, then, as if all her strength had gone out of her, plopped down on the chair and shrugged as she said, "I’m fine. It’s nothing. Hehe..."
"...Really?"
Even at Aqua’s question, with his eyes narrowed slightly as he asked again, Ruby slowly nodded and leaned back into the chair as if sinking into it.
"Mm... I’m just... a little tired, I guess?"
At Ruby’s voice, sounding exhausted and drained, Aqua let out a long sigh.
He had been startled when she came out of the bathroom and suddenly seemed to fall into a textbook case of hyperventilation and panic.
Thankfully, she was calming herself down, so there was nothing more he could do as a doctor from his past life.
After thinking it over, Aqua quietly climbed onto the chair and sat beside Ruby.
"...I want to go home. I want to play with Mama and... Papa... soon..."
Aqua quietly adjusted his posture so Ruby could rest her head on his shoulder.
He did not try to guess why her voice was tinged with sadness.
And on that very day, late in the afternoon.
Though incidents always happened without warning.
Aqua could only blame himself for not even trying to guess why.
"No—nooooo—!!! Sob—sob! Huaaah! It’s a lie! It’s a lieeee!!! Ughhh— Huaaah!!!"
"W-What?! Ruby!"
"What happened, Ruby? What’s wrong?"
As if she had just heard the news that someone precious had died.
The younger sister, crying out in a terrible scream of grief and pain in her parents’ arms.
This time too.
Aqua could only stand there and watch helplessly.
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