Prologue

When I was twelve years old, the mother I loved so much has abandoned me. My mother Yuka was someone who was beautiful, but she was too selfish. She hated the me who looked like my dead father so much that she came to despise me. Her last words before she went to her new husband's side was, "Bansai, you know...it's not that I hate you. It's just your eyes, nose, mouth...your everything irritate me." I couldn't hear her last sentence before she went off, because sudden shock have come through me. And just like that, I was abandoned on the street of Edo where I used to play with my fellow friends, comrades and frienemies. The place I used to call home was no longer home to me. It just became a place with a lot of memories of my father who has died proudly in a war.

That day, me who couldn't face the harsh reality was swinging on the swing, feeling sad. The one who comforted me in that moment with an umbrella in her tiny hand was...her.

"Bansai-kun, why are you here?"

She was helding a single umbrella, her favourite one. The one with Doraemon.

"It's raining, y'know?"

I looked at her small face. She looked like she pitied me. Those looks she was giving me, I hated them.

"Tsuu, why are you here?"

"To...comfort you, of course!"

She yelled at me with tears in her eyes. Tsuu who was quietly crying in my stead...truly looked beautiful.

"I heard that she...that woman left you behind."

"So? Did you come to laugh at me?"

"I said that I came to comfort you, didn't I? Are you an idiot, Bansai?!"

She wiped her tears off.

"Geez, why am I the one who's crying when it supposed to be you who should be crying?!"

"Ha, like I would cry."

She suddenly hugged me, tightly. I was surprised, yet I felt happy

"It hurts right? It hurts so much that you want to kill yourself, right? Then, go ahead and cry! No one would blame you even if you have cried, y'know! Because, Bansai-kun, you have a reasonable reason to cry!"

Even though I didn't cry my hearts out, I already felt calm. Because she was here.

"No, I won't cry. Because I'm more than alright, gozaru."

She let go of me, slowly. I smiled widely like I never did before.

"Bansai-kun, you can smile after all?! You weren't android after all?!"

She looked so shocked that I got mad. Did she really think I wasn't human being? That was what I was thinking in that moment when the pain of everything sad that happened that day was forgotten all thanks to her.

"Who said I was android?!"

"But, you never smile, cry or even complain!"

"What kind of robot becomes sad?!"

"Hehe!"

Her laugh was my treasure. It was a smile that cheered me up whenever I was sad.

It has been 10 years since then, Tsuu. It was ten years since I last saw ten years we weren't together...I will make up for it.

"Tsunpo-san, I have thought of new song!"

I heard her say throgh the phone I held in my hand.

"What a coincidence, Tsuu-dono. I have also thought of new song too, gozaru."