It was past midnight when the shutter doors opened and a woman stepped out into the small garden at the back of the local bakery. In other circumstances she would have been considered very beautiful, blessed with long beautiful hair, a youthful appearance and buxom physique. But as the moon shone down upon her it highlighted her face, revealing deep lines of worry and purple dark circles under her eyes. In the pale light, she looked almost like a ghost.

She sank down on the bench just outside the door and in pure exhaustion put her head on the shoulder of the man who was already sitting there. He sat slouched on the bench, hands white with flour, a worn apron tied around his waist. Just like his wife, he was certainly very handsome, muscular with a strong jawline and a head full of wild hair. But if you looked closer, from the way his shoulders sagged to how he listlessly sucked on his cigarette, you would see that he too, was broken.

"Is she finally asleep?"

His wife nodded, eyes closed. The man took another deep drag from his cigarette, sending a cloud of smoke up towards the night sky.

"I don't know what to do anymore," the woman whispered. "Every day she slips a little further away from me."

"It's like she's given up on life. Even when she isn't sick all she wants to do is sit in her room, staring at the walls. She has no friends and doesn't want to go out unless we force her. Doesn't eat, doesn't laugh, doesn't...live." The woman swallowed hard.

"She'll turn 25 in a few short years, you know? Apart from the brief time when she tried to work she hasn't done anything since she graduated high school. She should be falling in love, travelling, studying, finding her place in the world. But instead, she just sits there, waiting for life to...end." The woman burst into tears. Her husband hugged her tightly, his face still hard, his hands clinging to his cigarette so hard he almost crushed the filter.

"I'm just so afraid that she is losing the will to live. That one day she will just decide not to wake up." The woman continued to cry for a short while, then dried her tears and composed herself again.

"To you know what she told me today?"

The man silently shook his head.

"She said there's something wrong with the world. That for her the world has already ended." The woman looked up at her husband's face, which was growing increasingly grey.

"What are we doing wrong?! She doesn't smile at our jokes anymore, doesn't smile at anything. And she is becoming so hard, like that sweet girl she used to be didn't exists in the first place. If I just knew what she needed. If I had just given her..." The woman's voice faded away, her face gazing into the night as if hoping to find her answers out there.

"It's not your fault. You're a wonderful mom, Sanae. Have always been."

The woman named Sanae gave a weak smile, still staring into the night.

"That psychiatrist says she's still depressed, it's like she mourning something. He wants to give her more pills. But I looked at the prescription, the price is-"

"It's fine," the man interrupted. "I'll go to the bank again tomorrow." He smiled down at his wife, stroking her hair.

"But we can only just barely afford her sessions as it is! And with the bakery just barely breaking even where will we find the money?"

"It'll work out, I promise you. We'll figure something out." Tenderly, he kissed her on top of the head before taking another drag from the cigarette. "We always do."

With gritted teeth the woman nodded, fighting to keep her panic under control. Gazing into her husband's eyes she kept nodding ever more vigorously as if trying to convince herself that what his words were true.

"First thing tomorrow I'll go around the schools. Perhaps I can get a second job as a teaching assistant in the evenings."

The man gravely agreed.

"I think I can find some more things to sell off. The baseball stuff for example."

"But, but-" His wife was looking aghast at the prospect.

"They're just things, Sanae. They can be replaced. I only have one daughter. You and she are the only two things in my life that I will never be able to replace." He put out the cigarette and rose, slapping his cheeks to try to wake up. "Time to go to work again, I need to prepare the dough for tomorrow. You should try to get some sleep."

Her heartbreak written clearly upon her beautiful face, his wife nodded and rose alongside him, opening the shutters back into their home. But before they had stepped over the threshold she spoke again.

"By the way, does the name Ushio mean anything to you?"

Her husband gave a slight jerk when he heard the name, looking profoundly confused for a moment as if trying to remember something he had long since forgotten. Sanae looked intently at him, her eyes showing that she knew exactly what he felt.

"Sounds awfully familiar, doesn't it?"

"Yes, but I can't quite place it. Where did you hear it?"

"When I came in tonight I found Nagisa in her bed, shaking, desperately clutching her stomach, whimpering that name over and over. Took me half an hour get a coherent sentence out of her."

Scratching his head the man shrugged his shoulders. "Could it have been...womanly troubles?"

Sanae gave her husband a sad smile. She loved the man to death, but in some areas, he was woefully ignorant.

"Nagisa hasn't had her period in over a year. I talked to the doctor about it. Apparently, it happens sometimes when the body is under great stress."

"An old classmate then perhaps?"

"Could have been," Sanae responded, clearly unconvinced. "I just don't remember anyone by that name."

"Perhaps when you go around the schools tomorrow, you can take Nagisa with you? Might do her some good to see the schools again. See some normal young people. Last time I saw her really happy must have been back when she was in high school."

Sanae hesitated. "She says she is too weak to go outside..."

"Then take the wheelchair. Surely anything is better than leaving her up in that room."

Sanae nodded, the couple kissed and went into the house, closing the doors behind them. The first red shimmers on the horizon were already heralding the sun's arrival. For a split second, the garden was silent. Then a faint pop split the silence and from within the shadows of the Sakura trees, a new fierce little voice spoke quietly into the night.

"Hang in there, grandparents of Fuko's best friend. Fuko swears by all that is star-shaped she will not let it end like this."