I grew up thinking that, like my 29 sisters, I was a test-tube baby specially created to my parents' orders. I believed I was a product not of their love, but of their wallet. I'd felt resentful, as though I'd been denied my humanity before I'd even been born. To my mind, my siblings and I were different from everyone else. There had seemed to be an invisible line drawn between my family and the rest of the universe, with us standing on the wrong side.
When I discovered that, unlike my siblings, I was naturally born, my world turned upside down. Though before I had not liked who I was, I had at least had a sense of belonging. Suddenly, instead of being part of a group that was strong and united, I was just a solitary person standing on my own. "Them" and "us" instantly switched places, creating a barrier between my sisters and I. Despite what anyone said, we were truly not the same.
I lived alone for far too long. When I learned that there were four other Gundam pilots, who all felt the way I did, it was more than I had ever hoped for.