Everybody in town had lost their shadows.
It was a warm, clear summer’s day, with plenty of sunshine. The buildings and trees all cast dark shadows, but the people didn’t. Amid that unnatural scenery, a young man in a kimono was taking a stroll. His clothes were jet-black, and he wore several long strings of beads around his neck. You didn’t see many people dressed like that these days. But despite his strange outfit, none of the shadowless townsfolk paid any attention to him. Without their shadows, they were all just empty shells without any thoughts or emotions.
The man in black didn’t have a shadow, either, but that was because he’d put his away for safekeeping. He wasn’t like the others, who’d had their shadows—some might say their souls—ripped away and consumed.
“Somebody’s really been gorging themselves…,” the man muttered to himself, glancing around as he continued his walk through town.
He was looking for a certain something. Two somethings, in fact. The first was the monster that had eaten the people’s shadows. But he also needed to find whoever was responsible for bringing that monster into the world in the first place.
After a while, the man came upon a black book sitting on a trunk. More specifically, it was a stylish little wheeled suitcase with a pair of double doors on the front. As for the book, the cover was plain, without any title or other information printed on it.
“…Ah, could this be one of those demon catalogs I’ve heard so much about?”
He picked up the catalog and the suitcase. They probably belonged to the beings he was looking for—the second thing on his list.
“The index will make it clear enough. If it includes a Shadow Embroidery Kit, that should clinch it.”
He waved his hand, beckoning to a nearby tree. Its shadow stretched out toward the strange man, shielding him from the summer sun. He opened the book and began to read.