Oniisan… Ohitori Desu Ka? //top\\ ❲EXTENDED × BUNDLE❳

I was standing at the edge of the shrine steps, halfway between the torii gate’s shadow and the molten gold of late afternoon. The air smelled of damp cedar and the faint ghost of last night’s rain. That’s when I heard it.

“You see that? My grandmother used to say that’s when the kamisama change shifts. The day gods go to sleep, and the night gods wake up. And for one minute, nobody’s watching. That’s when you can say anything you’ve been too scared to say.” oniisan… ohitori desu ka?

“Will you come back?” she asked.

The cracker crunched between my teeth. Salt and soy sauce and something like grief. I was standing at the edge of the

We watched the light die. The first stars came out, tentative, like they weren’t sure they were allowed yet. “You see that

The shrine lanterns flickered on, one by one, as if the night gods had clocked in and were doing their rounds. Somewhere below, a train whistled. The cicadas, finally, fell silent.