Hello. I am the being known as Hirasaka Makoto. And so, this is the end of Little Stone Heart. Emotions are supposed to be something that children practice through play, but I drew this story with the idea that the newborn youkai Kokoro really needs someone like her to learn them with. Hopeless Masquarade for instance actually presents Kokoro and Koishi as contrasts to each other, but it might be that the only thing left in Koishi's heart after voluntarily closing her third eye is a childish innocence. It's probably not a coincidence that it was the child-faced Mask of Hope that led to their meeting.

This story was originally inspired by the "Traditional Performing Arts of Darkness" chapter of Forbidden Scrollery, where Koishi scatters flower petals over Kokoro's noh performance as the Three Fairies are shown playing the music. That gave me all sorts of ideas, and finally I decided to draw the story leading up to that scene. Though the part I most looked forward to drawing was the scene where Kokoro finds Koishi. The whole thing got a bit longer than I originally planned, but I'm just kind of glad we got here without further incident... I only hope it'll leave at least some mark in the hearts of people who read this. Well then, I hope we'll meet again over my next book.

This is a fanwork of Team Shanghai Alice's "Touhou Project"