My name is Hinato Nanatsuno.
“What do your parents do?”
Yes. My parents’ hobby is photography, and they do club activities as volunteers with the organizers of the pigeon club.
“Then, please tell me your age.”
I am 10 years old. My hobby? My hobby is pasting pigeon articles. I make a so-called pigeon journal. I plan to turn it into an article and present it at a school presentation someday.
“Hinato, you really like pigeons, don’t you?”
Well, since my parents work as freelance photographers, I thought I should study it!
Ah, more importantly, who are you? I do not know you.
Are you connected to the school? Ah, you must be the teacher for the new school year, right?
“I am a substitute teacher for Ms. Akino Tatamura. Nice to meet you.”
I see. You also enjoy the elegance of a woman, Teacher.
I understand. The more beautiful a woman becomes, the more arrogant she gets—
Ah, I am sorry… my true feelings just slipped out… tee-hee♪
“By the way, Nanatsuno-san. We are going to the Marubatsu Rainbow Trail for the upcoming field trip, could you tell your mother? We need to put you on the roster, because it would be bad if you went missing.”
Yes. Understood! I will tell my mother.
…School ended today like that.
I still do not care about pigeons, and my parents’ hobbies are being forced upon me.
Good grief, what on earth am I…?
So, I walk down the alley on my way home.
Because of various things yesterday, I have become hypersensitive.
Huh?
Sniff, sniff… Something smells burnt.
Who on earth is making roasted sweet potatoes in the middle of summer?
Besides, in this direction, it is close to home.
Waaah, fan-fan, wee-woo, wee-woo
I run desperately in that direction.
I have had good instincts since I was little, and sometimes bad things that shouldn’t happen actually happen.
Hah—hah—… This is it!
Roaaar—boom-boom-boom—… Huh?
Kyaaaa—… What is happening?
The house is burning—it’s burning and spreading so much…
“Hinato-chan!”
Ah, Aunt Tamaki…?
“Your mom and dad went into the house and didn’t come out for a while, and when I looked, it was burning!”
Eh!? Sorry, I don’t know what’s going on…
“It was burning so fiercely! And while I was calling out, it spread—”
No… No way…
Ever since I was little, their hobby of pigeons grew and they got along really well.
But sometimes they clashed, and one of them wouldn’t come home.
We stopped seeing eye to eye, and yesterday they started talking about submitting divorce papers.
Even cheating was finally exposed, and they were about to go through a divorce trial.
Days continued that I, a child, could not understand, so I lied to the teacher.
The truth was that both of them had grown to hate pigeons, yet they forced it onto me, their daughter.
Their hobby had gone too far. To think it would lead to arson and suicide.
By the way, the old man living in the park alley liked pigeons.
He was homeless and occasionally fed them bread crumbs.
If pigeons were my parents, maybe I would have caught a different kind of happiness—
Really, for such happy days to come true in this form… right?
“Hey, are you the daughter of the Nanatsuno family?”
Ah, yes.
“Actually, I’m an old friend of your mother’s.”
Eh?
“If they divorced, they couldn’t take care of you anymore, so they asked me to take you in… In other words, you are going to be my adopted child.”
This place is called a child waiting center, a place where children who have lost their parents due to the system are placed while looking for foster parents.
I was taken into custody by investigative officials after that and asked various things.
I was so tired but suddenly an adopted child…
“You have a family register, but no one would take you in, so you’ll live with me from now on. But it’s a bit complicated, pigeons—they live there. And the person I’m engaged to—in other words, a husband? A wife? Well, because of that, I have to register on the resident record… is that okay?”
Pigeons? Are there pigeons in the family?
And I am going to live with you people from now on?
Such a sudden—what on earth is happening…
The “field trip” has become an unimaginably long distance.
“After all, love is hotter than fire.”