---
"If you had wings, Papa... where would you fly to?"
Yuna was still twirling the pencil between her fingers.
The howork workbook lay open in front of us.
I looked at the question for a mont.
---
"Humans are not built to have wings."
The pencil in Yuna’s hand stopped twirling.
"Not built?"
"No."
I folded my hands on the table.
"The human body is too heavy."
She imdiately listened intently.
As usual.
---
"To lift a human body with your weight, the minimum wingspan would be around six ters."
Her eyes widened slightly.
"Six ters?"
"Yes."
I pointed at her chest.
"A human’s chest muscles are also far too small to flap wings of that size."
She looked down at her own body.
Then she looked over her shoulder at her back.
As if trying to imagine six-ter wings.
---
I continued in a flat tone.
"If you were to suddenly grow wings and attempt to fly..."
She waited for the rest of the sentence.
"Your ribcage would most likely fracture on the very first flap."
Yuna stared at .
Two seconds.
Three seconds.
"...So I can’t fly?"
"You can."
She looked slightly relieved.
"Where to?"
"The hospital."
She stared at again.
Her thought process was clearly visible.
Wings.
Flap.
Ribcage.
Hospital.
Then—
"Pff—"
A small laugh slipped out again.
Louder than before.
"Hehehe..."
She bowed her head.
Clutching her stomach slightly.
"That’s such a weird answer."
"It makes perfect dical sense."
Yuna was still giggling softly.
She finally looked back down at her howork workbook.
---
Her pencil moved.
She wrote with a completely different energy than before.
Her handwriting remained neat.
But this ti, she didn’t stop to overthink.
A few minutes later, the book was closed.
Howork finished.
I glanced at the wall clock.
18:57.
I stood up.
"Dinner ti."
Yuna imdiately stood up as well.
She helped fetch two bowls.
We had a simple dinner.
Rice.
Instant curry.
Warm steam filled the small room.
Yuna sat in her chair.
Her legs swung gently beneath the table.
A relaxed movent that hadn’t appeared all day.
"Yamada likes curry too," she said suddenly.
"Many kids like curry."
She nodded in agreent.
We ate without much conversation after that.
Once finished, I cleared the plates.
Yuna wiped the small table with a cloth.
A simple routine.
---
The clock showed almost seven.
I took the futon out of the closet.
The mattress was laid out on the floor.
Yuna helped straighten the blankets.
Just as I patted the surface of the futon to flatten it—
the phone in my pocket vibrated.
Bzz.
The screen lit up.
There was a ssage icon from the school’s communication system.
I opened the ssage.
Yuna was still adjusting the pillows on the floor.
"Papa?"
"Hm."
"Who is the ssage from?"
---
I read the contents of the ssage for a mont.
Then read it once more.
The ssage wasn’t very long.
The sender was Yuna’s horoom teacher.
I read the first part aloud in a flat voice.
"Mr. Nishida."
Yuna turned her head.
"We would like to report that your daughter was involved in a... rather unique discussion during lunch today."
Yuna stopped moving.
Her eyes slowly widened.
I scrolled down the screen a bit.
"Several students are now requesting their parents to make them... an ’anti-gravity concrete bento’."
Yuna imdiately covered her face with both hands.
I continued reading.
"Furthermore, one of the students attempted to drop his lunch box off his desk to test this theory."
I stopped.
---
Then I read the final sentence.
"In order to prevent further physics experints in the classroom, we would like to speak with you tomorrow morning."
The room fell silent.
Yuna still had her hands over her face.
"Papa..."
"Hm."
"...Is that my fault?"
I turned off the phone screen.
"Partly."
She peeked through the gaps in her fingers.
"Are you going to get scolded by the teacher?"
"Probably."
Yuna lowered her head slightly.
"I’m sorry."
I straightened the final corner of the futon.
"We’ll just explain it tomorrow."
She gave a small nod.
"Okay."
The bedroom light was turned off.
The room grew quiet.
It seed tomorrow morning was going to be slightly troubleso.
---
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