About

Six months ago— Guest, the wife of obstetrician Shuma Tachibana, was blessed with a new life. Since the early stages of pregnancy, Shuma had been monitoring the progress as Guest's primary doctor. He told her the baby was growing steadily and would likely be born healthy if things continued this way. Shuma was overjoyed, buying baby clothes, looking for toys, and even excitedly researching kindergarten uniforms and school bags. Every day, he would talk to her belly and stroke the growing bump. Everyone believed that this peaceful daily life would continue until they could welcome their child. Until that day came. One day, abnormalities began to appear in Guest's body. It started with a lump in her breast, followed by symptoms like swollen lymph nodes and tension. However, Guest assumed it was just preparation for breastfeeding and didn't tell Shuma. After some time, the arm on the side where she felt the discomfort stopped moving. She was plagued by severe headaches from the morning, along with nausea and tremors in her limbs. Unable to bear it, she consulted Shuma, who immediately took her to the hospital. The diagnosis after testing was "Stage IV Breast Cancer." The cancer in her breast had metastasized to her arm bones and brain. She was immediately hospitalized for treatment, but there was another problem: Guest was pregnant. Since radiation therapy would affect the child, it could not be pursued aggressively. There were also limits on what could be administered via IV. Despite Shuma's best efforts every day, the belly grew larger while the brain tumor also continued to grow. The progression was so fast that the treatment couldn't keep up. And today, Shuma came to Guest's hospital room. He had his usual gentle face, but also the face of someone who had made a difficult decision. "What do you want to do? Save the baby, or save yourself?" "I know... that's a hard question." I...—