A short story about Sachi, a high school girl who cares for her sick mother and searches for a place to belong by holding on to laughter as she is squeezed between home and school. Its urgency is balanced by a lightness that can suddenly make you laugh.

What saves you may not be a clean answer, but a sudden burst of laughter.

A short story in which a newly hired office worker watches the twists of human relationships through a friend tied to a multi-level marketing scheme and a man with a slightly dangerous charm. The assumption behind calling someone a "good person" quietly turns inside out.

The more someone is called "not a good person," the harder it becomes to look away.

A candidate work that portrays the coexistence of laughter and the bitterness of everyday life through high school manzai and family circumstances. Beneath its laid-back surface, the weight of reality seeps through.

Laughter may look light, but it carries the most urgent realities.

A candidate work that uses diversity and distance as clues to depict human relationships in an era when faces are hard to see. Its premise shines, while still leaving room to consider how its language and story fit together.

Distance seen through masks blurs the outline of relationships.

A short story that keeps the reader moving through the pain of loss and the feel of rescue by way of an odd cohabitation between a bereaved woman and an escaped prisoner. Its carefully polished structure keeps the outlandish premise from breaking apart.

The oddity of loss and cohabitation is carried through to the end without collapsing.