Chapter 3: It’s Sayuri, You Know?

Sayuri drifted softly deeper into the forest. Now and then, she pinched the necklace hanging from her neck, gazing at the nekomata charm and smiling.

As Sayuri walked on, she ended up stopping for a short chat with a supernatural being squatting by the roadside. At that moment, suddenly—

“Hey… don’t you smell something sweet?”

Sayuri looked around her. But the supernatural being only tilted its head in confusion.

“Even though the smell is this clear?” When Sayuri twitched her nose, she felt like she could somehow tell which direction the scent was coming from.

“It’s this way, you know?” She said as she pointed, but it seemed the supernatural being couldn’t tell at all.

After parting ways with the supernatural being, something about it lingered in her mind, and Sayuri followed the scent, heading deeper into the forest.

Drifting softly, it felt like she was walking inside a dream. Even the sound of leaves brushing together, even the calls of birds, felt somehow distant.

Before long—

—It’s here.

Feeling as though she had heard someone’s voice, Sayuri stopped in her tracks.

When she turned around, a girl in a white dress was standing right there. Her skin and hair were faint, drained of color, and she seemed to be standing as if floating within the forest. Though her outline was clear, strangely, every time their eyes met, Sayuri felt as if the girl’s face looked slightly different.

“I’m Sayuri. And you?”

When she spoke gently, the girl tilted her head a little and quietly opened her mouth.

“Sayuri… that’s your name, then.”

At that moment, a sweet scent softly enveloped the tip of her nose.

Without thinking, she narrowed her eyes. Sweet—an odd smell, as if it were numbing her brain.

The two of them continued to gaze at each other just like that. Without words, simply in silence. The girl stared at Sayuri intently, as though she were judging something.

Within the forest, only the scent drifted on, endlessly sweet.