5:30 a.m.
The time when dawn was just beginning to break.
Ruby’s complexion, lying in a hospital bed with an IV drip, was clearly better than when she had first arrived at the emergency room.
Fortunately, all the test results—blood work, lung X-rays, oxygen saturation, and the rest—had come back normal.
She had overexerted herself and put her body under strain after collapsing while her immune system was still not fully recovered, but once the hospital director personally explained that her prognosis was good and that she would recover quickly without any aftereffects, the couple could finally relax.
But even if they could relax, the pain in their hearts still did not go away.
"...Hic, haah... haah..."
"Ai. It’s warm tea. Drink some."
"Mm..."
Kaoru handed his wife a cup of warm green tea.
Ai, whose eyes were red and swollen from crying so much, took the cup her husband offered her and carefully sipped the tea, still sniffling.
Her hands were still trembling around the cup.
Even with the pleasant warmth sliding down her throat, Ai couldn’t stop Ruby’s face from flashing through her mind inside the hospital room.
While Kaoru calmly drove them to the hospital, how shocked she had been holding Ruby in the back seat, her body burning with fever—
Ai felt as if the time that had passed in a blink had all been a dream. She had been that out of her mind.
Tears shimmered again in those starlit eyes.
"..."
"Ai."
"...I’m f-fine. I’m not crying. It’s just... the tears won’t stop..."
Kaoru quietly lifted his arms and pulled her small body close.
"Hic—huhh... hic..."
The wife in her pajamas ended up burying her face in his chest again and sobbing.
Kaoru, too, bit his lip hard as he looked at her feet—one sneaker, one slipper, not even properly put on—and tried to soothe the ache in his chest.
What parent could look at their child being sick and stay calm?
If only, as a parent, he could take the illness onto himself instead...
"Huff! Huff—! Kaoru."
"Shohei."
At that moment, Kaoru looked up and saw Shohei hurrying down the corridor, and greeted him with a nod.
Ai also pulled away from Kaoru’s arms and slowly stood from the chair, following her husband.
The large general hospital run by Shohei’s family, a high school classmate of Kaoru’s: Tokyo Meiju Medical Hospital.
After the wedding, Ai and Shohei met for the first time in front of the private room in the VIP ward and bowed to each other.
"Ms. Ai."
"...Hello."
"I’m really sorry about your daughter. Please don’t worry too much. As the director explained, she’s recovering well. She’ll probably even be discharged today."
"Yes... thank you so much..."
"Not at all. We only did what we were supposed to do. If we don’t do it properly, Kaoru here won’t let me hear the end of it."
"Hah—"
After swallowing her tears and bowing again, Ai heard Shohei wave a hand and joke around.
Kaoru let out a dry laugh at Shohei’s nerve for making jokes in a situation like this and shook his head.
"By the way, where’s your son?"
At Shohei’s question, Kaoru seated his emotionally exhausted wife in a chair and answered.
"I asked my mother-in-law to watch him. Bringing Aqua too... the situation was just too urgent."
"Right... Your son’s unusually mature for his age, so he’ll be fine. He’s not alone, so don’t worry too much."
As Shohei said, Kaoru wasn’t especially worried. Earlier, when he had been speaking with Miyako on the phone and asked to speak to Aqua, who was beside her—
【I’m fine, Dad. Please take good care of Mom and Ruby! Mom must have been really shocked.】
At Aqua’s composed voice, worrying instead about Ai and Ruby, Kaoru could only smile and nod.
The one who calmly woke the couple was Aqua, and the one who had volunteered to stay home with Miyako was also Aqua.
In the middle of that chaotic situation, his son had not lost his center and had responded with astonishing calm. Kaoru found him so admirable it was almost strange.
"Could it be... that the physical changes caused by recovering memories of a past life... are inherited by one’s children too?"
When Kaoru had been twelve and had just recovered his past-life memories, the muscle memory and mindset that had been overlaid on top of his original body had brought about many changes.
If that could also be inherited by his descendants... then maybe Aqua and Ruby would someday recover their past-life memories too...
"No. It’s too early to decide. Besides, the possibility that a supernatural phenomenon like ‘past-life memory’ could manifest genetically... even if I experienced it myself, there’s still not enough evidence."
Kaoru gave a perfunctory nod at Shohei’s words and sat down beside his wife, whose expression was still dark.
Right now, the most important thing was Ruby’s recovery. He decided to set aside every other thought and focus on his wife.
-
"Phew..."
Busy from the early morning handling work, Miyako took a sip from her coffee cup.
How shocked had she been when Ai called suddenly at 4 a.m. and told her that Ruby had developed a high fever and started vomiting, and that they were on their way to the hospital, asking her to look after Aqua?
Even after cleaning Ruby’s room with Aqua, she hadn’t gotten a wink of sleep, and Miyako’s skin felt rough and dry.
She brushed back her messy hair and quietly asked Aqua, who was sitting on the sofa and studying the keychain merchandise in his hand.
"Aqua. Are you hungry?"
"...No. I still have some toast in me. I’m okay."
"All right. If you get hungry, tell me right away, okay?"
"Yes."
Aqua smiled at Miyako and then went back to studying the keychain merchandise.
The small blue eyes gleamed sharply.
While helping Miyako tidy the blankets so she could clean up the vomit, Aqua had found a familiar keychain merchandise beside Ruby’s pillow.
Aqua had a hunch.
"...Right. It’s the keychain I used to carry around."
This keychain was indeed the one that the past [Amamiya Goro] had always kept attached to his name tag.
Several years ago, when Kaoru had gone to Miyazaki Prefecture while Aqua was still an infant.
Remembering Kaoru’s confession to his younger self, Aqua could easily infer that Kaoru had been the one who brought this keychain merchandise back.
And since it had been cleaned but still showed discoloration and stains that couldn’t be removed, that only strengthened the guess that it had originally been Ai’s or Kaoru’s possession.
It was highly unlikely that little Ruby had obtained this nearly ten-year-old merchandise through some other route.
"Why was this with Ruby..."
The problem was why it had been found beside Ruby’s pillow.
Aqua frowned and rubbed his temple.
It felt like a puzzle with one piece out of place, one that he might be able to fit together if he tried...
If Ruby had been carrying this merchandise around all the time, Aqua would have known. Above all, since Ruby’s favorite was Ai, she would definitely have kept it close.
But Aqua was seeing this merchandise for the first time just now. Which meant Ruby had probably only gotten hold of it recently.
Because of its cute, pretty design, it had been popular with girls, and in her past life Sarina had treasured this merchandise more than anything...
"...!"
Aqua’s eyes widened all at once.
The absurd possibility that flashed through his mind began squeezing his heart with heavy thuds.
The sensation was vivid—the hot blood bursting from his heart, wrapping around the back of his neck and rushing up into his head.
If—
It was ridiculous, just a supposition—
But if—
Aqua shook his head.
Ridiculous.
It was nothing but a delusion padded with a futile wish, with not even the slightest possibility and not worth considering.
[Sarina] was already....
And yet he wanted to check.
Aqua clenched his teeth and turned the hidden maybe inside his denial into a [reasonable suspicion].
If he checked and it wasn’t true, then it wasn’t true. If it was true... that was a problem for later.
Aqua stepped down from the sofa and walked briskly into the room.
There had definitely been a secret known only to Ruby, hidden in the process of her sudden crying yesterday and her refusal to say why...
Aqua stopped in front of Ruby’s desk and hesitated, his face full of uncertainty as he thought for a moment.
He already knew Ruby was writing letters to "someone," unless he was an idiot.
He had simply chosen to pretend not to know as an adult, out of respect for her privacy—truthfully, he had had no interest at all in who the letters were addressed to or what they said.
But the situation had changed now.
If the crucial clue that could resolve the [reasonable suspicion] now lodged firmly in Aqua’s mind was inside the letters in this drawer—
Then as a fellow reincarnator, as blood family, and as an adult.
He had no choice but to decide that he needed to read the secret letters of his precious family member, his one and only twin sister, with his own eyes.
After a fierce internal struggle and much hesitation, Aqua swallowed dryly and slowly opened the desk drawer with trembling hands.
The tension was like opening Pandora’s box, fear mixed with the anxiety of an unprecedented future.
Huff— huff— his rough breathing burst through his nose, lips pressed tightly together.
Aqua furrowed his brow gravely and lowered his head, narrowing his eyes to peer inside the drawer.
"There it is."
Several sealed envelopes were packed tightly inside.
Aqua perched on the edge of the chair, bent at the waist, reached his arm into the drawer, grabbed one of the letters, and placed it on the desk.
"..."
Instead of the thrilling, guilty excitement of finally peeking at someone else’s secret—
Aqua forced himself to calm the violently trembling beat of his heart, which was shaking with lingering attachment to his past-life connection and a tiny sliver of hope.
Carefully, he opened what looked like the most recently written letter.
And then Aqua could only doubt his own eyes.
【Teacher. Ta-da! Hehe— I wonder what kind of face the teacher would make if Sarina suddenly popped out here with a surprise.】
The astonishment and shock that swept through his whole body, and... the ecstatic joy and excitement of finally having that tiny hope confirmed.
The relief that surged so powerfully it overturned every other emotion.
The sender of the letter, who had so desperately wanted to know his expression, was not here—but Aqua could feel what his own face must look like without even seeing a mirror.
"Ah... ah... ah... hahahah... kuh— kuhuhh... hic...!"
From Aqua’s blue eyes, tears burst out all at once like a lie.
It was as if he were laughing and crying at the same time. The tears streaming down that pitifully twisted smile were something the young teacher could never wipe away.
【I’ll definitely come see you! The things I couldn’t say during our last time together. I’ll tell them to you all the way to the end. All the way to the end, I promise! （♥＞ω＜♥）】
At handwriting soaked through with affection and longing in every single character, Aqua had no choice but to set the letter down on the desk and cry silently.
Why—why hadn’t he known?
Why hadn’t he realized?
Even though she had been this close.
Blue eyes widened through the tears that kept falling at the realization at last.
The reason she had cried so suddenly yesterday. The reason she, who had waited for him so desperately and written him letters, had been forced to break down like that.
There could only be one reason: she must have learned of [Amamiya Goro]’s death.
"..."
It would be a lie to say he had no lingering attachment to his past-life connection.
And beyond that, there was the miraculous reunion with [Sarina], one of the people who had most profoundly affected [Amamiya Goro]’s life.
He was worried about the unexpected fallout that would come if [Hoshino Aquamarine] told Ruby that he was [Amamiya Goro], but Aqua shook his head and brushed away that fear.
'You idiot. Get a grip. That’s not what matters!'
He was an adult and a doctor. The indecisive [Amamiya Goro], who feared getting hurt, was done with now.
Even if his body was that of a child in kindergarten, his mind was not.
He could not just stand by and watch his precious little sister—
The little sister who was drowning in the agony of despair and loss after someone dear to her had died—
The frail girl who had once struggled, clinging to the [dream] and [wish] she wanted to fulfill before closing her eyes in her past life—suffer again.
Caw— caw—
The cry of a crow came from beyond the veranda. In Aqua’s blue eyes, having made up his mind, a bright [starlight] shimmered up for an instant.
Quickly folding the letter he had been reading and tucking it into his chest, then putting the remaining envelopes back into the drawer, Aqua hurried into the living room.
"Miyako! Let’s go to the hospital where Ruby is right now!"
"Huh!? All of a sudden?!"
Miyako shouted in surprise, but in the end there was nothing she could do.
Anyone would have had no choice but to listen after seeing Aqua’s resolute expression like that.
Miyako let out a long sigh and drank the rest of her coffee in one go.
"Get ready! Let’s go!"
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