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Chapter 61 Part 2

「After Sakuya-san passed away, she stayed in Japan for a while, but Emanuela went back to her home country, Italy. But even now, we still exchange letters every now and then, and she often sends me beautiful postcards. As for Suzanna, you see, she moved to Hokkaido with a fellow Japanese wife she happened to be on good terms with, and even now, she still lives there. And then, Sera-chan, who is the same age as Elena, got a job there this year, but it has been that she is going to take an internship at the head office, which is located in Tokyo, and will be coming here for two weeks in June.」

「Sera-chan… Hmm, I feel like it sounds somewhat familiar….」

「I’m sure you’ll remember her when you see her. She sent me a picture of her when she entered high school, but she looks just like Suzanna.」

「He~h.」

Yuu took another look at the photo.

She was a girl with an ephemeral beauty, like a fairy, so much that she didn’t look like someone who had already become a mother.

If a beautiful girl who looked exactly like that mother of hers was coming to Tokyo, he would love to meet her.

「And then, I said it, you see. I haven’t seen you in a while, so come to our place; that was it.」

「Ooh!」

「Ah, I see.」

The only one who showed an honest look of joy was Yuu, while Elena showed a somewhat complicated look on her face.

「What’s it? Don’t you want to see her?」

「Ahh… No, it’s not that I don’t want to see her. It’s just that, it’s been so long that it doesn’t really feel real, or rather… Ahahaha.」

*Phew* Martina heaved out a sigh.

Thinking back, she remembered that by nature, Elena was someone with an introverted personality and was not a person who had many friends.

A part of the reason was probably because Yuu was there, but she had no recollections of her bringing any friends to the house.

However, Yuu could imagine her reason. That Elena probably didn’t want to let Sera, who was said to look exactly like Suzanna in the picture, meet Yuu.

As such, Yuu deliberately expressed his approval in a cheerful voice.

「Isn’t that fine? She’s the daughter of someone mom used to be close to, isn’t she? I welcome her.」

When Yuu said so, Elena could no longer object it openly.

「M, me too, it’s not like I hate meeting her or anything, alright? Given that I’ve been shutting myself in my room this whole time, I’ve never met anyone for a long time, so I only thought that it’d definitely be nerve-wrecking.」

Martina showed a relieved look on her face.

「It’s okay. Once you meet her, I’m sure you’ll open up your heart, Elena. If anything, I was more concerned about what Yuu would think of it, but thank goodness. Then, I’ll reply with an OK.」

Once the conversation had settled down, Yuu’s eyes naturally shifted to the TV screen.

A large number of people wearing headbands and holding placards, noboris (Japanese banners), and horizontal banners were being projected on the screen, making for a noisy scene.

Then, the announcer began to comment on the situation.

『As you can see, more than 10,000 women gathered in front of the Prime Minister’s Office last night after 7 p.m. to demonstrate. The government is pushing bold policies through the new law to address the problem of population decline, which is now a common issue in developed countries, but opposition parties and civic groups are protesting that women’s rights are being threatened and….』

As far as Yuu was concerned, he had seen scenes of violent demonstrations in the news in the world he lived before his rebirth.

Except for the student movement period in the 60s and 70s, which was said to have taken place before Yuu himself was born, he didn’t remember many such large-scale demonstration movements in Japan.

At best, it was the Okinawa base issue and the nuclear power plant issue in the 2010s.

Though, that might be because Yuu himself was not so interested in politics.

If there was one thing that was different from his vague memory, it was the fact that all the participants in the demonstrations were women in their 20s to 40s.

And also the fact that the words written on the placards and the chants were mixed with peculiar advocacies.

『Give relief to the female-line families that are groaning from the heavy burden and unable to see any future!』

『Give all women the opportunity to love, marry and give birth!』

『FREE SEX!』

The placards held up by the women were covered with poorly drawn pictures and garishly written words.

In particular, he couldn’t help but wonder if it was okay to show the words 『SEX』 and 『BABY』, which were written boldly in dark pink on an illustration of a man surrounded by several women.

Mainly, it seemed that various forces opposing the government’s policies had gathered to demonstrate, and according to the organizers’ statement, there were apparently a total of 20,000 participants.

Even if the number was slightly exaggerated, from what he could see on the screen that was casted from high vantage point, a sea of people was spread out not only in the plaza in front of the prime minister’s residence but also on the roads nearby.

Just as the announcer had said, it seemed that there was no mistake that at least 10,000 people had gathered.

However, given that so many people had gathered for the demonstration, it probably meant that many women in this world were harboring dissatisfaction with the current situation.

「The movement itself has been around for more than a couple of decades now, they oppose the country’s male-protection and maternity-oriented policies, and aim to elevate the rights of all women. Right now, it’s the basic policy of the opposition. I can relate to the policy itself, but since all they did was push up idealistic slogans that lacked practicality, they were unable to gain public support. However, I believe it’s called the 『Men-Folks Movement』. As this radical ideology, which was originally born in a certain region of mainland China, seeps in, they have been gradually gaining momentum over the past seven or eight years. They started out as a lowkey civic movement, but then, they formed a political party, and right now, they have grown large enough to be able to send their members to the National Assembly, even if only a few of them. As they get featured in the anti-government-leaning media and start to work with other opposition parties, it seems that their members are now spread across the country.」

Martina, who worked for a newspaper company, was well-informed about it as expected.

Even if they were similarly anti-government movements, there seemed to be a variety of them, from moderate to radical.

「Hmm~. What do you think about it, mom? The advocacies of those anti-government people, I mean.」

When Yuu asked her as such, Martina looked at Yuu with a serious expression that was completely different from before.

「I am personally against it, of course. I mean, you see, if you get to the bottom of it, what those guys advocate is to turn the society into one where women choose men instead of men choosing women. In other words, what they are saying is 『C’mon, share the men with any many women as possible』. Moreover, it doesn’t matter even if they are married or underage! For mothers of boys like me, it is not something that we can tolerate!」

「Huh?! You mean Yuu would be forced to keep company some unfamiliar women, or something along those lines? Absolutely no!」

「I, I see….」

As far as Yuu was concerned, he didn’t really mind, or rather, he even wanted to experience it, although it also depended on the partner, but for ordinary men, it would probably be tough.

According to Martina’s explanation, it was a movement for women who had no luck with men, and seemed to be moderate and pushing pragmatic ideas in the beginning, but along with the increase in their members, it became more and more radical.

Their demands, which were made with a disregard for feasibility in order to gain public support, gradually escalated.

It sounded like something he had heard somewhere.

On the screen, several representatives of the participating organizations were being interviewed in succession.

One of them, a woman around 40 years old, was speaking in a heated and spirited manner, and the onscreen text read, 『Representative of the Tokyo Headquarters of the Men-Folks Movement Promotion Union』.

『We know that some men are taken away from their mothers because of arbitrary decisions that there are problems in their child-rearing environment, and that the country is enclosing them in the name of genetic control. Is it acceptable for the country to isolate these men when there are so many women left out in this world? Also, excessive protection of men will deprive many women of opportunities for love and marriage…』

As the woman was in the middle of her speech, a *bleep* sound rang and the screen turned black.

It was Martina who turned off the TV with the remote control.

「Look, it is about time for you to go to school, no?」

「Huh… Ah!」

When Yuu looked at the lock, he noticed that there were only about 10 minutes left until the bus was due to arrive.

He wound up getting so absorbed in the talk and watching TV that he didn’t notice.

「Then, I’m off. I plan to drop by the hospital this afternoon, so….」

「Is it… for the sperm donation that you mentioned before, Yuu-chan?」

「That’s right.」

「You can just do it once in six months, so it should be fine even if you don’t push yourself so hard….」

「It’s okay. I want to be of help to the society as much as I can, after all.」

「Ah.」

Instead of a greeting to go out, Yuu hugged Martina, who was sitting on the sofa, and kissed her on the cheek.

「Geez….」

Albeit a little embarrassed, Martina returned the kiss.

「Yuu! Big sis too!」

「Ahaha, I know.」

He hugged his elder sister as she sprung up to her feet.

He stroked her head and kissed her on the cheek, enjoying the feel of her silky hair all the while.

After rubbing her cheek against him, Elena also returned a kiss on the cheek.

Given that he was running out of time, Yuu let go of her body soon after, and as he did so, Elena looked at him as if she was reluctant to part with him.

「Well then, mom, big sis, I’m off.」

「「Take care!」」

With a smile on his face, Yuu waved at the two, put on the backpack that was on the chair, and opened the door to leave.

When he opened the door leading to the common entrance, it seemed that Kanako and Touko were already waiting for him, dressed in their crisp black suits as usual.

「「Good morning! Yuu-sama.」」

「Good morning, Kanako-san, Touko-san.」

「Now then, shall we get going?」

「「Yes.」」

Yuu, flanked by the two, headed for the elevator hall.

As he told Martina earlier, this afternoon he had an appointment at the city’s general hospital for a semen donation, and he nominated Shiho and Mio to be in charge of it.

The reason why they were being so accommodating was probably because among the men of this world, his evaluation in semen analysis was especially excellent.

Yuu couldn’t help but look forward to seeing the two nurses for the first time in a long time.