Editing City Series:Volume7 Layer 7 (section)

===Record 16: Something Important===

'''05/21/1997

'''18:56

After dinner at the Mountain, I took a stroll outside the dorm.

The Mountain was a large place. We would be going home during the summer and a select group would go to an even deeper area afterwards. I wasn’t sure if I would be chosen for that.

That was on my mind as I stretched my legs even more than yesterday to head deeper in. I held a small plastic basket in my hand. It contained some Inari sushi leftover from dinner I had swiped from the dining hall. They were made by the girls in the Mountain and contained a variety of ingredients.

I left the thicket and walked along the mountain trail. After crossing a smaller mountain, the mountains toward Tochigi came into view. It was already past evening, so the sky was dark and starry.

I looked around to see some mossy stone steps. The steps led to an old red shrine with fox statues on either side. I felt like the statues were watching me, but I had to be imagining that. I sat on the steps and considered offering the Inari sushi to the foxes. I opened the basket.

“Just one?”

Why was that all that was left? I set the basket down to my side instead of in front of the shrine.

I looked to the sky. I stared at the stars for a few seconds before realizing those were the stars of the northern sky. I must have been pretty homesick to unintentionally look to Tokyo’s stars like that.

Then I heard someone stepping on a branch and speaking loudly.

“Oh? What are you doing here? Running away?”

I looked over to see you. You suddenly sat down next to me.

“What brings you out here, delinquent girl?”

“You have no right to call me that after bringing this out here again.”

You reached toward the Inari sushi and ate it.

I gasped and looked back toward the shrine, but you didn’t care. You pulled out a handkerchief, wiped off your hand, and looked to the same part of the sky as me.

“So what are you doing out here?”

“You first. You know I’m no good at those complicated questions.”

“True.” You nodded. “I’m looking for someone who can take good care of someone.”

“Huh?”

“When most people think of someone else, the person in their mind isn’t the real them, right? It’s a convenient fake that looks similar.”

That was true. The real person was out here in reality, so the one in their mind was only a copy.

“But when you think about someone real, you think of the real one and the one in your mind as the same. So you end up surprised when the reality differs from your imagination. If you were really thinking about the real one, that wouldn’t happen, would it?”

“This is getting philosophical. And preachy.”

“What’s wrong with that? But as the person in your head, I think you’re doing a pretty good job with it. Was the first time it really bothered you that time you got 2nd place in track?”

“Yeah, everyone rushed over to the guy who got 1st place, so only you were left to tell me my time. But why bring that up now?”

“Because I want to. And I’m sure I will continue to be exactly the kind of person you think I am. I won’t betray your expectations. So try to keep getting along with her.”

You placed the basket in my lap, stood up, brushed off your butt, and climbed the steps.

I turned back to tell you that led to a shrine, but you weren’t there anymore.

I reached for the basket you had given me and found it was soft.

Confused, I looked down at my lap and found a single white fox child who still had brown fur was sprawled out in sleep there.

Was this a weird sort of gift?

'''Author Comment:

How Daitarou ended up with the protagonist.

Daitarou appears to be the child of a fairly high-ranking sacred beast.

I think he was left with the protagonist so he could learn about the human world, but I worry the parent fox made a poor choice of caretaker.