Chapter 7: Fun…?

Since then, I hadn’t felt like doing anything.
As I idly gazed at the starry sky and the scenery, drifting in and out of light sleep,
before I knew it, night had wrapped itself around the sky.
It was the night of the festival.

To be honest, I was aware that I’d been keeping a certain distance from the people of this village.
But even so—this one thing, the festival that that boy had truly been looking forward to,
I wanted to see it no matter what.

It would probably never reach him, but if I could say, “It was amazing,” even once.
Just that alone felt like it might serve, at least a little, as a kind of memorial.

She didn’t know where it was, or when it started,
but when she looked down from the sky, she quickly spotted a place where lights were gathered more densely than anywhere else.
Sayuri shifted her mindset and, as if gliding softly through the air, descended toward the center of that light.

—But the closer she got, the more an eerie stillness struck her ears.
There were no calls from the food stalls, no excited voices of children, no lively shouts—nothing.
The sound… it was as if it had never existed.

Even so, the light was certainly there.
As she closed the distance further, she could see that the village square had become the festival grounds.
And the figures of the people gathered there, too.

—They were writhing.

People clad in garments adorned with flamboyant patterns moved quietly, yet with an air as if possessed by some fever—
twisting their bodies, throwing their heads back, or dancing.
Their movements reminded her of the black-clad figures who had carried the boy yesterday.
Only—today, as if to conceal that darkness, the colors of their clothing alone were unnaturally vivid.

Was this what they called a “festival” in this village?

Fun…? This?

Sayuri felt her brow crease unconsciously.

If things had been as they should, she had imagined a lively, cheerful festival—
browsing food stalls, seeing the smiling faces of happy families, feeling her heart lift to the lively sounds of the festival.
That was why she had practiced over and over, determined to walk around and see it all on her own feet.

And yet.

Sayuri did nothing more than watch the scene in the square from afar.
Before long, she quietly turned her back and rose into the night sky.