Epi.9-EX: An Encounter in the Forest

Rin left the abandoned house and was walking through the surrounding forest.

“Oh my, it’s rare to see a doll in a place like this.”

As she searched for the owner of the voice, the mist gathered, gradually forming the vague outline of a woman.

“Who are you? What do you want?”
Rin looked up at the face of the supernatural being.

“I don’t really have any business, but if I see a doll that moves, of course I get curious.”
The silhouette was indistinct, but it seemed to be quietly giggling, somehow amused.

Rin could have ignored her, but spoke to her anyway, almost without thinking.
“Is the human who takes care of a moving doll normal?”

“Oh my, does that mean taking care of you?”

Rin nodded in response. “Yes.”

“Perhaps she’s lost her mind and thinks you’re her own child. I wouldn’t call that normal.”

“She knows I’m a doll.”
Rin was remembering Misaki’s words.

“That’s a hard call. There might be people like that.”

“She lives in that abandoned house over there.”

She was clearly taken aback and let out only, “…Huh?”
Then, after clearing her throat, she said, “That’s not normal. I can say that for sure.”

“She’s always drinking.”

“…Then she’s a drunk.
To begin with, anyone who lives in a place like that and is soaked in alcohol is absolutely not normal. So don’t worry.”
She sharply raised a finger formed from mist.

What am I supposed to be reassured about? Rin thought, but deliberately didn’t say it out loud.
“But she said she wasn’t drunk.”

“Drunk people all say that. Humans are probably the same.”

So that was it.
Come to think of it, that was true—drunks who insist they’re not drunk.
…Then that woman, too… really was drunk after all.

After that, they talked a little, and then she ran off toward the abandoned house.

Maybe talking once in a while isn’t such a bad thing.
From now on, she would try doing more of this thing called talking.

First—she’d make that woman say, “I’m drunk.”