In the forest, a sweet smell suddenly drifted through the air.
As if guided by that scent, Sayuri stepped forward.

The monk who gave her a mysterious necklace, and the girl in the white dress she encountered.

She was sure her name had been called, yet the words would not come out properly.
The scent grew stronger, and something deep within her chest slowly began to loosen.

On the quietly smiling girl’s face, there was a strange, unsettling sense of wrongness.

—Even now, this is a day she sometimes remembers, carried back with that scent.