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Synopsis

In the hot stretch of summer, Takashi Natsume strolls with his enigmatic cat Madara to buy jelly when a truck strikes an elderly masked man who pleads for aid. The man reveals himself as the spirit of a Suzunaru tree, recently struck by lightning and felled; as the tree fades, it entrusts Natsume with a simple last request: to bring water each day until its life ends. Separately, Tamami, a schoolgirl following directions through a forest, pauses to rest and drifts into sleep, only to be roused by a peculiar talking cat. Meeting that cat and its human companion, Natsume, she discovers the forest conceals a parallel realm layered over the modern world, where unseen things become visible. Trusting them, Tamami recounts how aiding a white owl—an image that returned in her dreams—helped guide her back into the forest’s strange interior.