After two weeks had passed, the cloudling had grown considerably.

  Now, even when Shinobu sat on it, it still floated.

  Shinobu usually made her way timidly through the abandoned house, but riding on the cloud and looking around the house with Sayuri, she seemed to be enjoying it.

  One day, after several such happy days had passed, Sayuri spoke to Misaki with a downcast expression.

  Unusually for lately, she was alone.

  “Um… Cloudy says it wants to go back to the sky… What should we do…? I don’t want to be apart from it…”

  “…If Cloudy wants to go back, then we should let it.

  You understand that clouds belong in the sky, right?

  So maybe… being on the ground is hard for it?”

  Misaki chose her words carefully and spoke gently.

  “…You’re right… that’s for the best. I’ll somehow tell Shinobu…”

  Sayuri had been looking down in silence, but she replied weakly with a smile that made it clear she was forcing herself.

  Unable to just watch, Misaki said, “Do you want me to tell her instead?”

  Sayuri shook her head and said only, “You don’t have to… I’ll… tell her…” then opened the window and flew outside.

  As if taking her place, Shinobu entered the room.

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  She was holding the cloud in her arms like a large stuffed animal.

  “Huh? Hasn’t Sayuri-chan come back yet?”

  “She just left through there,” Her gaze shifted toward the wide-open window.

  “It kind of seems like she’s not very energetic.”

  Shinobu was gazing toward the window with a worried look.

  Even while absorbed in the cloud, they were still clearly aware of each other.

  Feeling a little reassured by that, Misaki decided to watch over the two of them.

  After a while, Sayuri came back through the window.

  As expected, she still wasn’t very energetic.

  “Hey, Shinobu…”

  She tried to start speaking, but her mouth would not move easily.

  “What’s wrong, Sayuri-chan? You seem kind of down.”

  She moved closer, as if to peer into Sayuri’s face as she kept it slightly lowered.

  “Cloudy says… it wants to go back to the sky…”

  She forced the words out in a trembling voice.

  “I see… is that so…”

  She faltered, her voice catching at the unexpected words.

  “I think… it would be better to do it sooner… Honestly… even right now…”

  She kept her eyes averted from Shinobu.

  “Cloudy… why all of a sudden…”

  Shinobu turned her gaze toward the cloud she was holding in her arms.

  To the three of them, it seemed as though the cloud moved just a little—almost lonely, almost apologetic.

  “It seems it’s been holding it in… but it’s reaching its limit… So, tomorrow… okay?”

  Sayuri must have been at her limit as well.

  The voice she forced out was laced with tears.

  “…That’s…”

  Shinobu tightened her arms around the cloud.

  Yet the cloud seemed to comfort her—brushing against her cheek, twining itself around her arm.

  But Shinobu could not move.

  Misaki had paused, watching the scene with her hands stilled, but she could not say anything.

  Unlike Sayuri, a floating ghost who had wandered from place to place, Shinobu, a bound ghost tied to this abandoned house, might have been experiencing a farewell like this for the first time.

  Somehow, she did not feel like drinking, and Misaki set her glass back down on the table.

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  Short story: "10μm Droplet"

  ?EXTRA & Author's Note: February 27 at 8:00 PM (PST).

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