“Grow up soon, okay?”
“Mm.”
“You really love your Shikamaru niichan, huh Mirai?” Kurenai said.
Mirai nodded so hard she almost pitched herself forwards, and Shikamaru reached out to catch her with both hands.
For the sake of this child, he really couldn’t go and die just yet…
“Right!”
Mirai babbled the word with such timing, it almost felt like she’d read right into his heart.
“Well, thanks for liking me.”
Shikamaru picked up Mirai and lifted her into the air. As the two year old shrieked with delighted laughter, Shikamaru thought to himself one more time, much stronger than before:
I absolutely cannot die.