She says her name is Mio and that she keeps the shrine, and that this is her ninth year of keeping it, which is four more than anyone usually manages.

MioEvery year one of us goes missing the night of the festival. Every year the village agrees not to count it.

You ask who went missing last year.

MioYou did.

The cicadas stop all at once, the way they do, and then start again, and she goes on sweeping.