Chasing After Rainbows

It has been about a year since I had injected the solution made from some bits of me. Sure enough, my husband did become pregnant and gave birth to a healthy baby girl with no abnormalities. Since the presence of anything genetically male during the child's development being completely absent, it's not possible for the child to be a boy at all. This is my first child I could see with my own eyes: the children I gave birth too seemed to have gender-specific things appear censored to me for some odd reason, so I don't know if I have any sons. Now, I could actually know the name of the newborn child. Yuko (name of my husband in his female form) could see this child too. It would be a strange scene of two women having a child that resembles the both of them with no adult males involved. In this case, the mother of the child is the one who gave birth to it, which is my husband. It's can get confusing because the husband and wife (me) are each both a mother and father at th

Quite some amount of time has passed since I found out about the big secret about me that even I didn't know about. My relationship with my children hasn't really changed since then, but the atmosphere with Itsuki does. I don't know if we are a married couple, or a group of friends hanging out together. I'm confused, especially when the family appears to be made up of three women, some children, but no men. Dig further and you would find out that those three women were previously men, but the children did come from one of them. Since then, I see gender differences as nothing more than the role played in making an offspring. Nothing more. Studying science since young, I know about this, but I never thought that it applies to me too, though it does help to be knowledgeable about my feelings and not let it take over me. I don't like wearing gender-specific clothes, but being a woman, the shape of my bust is permanently visible no matter what I wear. I don't like

Since I am quite close to Saeko's company, I could drop by there to ask for help, but the level of rivalry of Powell staff with Hatsuya is so great that the former would refuse to corporate with the latter. Me wearing an outfit with Hatsuya's logo on it being glaringly obvious and not knowing how to take it off kind of rules out heading there for help. They probably don't even give me a chance to explain myself. Either way, I contacted Saeko to see if she's not busy. From the voices I heard in the background, Saeko seemed glad to use me as an excuse to get out of the situation she was in at the time I called her, though Saeko didn't say what she was doing at that time. Oddly, she said not to tell my husband about it yet. When she saw me, she knew immediately knew that I had went to Mizuho and my discomfort with the clothes I couldn't take off. Apparently, I was wearing the rarely-seen Hatsuya Research uniform that non-Mizuho based staff would wear, which has

Me: "Is there a way to tell how stressed Saeko is if she can't express it emotionally?" Principal: "Well, one way to tell is from her actions or the number of things she has to cope with sententiously. You can ask her yourself, of course, but you should be careful about the timing that you do it. Since she respects you the most and relied upon for emotional support, she might approach you herself while not in a good mood. Another way to tell is to check her system status, which is the most accurate, but hard to access without Saeko herself being aware of it even though she has no control over it. Do you have other questions? I might not remember everything I'm supposed to tell you since it has been a few decades." About Seko or Mizuho Academy... that I can ask someone else later. Oh, there's one thing that has been bothering me. Me: "You said that I have children that I gave birth to, right? But why do I find it had to see them or have ge

The principal looked at me quite uneasily. He seemed as if he wanted to say something to me, but stop short of saying anything. Me: "You said my mum would have 6 children back then, but there's only 5 now. Did I have an older brother?" Principal: "Well, your mother was getting exhausted from being made pregnant and giving birth for 6 straight years after the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th child. We determined that she has lost the willpower to have another, so we let her have a break and had the 5th as the final one. You noticed that, in that video, there was a male child, but you recalled that they said that the baby was the first child. You also noted that, including you, there are only 5 children in the family, and you didn't have an older brother. Well, that baby was... er..." Me: "What happened to him? He died before I was born?" After quite a number of hesitation, he picked up the confidence to say it. Principal: "That baby didn't d

I'm running low on options of who to ask on getting to Mizuho: I could ask my husband, but he might tell Saeko, who isn't supposed to know. Neither could I ask my family or other Hatsuya staff, who are sadly the only other group I know well... Oh wait. That store where I bought my Katsura High uniform might know where: they make uniforms of many kinds. The karaoke box just opposite it was also where I spent my last days as a middle school student with my friends from there, so I know where it is. Me: "Excuse me. Do you have any uniforms for Mizuho Girls Academy?" The store attendant looked though a list, thought for a while, and asked someone I couldn't see inside the staff area. Store attendant: "I'm sorry to say this, but we don't sell any here.

I saw two different versions of a file that has been indicated to me: the highest quality that this old computer could play without problems (very low quality by today's standards), and the other in it's original definition that this computer is not capable of playing, but computers that are, at earliest, 10 years old, that are even capable of playing it smoothly. Not really wanting to bother transferring the higher quality video out, I chose the lower quality video. The date created/modified on the file can't be trusted. Some computers on which the year has not been set has years like 1970 or 2022, which is certainly not right, and if you create a file or save an edited one, that wrong year is reflected in it. The video is not dated, but I could see era-specific things like mobile phone models and display screens. So, judging from those, it's probably, at earliest, at the turn of the current century: Just as I thought it's in a specific year, something newer than

So here I am, walking towards the old computer my child seemed so interested in. This odd disability of not being allowed to know the very children I gave birth to is hindering my job as their mother: anything about them seemed censored when it reaches my mind and their father doesn't understand my problem. Saeko: "So here's the old computer that **** was interested in... opps, I think the name might have sounded censored to you, but you know which child I'm referring to. Anyways, let's see if we can run this thing." Saeko pointed to the computer I used until the end of middle school. Saeko looked as though she's warning me about something that she can't say in front of my child, but, given the current situation, bringing me away from my child just to talk about it is not an option either. I can't blame her since there are several computers in the house, and them asking was unexpected. There's a video file on the desktop (first screen yo

I had started working for Mizuho since back in Middle School for being his favorite niece of his sister (my mother), doing little things like sorting things out. He would also ask me to help me with sensitive things that only trusted people or relatives could handle. I guess relatives are included since they can't really get away with confidential information, and least likely to betray. Uncle Kenjiro just told me to just sign a blank employment information sheet to be officially become an employee then. I didn't think he was serious even back then as many of the people hired into Hatsuya Institute for anything other than customer service are required to have a minimum qualification of a college degree or prove that you could do something they are looking out for quite well, but I was only just a middle school student. His daughter was also employed the same way as me, which makes the two of us, and later Itsuki, the youngest employees at that time. From the way I was treat

Being the head of this branch for some time not only means that I know more of my staff, especially the senior ones, but also my set of personality differences for family and work gets blurred. The office is filled with copies of certificates I received, and family photos. I've been here for almost a decade to have me decorating the place, but most of the things do not belong to me. They either belong to the company or the supervisors of this branch before me. Golf and traveling brochures hidden in the drawers serves as a reminder of how much they do not care about the staff. My picture at the end of a row of portraits of supervisors who had been here, and their years in office below the picture in the frame, tells me that I'm the first female supervisor here and had been in office for longer than each of the previous supervisors. Although that's a fact, I don't actually care about that, but my colleagues (including from headquarters) kept praising me for it. The years

We had found documents that strongly suggests that the company might have been able to do bad things if Hatsuya institute has given them the technology they lack, which has been strongly rejected. Some of these evidence support events as far back as decades ago where Hatsuya staff were attacked or killed for failing to give in to their demands. Documents dating from the late 1990s are probably stored on the computers we couldn't access yet as we couldn't find any physical documents of those. The rival company was not brought down back then as the evidence discovered then did not point towards them and police concluded that the attackers were only groups of individuals that were acting on their own. Hatsuya suspects that their rival had cleverly hidden any links to the attackers, or had some spies in the police force. The rival company is quite good with the security of information against them, but not with those from before that was available. None of the documents we found

Like at dinner, I did not dare to ask the question on my mind about the video footage my husband just showed me. Daisuke: "Kuniko-chan... I didn't know your family was this big..." Kuniko: "Me too. With my oldest sister born before my parents are married and that brother I talked about earlier, my own family seems strange and mysterious. Except for mom and I, everyone seems to have inherited the foreign look that originated from my great-grandfather on dad's side..." The mysterious past of me and my parents when I was born: why did my parent had me before they were married? They were barely graduated from high school at that time. What did uncle did to me shortly after I was born that is enough for dad to treat me like a mutated child that he doesn't want to look at? Kuniko seems the only one who didn't inherit the foreign-like appearance from dad and, behavior-wise, almost as normal as Izumi and most girls. She was supposedly one of the thre

The unknown girl left hurriedly, but what shocked me the most was that she entered my house right in front of me. Me: "Hey wait! You trespasser! That's my house you know!" I caught strange girl by the hips. It wasn't hard as her reaction time was slow on top of me being stronger (from all that carrying at work) too. All of the girls from Mizuho seem to strangely have identical physical traits that makes them all appear identical unless you look closely. Saeko, seemed to have continued on to my parent's house with my children but not without making a face at the girl like they both know each other quite well. Saeko probably did not want my children to be involved in the argument. Me:  "Now, what dark magic did you use to make my children call you their father? I'm the mother and I have never seen you before." The girl gave up struggling and sighed.

We walked around the entire building when Saeko, without warning, stopped to unlock a door that is doesn't seem to stand out from the other rooms there except for the words on the sign. The room appears to be where things like stationery and old documents are kept. I don't know how old the stationary are as they seemed to be in mint condition, but the design of the packaging looks old. It feels strange to see something that is old as when brand new, though it is possible for the manufacturer to not change after all the years, particularly ones made overseas. Saeko: "I have asked some employees that I've known from my Kamisugi High days to come here for help. They are on the way here from the research departments now." She went searching through documents, theories, research, and sketches that are handwritten dating to some months before I entered university in America. I could actually recognize some of them. They had Saeko's handwriting with her name on

My peaceful sleep was rudely interrupted by my children who were shaking me desperately for whatever they wanted. Saeko isn't around, and my husband usually leaves and arrives back from work without his presence known. I seem to be the only one who didn't see him as my children and Saeko saw him. Speaking of my children, I don't really know much of them, including their names. Saeko does seem to treasure them a lot, and, when they are younger, they couldn't tell Saeko and my husband apart. How a child grows depends on what their parents do (or don't do) to them, things they encounter, and actions of others at a particular given time. Something as simple as not letting the children out or fetching them directly from school can make a difference in them finding a friend, encountering something dangerous, discovering something new, and so on. They could have not even unveiled their hidden potential and might rely on me too much if I am too protective of them. I don'

So, just after I called Saeko regarding the programming convention in 2005, I had some time to myself in this ridiculously large office. It was not easy obtaining information from her as she seemed to change subjects due to the fact that we are too close to talk in a professional way. I mean, if I were to talk to my mother as the head of my branch and her as the client, I would have to talk to her professionally. But since that client is my parent, I am very tempted to talk informally and off-topic as compared to someone I've only known at work. Also, I don't know why I see my children as nothing more than living things that came out of me and wonder how my body is able to make them. I mean, I know about the human reproductive cycle and, I don't know: it's like I'm studying about what humans do and the cycle of life, but didn't think it that I'm a human too and did not think that it would apply to me until it happened. Anyways, this visitor who had greet

As the days pass by, places that I remember during my childhood days, to recent as two years ago, has changed a lot: from the roads to the vehicles. Empty plots of land or poorly maintained buildings had sparkling new buildings in their place. I still keep in contact with my university friends and some of my middle and high school friends. As for my friends from primary school, I've lost contact with them: the well known social networking sites we know didn't exist until I was in high school, and nobody that I knew back then, except the grown-ups, has a mobile phone with them. My eldest child is about to enter kindergarten, so the house is chaotic. I don't know what my children knows, but they are able to identify me and Itsuki as their parents. According to Saeko, my uncle would drop by at random when I'm not around to " examine " my children. Is he checking if they had inherited something abnormal from their parents? I roughly know the possibilities on my

As mentioned , I will be listing the names of places mentioned frequently in my stories that had not been explained earlier. Do note that the phrases used here do not use the exact words mentioned here. Green : Names that were given as I typed the parts they were first mentioned or gave indirect description of an actual place/company. Blue : Names that were not given in the beginning, but were already given prior to this post Red : Names that I made up while typing this post or later on. Black : Unknown/Forgotten where the name came from, not part of the name in question, mentioned earlier M ix e d : Parts of the name known/given at different times. Colours are as mentioned above. Story 1: School the protagonist and Yukari went to - Mihara Academy , High School section ( 三原学院 高等部 ) Hospital the protagonist woke up in at the beginning - Hatsuya General Hospital ( 筏谷 総合病院 ) "Girl 3" - Saeko Hisakawa (久川沙江子) . Story 1 itself takes place in " the other dime

As time passes by, it's increasingly obvious that Saeko does not age that one day, even my own children's ages might overtake her. Of course, my children aren't even in primary school yet. They're too young to tell what they had inherited from either me or my husband, but they sure appear healthy. I don't know why my uncle insists on checking on my children just after they were born and conduct more-than-necessary tests. I was allowed to be around when it's going on, but he didn't tell me what the extra tests were for. Well, he is in the medical science field and could gather information for one of his many (weird) projects that I don't know what is the purpose or the benefits behind it. ••••• Anyways, back when they promoted me and was posted to a different branch, I didn't know what my new job position meant and believed that it was the same as the last. However, when I went there, I couldn't find my name on any of the desks they said my

Speaking of my wedding, the date my parents had gotten married is several years after my birthday. I mean, how is that possible if my birthday is earlier and they are both my parents? If I were to subtract my age from my parents' current age, my current age is already over the age my parents had me. Something is not right here: they had either adopted me from before I even knew what was going on or had me when they were still teenagers. Besides that, I can't think of any other reason. There's something my parents aren't telling me. Not long before my wedding with Itsuki, we packed our things from our respective parents' house. It wasn't easy since they are scattered all over the house, not just in the bedroom. Add that to the size and weight and bringing them to the new house. Since I was the only child in the house that had their own room, Izumi had slowly been moving into my room since Shin'ichi has been creeping her out because of "his age". I