The fifth Simulation. The same body, but I'll shine brighter than I did the first time.
I'll surpass it completely—surpass it... in an utterly crushing way!
Yoshiiro Chiose! No—Nagasaki Chiose! Will I win?
I will.
"You'll just stay and live here with me for now."
That phrasing should be fine, Nagasaki Soyo thought.
After all, the most likely outcome is sending her off to a welfare home—mm... that doesn't seem right, though. Her mother had been the one caring for the girl all this time; quietly shipping her away seems rather sinister.
But would her mother really still have a fit body to care for this child going forward? Probably not anymore.
It'll depend on her mood... and if all else fails, she could send her off to be cared for by some subordinate or friend she knew.
After all, Nagasaki Soyo couldn't even take care of herself—how could she possibly take care of a child?
"Mm?"
Chiose stood at the entryway, a little schoolbag on her back, not saying a word.
"What's the matter?"
Nagasaki Soyo, who had already changed into her slippers, turned around and only then noticed Chiose standing in the doorway, not moving an inch.
"Grandma..."
"Your grandmother is in the hospital. Her condition is stable for now, but from now on she won't be able to take care of you." Soyo's heart skipped a beat, but she felt her own state was still passable.
"Grandma."
Nagasaki Chiose just kept repeating the word, head lowered, not daring to look at Soyo.
"I already told you... ugh, I really can't handle kids."
Today's social quota was truly over the limit—I mean the amount of interacting with people outside of work.
Ever since she felt she'd lost the ability to love, Soyo had been deeply averse to pointless socializing.
Even when she went out drinking with old friends, she'd only say a few words now and then.
Honestly, how had she turned into the very kind of person she'd hated most as a child?
"I want Grandma..."
"Alright, alright, you want Grandma. But you should stop thinking about that—think about something else instead."
"I want to go home."
"Huh? Ah... aren't you already home?"
Soyo looked down at the child before her, then cast a glance around the villa she now lived in.
Because she liked to rest quietly and alone, Nagasaki Soyo had chosen to live in such a peaceful area—not too far from her company, not too close—mainly winning out because the residents around here were famously quiet and undisturbing.
"It's not home. I want to go back to Grandma's home."
Chiose blinked her big, watery eyes and pointed toward the doorway.
"Ugh... I already told you, your grandmother can't take care of you anymore. From now on you'll be living with me."
Was telling a child the truth this bluntly a little cruel?
Soyo recalled the day her parents divorced—that was the first time she learned that parents could actually split apart.
After that, she hardly ever saw her father again.
The light inside the room dimmed as the sun shifted, and the irritation in Soyo's heart rose right along with it.
"Come on. Take off your shoes. Let's go inside."
"But, but Grandma, she..."
Chiose was still shaking her head, the rims of her eyes red, like a setting sun teetering on the brink.
"How many times do I have to say it?! Your grandmother is in the hospital now! She can't take care of you anymore! She's not coming back! She's not coming back to take care of you! Can you please stop fussing?"
Soyo, who hadn't been in a good mood to begin with, simply couldn't stand this child anymore.
Her mother was hospitalized, so she was upset too, okay? It wasn't as if this little girl was the only one with the right to cry.
Why was she the only one making such a racket?
"Ngh... I'm sorry..."
Yelled at by Soyo, Chiose fell silent.
She obediently slipped off her shoes and huddled by Soyo's feet, not daring to look up.
"You... ugh."
Feeling she'd lost her composure, Soyo chose to shut her mouth, but her mood was still a tangled mess.
They actually expected her to raise such a troublesome little thing all on her own? What kind of joke was this?
I'll contact the welfare home in a bit... or someone I know. Best if I can be rid of her by tomorrow.
"Chiose, get inside."
Back in high school, my temper wasn't even this bad...
Soyo walked off without looking back. She had to go to her study and get to her work now—there was a huge pile of things stacked up there waiting for her to deal with.
If it weren't for her mother... she wouldn't need to waste time on a child.
She never should have softened her heart and let her mother adopt the girl in the first place.
Watching Nagasaki Soyo's mature back gradually vanish from sight, the tiny Chiose stopped her sniffling.
"Haah..."
Little Soyo, you really are an unqualified mother, aren't you—so fierce.
And yet when I was your mother, I was so gentle.
Once Soyo got busy, she stayed busy until very late.
It was now a quarter past seven. As the setting sun sank behind the mountains, as the noisy blue sky and white clouds outside were stained with the colors of night, Nagasaki Soyo finally stretched and walked out of her second-floor study.
"I wonder how that little thing's doing. She shouldn't have torn my house apart, right?"
What a headache, so annoying...
She'd long since forgotten how to even "love" a friend—let alone a child.
Thinking about it now, if her parents had kept her company a little more when she was small, if her friends had been a little more honest with her, she absolutely wouldn't have ended up living like this...
If only someone had been able to save her back in high school... haah.
Her social energy was utterly lost.
"Come to think of it, I seem to have completely missed that child's kindergarten entrance ceremony—not to mention I was absent for every little event and festival, too."
Though she knew that since she'd been the one to bring the girl home, she had to take responsibility, when it came down to it she truly didn't have the ability to care for a child.
Soyo had even let her own life fall into a total mess—where would she find the mental strength to care for someone else?
Downstairs, no lights were on; the interior was a vast, dim blackness.
"That child didn't even turn on the lights?"
I already told her to treat this place as her own home—why so timid?
"Chiose? Chiose? Where are you? I'm making you dinner."
Even as the lights abruptly came on, Nagasaki Soyo still couldn't find her unfamiliar daughter.
"This child..."
Soyo started searching from the doorway. The villa really wasn't very big.
She had deliberately purchased a townhouse rather than a detached house, precisely because the space she'd once lived in had been too large, leaving her feeling cold and afraid.
A townhouse like this, with its smaller space, was much more comfortable.
Following along the wall to the first-floor cloakroom, Soyo faintly heard sobbing—just like back at her mother's house.
"Chiose, you're in here, aren't you?"
Pressing her ear against the wardrobe door, there was indeed the sound of a little girl crying inside.
Does this child cry this much?
Yet another annoying thing about her.
But it was her own fault too... leaving the child downstairs and going off to busy herself seemed a little... negligent...
Negligent... negligent!
An image suddenly flashed through her mind from when she'd still been Ichinose Soyo—back then she too had hidden alone in a corner, crying quietly, waiting for her negligent father and mother to come home...
"!!!"
Wait a moment!
How had she become this kind of adult?!
Nagasaki Soyo carefully pulled open the cabinet door, and sure enough, little Chiose was curled up inside.
Nagasaki Chiose clutched a teddy bear half the size of her own body, looking up at Nagasaki Soyo with tearful eyes.
She... was so pitiable, and really wore the very same expression Soyo herself had as a child.
In that moment, the bullet Soyo had fired years ago came circling back, striking Nagasaki Soyo squarely between the brows.
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