My love index is at its maximum.

Shiori Ninomiya gazes at the bright moon from her courtyard.

She desperately wanted to call someone right away and tell them, "Please stick your head out the window and look up at the sky. How is it? Isn't the moonlight beautiful? I can see the moon clearly from here. How about where you are?"

In the end, it was not fired.

In the darkness, the girl smiled slightly.

She put down her phone and muttered to herself, "I'm going to feed the parrots."

Wasn't the parrot just fed?

Oh?

is it?

She said, "I keep thinking about parrots lately."

After taking off my clothes, my body felt smooth and smelled wonderful.

The silvery moonlight cast a wondrous glow upon her, while the howling autumn wind continued to whistle outside.

I crawled into bed to sleep, and outside the window, the parrots in the chicken coop were calling me "Silly Egg."

The moonlight is beautiful.

The next day, at 6:30, the sky was just beginning to lighten.

"Shiori, are you awake yet?"

"Dad has made breakfast and is keeping it warm in a pot in the kitchen. Remember to eat it later."

The sound, like a ray of light, pierced through the cracks in the tightly closed door and into the dark room.

Okay~

She mumbled a reply, then pulled the blanket over her head and slept for another ten minutes before rubbing her eyes and getting up.

"Ah~"

When you yawn, the exhaled warm breath turns into white mist and dissipates, slowly losing its shape, like water vapor on a windless, cold winter morning fading and spreading out before disappearing.

Coming down from the second floor, Shiori Ninomiya went into the kitchen, moved a small stool, and sat down by the door to eat breakfast. The sky was clear and bright, and sunlight, falling silently like dust, covered the grove of mixed trees opposite the courtyard.

very good!

Shiori Ninomiya took out her phone and took a selfie.

"Not bad, not bad, with delicate features, clear eyes like water, and lips that make you want to kiss her. Shiori-chan is indeed a rare beauty."

After repeatedly zooming in and out to check the photo several times, she sent it to Tsukasa Tazaki, took another picture of the sky, and added a text message.

Clear skies, world peace.

[All of this is thanks to the lovely Shiori-chan!]

The message has not been read.

That's right, he's a member of the school festival executive committee, he should have a lot of work to do today, unlike me who's so free right now...

I slurped up a mouthful of ramen.

Shiori Ninomiya wiped the grease from her lips and leaned against the door, looking out at the grove of withered, yellow leaves. From a very young age, she had always sat in the same spot, in the same posture, thinking the same things and gazing at the same grove of withered leaves.

Thinking about the past, present, and future...

The temperature in Tokyo shouldn't be cold yet, right?

Thinking of this, Shiori Ninomiya's mind was filled with the image of Tsukasa Tazaki.

I love Tokyo's sunlight, the scent of the wind, the crowded trains; I love all of these things, and the beer we drank together...

After breakfast, I went to the chicken coop to feed the chickens and wash myself while I was at it. Then I went to the pond to feed the ducks.

Speaking of which, the pond will be frozen over in about two weeks, and then we'll need to build a shed for the ducks to overwinter. It's also time to start building the plastic greenhouses for growing vegetables and fruits; Dad said yesterday he'd go buy the materials today…

Put on white water boots, walk into the small storeroom of the chicken coop, and take out the feed bags and rubber hoses.

As soon as a large group of chicks saw her, they chirped and chirped happily, surrounding her and begging for food.

Shiori Ninomiya put the feed into the chicken feed dish and led a group of chicks out of the coop. One of the largest roosters raised its neck and stared at her with its eyes like the boss.

The green parrot stood on the bar and flapped its wings loudly.

"Idiot, go back!" it cursed.

The rooster immediately lowered its head and scurried away inside the enclosure with a series of flapping sounds.

"Haha~" Shiori Ninomiya looked at the parrot and said happily, "Thank you. Besides Shiori, you are the smartest person in this family."

"You're crazy!" the parrot squawked, then scurried into a corner, hunching its shoulders. Once it was sure it wouldn't get caught, it squawked again, "Thanks, you stinky poop."

"hateful!"

Ninomiya Shiori gritted her teeth, her cheeks puffed out: "I won't feed you next time, so you and Daddy will go hungry together!"

After saying that, she chuckled, picked up a broom to clean the dirt in the chicken coop, then connected the rubber hose to the water tap, turned on the tap, and scrubbed the floor with a brush while rinsing.

The splashing water droplets glittered in the autumn sunlight. The parrot, afraid of getting splashed, fluttered up to the roof from the chicken coop and slowly preened its feathers.

After cleaning the chicken coop, I went to the pond to feed the ducks.

Withered chrysanthemum fences can be seen everywhere along the roadside, with frozen frost pillars hanging on them.

In the early morning of late autumn, the village is shrouded in mist. The shady mountains overlap with the sunlit mountains, and the light and shadow constantly shift between the sunlit and shaded areas, presenting a desolate scene.

In the late autumn of 2021, everything in sight seemed bleak and desolate. Even the sunlight and the smell of withered grass were hardly enough to lift one's spirits.

As you walk forward, the path through the mixed woods is covered with yellow fallen leaves.

Shiori Ninomiya carried the feed, and apart from the crunching of fallen leaves and the chirping of sparrows, there was no other sound. Only when she was almost at the pond did the sound of ducks splashing on the water begin to join in.

What exactly is troubling you?

"It's no big deal."

She asked herself a question and then answered it herself. She turned up her coat collar, wrapped her scarf around her neck, and exhaled puffs of white breath.

I walked along the forest path carrying a feed trough, constantly thinking about the ducks.

The thought of seeing the adorable ducklings soon fills my heart with warmth and happiness. Come to think of it, it seems like it's been quite a while since we've slaughtered a duck for dinner. This afternoon, I'll have Dad kill one and make soup to bring to Mom for dinner.

The pond is located in the woods and is about the size of a basketball court.

As soon as Shiori Ninomiya arrived at the water's edge, about thirty ducks swimming in the water flapped their wings and rushed over. The ducks' little feet were very cute, a flat orange-yellow color like a primary school student's rubber boots, and they walked with a wobbly gait, sometimes even falling on their bottoms.

As soon as the feed trough was placed down, the ducks fluttered and swarmed around it, almost flying, to grab the food. Shiori Ninomiya called out with a laugh, "Eat your fill! One unlucky duck won't see the sun tomorrow, so everyone should be happy!"

The sound echoed for a long time above the mixed trees, then disappeared into the cloudless sky as if sucked in.

After venting my frustrations by shouting, I felt incredibly good.

Shiori Ninomiya sat down against a tree trunk, intending to watch the school festival live on her phone, but unfortunately there was no signal. So she picked up a dry branch at her feet and drew some strange shapes on the ground.

While drawing, I threw the branch aside, took out my phone again, and opened the notes app to write a message.

Hello, dear Sakura.

[I received a reply, but a rating of 70 points is hardly encouraging!]

[Shiori-chan, I'm temporarily downgrading your importance in my heart by one level. I'll upgrade you back when you give me a perfect score.]

Okay, here is the body of this letter.

The question is, will this letter actually reach you?

To be honest, I've lost confidence. It's not that I can't write, it's just that I can no longer write quickly and smoothly, just scribbling away at you like that.

After all, I'm even hesitant about whether to send this letter at all.

But I'll still write.

[At worst, I'll just write the recipient's address carelessly and leave the sender's address blank. Then this letter might gather dust and pile up in the "address unknown" section, never to be seen by anyone. But so what if it doesn't get delivered? I just wanted to write it down; I don't care if anyone sees it or not.]

I don't know why. Yeah... why?

But I still hope this letter will reach you safely. God help me.

[The main text begins here.]

First, I'd like to write about the ducks.

My pond is big and beautiful. I currently have over thirty ducks, but I don't know about their family dynamics. They probably have all sorts of conflicts, like some wanting to be friends with others and others not. I haven't witnessed any arguments yet, but even if I did, I probably wouldn't understand them, haha…

The water temperature is already quite cold; the pond will freeze over soon. When it snows, I'll put on thermal pants, a hat, a scarf, boots, a leather coat… and sit alone by the pond watching the ducks for hours on end. I'll occasionally feed them a little bit of food. Nobody in the whole village does this kind of thing except me.

However, you might not understand, watching ducks is truly a joyful experience; you never tire of it.

Especially in winter, they stumble and waddle across the ice, sometimes even sitting down on it. These ducks without any anti-slip devices are really silly. So, winter must be a difficult season for ducks to enjoy.

I don't know what the ducks are thinking, but every time I see them fall down and get up, I always seem to hear them muttering complaints like, "It's frozen again, there's nothing I can do," while still optimistically facing the coming winter.

I like ducks like this, but I don't know why I like them so much. Oh, wise Sakura, please help Shiori-chan figure this out!!!

[Let's stop writing about the ducks here for now.]

I miss life in Tokyo.

There was a place prepared for me there: my room, my desk, my classroom, my classmates, peaceful days, endless homework, and frequent campus activities. The never-ending daily routine is truly something I miss.

But no matter how much I think about it, I'm afraid I'll never be able to go back to Tokyo.

Staying in Hokkaido isn't so bad, is it?

And fortunately, no one in the village or my parents noticed anything different about me, because my appearance hadn't changed at all. Yet, it felt like a piece of my heart was empty; someone, something, had left me. Head bowed, speechless. The door opened and closed, the lights went out.

This feeling is loneliness...

Why must people be so lonely?

Every living being in this world seeks something from others, yet we end up so isolated and helpless. Why is that?

Shiori-chan feels that no one can understand her current feelings...

If only I were grown up now, all these thoughts would seem ridiculous to my future self, not even worth remembering.

But no one can tell Shiori how to get through this long and lonely time of growing up.

Nobody told me...