"Little Hui couldn't come with us today,"
Mercury Lamp said with some regret during the few minutes we waited for the transport.
"Her family would worry."
I held the doll girl who was gently swinging on my shoulder and wasn't surprised by this outcome.
"Living in groups, humans always have more troublesome aspects than you guys. She'd have to come up with a way to explain to her parents how she vanished from the Mortal World for a month — thanks to her life-long hospital stays, Kakizaki Kei probably doesn't even have a friend to cover for her. Maybe she could fudge a few days, but vanishing from now and showing up at the festival half a month later... If this happened to me ten years ago, Big Sister would have been worried sick."
