That child from back then had grown so tall.
Pipa ghost quietly compared their heights.
In the past, Pipa ghost had looked down at the boy.
Now, it had to look up to see the man's eyes.
Pipa ghost felt a little wistful.
Time left its mark on humans more visibly than on any other race.
If it hadn't happened to run into the man while he was reminiscing about the past...
It never would have recognized him as the boy from back then.
He had changed so much.
But speaking of big changes...
It could barely remember what the boy had looked like back then.
When they met again, the most immediate change it noticed was...
The boy had grown taller.
That alone... was a huge change.
It was rare to meet again with a child it had once crossed paths with.
Rarer still, it had happened to hear that child describe their time together in the past.
The memories it had once forgotten came alive again.
It had grown a little curious about the child now that he was all grown up.
In that case...
It indulged its curiosity and followed the boy as he left.
Pipa ghost had never imagined...
That one day, it would reunite with a human after a long separation.
After all, its sense of time wasn't the same as a human's.
More often than not, its connection with a human ended after their first encounter.
After they parted, who knew how many years would pass before they met again?
And whether that human would still be around by then...
Was impossible to know.
The boy from back then and the man before it overlapped.
The vague impression it had of him took on a clear outline.