Seraphim is a Bystander

Everyday Life at Kindergarten
 

It had been a month since Aoi started kindergarten, and he was gradually getting used to life there.
"Aoi-kun! Let’s play tag~!"
"No! Aoi-kun’s playing house with us today!"

Aoi had become incredibly popular over the past month. Despite his quiet nature, his naturally high physical abilities and athletic reflexes made him popular among the boys, while his androgynous beauty made him beloved by the girls. During free time, the boys and girls would compete for his attention.
"I think I’ll play tag today…"
"Ehh~! Why~! Come play house with us instead~!"

The girls pouted when Aoi leaned toward playing tag. Luna-chan, who had also been with him during the entrance ceremony, was leading the protests. The girls shyly gathered around Aoi, trying to convince him to stay.
"We played house all day yesterday, right? So let’s do that again tomorrow."
"…Okay. You promise?"

The moment Aoi smiled gently, the girls were knocked out, blushing as they happily pinky-promised him and walked away.
Once he saw the girls off, Aoi went to join the boys who had been waiting for him, and they began a game of tag. After a round of rock-paper-scissors, Aoi became the first “it.”
"I’ll start after counting to ten! One… two… ten!"

With his exceptional physical ability and reflexes, Aoi dashed after the other kids. Both physically and mentally advanced for his age, Aoi had started learning how to hold back and be considerate while playing with others. Even during tag, he managed the game so that both fast and slow runners could enjoy participating.
"I’m coming~!"
Thankfully, Aoi never forgot his kindness toward the other children and was able to genuinely enjoy spending time with them.

While he played energetically with friends during the day, Aoi had recently developed a new interest—reading. As soon as he got home, he would spend his free time devouring novels his parents had bought, using the nanomachines.
As someone who loved paper books, I found it a bit sad, but in this world, paper books were nearly extinct. Most content was digitized and accessed via nanomachines. Still...
"Mom, can I use my allowance to buy this book?"

"Oh? A paper book? You know you can’t carry it around like data books, right?"
"Yeah, but I want this one."
Maybe it’s because I had read so many paper books to him back when he was still in the womb. Aoi had developed a preference for physical books over digital ones. He’d use the allowance he saved from helping around the house to buy these increasingly rare and expensive books.
About once every three months, he’d buy a new book, read it until he had it practically memorized, and then pass time with his parents’ e-books until he could afford a new one.

One night during dinner, Aoi’s father, expressionless as always but with a hint of concern, brought up a question.
"Aoi, do you like physical activity?"
"…? Yeah, I like it."

"…I see. Then, how about doing something active with me next time?"
Aoi beamed with happiness and nodded. His father had been swamped with work lately, so they hadn’t had much time together. Aoi must’ve been happy just to spend time with him again.
"In that case, want to come with me to my workplace this weekend?"

"Yeah!"
…His workplace? Isn’t father-son bonding usually something like playing catch? I didn’t expect him to mean that workplace—the anti-virtual division.
"Shall I contact Dr. Ichijou then?"

"Yeah, it might be a good time for another checkup. Can you get in touch?"
"Alright, I’ll message her after dinner."
After dinner, Mom contacted Dr. Ichijou, and we got a reply in less than five minutes.

"Looks like Dr. Ichijou is free in the afternoon this weekend."
"Great. Then let’s head over after lunch—checkup first, then some physical activity."
The weekend plans fell into place easily. Aoi was overjoyed to have a weekend with his ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) dad, while I, on the other hand, had a very bad feeling.

Ugh, she’s definitely going to message me. I remember she said she had something for Aoi’s kindergarten entrance celebration… Guess I’ll use this opportunity to finally collect it.
Excited about the weekend, Aoi couldn’t fall asleep even after going to bed. I was watching him warmly when suddenly, a message popped up via nanomachine display in his field of vision.
"…Huh? What’s that?"

Just as Aoi’s eyes made out the name “Ichijou: Sera…,” I quickly switched with him and sent him to sleep.
"…Phew."
That was close… A second later and he would've seen it.

As I glared at the message, cursing Dr. Ichijou’s poor timing, I opened it and found a long, annoyingly high-energy message that radiated clinginess—even through plain text.
“(Seras-kun! You’re finally coming to see your big sis again!? I’ve been so lonely since your last checkup a year and a half ago! Even though I kept messaging you, you never replied properly—Seras-kun is so cold, I could cry… I’ve got so many things I want to ask you when we meet, so I’m really looking forward to it~!)”
…

"…This might be the most unreadable message I’ve seen in a while."
Alright… “(Please take care of Aoi’s checkup. I’m not sure if I’ll have time to talk.)” — sent.
Less than a minute later, another reply popped up. I sighed and opened it.

“(Still so cold~? Don’t forget I have that entrance gift I mentioned, so look forward to it, okay? I’ll make sure we have time to talk, so don’t worry~! See you this weekend~!)”
…How does she manage to be this annoying in text? Is she using voice input?
While pondering that, I sent back a half-hearted reply, made sure Aoi wouldn’t see any of it, then laid down and returned to my mental reading space.

It turned into an unnecessarily intense night…
And so, after enduring Dr. Ichijou’s obnoxious messages, the weekend of our trip to the anti-virtual division finally arrived.