Nagasaki Soyo admitted that she was drunk.
Her head ached a little, and her whole self was burning hot.
The Soyo of this moment wished she could shed every stitch of clothing on her body, jump into the river, and gleefully disguise herself as a clump of waterweed.
She'd already… kind of lost count of how many mugs of beer she'd drunk.
Tilting her head up to gaze ahead, Soyo could seemingly still see, with perfect clarity, the two good friends who'd been drinking with her…
Two people she could never forget.
Takamatsu Tomori and Shiina Taki clinked glasses with each other; in just an instant, they'd glug-glug-glugged down most of their drinks.
"Soyo, can you still drink, or not? If not, hurry home first — Tomori and I'll stay and drink a bit longer."
"Whuu… yeah, it's so late by now — you've got work tomorrow, right? Running a company on your own really is exhausting! Hurry home and get some proper rest."
Takamatsu Tomori, who worked at Stone Company, propped her head up, her bleary eyes staring fixedly at her beer mug.
"It's so rare we get to gather like this — is it really all right for me to just up and abandon you two like that?"
Even though she'd had a lot to drink, Soyo still maintained her own poised elegance, not the slightest bit unraveled.
"All right? Whether it's all right or not doesn't matter. It's this kind of feeling I want… haah, the pressure's been so heavy lately… feels like there's nothing I can do right."
Taki took another sip of her drink, then began sobbing softly.
"Eh.?" Nagasaki Soyo gave her head a little shake.
Looking at the sniffling, weeping Shiina Taki in front of her, and at the solitarily withdrawn Takamatsu Tomori, Soyo felt — somehow, somewhere — a swell of feeling rise in her heart.
Alcohol… it really could draw even feelings buried this deep down out into the open?
Getting to bump into bandmates from her middle-school days was just a coincidence too; watching everyone weighed down by such heavy real-world pressure while she herself was powerless to do anything about it… that taste was really hard to swallow.
"I'm heading home. You two shouldn't stay out drinking too late either."
Soyo wearily picked up the coat off the back of her chair, settled the bill at the counter, and walked out of the izakaya without so much as a glance back.
"Hurk-hurk… ugh-ugh… hurk…"
Nagasaki Soyo, both hands on the ground, knelt over the drain at the side of the road, retching uncontrollably.
Coming out of the izakaya, exchanging brief farewells with her two old acquaintances, getting into the taxi — at that point she still hadn't felt any urge to throw up.
It was probably because she'd been triggered by the peculiar smell that taxis have, which set off the alcohol inside Soyo's body and gave her the urge to empty her stomach.
Or maybe… it was just that her brain had been numbed, and that was why her body had reacted this way.
The moment she got out of the taxi she'd thrown up clean — driving out of her stomach all of the grilled vegetables and steamed vegetables she'd taken in as side dishes with her drinks.
Before Nagasaki Soyo had walked many steps, she threw up again.
She brought up a liquid reeking of alcohol — and nearly heaved up her bile alongside it.
Then, somewhere near her home, she threw up once more.
This time, it seemed she really had vomited bile.
So miserable.
Her old friends had stirred up her memories.
Ever since graduating middle school, she'd never been in another band.
In high school she'd been busy with the school's club activities, and in university, she'd gone with her mother to get acquainted with her mother's circles.
The Soyo of today had already become someone just like her mother — she had her own company, her own house, her own career.
But she didn't seem to be very happy.
It seemed she'd… lost the ability to love.
Tottering to her feet, Nagasaki Soyo hadn't walked far before the urge to throw up came back over her.
However, sensing that her stomach had nothing left in it to throw up, Soyo didn't choose to crouch down again in search of a drain.
Forcing down the urge to retch, swaying her way home, Soyo watched her vision blacken and brighten over and over.
All she had to do was turn right at the intersection up ahead where the streetlamp stood, and she'd be at the place where she currently lived.
She widened her slightly hazy eyes and made her way toward the streetlamp; very quickly, she sensed something off about it.
The streetlamp itself was perfectly fine — what was off was something beneath the streetlamp.
Down beneath the streetlamp, it seemed there was a person — or something — there.
Surely not — another drunk?
Nagasaki Soyo had sobered up considerably, and her urge to vomit had eased quite effectively as well.
In bustling downtown districts or near commercial-street stations there were plenty of fool drunks at night who couldn't make it home… but this was the first time she'd ever seen one near her own home.
A bit of a novelty — but not much.
As the distance between them shrank further, Nagasaki Soyo realized that what she was looking at seemed to be a tiny infant wrapped up in swaddling cloth.
A… baby?
Curled up inside the thick, blue-and-white-striped cotton fabric, it neither cried nor fussed — it just lay quietly there.
[What an adorable child.]
Soyo's vision was beginning to clear; as she drew closer to the other one, she also stole a glance at her watch.
One in the morning. Major fail for someone with a no-staying-up-late policy.
So — why would there be a small child here at a time of night like this?
Nagasaki Soyo was essentially fully sober now; her mind, at this moment, was unusually clear.
"Phew… how have I ended up bumping into something like this."
Soyo felt her tone wasn't terribly gentle — after all, her mood had been pretty foul lately… still, hopefully she hadn't scared the little child, right?
As a mature, capable career woman in her late twenties, she couldn't bring herself to leave such a weak, piteous little child all alone on a street in the dead of night.
That ran counter to everything she'd been raised on, and so Soyo, in the end, chose to scoop it up into her arms.
"Mngh?"
The child kept her eyes closed and only let out a soft little murmur.
"In weather this cold — what kind of mother could be heartless enough to abandon a child like this? If she's just left alone, she won't make it through to tomorrow."
Nagasaki Soyo took a few uncertain steps forward.
But there wasn't a soul in sight nearby — never mind finding the pair of parents who'd abandoned the child.
What was Soyo to do with this poor little girl?
[Drop her off at a daycare, maybe — or call the police.]
Her head was muddled and reeling; with the alcohol kicking in hard, Nagasaki Soyo couldn't be sure she was capable of making the right choice.
[No, no. If I call the police… she's still so tiny — I can't put my mind at ease about it.]
While Soyo was propped up against a wall to rest, a furious bout of brainstorming going on inside her head, the little child in her arms woke up.
She blinked open a pair of big red eyes — golden pinpricks of light making them all the more bewitching.
"What pretty, pretty eyes."
Soyo gave the child a little jiggle — she'd wanted to lean in close to get a better look, but then remembered the alcohol stench all over herself.
All she could do was lower her head and steal glances, admiring the silky tender little face of the baby.
"Oh, forget it… I'll just take her home first… and tomorrow when I wake up… we'll figure it out then."
Carrying a little child, swaying along toward her own home, Soyo no longer felt the urge to throw up.
And in her arms, the little red-eyed girl was still being quietly carried.
[My, my… is she really this easy to fool?]
Chiose held tight to Nagasaki Soyo — a motion that, from Soyo's perspective, looked like an attempt to grasp at some kind of security.
[Silly daughter — looks like even in a world without me in it, you haven't grown up all that much either.]
[The thing I can't be sure of is — if you became a mother yourself, would you be able to do better than your own mother, Ms. Nagasaki, did.]
[And whether you'd be able to do better than I would.]
[Let us wait and see.]
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