Chapter 99 – The Girl Who Lit My Rain
[Setting: Naoto's Home – Present Day]
The house was quiet.
Naoto sat beside his daughter's bed, gently tucking a small stuffed fox under her arm. Her soft breathing calmed something inside him—a rhythm that reminded him of peace.
His eyes drifted to the window, where the moonlight painted shadows across the floor.
It had been years.
Since that summer.
Since she changed his life.
---
[Flashback – Hoshikawa Orphanage, 10 Years Ago]
The summer heat was unforgiving.
Twelve-year-old Naoto stood silently near the old swing set, dust clinging to his worn shirt, a cut on his knee from earlier that morning still stinging.
He didn't cry. Not anymore.
The world had already taken more than it should.
Then—
A voice, clear and strange: "You look like a kicked puppy."
He turned.
A girl stood there, hands on her hips, sunflower hair clips tucked into her messy bangs. Her shoes didn't match. One sock was striped, the other plain.
But her smile—
It was like defiance in human form.
"I'm Himari," she declared. "You're new. I hate new kids."
Naoto blinked.
"…Okay."
She narrowed her eyes. "You're not very fun."
"I'm not here to be fun."
"Then what are you here for?"
He didn't answer.
She didn't like that.
So she walked away. "Come find me when you decide to stop being boring."
---
[Mini Inner Monologue – Young Naoto]
She was fire.
I was smoke.
Maybe that's why I couldn't stay away.
---
They clashed every day.
She pulled pranks. He fixed the mess.
She shouted. He ignored her.
She cried in secret. He heard, but never asked.
Until one evening…
---
[Flashback – Orphanage Rooftop, Rainy Night]
Himari sat cross-legged under the leaking rooftop shed, clutching a tattered photo.
Naoto found her by accident, escaping from the thunder that always made his heart race.
"What are you doing here?" she asked without looking up.
"I could ask you the same."
"Running away."
"…From what?"
She turned, eyes red.
"Everything."
She pushed the photo toward him. A younger version of her family—happy, whole.
"They left me. I know they didn't mean to… but they did."
Naoto knelt beside her.
"My mom's still alive," he said. "But she's not really here anymore."
"…She's sick?"
He nodded.
They didn't speak for a long time.
Then she whispered, "You ever feel like no one's ever going to choose you?"
He didn't have to answer.
She already knew.
---
[Flashback – Next Morning]
She handed him a small, beaded bracelet. Crooked. Childish.
"I made it," she said. "So you don't forget me."
"I'm right here."
She looked up at him—eyes brighter than any sun.
"But someday, you won't be."
---
[Present Day – Naoto's House]
He held that bracelet still.
Kept in a drawer. Beside the photo she once gave him.
His wife, Himari, stirred gently in the next room.
And their daughter—his everything—slept on.
---
[Mini Inner Monologue – Naoto]
She taught me what love looked like when no one else would say the word.
She taught me pain.
But she also taught me how to live.
---