The bamboo seemed thicker on the other side of the shrine. Everything on this side seemed different to Leda. The air smelled different, the muffled sounds of city life had been completely replaced by the whine of a thousand cicadas. She could hear a few birds twittering. The stone path was gone too. It had trailed off into dirt, and then nothing. She was just walking blindly through the woods now.

            Just how big was this lot anyway? It had only taken a minute to walk into the shrine, but quite a while had passed since she had left. She was starting to wonder if she was just walki...

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