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Aside from Mother's Day, The twentieth of August was Konata Izumi's least favourite day in the entire year.
The reason was simple. Her mother, Kanata was born on that day. Today should've been her fortieth birthday; a celebration filled with endless smiles and high hopes for the many years to come, however, those celebrations would never happen. Not with Kanata, at least. After all, it's impossible to celebrate with the dead, isn't it?
Konata had blamed herself for her mother's death for longer than she liked to admit. Even today, she often caught herself thinking that she was at fault for her death – and, in a way, it made sense. How couldn't she be to blame? It was her birth that caused this mess. Without her, Kanata would never have died.
To make matters worse, all of her friends had gone on holiday somewhere. Kagami was in Osaka, visiting family – of course, Tsukasa accompanied her; Miyuki went with Minami on a holiday to the south of France; and Patty was away in America for the same reasons as Kagami and Tsukasa; so, in other words, Konata was alone, save for her father and her raiding teammates on Filna Fantasy. It wouldn't be another week until Yutaka and the others came to visit.
Konata supposed that it was useless to dwell on it. Kanata's absence, whilst tough on the Izumi family, certainly didn't mean that the day was absent of celebration of any kind. Soujirou had already treated himself by cracking open the special bottle of sake that he usually reserved for special occasions, and he and Konata had already gone through the countless photo albums that he and Kanata made, not to mention the mountains of home videos the two of them recorded together.
There was one such tape that stuck in her mind. It was one from the year 1989; about a year into Soujirou and Kanata's relationship, recorded on her birthday.
The sun was already shining through the curtains. Soujirou quickly turned the camcorder towards himself, smiling giddily, before turning it towards the breakfast he was cooking for Kanata – her favourite, tamago gake kohan. He soon turned the camcorder off, and the footage resumed as he was bringing Kanata her breakfast.
Kanata was already awake, reading a book in her bed. Her face immediately lit up the moment she saw what Soujirou had prepared for her.
"Aww, So-kun, you didn't have to!"
Soujirou chuckled youthfully. "Happy birthday, darling".
Konata couldn't bear to stay in the house all day. She didn't want to waste her time accusing herself of something that was entirely out of her control, either. She felt like she simply had to do something for Kanata.
Konata left the convenience store with a small bouquet of flowers in her hand. She had specifically picked out flowers she knew Kanata would've liked. It wouldn’t sit right with her to just pick out a random set of flowers. Unfortunately, the biggest bouquets that the store had in stock were a little too small for her liking. Konata figured that there was no use being pedantic about it. Kanata wouldn't have minded its size; if anything, it was the thought that would've counted to her.
With that, Konata set off to the cemetery, heading off to Kanata's grave – a place she knew like the back of her hand. It had begun to show it's age a little, with it being nearly fourteen years old and all, but that aside, it was just as she had remembered it all those years ago. She felt a crushing sense of depression every time she saw it.
She wiped the dirt off of the headstone, reading the inscription engraved on its surface once again:
"In loving memory of KANATA IZUMI
August 20th, 1967 - November 12th, 1994
Beloved wife and mother. Missed by all."
She set down the bouquet by the headstone.
"Happy birthday, mama," she whispered, wiping away her tears, "I miss you."
As Konata walked away, she could've sworn that she saw a glimpse of Kanata, standing by her gravestone; though, it disappeared the moment she turned around. She supposed her mind was simply playing tricks on her, like it usually did on days like these.