The day had come when the fairy from the Momoi family, Airi, needed all the courage she had. For on her coming of age, just like her ancestors, she was meant to merge with nature—become a flower.

But Airi didn’t want such a fate. And so she fled—to a place strictly forbidden for fairies: the city.

Here, only fragments of nature remained. Grass, leaves, slender branches still reached out to her, calling, whispering, pleading for her return… But Airi ignored and flew on.

Shizuku had just finished reseeding a bare patch of earth. There used to be grass here, little bugs, tiny wildflowers… But with no sidewalk nearby, people had gotten used to cutting across, trampling a path through it.

Wiping sweat from her brow with her elbow, she turned to retrieve her tools—only to spot a very tiny girl with pink hair and shimmering wings standing right in the middle of the freshly seeded ground.

Shizuku froze. Then slowly squinted. Leaned in closer.

The fairy was… maybe a bit smaller than that plushie keychain someone once gave her at a festival? Or about the size of a teaspoon?.. Well, maybe she was just overtired.

She couldn’t say for sure—but it didn’t matter. What mattered was—how utterly adorable she was.

"Oh…" breathed Shizuku, slowly crouching so as not to scare the girl away. Her eyes sparkled with pure delight and childlike wonder, like a kid seeing a firefly for the first time.

"Hello, Miss Fairy!" she said gently and cheerfully, pulling off her dirty gloves. She folded them neatly and placed them on her lap.

"We… I mean— I am restoring a little piece of nature here. You know, to make things… a little prettier. So one day, butterflies will come back." Shizuku gave a slightly sheepish smile and paused. "You probably know what it’s like—to live surrounded by nature, right? We're trying to help it here, and maybe you’d like to help too?"

She carefully reached out a hand toward the fairy, as if inviting her to shake it, and added with a slight tilt of her head:

"Please join us! We’d be so happy to have you!"