A child cannot remain a child forever. The sa went for the child nad "Guan ng".
As he learned more knowledge, as the number of children his age he interacted with increased, the small world the child originally inhabited constantly absorbed external things and expanded.
He discovered that everyone was different from him. On their birthdays, they didn't have to go to a cold grave to suffer the freezing weather. They could stay in their warm hos, eat delicious cake, receive various fun toys, and spend their birthdays under the care and blessings of their parents.
A tiny bit, just a tiny bit. The child himself didn't know that a seed nad jealousy had been planted deep in his heart, taking root and sprouting.
Then, probably in the second or third grade of elentary school, on the day before Christmas, in the child's class, the teacher asked everyone about their Christmas plans to liven up the atmosphere.
Going to a restaurant with family to feast, attending Christmas parties, going to the amusent park, helping out at the family store... There were all sorts of answers, but undoubtedly, every child's words were filled with anticipation for Christmas.
And then, before he knew it, the teacher called on him. The child, feeling sowhat displeased, answered honestly.
—Tomorrow is my birthday. I'm going with my dad to visit a grave.
"...Pfft—Hahahahahaha!"
The originally lively atmosphere was instantly extinguished as if doused with a bucket of cold water. Then, after a long silence, the classroom suddenly erupted in uproarious laughter.
Unconscious malice hurts so much. The child realized this for the first ti.
Although the teacher imdiately reprimanded and stopped the classmates who laughed at him, the psychological trauma left behind still made him feel a bit breathless even now when recalling it.
After returning ho, the child felt very wronged, but due to an inexplicable sense of pride, he didn't cry to his father. He thought his father would definitely notice such a thing on his own.
However, things didn't go as planned. As the anniversary of his mother's death approached, his father's attitude towards him grew much colder. Perhaps imrsed in sorrow for the deceased, he unconsciously ignored many things. But to the child today, it was like adding fuel to the fire, delivering a ruthless follow-up blow.
Then, on Christmas Day, when his father took his hand to go to the grave as usual, the child finally couldn't hold back his eruption. He shook off his father's hand and argued with him.
The content of the argunt... he couldn't rember, or rather, he had no mory of it at all. What the child said back then was more like insults than tearful complaints, solely to protect himself, to favor himself. In that instant, the child tossed all the kindness his father usually showed him to the back of his mind. Like picking bones from an egg, he used all sorts of harsh words to berate his father as worthless. As he spoke, looking at his father rendered speechless by his insults, the child felt an inexplicable sense of satisfaction in his heart.
—It doesn't matter what happens to dead people, so...
Slap—!
Suddenly, a loud slap landed on his face. The burning, stinging pain on his cheek instantly stunned the child. Imdiately after, tears of grievance welled up in the child's eyes.
—I hate it! I hate Dad the most! Since you think Mom is more important than , go find her by yourself!
And just like that, without even glancing at his father, the child cried and shouted as he hid in his own room.
—————————————
December 25th, 6:50 PM.
"Phew..."
In the fitting room of the n's fashion section, Itsuka Shido, having returned to his male body, looked at himself wearing n's clothes in the mirror and breathed a sigh of relief.
"Ah. It feels like my feet are on solid ground..."
As he spoke, Shido even felt so moved he wanted to cry. Because today, he didn't awaken so weird fetish out of desperation from all those unbearable monts! That's truly wonderful!
"Shido. Are you done changing?"
"Mhm, I'm done. I'll be right out."
Hearing Yutsuki's urging from outside the fitting room, Shido hurriedly put on his shoes and walked out.
"Mhm, you look quite handso. As expected, clothes make the man."
Sweeping a scrutinizing gaze over Shido a few tis, Yutsuki nodded in satisfaction. This inevitably filled Shido's heart with a bit of smugness.
"And how is the fit? Is there anything that doesn't fit well?"
"Mhm, the size is just right."
"Is that so. Then let's buy this outfit."
After confirming the clothes fit Shido well, Yutsuki went to the cashier to pay.
Seeing the girl who had originally co in with Yutsuki mysteriously replaced by a boy, the cashier's face was written with confusion and surprise. However, after Yutsuki bluffed that Shiori had to leave for sothing and this person was her brother, the cashier accepted it, half-believe it.
After paying, Shido and Yutsuki didn't plan to wander around anymore and headed straight ho.
"But honestly, I'm a bit surprised," Shido sighed with an unexpectedly emotional tone on the way. "I didn't expect you to proactively ask to change back into a guy. I thought you'd want to stay as a girl until we got ho."
"Eh~ I was originally planning to do that."
Shrugging helplessly, Yutsuki sighed with deep regret, her amber eyes filled with absolute resentnt.
"It's Shido's fault. Doing sothing so exaggerated just now, my heart is still pounding wildly. If we didn't change you back quickly, my reason would have definitely evaporated. I would have kidnapped you, used DEM's black tech to alter your mories, and eloped with Shiori-chan behind Tohka and the others' backs."
"Haha... That joke isn't funny at all, Yutsuki."
"Do you think I look like I'm joking?"
"..."
For an instant, he had the illusion of brushing past death. Cold sweat broke out on Shido's forehead.
"Well, anyway, thanks a lot, Yutsuki. I'll pay you back for the clothes later."
"No need, why are you being so polite with ? We already agreed I would give you a Christmas present. Although it's not particularly special, consider these clothes your Christmas present. Besides—"
Yutsuki waved her hand and said. Then she looked at the shopping bag in her other hand, which contained the dress and underwear Shiori had just taken off, still faintly retaining the girl's scent and residual warmth.
"The Christmas present I wanted most is right here! What's an outfit worth? I'd even be willing to buy that entire store in exchange!"
"Ah... I guess so. Thank you, I'll cherish it."
Looking at Yutsuki, whose face was instantly blooming with joy, Shido could only nod in response with a bitter smile.
"Then, next I need to prepare a sterile safe for storage... Ratatoskr should have one... I'll ask Kotori-chan to look into it later..."
Looking at Yutsuki imrsed in so kind of thought and starting to mutter to herself, Shido decided to pretend he didn't hear anything.
Buzz buzz—
"Hm?"
Suddenly, a faint vibration ca from his pocket. Shido took out his phone and saw it was a text ssage from Reine.
(What's wrong? Is there a problem at ho?)
Shido couldn't help but frown secretly. Because using the wireless earpiece for communication would be noticed by Yutsuki, Shido and the others decided to do the opposite and use normal cell phones to communicate, avoiding Yutsuki's suspicion.
[Shin... the progress on this end is a bit slow... Sorry, could you stall for another ten minutes?]
(Why do you look like you're about to fall asleep even when sending a text ssage, Miss Reine?)
Shido retorted speechlessly in his heart.
"Mhm... Ten minutes, huh? That should be fine."
Shido pondered for a mont. If he used the excuse of being thirsty to take a detour to a farther convenience store to buy drinks, he should be able to buy ten minutes.
"What's wrong, Shido?"
By this ti, Yutsuki had snapped out of her wild imagination and looked at Shido with so confusion.
"Nothing. Just a spam text."
Hurriedly putting away his phone, Shido answered, pretending nothing was wrong.
"Speaking of which, Yutsuki, I'm a bit thirsty. Do you want to go to the convenience store together to buy so drinks?"
"Mhm, sure."
Yutsuki nodded, followed Shido around the corner, and walked towards the convenience store.
"But it really isn't easy for you, Shido. To prepare a surprise party for , you actually had to turn into a girl to stall for ti."
Yutsuki said in a casual, chatty tone.
"It couldn't be helped. If I didn't go this far, you'd definitely... have... noticed...?!"
Shido replied subconsciously, but halfway through his sentence, he seed to realize sothing was wrong and stopped.
"Eh?"
"Is that so, is that so? Going this far for my sake. Although you failed, I'm still very happy, Shido."
Yutsuki patted Shido's shoulder, looking very gratified.
"Eh—What are you talking about? What surprise party? I don't know anything about it."
"...Well, um, Shido. I'm sorry, but I wasn't trying to trick you into confessing."
Watching Shido pretend to be clueless and play dumb, Yutsuki sighed with a bitter smile.
"Today you're preparing a surprise party for my birthday, right? Yuzuru and Kaguya were picking out presents, Tohka, Origami, and Yoshino were responsible for ordering the cake, and the others should be preparing the party at ho. And then, so I wouldn't find out, you turned into a girl to go on a date with to distract , right?"
Completely correct.
"...When did you notice?"
Being seen through so clearly, Shido knew there was no point in continuing to play dumb. His face instantly turned bitter, and he asked unwillingly.
Honestly, to hide it from Yutsuki, he had basically thrown away all his dignity and pride.
"Well... how should I put it? Actually, you did pretty well, Shido. I really thought you had forgotten about it at first. When we ran into the Yamai and Tohka, although I felt sothing was off, my mind was full of Shiori, so I didn't pay much attention. It's just..."
"Just?"
Yutsuki scratched her cheek sowhat awkwardly.
"It's just... the mont you changed back into a guy, I imdiately realized that everything before was everyone preparing a surprise party for ."
"You can't do that to !!!"
Shido felt like he wanted to cry but had no tears. If he had known, he shouldn't have been tempted by Yutsuki's proposal and insisted on walking her ho as a girl.
Wait? If he did that, wouldn't Yutsuki have kidnapped him and eloped?
So the option of achieving his goal didn't exist from the very beginning?
"But I didn't expect that you would actually rember my birthday, Shido."
Yutsuki couldn't help but sigh with emotion.
"Of course, you told your birthday yourself, Yutsuki. How could I forget it."
Adjusting his mood slightly, hearing Yutsuki's words, Shido couldn't help but recall the non-everyday date in the computer world, when Yutsuki read the magic spell in a soft, cute tone on Christmas.
If anything, it was hard to forget.
"Shido, what were you just thinking about?"
"No, I wasn't thinking about anything."
Seeing the gentle smile hiding murderous intent beside him, Shido decisively chose to play dumb and then changed the subject.
"And then, since it's a rare birthday, I wanted to give Yutsuki a surprise, so I asked everyone to hold a surprise party."
"And they all proactively offered to help, right?"
"Exactly. When everyone heard, they all said they wanted to give you an unexpected surprise, Yutsuki. Every single one of them was highly motivated... Uh, however..."
However, this surprise party was exposed by him before it even started. Thinking of this, Shido couldn't help but lower his head in depression.
"Well, don't be so down, Shido."
Yutsuki patted the other's shoulder comfortingly.
"No problem, I won't tell everyone I found out about the surprise party. When we go in the door later, I'll pretend I didn't know and act surprised by everyone."
"No—uh, honestly, it would be a big help if you could do that. But... sothing's not right here!?"
Didn't he hide the surprise party from her to give her a surprise? Why did it turn into her helping him cover up the lie to the others?
"Well, let's not worry about the small details. The fact that everyone prepared a birthday party for is already a wonderful thing in itself. Even if it's not a surprise, I'm very happy."
"Ugh—Alright."
Although still sowhat unable to accept it, Shido also knew. Since the plan had already been seen through by Yutsuki, no amount of regret would help.
(Sorry, Shido.)
Probably also feeling that her timing to expose it was a bit insensitive, Yutsuki couldn't help feeling a bit guilty and secretly apologized in her heart.
Then, after going to the convenience store to buy drinks, Yutsuki took a detour and killed ten minutes before walking back to the Itsuka household.
"Phew..."
Stopping at the door, Yutsuki took an uneasy deep breath. After hesitating for a mont, she finally seed to make up her mind and opened the door.
"Happy Birthday! Yutsuki / My corade / Yutsuki-nee / Honey!"
Pop—! Pop—! Pop—!
The mont she opened the door, gorgeous party poppers blood before Yutsuki's eyes.
...
The day after Christmas, the child didn't continue arguing with his father. Both tacitly avoided talking about yesterday's events, and it was just left unresolved like that.
However, this didn't an reconciliation. From then on, an invisible wall seed to appear in the lives of the father and son, and their relationship gradually grew cold.
Why did it turn out like this?
Honestly, after saying those words yesterday, the child regretted it.
He didn't want to make things so ugly with his father. He just hoped his father would think more about how today was his birthday, hoped he wouldn't just think about sweeping the grave on his birthday, and could celebrate it with him.
Perhaps, this was truly his selfishness.
His mother died giving birth to him. So him forcing his father to celebrate his birthday would only evoke his sad mories.
Perhaps, his father also thought sowhere in his heart that it would have been better if he hadn't been born.
The child regretted demanding things he didn't need, and constantly prayed to redy what was lost.
The young child didn't know what to do to nd his relationship with his father. Being clumsy, he could only continuously try to do what he had to do to the best of his ability.
Overcoming his dislike for vegetables, learning to clean his room, not running around everywhere anymore, not making selfish demands for snacks and toys, studying with all his might at school. If he finished learning the knowledge in the textbooks, he would ask the teacher for the next grade's knowledge.
Because of this, teachers and neighbors all started praising the child, saying he had matured a lot.
However, even so, he and his father still hadn't reconciled as before.
A year passed like this, and it was Christmas again.
Unlike before, his father didn't ask the teacher for a leave of absence to take him to sweep the grave today. So the child just attended a normal day of classes and returned ho.
—At this ti, Dad should still be at the grave visiting, right.
Not sensing any movent inside the house, the child sighed in disappointnt, and at the sa ti, began to hate himself for getting used to this kind of life.
However—
"Happy Birthday! Guan ng!"
"Wah!"
Startled by the sudden sound of a party popper, the child involuntarily let out a cry.
"Surprise party, major success!"
Seemingly satisfied with his son's reaction, the father's face showed a cheerful smile like a child.
Gradually recovering from the shock, the child noticed that unlike the quiet room he expected, the house was hung with various decorative ribbons. On the table sat a fruit cake, and the candles stuck in it burned with a warm light.
—What is this?
"Hm? As you can see, a birthday party."
—Eh? Why, didn't you go sweep the grave today?
"Ah—I already went to see Mom and her side yesterday. Although the timing is a bit off, a one or two-day difference shouldn't be a big deal."
—But! But! Aren't you angry, Dad? I said bad things about Mom.
"Ah—If possible, I really don't want to rember that. Hitting my own son when I'm the one who made a mistake. There should be a limit to how much of a scumbag I am. Sorry!"
—No! That's not true! I... I'm the one who wants to apologize to you, Dad.
Lowering his head abruptly, the child finally realized how many detours he had taken. If he wanted to reconcile, he just needed to muster the courage to talk.
—Um, Dad. Is it really okay? If celebrating my birthday today makes you unhappy, I don't have to... Ouch.
"Silly child, don't push yourself too hard. Trying to act mature and care about adults, you're still ten years too early."
Tapping the child's head in exasperation, the father sighed helplessly and pulled him into a hug.
"Sorry it took so long to figure it out. I've long since ceased to be a qualified husband, so at the very least, I must be a passing father. So, rest assured—"
Gently patting his back, the father soothed Guan ng with gentle words.
—Your mother and I, regarding your birth, are both genuinely grateful and offer our blessings from the bottom of our hearts.
...
Drip—!
Before she knew it, a teardrop slid down Yutsuki's cheek. This completely unexpected reaction instantly threw everyone into a panic.
"Yutsuki, are you feeling unwell? Did you eat sothing bad?"
"What should we do, Yuzuru!? Did I scare Yutsuki?"
"Worry. Are you okay? Did debris from the party popper get in your eye?"
"Honey, don't cry, don't cry. Did you rember sothing sad?"
"Hey! Shido, did you do sothing to make Yutsuki-nee sad?"
"I'm innocent! I didn't do anything!"
Feeling the angry glare from Kotori, Shido hurriedly waved his hands to defend himself.
"...N-No. Y-You guys misunderstood... This is just... tears of joy... It was too unexpected... so I couldn't help but cry out of happiness."
Hurriedly wiping the tears from the corners of her eyes, Yutsuki explained sowhat incoherently.
"What, so that's it."
Hearing this, everyone couldn't help but sigh in relief.
"Yutsuki..."
Shido's voice carried a bit of worry. Although he knew beforehand that Yutsuki was just putting on an act, to call this acting was perhaps a bit too exaggerated.
Moreover, for so reason, the crying girl before him couldn't help but remind Shido of the ti Yutsuki cried bitterly in front of him after returning from the computer world.
"It's fine, Shido."
Seemingly understanding his unease, Yutsuki showed a bright smile.
Honestly, whenever Christmas approached, thinking of her deceased parents, Guan ng would occasionally wonder: Was it really a good thing that I was born into this world? If I hadn't been born, would my parents have been able to live a happier and more perfect life?
But it's fine now.
Just like her past self in the previous world, in this world too, there are people willing to offer blessings for her birth.
"Thank you, everyone. This is the best birthday I've ever had."
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