Miss Heir wasn't very kind to me.

Chapter 29 29. "Shadow of Spring"

Spring comes every year.

To this day, Kamishiro Rin had experienced fewer than twenty springs. Each time, like the blossoming cherry blossoms that faded in an instant, she bid farewell in a trance.

Only once was it different.

That was probably the coldest spring in my life.

Gunma Prefecture is in full bloom with cherry blossoms, including Somei Yoshino cherry, weeping cherry, mountain cherry, and various other colors of cherry blossoms.

But why is it that such a bright and vivid face appears in black and white in our memories, making it difficult to look directly at it?

Just like mom.

My mother, who usually greeted me with a gentle smile when I got home from school, was now confined to a narrow photo, although she was still smiling.

There were many more adults in the house, dressed in black mourning clothes, with solemn expressions. Several monks surrounded my mother, shaking their heads in a clanging manner.

"How pitiful! She's only nine years old."

"But... look at that child, he didn't even shed a tear. How cold-blooded."

"Is it true that someone could be so indifferent to their own mother?"

"I heard she was a very strange child since she was young."

The adults next to them pointed and said this.

"I'm not! I'm not a weird kid!"

Rin wanted to say this to the adults around her.

But these sounds became more and more numerous, first a mosquito-like buzzing, then increasingly noisy, like the sound of monks chanting Buddhist scriptures, trapping her.

If you are my mother, she will definitely understand me.

——But where is Mom?

Rinyin took a step on the tatami, ran to her father who was sitting at the front row with his head down, and tugged at his wide sleeves.

"Dad, where's mom?"

Dad was silent at first and didn't react at all until she repeated the question over and over again. Finally, as if he was annoyed by her nagging, Dad looked up at her, his expression distorted with pain, as if he had reached the limit of his patience.

"Rinyin, are you really listening to me?"

"Eh?"

His cold words made Rin's eyes widen and she stepped back uneasily.

"How many times have I told you that your mother is dead? Why can't you just listen to me?"

"You're always like this, making me worry. Why can't you be like other normal children?"

He spoke louder and louder, and the other adults stopped whispering and fell silent. Only the monks continued chanting as usual, and the sound became more and more disturbing.

"Your mother is the same! This family is the same! I left my hometown and came to Tokyo to work hard on my own just to make a name for myself."

"Why, in the end, am I stuck in a remote, poor place that's not even as prosperous as my hometown! Guarding a worthless country shrine! Guarding a woman I don't even love! Guarding a weird kid who will be laughed at by others as my daughter!"

"If it weren't for this shrine, this home, and you, I would have been able to live the life I wanted long ago!"

Linyin could no longer remember the expression on her father's face when he said these words.

Perhaps because she was afraid, she could only tremble and shrink her body, her whole body curled up into a small ball like a watermelon worm.

My thin torso was swallowed up by my father's tall shadow.

She felt only coldness in the fading spring.

When she opened her eyes again, she saw a vast, blue expanse of water. It was an ocean she had never seen before. She had been born and raised in Gunma Prefecture, a land of mountains and plains.

This is my father's hometown, Kobe.

May 2nd, spring.

The seaside park is not open yet, and the beach is still unpolluted. It is an ideal season for watching the sea.

When my mother was still alive, my father once said that he wanted to take her and her family to see the sea in his hometown of Kobe, the Seto Inland Sea, which is a particularly beautiful sea.

It’s exactly like what dad said.

Holding hands, my father took me to a place called the welfare home.

At the age of ten, she is already in the fifth grade of primary school. She is not an ignorant child and naturally knows what kind of children would go to this place.

Bright sunlight divides the tabletop.

Rin and a kind old lady sat in the light, while Dad was in the faint shadow.

I still can't see Dad's expression.

"Dean, I leave this child in your care."

Dad said this.

Rinyin lowered her eyes quietly, intending to accept all this with a look of despair, just like an adult. But...

"Dad, don't you want me anymore?"

The young Linyin couldn't help but reach out to the shadow, but she couldn't touch anything.

From that day on, Rin never smiled again.

"Kamiyo, why don't you ever smile? You're so weird."

In the welfare home, children of the same age said this to me, blinking their big eyes. There was definitely no malice in these casual words, only curiosity as if they were observing an unusual phenomenon.

But even so, she felt a surge of shame, embarrassment, and powerlessness in her heart, and felt even more like an outcast.

Why on earth can't I laugh?
Perhaps it was because her mother's smile in the photo on the day of the funeral always left an indelible strange feeling in her heart.

Although she could use her fingers to push up the corners of her lips and put on a fake smile, every time she did that, Grandma Sato from the welfare home would smile and say to Rin, "Don't force yourself to smile. It's okay."

"Grandma, am I really that weird?"

Rin asked in a weak, forced voice. "It's not strange, it's special."

"special?"

The unexpected answer made Rin's eyes widen in curiosity.

It's a magical word, as it feels, and can be considered out of the ordinary and different.

It is neither positive nor negative; it depends entirely on the thoughts of the person involved.

What does the mother-in-law think?
"I, Grandma, really like the special Rin."

"So... do you like me because I'm special?" she asked cautiously and sensitively.

If you lose your specialness, you will be abandoned again.

Because I am a burden and an unwanted person.

But I seem to be expecting an answer in my heart. What exactly am I expecting?

“…No.”

Having said this, the mother-in-law smiled gently and shook her head.

"It's because I like it that I feel it's special."

"..."

Late at night, with the sky full of stars above her head, Linyin hugged her thighs tightly, rested her forehead on her knees, and curled up into a small ball, like a poor watermelon worm curled up in a corner, repeating in her heart what her grandmother-in-law said at that time.

My mood is like the calm Seto Inland Sea at night. Beneath the calm surface lies an unfathomable depth.

"A special... person."

After an unknown amount of time, Linyin wiped her eyes with her fingers. The cold temperature of the night on her fingertips almost made her tears burst out.

But, you can't cry.

Because I no longer have a place where I can cry.

The only place I can cry is in my mom and dad’s arms.

From now on, I am alone in this world and I must become strong.

Rinyin raised her head as if she had made some kind of decision.

I hate myself for being weak.

Because I have been abandoned before, I want to be a person who is needed.

I want to be a confident and strong person who doesn't try to please anyone and lives honestly.

……

"Well, classmate, please introduce yourself."

The spring breeze is gentle, and the shadows of the swaying camphor tree leaves are stretched by the sunlight, extending obliquely to the feet.

There is a coffee shop called "Stars" by the sea. The manager with a kind smile is Mr. Ken Miyazawa, who seems to exude the same warm aura as Grandma Sato.

"Ok."

He was wearing a bright aqua-colored student uniform, his bow tie was tied meticulously, his back was straight, and his rosy lips were pressed into a straight line, suggesting a character that would not be easily tamed no matter what.

The girl with long black hair bowed politely and spoke loudly.

"I'm a freshman at Kita High School, and I'm here to apply for a part-time job at your store. My name is Kamishiro..."

“Kamiyo…”

◇

"...The Age of Gods!"

"Hey, Kamishiro, are you okay?"

In the back seat of the taxi, Masumi kept calling her name.

But Kamiyo Rin was completely oblivious, her whole body as dazed as a puppet without self-awareness, her long eyelashes fluttering in her eye sockets, creating undulating waves of light.

This appearance made Masumi feel extremely anxious, and at the same time, he felt a burning sensation of urgency in his left arm.

The girl grabbed his arm tightly, her white fingers digging into Masumi's skin. She held on so tightly that Masumi's blood almost stopped flowing. Through the heat of her skin, she conveyed the girl's inner uneasiness to him.

“Kamiyo…”

"Are you ok?"

"...I'm fine."

After a long time, Linyin only said these three words, and the voice she spoke sounded very helpless.

On a spring night, in the dark and cramped backseat of a taxi, nothing could illuminate her face.

Those amethyst eyes were dim in the shadows.

Seeing that Kamiyo Rin finally responded to external stimuli, Masumi breathed a sigh of relief, but the hand that was tightly holding his still showed no sign of loosening.

It seems impossible to solve it as if nothing happened.

The two of them fell into silence.

The five fingers are intertwined and clenched between the arms, and the skin is tightly pressed and overlapped.

He felt his heart begin to tremble in the fading spring day, as if through this most simple and primitive contact, their emotions were connected.

Well, if that would help share her fear, then so be it.

It's windy and rainy outside, but holding onto someone's arm can make you feel more at ease.

　Thanks to Qingchun Qingchun Qingchun, Ranran Yeri for their monthly tickets. Today is the last day for double monthly tickets. Please give me monthly tickets and follow me.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)