So, the curious person he was, he stopped the mailman and asked him, "Why did you lie to me the other day about that house being abandoned?" The mailman was shocked and replied, "Do I know you? I haven't seen you anywhere. Are you Sukuyomi's son? You look just like him," he asked.
The boy was very confused since he didn't know anyone named Sukuyomi. He became even more confused and ran home. While he was running, he tripped on a rock, fell down, and got unconscious. When he woke up, he noticed it was morning, and he had been unconscious the whole night. Only then he remembered he had school, and the starting time had already passed. So he quickly ran home, got ready, grabbed his bag, and ran to school.
As usual, Mai was absent. After school, he went to the teachers' office and asked about her, but the teachers also didn't know any student named Mai. Then he saw Miss Shoko, their class teacher, who was the one that introduced Mai to the class. But she replied saying she had never known or taught a student named Mai.
The boy went to the teachers' room searching for answers, but came out of it with even more questions. Still, he didn't want to give up. He went back to Mai's home and rang the bell. It didn't ring. He clearly remembered it ringing the last time he was there. He waited outside for a while, thinking no one was home, so he went back home and tried calling Mai. Still, her number was missing. Then the weirdest thing happened—there was no contact info for anyone named Mai on his phone.
He told himself, "Don't panic, don't panic." It was still evening, so he ran down the stairs, got his bicycle, and went back to Mai's house. There wasn't a single light on in her house. Then he saw a shadowy figure coming his way. It was the mailman from the other day. He stopped and asked, "You again? What are you doing here?"
The boy replied, "Just waiting for Mai-san to come home."
The postman then said, "Mai-san? There's no one living here, kid. Just go home; it's getting dark."
He was devastated and realized that everything he saw was just a good dream. So he thought of giving up on the whole chase. As he was going home, he passed by the sacred wishing tree and said to it, "Please, tree… this is my last wish. If what I saw was real, bring me and Mai-san together to never leave each other again."
Then a very big lightning strike came crashing down, and the next thing he knew, he was in his room. It felt a little different this time because he felt like himself for the first time after the lightning struck. He looked around his room and realized everything was different. He had been thinking so much about Mai-san that he forgot to look around properly.
He ran down the stairs and shouted, "Grandpa! Grandpa!" and an old man came, asking, "Why are you shouting, Kousaku?" Then something clicked in the boy's mind. He ran out of the house and went straight to Mai-san's home. When he got there, she was outside watering plants.