Earthlings

“People will think you’re strange if you say such odd things,” Yuu said after checking that Uncle Teruyoshi had gone. “And once they think you’re strange, life will get really hard for you, you know.” He sighed and sat down

I was keenly aware that I was unable to fulfill my duty as a tool for the Baby Factory. Being a Popinpobopian, I just couldn’t understand Earthlings. On Earth, young women were supposed to fall in love and have sex, and if they didn’t, they were “lonely” or “bored” or “wasting their youth and would regret it later!”

Normality was contagious, and exposure to the infection was necessary to keep

Society was a system for falling in love. People who couldn’t fall in love had to fake it.

The grown-ups, who did what society wanted of them, were shaken by those of us who did not.

The grown-ups had become anesthetized and seemed unable to remember what life had been like before. They all seemed to be under some kind of spell.

I had never been given any affirmation at home, so I was hungry for praise. When I was complimented, even on a whim by a hysterical teacher, my chest grew hot, and for some reason I felt like crying.

It’s really hard to put into words things that are just a little bit not okay.

It’s handy having a dumpster in the house. In this house, that’s my role. When Dad and Mom and Kise get so fed up they can’t bear it any longer, they dump everything onto me.

My town is a factory for the production of human babies. People live in nests packed closely together. It’s just like the silkworm room in Granny’s house. The nests are lined up neatly in rows, and each contains a breeding pair of male and female humans and their babies. The breeding pairs raise their young inside their nests. I live in one of these nests too.

Mom and Kise often threw away my things, so I thought it would be safer with him.