He set that aside for the moment.
Big Sister was so beautiful. Anyone who had seen her would surely remember her.
So...
The boy furrowed his brow.
He reached a conclusion that seemed utterly unbelievable to him.
In other words, aside from him...
No one else had ever seen Big Sister...
How was that possible?
The boy instinctively shook his head, rejecting the thought.
How could no one have seen Big Sister?
They were always on the swings in the open space.
He dared say the swings were the most conspicuous thing in the whole place.
Conspicuous swings, and a conspicuous Big Sister...
He couldn't imagine why no one would have noticed her...
What was going on?
He didn't understand.
He'd thought about it until his head hurt.
And still, he had nothing.
"...I haven't found any clues about Big Sister..."
The boy's head drooped.
His umbrella tilted forward, too.
It was as if the umbrella could sense how he felt and had lowered its head as well.
"Forget it."
Before Xiao Xiao could say anything to comfort him, the boy had already cheered himself up.
After all, it had happened several days ago.
He wasn't going to the open space anymore.
He could say he'd given up.
It was just...
All the effort he'd made over the past few days, along with the helplessness and bewilderment he'd felt...
He'd really wanted to find someone to talk to about it.
Now that he'd said it all...
The boy touched his chest.
He felt as if he'd set something down, light and relieved.
He also felt a sadness, as if he'd lost something, and an emptiness he couldn't name.
He didn't know...
But with things as they were, effort alone wouldn't necessarily get him anywhere.