Seven Lucky Gods Series | Prayer Paper (Inorigami) Edition [Fukurokuju and the Unmelting Years of Ice]

The prayer of "I will never forgive you" is what has kept me alive until today.

Chime,
chime, chime.

A prayer paper reaches Fukurokuju's hands.

"…Hmm. To think there is a prayer so cold, yet so hot. Love has turned inside out, becoming shards of ice that pierce the heart."

Fukurokuju stroked his long beard and took the paper quietly and solemnly.

Prayer paper reflects the weight of a wish in its color.
The color that reached his hands was an 'ice blue,' like the bottom of a frozen lake.

It is the color of a lonely prayer—transparent and beautiful, yet sharp enough to cut your fingers if you touch it.

(Chii-san's prayer paper, woman in her 60s)

What did I do to deserve this?
My twenties, when I believed I was happy.
My thirties, when I married the person I loved and was blessed with two children.

But then he said, 'I love another woman.'

From then on, he stopped coming home, and our separation began.
I worked alone, raising our two young children with all my might.

'What was wrong with me?'
'Was it because I wasn't pretty?'
'Are the children not cute enough?'

No matter how many times I blamed myself in that dark room, the facts didn't change.
He tried to pay me off, practically groveling.
'I'll pay alimony. So please, divorce me.'

I threw those words right back at him.

'You think you can just solve this with money and go off to be happy yourselves? I won't allow it. You will transfer living expenses and child support every month. But I will not divorce you.'

I will not forgive you. Until I die, I will never give up my place as your wife.
I don't mind becoming a demon that drags you to hell. I will never forgive you!

In the place where time stopped,
chime,
chime, chime.

High above in the sky, Fukurokuju watches the path Chii-san walks.

"Happiness is not just about smiling. To survive by clinging to something—that, too, is a form of life."

The children grew up, and eventually, the child support payments stopped.
Even so, Chii-san never signed the divorce papers.

The emotion of "I will never forgive" had, at some point, become Chii-san's "backbone."
Because of that anger, she had been able to raise her children alone and work honorably until this very day.

However, when her children found jobs and left the nest one by one,
when she suddenly stopped to catch her breath, only a deathly silence remained in the house.

Caught up in the busyness of life, she realized her parents had passed away and her only remaining family were her children.
She felt the heat of the "anger" that was supposed to have supported her slowly slipping away from her fingertips.

Fukurokuju's Whisper
Outside the window, the twilight approached.
Even the face of that person she once hated could now only be recalled vaguely.

What have I been fighting against?
Who will I live with from now on?

High above in the sky, Fukurokuju gently cast a warm light onto Chii-san's shoulders.

"Chii. You have fought enough. The time you have spent living as an ogre is coming to an end. From now on, use your 'time' for yourself. You have done well in your long battle."

Chii-san opened the window she hadn't opened in a long time.
There, it was not the past that had bound her, but simply a gentle night breeze blowing.

Thank you for reading.

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