Miraijin is born

Miraijin is born on October 20, 2010, as the child Adele Carrera has imagined as the “Man of the Future.” The date and name are chosen before the birth, and the moment brings a decisive turn in Marco Carrera’s understanding of fatherhood: Adele does not identify a father, but makes clear that she and her child will remain part of his life.

Name and Date

Miraijin’s name means “the Man of the Future” in Japanese. Adele settles on it while pregnant, linking her child to a future-oriented hope rather than to an absent father. She also anticipates a special birthday: October 20, 2010, or 20.10.2010, a date whose numerical pattern Adele notices.

When Adele tells Marco what she has decided, she presents the child as the new man and says the birth will fall on a special day. Marco accepts the name and date but asks who the father is. Adele does not answer. Her silence is not a gap that Marco can resolve by pressing her: she has decided that the father will not be part of the child’s story, and Marco understands that insisting or imposing himself would only create a clash.

Adele’s Decision and Marco’s Response

Adele’s decision to have the child without naming a father is presented alongside her character: she is described as a person of integrity, and as stubborn and adamant once she has made up her mind. Marco accepts that this choice is settled, although acceptance does not mean it is easy for him. The birth therefore takes shape around Adele’s stated resolve and Marco’s effort to meet an unexpected situation without trying to control it.

The moment also reverses Marco’s expectation of how his relationship with Adele will develop. He had raised her while trying to give her freedom and imagining that she would eventually leave. Instead, Adele tells him she has no intention of separating from him: she considers him a magnificent father, wants him beside her, and wants him to be part of Miraijin’s life. Marco is confronted not with his daughter’s departure but with her decision to stay.

A New Family Arrangement

Adele’s declaration makes the birth a beginning for a family arrangement centered on her, Miraijin, and Marco. She does not ask him to replace or identify a father; she tells him that his presence is welcome as her father and as Miraijin’s grandfather. Marco’s acceptance thus means accepting both Adele’s independence and the closeness she chooses to maintain with him.

Marco’s feelings about Adele are complex. He loves her deeply, feels pity for what she has endured, and is troubled by the thought that he could not give her the ordinary life every child should have. He also worries about her stability. Yet these fears coexist with Adele’s direct expression of trust and attachment: she credits him with being a good father and explicitly wants him to share in the child’s life.

Significance in Marco’s Life

Miraijin’s birth comes after nine years in Florence during which Adele’s earlier thread-related disturbance has disappeared and she has shown no further sign of losing touch with reality. Marco has lived that period through the daily work of caring for his daughter and maintaining a fragile household. In those same years he has lost and found Luisa Lattes, abandoned his academic career, watched his parents become ill and die, and broken definitively with his brother. The child’s arrival belongs to a life shaped by accumulated loss, but also by the steadiness Marco has found in caring for Adele.

The birth therefore extends the fragile world Marco has worked to hold together. His role changes from a father who expects his daughter to fly away to one invited to remain beside her and help welcome the future she names. Miraijin’s significance begins in that conjunction: a chosen name and date, Adele’s firm decision, and Marco’s acceptance of an unexpected place in the life of the next generation.