BGM: Nandemonai Hi

It’s 5 PM, and Dvorak’s “The Way Home” echoes through the city.

The perfect accompaniment to this music would be the bright red sunset at the time for calamities, but it is winter, and the winter solstice is approaching, so the sun has already set and there is only lingering light in the distant sky.

There will be a full moon, which means it will start to rise soon.
Sanae realized that she was getting a little excited.

The name “Miracle Moon” is just ridiculous, she thought.
But she couldn’t wait for it to rise.
If the moon really is three times the size, she’ll have to ask her mother for permission to go out at night.
According to the calendar on the refrigerator, she shouldn’t work today.

Sanae is very close to her mother.
Her father is a busy man and doesn’t come home much, but they have family dinners with her grandparents several times a year – it’s the model of a happy family.
Sanae’s mother trusts her, so her curfew is rather loose and she is pretty fine with her going out at night.

When Sanae tells her mother that she’s going to participate in the activities of the Hifuu Club, she just says, “It’s a good thing that you have such fun friends.”
She doesn’t want to betray her trust, so she makes it a point to go back before the date changes.

A gust of wind blew. It shook Sanae’s long hair and gave her goosebumps, so she nuzzled her face into her scarf.
She walked a little faster on her way home, wondering what’s for dinner.

The dinner was a stew.
Sanae loves her mother’s white stew and thinks it is the best in the world. Her father was not there today either, so it was just the two of them.

“It was delicious. Thanks for the meal!”
“No problem.”

Her mother asked Sanae if she could wash the dishes, and the girl said yes, with a hint of reluctance, though she didn’t really mind.

Her mother went to the living room, sat down on the sofa, and turned on the TV.
Sanae heard her voice behind her back, asking if something happened at school today. “Oh yes,” and she looked at the window.
Sanae’s eyes widened.

The moon was really round, three times as big as usual.
It seems to be an optical illusion that the moon looks bigger than usual just after it rises or just before it sets,
but now, at 8:30 PM, it was physically bigger than usual, standing at about 45 degrees between the zenith and the horizon.

It was nothing short of amazing. As expected from a Miracle Moon.
It’s kind of unattractive when you put it in words, but the moon there is so majestic.

It certainly seemed to make wishes come true, but Sanae wanted to see it more closely than that. She hadn’t been told where the designated spot was, but she hoped it would be somewhere high up.
“Hey, Mum…”

Music stops

“What?”

Her mother’s voice was very gentle, and she felt a soft sense of discomfort.
It was as if a rough tongue had licked her heart. Sanae hurriedly finished washing the dishes and wiped her hands on a towel.

She wondered if the voice she heard earlier was really her mother’s. Without knowing why she thought so,
she faced her mother properly and called out again in the same tone, “Hey, Mum…”

“What?”
It was still the same voice. This voice had a different color and texture.
It was different from the one she heard when she was eating stew with her.

It was as if she was a different person.

“What’s wrong, Sanae?”

Sanae apologized for being so absent-minded and sat down next to her mother.
“The moon today is called Miracle Moon. A couple of friends whom I talk to all the time say that if you look at it and make a wish, it will come true, so I want to go out now, okay?”

Her mother smiled at her. There was no doubt about it.
But she looked like a Noh mask, and her mood was that of a different person.

Sanae’s instincts told her that it was the strange feeling on her cheeks, lips, eyes, skin, and everywhere else.
When her mother opened her narrowed eyes, they were harshly inorganic. When black eyes collided with black eyes, Sanae couldn’t help but back away. The eyes were like a living creature without blood.

Silence reigned in the house, and only the television, left on, was allowed to make a sound.
The space, the air, was frozen as if it had been beaten to the spot.
Eventually, her mother slowly opened her mouth. Sanae knew what she would say.

“…No.”

She would have asked her why, but it would have been useless.
Sanae felt that she should not go any further. Ever since she was a little girl, these premonitions have come true.
It’s better to obey.

When she said, “Okay,” the air finally started to flow. She took a big breath, her body rushing to take in oxygen. Only then did Sanae realize that she had been holding her breath.
With slow movements, she moved away from her mother.
For now, she has to start all over again. Her brain is warning her that she should not stay in this air.

Sanae silently walked up the stairs leading to her room.