The next morning, Kagura Hikaru, along with Komori Ai and a bunch of lilies, went up the mountain to the Shrine.
After years, the unsolved case was cracked, and Mizuno Yuna's ghost, after thirty years, regained her presence in the village, becoming the pitiable girl everyone talked about.
There were rumors that television media might come to interview and report on it, but it was uncertain if that was true or not.
As Kagura Hikaru stepped onto the stairs, the neglected Shrine he had seen the day before had disappeared. About a dozen villagers, some he knew and some he didn't, were busily cleaning the dirt around the Shrine with tools in hand, speaking and laughing with each other.
On his way there, when he noticed there were fewer dead leaves on the road, he had a premonition, and upon arriving at the Shrine and seeing such a scene, he felt a sense of inevitability.
A beautiful virtue of humanity—mending the fold after the sheep have been lost.
