I am the emotional sustenance of your deceased

"Haha, is that so?" The two of them walked slowly towards the school gate.

There were so many classmates on the road, they were in groups of three or four, laughing and chatting sweetly, but Toyokawa Shoko always thought that her relationship with Chitose was the best in the world.

That separation made them unable to leave each other anymore, and they became like twin monsters.

But, Shoko Toyokawa is willing!

Sometimes Xiangzi would have strange thoughts, longing for some terrible disaster to happen: a huge earthquake, a shocking explosion, in which everyone within a few kilometers would be wiped out in the chaos.

Her Chitose would sob in her arms, and Xiangzi would have the opportunity to hug her and comfort her.

The year-old's surprise and fear, her explanation and comfort.

【Alas, what a foolish and boring fantasy. 】

Ever since he left the hospital a few years ago, strange thoughts like these have been lingering in Xiangzi's mind.

The only way to eradicate this extreme idea is to get closer to his sister.

"Xiao Sui."

"Xiaoxiang, what's wrong?"

"That comic magazine you wanted to read last time...ah, it's called JUMP, right? I've asked someone to get it for you. It's in my bag. Remember not to read it in front of Dad when you get home."

"Great! Long live sister!"

【Long live me?】

Xiangzi smiled and narrowed his eyes.

[No, it's "Long Live a Thousand Years."]

When she is with her sister, Shoko Toyokawa becomes carefree.

Birthdays passed one after another, and seeing his sister become a little more lively and energetic, Xiangzi's heart began to revive.

"go home!"

It's great to be able to take good care of Chitose...

"Yeah! Go home!"

The driver opened the door for them. After the hustle and bustle of traffic, the street became increasingly quiet. Xiangzi, who was looking at the scenery outside the window, suddenly realized that something was wrong.

"Miss Driver, is there anything you want to pass on?"

Shoko Toyokawa has grown into a dignified and elegant woman, and her insight is also very mature.

"Well," the white-haired, golden-eyed driver lowered her hat and said cautiously, "I'm sorry your mother passed away in a car accident this afternoon. We need to go to the hospital first."

"?"

Toyokawa Shoko's pupils shrank:

"What did you say?"

Chitose fell asleep leaning on Xiangzi's shoulder. Xiangzi Toyokawa, who didn't want to disturb the other person's sleep, couldn't help but scream.

"Sister? What's wrong?"

"..."

Shoko Toyokawa twisted her neck stiffly, her eyelids twitching wildly, and for a moment her brain was unable to process the news the driver had just said.

"I'm... fine, Xiaosui, you can continue sleeping."

Holding back the tears and the palpitations in her heart, Toyokawa Shoko said to the driver in a defiant manner:

"Go home first. I'll take Xiaosui upstairs... and then we'll go to the hospital."

"Hmm? Why is sister going to the hospital? Aren't you going home to be with Xiao Sui?"

"..."

I absolutely cannot tell you this now... Chitose.

When she thought that her gentle mother had actually passed away, Toyokawa Shoko couldn't help but burst into tears.

The driver has served the Toyokawa family for many years, and her words cannot be false.

She couldn't stop herself from crying, but she now had a traumatized child beside her.

She couldn't tell her the bad news without her being mentally prepared.

"Nothing, I'll go get Xiaosui some medicine."

Xiangzi's hands were shaking violently, and he turned his head away just as he was about to cry.

[Mother...is this true?]

Fate, what are you trying to do?

Ch462. In junior high school, Toyokawa Mizuho passed away

Red forest in the rain, yellow fallen leaves all over the field.

The smell of drying mushrooms and the dried pine cones glowing dark red like diamonds from hell.

"The wind whistles around the house. Where can you find a more quintessential autumn scene?"

Chitose Noshiro stood by the window. The light and shadow of the demonic event outside the window wiped away the gray-blue color of her long hair, leaving only a silver-white color.

There was not a single impurity left in her eyes, and the golden light symbolizing glory was as bright as ever.

Mrs. Toyokawa of the Toyokawa family died. The mother she was imitating this time passed away.

"Today, my mother died. Or maybe yesterday. I don't know."

Looking at the Toyokawa family car quickly driving away from the Toyokawa residence, she slowly withdrew her gaze.

"I say, she looked like she was holding back tears just now, didn't she? My little Xiangzi is so cute, sobbing but still trying to hold back tears to comfort and coax me."

"Then why don't you cry when you know everything? Isn't she your mother?"

The system lady in a maid outfit shook her white hair, and her eyes might not have shone with a thousand years of age.

"Yes," Noshiro Chitose supported her head with her left hand while drawing circles on the glass window with her right hand.

In the circle was the vehicle carrying Shoko Toyokawa, which was gradually moving away. It became a small black dot in her eyes.

"I've known for a while that Ms. Toyokawa would leave. I figured it would be around this time."

"But, my dear assistant, my lovely Tongzi baby, you should know me best."

The usual fragility disappeared from her young face, and Chitose Noshiro turned around and opened her arms, as if welcoming the system to hug her.

"Hmm? Well, what does this mean?"

The System and Qiansui hugged each other quickly and lightly. After the hug, Qiansui's calm voice sounded in the System's ears:

"Our concept of time is different from everyone else's. Life and death are not a straight line as they think."

Qiansui waved her fingers randomly in the air, and those irregular lines seemed to be the "timeline" she mentioned.

"System, although I've lived for sixty or seventy years, I've always believed that your experience and knowledge far surpass mine, right?"

"Well," the system's pale pink lips parted slightly, her confidence innate, "it should be so."

"Well, my clever and lovely little Tong, you must have read Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five. I heard that book was banned for fifty or sixty years."

After receiving a nod of affirmation from the lovely Miss System, Chitose put his hands behind his back and leaned closer to her: "So you must also remember that famous saying."

"Which sentence?"

"If someone dies, he only looks dead. He is still alive and well in the past, so it is foolish for people to cry at his funeral."

Chitose shrugged his shoulders, bypassed the system and began to tidy up the room.

No, it's not so much about tidying up as it is about messing up the room.

Next, she wanted to let Xiangzi see her inner [anxiety], and the messy room furnishings were the best reflection of this.

"I see. I told you a long time ago, Xiaosui, that after repeated simulations, you will indeed become someone you never expected."

The system tilted its head, a smile on its lips: "You are much cuter now than the cowardly little girl I first met decades ago."

"Really? I actually think I've always been cute."

Chitose, who is also known as Takamatsu Chitose, Nagasaki Chitose, Kaname Chitose, Toyokawa Chitose, and Noshiro Chitose, did not raise her eyes and continued to decorate the room by herself:

“Actually, there’s another sentence in the book.”

"Which one? The one that says, 'Fate is inevitable, and trying to stop it is as futile as trying to stop an iceberg from forming'?"

“Not really.”

Actually, what Noshiro Chitose wanted to say was:

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the eternal wisdom to know the difference.

But that's not what Noshiro Chitose said.

She seemed to have thought of something interesting, and she began to speak:

“[That’s how it is.]”

……

That's the way it is.

Mizuho Toyokawa is a good mother who takes care of her two daughters, balances the conflicts between her father and husband, and suppresses rebellious family relatives.

She died in a car accident, that's what happened.

After my mother passed away, my grandfather had a heart attack and was sent to the hospital, but fortunately nothing happened. That's what happened.

My father was banging things around the house and crying, his emotions coming and going as quickly as they came. That's just how it was.

That's the way it is.

"Xiao Sui... I'm back."

It was already nine o'clock in the evening when Shoko Toyokawa's hoarse voice rang out in the Toyokawa sisters' bedroom.

The sun was driven to the other hemisphere by the moon, and the night light in the room was steadily guarding the light in Qiansui's heart.

"Sister! What took you so long? Hmm? Where's the medicine?"

Jumping and jumping full of energy, Chitose Toyokawa, who still doesn't know anything in Toyokawa Shoko's eyes, is so cute. But——

How should I tell Xiao Sui the truth about her mother's passing?

"Well, the medicine has been sent to Dr. Huizuka. He needs to identify the ingredients first and then give it to Xiaosui tomorrow."

Shoko Toyokawa hesitated, and the only way she could think of was to delay it as long as possible.

Even if it was just a delay of one minute and five seconds, the news that my mother had passed away could not be concealed.

But, isn't it too cruel?

Xiangzi was about to bite his lips but didn't know where to start.

"Why should I be the one to take on this role? Why can't my father, my grandfather, or any of the servants in the house speak up?"

Asking a child who has just lost her mother to tell her sisters the news of their mother's death would be too cruel for any of them.

"I..." With red eyes, she looked really confused. In the end, Shoko Toyokawa kept silent and chose to be sad for a while.

"Eh? Where's Mom? I thought she went out with Xiaoxiang. I looked for her at home for a long time but couldn't find her!"

"..."

Shoko Toyokawa knew that Chitose Toyokawa loved her and her the most.

How should I talk to this fragile child and slap the bloody reality in her face?

"What I'm about to say may be...hard to hear, but I have to tell you, Xiaosui!"

Shoko Toyokawa made up her mind and gritted her teeth to cut the Gordian knot.

"Actually, Mom, today..."

"He was in a car accident... and passed away!"

[Mom, she...]