Adoption...?

--- Chapter 1 ---

-1st Pov

I opened my eyes again after a short nap and blinked a little because I'm not dreaming right now. 'I get reincarnated... For the second time.' I thought with a complicated feeling in my heart.

"Oh! You woke up." The woman, who saved me, looked at me with a shine on her eyes.

"Are you hungry?" She asked, but I didn't reply to her as I don't have any obligation to do so.

But to my and her surprise, my baby's stomach suddenly grumbled in such loud noise, which made me embarrassed, and the woman smiled.

"Ara~, What noise did I hear?" The woman lightly giggled while poking my cheeks.

'Damn it. I cannot control my body.' I cursed in my head and released a bitter sigh because a man feared by the orthodox faction now laughed by an unknown woman.

The woman stopped teasing my cheeks and stared at me with her gleaming black eyes. "Wait for a little bit, okay. Since I don't have any baby product that I can use to feed you, my younger sister will bring it here." She said with a reassuring smile on her face.

"By the way, what do you think about Aoba's name? Do you like it?" The woman suddenly asked as she named me when she picked me up from the cold forest.

I didn't answer her and closed my eyes, which made her giggle even more for some reason. 'Let's see if I can sense ki around me.' So I thought while entering the meditation state.

-3rd Pov

Watase Shizuka looked at the baby she picked with a smile on her face. "Did he fall asleep again?" She said.

"Maybe because he was too tired and hungry, he became sleepy." She continued while shaking her head a little because she never really raised a child, except for her little sister, who was about to come in a few minutes.

Unknown to her, a faint energy wave washed through her room and moved toward the baby on the bed, who slightly frowned because noticing that he cannot absorb or control the ki he sensed.

'Is it because my meridians are still too immature?' He thought while thinking about something.

'Looks like I need to wait, huh.' He continued while once again releasing a sigh in his heart.

A few loud footsteps suddenly echoed in the cottage, and a heavy door opening noise appeared out of nowhere.

Bam!

"Onee-chan! Where is the baby!" A youthful girl's voice entered his ears.

The one who opened the door is Watase Shizuka's younger sister, Watase Tomoe.

She's a junior high school girl, who stood around 4.8 feet with long silky black hair, an imposing bosom, and combined with her look, which is similar to Shizuka, we can tell that she would grow into a beautiful woman in the future.

"Shh. The baby is asleep, and why you have to be so loud." Shizuka gave her younger sister a sharp gaze, to which Tomoe responded with a sorry look.

"I'm sorry..." Tomoe softly said while lowering her head.

Shizuka released a sigh and gave her sister a gesture to come toward her side, where she could see our protagonist naturally sleeping(meditation) to ignore them.

"He's so cute..." Tomoe said.

"Of course, I named him as Aoba. Watase Aoba" Shizuka reacted with a proud look, which made Tomoe weird for some reason because her older sister didn't have a single boyfriend, yet she was proud of having a baby.

"What about his parents?" Tomoe asked because Shizuka only told her about a baby and she needs baby products fast, so she hurriedly came here and didn't ask about the details.

Shizuka suddenly became quiet when hearing Tomoe's question. "I found him in the forest. It looks like his parents abandoning him." She said with a sad expression, making Tomoe's eyes widened in disbelief.

"They left him... In the middle of winter!" Tomoe reacted with a shocked yet angry expression.

"Calm down. Even though I said it like that, let's be positive and think about what we should do." Shizuka said while gently caressing the baby's head with her hand.

"Let's raise him. Well, you already gave him a name, so I will help you convince mother and father about this." Tomoe responded while giving her older sister a reassuring look.

After all, having a baby suddenly would shock their parents. Of course, their mother won't have a problem with this if they explained it correctly, but their father would have different views.

They looked at the baby with gentle eyes and nodded their head at each other.

[The Following Day]

The two sisters have been waiting for the baby's parents to come or even search for him because they are also considering that the parent probably would be searching for their son, but to their surprise, no one comes.

They brought the baby to the nearest Department of Population and Civil Registration but found the baby wasn't registered, which shocked them.

"What should we do now, Onee-chan?" Tomoe asked Shizuka, who calmly held Aoba in her embrace.

"Let's meet father and mother." Shizuka firmly responded while looking at the bright blue skies.

They walked to their parent's house, which is actually near the shrine, or more specifically, on the back of the mountain's shrine.

As they arrived at the back of the mountain, a traditional japanese wooden house appeared before their eyes. The house firmly stood near a small river, which also had a small rice field on the side.

Watase Shizuka could see a middle-aged woman walking out of the house, who is her and Tomoe's mother, Watase Tsuyuri.

"Mother," Shizuka said while approaching her mother, followed by her younger sister.

"Ara~, Why did you come here, Shizuka? I thought you are going back on Sunday?" Tsuyuri looked at her oldest daughter and noticed a baby in her embrace.

Watase Tsuyuri cannot help but frown a little, but Shizuka immediately explained Aoba's situation, making the middle-aged woman staring at the baby with a sad expression.

"Poor child, to think he would face something like this when he's young." Tsuyuri shook her head and released a sigh.

"Let's enter first. I will also help you to convince your father." She continued, making Shizuka and Tsuyuri's eyes brightened.

Shizuka released a sigh of relief, but Tsuyuri suddenly giggled because of their reaction, which confused her and Tomoe.

"Mom? Why are you giggling?" Tomoe asked.

"Hmm, I just remembered about a few things. Also, your father most likely agrees to adopt this child." Tsuyuri replied with a smile on her face.

They entered the house and saw a middle-aged man with short gray hair sitting on the floor while enjoying the view of a mountain.

"Father." Shizuka kneeled and firmly looked at her father, Watase Kyojiro.

"Hmm, you're home?" Kyojiro turned around and noticed the baby in his oldest daughter's embrace.

"I have a baby. Please let me raise him!" Shizuka firmly stated, which put Kyojiro in a dazed state.

"Father?" Shizuka said with a worried expression.

"A-Ah, what did you say earlier?" Kyojiro immediately asked after he snapped out of his daze.

"Please let me raise him?!" Shizuka instantly answered.

"No, the first part," Kyojiro said.

"I have a baby?" Shizuka tilted her head in confusion.

"I-I finally became a grandfather..!" Kyojiro suddenly released happy tears from his eyes, which left Shizuka and Tomoe speechless.

Tsuyuri only gently giggled when witnessing this scene and said, "Shizuka, do you know the reason why your father wants you to marry soon?"

"So I don't become single all my life?" Shizuka responded.

"Well, that's one of the reasons, but he also wants to have a grandchild," Tsuyuri naturally said, making her daughters stare at Kyojiro with a shocked expression.

"EHH?!"