Epi.10-1: The World I Knew

One afternoon,
soft sunlight streamed in through an old window, drawing lines in the dust-filled air.

As always, Misaki set her laptop on the table and reached for the glass beside her.
Inside the glass, the amber liquid gave a faint ripple. When she took a sip, she let out a quiet breath, fuu.

As if something had just come to mind, she glanced to the side.

“Shinobu, don’t you have any hobbies or anything?”

Beside her sat the bound ghost girl, quiet as always.
“Hobbies…?”
Shinobu narrowed her eyes for a brief moment, as if looking into empty space, then shook her head.
“I don’t.”

“But aren’t you bored?”
When Misaki spoke in a half-teasing way, Shinobu knit her brows just a little.

“No, since I’m a bound ghost… it’s more like I’m used to it, or it doesn’t really bother me…”
Even as she said that, Shinobu seemed unsure how to explain it herself, and she lightly tightened her neatly placed hands on her lap.

Misaki let out a sigh and stared fixedly at the inside of her glass.
“But isn’t it better to be having fun rather than having nothing?”

“That’s true, but…”
Shinobu gave a small smile. “
I’m satisfied only because it’s not scary.”

That smile was so earnest that Misaki instinctively pressed a hand to the inner corners of her eyes.
“Really… what a good girl you are.”
Without thinking, she reached out as if to hug her, but then remembered that Shinobu was a ghost, and drew her hand back with a slightly lonely air.
“But you had some, right? Hobbies, when you were alive?”
When Misaki lifted her face and asked, Shinobu fell silent for a moment.
She lowered her eyelids and narrowed her eyes as if searching for something.

“Before I died…? I don’t have much memory of that…”
Then she lowered her gaze to the hem of her clothes. “
This outfit is based on the memories I have from when I was alive, though…”

What she wore was a navy blouse.
Its fine embroidery and lace, along with the small frills at the cuffs, gave a somewhat old-fashioned and delicate impression.

“Wow, around when?”
“I don’t remember clearly, but I was born in the Meiji era. Sayuri-chan said she was about the same, too.”

“What!? You’re older? Shinobu-san!?”
Still holding her glass, Misaki let out a startled cry without thinking.

“No, I’m already a ghost, so just go by how I look. Just Shinobu, like always.”
Shinobu hurriedly waved her hand and denied it, her cheeks faintly reddening.

“…You stay young and cute forever… I’m jealous.”
Misaki dropped her shoulders and took a sip from her glass.
Only the sound of a quiet kok in her throat echoed through the still space.

“No, ghosts have a lot of inconvenient things about them… and we can’t drink alcohol.”
Seeing Misaki’s troubled expression, Shinobu hurriedly added her words.
Trying somehow to brighten the mood, she leaned forward just a little.

“…That’s no good.”
Misaki lifted one corner of her mouth in an embarrassed smile.
And then she drank down the rest of her alcohol in one go.

“But you know, Sayuri wears clothes that are newer in style, right? Her hair color is bright, too.”

“Sayuri-chan likes cute things. She sees all sorts of things and takes in whatever she thinks is cute.”
In Shinobu’s voice as she said that, there was a faintly gentle warmth.
The expression she had while speaking about her friend looked almost as if she were alive.

“Can ghosts change their clothes or appearance?”
“I think it depends on the person, but in the case of me and Sayuri-chan, we can do it to some extent. Just like living people, hairstyles and colors are relatively easy. Clothes are possible if we understand them to some degree…”
“I see. Then how about an image change?”
“Image change… what is that?”
Hearing a word for the first time, Shinobu tilted her head in puzzlement.

“Well, you know, changing your image. In other words, changing your appearance in various ways.
How about matching outfits with Sayuri?”
When Misaki leaned forward with a sly, amused grin, Shinobu turned bright red in an instant.
“Absolutely not! A miniskirt would be so embarrassing I’d die!”
Right after she said it, she gasped and put her hand over her mouth.
“…I’m already dead, though.”
Seeing the ghost blush over her slip of the tongue, Misaki was quietly giggling.