After her own daughter left the house, Chiose—the daughter of that daughter—opened her eyes.
Outside lay the quiet seascape, while inside the room only her clear, bright red pupils glowed of their own accord.
"Mrowr..." Stretching lazily, she sprang up from the bed and padded barefoot to its edge, leaving behind a trail of warm little footprints.
"Oh? The great champion of never-staying-up-late, Nagasaki Chiose—how is it you're still not asleep?"
The languid voice of The System came from behind her, but Chiose paid it no mind. She quietly watched Nagasaki Soyo drive off into the distance, not a single ripple stirring in her heart.
"Why won't you pay attention to me? Aren't I your dearest System?"
In its adult form, The System stood a full one-meter-sixty-five, and even now, hunched over with its head leaning in beside Chiose, it looked exactly like a wicked big sister luring away a little loli.
"System, I have a question... no, two questions."
"What questions? As long as you don't ask me anything too profound, my System brain should be able to handle them just fine."
"Hmm... how should I put it."
A tiny hand pinched a tiny chin—a gesture that might look quite dashing on a somewhat older teenager, but on a little loli it just came across as adorable.
"I was wondering—if the Soyo in reality were left to her own devices, would she end up walking the same path as the Soyo now?"
"The answer is: it's possible. In fact, every possibility exists."
"Hmm? Don't tell me fate doesn't have some rough direction to it? Like, say, there's a more-or-less fixed script behind it all, and our lives are already written upon it."
"A very interesting bit of rhetoric. But as The System, my answer remains: anything is possible."
Still not much warmth in it, but Miss System really was trying her hardest to imitate Chiose's way of speaking!"
"So in other words—without anyone's help, Soyo would fall into the very situation she's in now. Is that right?"
And if it weren't for my appearing now, Soyo would have shut her heart away even more?
What a pitiable little child.
"Yes, that possibility exists. Nagasaki Soyo most likely needs salvation. There are many who could grant her that salvation—but how many of those chances could she herself manage to seize? That cannot be known.
It's quite possible that, many a time, she'll throw away with her own hands the [Love] and the [Home] she's been given."
"Is that so."
"That's how it is."
Soyo, you idiot! Honestly! Why can't you save yourself just a little!"
Why is the world's malice toward you not the least bit small—giving you such a family, and dealing you such circumstances? Hardly any of your friends are normal people, and your parents are rather rare specimens too...
It's not that they're bad, exactly... it's just that, even as they're good to you, they carry a faint trace of menace.
"Once I'm back in reality, if I can find Soyo, I'm definitely going to become her good friend!"
As though she'd made up her mind about something, Chiose excitedly pumped her little fist.
Soyo must have tons of pocket money! When the time comes, I'll have her treat me to ginseng chicken soup.
"So then, Host—what's your second question?"
The System felt its own voice brimming with mischief; it found all this truly entertaining.
The moonlight was cold and clear, lending the smile on Chiose's adorable little face a slightly eerie cast.
"Haha, I'd have forgotten if you hadn't asked... mm, the second question is..."
"What is it?"
The System deliberately leaned its face in closer, eager for Chiose's question—because the whole reason it had put on such a clever air was to indulge its own little System vanity.
"It's... why have you been using the surname Haizuka to tease me again?! Secretary Haizuka, is it? Secretary Haizuka Kyou, is it?! You giant trash-fish!"
Reaching out without the slightest courtesy to pinch The System's pretty cheek, Chiose tried to put more strength into it—but whether it was because a child's body was too feeble or The System's skin was too thick, she felt she couldn't quite pinch it hard enough.
Still, as long as she could vent a little, that was enough!"
"How many times have I told you?! How many times have I told you?!"
"Even calling me Sakiko Togawa would be better than 'Haizuka Kyoumoto' or 'Haizuka Kyou'!"
"Sys-chan! I'm certain of it now! You're absolutely picking a fight on purpose!"
The System blinked innocently, doing nothing to stop the little brat's yelling and her cheek-mauling antics.
After all, it was simply trying to make Chiose feel a touch of discomfort inside—and judging by this, it had succeeded quite well.
"Who told you to drag me into work..."
"You're still talking back?! You giant trash-fish!"
Even as she scuffled with The System, Chiose's gaze drifted, almost by accident, toward the far distance beyond the window.
[Soyo.]
[I bet you've already spotted the little trinkets I had The System place in each of your residences.]
[I don't know which one you've gone to now, but I hope you have fun.]
[Hehe. Into which lost memory will you sink, I wonder?]
Some were laughing and making merry; some were suffering all alone.
"Mommy's going to give you a surprise."
Soyo remembered this was something her mother had said to her one day fifteen years ago, on a rare occasion when she'd come home to rest after finishing a whole day's work.
The moment she'd gotten home, her mother had hidden away in her room, as though guarding some little secret.
But Mother was a person who couldn't keep her thoughts hidden; sometimes her personality really did make her seem more like a little daughter than even Chiose.
That day, unable to hold back her laughter, she came out of the room and bounded up in front of Soyo, just like a child fishing for praise.
She said, "Mommy's going to give you a surprise—just you wait and see!"
Soyo had only smiled without answering, since the surprises her mother spoke of were either some little gift or some tasty little snack.
Soyo remembered her mother held both hands behind her back; it was only at dinner that she noticed the marks left by needle pricks.
She asked her mother at the time what they were.
Her mother only said she'd accidentally pricked herself on a cactus by the roadside... but how could there be a cactus by the roadside?
Thinking back on it now, she must have poked herself by accident while stitching up the teddy bear.
The memories... let them end here.
Soyo sat on her mother's bed, the room's lights absent, and she remembered how, as a little girl, she too had nestled in her mother's arms and let her mother sing her lullabies.
That song, Dango Daikazoku... in the very beginning, it was Mother who had sung it to her.
"I remember now... I remember it all..."
Why was a mother's love so hidden—something one could only savor in fine detail once one had become a mother oneself?
"No... Mommy's love was always out in the open. It was just that later, I changed, and could no longer open my heart to feel Mommy's love."
How I want to nuzzle into Mother's arms and be spoiled, just like when I was little!
But Mother... she...
Just as Soyo was about to be tormented to tears by all the tangled emotions, the ringing of her phone successfully rescued her.
"Hello?" I hope my voice won't sound too pathetic... watch me strain hard to pitch it up!
"Ms. Nagasaki! Your mother is about to wake up! Right now she's—"
"What?!"
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