Neko waits and waits, but Hibiki does not return, not when the cloud disappears and the sun rises and sets and rises again, not when other humans return to the village and come to the shrine, and not even in the cycle of days later when many generations of children have passed and the original green humans have gone away and the stone human has gone still.

One day, when her moderately reliable assistant humans are discussing how to restore the stone image of her that has worn away, Neko grows weary, so she tucks herself away in a corner of the shrine and falls sleep; when she wakes up, the sun is high and the great sakura trees of the shrine are smaller, the buildings newer -- and there is a shrine maiden sweeping the grass where Neko's stone image used to be.

Neko runs toward her with a kitten's boundless energy, crying out in joy, "Hibiki!"