That night, I couldn't sleep.
Hikari's words echoed in my head like a curse.
"I remember everything. The night under the stars… the promise I made before my last breath."
I sat by the window, staring at the moon.
It was the same moon I used to watch with her.
Suddenly, I heard footsteps. Small ones.
"Papa?" Hikari peeked in, clutching her stuffed rabbit. "Why are you awake?"
I smiled weakly. "Couldn't sleep. What about you?"
She climbed onto my lap without waiting for permission, just like she used to.
For a while, we sat in silence, the night breeze brushing against us.
Then Hikari spoke.
"Papa… do you remember the red scarf?"
My body stiffened. "What… scarf?"
She giggled softly. "The one you gave me on my seventeenth birthday. You saved up for weeks just to buy it. And you were so embarrassed, you couldn't even look me in the eyes when you handed it over."
My breath caught in my throat.
That was… impossible.
No one else knew about that scarf. Not even our friends. I had hidden it away after her death, unable to bear the sight of it.
But Hikari looked at me with those same eyes, the same teasing smile.
"Papa… I still have it. In here." She pressed her tiny hand to her chest. "Because I'm still me."
I felt my heart shatter.
She wasn't lying. She couldn't be.
"Hikari…" My voice trembled. "Just who… are you?"
She leaned closer, her warm breath brushing my ear as she whispered:
"I'm the girl who loved you. The girl who promised to return. Your lover… and your daughter."
The room spun around me. My mind screamed impossible, but my heart knew the truth.
She was back.
But in the most forbidden way imaginable.