Daydream ~Taking Off the Clothes of the Heart~

Akari-chan is cheeky.
At work, she picks a fight with me over everything. It's not that she's always off the mark, but most of the time she makes me realize something important that adults have lost. Even when I try to argue back, her counterarguments just point out that I'm a jaded adult, and I end up wanting to say, "Shut up."
But she is full of curiosity, and sometimes when her eyes sparkle and she looks at me with innocent eyes, saying happily, "I want to try that," she is very cute.

She has a secret. I am more delicate and sensitive than most people, so I noticed it. In a fleeting moment, I realized that a prosthetic leg was hidden beneath the skin of the leg that extended smoothly from her skirt.

I work at the same company as Akari-chan. Since I'm an older guy, I'm in a somewhat managerial position, but I'm not important, and I have even less presence.

Sometimes, I leave everything to the girls and watch the situation with a grin. I don't help until the very last moment when things are about to go wrong. It's mean, but I take responsibility, and I don't get angry even if they fail. At the end of the day, being a manager is just a role where you get scolded as much as the salary the company pays you.

I visited the office where Akari-chan works for the first time in a while. When I was working on a new task, Akari-chan came over with sparkling eyes and said, "I want to try that."
"Why not? Go ahead and try," I replied. She's a girl who gets bored easily, but conversely, she loves new things. I like watching her play happily when she's given a new toy.

Sometimes, Akari-chan acts like a nerd and asks me about things I don't know, trying to assert her superiority.

"Do you know the book written by Rosenberg Nanteoran?"

When she realized I didn't know, she started to talk at length. She turned a brilliant smile toward me—as I was squirming and unable to hold back my urge to Google it immediately—and she slowly said the author's name, enunciating every syllable.

"Rosenberg, nante oran (There is no such person)."

The look of triumph on her face when I realized I'd been tricked was cheeky, but also proud, cute, and sparkling, so instead of getting angry, I just found myself captivated.

At the end of the lunch break, when Akari-chan stood up, I saw the legs under her office skirt. She had taken off all the covers and left her prosthetic legs exposed. She was living by laying bare what she had been hiding.
Moreover, I had thought it was only one leg, but when I realized it was both, the shock was truly too strong.

She is now living with what she had hidden deep in her heart laid bare. It is very free and relaxed. But it squeezes people's hearts, and it thrusts a sharp blade at the way each person vaguely perceives their own humanity.

Akari-chan, who had cast off the heavy, coat-like armor she had been wearing on her heart, was as light as a spring breeze.

This is the story of Akari-chan, whom I met in a dream.
I crawl into bed, hoping to meet her in my dreams again.