Epi.10-2: The World I Never Had

“Then… want to watch some videos?”
Misaki operated her laptop and brought up a video site.

“Videos… you mean that one where Sayuri jumped off?”
As if recalling something, Shinobu pressed a hand to her mouth.

“Fufu, that one too, but there are all sorts of others as well. What Yuka does here every day also gets turned into videos.”

For Misaki and Yuka, it was all ordinary—but for a ghost born in the Meiji era, everything was novel to her.

“There are movies too. Anything you want to watch? Something exciting, something suspenseful—something scary, maybe.”
She looked at Shinobu a little mischievously.

“No, no, no. Absolutely not—those are absolutely not okay.”
There was a ghost there, trembling as she shook her head rapidly from side to side, fear in her expression.

“Just kidding, just kidding.”
Chuckling softly, she looked for a peaceful video.

“Food—you’re not interested in that, right? So maybe animals.”
She quickly typed in some search terms and played a popular video.

When the video started playing, it showed a mix of all kinds of cats—clumsy cats, cats that were just sleeping, cats snuggling up to their owners.
Shinobu watched, eyes shining, staring intently.
Misaki smiled gently as she watched her and emptied her glass.

“They were so cute. Videos are amazing.”
Shinobu was unusually excited.

“There are other animals too.”
As she searched, a worry stirred in Misaki.

Enjoying videos was fine. But—would showing her things she couldn’t touch, places she could never go, really be good for Shinobu?
Wouldn’t it only become another kind of pain for her?

“How about something underwater next?”
She hadn’t meant to, but she was choosing places Shinobu could never reach.

Shinobu’s eyes sparkled at the fish she was seeing for the first time.
At times she shrank back from the grotesque deep-sea creatures, but reassured herself by saying, “I’ll never encounter these ones, right?”

“Misaki-san, I’d like to see some far-off scenery. …Is there anything like that?”

“There is.”
She answered clearly—but she still had no answer to the question she kept asking herself: was this really all right?

“Hey… if you ever start to feel like you ‘want to go,’ wouldn’t that hurt?”
Misaki looked into Shinobu’s eyes as she said it.

From Misaki’s expression, Shinobu understood what she meant.

“It’s all right. I understand better than anyone that I can’t leave this place.”
Shinobu smiled brightly, as if to sweep away Misaki’s worries.

Seeing that expression, Misaki also smiled.
Her worry had been unnecessary.

“There are videos where you can watch the scenery from train windows all around the world.”
She typed the title into the search bar, and the videos appeared.

“Pick whichever one you’re interested in.”

At last, Misaki had found something she could do for this girl.
As Shinobu watched more and more videos, she might come to be interested in other things as well.

There were probably only a few things Misaki, being alive, could do for a ghost.
But she would do whatever she could.

Watching Shinobu, utterly absorbed in the sights she was seeing for the first time, Misaki opened a new isshōbin.