Mafuyu Kirisu, the ice flower

Chapter 40: Certainty shows progress

[Wednesday, April 1, 2037. 08:10]

Kazumi: (As they walk to school, she flits around her mother) Are you going to tell me now? I just want to know if we're in the same class.

(Mafuyu pouts, fed up with her daughter's insistence)

Sachiko: Yuiga-sensei! Mafuyu-sensei!

Fuyumi and Kazumi: Good morning, Kimura-sensei.

Sachiko: (Surprised) You've already told them?

(Mafuyu is a little surprised)

Fuyumi: Tell us what?

Kazumi: (Concerned) We aren't in Mom's class, did we?

(Mafuyu turns her head, a little upset)

Sachiko: (Laughs a little) No, you two are in my class, 1-D, but we don't have history until afternoon.

Kazumi: (Happy) Great!

Fuyumi: (Happy) I'm glad we are in the same class.

Kazumi: (Happy) Me too! Hey, look! Tsu-kun! Akiko-senpai! (Runs towards them and hugs Tsugumu from behind)

Akiko: You don't have to call me "senpai", "Akiko" is enough, we are cousins.

Kazumi: (Laughs and holds Tsugumu's hand) Now you're going to be divided hehehe. You can't be you with your girlfriend and your mother-in-law in class at the same time.

Tsugumu: Huh? What are you talking about?

(Kazumi laughs and walks faster, playfully)

Mafuyu: (Smiles) In the end you were right, Sachiko.

Sachiko: Right?

Mafuyu: (Smiles) Yes, when you were in second grade you told me that it would be funny if in 15 or 16 years time you were teaching our children, and now you are.

Nariyuki: (Smiles) If someone told me when I was 17 that the cold and scary Kirisu-sensei was actually a sweet and kind person, that at 23 I would marry her and at almost 40 I would be with her on our way to school with our two daughters I wouldn't believe it either (laughs), and look at us now. (Holds Mafuyu's hand) Do you think that if you saw your life pass before your eyes now, the memories would be happy or do you think you still have dreams to fulfill?

Mafuyu: (Smiles) They would be happy. I have no doubt. Thanks to you I am happy and I have overcome all my insecurities and weaknesses –except for my fear of insects– and I have achieved all my goals both professionally and personally: I work on the two things I have always loved, I have participated in some skating competitions after I was thirty, I am married to the first and only person I have ever loved and we have two beautiful and wonderful daughters who have inherited the best of each other. Also, our parents and our friends' parents are alive, healthy and happy and all our friends and family have fulfilled or are fulfilling all their dreams: Chiyoko started a beautiful family at a young age and has always done what she wanted; Hikari-san has a beautiful family, still plays in her old band and finally studied music at the university she wanted even though it was years later; Miharu is a coach, participates in competitions from time to time and has become a wonderful woman and mother; your sister is a PE teacher and the coach of the Ichinose swimming team and is happy with her family; Asumi-san is a great doctor and her children already seem to want to follow in their parents' steps; Uruka-san is still a professional athlete despite her age and having been a mother; Fumino-san has been nominated for the Nobel Prize in Astronomy and her daughters are already as in love with the stars as she is; Rizu-san and Sawako-san are happy together and in their work and it seems that Rizu has finally started to win at the games; Sachiko has become a wonderful woman, mother and teacher; some of our former students are now teachers of the subjects they have always loved in this school and the rest are working or studying what they really want; your siblings never lacked anything while growing up and now they are happy in their work and Natsumi is already in college. Currently my only dream is to continue as we are now: all happy and doing what we like while enjoying watching our children grow up and achieve their goals. For me there is no greater happiness than that.