"Are you still drawing?" Kanami asked Ayako as she manoeuvred around the room looking for something.
Ayako, who was so focused, barely even heard her speak and just replied, "Yeah."
"Let me see," she said, crouching down, but a sharp pain from her belly stopped her.
"Are you okay?" Ayako asked, suddenly completely focused on her.
"I'm fine," she replied as she passed her hand over her belly, trying to calm it down.
"You're due any day now, so don't be making any sudden moves," Ayako insisted.
"Well, you're the one who's so engulfed in your work that you can't hear me," she said. "Now let me see it."
"Oh, you meant the paper?" Ayako said as she stood up.
She spread it out in front of her, revealing an incredibly life-like painting of the group as they were on the day they posed out in the clearing, and sitting on the log in front of them was none other than herself.
"It looks good," Kanami said as she inspected it. "I thought your skills would've rusted a bit after all this time, but it seems like they're still there."
"I'm much slower, though, since I forgot what a pen felt like in my hand," Ayako said.
"What shocked me the most is how well you draw yourself," Kanami said, her face transfixed on the image. "How do you do it?"
"I just stare at my reflection on the stream and sketch my face until it looks right," she replied.
"You make it sound like it's easy," Kanami said. "But I guess everything does come easy to you, doesn't it?"
"I feel so blessed to have such a talented younger sister," she continued. "At this rate, I might never have to work a day in my life again."
"That's the only thing that you're grateful for?" Ayako joked. "But don't think you get a free pass. Soon your full-time job will be with the baby."
"To be a mother," Kanami said, suddenly downcast. "I would be lying if I said I wasn't scared."
"You won't be alone," Ayako reassured her. "You have me and Miyuki and the guys to help you out."
"Everything is just moving so fast," she said as she rubbed her swollen belly. "It feels like only yesterday when we were inside Father's shop and you and Kanako would be competing for his approval."
"Now he's gone and nothing has ever been the same since," she continued. "I couldn't help but think how things would've gone if he didn't die."
"It makes me wonder, what would he think of us now?" she asked before a small smile lit up on her face. "I'm sure he'd be frantically in the house, what with the baby coming and all, and bragging that he's going to be a grandfather."
"I'm sure he would," Ayako said, "but I'm also sure that he wouldn't want you moping around at a time like this."
"This new life has thrown so much at us, and look at us now, we're still here," she said. "And we met so many new people and learned so many new things, about the real state of our home and our world."
Looking down at her soot-covered palms, her smile faded as she said, "We can't go back."
Kanami sniffed a bit before saying, "Why don't I get a look at your other pieces? Because I'm sure you have more than one."
Ayako smiled and held up the sheets of paper and started narrating what the painting was about, when she drew it, and so on.
As she did, the door slid open and Izumi, Lloyd, Hyogo, and Miyuki walked in. They came in to find Ayako narrating her work to Kanami, who looked overwhelmed. Fearing the same fate, they stayed quiet.
When Kanami noticed them, though, she greeted them loudly, trying to divert Ayako's attention away from her.
When they replied, Izumi asked her, "Are you feeling okay?"
"How many times must I say I'm fine?" she said in a tone a bit sharper than her usual one.
She then immediately backtracked and said, "I'm sorry, maybe I just need to sit down for a bit."
"Sure," he blurted as she walked by him and off to the other room.
Once she did, he turned to Ayako and said, "This place smells like charcoal and paint. Go outside."
"You won't tell me where to go in my own house," she shot.
"Easy, you two," Lloyd said. "You were just on good terms this morning. Don't start a fight again."
"Is that what you've been working on?" Miyuki asked.
"Yeah," she replied as she showed her the group painting of them. "I just finished this one."
"You weren't there, so how are you in the painting?" Izumi asked.
"Maybe when you learn to paint, you can draw me out, but until then, mind your own business," she shot.
"Again, really?" Lloyd sighed. "It's like everything he says pisses you off."
"That's because all he says are stupid things," she argued.
"Maybe all that can be said about you are stupid things. You ever think about that?" Izumi shot.
"You two couldn't be closer if you tried," Miyuki joked.
"Hell no!" they both yelled in unison.
What followed was an array of insults directed at Miyuki. All she could do was stand there and take the heat while Lloyd just gave up on trying to end the repetitive cycle that was those two.
Hyogo had been watching from the corner silently when his gaze suddenly shifted toward Kanami's room.
He slid open the door only to find Kanami lying on the ground, groaning in pain, a stain on the mat at her feet.
He yelled, "Hey guys, Kanami just collapsed in her room! Hurry!"
They all came running, and Ayako was the first to walk through. Seeing the stain on the mat, she already knew.
She could hear Kanami mumbling, and once she got closer, it confirmed her suspicions.
Though everyone in the room already knew it, she couldn't help but blurt it out loud.
"It's time."