Nekoko Shiratori's Life Theater Episode 10: A Casual Debut at "Koide-san"

Well then.

"Who decided this and for what purpose" No one would tell me even if I asked.

The clothes I wear and everything I do
"everyone together"—the rules of the nursery school and the behavior of my
"mentally ill" parents
left me feeling unsettled, and while becoming
YOKO FUCHIGAMI
myself, I, Sorairo Nekoko, have reached my 5th year of life theater. #WhatAreYouTalkingAbout (↓It was a story like this.)

Even after transforming again from "Sky Blue" to "Lapis Lazuli," the insides of both elbows and the backs of both knees remained in an infinite loop of
glittering → clear → rough → glittering,

It's not that I'm Matchy singing that, but the rough, chapped skin was casual
(over my lapis lazuli smock).
That's my | Nekoko's way of scratching.
Casually, with a glitter,
I lived casually. However.
In addition to that, before I knew it,

I started coughing, "cough, cough,"
and even though I drank the sweet cough syrup for children,
it didn't get better, and gradually
it turned into a strange cough,
"ken, ken, wheeze, wheeze."

“Hey, take Nekoko to see Mr. Shiraki tomorrow.”

The day after my father said that to my mother,

(I won't be able to see the "big sister" and the "bye-bye big sister" again, will I?)
I thought,
walking toward Shiraki Clinic with my mother, who couldn't ride a bicycle.

“Nekoko-chan, isn't this bronchial asthma? Children with atopy tend to get it easily. We don't have an inhaler here, so why don't you try going to Koide-san?”

The silver-rimmed glasses of Dr. Shiraki said.

Lapis Lazuli Nekoko looked up at the cirrus clouds in the sky,
coughing "ken" from time to time,
and walked with her mother along the road with the familiar scenery.

I remember holding hands and walking to the entrance ceremony,
but I don't have memories of this time.
Maybe we were holding hands,
though.


(I wonder how many times I've walked this road with my mother)
I thought, and after walking for a while,
“We're here,” said my mother.

"Koide-san" was "Koide Clinic," a white square building next to "En," a mint-colored coffee shop on the nursery school bus route.

(So "Koide" is read as Koide.)

Lapis Lazuli Nekoko sat on a long bench with her mother,
(There are a lot of grandpas and grandmas here. That flower picture is pretty. Oh, the phone is pink. It's bigger than our black phone.)
I observed the inside of the clinic for a while.
Then my name was called, so I went into the examination room.

He was a doctor with black-rimmed glasses who had more gray hair than the silver-rimmed glasses of Dr. Shiraki.

“Nekoko-chan, open your mouth~”

The doctor said, so I said "aah."
My tongue was pressed down with something like a thin iron tongue depressor.
While it was being pressed down, a cough like "nnh, kehehh" came out.

“Ah, sorry about that.
It's already over.
Now, let me listen to your chest.”

I held up my lapis lazuli smock, the white gym clothes I was wearing underneath, and three layers of undershirts, and the nurse rolled them up from behind.

The stethoscope touched my chest in several places with a "pit-pit" sound. It was cold.
The chair spun around, and the stethoscope was applied to my back in the same way. It was cold.

"Hmm, let's take an X-ray."

The doctor with black-rimmed glasses says.

Going to the "X-ray room" and becoming a bare-chested, flesh-colored little girl, Nekoko is made to stand where the nurse has set up a thick black board. A stand descends in front of her face.

"Press your chest firmly against the board, and put your chin here. Grab onto this, okay?"

"Okay. (The board is cold. What is being done to me?)"

"Alright, stay just like that and wait a moment."

Leaving the flesh-colored little girl Nekoko in a cross-like position, the nurse leaves.

(Huh?! What is being done to me?)

"Nekoko-chan, I'm going to tell you to take a breath, so when I do, take a big breath and hold it. Here we go—breathe in, breathe in—hold it!"

The nurse's voice comes from the speaker. Just as told, she takes a deep breath and desperately holds back the cough that is about to come out.

Flash. Clank.

"Alright, all done! You can breathe now." The nurse returns immediately.

"Nekoko-chan, you were so 'well-behaved.' Good job. You can put your clothes back on."

Back at my birthday, Grandma also said I was "well-behaved," and now the nurse said I was "well-behaved" too. What does "well-behaved" mean? While turning from flesh-colored to lapis lazuli, I thought about that.

After waiting in the waiting room with my mother for a while, we were called by the black-rimmed glasses doctor again.

The white box on the wall in front of the doctor's desk lights up. When he clips a thin film to the top of the box, a "bone-bone lock" appears there.

(Whoa! An "X-ray" shows the inside of the body. Amazing.)

*Regarding "X-ray imaging," this is the oldest memory Nekoko has of it, so it is a mystery whether it was her first time.

"Hmm, as I thought, her bronchial tubes are a bit inflamed. Mother, does Nekoko-chan seem okay with injections and inhalations?"

"Yes. She's a child who has never cried during an injection, so I think she'll be fine."

"There's a patient currently getting an inhalation treatment,
so let's go ahead and do the injection first."

While listening to that conversation,
Lapis Lazuli Swan thought,
(Have I ever had an injection before?)

I followed the cute nurse behind the light blue partition
that I could see behind the black-rimmed glasses doctor.

When I sat on the round chair that spun around,
the cute nurse rolled up the sleeve of my smock
all the way to my shoulder.

"I'm going to get the injection ready,
so wait just a moment, okay?"

I replied, "Okay," and while having silly daydreams like,
(What if all those X-ray photos of me
from earlier were just "bone-bone rock" pictures
......... ahaha),
I waited for a while.

...

......

HUGE!!!

Seeing the syringe the cute nurse
was holding,
Lapis Lazuli Swan flinched for a moment.

It was a syringe as big and thick
as my own face.

"Nekoko-chan, I'm going to put the medicine in slowly, but let me know if it hurts."

My arm, wiped with something, felt cool.

"Okay. (Thump-thump)"

Prick.

(Oh? It doesn't hurt at all.)

Once I realized it didn't hurt,
I naturally looked at my left arm.

It's stuck in there. A long needle is indeed
stuck in Lapis Lazuli Swan's arm.
Where on earth does the medicine
that entered from the tip of the needle go?

As I was staring intently,

"Nekoko-chan, you're so strong!"

The cute nurse said, while slowly pressing down with her thumb.

"Because it doesn't hurt at all!"

"I see, thank you!"

Seeing the nurse smile even more cutely,
Lapis Lazuli Swan felt somewhat happy.

It took quite a while, but the injection was finished.
It didn't hurt the whole time.
I guess some kids find it painful;
I've even seen kids crying with a small syringe at "Shiraki-san's" place.

"Nekoko-chan, thank you for staying so still."

Told by the cute nurse,

"That's because it didn't hurt at all! Thank you very much!"

It came out of my mouth naturally.

"Ahaha, thank you!
Nekoko-chan, you really are
"so mature"!"

Again.
I was told I was "mature" again.
What is it? What on earth is it?
(What does it mean to be mature?)
I wanted to ask the cute nurse,
but I thought I shouldn't get in the way of her work,
so I couldn't ask.

"The inhaler is free now,
come over here, Nekoko-chan."

I followed the cute nurse
and sat down in front of a large machine.

The nurse took the hose extending from the machine,
and attached something that looked like a duck's bill
to the end of the hose.
When she flipped the switch,
a cloud of smoke-like mist puffed out
vigorously from the duck's bill!

"Wow! What is this smoke?"

My inner voice had come straight out of my mouth.

"Ahaha, did I surprise you?
This is medicine to help
make your cough easier, Nekoko-chan."

"Huh! I didn't know there was
medicine like this smoke."

"Alright, hold this in your mouth
and breathe in the medicine for a while."

I replied with a "Yes," and
put the duck-shaped mouthpiece in my mouth to inhale the smoke.

Even though I coughed a "ken!" every now and then,
the timer went off and it was finished safely.

"Nekoko-chan, you did a great job
for a long time today, didn't you?
But this is the end, so
take the day off from nursery school
and get some good rest."

The doctor with the black-rimmed glasses came over and said.
*This "erakatta desho~" is
Nagoya dialect, which in standard Japanese
means "You must be tired, right?"

I replied with a "Yes," said bye-bye to the doctor
and the nurses, and
walked home with my mother.

The autumn of my fifth year in the theater of life.

The stage set is "Koide Clinic."
Getting an X-ray of my skin,
the 'Hone Hone Rock' song playing,
staring at the giant injection for my left arm, and finishing with an inhalation,

white smoke drifts across the stage.

\Pishi/

Baribari paribari baribari pari

Ken! Ken!


\Pikin/

…? What? Who is that?

Well then, that's all for today.

Farewell!