Sea of the Wind, Shore of the Maze, Prologue

children, he thought about all the ways that he was not similar to other people. He wouldn't  have thought that his feelings were right.
    "Then...is Sanshi my real mother?" He looked back and forth between Sanshi and Youka and saw them  both shake their heads.
    "Sanshi is your servant. It is her personal responsibility to take care of you. And I am a nyosen. My  responsibility is to handle a few chores so that your time at Mt. Hou is even more comfortable."
    "Then where is my real mother?"
    Youka looked up at the tree. "You were hatched from a fruit that grew on this tree. This is Tentei's  blessing."
    Taiki also looked up at the white tree. Not only was there no fruit on the tree right now, but there was  also not one flower or leaf. Taiki still understood too little about the creation of life, so he didn't have any  difficulty in believing any of the things that Youka had said.
    Taiki imagined that when season arrived for the fruit to grow, that tree would certainly be full of red  fruit. And the fruit must be very big if he had first jumped out from one of them.
    Though he did feel that using this method to arrive in the world was a little strange, he had always  thought that he had been different from most people. He understood now that it all had to do with how he  had been born.
    (So it had all been because of this.)
    It was all because he had been taken in from the outside that his grandmother hated him. He probably  also created a problem for his mother. Because he had come down from a tree, he was never able to win the  love of his grandmother or parents.
    --He didn't have parents. He didn't know exactly why, but he didn't have real parents.
    These thoughts didn't seem illogical to him, so he believed them without a shadow of doubt. This way  of thinking was very reasonable to him and had no trouble spots for him. However, it also made him feel  bad.
    "What's the matter?"
    When he suddenly heard Youka ask him this, he hurriedly closed his mouth and shook his head  vigorously. Sanshi pulled him closer, as if to comfort him, so he leaned his whole body onto her.
    --Now he knew.
    (I wasn't originally born to my parents.)
    Several memories floated into his head.
    He remembered his grandmother's looks of contempt and his father's reprimands. No matter how hard  he tried, he could never meet their expectations. And whenever his mother argued with his father or  grandmother over him, which was often, she would always end up hiding in the bathroom alone and secretly  weep. His brother was also often lectured, but he always accused him for making him do it.
    "I don't know what to do with him," his young teacher had said. "He doesn't get along with any of his  classmates, so I don't know what would be the best thing for me to do."
    She had looked at him with concern. "For a child his age not to have any friends at school is a pretty  serious problem."
    His grandmother had pursed her wrinkled lips in dissatisfaction. "Why doesn't anyone want to be your  friend?"
    "Mother, don't be like this. It's the other kids who are purposefully excluding him."
    "Well, that's just because there's a problem with his personality. Why can't he just get along with his  classmates?"
    "Because he's a scaredy-cat! That's why no one plays with him!"
    "Don't interrupt! You only know how to bully people. It's all because your mother didn't teach you  guys right that both of you have let us down. Is our family not going to have any children who make  anything of themselves?"
    "Mother..."
    After his grandmother's nagging, in the end she would always come to the conclusion that it was his  mother's fault. That's why his mother would always hide in the bathroom and cry.
    "Why are you this way?" His father would look at him and sigh, but he didn't know how to respond to  that.
    "Isn't it possible for you to behave yourself so that your grandmother doesn't get angry?"
    "I'm sorry." He could only say this.
    "All because of you that I get lectured as well! Every time you get grandmother angry, she lectures me  too!"
    "I'm sorry." He was always apologizing.
    Regardless of how hard he tried, the situation never took a turn for the better.
    He hadn't understood why it was like this. He could only think that his presence itself made his family  unhappy. He had often felt that were he not to exist, his family would be able to live together happily.
    (So it really is like this.)
    He really wasn't like them.
    (I'm not originally a