episode_0012
by fnovelpiaGreeting a friendly neighbor always starts a good day.
Even though that person introduced themselves, this person responded that they don’t know their name right now.
When she heard those words, she looked at the scene of a crime as if she had witnessed it and was very embarrassed, but she was still trying to be kind and try to say something.
Everyone here seemed to miss talking to people.
Could it be that he is suffering from affection?
However, contrary to her attitude, the conversation did not last long.
Anyway, she came out because she had something to do and disappeared somewhere, saying she actually had something planned.
What is a name?
It was an identity that meant me.
Not having a name was no different from not existing.
People don’t remember it.
Even if remembered, it is easily forgotten.
I might briefly recall that there was a kid who wore a strange cosplay while sitting at my desk drinking coffee, but my existence will soon disappear in the flow of life.
Even if I disappear at some point, people will think of a child with wings, but they will be forgotten as time passes.
Because it had no name to begin with.
So I seriously thought of a name.
My name before didn’t matter, and my name here doesn’t matter either.
I desperately searched through the storage cabinet containing memories in my head, but I couldn’t remember anything.
The deeper I dug into the fog in my head, the thicker it became, and I couldn’t remember my previous life or the life I lived here in this body.
However, even in the blurry memories where nothing remained, there were traces of something like residue left behind.
Something comes to mind little by little.
Someone is happy and hugs me.
As I was feeling sick and feverish, there was someone who was running on my back.
When I succeeded in something small, there was someone who was happy as if it were their own.
Someone who was always with me called me something.
Those words contained warm love.
[□□□]
But I couldn’t remember who erased it with an eraser.
I couldn’t remember who that person was.
And I couldn’t even tell if it was my life here or my life before.
Other memories also come to mind.
Someone complimented my wings.
She was delighted and praised my smarts and told me that I would be a beauty when I grew up.
He said that he would be most sorry if he died without being able to see me grow up.
So I was left alone.
And it was in the mountains.
A young child dug into the ground alone with his bloody hands.
I don’t know why and I don’t know where it is.
There was something unpleasant and a stench that stung my nose…me…?
The child dragged something heavy with all his might.
From home to somewhere.
It seemed like it wasn’t that far away.
It arrived, but the child ended up not being able to ask it.
The hole was smaller than that and the child was weak.
It got smaller and smaller over time.
I couldn’t picture what it was, as if someone had painted my memory black.
However, on a summer day, the hole got smaller and smaller, the bugs became more and more entangled, and the child dug deeper and deeper into the hole.
One day, while digging quickly, I got stuck in the hard soil and cut my hand on the blade of the trowel.
But even though the child was crying, he did not stop holding his hands.
And it got smaller to fit the size of the hole.
Why did they do that?
What was it?
This is a bad… bad memory…
But I was curious.
As I tried to dig deeper, the fog in my head became even thicker and scattered my memories as if telling me not to look.
I couldn’t remember.
But something comes to mind in the fragments of that memory.
[Ariel Crowd]
Ah, this is the name!
Finally, I found myself in the thick fog.
The name sounds foreign, but whatever!
I was so happy at that moment that I jumped up and down in my seat.
Something came out from inside.
“Yay!”
Its name was joy.
“Why are you so excited all of a sudden?”
“Listen! I’ll tell you my name!”
Drunk with emotion, he spoke incoherently.
But it’s okay.
In fact, you must have been curious about Jihye too!
Arin must have been curious too.
A friendly neighbor would have done the same, right?
I couldn’t tell them until now because I didn’t know their names.
But now it is possible!
I can finally introduce myself when talking to someone!
“Uh… ?”
But Jihye’s reaction was strange.
I froze a little because the reaction was different from what I expected.
I had never imagined being spoken to with such a strange expression.
“Uh… ?”
After being frozen for a moment, Ji-hye laughed and said it was a joke, and my whole body lost all strength.
I never thought we’d become this close in just a few days, but seeing how shocked I was by her reaction made me realize that I had given her more affection than I thought.
“So what’s your name?”
“Ariel Crowd!”
As soon as I finished speaking, I felt someone grab my collar from behind.
When I looked back, I saw a robot standing there holding its collar with one hand, and a small butterfly was sitting on the other hand.
The child’s instinct came out right away.
When I pointed my finger at the butterfly sitting on the robot’s finger, the butterfly fluttered out through the open veranda door.
The robot and I went out into the garden chasing butterflies.
Butterflies were sitting gently on the flowers in the garden or flying around them.
I jumped up and got on top of the robot.
The robot still walked around as if it didn’t care what was above it, emptying the pool water and cleaning the bottom, and sometimes giving bits of pine nuts to crows or birds that came in without permission.
Then, the crow that came here sat on the robot’s head with me for a while and enjoyed a rest. Then, as if to pay for the meal, he dropped the shiny bead he had picked up from somewhere on the floor and flew away.
It was an ordinary day with nothing special.
But I found something special even in that ordinary life.
I enjoyed my special day.
Today was the day I met a friendly new neighbor, received a gift from a smart crow, and learned the names of special plants I had never heard of.
And what’s even more special is that they found out my name!
It may be obvious to others, but I was glad that I knew it now.
It was fun, so I laughed happily and pounded the robot’s head.
The robot did not respond to a tap on its head, but stared at the display with its round, yellow eyes at the bead dropped by the crow, then picked it up and put it into the hole in its stomach.
It was a different hole than the one used to put trash.
While they were playing, Jihye, dressed up, came out the door and into the garden.
The robot and I stared at such wisdom.
“I’ll do some work for a while and then come back and play. I’ll be back before dinner time.”
“Go and come!”
I waved my hand excitedly and said hello, and the robot looked at me closely and waved my arm as if imitating me.
Jihye watched us with a smile on her face, then opened the door and went out.
“Do not open the door to strangers.”
“Am I a kid?”
“No matter how you look at it, it’s a kid.”
Jihye has a habit of adding things she shouldn’t say.
I got down from the robot and laid down on the slightly moist grass.
I lay like that for a while, and when my eyes closed, a butterfly fluttered and landed on my nose.
A tickling sensation is felt in the nose.
“Heh.”
The butterfly looks tired.
*****
“Fuck…”
It was unpleasant.
I did not ask the child about his past or his name.
Looking at the items in the shrine and the contents of the diary, I could see what was going on, and looking at the sloppily constructed cemetery, I could see what had happened, even though I didn’t see it myself.
Asking questions back was like opening up the child’s wounds.
I thought of a happy child playing in the garden with the robot in this house.
The child thought he had escaped that cursed shrine, but in the end he could not.
The child was still in the gentleman’s shadow.
“Fuck!”
Apparently the child did not know what his name was.
No, you probably forgot.
If I had known, I would have said it a long time ago.
Then, suddenly, today came to mind.
He must have thought that was his name.
So he must have been so happy that he rushed in to tell me his name.
Seeing the flower blooming on the child’s face without a single wrinkle, I wondered if something good had happened.
However, the name that came out of the child’s mouth was the name of the heroine who appeared in a book with a title like Is It Paradise or Something in Another World that I saw at the shrine?
When I saw the illustration on the cover that was so similar to that of a child, I read it thinking there must be a connection.
It was very similar to the name I saw there.
It was so crazy that the name the child desperately came up with was the name of a character in a creative work.
He must have believed that was his real name and jumped at me.
The child has no name.
Bang! Beep!
Unable to overcome his anger, he hits the steering wheel with his fist.
Then, of course, the horn rang.
Bang! Beep!
I put my head on the steering wheel and looked down blankly.
I was so angry that I wanted to vent my boiling anger somewhere, but that was just an outlet for my anger and it was a shameful thing to do.
“What’s going on? Would you like to talk at the cafe over there?”
The biobot approached with a friendly smile.
“It is done.”
There was so much to do for the child.
Including the name issue.
“You mean you met a child on the street?”
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry, but where did you find your child?”
“The mountain near District 4 Park. There was a building there that looked like a Japanese shrine.”
“Wait a minute.”
It wasn’t that difficult to find data for the biobot.
Because there was a network that could communicate with all nearby biobots.
“Oh, it’s a building built 15 years ago. It was built on private land and is a licensed building. A Japanese architect was hired and even a large transport airship was mobilized. The cost was quite high. My father’s family inherited considerable wealth from his parents and was well-known among those around him. Your mother’s side is normal. But it’s strange. It is said that the child was found at a shrine, but his name was not actually registered in the family register. You didn’t register your birth.”
“By any chance under the name Ariel Crowd..?”
“No, I don’t think there is one.”
“I will look further. An investigator has been dispatched.”
“To the hospital… The name of Lim Ga-in… There is none. According to people around them, the couple was one of the few anti-vaxxers left at the time. Did you give birth through a home birth? Yes, please find out. Is there a record of receiving genetic modification?”
“Lim Ga-in disappeared at some point. No one even knew she was pregnant. There were no reports of deaths. Ah, this coincides with the day of downfall… If that’s the case, there’s a good chance that these little things have been buried. It’s a similar situation to the black children in China.”
The biobot chatted for a long time.
But none of them were good news for the child.
“This is a photo taken on the CCTV near the park. Is this a kid that looks like this?”
The quality of the CCTV footage shown by the staff was clear.
Black wings and curly ebony hair.
“That’s right.”
“Expected to be 8 to 10 years old. If the child’s psychological state is expected to be unstable, testing is required. There are currently 40 biobots capable of raising children. Having undergone genetic modification, having an unfortunate past, and having high levels of difficulty in raising children. A biobot with a lot of experience will adopt it.”
“Wait, wait!”
“Oh, I’m sorry. Do you have anything to say?”
I had no choice but to end the one-sided conversation.
Although I stopped taking the child with me, I was scared to say that I would raise it myself.
I didn’t hate the child.
Rather, it was good.
But am I qualified to raise it?
I had that question.
But when I think about my daily life with my child… it didn’t seem that bad for me.
“Can I adopt… ?”
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