Machi's Mother

Machi's mother is a fair-skinned, fairly tall woman whose eyes stay hidden in shadow throughout her appearances. Her long, straight, light-colored hair is worn with the bangs swept back and a small section gathered into a ponytail at the rear, and she carries herself in professional attire.

She comes across as severe and unfeeling, a woman who demanded flawlessness from Machi and doled out punishment for any lapse. No amount of success, however, ever won the girl a single word of praise. Once she had a son, she shoved Machi aside entirely, and she readily branded her daughter a would-be murderer of the newborn.

She pushed Machi into a struggle over the family inheritance against Kakeru Manabe, her stepson born to her husband's former mistress, insisting the girl achieve a perfect character and perfect grades or risk her father's rejection. The contest ended when Kakeru's mother stepped aside and she herself bore a son, whom she gladly declared heir; she told a friend she was relieved to finally have a boy, dismissing Machi as boring, plain, and unremarkable in spite of her grades.

When Machi protested that she had only ever done as she was told, the perceived shifting of blame angered her further. The breaking point came when Machi covered her sleeping baby brother with a blanket to keep him warm and her mother charged her with trying to kill him; the parents cast her out to live alone, claiming it was in her interest. Even afterward the mother phones now and then to check on Machi's schooling, only to belittle her by predicting she will never make friends, blind to the harm her own cruelty caused. By her grandson Mutsuki's account, mother and daughter never make peace.