I stared outside to look at the beautiful landscape before me. The natural beauty of the world shone through the glass wall, letting me see a reflection of my younger self outside this dreary world of mine.

The trees were ripe and blooming with sakura flowers, dropping petals here and there that were ripe with life, brimming with a chance for a better future. They floated like beautiful butterflies, burst from the cocoon that they were born from and becoming the gorgeous creations of life.

A huge contrast from me, a seventeen-year-old NEET that had nothing going for them at all.

"Ah, Kamiko. Aren't the cherry blossoms beautiful? They're just like fireflies in a starry night, right?" I was yanked from going deeper down from the dark pit of despair by my lovely mother, Yokoyama Hakuno. I took the time to turn towards her respectfully and nodded, before turning around and staring back at the outside world once more.

"They really are beautiful," I said as I started to stare off into the distance, wondering what other paths of life I should've taken instead of this one.

"Ah, but so are you! My little darling daughter, about to get into her second year at Kurokawa High School! I'm sorry that you had to have an old lady like me embarrass you in front of your friends, I just had to see you at the entrance ceremony like usual!" I couldn't help it. I cracked a smile and chuckled a little at her remarks.

"Mommm, you always come every year to my entrance ceremony. I kept telling you this entire month that there wasn't a problem with you coming and seeing me there, I was just worried about the fact you were taking a day off. Wouldn't your boss be mad or anything?" She looked at me for a brief moment while she was driving, before waving me off as if my concerns meant nothing at all.

"I told you this month as well, my boss is fine with it! Really, you should stop worrying about me so much! You should worry about your future after you graduate, and about the great marriage partner you'll get in the future! Boy or girl, I just want to see you happy in the end!"

"Gah!" I turned away with a light blush on my face. Her optimism and playfulness struck a critical hit to my heart, I've lost too much health from that one attack! I can't help it, that was too much in one sentence!

Then, the full context of the sentence hit me and I silently just crossed my arms and laid my head on them. It's true, this is the time that I would have to start worrying about my future, and about whether or not I plan to have a marriage or not. I know that she wants me to have a partner I can have for the rest of my life, but I honestly don't care that much about relationships.

The only thing I want to do right now is go back to reading my massive collections of isekai books and playing all sorts of video games in my cool and nice dark room. I don't even want to go the entrance ceremony today, I have no friends or colleagues that would even be willing to talk to me.

I have no attachments to anyone at my school, besides getting bullied every now and then, and I'm pretty sure no one even knows I exist at all, except for my teacher. I'm just a loner, and I'm fine with that.

I get to spend more time with my doting mom, who is truly an angel in human disguise. Everything she does is for the kindness of others. There's no darkness in her heart, she's completely pure of any hard intentions. Heck, she even forgave my father when he divorced her to see a 'better' woman.

I still never forgive that piece of human trash for such a detestable act. I had promised to never meet him again, and I've kept that promise.

... God, even when I'm being driven to school by this perfect being, I still can't get myself to cheer up all that much. There's nothing good about me at all.

Future? What's that? I'm just a loser who can't get any good grades in class, even if I try to study. I'm a girl who's being bullied and can't care all that much. I can't understand relationships with other people, and I can't bring myself to care all that much why people have certain interests with each other.

I'm not the kind of person who can go out and talk to someone about the latest video game craze that has begun. I'm not that girl who can go and talk to her senpai about her worries and get emotional help from them in any meaningful way.

I'm a NEET. I'm a loser, a loner, and a fool. I'm just trash in human form, something that nobody should bother trying to empathize with. There were so much better and interesting people to meet out there, like my lovely dear guardian angel, Miss Yokoyama Hakuno herself.

... however, there was still light inside me. A child that still lived inside me that told me to do her best and make sure that mama will be happy for as long as possible. A promise I made to myself that I will strive to be the best daughter in the world, and to take care of her as long as time itself.

I haven't forgotten that promise, but the end goal starts to look farther and farther away time to time. Nevertheless, I still had an ambition, and that was the one thing I will work towards. That was the one thing I could do to make up for my failures as a daughter.

I took another look outside as we continued down the road. The cherry blossom trees truly were in full bloom, making it seem like pink clouds were floating right above our heads, shedding down teardrops to tell me that they understood my feelings as well. I could appreciate the fact that mother nature herself was empathizing with me.

Unfortunate, humans aren't the same. I could see that from a cursory glance as well.

Couples walked around, laughing and grasping each other arms as they headed to whatever love hotel they were going to bang at. Children were going around and running towards their school, laughing in their groups as they moved, oblivious to the dark, harsh reality that society would bring in store for them. Nothing but horrible years of work, overtime, and grating fleeting moments of freedom for the rest of their lives.

I wanted to laugh, but that would be rude and hypocritical of my horrible sigh. I could only sigh in response to their naivety. Ganbare, the future isn't bright at all.

That was when I felt something on the back of my neck, giving me a gentle rub as if to make me feel better. I turned towards the motion quickly in a jolt and was surprised to see my great mom looking right at me, giving me a small sad smile, almost as if she had read all of my thoughts completely.

"Cheer up, Kamiko. I know the future isn't bright, but put your head up! Where'd that optimistic and kind girl I knew for years go? I know she's down there somewhere, and I can tell you still have some of her inside you. It's your first day of becoming a junior at the High School, and you'll have a lot of underclassmen you'll have to support and cheer up! You can make many new friends, relationships, and make connections that can help you in the near future. So put that smile upside down, and do your best, alright? That's the only thing I ask of you." She said with a charming and blinding smile, strong enough that the evil, invading darkness in my heart faded a little and let me put a small grin on my face.

It was times like these that I knew she could cheer me up, bring the light out from within my cold dead heart to revive my spirit and bring myself to love the world once more. Just her smile was enough to bring back those happy, childhood memories I had with her in my grandparent's house, enjoying the view and the world outside the city.

I truly do not deserve her as my parent at all. I could only wish that somewhere, in a distant time, when she is ever reborn into a new future, that she would obtain the perfect child that could give her a bright and happy future. Someone that wasn't me, a failure that had an inkling of a chance to succeed at that task.

Before I could talk back in any form, we heard a large amount of honking and screaming. We both turned towards the source of the glow, and to our horror, we both saw a speeding truck heading right for us.

At that moment, it was as if time stopped to a dead standstill, and I was able to fully analyze the whole situation. I could see everything, the entire scene, and the world around me within an instant.

Numerous bystanders were screaming and horrified at the scene, some of them covering their eyes or turning away to not look at the impending crash. Others were filming this incoming disaster, the bastards, or taking photos for some sick disgusting reason.

The truck driver looked horrified as he seemed to be pushing forward, almost as if he was trying desperately to smash the brake pedal and finding that it wasn't working. He had one hand on the horn, which he must have surely been using to try to warn us before it was too late. Unfortunately, dear sir, your attempts to alert us were not fast enough, as my mom and I were about to get hit hard.

My mom... my heart wrenched in pain as if someone had taken it and started to yank it in different directions, shredding it into different pieces. My mom's face had the look of surprise and utter terror, her mouth open in a death scream as she realized what was about to come. She was leaning far back into her seat instinctively, her survival senses telling her to back away as far as she could from the incoming threat. Her eyes were dead focused on the oncoming vehicle, as it was the thing that would spell her doom.

There was nothing I could do. I was forced to sit there and watch as my lovely mother was about to be killed right before my eyes. It was painful.

... Oh, God. Oh God, if you exist somewhere out there, no matter how cruel or evil you are, please, please. Save my mommy. Save her from this death. Please, for the love of humanity, don't let her die!

Please, spare her from this death! I don't care what you do to me, just please make sure my mother survives! God, I beg of you, spare the one person that brought any kind of joy to my life! I will do whatever it takes to ensure she doesn't die, please!

I could only watch in horror as we impacted. The front scrunched up, and we were both forced to go forward, with the airbags launching and saving us both before I could only spot with widened eyes a random metal object spinning right towards the object of my prayers.

"Mama!" That was the only thing I could say at that moment, and she could only scream in terror as the object came at a fast speed, smashing through the windshield, as it was about to take off her head.

... Then, as if by some miracle, the metal bar changed direction. No, it would be too cheap to say it merely changed its direction. It twisted directly, barely missing her head by three inches, before the deadly metallic spear set upon to attack its next target.

That, of course, being me. Before I could react, the bar smashed into my lower body, and I could only jolt in surprise before we came to a stop.

My body was on fire. My nerves were burning. I couldn't feel my stomach or my legs. I couldn't scream, as blood began to burst out of my mouth and threatened to choke me to death.

My mother turned towards me in a cold sweat and screamed as she tried to undo her seatbelt desperately, to no avail. In her animalistic panic, she had forgotten the basics of a car and has lost the knowledge of how to free herself.

The burning was giving way to dead coldness, akin to that of a freezer. I was sweating, as I looked towards mom's anguish and pain. I tried to put on a brave front for her and tried to give her a smile to comfort her. I don't understand why she started struggling even harder, screaming and crying even more.

'Please, don't cry mom.' I wanted to say. 'It's better this way.'

I wanted to say those last words to her, to comfort her as my death came coming close, but I could only cough up blood and hear what my horrible, horrible body was saying.

"Please mama, it hurts. Please, hold my hand. It hurts." Those were the words that came out of my mouth, instead of the reassuring words I planned to say. Those childish, crying words were going to be the last things that came out of my mouth, instead of the comforting, relaxing words I planned.

I wanted to scream in anger at my own body. I couldn't believe how low I could go to try to get some last comfort from her.

I tried to say more, but now the only thing that I could get to come out of my mouth was blood.

Even now, my body was betraying me and making sure my mommy wouldn't be able to live peacefully afterward. Even now, as I tried to have my mama's face be the last thing I remember, tears began to swell up my vision and blur it endlessly.

Damn it, stop. Please, let me have this one thing. Let me be able to have my mama's face be etched into my dying memory forever, so I can honor her for the last time.

No, please. Don't frown. Just smile, mama, it hurts when you're sad. Please.

Let me be able to enjoy this life one last time before I go to sleep. After all, I was really tired, and now it was getting hard to keep my eyes open.