Kino stood staring at a cloudless sky, in the middle of a stone and sand desert.

She looked down the stone well in front her. It was dry as a bone.

She had tried lowering a cup into the well, but there was no sound of water. And when she pulled it up, it didn’t have a drop of moisture on it.

This caused her to shake her head in dejection.

“Told you so! Something like this was bound to happen.”

This came from Hermes, who was propped up on a stand behind Kino, who wore a white shirt and a black vest.

“This is bad…” Kino stared into the stone well.

Hermes quickly chirped in, “We have to go back to Master. It’s still not too late you know.”

But Kino rejected the idea by shaking her head vigorously.

“No!”

“This ain’t getting us nowhere.”

Kino shook her head again.

“I know… but I don’t want to go back.”

“You are a stubborn one. I understand, but we can’t go on without water. If you dry up that’s just fine, but what will happen to me? I don’t wanna be buried next to your mummified body.”

“I don’t want to end up a mummy either. But…”

“But what?”

Frustrated, Kino suddenly slapped her hands on the stone well and shouted into its depth.

“Why? Why must this be all dried up?”

“Karma is probably catching up to you. For God, that is, the power who protects travelers, is telling you to go home,” Hermes reflected coldly.

Kino wiped the beads of sweat from her forehead.

“I am so thirsty after that shouting.”

“Let’s go back.”

“No!”

“…You could at least take us somewhere where I could be found before dropping dead.”

“Too bad, but I can’t grant that wish.”

After a short rummage through her packs, Kino removed a coil of rope from the luggage.

“Are you gonna hang yourself?” Hermes asked.


—

A large waterproof canvas hung on the rope tied between the stone well and Hermes. In the cool shades lay Kino.

“Kino. You asleep…or are you already dead?”

“No, I am not asleep and still alive…”

“If you don’t make up your mind, you’ll be dead soon.”

“…Yeah.”

“The way I see it, we have two choices: try to go back with whatever water we have left and receive an earful from Master for secretly leaving. Or stay in the desert until you die.”

“Don’t like either of them.”

Kino pulled herself from the ground and got out from underneath the canvas.

A small gust of wind was picking up across the desert, sending some dust flying.

“Kino, a traveler needs to be decisive. No matter if you’re a greenhorn or a veteran.”

Hermes tried to sound serious as he delivered the admonition.

But Kino paid him scant attention. She put on her coat, dragged the canvas off and covered Hermes with it.

“Kino?”

She smiled at Hermes from behind the waterproof canvas.

“No, what we need is luck.”

“Eh?”

“What a traveler needs is that boost after a long struggle, a little bit of luck.”

There was a single drop of water that fell on the canvas, followed by another and then another in a rhythmic drumming before finally coming to a roar.

It had begun to rain.

---

It was raining. Water pounded the earth without pause. Nothing could be seen in the landscape except for the raindrops and mist created by the rain. The fierce sound of water pouring onto the earth never seemed to cease. Although it was daytime, the sky had a dark, gloomy hue.

There was, amidst this downpour, a solitary standing figure. The person was young — around fifteen. Her long brown coat sheltered only her body from the rain. Her short black hair was completely soaked; bangs plastered to her forehead. From there, water ran down her face. Her tongue caught the drops that reached her mouth.

“It is so unlikely for such heavy rain to fall in a place like this. How strange…” someone spoke to her. The voice sounded like a young boy's, but its owner was nowhere to be seen.

The brown-clad figure casually raised her head to stare at the sky. Rain mercilessly beat down upon the girl’s face and fell from her eyes like tears.

“Aha ha ha! Aha ha ha ha!”

Then, all of a sudden, she laughed. Head still raised, she opened her mouth wide and reached out to the sky with both arms.

“Aha ha ha! Aha ha ha ha!”

She continued to laugh gleefully, skipping and twirling her body around. The hem of her coat fluttered in the air like a gown.

“Aha ha! Aha ha ha ha! Aha ha ha ha! Aha ha ha ha ha!”

She danced and laughed maniacally for a while, then turned to a particular spot shrouded in mist.

“So what do you think?”

As the question went unacknowledged, she asked once more.

“What do you think, Hermes?”

This time there was a reply. “There’s nothing all that great about it…”

“Nothing?”

After hearing the previous words repeated, there came an unenthusiastic response, “I don’t find this amusing at all, but right now I’m having mixed emotions.”

“Aha ha ha! Aha ha ha ha ha ha——”

The girl raised her head again in unrestrained laughter.

The voice asked, “Kino, what do you plan to do next?”

“I don’t know. What to do? Why bother worrying?”

After the girl named Kino replied, she began to laugh once more.

This rainstorm, perhaps, would continue for a while.