The world in Kaname Raana's eyes was a little different from the world other children saw.
People were always saying she was as free-spirited as a cat, but Raana wasn't interested in that.
She simply liked whatever people or things she found interesting.
When she was very small, her grandmother still ran a live house. Back then Grandma had no time to look after her, so she would go play with the staff.
One time a staff member left behind a copy of Crime and Punishment, and Raana caught sight of a line in it.
[Those countless mediocrities of every stripe, whose thinking is utterly childish, who half-understand everything and yet are stubbornly sure of themselves, will in the blink of an eye fall in with whatever idea happens to be most in fashion, only to vulgarize it on the spot, only to turn into caricature everything that they themselves sometimes serve with the most genuine sincerity.]
She didn't understand it, but she felt it was telling her to go do something interesting.
Like right now.
"Oh? You're saying you want to trade money for this matcha parfait I've already been eating?"
The expression on the girl sitting across from her was fun to watch. Raana had said the same thing to other girls before, offering to trade her spare change for a parfait.
Those boring people would get flustered and just buy her one. They were super nice, sure, but mostly dull.
The woman in front of her was a lot more interesting.
She was watching Raana the same way Raana watched cats.
"Little one, I've already eaten from it, you know. You're sure you want to trade your money-money for it?"
"Mm. I want it."
Even so, Raana rarely made this kind of request of anyone. Only the very few she found interesting ever got it.
"Forget the money. Can I pet your head instead? You're such a cute little thing."
Noshiro Chiose found the girl in front of her both well-behaved and endearing. Maybe it was because she saw a trace of the old little Soyo in this child.
Little Soyo had been just as cute as this stray kitten. Little Soyo had been just as sweet.
She had nothing else to do anyway, so she might as well tease this little cutie for a while.
"Pet me? Hmm. That's kind of interesting."
Seeing that the little thing in front of her didn't object, Chiose reached over and ruffled her hair as naturally as breathing.
The fluffy white hair felt wonderful, and the back of her head and her crown were warm to the touch. Some people thought every girl's head felt about the same, but Noshiro Chiose begged to differ.
Because every girl's little head gave Chiose something different back. Mini-Lamp and middle-school Taki, for instance: the former felt like a plush toy that generated its own heat, and the latter wouldn't let you touch her at all.
"So what's your name?" Once she was done with the head, Chiose scratched under the girl's chin without thinking about it. Amid a stretch of contented humming, the odd-eyed girl mumbled thickly,
"Raana."
"And a family name?"
"Kaname... mmf..."
A rare one. It seemed only a shade more common than Noshiro. Chiose propped her chin on her hand, more and more convinced this child was a kitten.
This strange cat-petting session went on until Taki's call made Chiose's phone ring.
"I've got to go, little one."
"Mmf?"
"Will I get to see you again, interesting lady?"
Chiose had already walked several steps away. Kaname Raana sat where she was, blank-faced, and felt only a kind of hollowness.
"Someday?" Chiose tilted her head back slightly, and the faint delight in her voice caught hold of Raana. "Nobody can say for sure. Let's leave the future to the future."
"Your name."
"I'll tell you next time we meet."
Handing out that kind of thing right away was dangerous. If Chiose had wanted to answer, she would have brushed it off with a fake name anyway.
But Chiose had a feeling the two of them would meet again, so she held her name back, just to leave a thread of the fantastical running through her ordinary life.
Call it a little seed planted for some future everyday. Then again, maybe they'd never see each other again at all.
Kaname Raana watched Noshiro Chiose until she vanished at the stairwell. She blinked, and only then remembered the matcha parfait she'd traded for.
Atop the parfait, the little shiratama dumplings in matcha were waving at Raana, as if they couldn't wait to be crushed between her teeth.
"Nom."
Raana took an enormous bite without a shred of restraint, letting out a small satisfied whine now and then.
An ordinary morning, quietly laying the groundwork for a single moment not far ahead.
That was how it went.
...
Shopping, groceries, home. The girls out in the world were adorable, but there was a treasure waiting at home for Chiose to take care of.
That child never said so, but Chiose knew that the fear and unease buried deep inside a little one who couldn't see anything had to be sharper than most people's.
Especially when they were left alone.
A blind person's hearing is keener than an ordinary person's, and for that very reason silence cuts them deeper.
No matter how poor the household got, Chiose would never forget to buy Kyoumoto a device that could keep sound playing without a break.
"Big sis, out of all the older girls who came over last time, the one with the nicest voice — is she really cute?"
"Who? Tomori?"
Takamatsu Tomori's voice really was lovely, though whether it was the loveliest, Chiose couldn't say. She loved every one of them to death.
"Who knows. Kyoumoto isn't used to them yet."
After lunch Chiose sat out on the balcony with Kyoumoto in her arms, soaking up the sun. Weather this good didn't come along often, and the air seemed to carry a faint trace of cherry blossom.
"Well then, why do you say this mystery person is pretty?"
Chiose made idle conversation without much thought. She felt unusually relaxed right now.
What she didn't expect was for the little thing curled up against her to answer in a perfectly earnest tone:
"Because big sis's voice is lovely, and big sis is the cutest of all. So a big sister with a lovely voice must be a cute person too."
"Pfft. I don't know about anyone else, but that theorem definitely holds for Kyoumoto."
Kyoumoto was adorable. Kyoumoto's voice was lovely. Kyoumoto was an angel made flesh in this world.
And so were the rest of them.
Chiose was glad she'd met these troublesome angels with their slightly broken wings. They could be maddening enough to drive a person out of her mind sometimes, but there was no arguing with the fact that they were precious.
People who could be loved, and who could give back the love they were given.
"Big sis, I want to hear more stories about your school days. You never tell me very much, and it leaves me itching to know."
"There's nothing worth telling about school, really. Although, I just remembered the one about a certain Shiina loser who snuck off to Hane-oka during lunch break to eat, then couldn't make it back in time for class, so she gave up entirely and hid in the Astronomy Club all afternoon."
"Eh?"
Haizuka Kyoumoto blinked, lost.
"That does sound like a real loser move."
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