Burned out from a soul-crushing job in Tokyo and diagnosed with adjustment disorder, Takahashi Yutaro flees to the countryside to recover—alone, in his late grandmother's crumbling seventy-five-year-old estate at the foot of the Kamuro mountains. He expects silence. He expects solitude. He expects nothing but time to heal.
Instead, at two in the morning, he hears something scraping across the kitchen floor.
A shadow no bigger than his palm. Tiny footprints with five perfect fingers pressed int
The Girl in the Crawlspace - I won't leave you alone anymore
Glass shards scattered across the moonlight.
The wound on his palm had stopped bleeding. But the pain deep in his chest wouldn't stop.
Takahashi Yutaro sat collapsed on the tatami mat, gripping the diary. The gap in the wall remained black and silent. No answer came when he called.
"Marianne"
His voice was swallowed by the darkness.
（Should I just wait for morning like this?）
No. The moment he thought it, Yutaro was on his feet. He grabbed the flashlight and bolted into the garden. Under the persimmon tree, behind the well, beneath the house—he peered into every place he could think of. But nowhere held a small shadow.
Kneeling, he thrust his head under the crawlspace. Night dew soaked into his back. The smell of earth. Cold wind.
"…If you're there, answer me."
His voice was pathetic. To anyone watching, he'd be nothing but a suspicious person. But he had no room to care about that now.
Before he knew it, the eastern sky had begun to pale. The tips of the shrine's cedar trees regained their outline in the gray light. Okusawa Shrine—a small shrine about five minutes' walk from the house. Fumie's diary had mentioned it sometimes.
（I haven't looked there yet.）
Yutaro dragged his exhausted feet through the torii gate.
At the base of the cedar, in a moss-covered hollow, a small curled shadow lay.
His breath stopped.
"…Found you."
Her wings were still a dark purple. She held her knees, face down. Her braid had come loose, strands clinging to her cheek.
"…I told you not to come."
A muffled voice. She didn't turn around.
"Didn't hear it. My ears have always been bad."
"…Idiot."
Yutaro approached slowly and crouched at a distance. Close enough to reach if he stretched. But he stopped there deliberately.
"If you're scared, I won't force myself closer. I just need you to listen."
Silence. Marianne's shoulders trembled slightly.
"I remembered. All of it."
"…"
"That last night of summer. You were trying to disappear because you thought we couldn't meet again. You used that evasion technique to vanish from my sight."
Marianne's body jerked.
"Stop."
"But I shouted for you to wait. I wanted to see your face, so I looked down at it."
"…Stop, I said."
"Our eyes meeting—that was my fault. I'm the one who broke the rule."
Wind rustled through the cedar branches. Marianne finally lifted her face. Her tear-swollen eyes looked straight at Yutaro.
"…What's that supposed to mean?"
"You've been blaming yourself this whole time, haven't you? Breaking the rule, getting exiled from the village, even erasing my memory… thinking it was all your fault."
Marianne's lips trembled. She tried to answer, but no sound came.
"That's wrong. I'm the one who didn't want to be alone. I couldn't bear you disappearing."
His voice was quiet. But that made it heavier.
Tears spilled from Marianne's eyes again. Different tears than before.
"…I didn't know."
"You couldn't have. I didn't understand it myself until recently."
"Fifteen years. I've lived fifteen years thinking I was a monster. Meeting your eyes, stealing your time, getting cast out from the village… all of it was my fault."
Her voice shook. The tips of her wings slowly changed color. From dark purple to gray.
"You're not a monster."
"…"
"You're someone I didn't want to leave alone. That's all."
Marianne wept silently for a while. Her small shoulders rose and fell. Yutaro sat beside her, knees drawn up, saying nothing. Not rushing. Not speaking. Just there.
Eventually, between the tears, he heard her sniffling.
"…My nose is running. How pathetic."
"Yours too."
"Not as bad as yours."
Bravado in her voice. But the usual venom was gone. Just a little strength returning.
Yutaro gave a wry smile and wiped his face with his shirt sleeve.
"Let's go back. You'll catch cold out here."
Marianne nodded, sniffling. Her wings' color finally approached their original deep green.
---
The kitchen still had the broken sugar jar scattered across it. Yutaro swept while pulling another dish from the back of the cupboard. A small soy sauce dish Fumie had left behind. Not as refined as a silver plate, but it would do.
"Use this from now on."
"…A soy sauce dish?"
"Got a problem with it?"
"Of course I do. I'm a princess—I can't use something this cheap."
Laughter. Hoarse, still bearing traces of tears, but genuine. Yutaro arranged three sugar cubes on the dish.
"Three. That's the number."
Marianne's expression softened.
"…You knew what it meant."
"It was in Fumie's diary. That someone was still waiting here."
"She really… thought of me until the very end, didn't she?"
Marianne perched on the edge of the dish and reached for one of the sugar cubes. But she didn't bite it right away—just stared at it for a while.
"Hey."
"What?"
"Stay here. From now on."
Marianne looked up. Their eyes met. This time, without fear.
"This time, it's not my turn to wait—it's my turn to be with you."
For a while, Marianne said nothing. But even in the morning light, he could see her cheeks flush slightly.
"…Fine. I'll look after you for a while."
"You could just say you want to be together."
"You're annoying. Keep nitpicking and I'll start crying again."
Yutaro laughed. A real laugh, from deep in his belly, for the first time in a while.
Outside the window, morning sun began to illuminate the persimmon tree in the garden. The broken glass shards reflected the light, glittering. As if last night's events had never happened—but both of them knew they would never forget that sight.
Marianne bit into a sugar cube. A small sound.
Yutaro listened to it and thought.
（The rule is still broken. Marianne is still exiled.）
Would the day ever come when she could return to the village? Would the elders called the Tsumugi Council ever forgive her?
He didn't know. But at least in this moment, Marianne was not alone.
Yutaro picked up a fragment of the broken jar and quietly slipped it into his pocket. Maybe someday these pieces would come together—holding only that groundless hope in his chest.
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