Chapter 8

Preparation

Colette woke up shortly after Mitsuha, and chaos ensued. She let out a wail and launched herself at Mitsuha, too fast for the older girl to dodge her incoming bear hug. Mitsuha yelped, then began rapping Collete on the shoulder in a desperate attempt to signal her surrender. Colette’s parents, hearing the ruckus, bolted into the room.

“Stop, stop! Ow, it hurts! You’re breaking meee!” Mitsuha shouted, and Colette finally loosened her grip.

“M-Mitsuha! Y-Your words!” Colette replied in shock. Her parents looked equally dumbfounded. Thankfully, Mitsuha had already come up with an explanation.

“First of all, thanks for everything you’ve done for me, Colette. Actually, I learned your language back in my country. I couldn’t speak it because I lost my memory. Just now, though, it all came flooding back to me.”

“Really? I’m so happy, Mitsuha!” Crying loudly, she clung to Mitsuha again. Her parents nodded, their eyes brimming with tears. They’re such good people, Mitsuha thought, all smiles. When Colette finally calmed down, Mitsuha decided it was time to gather information.

Because she was from another world, Mitsuha had to tread carefully when talking about herself. For this reason, she’d invented her own backstory: she hailed from a distant country, and for reasons that were conveniently glossed over, she’d crossed the sea and come to this continent. She purposefully chose to say “this continent” over “this country”; for all she knew, their current region could’ve been landlocked. Mitsuha and her party had been separated during an attack by wild beasts, but otherwise she didn’t remember much─only that she’d found herself in Colette’s home the moment she woke up.

Mitsuha also didn’t know this world’s class system, so she avoided using the word “noble,” but still led them to believe she was a high-ranking member of society. Her choice to do so was a bit of a risk; commoner-nobility relations weren’t always good, to put it mildly, so it might’ve been upsetting for Colette and her family. Thankfully, they didn’t seem to care.

It makes sense, honestly, Mitsuha reflected. The clothes they found me in weren’t farmer-like at all, so they probably figured it was something like that. If not, then maybe their beef with nobility is just local, and they don’t care about foreign blue bloods at all. Or they just don’t really get it, if y’know what I mean.

After her story concluded, it was Mitsuha’s turn to ask about her situation. I’m gonna get all the info I need and then some! She found out she’d been out cold for a whopping five days. Nearly a week… She couldn’t blame Colette for worrying. Mitsuha had no idea if it was due to exhaustion and shock or if it had something to do with whatever the “thing” had done to her, but she didn’t really care either way. Also, they hadn’t forgotten to retrieve her possessions─knives, slingshot, and everything else. How thoughtful.

Anyway, the beasts they’d encountered were, in fact, wolves. The villagers had rounded up the corpses and reduced them to fangs, fur, and meat, not letting a single part go to waste. They’d split and eaten the meat, since it would’ve gone bad otherwise, but the fangs and fur were still unused. It turned out that they’d been reserved for Mitsuha, along with some money for the meat. Aww, that’s so sweet it’s gonna give me cavities! she thought. But considering they all believed she was penniless and wanted to do her a kindness, it would’ve been rude of her not to accept. I’ll have someone buy the fangs and fur off me, though.

The villagers were extremely thankful that she’d gotten rid of the wolves before they could hurt someone. It made sense, especially considering the animals could’ve easily picked off one of the village wives or children. Colette, for one, wouldn’t have stood a chance if she had been cornered alone. But Mitsuha wasn’t entirely sure she’d killed off all the wolves. I mean, they are pack animals, aren’t they? And it was a mother wolf with her young, so there’s gotta be a father, too, right?

She wasn’t convinced it was safe yet, but if the locals thought it was, she wasn’t going to argue. The wolves here might be different than the ones she knew. Perhaps it was normal for local mother wolves to take their young on training trips, or maybe she’d had a messy divorce and was bringing the kids back to her parents’ den. Whatever, she concluded. It doesn’t matter at this point.

Once she was caught up, Mitsuha fired off all sorts of questions about the country they were in: the value of its currency, the nearest town, the capital, how developed it was─not directly, of course─and so on. Peasants didn’t know much, obviously, but she was satisfied with getting about half the knowledge the farmers knew by heart. By the time she was finished, she had another question she really wanted to ask, but couldn’t: Why the heck does Colette know more than her parents?!

On the third day after waking up, Mitsuha went against her little keeper’s objections and took a walk by herself. According to the villagers, when they’d brought her in from the woods, she was in such terrible shape that Colette had been completely frantic. But her seemingly grave wounds had healed since then, and now Mitsuha could barely feel so much as a bruise.

Still, persuading Colette to let her go alone had proved to be quite a challenge; she’d rattled off more reasons than you could imagine. This solitary trip was absolutely, positively necessary for her. Finally, Colette had relented and gone off to forage, though she’d glanced back at least a dozen times. After she disappeared, Mitsuha checked to see if she was really alone, then jumped back to her home on Earth.

Whoa, I’ve missed so many calls, she thought as she glanced through her phone. Well, I didn’t─I mean, couldn’t─respond. Everyone’s probably worried sick… Better reply to ’em all.

After that, Mitsuha checked the mailbox. Her bills were all paid automatically, so there was no problem there. She also made her way to the local police station to let them know she was safe and sound. They’d helped her out a lot when she was dealing with her uncle and the delinquents who’d gone after her money. She wanted to quell any worries they may have had about her recent absence.

Next, she enjoyed her first bath in ages, changed into fresh clothing, and handled a few other assorted tasks. She couldn’t wash the clothes she’d been wearing and risk appearing suspiciously clean, so she left them in their current condition. She’d don them again when she returned to the other world. There was also no point in going shopping, since she couldn’t bring anything into Colette’s house. All she’d had when Colette found her was a cheap shoulder bag containing a folding umbrella, tissues, and a disposable shopping bag. Patience, Mitsuha… You’ll get to take lots of stuff along once you leave the village.

She finished up her earthly business and returned to the village long before evening, but Colette still interrogated her about where she’d been and what she was up to. What the heck, she came back way too fast! I guess she rushed it ’cause she was worried about me.

Mitsuha was so occupied with her world-jumping and schemes to get rich that she’d completely forgotten about the men who’d approached her on the cliff. The moment they’d pushed Mitsuha off the edge, she’d screamed so loudly that the nearby couples had witnessed it in full. They’d wanted to avoid involvement when the delinquents were merely hitting on her, but they couldn’t ignore a murder.

After Mitsuha fell, the girl from the young couple let out a shriek, her boyfriend snapped photos of the perpetrators, the old man called the police, and his wife took pictures of their car. It was some impressive teamwork. The thugs had panicked, shouting that it wasn’t their fault and other such nonsense, then jumped into their car and peeled off. But with all the witnesses and photos, it didn’t take long for them to get caught and arrested. Everyone thought this was an open-and-shut case.

It quickly hit a wall, however, because they couldn’t find the victim’s body. The police had even checked every local file for a missing person, but found no one who fit the description. This was partially because the victim was described as a child in either elementary or middle school, so Mitsuha was completely out of the investigators’ range. They had multiple witnesses and the criminals’ confessions, but the victim was a Jane Doe and her body was nowhere to be found. The police were at a loss.

On the other hand, the three men were getting what they deserved. Mitsuha would’ve died if it hadn’t been for her strange and accidental collision with the ancient being. The fact that she’d survived changed nothing; they’d still committed an act of murder, so it was fair to punish them appropriately. If they were let off the hook, they’d surely go on to do similar things and harass other people, turning more innocents into victims.

After her family passed away, Mitsuha had ended their newspaper subscription. Cable TV and the internet were more than enough for her. The papers also piled up fast, and she couldn’t be bothered to clean them up─not to mention that the mailman always crammed them into the mailbox like he was stuffing away his broken dreams, so people could tell whether or not Mitsuha was home at a glance. If some seedy types discovered she wasn’t around as often, her property would’ve been in danger.