Our house has a hina doll that my parents bought when I was born. At the same time, they also bought a traditional Japanese doll to go with it.

Each and every year, my mother carefully displayed the dolls for me.

I also adored them, and ever since I was a child, I always stared at them in front of their

doll stand.

But then one year, we forgot to put them out on display.

I had probably gotten older by then, and wasn't terribly concerned about them.

But for two or three days after Hinamatsuri, I had a dream.

In the dream, the traditional Japanese doll was stroking my hair as it floated in the air.

We were being raised like siblings, and then a life-size Hina doll came out and looked down at me on the doll stand.

After several days of this same dream I got creeped out, so I begged my mum to put the dolls out on display.

Thankfully, the dreams then stopped. I was relieved.

Several days later, I woke up to go to the toilet around 2 a.m. when I heard what sounded like a trumpet shell coming from the room with the dolls.

Scared, I quickly made my way back to my room, but nothing special happened after that.

I checked the Hina doll the next day, but there was nothing different about it.

It was the regular Hina doll, as always.

Thinking back on it now, maybe the dolls we finally put out were also celebrating the festival.

We make sure to put the dolls out every year now, and nothing strange has happened since then.

They say that souls reside in the things you treasure, so they probably reside in my dolls as well. And they've never done anything bad, but ever since then, when I look at them, I no longer feel they're so innocently cute or pretty

anymore.

Thanks to certain circumstances at home, we probably won't be able to put the Hina doll out

for next year's festival.

When I think I might have those dreams again, I can't help but worry.

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