“It’s the ‘Internet,’ Grandpa!” Maruko chirped, not taking her eyes off the screen. Her friend Toshiko, better known as “Nagoya’s little star,” had shown her a magical place called the Internet Archive during a video call. “It’s a library! But a giant, invisible one where you can see things from the past!”

The screen filled with a grid of faded images and text. There were grainy scans of old manga magazines from the year she was born, pixelated screenshots of the very first TV episode, and even a crackly audio recording of the theme song played on a toy piano.

The screen went black for a second, then flickered to life. The quality was terrible. The colors were washed out. And on the screen was a Maruko who looked… wrong. Her hair was a tangled mess. Her eyes were hollow. And instead of her usual cheerful voice, she was chanting a slow, reversed version of the Bingo song.

“Turn it off! Turn it off!” Sakiko yelled.

Maruko, still pale, pointed a trembling finger at the dead computer. “The past… is haunted.”

“We’re in the Internet Archive!” Maruko declared. “People from the past love us!”

Tomozou patted her head. “Of course, Maruko. Some things are stronger than the Internet.”

She decided she would never, ever search for her own name again.

But it was too late. Maruko’s curious finger had already clicked a link labeled “LOST EPISODE – MARUKO’S BAD HAIR DAY (1991).”

The summer sun beat down on the small town of Shimizu, making the cicadas sing their loudest song. Inside the living room of the Sakura household, however, the only sound was the rhythmic click-clack of a mouse and the soft hum of a bulky, beige computer.

She had typed in the only thing she could think of: her own name. “Chibi Maruko-chan.”

“No!” Maruko protested, but her voice was small. She looked at the blank screen, then at her grandfather. “Grandpa… that person in Canada. They’re still my friend, right?”

“Aaah!” Maruko shrieked, scrambling backward and knocking over her juice box.