His whole neighborhood and his house were gone. He was frightened and ran to the mailman and asked what had happened. The mailman replied, "Why don't you remember? You were the only survivor from the flash flood that came and took all the lives in this neighborhood."
The boy didn't know what to do. Then he remembered that the flash flood happened when he was in his grandpa's body. He thought of the wishing tree and ran to it to wish his grandpa back, but when he reached the place, the wishing tree was gone. The flash flood had taken it down.
All hope was lost. There was no way to fix anything. The boy was the only remaining bloodline of his family, and he didn't even have anywhere to go. He cried and cried. Then an old woman he had met by the tree once—the one he thought was going crazy—came and told him, "Son, please come with me."
The boy had nowhere else to go, so he followed her. As he was following her, the path she took was very similar to the one Mai's friend had taken before. He asked, "Wait… who are you?" She replied, "What, you don't recognize me? We met when I was young. I'm Mai's friend, Sakuna."
The boy was amazed and very happy to see she was still alive. He hugged her tightly. She took him to her place, offered him a hot bath and food, and said he was welcome to stay as long as he needed.
He asked her if they could talk for a bit. She agreed, and they sat down. He asked her what had happened. She told him about the flash flood and that she had kept his body safe during it, which was why there was still a body left for him to return to. She also told him that her grandma had been mistaken before. The disaster wasn't for her timeline—it was for his. He had been brought back to his grandpa's body by the mythic tree to save his neighborhood, but he wasn't able to act in time, so the town and the tree perished.
The boy felt immense guilt, like he had blood on his hands. He couldn't even sleep. He went to the spot he always went to when he felt overwhelmed and told himself that all hope was gone. That's when he remembered something his mother used to say:
"Son, bad days will come. You will feel like you have failed and you are a failure. The world may say the same too, but you need to remember that it just means you're going the right path. So don't ever give up, because there is always a way—you just need to know where to look."