EXTRA: Look Up at the Sky

“Cloudy, I wonder if it’s doing well…”
Shinobu murmured as she looked up at the sky through the window.
“I’m sure it’s doing well…”
Beside her, Sayuri replied softly.

Even several days after Cloudy returned to the sky, Shinobu still seemed unable to fill the loneliness.
Sayuri stayed close by her side, trying somehow to help.

Shinobu was aware of Sayuri’s feelings and was trying her best to move on, but before she knew it, she would find herself at the window, looking up at the sky.

“Is everyone going to disappear…?” Shinobu murmured quietly.

“That’s not true! I’ll always—always be by your side!”
She drifted lightly out through the window and hovered in front of Shinobu, as if facing her.

“You know, I’m a bound ghost, so I can’t leave here. So—I can’t go anywhere. Everyone can go to all kinds of places, and if they find somewhere better than here, I wonder if they’ll go there instead… and Cloudy is gone too…”
Tears streamed from Shinobu’s eyes.

“Don’t worry! I’m not going anywhere! Misaki-san and Yuka-chan too—even if they die, they’ll become ghosts and stay here!”
Sayuri declared, her voice rising with emotion.

“Do you think so? Will they stay?”
Shinobu wiped her tears.

When Sayuri drifted lightly to Shinobu’s side, their eyes met naturally.
“And—if you show a crying face, Cloudy will worry, you know? So let’s smile.”
She gently took Shinobu’s hand.

“Hey, Misaki-san. I feel like Sayuri-chan just said something kind of scary.”
Yuka, sitting beside Misaki as she drank her sake, murmured.

“They’re ghosts, so it’s not like they mean anything bad by it. And if it helps them feel better, saying something inauspicious like that isn’t such a big deal, is it?”
Misaki looked at Yuka with a gentle smile.

As they listened to the ghosts laughing together for the first time in several days, Misaki and Yuka clinked their glasses.