Chapter 4: The Hunter and the Boy

Drifting aimlessly through the village, floating along without purpose, Sayuri let out a long sigh.

—This isn’t what I expected…

She practiced walking, and She thought that by now she could talk to people without being found out as a ghost—
but when she thought back on it, everyone she had met had been strange.

Far from interacting with people without being noticed, now she was drifting along like this, hidden from sight—

She lifted her gaze, and the evening glow was dyeing the sky.

As she narrowed her eyes at the beauty of it, there was the figure of a man walking toward her.
He was dressed like a hunter.
And from the opposite side, a boy about elementary-school age was walking along.

“Good evening.”
The boy greeted her in a straightforward voice.

“Yes, good evening. Be careful on your way home.”
The hunter-like man also replied with a gentle smile.

The two passed each other, facing one another as they did.
The boy kept walking straight ahead, while the man turned back, as if to see the boy off, watching his retreating back.

—For the first time, she felt like she had finally met a normal person.

At the very moment Sayuri narrowed her eyes—
Bang.
A dry, cracking sound tore through the calm of the evening twilight.

The man suddenly pulled the trigger of his hunting rifle.
The muzzle was aimed at the back of the boy who had been smiling just moments before.

“Honestly… kids these days—”

Muttering this under his breath, the man approached the fallen boy, checked something, and then walked away.
As if it were simply part of everyday life.

Sayuri could not even raise her voice; she could only stand there, frozen in midair.

Before long, something hazy began to rise from the boy’s body lying on the ground.
That was—the boy’s ghost.

“Hey… can I talk to you for a moment?”

When Sayuri spoke softly, the boy’s spirit turned toward her, swaying gently.
His outline was already starting to fade, as if he might vanish into the wind at any moment.

“…I don’t have much time, but sure.”

“This village… what even is this? You were killed out of nowhere. Hey—aren’t you scared? Aren’t you angry?”

“Huh? I think it’s just a normal village?”
The boy, still wearing a blank, puzzled expression, seemed unable to grasp what Sayuri’s questions even meant.

“Don’t you feel any resentment… at all?”

“I don’t feel any resentment. It’s just… I guess it’s a shame I can’t go to the festival.”
As he said that, the boy seemed to smile, just a little.

“It was going to be tomorrow night. Lots of people gather, and it’s fun.”

“…”

“…I should go now.”
Saying only that, the boy’s spirit faded away, as if dissolving into the wind.

Left behind where she was, Sayuri stared blankly at the empty space where the boy’s spirit had been—

“…No way. How can you just pass on…?”

Even though his life had been taken so suddenly, he held neither anger nor sorrow—
he only mourned the festival he had wanted to go to.
To be able to depart like that…

—This kind of thing is what’s normal in this village…