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did you come from? What’s your name? Where’s your guardian? Why are you wearing pajamas and house slippers?”
    The girl looked down at her own clothes and tilted her head slowly. “Dunno…” It had taken her about ten seconds to react.
    “What do you mean, ‘dunno’? Jeez… What about your name, then?”
    “My name is…” For some reason, the girl’s eyes shifted for a moment, but then she seemed to give up and lifted her face. “Tina…… It’s Tina Sprout.”
    “I’m Rentaro Satomi.”
    “Call me Tina.”
    “Then, you can call me Rentaro.”
    “Rentaro…?” Tina looked at Rentaro absentmindedly with her mouth half-open.
    “What is it?”
    “I just…wanted to try it out.”
    Rentaro slumped his shoulders. This was tiring. “Well, Tina, I’ll ask you again. Where’s your guardian?”
    “I don’t have one.”
    She didn’t? “Where did you come from? You can just tell me what you remember.”
    With her eyes half-closed, Tina tilted her head front and back, leftand right, stuck her forefinger on her chin, and started to speak slowly. “All I remember is that I think I woke up in my apartment today, took a shower, changed my clothes, and went out.”



“Don’t lie! Not only haven’t you changed or showered, you look like you just woke up!”
    Tina opened her mouth and said, “Oh,” softly, her eyes still half-closed. “You know me better than…I know myself…don’t you?”
    “Hey… The bike that was broken was yours, right?”
    “Bike? Was I…riding something…like that?”
    “Never mind. You should go to the police box and ask for directions.”
    “I can’t…really…”
    “Just do it. I realized now that I can’t deal with you.”
    “Don’t…say that.”
    Rentaro wrote his phone number on a piece of paper and handed it to her. “Here, if you get lost again, you can call me, so just go to the police box. Please.”
    “Then, can I try calling you as a test right now?”
    “Why do you have to do something like that…?”
    “Because you might have given me a fake phone number.”
    Rentaro had no words.
    Tina turned her back on him and fiddled with her cell phone, and then Rentaro’s chest pocket started to vibrate. “I know this is sudden, but you are interested in ten-year-old girls, right?”
    “Wh…what…?”
    “I was keenly aware of you gazing at the skin peeking out from my pajamas.”
    “Go see an eye doctor.”
    “I was afraid to say it to you in person, but you really have an unfortunate face, don’t you, Rentaro?”
    “Shut up.”
    “I also didn’t get a chance to say this, but I know where my apartment is.”
    Rentaro felt foolish.
Then, what was I hanging out with this kid for?
    Tina smiled faintly and folded her cell phone shut slowly. “Today was a very fun day.”
    Apparently, in this girl’s mind, this farce was saved in her memory as a fun day.
    It wasn’t fun at all for me, you know
, he almost said, but kept it to himself after seeing her happy face.
    Tina slowly slid off the bench and smiled. “I hope we can meet again.”
    Rentaro scratched his head, then gave up and gave a big nod, shooing her off with his hand.
    “Well then, good-bye, Rentaro.” The girl bowed politely and walked falteringly out of the park. Rentaro watched her go, not exhaling with relief until he couldn’t see her anymore. She didn’t seem like a bad kid.
    Thinking he had another story he could tell Enju, he walked in the opposite direction of the girl.
3
    Cars were passing by so quickly they made Tina’s ears hurt before going off into the distance. The temperature had cooled down, and it had gotten a little chilly. As Tina trudged down the highway, before she knew it, she had turned her face toward the cars with their headlights turned on.
    The sky was dyed with darkness and the moon shone in stark contrast.
Night is coming. It’s my time.
One by one, the cells in her body started to awaken, her mind became clear, and her body became filled with