Even if it was only quite large from a child's perspective...
It was still definitely a large creature.
At the very least, they shouldn't have failed to find any trace of it after deliberately searching.
Neither he nor Child's Mom had seen it.
None of the others had seen it, either.
Only...
The man looked at the child with a complicated expression.
The child had seen it.
"No."
The man shook his head.
"I didn't see it."
"Your mom didn't see it."
The child looked at her mom instinctively.
The woman nodded.
That was right.
She hadn't seen it.
The child was helpless and bewildered.
She didn't understand...
"None of the others saw it, either,"
the man continued. "Yaya."
"Do you understand what I mean?"
"That huge leopard you talked about..."
"Only you saw it."
"Do you know what that means?"
What did it mean?
The child's eyes widened.
"It means..."
The man pressed his lips together.
"You..."
"May have a problem."
She...
Had a problem?
What did that mean?
The child looked completely at a loss.
A problem...
"I'm sick!?"
The child was surprised.
Did that mean she was sick?
The man paused, slightly taken aback.
He hesitated.
If he said the child was sick...
"Yes."
The woman nodded.
"You're sick."
The man looked at the woman.
The woman didn't look at him.
She looked at the child.
Her expression had softened considerably.
"Yaya."
"You're sick."
"So you're seeing things."
Seeing things?
The child froze.
She knew what it meant to see things—
Or maybe she didn't anymore...
What did it mean?
She...
Had seen things?
The huge leopard...
"Was it something I imagined?"
The child's voice was very soft.
It sounded distant.
Full of disbelief.