The world of Doll Star, where dolls forgotten by children gather
Far beyond the Milky Way, in a place children no longer remember, there was a small star.
It was the place where dolls once held tightly in someone's arms came to gather. Dolls packed away on moving day and never taken out again, dolls that quietly fell asleep inside attic boxes, dolls pushed deep into a drawer the day a child started school.
A place where forgotten things gathered. The dolls called that star Doll Star.
On Doll Star, there was an old book of magic.
A worn book with no cover, no title. The dolls called it the Recipe Book. Whenever a child on Earth met a moment of happiness, that warm energy flowed along the Milky Way and filled the empty pages of the book. Especially when someone tasted food made with sincere heart and felt their heart melt, that very feeling was etched into the page in the form of a recipe.
A guest's precious memory, the scent of that day, even the look on their face at the very first bite.
It was a record of happiness.
That day, Muffin found something strange in the Recipe Book.
Maple's page was empty.
Yesterday, the day before, and probably for a long time before that. Where something should have been written, there was nothing.
Muffin slowly reached out and ran a hand over the blank page. The paper was cold.
Muffin looked down past the Milky Way at Earth. Light was spilling out of a small kitchen window.
Mellow Kitchen. The place Maple's parents had built up, now kept open by Maple alone.
Maple stood in the kitchen again today. Following the recipe, exactly, without a single mistake. And yet the hand setting down the finished plate was a little slow.
In the kitchen left behind after the guests had gone, Maple stood there for a long while doing nothing.
I made it the same way. So why does the taste feel so empty.
That quiet murmur seemed to carry all the way up here.
Muffin closed the Recipe Book.
Muffin knew how hard Maple was trying.
Holding on to the shop after losing both parents, smiling in front of guests and only growing weary alone. Muffin had quietly watched all of it from Doll Star.
But standing in front of Maple's blank page, for the first time Muffin thought,
I can't just keep watching.
There was a rule on Doll Star.
No going back to Earth. Whatever has said goodbye once must keep that goodbye.
Muffin knew the rule too.
Even so, the Recipe Book was already held tight in Muffin's arms.
