Kousaka watched the performance for a while. The marionettes had highly deformed designs, their facial features all different sizes, which took it past comical to grotesque. It seemed the male marionette chased the female marionette, or maybe the female marionette chased the male marionette, and as the two awkwardly kissed at the end, the music ended, and there was a round of applause. With the audience feeling good, the puppeteer began to skillfully ask for payment. Once the other viewers left, Kousaka put a 1000-yen bill in the suitcase. The performer grinned, and said in a whisper: May you have the puppets’ protection. Kousaka resumed walking. Luckily, the designated park was only a 30-minute walk from his apartment, so there was no need to use public transportation. Kousaka had imagined, albeit faintly, that Hijiri Sanagi was a boy around ten years old. Just the look of the name, “Hijiri Sanagi” - and this was purely from Kousaka’s assumption of how the name was written in kanji - seemed more masculine than not, and “sanagi” was the word for “chrysalis,” which in his mind had more of an association with boys. So it wasn’t unreasonable that when he arrived at Mizushina Park and found the person in question, he was confused.