Chapter Thirty-Two: I intend to present Lord Kasyapa with a gift.

"Tomie, have you finished the proposal I asked for!?"

Early on a weekend morning, Tomie stood in Uta Kayo’s home, hands on her hips. She was dressed in light, casual summer clothes, her long, fair legs looking straight and alluring.

No sound. Where did he go?

After waiting a while with no response, Tomie walked curiously into Kayo’s bedroom. Seeing the curtains fluttering in the breeze and the bed already cold, she headed straight for the small villa on his desk where the "Mini-Tomie" lived.

"Wake up. Where did Kayo go?"

She shook the villa, expecting to wake the tiny version of herself, but just like before, there was no sound. Tomie blinked in bewilderment, then immediately sent a mental inquiry to Mini-Tomie.

"Where are you two?"

On a bustling street, Mini-Tomie, hiding in the breast pocket of Kayo’s shirt—having dug two small holes as observation windows—heard the question in her mind.

"We’re over at 2-chome. Kayo said he wanted to take me out for some fresh air."

"?"

In Kayo’s bedroom, Tomie froze at these words, her face instantly falling.

"He takes you out for fresh air, but doesn't think to take me? Jerk!"

Listening to Tomie’s grumbling in her head, Mini-Tomie ignored the repeated pestering messages and unilaterally cut off the connection, happily observing everything around her.

Looking at the objects magnified countless times, and the pedestrians passing by Kayo like giants, she thought, *This perspective is truly marvelous~*

Leaning against Kayo’s chest, she grabbed a sunflower seed he had already shelled and held it like a squirrel, observing the world with delight.

"Excuse me, are you hiring part-time staff?"

"Eh, part-time?"

The server looked at the refined-looking Kayo and turned to call the manager. The manager looked at Kayo, who was wearing a baseball cap and looked like a college student.

"Oh, I am very sorry, we are not hiring part-time staff at the moment."

"Sorry to bother you."

No matter how far society progresses, finding a job is never an easy task, especially when finding one for Kayako. Most shops required a certain level of communicative ability for their part-time staff. To better accommodate Kayako, Kayo could only try to find jobs at places like bookstores. However, unlike convenience stores that always need extra hands, bookstores or media shops had relatively fixed staff. Kayo had asked all morning and hadn't found anything suitable.

In a deserted corner of a park, Kayo ate bread and drank bottled water to finish his simple lunch.

"Kayo~ are you very short on money?"

Mini-Tomie, acting as if she were stealing something, carefully checked her surroundings to ensure there was no risk before poking her head out. Her movements and expressions made Kayo smile before he shook his head.

"Not really. My novel has been published; the royalties come to nearly 500,000 yen per month."

"Oh..."

"Then why are you looking for a part-time job?"

Kayo picked up a green leaf from the ground and examined its veins.

"It's for Kayako. Her family situation is..."

After explaining to Mini-Tomie how Kayako’s parents were completely indifferent to whether she lived or died, Mini-Tomie frowned.

"How could there be such parents..."

Kayo stroked Mini-Tomie’s head and smiled helplessly. Their behavior had caused Kayako to become withdrawn and silent, and society’s coldness toward such people had fueled her resentment. After her death, her resonance with the *Ju-on* (Cursed Grudge) was an inevitable result.

"Let’s go. On to the next one."

"Kayo, you’re so kind~"

After sighing, she listened to the barrage of complaints and angry scolding from Tomie, who had forcibly broken through her mental blockade. Mini-Tomie curled her lip in annoyance. "Tomie really has no heart..."

Far away, at Kayo's home, Tomie wondered, "?"

While Kayo was busy looking for work for Kayako, she had woken up before dawn to scavenge for scraps to earn living expenses and had just returned home. For some reason, her father wasn't there today.

Kayako thought for a moment, then began to clean up the mess scattered across the living room. She put the recyclable trash into her collection bag and threw the rest into the bin outside. She glanced toward Kayo's house, wondering what he was doing today. She wanted so much to see him... but what status or qualifications did she have to seek him out?

With a heavy heart, Kayako returned home. She opened the refrigerator, took out some leftovers, heated them up, cooked a simple bowl of rice, and shared the meal with Kuro the cat.

"Hmm... I'll go pick some wild vegetables this afternoon..."

"Meow~"

Watching Kuro eating on the floor, Kayako patted its back. She acted as if she hadn't seen the other ingredients in the fridge, because they didn't belong to her; they belonged to her parents. Using a little rice, oil, and seasonings usually wouldn't be noticed. But if she touched their ingredients, her father would get angry, scold her, tell her to ask her mother to buy more, and then kick her out of the house. Her mother, in turn, would look at her with annoyance and tell her to go find her father, and only after getting money could she buy replacements for the fridge. But neither her mother nor her father would give her any money.

Under a bridge by the river, Kayako squatted at the edge, washing the wild vegetables she had gathered. Kuro lay beside her, panting with its tongue lolling out like a dog.

"Shepherd's purse, dandelion, water dropwort... hmm, going into the mountains is such a hassle. Otherwise, I could have picked some snow country mountain vegetables to eat."

"Meow~"

Kuro responded to every word Kayako said.

Returning home with the day's harvest, the figures of two elementary school students caught Kayako's attention.

"Here, this is a gift for you, to thank you for doing my homework."

"Hmph, you think an ice cream can bribe me? I'm not doing it for you next time!"

Watching the boy and girl playing, especially the ice cream, a thought suddenly emerged in Kayako’s heart: *I want to give Kayo a gift.*

But what should she give him?

After thinking for a long time, unable to come up with anything she owned that was worth giving, a dejected Kayako walked toward her house, right as she ran into Kayo, who had just returned from the city.

"Kayako."

"Kayo-kun~"

Kayo looked at Kayako as she raised her head toward him. He couldn't help but feel that the dejected girl before him faintly carried the scent of the *Ju-on*...

He shook his head to dispel the thought and handed her a business card.

"Go to this address tomorrow and report for work. It’s a part-time job at a bookstore. The tasks are simple: clean once a day, and handle the checkout for customers. You don't need to communicate much with them, you just need to..."

Under the sunset, Kayo chattered on, while across from him, the thought of giving Kayo a gift grew stronger and stronger in Kayako's heart and mind. It became so intense that it left her feeling restless and anxious.