“Ah, you came, Suguha”. She turned around in a fluster. “Oh, mother ...” The one standing there was her mother, Midori. This hospital room’s sliding door used a motor drive, so the sound of its opening and closing were dreadfully silent; this resulted in Suguha failing to hear her mother enter. Midori then, after nimbly arranging the bundle of cosmos in her right hand into the bedside vase, lowered her back onto a chair next to Suguha. Probably returning from her workplace, she wore a cotton shirt with slim jeans and a leather blouse on top, giving her a rough appearance. With her thin makeup and hair that was simply tied behind her back, one could not see the appearance of a woman turning forty next year. Although her job as editor-in-chief of a computer information magazine may be partly to blame, the person herself did not have any intention of acting more appropriate her age—so to Suguha, you could say that her mother was more like an older sister. “Mother, you came properly. Isn’t it before proofreading is completed?” Suguha said, and Midori laughed. “I forcefully slipped away and came. I don’t always come very often, but at least for today.” “That’s right.... Today was onii-chan’s...birthday, wasn’t it?” Both of them kept silent for a brief while, intently watching Kazuto as he slept on the bed. The curtain swayed as a sunset colored