Above the ash-gray sky, vast swathes of black shadow slowly spread like a rising tide.
Boundless and immense.
As the shadows spread, the land below was likewise draped in a bottomless black veil, as though it had been swallowed by those shadows.
Sitting on the rooftop with her hands braced behind her for support, the girl tilted her head up at the sky. There was neither sorrow nor joy in her eyes, and no one knew what she was thinking.
—Until, at some point, scattered footsteps and conversation drifted over from behind her.
"Are you really sure there's no other way?"
"Come on, you've asked me that exact question over a dozen times along the way. Aren't you tired of it?"
"So is there or isn't there—"
"I don't know. Ask again and I'll kill myself."
"Uh..."
"I'm just a poor, weak, helpless little rabbit. What can you possibly expect from a rabbit? So... huh? We're here?"
"We're here?"
After pausing briefly in surprise, Night Owl looked ahead.
At some unknown point, she had reached the stairwell entrance at the end of the stairs. What lay before her was a flat rooftop like those commonly found on small rural houses.
The summer heat blazed overhead, and the scorching sunlight cast broad shadows beneath the eaves.
One step ago, they had been in that endless darkness. The next, they had arrived in such a peaceful scene... She could even hear the tireless chirping of cicadas in the tree nearby.
Not only that, the suspended staircase of darkness behind her had somehow turned into an old wooden staircase, covered in dust. It creaked with every slight step.
"...Are you sure we didn't take the wrong path?"
After briefly surveying the surroundings, Night Owl turned to the rabbit on her shoulder with an