As she returned from elementary school, the look on Minami's face was one of hollow resignation. She felt cursed. Or perhaps she felt like she was a curse. It wasn't really clear in her mind.
Her regular teacher was rather uneasy. Her cousin had recently become a first officer with Japan Airlines, and was now afraid that his career might be a short one. How many people would want to set foot on a plane again after something this awful happened? One of the girls in her class had heard in the morning that one of her uncles, a chef at the Windows on the World restaurant in the North Tower, was among the dead, though no remains had been identified at that time.
Noticing the timing of Minami's birthday, the girl's closest friend called her a demon and blamed her for the September 11th attacks in their entirety. Minami rationally knew she had done nothing - of course she hadn't, she didn't even know who had organised them - but hearing those words said with such conviction and having no way to know for sure that she wasn't some kind of malign entity, she broke down weeping silently to herself as the class scornfully gazed into her soul. As a quiet, socially girl with a rather androgynous appearance, she was frequently a target for bullying and abuse from other pupils, but nothing had hurt her quite like this. Was she really a danger to her own father?
For the first time in her life, Minami gave deep and genuine contemplation to the idea of suicide. She knew it was possible for someone to, intentionally or by misadventure, take their own life. But she had never considered killing herself before. If she was truly an evil being whose very existence brings the threat of death and despair to everyone she loves, though, would it not be the most moral thing to do? She felt overwhelmed by acquired feelings of guilt and shut herself off emotionally from the world, becoming as cold and unfeeling as people often wrongly took her to be as a result of her resting expression - neutral rather than smiling - and her sharp, almost Chinese-looking eye shape often mistakable for a glare to those unfamiliar with the girl's subtle facial expressions.
Honoka asked her daughter in detail about her day and how she was feeling once they arrived home and was truly shocked and horrified at what she'd heard. Minami, as someone with autism, was prone to taking implausible or sarcastic remarks at face value. Usually this would just cause easily-corrected misunderstandings or at worst make her look a bit strange and awkward for failing to get a joke. But here, it had caused her great pain.
She asked her mother a series of questions about the circumstances of her birth - trying to see if she had been born under a bad moon, or if some god had been angered by an ancestor of hers, or any other superstitious event that could have made her a bad omen. This deeply troubled Honoka. Minami was not an especially spiritual girl but she also wasn't by any means a definite atheist. Her concern only grew when her daughter asked if there was some chance that sacrificing her the right way to the right god might bring back all those people who died, and offered to fetch a knife and calligraphy brushes to begin the process.
Honoka gripped her daughter tightly and gave her the deepest reassurances she could muster that she was not a curse on the world, but a gift. She had always been polite to those around her, finding lost objects and returning them to their rightful owners, getting on very well with all manner of animals and generally having a reputation among her teachers as being an empathetic, conscientious person and voracious learner. Minami shed a few tears at the reassurance and told her mother how much she loved her, but Honoka could tell that she was still uncertain of herself and her own value as a person.
Honoka decided it was best to give her daughter something to take her mind off all this, and invited Yukari and Miyuki around to bring their presents and to serve the birthday cake. Plenty of candles and some decorations had already been purchased for the day, but Honoka had the foresight to realise that a series of long, tall objects burning and collapsing might pour salt in her daughter's fresh emotional wounds. So to improvise, some icing tubes were used to draw eleven stars in a circular formation onto the cake. Minami noticed and smiled at this substitution. Her mother could come across as kind of blunt or strict sometimes, but she was definitely a warm and loving soul and her caring heart came across strongly here.
The next two hours were spent listening to music, opening presents and generally just celebrating the gift of life, trying to forget for a little while all the sorrow in the world. Everyone enjoyed themselves. Even her father took some time out from his busy day of meetings and teleconferences to send his birthday wishes, doing his best to sound cheerful and outgoing for his little girl.
Among the highlights of her presents were a large plush toy cat, some games for the outgoing Dreamcast including an online RPG and a recently-released 3D platformer starring the company's mascot, and a brand-new Game Boy Advance. The screen was rather dim - Minami was rather confused that neither the Colour nor the Advance had a backlight when the Game Boy Light existed - but the new system was definitely a lot more powerful than the old, and she adored the transparent fuchsia exterior of hers - perhaps some saw it as uncharacteristic of someone like her to have something as girlish as pink for a favourite colour, but she was very much enamoured by it. In any event, while she was no avid otaku, she did enjoy playing a game every so often among her other hobbies.
In this moment Minami felt comfortable and happy, and everyone around her had done their best to make her feel loved and valued. Even in the darkest of life's moments, people find joy where they can and do their best to carry on.