“Around nine years ago, it was a rainy night—no, a stormy night. It was growing stronger. The sound of the thunder tore the sky apart. I was sleeping in this very house. I wasn’t married yet—and the only doctor in the village. Suddenly, someone banged on my door and I hurried awake. I just got back from the town, after my training—I was still a trainee and a tired trainee at that. It was a lady at the door—your mom’s maid, that your dad assigned. She was soaking wet and panting, struggling even to speak, yet she told me about your mom’s delivery and that she needs help. I jolted off my house and stepped outside. It was customary that only female doctors were allowed to help with the birth, so I should not have been there at all. But when your mother suddenly became hardly responsive and getting paler with every minute. The maid told me in that trembling voice—that voice of worry and pain. That something was better than nothing. I still felt very uncomfortable at the thought, but how could I possibly refuse my help to an expectant mother and her unborn child? Especially not when things were as bad for you two. So I thought no further about social customs and we ran our way back to your house. The wind was blowing so fast that every drop of the rain felt like a little bullet on the skin, with bolts of lightning burning the skies.” Mika’s eyes widened when she tried to imagine it—tugging herself back onto the bench, getting sucked into the story.

“The room was as dark as outer space, under a faint flickering candlelight. She had her eyes closed. All I could see was Akemi’s scared face—yet I was the most scared person there—I knew nothing about pregnancy. She was lying on the cot motionlessly, which I felt might be a bad sign. I knelt beside the cot, holding her wrist and checking her pulse. I felt nothing. Oh god, that is not a good sign—and I’m sure of that. Combined with the fact that Akemi is not moving, I realized—my cold sweat grew colder. I scrambled my mind around things. ‘What if she doesn’t have the strength? Is the baby healthy?’ I thought, getting desperate. I started pressing all over her wrist, hoping to find the pulse, and finally, I found it and I sighed in relief.”

“‘Is this what it takes to be a doctor that takes care of labour?’ I thought, feeling someone clasping my shoulder. I turned around to see the maid staring down at me like a villain. You won’t believe what she said. ‘Get your hands off her, you pervert.’ I almost lost my mind right there as I stood up—she was the one who brought me there in the middle of the night. I said, ‘I was just checking the pulse—’ Before I could tell that she’s wrong. A loud noise in the door interrupted us.” Mr. Tanigawa looked firmly into the girl's eyes. He slammed his fist hard on the bench to recreate that thud. She flinched in fright, her eyes glistening with interest.

“Something hard must have hit the wooden door. Of course, we all turned in surprise at the sound. Even Akemi had suddenly woken up again. But it had not been the wind, as we all thought. It was a man. He didn't bother to greet us, but slammed the door open just as hard as he had knocked on it before. ‘I am here at the behest of your husband, the General,’ his gaze was on Akemi, who nodded weakly at him. She knew that your father had taken care of everything. Besides a maid who did not leave her side except to call me for help, he had also had one of his subordinates on stand by—to take you both to the city. To the female doctor. The rider pushed the dripping hood off his head and shook his head grimly. 'There's no point in waiting out the rain. It's been pouring all the way here and it'll stay that way all night. She is not well. It will surely only get worse and I would hate to feel her husband's anger if something happened to her because I waited. It is fruitless to wait. Get her ready to travel,' he ordered. I didn’t even know who the doctor was at that moment.” She edged to him, listening closely.

“The imperious tone intimidated the nurse, and she hurriedly gathered the most necessary things, pacing room to room. In the meantime, the rider stepped up to the fireplace and warmed his wet hands. His gaze fell on me and his eyes narrowed to slits. He must have wondered what I was doing here, because he had expected only Akemi and her companion. It relieved me when she stepped back into the room with some towels in her hand. 'To keep her dry,' she explained, a little too effusively. Was she serious? The few cloth towels couldn't possibly provide enough protection! There was an actual storm out there! It was so cold that the rain seemed to freeze in the fall, as the drops felt like spear points that would bore into any unprotected part of the body. Surely the maid had felt it in her own flesh earlier!” Mika could literally feel the scene unfold in her own body, because she was shivering. She saw the storm, for it flashed at her from the doctor's eyes. Carried away by the quivering words of the man, she silently agreed with him.

“I stated the fact that she is in no shape to even stand up now just to end up looking like I’m the bad guy. They frowned at me while the maid started arguing with me. Soon, the horseman joined in. They couldn’t understand the danger. I was frustrated yet I tried my hardest to convince them—so hard that I didn’t notice that I’m not in the same room as your mom because this maid had pulled us out of there, but the loud screams of your mom interrupted us—rushing my heart into fear. We ran to the room to the sight of her biting her arm to suppress the scream, yet—was still loud. She held the edges of the cot so tightly that it might break,  trembling as if she was thrust into the chilly waters of a frozen river in winter with no clothes. The view shook all of us. Pale as if the blood from her face had been drained. I knelt down to hold her hand and started rubbing it. I yelled, ‘Seen for yourself, Happy now? Just bring the doctor here. I’ll maintain till then,’ the horseman grunted but nodded and rushed outside. While he opened the door, I heard a lot of murmuring outside and I asked the maid to check it and what I heard from her was unbelievable.”

“What did you hear?” asked Mika curiously, to which he laughed.