New Family

Akane waited for Fumio to visit her, she was excited because Fumio treated her so nice, she felt it. So, she patiently waited for her to visit her. She waited and waited after she woke up.

Early morning, late morning, early afternoon, late afternoon, and she still wasn't there, she understood though, something must have gotten between the promised visit, so she called a nurse, she asked the nurse if she could get her something that would pass time.

The nurse thought about a moment, it wasn't easy to find entertainment for a blind child. She couldn't get any ideas, until the girl asked for a jigsaw puzzle.

"A jigsaw puzzle?"

The girl nodded.

"How do you want to solve it if you can't see?"

"Aren't the pieces build in a way that they are only fitting to their partners?"

The nurse nodded, indeed, a jigsaw puzzle can be solved by someone blind, albeit a bit slower. So, the nurse brought the girl a puzzle with 1000 pieces and the girl immediately excitedly went in to solve it.

The nurse smiled, seeing a child work so motivated and determined, despite her big handicap inspired the nurse to work harder on her job.

Akane determinedly sat in front of her puzzle and gave it her all trying to solve it.

She already solved the borders of the piece in 15 Minutes.

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Fumio sprinted at the hospital upon finding a parking spot near it, it was already evening and visiting hours were almost over. She looked at her phone to see the time, it was 17.39 o'clock! Only 21 minutes left until the visiting times are over!

She sprinted to the counter, informed the personal about her visit in the room and immediately bolted to the patient rooms. 17.44 o'clock, 16 minutes! A bit more than a quarter of an hour. She rushed to the room. She didn't want to disappoint the cute girl she would possibly adopt in the future.

In front of the door. 17.46 o'clock, 14 minutes! More than enough time to explain to the girl why she was late. Fumio felt guilty for almost breaking her promise, she didn't want to see the girl, Akane, her potential future daughter be sad.

She opened the door, prepared for any accusation that could be thrown at her, she opened the door, expecting an angry, sad, depressed or salty child in front of her. She wasn't expecting the situation in front of her.

In front of her was the picture of a cute child elegantly solving a jigsaw puzzle in the evening light. The image in front of Fumio was so beautiful that she seriously contemplated if she was in front a work of art in a museum, she seriously contemplated it, weren't there that one glaring mistake.

Akane was solving that puzzle upside down, with the picture down, on the table. The only thing visible was the grey cardboard ground of the puzzle.

The moment Fumio sat down Akane put the last jigsaw piece into the puzzle, completing the grey cardboard.

"I was waiting for you Fumio."

Upon hearing these words Fumio felt a tingle on her back.

"I am sorry Akane, I actually had important business today that I couldn't skip even if I wanted to, my new client was a victim of a mind manipulation quirk and I just had to bring justice to the person that dared to..."

Akane interrupted Fumios' rambling with a loud clap, silencing her.

"I don't care what you had to do today..."

Fumio looked down in shame, she feared that she already lost the trust between her and the girl and was almost heartbroken upon the harsh words of the girl.

"...the thing that counts is that you still made it and didn't break your promise with me, we don't have much time anymore, but even that is better than nothing."

Fumio looked up again, happy that the girl forgave her, but she couldn't let the girl get away with the emotional rollercoaster she experienced today.

She held the girl in a deadlock and started rubbing her head.

"You are a naughty girl, you tried to make me anxious, huh? Here I am, dead tired after sprinting to your room and here you are, just teasing me, didn't your parents teach you not to tease your elders?"

"Fumio stop it! No, they didn't! The moment I gained memories was the moment I was already in an orphanage!"

Hearing these words made the woman somber, stopping with the teasing of the girl.

"I'm sorry."

The girl denied.

"You don't have to, I know you didn't mean it maliciously, so I forgive you."

"Ms. Seigi, visiting hours are almost over again."

Fumio nodded at the nurse.

"Tomorrow I am going to visit you sooner."

"Pinky promise?"

"Pinky promise."

The girl and the woman locked their pinky in a hold for a moment, promising each other to see each other sooner tomorrow.

"Bye Akane!"

"You too Fumio!"

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And so, a couple of weeks passed, weeks were Fumio and Akane get to know each other better, weeks where they laughed with each other, weeks where Akane was happy and made fond memories.

But the girl knew that this happiness will end, they always did. And so, the day of Akanes' discharge came closer and closer.

She knew this encounter with the woman had to end, but she didn't dwell on it, she didn't want to be a burden for the only person that actually cared for her in her life, so she accepted the end of their encounter.

It was the last day they would meet, Akane was silent, as well was Fumio, no words were spoken, but the atmosphere between them wasn't anywhere near tense, but they chose to be silent.

"Akane I had this one burning question that I avoided the entire time, I hope it won't make you uncomfortable."

Akane looked at the woman with a tilted head.

"Go ahead, ask."

Getting the greenlight Fumio prepared to ask the question.

"How can you so accurately grasp things? I mean I never saw you failing in grabbing things on the first try, and you always look right into my face when we are talking, as if you knew where it is. You are blind, but how can you grasp your environment so accurately?"

The child was surprised upon hearing the woman's question, she didn't think that she would observe her that precise.

"You know what echolocation is?"

The woman shook her head.

"How do you think bats see in their dark caves?"

"They have night vision, right?"

Akane shook her head.

"No, they actually don't have, turns out scientists one day found a bat that couldn't orientate itself through the cave, turns out it had damaged ears. Anyways echolocation is the ability to send out sound and orientate themselves by following the sound that is send back at us."

"Can you explain it in more detail?"

"Well you know the moment when you shout in the mountains and hear your voice coming back?"

Fumio nodded.

"That happens everywhere, only not to such a degree, by using echolocation you try to catch the sound that is coming back at you and try to hear the distance out from the soundwave that came back at you."

Fumio nodded, this time in understanding, she snapped her fingers and asked the last decisive question.

"Isn't that incredible difficult?"

"Of course, it's difficult! Do you know how difficult it is to create so high pitched tones that the normal human ear can't hear, just for the sake to try not to look like a complete weirdo that could potentially piss some people off? Heck I couldn't even go to the toilet in the night if I hadn't trained my voice to send out at such high frequencies!"

Fumio sweat dropped, apparently, she stepped on a landmine, she noted to herself that the girl might be a bit sensitive about her particular skill.

Silence was in the room again, and so time passed again and the day was almost over.

Tomorrow was Akanes discharge.

"Fumio, I wanted to tell you that I am grateful."

"Where did that suddenly came from, Akane?"

"Fumio, tomorrow I will be discharged from the hospital and so I must go back to that place, because we probably won't see each other again, both symbolically and in a literal sense, I wanted to say this one last time."

The girl bowed down with her head.

"Thank you, Fumio, thank you for saving my life, thank you for visiting me in the hospital, thank you for being there for me in this time."

The girl started to cry.

"And thank you for getting to know you, I am grateful for meeting such a great person such as you."

Fumio didn't know what to say, she panicked, she didn't expect the girl to pour her heart out in such a way, her original plan was actually surprising the girl tomorrow upon discharge, that she had already adopted her since a while ago.

Fumio knew that Akane wouldn't be angry with her upon hearing that, sure she thought that the girl would scold her because she didn't ask for her consent, but she was pretty sure she would forgive her really fast.

But seeing the girl pour her heart out in such a way Fumio couldn't hold back anymore.

"WAIT! Wait Akane, look, look! I have a surprise for you!"

Fumio pulled some papers out of her bag, Akane stopped crying and looked up.

"What kind of papers are these?"

"Right, you are still blind. These are your adoption papers, I already adopted you since a while and today the legal stuff was finally finished. From today on I am officially your mother and your name will be Seigi Akane, you know as long as you want to take my family name."

Akane looked at Fumio for a moment in complete silence.

Before bursting out in tears, jumping into her arms, making Fumio panic, she didn't know how to deal with this situation.

"Fumio, no, mommy, I am so happy, I am so happy that you are adopting me, I promise you I will do my best to not disappoint you."

The girl cried in her chest, surprisingly very coherent even.

Fumio kneeled down, to let the girl stand again.

"You idiot, you just have to be yourself and I am already happy with you, even if you do bad things, I always be there for you to support you, bringing you back to the right path."

The new daughter - mother duo shared a hug for a moment, before Fumio went back home to prepare the things for her new daughter.

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The next day:

"So, this is my new home, mother?"

"Yes, this is your new home daughter, it might be a bit big, but I promise you that this will always be a comfortable place you can return to."

"Can you stop calling me daughter? You might be my mother, but it still sounds weird as hell."

Akane looked around for a moment.

"You want something Akane?"

Akane thought for a moment.

"Do you have ice cream?"

Fumio sweat dropped, anything, but please not ice cream, especially Etsukos' ice cream, the last thing she wanted were two ice cream maniacs.

"No, we are out of ice cream, want anything else?"

Akane looked at her new mother in suspicion, this was the first time ever her new mother was dishonest to her. They definitely still had ice cream in this house.

Seeing that her daughter saw through her lie, Fumio sweated even more than before.

They looked at each other in silence, before Akane bolted directly to the refrigerator in the kitchen opened the door and took a package of Häagen Dazs out, preparing to devour that pack of ice cream.

Fumio tried to take the pack away from her daughter, but to no avail, she had already a spoon full of ice cream in her mouth.

Fumio knelt down in defeat, not being able to stop her daughter from going down the wrong path.

Suddenly Akane spit the ice cream back out of her mouth, surprising Fumio, she looked at her daughter, she had a stripe of saliva coming out of the corner of her mouth.

"This was strawberry ice cream, I hate strawberry."

Akane started to sob, being disgusted by the strawberry flavor she just took into her mouth.

Fumio sighed in relief, glad that her daughter didn't go down that path, for now.

"Calm down Akane, tomorrow I am going to buy you a pack of vanilla Häagen Dazs."

Fumio hugged her daughter, trying to comfort her daughter.

"Promise?"

"Promise."

The next day Fumio spent 6000 Yen on vanilla Häagen Dazs.