"I've been here before, too..."
someone muttered.
"How come I've never seen it?"
"I've been here, too."
"I've been here, too."
Everyone chimed in.
Most of them had passed through here on their way to the park.
As for the school...
That was a middle school.
And they were all still in elementary school.
"Is this really the place?"
Everyone looked at Mushroom Head Girl.
Mushroom Head Girl nodded.
This was where she had first seen the red one-eyed animal.
It was a very important place to her.
Mushroom Head Girl was so earnest that no one doubted her anymore.
They nodded.
Then began looking around.
"When will it come here?"
"Will it come today?"
"How can you know when to look for it if you don't know when it comes?"
Mushroom Head Girl pressed her lips together.
No.
When it came to her and the red one-eyed animal, it was always the other way around: it came to find her.
In Mushroom Head Girl's memories, she had always been the one looking for others, the one others forgot...
But...
The red one-eyed animal had found her.
Every time she needed it, it appeared right in front of her.
For the first time, Mushroom Head Girl had experienced what it felt like to be found.
She had felt what it was like to matter to someone, to be remembered.
It was so warm.
So moving.
She really liked... Fei.
That was the name she had given the red one-eyed animal.
The name came from the red color of its eye.
Unlike the eyes of ordinary animals, its red eye had left a deep impression on Mushroom Head Girl.
Even more so than its single eye.
Fei meant red.
It was a