EXTRA: See ya!

Several days had passed since the cherry tree had withered.
At the abandoned shrine, the supernatural beings were merrily making noise.

“Everyone looks so happy.”
Just like that day, Sayuri sat on the veranda.
She narrowed her eyes and smiled in quiet satisfaction.

“I told you before. Give them a reason, and those ones will start making a fuss.”
The nekomata answered, sounding somewhat proud of himself.

“Hey, I think it’s about time… I left this place.”
Sayuri lifted her gaze.
Though the cherry blossoms no longer bloomed there, her eyes looked as if they were gazing at something unseen.

“…I see.”
The nekomata blinked once, and after that, no more words came out.
When he quietly turned his gaze, Sayuri’s profile was swaying in the gentle light.

“Isn’t there somewhere that the supernatural beings gather?”
With a voice full of expectation, Sayuri peered into the nekomata’s eyes.

The nekomata parted his lips for just a moment.
There were words he wanted to say.
—Don’t go.
But they never became a voice, and other words slipped out instead.

“…If you go to such a place, you might find yourself in danger again.”

They weren’t the words he had meant to say, but they were without a doubt his true feelings.

“Maybe so.”
Sayuri smiled softly.

“But you know, that’s the kind of being I am.
Drifting, floating—here and there.”

As she spoke, she spun her body lightly, playfully striking a pose.

“There might be some danger out there, but there’s a lot of fun too, I’m sure.
It was a little risky, but I had fun here as well.
”As she said that, she gently placed her hand on the nekomata’s head.
At her fingertips was the soft touch of fur. She stroked it, as if reluctant to let go.

The nekomata couldn’t say a word.

Sayuri rose gently into the air.
Spinning once as she did, she flew as if dancing through the shrine grounds.

And then—

She looked up at the sky, as if to steady her breath,
and cried out in a voice as if it could echo through the entire shrine.

“Heyyy!! Tell me if you know any fun places!!”

For an instant, the world fell silent, as if time itself had stopped.
But in the next moment, the supernatural beings swarmed around her, all talking at once.

After listening to each of their stories, Sayuri turned lightly around.

“Kitty! Take care!”

Wearing the same smile as that day, she brushed past the cherry branches—
and flew straight into the spring sky.