We Never Left That Midsummer

After a disappointing time in life, Xia Yubai buys a plane ticket and boards a flight to Tokyo. He wants to see Meiji Jingu, sealed away in a story on a bookshelf. In front of the Kagura Hall at Meiji Jingu, he sees a pilgrimage site covered with plaques bearing the name of that red-haired girl. He opens the book in his hands: April 26... A leaf drifts slowly down and lands between the pages. “I've seen many people come here carrying a book just like yours, but you seem different from them.” The other person sits down beside him. “I don't see the same excitement or anticipation in you that I see in everyone else. Why?” Xia Yubai doesn't look up, but notices the other person's vermilion skirt. She is probably a shrine maiden here to sell souvenirs or something. The other person stands, brushes the fallen leaves off her skirt, and says nothing. Silence is an answer, too. She leaves behind a train ticket to Kyoto. Xia Yubai doesn't take the ticket and goes straight back to the hotel. When he wakes the next day, he finds himself lying at the entrance to a shrine, with a ticket from Tokyo to Kyoto tucked inside the book in his hands.