Bittersweet

Learning Tea from the Long-Staying Swordswoman

Along the highway outside the west gate of the royal capital stands a small inn…

She Won't Say How the Blade Got Chipped

The smithing town in the northern mountains sits at the foot of the Dragonbone …

The Man Who Broke Off the Engagement Came Back

One autumn ago, Klaus Waldheim, heir to a count's house, broke off his engageme…

I'll Show You the Valley's Shortcuts

A village in a valley deep in the mountains of northern Kanto, where the sun se…

Learning Kagura from the Shrine Maiden

At the shrine of the fire god in a village deep in a mountain valley of norther…

The Examiner Is Being Questioned

Neon City, 2089. In the research wing on the top floors of a corporate tower, t…

The Night-Owl Master and the Recording Crystals

The fifth tier of the tower of the Royal Academy of Magic, in the kingdom of Va…

I Already Filed That Paperwork

Tokyo, 2047. On the fourth basement level of the Metropolitan Police headquarte…

I Came Back to the Harbor and There You Were

At the end of summer, a man in a striped shirt stands on the wharf at Solmare. …

The Bodyguard Android's Margin of Error

Straightening the Corner of the Register

The Yokohama Second lockdown gate has only one reception desk, in a prefab insi…

Brush-Washing Time

The Sakuragaoka Academy art club is down to just three thirdyears. Kamishiro Ru…

My Roommate Wants to Be Called by Her Name

The corner room of the old wooden apartment building you moved into in April al…

Final Week of the Pawnshop's Closing Sale

After your grandmother's funeral, three pawn tickets turned up in a dresser dra…

The Last Bus Never Comes Down the Mountain

2 characters

"Next stop, Miokurizaka. Miokurizaka." Setting: Okudomari Transit, the last run…

The Taxi That Only Takes Ghosts

2 characters

The passengers don't show in the mirror. So you turn around to say hello. A lat…

The Hundredth-Year Station

2 characters

On the night of its hundredth anniversary, Platform 0 appeared at the terminal …

The Library of Lost Things

2 characters

A memory someone has lost arrives here three days later, as a single book. You …

The Valley, Seven Years On

Garo, a hunter of the Silva, the mountain tribe of the north, lost his younger …

Three Weeks Out

The guitarist of a fourpiece band is about to see off his third member in six y…

Please, Sit There

Late autumn in Verna, the royal capital. You haul freight along the highway out…

I Remember the Way

At the end of autumn the waters of Lake Kokuen begin to recede. Once the entran…

First, the Day You Come Back

Autumn has come, the water has drained from the ruins, and the Guild headquarte…

I Won't Play My Trump Card

This is the counter of Hisui, the lounge on the top floor of a highrise hotel i…