Chapter 5

Chapter Five Memories Falling forever. Or maybe rising. In the midst of this indistinct floating sensation, the comet shines in the night sky. Without warning, it splits, and half of it comes plummeting down. The meteorite strikes a village in the mountains. Many people die. A lake forms, and the village is destroyed. Time passes, and another village grows up around the lake. The lake provides fish, and the heavenly iron provides wealth. The village prospers. Ages pass, and the comet arrives again. Once again, the star falls. Once again, people die. This has happened twice since mankind settled on these islands. People tried to remember it. They tried to pass on the knowledge to future generations, using methods that would last longer than letters. The comet as a dragon. The comet as braided cords. The fracturing comet as the gestures of a dance. Once again, ages pass. I hear a baby crying. “Your name is Mitsuha.” A mother’s gentle voice. Then, with a brutal sensation, the umbilical cord is cut. Even though we were all two who lived as one in the beginning, even though we were all connected, so humans are severed from the cord and fall into this life. “You’re both your dad’s treasures.” “You’re a big sister now, sweetheart.” A young couple converses. Before long, Mitsuha’s little sister is born. As if in exchange for that joy, her mother falls ill. “When is Mommy comin’ back from the hospital?” The little sister’s question is innocent, but the older sister knows their mother is never coming back. Everyone dies. It’s inevitable, but it isn’t easy to accept. “They couldn’t save her!” The father grieves deeply. He has never loved anyone as much as he loved his wife, and he never will again. It’s both a blessing and a curse that, as they grow, his daughters look more and more like their mother. “Taking over the shrine won’t do any—” “What are you saying?! Why do you think we formally adopted you when you married?!” The father and grandmother quarrel more every day. “I loved Futaba, not Miyamizu Shrine.” “Get out!” Both the father and the grandmother are too old to change their priorities. The father can’t take it, and he leaves. “Mitsuha, Yotsuha. From now on, you’ll be with your gran all the time.” In a house that echoes with the click of ball-weights, the three women begin their life together. The days are peaceful enough. Even so, the feeling that her father has abandoned her becomes an indelible stain inside Mitsuha. These are… …Mitsuha’s memories? As if I’m being swept along helplessly by a storm-swollen torrent, I experience Mitsuha’s time. Then come the days I already know, the swapped days. Seen through Mitsuha’s eyes, Tokyo shines like an exotic foreign country. Even though we share the same senses, it’s as if we’re seeing completely different worlds. “Lucky…” I hear Mitsuha murmur. “I bet they’re together right about now.” It’s the day of my date with Okudera-senpai. “I’m goin’ to Tokyo for a bit,” she tells her little sister. Tokyo? That night, Mitsuha opens the sliding door to her grandmother’s room. “Gran, can I ask a favor…?” Mitsuha’s long hair is chopped short. She isn’t the Mitsuha I know anymore. “They say it’ll look brightest tonight.” Teshigawara and the others invite her out. Let’s go watch the comet. Mitsuha, don’t! I scream. From behind the mirror. In the peal of the wind chimes. As the wind that stirs her hair. Mitsuha, no, you can’t go there! Run! Get out of town before the comet falls! But my voice doesn’t reach her. She doesn’t notice me. On the night of the festival, Mitsuha and her friends look up at the comet, now closer than the moon. The comet suddenly splits, and its shards shine, becoming countless shooting stars. One massive fragment of rock becomes a meteor and begins to fall. Even then, gazing at it, her only thought is, It’s beautiful. Mitsuha, run! I scream at the top of my lungs. Mitsuha, run, please run! Mitsuha, Mitsuha, Mitsuha! And the star falls.