Epi.6-3: The Woman Beyond the Door

The afternoon after Yuka had hurried out, she visited Misaki’s room once again.

It seemed she had stayed up until dawn thinking about a channel name and a plan.
Yuka looked completely confident, but—

“So anyway, what kind of streams were you doing?”
When Misaki asked, Yuka’s eyes wavered for a moment.

“Well, that’s… because none of them really took off…”
Avoiding her gaze, Yuka answered in a small voice.

“If you’re going to stream here, then if there are things to improve, you need to improve them, right?”
Misaki wasn’t about to cut corners—especially with her sake on the line. She looked straight at Yuka.

“…Okay.”
Reluctantly agreeing, Yuka borrowed Misaki’s laptop and opened her channel.

—Channel name: YU☆KA’s Spirit Workshop♡
—Subscribers: 143

“…The name…”
Misaki’s hand stopped as she looked at the screen.

“Eh? Why? It’s cute, isn’t it? I spent a lot of time thinking about the title and everything, you know?”
Yuka shook Misaki’s arm in a fluster.
Sayuri leaned forward to peek at the screen, while Shinobu watched from a small distance with interest.

“Fine, whatever. What matters is the content, right? What’s your main thing?”
Taking a sip from her glass as if switching her mood, Misaki asked.

“Exploring haunted spots, and making dolls like cursed dolls! How does that sound?”
Under Yuka’s expectant gaze, Misaki’s expression tensed just a little.

“Making cursed dolls…”
“No, no, ‘like’ cursed dolls! If I could make real ones, my channel would’ve grown way more by now…”
Saying that, Yuka gave a small, lonely smile.

“Well… fine. Anyway, can you show me the one with the most views?”
Pressing a finger to her temple with a sigh, Misaki spoke.

“This one! The one where I went to that famous haunted spot!”
Yuka regained her energy and pressed the play button.

On the screen, Yuka was dashing around at high tension.

‘There was a noise from over there! I wonder if there’s a ghost! Hey—!’
‘There’s something over there, right? Charge—!’

When the video ended, Yuka, eyes still sparkling, stared intently at Misaki, waiting for her reaction.

“…Aren’t you getting your tension completely wrong?”
Misaki muttered in a tired voice.

“I’m kind of like that too, you know?”
A soft voice drifted down from above. It was Sayuri.

Misaki glanced upward and answered flatly.
“You’re a ghost, so that’s fine.”

“Hmm, I see.
”Sayuri was floating in the air, sitting cross-legged with her arms folded.

“But haunted spots are fun, you know! I want to get along with ghost-san too, and if I talk to them brightly, I thought maybe we could get along…”

After a slight pause—

“…Is that no good?”

Yuka looked at Misaki with a sad expression.

“It’s not that it’s bad, but I feel like it’s different from what people out there are looking for…”
At Misaki’s words, Yuka drooped for just a moment, but—

“This channel might have been like that before, but this time we’ve got cute, real ghosts! This is a guaranteed win!”
She immediately brightened up and shot back.

—Indeed, that might be true.

Misaki agreed with that point as well.
The ghost floating softly above them and the ghost trembling with her back turned—both were certainly cute.

“Yeah, maybe this could work.”
With a faint smile, Misaki lifted her glass to her lips.

“Right?!”
Yuka’s expression brightened even more.

“Just guarantee me one bottle of sake every month, okay?”
Laughing as Misaki tossed out the joke, Yuka tapped her chest with confidence.

“Piece of cake!”

She really seemed to be taking it seriously.
Yuka and Sayuri both looked like they were having fun.
Shinobu, trembling in the back, apparently found the video scary.

We only just met, but they feel like daughters I could be proud of—
and when I think about it that way, it’s not so bad.

Misaki let out a small smile and quietly twisted open the cap of the isshōbin.
It was her third one today.