Sometimes, a pair of them would face off in a strange, leaping dance, wings spread and necks craned to the sky, almost seeming to float in the air. Daisuke appeared to share my fascination, for he murmured a poem about rippling water, a summer moon and two dancing male cranes. It sounded very pretty, but there must have been a hidden meaning that I didn’t catch, for Okame went extremely red and stared at the side of the cart for a long time after that.

