After becoming a chaotic daughter

Nanako huddled behind a cherry tree by the roadside with her schoolbag on her back.

It is already the end of autumn, and the cherry blossom trees with green leaves in summer have become withered and yellow in the autumn wind, and their leaves are beginning to fall.By mid-November, there were only a few solitary curled leaves left on the branches.

Standing under the bare cherry tree, Nanako was looking into the small park by the side of the road. A yellow dead leaf was slowly falling from the branch in the wind and fell on her head. She didn't notice it at all. Still looking intently at the empty small park.

Today's weather is not very good. Although it didn't rain, the sky has been gloomy since the morning. Heavy dark clouds are pressing on the heads of passers-by, making people unable to lift their spirits. Passers-by on the street subconsciously quicken their pace , Engrossed in walking, no one came to play in this small park on the street.

Nanako also doesn't want to come to the park to play. In this weather, she just wants to go back to the detective agency and drink hot milk on the sofa, but she made an appointment with that "auntie" a few days ago. Meet up in this little park and say something.

She came a little earlier than the agreed time, there was no one in the park, and the aunt didn't seem to have arrived yet.Nanako huddled behind the cherry tree on the roadside and waited for a while, but she didn't see anyone approaching the park, so she carefully walked out from behind the tree, stood on the side of the road, looked around, and finally ran into the park by herself .

There is a swing in this small park. Nanako sometimes passes by after school. If there is no one in the park, she will run in and swing on the swing for a while before going back.Nanako sat down on the swing, the metal load-bearing chain hanging on the cross bar creaked, and then she took Nanako to swing slowly.

Nanako took out her phone and looked at it.

【15:58】

There are still 2 minutes until the agreed time.

She stared at the time on her phone, swinging the swing very slowly, only waiting for one to four o'clock, and then ran away immediately.After all, she still doesn't really want to talk to strangers, but because it's a bit important, she can only work hard-but, but, she has worked hard for "a while", if the other party let go If she pigeons, then even if she slips away, it's not her fault.

After calculating it in her heart, Nanako silently recited "late late late late" while focusing on the time, only watching the second pass [12] again, at four o'clock, she made a "boom", almost from I jumped off the swing, stood up, and was about to run away with my schoolbag on my back.

A woman's voice suddenly came from behind her, and her breath was still a little unsteady, as if she had just stopped after a certain distance in a hurry.

"—Sorry, I'm not familiar with the roads in Yokohama, I'm a little late, have you been waiting for a long time?"

Nanako, who was just about to run away, was poked in place before she could even take a step. She was carrying a schoolbag, and she turned her head slowly like a snail. When she turned her head, she saw a man in a warm-colored long coat The woman is standing behind her.

In his thirties, his long black hair fell on his shoulders, with a slightly curly curvature like a natural curl. There was nothing special about his appearance, ordinary and delicate, with only a pair of eyes, which were so black that they seemed to be unable to fall. Into the deep well of light.

"Would you like to have something to eat at a nearby store and find a place to sit and talk." The woman took two steps forward and approached Nanako, but stopped a meter away from Nanako. Be careful not to approach it casually, "...is it a little cold outside?"

Nanako also felt that it was cold outside, and there was wind blowing from time to time, but she sniffed, shook her head, and rejected the other party's proposal: "Just say it here."

If you go to the store to eat, it may take a long time to eat.

"Okay." The woman replied with a good temper, raised her hand to support the chain of another swing, and sat down on that swing.Nanako looked at her, then backed away, and sat back on the swing just now.

The swing creaked and shook again, slowly.

"Why would Nanako want to call me?" The woman spoke first, her tone very gentle.From the first time Nanako spoke to her, she has always had such a gentle tone and is very patient with Nanako.

Nanako pursed her lips and looked down at the uneven loess ground in the park. After a while, she opened her mouth and said, "I saw you outside the detective agency before...do you want to find me?"

"Yeah." The woman nodded slightly, "I found out where you are, so I want to go there to find you."

"Why are you looking for me?" Nanako raised her head and turned to look at her.

The woman lowered her head, lowered her eyelids halfway, and leaned against the swing rope on one side, and replied softly: "In the beginning, it was because of your mother...that is, your grandma, who also passed away."

When she said this, she paused, looked up at Nanako again, and asked, "Do you want to know something about your mother? If you want to know, I will tell you. If you don't want to know, no It doesn't matter if you listen... After all, it's not something glorious, maybe it's better not to know."

mother.

In other words, it is the "mother" of "Nanako".

When Nanako crossed over, the original owner of this body probably died.I don't know why, but the memory left by "Nanako" is very vague, scattered and messy. Nanako thinks that "she" may be a fool, so she can't remember things clearly. She is six or seven years old, but she can't even speak. Not very good at speaking.

Later, she also wanted to sort out these chaotic memories seriously, but she couldn't sort them out at all, just like a piece of glass fell from more than a dozen floors, it was torn apart, and glass shards flew everywhere. There was no way to "normally" Flatten" went back.

In "Nanako"'s shattered memory, there were almost no figures, and the only person who could be roughly distinguished was the "biological father" of the robber.This biological father hardly cared about her, and only went back to the residence once in a while, and when he came back, he always treated her as "Nanako" did not exist.

The attitude of complete indifference is probably "feed as soon as I think of it", "it's fine if I don't starve to death", and it probably doesn't matter even if I starve to death. "Nanako" was probably subconsciously afraid of him. As soon as the man came back, he would shrink into a corner, not daring to approach him.

These are a few fragments that are relatively clear in memory, and there are also some vague impressions going forward.

But maybe it was because I was younger at that time, so I can't tell the difference anymore. I only know that when "Nanako" was younger, there was someone who was probably "grandma" who took care of her, and she didn't take care of her very well. No matter how caring, but it is much better than the biological father, at least it can be regarded as "care", and the little things that "Nanako" can say seem to be learned at that time.

Later, I don't know when, that "grandma" disappeared, and I don't know if she died, or whether "she" left. "She" has always been locked in that old, dark and small apartment, never going out, and she doesn't even know how to open the old-fashioned anti-theft door, and it seems that the scene outside the window has never appeared in her memory.

No one talks to "her", "she" doesn't understand anything, and all she eats is cold food, and most of the time, she doesn't even have food, so she can only starve for a long time, and what she remembers most is never Hunger that never stops.

Then "she" died.

It seems that there was a conflict between the biological father and his accomplices. During the fight, no one knew who threw "she" who was hiding by the table against the wall. hit the wall and died.

The chaotic memories stopped abruptly, and the "Nanako" who woke up became Nanako.

"Nanako" did not remember anything about "mother". Nanako remembered that Police Officer Aoki said that "her" mother had died. At that time, Nanako could not understand Japanese very well. Later, her Japanese became better. I also probably know that "Nanako"'s mother seems to have died of dystocia.

If her mother hadn't died, maybe "Nanako" would have had a better life, but Nanako didn't know what would happen if things didn't happen.

She scratched her head: "Then tell me."

Although she doesn't care about this very much, if it is "Nanako", she may care about this, so Nanako thinks it is better to listen to it.

"When your mother was a student, she was a girl who got good grades and was liked by many people."

The woman spoke slowly, as if a Chinese teacher in an elementary school deliberately slowed down her speech in order to allow students to understand the text more clearly.

"I am three years older than your mother, that is to say, when we were students, we almost never went to the same school. When I entered middle school, she was still in elementary school. When I entered high school, she was just Entering junior high school. So I don't know much about her social circle, which is one of the reasons why I didn't find out in time after the 'thing' happened."

"My father died in an accident when we were very young, so my mother worked hard to bring us up alone. Fortunately, my sister and I are good at studying, which can save my mother from worrying. Your mother's grades are better than those of my mother. I need to be excellent and have a good personality. She is a very cheerful girl, and she has not inherited these scary eyes, so it is quite natural. She has made many friends, not only classmates in school, but also People who I don’t know how to meet outside of school.”

"Your biological father was one of them."

"Your biological father used to be... a person who didn't go to school or have a serious job." The woman replaced the word "little gangster" with a more euphemistic description, but Nanako still understood, "I often go to game halls and casinos." and other places, go there to play, or show people the scene, so as to get some rewards."

"Such men are very unreliable. They will often fight and make troubles. They will not consider their families or plan for their own future. Being with such a man will ruin their life. If you want to pull such a It’s like trying to drag back a person who has stepped into the quicksand, not only is it almost impossible to drag people ashore, but often even oneself will get in.”

The woman said, frowning.

"But at that time, your mother didn't know this. She was only 15 years old at that time, she was very naive, she had no contact with society, and she didn't understand many things. I don't know how they met and what happened. , anyway, what I found out later is that she just got together with your father in such a stupid way, and kept hiding it from me and your grandma."

Nanako thinks, if this is a novel, it will probably be "Stupid White Sweet Campus Top Student Female Lead × Prodigal Son Turns Back Money Doesn't Change Little Hooligan Male Lead", the necessary plots are "hero saves the beauty", "beauty saves the hero", " Street fights", "top students skipping class to feel freedom", "little gangsters change their minds and work hard", in order to prove to the heroine's family that the gangsters have gone through all kinds of hardships and finally succeeded in making a career, the heroine also broke through the resistance of the family, and finally the two People get married, a happy ending.

But obviously, this is not a youth romance novel, but a very ruthless reality.

"Then one day, they eloped."

The woman with long black hair said.

"When my mother and I found out, the only thing we found was a letter left by my sister. Of course, what she said in the letter was not 'elopement', but 'going to the big city with the man I love to realize my dream', and said that as long as you make Once you have achieved something, you will go home.”

"My mother and I were very angry at first, but then we couldn't contact your mother. Gradually, we became worried and scared. We asked around and called the police. Later, we found out from my sister's classmates that she had such a problem. A 'boyfriend' of hers is here. But even so, trying to find someone in Japan more than ten years ago was like finding a needle in a haystack. We didn't even know which city she went to, and we couldn't find anyone if we called the police. .”

"Your grandmother and I have been looking for her for several years, and we have also traveled to many cities. Tokyo, Shibuya, Kyoto, Osaka... Yokohama also came twice, but we couldn't find her. Gradually, we had to give up. , in addition to posting missing person news on the Internet every once in a while, and going to the police station every year to inquire about the progress, my mother and I no longer run around in Japan, but return to our hometown, only thinking about when your mother left home , is already 15 years old, maybe one day, she will come back by herself... just like what she said in her letter back then."

The woman's eyes gradually turned red, but she never shed tears. She let out a soft breath before continuing.

"In the spring of this year, your grandmother passed away."

"My mother didn't see her little daughter again until she was dying. She was so sick that she couldn't see anything, but her breath was so weak that she still held my hand and said she didn't dare to see her father... Because she lost their little girl."

"I posted the obituary in many, many newspapers across Japan, as well as many online media, just to let your mother see the news. But I didn't see your mother appear until your grandma's funeral. I feel I was very angry, and I was thinking at the time, how could my sister be such an unfilial and heartless person, who would not go home for more than ten years, and even when her mother died, she would not come to see her for the last time."

"So after more than ten years, I started to look for your mother all over Japan again. This is an era of advanced Internet, which is completely different from ten years ago. I have done enough homework and know that I cannot rely on my own ability. I found your mother, so I visited famous detectives from all over the country, the 'Kudou' in Kanto, 'Miss Sakurako' in Hokkaido, 'Baba' in Hakata, 'Ayatsuji' in Tokyo..."

"When I was about to come to Yokohama to visit the 'Armed Detective Agency', someone gave me the information I had investigated."

"My younger sister came to Yokohama 16 years ago."

"Then she died in Yokohama 14 years ago."

"My sister died before my mother passed away....been dead for many years."

The swing stopped, the woman's back bent down, and her hand holding the swing rope loosened little by little, and finally she fell powerlessly, and her head hung down together.

She covered her face, as if she was crying, but she didn't, she just covered her face with her hands, and her body trembled slightly.

"I don't have a mother anymore, and I don't have a sister anymore..."

She has no family left.

Nanako looked at her without saying anything, her hand was holding the hanging rope of the swing, but she stopped shaking the swing and stopped in place.She watched the woman quietly for a while, then stretched out her hand without saying a word, leaned over, and touched her arm lightly.

She used to be the same, no family left.

"Do you want to take me away?" Nanako asked her, her voice was very soft, like catkins in spring, as if they would float away if they were not careful.

The woman raised her face from the palm of her hand, raised her head, looked at the cloud-covered sky, blinked several times, then looked back, and turned her head to look at Nanako.

"I have visited you several times." She had a soft smile on her face, "During summer, you saw me once, remember?"

"I thought at the time, if you are not doing well, I am your aunt, and I must take you away. But you are doing well, much better than I hoped... There are adults taking care of you, There are also peers playing with you. So at that time, I gave up."

"But it's autumn." Nanako looked at her, her dark eyes didn't move, her little face was expressionless, "In autumn, you're here again."

"Because I realized that it would be too dangerous for you to stay in a detective agency." The woman said softly, "...the work of a detective agency is very dangerous."

Nanako thought for a while, and thought she might be saying that when the detective agency was wanted, the whole country was chasing the detective agency, and Nanako herself was imprisoned in the detention center.If so, the time is right.

"I've heard that the clerks here are often kidnapped by criminals. Even if it didn't happen again... the incidents of last month, it would be very dangerous for you to stay in the detective agency." The woman lowered her eyes, "I hope You can grow up in peace, even if your life is not so good, as long as you can grow up in peace."

——I only have you as a family member left.

She seemed to be saying that, and Nanako felt that she understood her meaning a little bit.

But,

Nanako closed her mouth tightly. She wanted to talk to her aunt today, but she didn't know how to say it now, or she didn't know whether she should say it or not.

"So I went to meet your current father."

A woman's slightly hoarse voice sounded beside Nanako.

Nanako raised her head all of a sudden, her dark eyes were wide open, and her hands were tightly grasping the chain rope of the swing.

"I told him I wanted to take you away."