Yuu thought a moment, then picked up the pink pen and wrote in small, neat letters:
3) Survive, whatever it takes.
“What do you mean?”
“I want us both to stay safe so we can meet again next summer. I want us to promise that we will do whatever it takes to survive and be in good spirits when we meet up again next year.”
“Okay.”
We decided that Yuu would look after the piece of paper the pledge was written on. Mom and Kise often threw away my things, so I thought it would be safer with him.
“Make sure you don’t break our pledge, okay? And definitely come back here next summer!”
“I will.”
We each hid our ring in a pocket and hurried back to Granny’s house. As we went in the front door we could smell the miso soup cooking for breakfast.
“Yuu! Natsuki! You’re up early!” Granny exclaimed in surprise.
“Yes, I was looking for flowers for my independent study project,” I said, giving the excuse I had prepared.
“What a good girl you are!” Granny said, impressed. “Oh, I almost forgot,” she said and rushed back to the living room, where she took out some money wrapped in tissues from her bag. “This is for you, Natsuki. It’s not much, but you can buy yourself a nice toy with it.”
“Thank you!”
“And here’s something for you, too, Yuu.”
During Obon, the adults always gave the kids some money in an envelope or wrapped in a tissue. We had to tell Mom how much we were given, but it was ours to keep.
I put it carefully into my bag. I was saving up to visit Yuu in Yamagata sometime.
“Oh, you’re up already. Good,” Mom said as she came down the stairs. “We’ll be on our way straight after breakfast. Go and get yourself ready to leave. We have to get back quickly and find a doctor for your sister. It’s a holiday, so we’ll need an emergency clinic.”
“Okay.”
Mom bowed to Granny. “I’m so sorry. We really did want to stay until the end of Obon.”
“Don’t worry. Kise’s always been rather frail, hasn’t she?”
I looked at Yuu. I wasn’t going to be able to stay until the last night of Obon. I would miss the fireworks when we saw the ancestors back on their way to the other world. Hadn’t Dad said something about a bus coming up the mountain once a day or something?
“Mom, couldn’t I stay a bit longer and go home by bus?” I ventured timidly.
Mom looked at me, her face tired. “Oh do shut up. Go and get ready now. You know very well that it’s impossible to calm your sister down once she starts a tantrum.”
“But there’s—”
“That’s enough. Don’t you start giving me trouble too!”
“I’m sorry.”
I shouldn’t get in the way of my “family” anymore. I was married now, after all. I had already left my family, so Dad, Mom, and my sister could finally be a close-knit threesome.
At the thought that Yuu and I were now married, strength welled up in me. I glanced at him. He returned my look and gave a slight nod.
Please let us definitely meet up again safely next year, I thought, mustering all my magical powers to make the wish come true.
Floorboards creaking here and there signaled that morning had fully arrived in the house. In the pale sky visible from the veranda there was no trace of the color of outer space.
The car was filled with the smell of melted rubber.
“Open the window and let in some fresh air,” Mom said, rubbing my sister’s back.
I was in the front passenger seat, gazing out the window at the increasingly flat and populated landscape.
Dad had not uttered a word for miles. Mom was desperately trying to soothe my sister.
“Family” is hard work I thought. I gripped the ring in my pocket.
I closed my eyes and conjured up Yuu. Now in the darkness behind my eyelids there were some glimmers of light, like stars. Maybe this was a new magical power, letting me see into outer space where Yuu’s home, Planet Popinpobopia, was located.
If he ever found the spaceship, I would get him to take me with him. Now that we were married, I would be going home as his bride. Of course I would take Piyyut with me too.
With my eyes closed, drifting in space, it felt as though the spaceship from Planet Popinpobopia really was close by.
I was immersed in my love for Yuu and my magical powers. As long as I was here in this space, I was safe and nobody could destroy our happiness.
CHAPTER 2
My town is a factory for the production of human babies. People live in nests packed closely together. It’s just like the silkworm room in Granny’s house. The nests are lined up neatly in rows, and each contains a breeding pair of male and female humans and their babies. The breeding pairs raise their young inside their nests. I live in one of these nests too.
The Baby Factory produces humans connected by flesh and blood. Eventually we children will also leave the factory and be shipped out.
Once shipped out, male and female humans are trained how to take food back to their own nests. They become society’s tools, receive money from other humans, and purchase food. Eventually these young humans also form breeding pairs, coop themselves up in new nests, and manufacture more babies.
This was how I’d always thought it was, and when they gave us sex education classes at the beginning of fifth grade, I felt vindicated. My womb was a factory component and would couple with someone’s testes, which were also a factory component, in order to produce babies. Males and females all crawled around their nests with these factory components hidden within their bodies.
I was now married to Yuu, but being an alien he probably couldn’t make babies. If we couldn’t find his spaceship, society would make me form a breeding pair with someone else.
I hoped we would find the spaceship before that happened.
Piyyut was asleep in the bed I’d made for him in my study desk drawer. I continued to use the magic wand and mirror he’d secretly given me. My magical powers helped me take my life forward into the future.
As soon as we arrived home, I called my best friend, Shizuka. She had stayed in town during the Obon holiday and had apparently been bored while I was away.
“So are you coming to the pool tomorrow, Natsuki? I said I’d go with Rika and Emi, but I don’t like Rika. It’ll be so much more fun if you come too. Let’s go on the water slide together!”
“Sorry, but I got my period last night.”