In all honesty…
This little kid really is rather adorable.
She isn't the least bit troublesome or terrible, actually.
The situation really isn't as hopeless as she'd thought…
Soyo had read up on the relevant material once before—it had been one afternoon, a year after she'd picked Chiose up.
That day she'd just seen a client off and gone alone to the Yoho Rain Bookstore by the sea, where she'd purchased a parenting guide———
Honestly, it had frightened her.
The book laid out the entire process of raising a child in dense, exhaustive detail, and explained that a single misstep could end up warping the child the wrong way.
That had truly pricked Soyo's fragile little heart—but looking at things now, this daughter she'd hardly paid any mind to… didn't seem to have grown up warped after all.
Having brought Chiose home, this time Soyo chose to put a bit more thought into the child.
"Can you play here by yourself for a while? Mama's going upstairs to work. I'll allow you to move freely around the house—you can go to the garden or out on the terrace, anything's fine—but you mustn't disturb Mama's work, okay!"
Putting it that way should be fine, right? Gentle tone, tender manner—she really was a perfectly qualified good mama.
But the wording.. still didn't seem quite right. Still, little Chiose, do forgive your robot of a mother—her brain has only just booted up, so it's bound to be a little stiff and rigid.
"Mm!" Chiose blinked, and began plotting out her next plan.
The Chosen Trait she'd picked was so handy—a single fever had gone and warmed up the relationship between the two of them.
Still, this dummy of a daughter was already dummy enough to qualify as a small-fry; a little more small-fry and she'd be on par with the likes of that small-fry Taki.
Chiose tilted her head; she'd just barely adjusted to her circumstances as a small child.
Being a small child even held, in a certain sense, a particular advantage over being an adult or a teenager—after all, a child can boldly say all sorts of things without a care, and can do plenty of things that would feel jarring at any other age.
For instance——
Hugging her teddy bear, Chiose stood stock-still beside Soyo's desk; she just stood there, staring fixedly at Soyo.
"....."
"With you looking at me like that, I can't work, you know."
What a blazing-hot stare—what on earth was this little thing up to?
But Chiose said nothing, only kept on glowering at Soyo.
Stare——
"Haah, I surrender. What'll it take to get you to stop staring at me?"
"Mama, the little bear's all dirty. It's vegetable juice."
Holding the teddy bear up as she edged closer to Soyo, Chiose was already straining with all her might to pitch her voice up cutesy—yet she felt she still couldn't out-cute Soyo.
Trying to mimic a cutesy voice and happening to run into a naturally gifted older woman—an opponent formidable as some ancient monster—she'd given it everything she had and still couldn't win, defeated in the end, lowly as an ant.
"If it's dirty, then take it to the second-floor laundry room… oh, I forgot this house doesn't have one. Take it to the washing machine on the third-floor terrace, and I'll help you wash it later together."
"Mm-hmm!"
All that could be heard was the pitter-patter of footsteps carrying from nearby off into the distance—that adorable little child had gone upstairs just like that, and then the footsteps stopped.
But Soyo's peace was soon shattered again.
The pitter-patter of footsteps came swiftly closer, and Chiose, no longer holding the teddy bear, returned to Soyo's side and went on goggling her wine-red eyes at Soyo.
Having dealt with a small part of her work, Soyo felt a wave of helplessness—though she wasn't angry.
To think that even though she'd been so neglectful of the child's upbringing and care, the kid still didn't dislike her in the slightest… that this sort of little angel should be her own daughter.
How fortunate, and yet how unfortunate.
"What is it now?"
"I can turn on the washing machine all by myself, you know!"
"Mm-hmm, I know."
"Eh?"
Chiose's expression was one of utter astonishment, as though she'd never expected Soyo to say such a thing.
"Hm? What's wrong? I can turn on a washing machine too, you know—that's perfectly normal."
"Oh..."
Soyo didn't understand why the child had suddenly grown so crestfallen, but in the very next instant she suddenly realized—this was a little kid fishing for praise.
Ah.
She'd been just like this when she was small, too.
Her own mother would praise her to make her happy; it was only later that the chances to fish for praise and compliments vanished for good—Soyo had even forgotten that stretch of memory entirely.
Setting aside the work in her hands, Nagasaki Soyo reached out and ruffled Chiose's little head, and in a low voice, frantically marshaled her words inside her brain.
"Mm.. that's great. Keep up the good work."
What an awful bit of praise—it had been so long since she'd praised anyone, and no one came to praise her either… such stiff, cold, perfunctory encouragement surely wouldn't be liked.
If she got disliked for it, that was no more than she deserved.
"Eh! Heehee, I love you, Mama!" Little Chiose grasped the hand on her head, narrowed her eyes, and answered Soyo with a radiant smile.
"…"
[Don't be so good to me… when I've been hurting you this whole time… it'll only make me feel more ashamed to show my face.]
This child—the more she looked, the more she resembled her own younger self.
Nagasaki Soyo struggled to restrain herself from looking at Chiose again, and Chiose, too, sat obediently on the study's sofa, gazing out the window at the scenery.
Though she tried hard to work, she just couldn't get into the zone—perhaps, just as the Haizuka secretary lady had said a few days ago, she needed to take a good long rest.
Don't.. push yourself too hard—even the sturdiest bowstring will snap after being stretched past its limit, all the more so for Soyo, who had been in poor shape all along.
The computer's screen had gone black from sitting idle so long; Soyo just stared blankly at the screen, taking a good while to come back to herself.
She was beginning to miss her own mother a little.
Haah.
"Little Chiose, what are you looking at?"
The chair swiveled along with the turn of her body; when Soyo looked back, Chiose was staring, eyes unblinking, at a bird's nest in the tree outside the window.
"Looking at the little birds."
"The little birds? What does Little Chiose usually like to do at home?"
"Uah?" As though she'd run into some very difficult question, Chiose looked at Soyo and tilted her head. "Watching the cars go by on the roadside with Grandma… wuu.."
"....."
Ugh, numbed. Honestly, stepped into a pitfall again.
A small child's moods shift so fast—the moment Grandma came to mind, Soyo could visibly see Chiose growing despondent.
She hurriedly stepped forward and hugged the child, unable to bear watching the little one shed tears any longer.
"There-there, there-there, I'm sorry, okay. Mama's been in such an awful state lately, often saying things she shouldn't… can Little Chiose forgive Mama?"
The more she communicated with the child, the more Soyo found herself growing steadily gentler.
A very strange process…
Like an iceberg meeting the warmth of spring and collapsing, like… the chicken in ginseng chicken soup being stripped from the bone to fall into the broth.
The child in her arms was warm and toasty—only this time it was a healthy sort of warmth.
"I didn't blame Mama.…. I love Mama's hugs."
"Eh? You only love Mama's hugs?"
Soyo blurted the line out offhandedly, but the moment it was out she felt it was somewhat improper.
Yet Chiose's reaction halted Soyo's train of thought.
"I love Mama lots, too!"
"!!!"
This child really was endearing.
So adorable.
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