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Something seemed different, but Yuzuriha could not put her finger on it. Something had changed very slightly.
"The stars have moved!" she said suddenly.
"What?" exclaimed Taiju.
Yuzuriha furrowed her brow as she studied the night sky laid out above her. She had never seen the stars so clearly, so perhaps she was wrong, but they did look different.
"You noticed!" Senkuu sat up from his position on Taiju's other side. "Good job, Yuzuriha. In all the time I spent with this oaf, he never said a word."
Taiju scowled. "How was I supposed to remember where they were? All the ones you used to show us are still there."
Senkuu was still smirking. "And you had six months. Yuzuriha is ten billion times more observant. It's so minor, but you notice because we suddenly warped ahead 2,700 years. All while we were petrified, those stars were turning above our heads, but to us, they jumped just a little."
Taiju was squinting. "I still don't see it."
"It only looks like a tiny bit, Taiju. I just noticed something was different." She pressed closer to his side, glad for his warmth on the chilly night. It wasn't so cold that she wanted to go back in the hut, but she could tell fall was coming. That would mean long, cozy nights inside by the fire—Senkuu had just perfected a chimney that didn't fill the entire house with smoke.
She slipped her hand into his. On his other side, she heard a muffled grunt of protest from Senkuu; Taiju had put his arm around him.
"It's getting cold, Senkuu. You don't want your brain to freeze, do you?" Taiju said.
Senkuu made a noise of disgust, but he gave no indication of wanting to free himself from Taiju's grasp.
"I'm glad," she murmured.
"Glad?" Taiju asked. "About what?"
"That you two are here with me." She lifted her free hand, spreading her fingers wide. There were millions and millions of stars up there, more than she had ever fathomed from the light-polluted suburban backyard of her childhood. Even on those long-ago camping trips, she had never seen this many stars. "This world seems so wide and empty. I couldn't handle it alone."
"Neither could I," Taiju agreed, and there was another grunt from Senkuu.
"Let go, you big oaf. You're squeezing me too tight."
"I can't help it! Just thinking about you being all by yourself for six months—"
"I was busy enough. And your stone statue was just as good a conversation partner as you are now."
"Well, I'm glad you—hey."
Yuzuriha laughed. "See, what I mean? You two add life to this empty world."
"Yuzuriha." Senkuu's hand reached across Taiju for hers and clasped it. "That's what we're going to do. Fill up this whole empty world and bring humanity back. The three of us."
Yuzuriha smiled and closed her eyes, resting her head on Taiju's shoulder and not letting go of Senkuu's hand. It would take a long time, she knew, to do what Senkuu said, but he believed in his goal with such certainty that she couldn't help believing in it, too.
Right now, though, there was nothing wrong with the three of them occupying a small, cozy corner of the wide, empty world.