The next morning, the two ghosts were sleeping on the sofa, leaning against each other.

  Normally they would have been awake by that time, but perhaps the fatigue from playing with the cloudling still lingered, and they were fast asleep.

  When Misaki began drinking without paying them any mind, the cloudling drifted over, floating softly near her sake.

  Thinking it was asking to be fed, she sprayed it with water from a spray bottle, but it still showed interest in the glass.

  The next morning, the two ghosts were sleeping on the sofa, leaning against each other.

  Normally they would have been awake by that time, but perhaps the fatigue from playing with the cloudling still lingered, and they were fast asleep.

  When Misaki began drinking without paying them any mind, the cloudling drifted over, floating softly near her sake.

  Thinking it was asking to be fed, she sprayed it with water from a spray bottle, but it still showed interest in the glass.

  “Do you want some too?”

  On a mere whim, she tried asking, and the cloudling drifted through the air as if dancing.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  She let out a soft laugh. “I guess I have no choice.”

  Misaki mixed some sake into the spray bottle and sprayed it over the little cloud.

  It twisted into strange shapes, then after swaying up and down as if in wild swings, it dropped to the floor and began rolling around.

  “What, did you get drunk?”

  As Misaki watched the scene with amusement, the two ghosts woke up.

  After greeting Misaki good morning and coming over to touch the cloudling, the two ghosts noticed something was off.

  “Misaki-san, did you give it sake?”

  Sayuri asked in a startled tone, and Misaki replied in a smaller voice than usual, “It was only a little, okay? And I mixed it with water…”

  But Sayuri pressed on with the obvious truth. “Cloudy is still a child, you know? You can’t give sake to a child!”

  Misaki wanted to say, “But it’s a supernatural being, isn’t it?” but when she saw Shinobu covering her mouth, her eyes glistening, she had no choice but to apologize with a quiet, “Sorry.”

  After a while, perhaps the sake had worn off, it began drifting about as usual.

  Then, just as it tried to approach Misaki’s glass, Shinobu caught it and carried it out of the room.

  Though she couldn’t make out its expression, to Misaki it seemed like a cat being carried off by a child in the middle of play, and she found it somehow amusing.

  Even after that, the cloudling showed interest in the sake bottle, but she said, “You’re a child, so make do with this,” and began mixing a sake-flavored non-alcoholic drink with water and spraying it over it with the spray bottle.

  Upcoming Releases

  Short story: "10μm Droplet"

  ?EXTRA & Author's Note: February 27 at 8:00 PM (PST).

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