"Little Bird, Little Bird, fly away. Come again some other day." Kotone sang quietly, peeling an apple for when Miyamoto woke up. Kotone wasn't sure why you had to peel apples before serving them to sick people. She suspected it was to give the healthy visitor something to do. Sort of like how graves weren't really for the sake of the dead, peeled apples weren't really for the sake of the sick. Peeling was its own reward.

　　"What is that? You seem to be giving our daughter some awful ideas." Masanori mumbled, his eyes slowly blinking awake.

　　"She needs to know her name before she's born, or else she'll be confused when we call out to her." Kotone said primly, putting down her knife and the saucer containing his carefully prepared fruit.

　　"This time they shot you in the lung, dear." Kotone said. "It's okay. Just like kidneys, humans have spare lungs. You'll never miss it."

　　Masanori sighed, feeling extremely tired. "I can't believe I'm alive. One moment Aiko was shouting, and the next moment I was on the ground. I couldn't breathe, and then I couldn't see. I couldn't even move to find cover. I was sure that was what death felt like."

　　"Well you're not dead. You're going to be fine." Kotone repeated, fighting back tears. It was always him. The entire weight of the world was always on him. How many years would this take off his lifespan? Five? Twenty? She didn't know. How many more injuries would he take after this one? She didn't know. And she only had one tiny unborn daughter of his so far. If he died now, she'd be left with almost nothing to remember him by. It was too soon. She couldn't handle Masanori dying now. She was only twenty years old. Raising a child alone in a vast empty mansion was asking too much of her. That wasn't her dream life at all.

　　"If I'm alive, I guess that means we won." Masanori tried to smile.

　　"Isao told me they got away. But at least all of us lived." Kotone said.

　　"Our will is continuing while theirs is thwarted. It's our win." Masanori repeated.

　　"Yes dear." Kotone was happy to agree, since it would make him feel better. Masanori was so strong. Where did his confidence come from? What would she do if they came back to finish him off?

　　"How long until I'm released?" Masanori asked.

　　"Only a week." Kotone said. "But you'll be weak and need my wifely affections after that."

　　"A fair trade." Masanori smiled. "I love your wifely affections."

　　"They're a real bother, so don't go getting shot just to receive them." Kotone replied gently.

　　"Haha. You're on to me. Well, it was nice while it lasted." Masanori smiled.

　　"Right when you leave the hospital, it'll be my turn to go in." Kotone complained. "They really need to invent an artificial womb already."

　　"If they did that, boys would abandon women wholesale." Masanori sighed, closing his eyes. "It would be a total disaster. The end of the world."

　　"So that's what you were really after. You just couldn't have children without me?" Kotone quipped.

　　"Of course. That's what all of us are after. . .not a secret. . .tell Little Bird. . . I love her." And then Masanori was asleep again. Kotone made sure he hadn't just died on her by listening to the heartbeat machine carefully. The sound calmed her enough to unclench all the muscles in her stomach.

　　"Papa loves you, Kotori. Did you hear him? That was Papa. I love you too. So hurry up and join us. We all want to see you. I have so many anime series I want to show you. We'll watch them together in our home theatre. The screen is huge. You'll be the most spoiled child in the universe. But if you don't come out, I can't give you anything. So hurry up and grow, Kotori. It's a fun world out here. I promise I'll keep it warm for you." Kotone spoke softly to her child.

　　"Stupid Papa," Kotone continued. "He shouldn't have told Mama he loved you more than me, should he? Drugged people say the dumbest things. Even if it's true, Papa normally wouldn't have said that. Wives have to put up with so much, you know that? And the wives of soldiers have to put up with the most. And now he loves you more than me. You must be a real looker, Kotori. I'm a model, but you stole his heart in a flash. I guess you'll have my job in no time, huh? Just so long as you remember to wear cat ears like I did. Don't forget to model for anime magazines. I'll only give up my job to you if you promise to model for them too."

　　Kotone couldn't help herself, and started tearing up. She was so helpless. Her husband was weak and vulnerable, her child was weak and vulnerable, and she was weak and vulnerable, and the most powerful beings in existence wanted to kill them more than anyone else in the multiverse. She had to keep talking to Kotori or the fear would overwhelm her.

　　"But it can't be helped, can it?" Kotone restarted, fiercely wiping away her tears. "The truth is, I love you more than Papa too. I know exactly how he feels. It's a feeling of not being able to do anything about it, like the love has already been decided and you're just watching on from afar. So I'll forgive him. That way, we can give you a little sibling. You'd like that, right? So hurry up and join us. We need the real estate. Once you're out, we can fit in another. All your little siblings are waiting on you. They're only souls right now, but they're waiting, out there. They're waiting right next to you. They're probably cheering you on, Kotori. They're saying "Keep at it!" "Keep at it, Kotori!" "Keep at it, and we'll follow after! Keep at it, and we'll keep at it too!" Listen, Kotori. The eldest sibling is a really important role. You have to be their role model, and take care of everyone."

　　"The eldest sibling has to be the best. She can't let her younger brothers and sisters down, because they will all look up to you. More than me, they'll look up to you. Crazy, isn't it? Even though I'm their mother. But I need you to help me with all the other kids. Mothers don't really raise their children. The secret of it is, we only raise the eldest child. From there on, you all just raise each other. Isn't that crazy? It's pretty irresponsible of us, don't you think? But we all do it. Every family. I guess mothers get tired after the first. So you're the only child I get to raise, Kotori. After that they're all yours. Don't worry, I'll take care of all the painful and messy and boring parts. But you have to be good to them. That's your job. Be strong, and make your siblings strong. I can't do that part for you. That part is up to you. Love your siblings like I love you. They're your only siblings in the whole wide world. Even when the younger siblings are loud or annoying or lying or cheating or stealing or hitting you, don't forget it. They're your irreplaceable family. Your only little brothers and little sisters in the whole wide world. If you remember that, you'll always feel warm inside, even when they're annoying. It's the secret recipe to happiness. Treasure the people around you, and you'll always be happy. Simple, huh? But knowing that made me one of the top forty people on Earth. I guess it wasn't so simple after all. Your Mama's amazing, Kotori. My advice is worth all the gold in the world and more. But you get it for free, because you're Mama's daughter. Nice, huh? You have no idea how happy you're going to be. We're all going to be so happy together. From day one, your life is going to have the end of movie credits rolling. Your biography is only going to have two sentences:

　　"Kotori was born. And then she lived happily ever after."

　　"Amazing, huh? Your Mama's amazing though, so she can do it. Just you wait. Together we can do anything. I can't give you Bubbles anymore, but I'll lobby for another wyrd. You want to be a magical girl, right? Of course you do. Just be sure to pick a really beautiful dress when you transform. You only get one chance, so you have to imagine it just right the very first time. I can't wait to take a picture of you in it. A looker like you, wearing a dress like that, might be the most beautiful object on Earth. Just think. You're going to be the most beautiful person on Earth. Isn't that quite a future? Not just anyone can be that pretty. But you can. Once you're born, you can do anything. You're not just any child. You're the child of Masanori Miyamoto and Kotone Nakano. You're going to be special. The most special existence in the universe. I bet you can't wait, huh? It's all going to start soon. It's only a few more weeks now, Kotori. A few weeks is nothing. Why, that's like the time it takes to swim from one side of the pool to the other. It's like nothing at all. Do you know the longest three weeks in my life? It was when I was 17 years and 11 months old. I didn't know if Masanori would say yes to me when I confessed my love again. I thought maybe I'd imagined it all myself, that I was just delusional. He never made any passes at me. He was always so respectful, he treated me just like everyone else."

　　"But you know what? I knew he must love me, even then. Because I wasn't just like everyone else. I was the girl who had confessed to him. To a girl like that, if you wanted to drive her away, you would've been really forbidding and cold, right? But he wasn't cold. He accepted me alongside everyone. And that was the hint. I knew in my heart he was just waiting. The two of us were waiting together, like metronomes, our hearts beating as one. The longest three weeks of my life, we were probably beating in unison the entire time. That's what I think. Your parents must love each other a lot, huh? To have waited so long without being swayed by all the time apart. Not just anyone can do that you know. They wrote an entire book about a Greek girl who did it, it was so amazing. It's called the Odyssey. Her name was Penelope. And right next to Penelope they should put down your mother's name. Kotone Nakano, the faithful girl who never gave up, and never lost hope, for five long years."

　　"Do you know what makes a magical girl, Kotori? It's hope. We never give up, and we never lose hope. That's our most powerful spell. I cast it on your father, and he couldn't get away. And I cast it on you, so now you're alive, even though we started so late and it took so long. I cast it during every fight, even when it looked like the whole world was coming to an end. If you become a magical girl, remember your first and greatest spell. Hope is mankind's magic. It's our secret move that can defeat every final boss, even the level 99 ones. But don't forget to love either. For magical girls, it's all about love. Hope, Love, and Joy. Even when you aren't happy, try and smile. Find happiness in every little thing. If you're joyous, joy will seek you out. If you're melancholy, misery will always find you. The gods wouldn't have it any other way. They love happy girls. For a magical girl, cheerfulness is always a must. You mustn't cry, unless it's for someone else. It's okay to cry for others. But you mustn't cry for yourself, because the gods don't smile on girls who won't smile back at them. Smile, Kotori. The spirits are always watching, and when you smile, you light up their world. It will definitely pay off."

　　"Since you're even prettier than me, once we dress you up in a yukata and go to the shrine to pray for New Year's, you'll make all the boys swoon. But with great power comes great responsibility, Kotori. Girls have a terrible power, and of all girls, the beautiful ones are the most terrible of all. So stay a virgin until marriage, don't cheat, and don't divorce. Mama did it, so you can too. Fornication is cheating on your future, adultery is cheating on your present, and divorce is cheating on your past. You're going to be a magical girl like Mama, right? In that case, cheating is unforgivable. You see, Kotori, the best thing about magical girls is that they never go back on their words."

　　"Mrs. Miyamoto?" A nurse opened the door to their hospital room.

　　"Yes?" Kotone turned politely, wiping her eyes again to make sure she hadn't left any signs of crying behind.

　　"There's no use staying here any longer. How about you go to bed and get some sleep. I'm sure your baby would appreciate it too. We'll look after your husband non-stop, and call you the moment anything happens. So don't worry and take care of yourself. Your husband would want that too, right?" The nurse asked.

　　"Yes, you're right." Kotone said, wondering how much time she'd been sitting there, waiting for Masanori to wake up and see her smiling face, to see life and love again, the one gift she could give him, because she couldn't heal any of his endless wounds. The ones he got protecting her. And the ones he got because of her wyrd's suggestion, Magnolia's idea that they could journey to other worlds. She could never repay him, the world could never repay him, for what he'd done. But she could at least smile for him when he woke up.

　　"Can you make sure he eats my apples? I'm sure he'll be hungry. . ." Kotone made a gesture at her endless heap of peeled, sliced fruit.

　　"We'll take care of it, Mrs. Miyamoto. Get some sleep. He'll still be here in the morning." The nurse ushered her up out of her chair and through the door.

　　"Thank you." Kotone bowed. "Thank you for saving him. He's the light of my life."

　　"We try our best." The nurse smiled, a note of real pride surfacing in her voice.

　　"Good night." Kotone bowed again. Her car was somewhere in the parking lot, but she decided to take a taxi home. She could never be too safe. Not when there were only three weeks left to go.

* * *

　　Shiori Rin was having a no good, very bad day. It started when she woke up and went to college. None of her neighbors she'd grown up with all her life waved at her or greeted her. Even the dogs didn't wave their tails. Maybe everyone was feeling grumpy because it was Monday, but she didn't remember a single day when people had been this distant before. When she took her seat in her world history course, the Professor actually asked who she was and why she was sitting in so cavalierly on his class. She didn't talk much in class, but she thought her professor at least knew her a little. Her classmates were the same. People she had sat next to regularly and worked on projects with looked at her with confusion and kept their silence, not even greeting her back when she greeted them. She didn't want to confront them for being impolite, it would just make things even more awkward, but by the time she left class she was feeling awful. Could it be that she hadn't made any impression on any of these people? It's true that she had planned to quit classes as soon as she could live with Isao, because Isao was simply more important, but until then she had wanted to give them her very best. Now she felt it would be better to just go ahead and quit. No one seemed to want her here anyway.

　　When she got back home, she called out a dispirited, "I'm home."

　　"Welcome back, Rei." Her Mother called from upstairs. Shiori felt a shiver of fear. Rei hadn't lived with them for months. "It's not Rei, Mother. It's me, Shiori." Shiori called out, taking off her shoes.

　　"Oh. I'm sorry, Shiori. For some reason I just wondered who it could be and thought of Rei first." Mother apologized, stepping out of her room to see her daughter.

　　"Mother, I've been having a terrible day. A professor chewed me out for sitting in on his class, even though my name is on his attendance sheet. And all the neighbors seem really grumpy." Shiori complained. The only missing part from this day is if it had suddenly turned into a downpour and she didn't have an umbrella. That would've really captured the mood.

　　"That's terrible. We pay these professors so much and they don't even try to remember the faces of their students. Well, I'll cook something up for dinner and we can all eat once father gets home. I'm sure it'll all clear up in the morning." Mother commiserated.

　　"Thanks, Mother. I think I'll take a bath. I just had this horrible chill." Shiori explained, walking down the stairs as slowly as she had walked up them. A really hot, really long bath. She'd call Isao tonight and he'd make everything better. Mother was right. Everything would be cleared up by tomorrow. One single professor shouldn't keep her down.

* * *

　　"What are you up to?" Aiko asked from across their shared bedroom. "Normally you'd be downstairs watching TV. Are you taking up writing too?"

　　Saki had been lying in bed writing notes and scratching them out in her notebook for hours. No matter how much she tried, the answers wouldn't come together. Dead Enders existed, that much was certain. Humans really were doing something wrong, something that was imperiling the Earth. But whatever option she took, she didn't feel like the world was as badly off as the wyrds said it was. None of humanity's flaws rose to an existential threat. Before that happened, surely they'd back away and try something else. People were a lot of things, but even amoebas were smart enough to preserve their existence. How could humanity be doing worse than unicellular organisms?

　　"I think I have the answer to your question, Aiko." Saki spoke up. That, at least, she could report progress on.

　　"Oh? What question?" Aiko asked, sitting up.

　　"Why do people want to be good? Or, how do people motivate themselves to be good? You said it was much tougher than knowing right from wrong. The first is child's play, but the second is still a complete mystery." Saki said.

　　"You really found an answer?" Aiko asked excitedly.

　　"I bet you already read my mind so you know it without me saying." Saki complained.

　　"If I had, I wouldn't steal your chance to say it aloud for the first time, now would I?" Aiko answered leadingly.

　　"Okay. Fine. You'll probably laugh anyway. But it's simple. It's just one word. The answer is love." Saki said.

　　"Do I get a longer explanation?" Aiko asked hopefully.

　　"It's love. The answer is love. People are motivated to be good because they love. They love themselves, so they're good to themselves. They love their family, so they're good to their family. They love their country, so they're good to their countrymen. They love their pets, so they're good to their pets. The reason you want to be good is always love. It's because when you're good, you make the people you love happy. Even yourself." Saki spelled it out. It didn't need much explanation. One word really said it all.

　　"Humans want to make the people they love happy, and the only way to do that is to act with their sake in mind. So even when it's troublesome, if it makes the people they love smile and say thank you at the end, they're motivated to do it. Even if it means jumping through fire." Aiko thought aloud.

　　"Even if it means dying for them. There are innumerable examples of people dying for the ones they love. People die for God because they love Him. They die to preserve their integrity because they love Truth. If the answer were fear, no one would die for anything. But they do. All the time. Even for complete strangers. Only love sends people into burning buildings." Saki said.

　　"I'd rather you didn't run into a burning building for complete strangers, Saki." Aiko said. "Call me selfish, but that isn't a worthwhile trade in my books. I know seven billion strangers, but you're my only little sister."

　　"Oh, I agree it's crazy. But it's a noble kind of crazy." Saki pursued. "Whether it's your idealized self, your beliefs, your religion, your family or your dog, you'll do the right thing by them because you're in love with them. There was never any other motivation. There can't be any other. Without love, we'd all be machines. We wouldn't desire anything. So we wouldn't do anything. That would be the end."

　　"I wonder what Chiharu would say. Maybe you're just using love too loosely. You can get away with a lot using semantics." Aiko pondered.

　　"Well that's my answer. If you want another answer, ask another sister. But you asked me, so I thought about it for six months to give you my reply. You could be a little grateful." Saki pouted.

　　"Thank you, Saki. There. Are you happy?" Aiko asked.

　　"Yes. I am incredibly happy that the sister I loved said thank you to me. I'm so happy it justifies the endless hours I spent writing down answers and then erasing them again. I'm so happy, why, it even proves my own argument." Saki said.

　　Aiko shook her head, chuckling.

　　"What?" Saki asked, frustrated.

　　"No, it's just. Saki, I have a truth sense. I can immediately tell when someone's words don't match up with their true thoughts or feelings. But the thing is, you tried to be all sarcastic and ironic. . .but the real irony is that my truth sense never tingled. You meant every single word of it. You just didn't want me to know. It's just so. . .so. . .sweet of you. I can't believe my little sister is this cute." Aiko reported.

　　"Turn Bubbles offfffff." Saki cried.

　　"Never. Not gonna happen. Did I tell you when my truth sense saved the entire universe?" Aiko asked.

　　"Fifty times, and I only knew starting this weekend." Saki groaned.

　　"So you see, you can never be too careful." Aiko said.

　　"I can't believe my older sister is so manipulative, deceitful, selfish and cruel." Saki said.

　　"I can't believe that either." Aiko laughed.

　　Saki threw her pillow across the room. Then she went downstairs to watch TV. It wasn't fair that the wyrds said Aiko was the ideal woman. They just didn't know her.