"...Why?"
The boy pressed him.
"Why do you know?"
"Didn't you notice..."
A hint of amusement glimmered in Xiao Xiao's eyes.
"Did it come looking for me?"
Hm?
The boy's excitement faltered.
Well...
He was sure anyone with eyes could see it.
Especially when compared to his own attempt to catch the maple leaf...
If he hadn't experienced firsthand how fiercely the maple leaf had struggled in his grasp...
He might have thought it was always so docile when someone caught it.
But his own experience proved otherwise.
Any excuse would sound feeble.
Wait...
The boy rapped his knuckles against his head.
He realized there were so many things he was confused about.
It was making his head spin.
"You..."
The boy turned to look at the maple tree.
"This maple tree..."
He rapped his knuckles against his head again.
Then he reached up and pressed his temples.
His head felt swollen.
And it was starting to ache.
It was like struggling over a math problem for ages and still not being able to solve it.
"...All its leaves are green."
The boy decided to forget about logic.
He'd just ask whatever came to mind.
"But the maple leaf just now was red."
"Mm."
Xiao Xiao's straightforward admission surprised the boy.
But then he found his own surprise a little amusing.
He'd been there to see it.
Surely the other man wouldn't lie right to his face?
Uh...
Actually...
It wasn't impossible...
The boy paused.
The red maple leaf had already vanished.
He still couldn't understand how it had disappeared.
Was it a magic trick?
The boy guessed.
In any case, the most important piece of evidence was gone.
So even if this man insisted the maple leaf they'd seen earlier was green... that