Chapter 6

Chapter Six Reenactment My eyes open. In that instant, I know for sure. I bolt upright, looking down at my body. Slim fingers. Familiar pajamas. The swell of breasts. “It’s Mitsuha…” The words slip out. This voice, too. This narrow throat. Her blood, her flesh, her bones, her skin. Everything about Mitsuha is warm and right here. “…She’s alive…!” I wrap my arms around my body, hugging myself. Tears spill over. Plump teardrops fall relentlessly from Mitsuha’s eyes, as though a faucet has broken. Their heat brings its own joy, and I cry harder and harder. Inside my ribs, my heart leaps. I bend my knees, pressing my cheeks against the smooth kneecaps. I curl up as small as I can, wanting to hug her entire body. Mitsuha. Mitsuha, Mitsuha. It’s a miracle—one that might have been denied me forever, one that slipped through every possibility to be here. “Sis, what’re you doin’?” I raise my head at the sound of the voice. Yotsuha’s standing there in the open doorway. “Oh… Little sister…,” I mutter, sobs strangling my words. Yotsuha’s still alive, too. She’s staring, dazed, at her older sister, who’s all tear-stained and snotty and feeling herself up. “Yotsuhaaaaa!” I rush at her, driven by an urge to scoop her up. “Yeep!” she gasps, slamming the sliding door in my face. “Gran! Hey, Gran!” she yells, and I hear footsteps running down the stairs. “Sis finally cracked! She’s completely busted!” Her voice echoes from downstairs as she runs wailing to her grandma. …What a rude little girl. And after I crossed space and time to save this town! The NHK lady is yapping cheerfully. I’ve just changed into my school uniform and come downstairs. It’s been a while since my skirt-clad lower body felt this vulnerable, and in order to shake the sensation, I’m standing tall and tough, glaring at the TV. “Comet Tiamat has now been visible to the naked eye for about a week. It will be closest to Earth at approximately seven forty this evening, which is when it’s expected to be brightest as well. The astronomy spectacular that only comes once every twelve centuries has reached its climax, and various festivities will be held all around the…” “Tonight! There’s still time!” I mutter. I’m trembling with nerves and excitement. “Good mornin’, Mitsuha. Yotsuha went on ahead today.” I turn around, and the old lady’s standing there. “Grandma! You’re looking good!” Without thinking, I run over to her. She has a teapot on a tray, probably planning to enjoy some tea in the living room. “Huh? …My. You’re…” She pulls down her reading glasses and takes a good look at my face. Her eyes narrow softly. “You aren’t Mitsuha, are you?” “Wha…?” How?! I feel guilty, as if some crime I knew would never come to light has been exposed. Hang on, though. This might make things easier. “Grandma… You knew?” There’s no particular change in the old lady’s expression. As she speaks, she lowers herself into a legless chair. “No. But watchin’ you lately reminded me. When I was a girl, I had some strange dreams myself.” Hear that?! That’s awesome—this oughta be a quick conversation, then. Just what I’d expect from a Japanese folktale family. I join her at the table, and the old lady fills a cup for me, too. Sipping her tea, she continues her story. “They were very odd dreams. More than dreams, really. They were another life. I became a boy I didn’t know in a town I’d never seen before.” I swallow hard. Exactly like us… “But one day, they ended, just like that. All I remember now is that I had strange dreams. My memories of who I became in them disappeared completely.” “Disappeared…” My heart skips a beat, as if I’ve been told the name of a disease I’m fated to get. She’s right. For a little while, I forgot Mitsuha’s name. I tried to convince myself that it was all a delusion. The old lady’s wrinkled face takes on a tinge of loneliness. “So treasure who you are now and the things you’re seein’. No matter how special it is, a dream’s a dream. It’ll disappear for sure someday, once you wake. We all had a time like that, you know: my mother, myself, and your mother.” “That’s… What if…?!” Abruptly, it hits me. This might be a role passed down through the Miyamizu family: the ability to communicate with someone living a few years in the future to escape the disaster that strikes every twelve hundred years. A shrine maiden’s role. Something the Miyamizu bloodline acquired at some point…a warning system inherited across generations. “Maybe the Miyamizus’ dreams were all for today!” I look the old lady straight in the eye, speaking firmly. “Grandma, listen.” She raises her head. From her expression, I can’t tell how she’ll take what I’m about to say. “Tonight, a meteorite will strike the town of Itomori, and everyone will die.” This time, the old lady’s eyebrows knit in unmistakable doubt. “Nobody’d believe hooey like that.” That old broad says some surprisingly normal stuff. I run down the hill to the high school, silently brooding to myself. She believes the swapping dreams but not the meteorite strike. What sort of sense of balance does she have, anyway? I’m really late, and there’s almost nobody around. The calls of the copper pheasants echo, piichik paachik, and it’s just another peaceful morning in town. We’ll have to do it ourselves, I think. “There’s no way I’m letting anybody die!” I shout it out loud, emphatically, as if hammering the resolution into my own mind. I run even faster. There’s not even half a day left until that meteor comes down. “Mitsuha, wha…? Y-your hair…!” “Girl, that hair! What on earth?!” The second I enter the classroom, Teshigawara and Saya stare at my (Mitsuha’s) face, dumbfounded. “Oh yeah, the hair? It was way better before, right?” As I speak, I flip the shoulder-length bob away from the back of my neck. Come to think of it, Mitsuha lopped off most of that long hair of hers at some point, didn’t she? I prefer long black hair, so I’m not a fan of this… No, that’s not what’s important now! “Never mind that!” Teshigawara’s mouth is hanging open so wide, I can practically hear the sound effect for shock. Saya’s examining me searchingly. I look back and forth between them. “If nothing changes, everyone’s gonna die tonight!” The hum in the classroom stops dead. All our classmates’ eyes are on me. “H-hold it, Mitsuha. What’re you sayin’?!” Saya hastily stands up, and Teshigawara grabs my arm and pulls me. As they drag me out of the classroom, my head finally cools down a bit. I guess it’s only natural that they wouldn’t believe me. Maybe it’s like the old lady said, and it’s unreasonable to expect people to buy something like this out of the blue. I was so excited about swapping for the first time in ages that I convinced myself things would just work out somehow. Hmm. This might be tougher than I expected. …Or so I thought, but as far as Teshigawara was concerned, that was wasted worry. “Mitsuha, is that for real?” “Yes, it’s for real! Tonight, Comet Tiamat is going to split and turn into a meteorite, and it’s hugely likely it’s gonna hit this town. I can’t reveal my sources, but I got the information through a reliable channel.” “That’s…a full-on emergency!” “C’mon, Tesshi, what’re you lookin’ so serious for? Are you really that dumb?” Naturally, Saya isn’t having any of it. “What’s this source of yours, anyway? The CIA? NASA? What’re you goin’ on about? ‘Reliable channels’? You pretendin’ you’re a spy now? Honestly, Mitsuha, what’s the matter with you?!” She couldn’t be more sensible. Getting desperate, I dump all the money out of Mitsuha’s wallet. “Saya, please! I’ll pay, so take this and go buy whatever you want! Then at least listen to what I’ve got to say!” I’m begging, and my expression is dead serious. Startled, Saya takes a long, hard look at me. “But you’re always tight with your money… You’re really goin’ that far?” Huh? She is? But she burned through my money like crazy! Saya sighs, as if she’s resigned herself. “…I guess I’ll have to, then. None of this makes any sense, but fine, I’ll at least listen. Tesshi, gimme the key to your bike.” She sets off for the main entrance, grumbling, “This ain’t enough for more than a couple cheap sweets.” Good. It looks like the amount wasn’t enough, but she believes I’m serious now. “I’m goin’ to the convenience store. Tesshi, you keep a close eye on Mitsuha. She ain’t quite right.” And so Teshigawara and I sneak into a room in the club building nobody uses anymore and put together an evacuation plan for the town. The goal is to get all 188 families—about five hundred people—out of the danger zone before the meteorite falls. The first thing we think of is broadcasting an evacuation order. After we run through the inevitable ridiculous ideas—We’ll take over the prime minister’s official residence! Or the Diet Building! Or the NHK Shibuya Broadcasting Center, or at least the NHK Gifu-Takayama branch office!—we start talking about how not everybody in town will be at home with their TVs or radios on and how even more people will be out and about because of the autumn festival tonight. Then we fall silent, thinking. “…The disaster alert system!” Teshigawara shouts suddenly. “Disaster alert system?” “Hunh? Don’t go tellin’ me you don’t know. There are speakers all over town, remember?” “Oh… That thing that starts talking out of the blue every morning and evening? Who was born, who’s having a funeral, that sort of thing?” “Yeah. You can hear that all over town for sure, whether you’re inside or out. If we send the order over that…!” “Huh? But, uh…how? That comes from the town hall, doesn’t it? Would they let us broadcast stuff if we asked?” “Pssh. No.” “Then what do we do? Hijack Town Hall? I mean, I guess we’d have a better shot at that than at taking over NHK, but…” “Heh-heh-heh.” With a creepy smile, Teshigawara types something into his phone. Geez, this guy looks happy. “We can do this!” He holds out his phone to me. Superimposed frequencies, it reads, and below is an explanation. “Wha…? Is this for real?” Teshigawara flares his nostrils and nods proudly. “Uh, Tesshi… Why do you even know stuff like this?” “Well, I always fantasize before I fall asleep, y’know? About destroyin’ the town, overthrowin’ the school, stuff like that. Doesn’t everybody?” “Huh…?” That weirds me out a bit. But, no—this is… “This is awesome, Tesshi! It just might work!” Without thinking, I throw an arm around Teshigawara’s shoulders. “H-hey, don’t get too close!” “Huh?” Whoa. Even his ears are red. “What’s this? Tesshi, are you embarrassed?” I look up into Teshigawara’s face from below, grinning at him. Well, well, Mitsuha, you’re not to be taken lightly, are you? C’mon, c’mon! I press my body against him some more. Here you go—have a freebie! We’re sitting side by side on an old sofa, and Tesshi’s already right by the wall, so he’s got nowhere to run. “Hey, Mitsuha, cut it out!” Teshigawara resists, big body squirming. He’s a guy, for sure… Well, so am I. Then, abruptly, Teshigawara jumps up, climbing onto the back of the sofa, and yells, “I told you, knock it off! A single girl your age—that ain’t proper!” “Ha…” Even his buzzed scalp is red. He’s sweating bullets, and his eyes look almost teary. “Ha, ha-ha-ha! Tesshi, you’re such a…!” In spite of myself, I crack up laughing. He’s a really good guy, and I’m positive I can count on him. I thought of him as a friend before, but I’d like to meet him and the others for real and talk to them as a guy soon. Me and Mitsuha and Teshigawara and Saya. If Tsukasa and Takagi and Okudera-senpai were there, too, I know it’d be a blast. “Sorry, Tesshi. I was just so happy you believed me…” I’m biting back laughter, and Teshigawara’s sulking. “Will you help me think up the rest of the evacuation plan?” I smile at him. Tesshi’s face is still red, but even so, he nods seriously. Once this is over, I’ll come see this guy, too, I think, feeling a little bit dazzled. “A-a-a…a bomb?!” Saya yells. She’s eating a mini shortcake from a clear plastic wrapper. “Technically, they’re called water-gel explosives. They’re kinda like dynamite,” Teshigawara tells her, sounding proud. He’s crunching away on potato chips, and I’m noshing on chocolate drops. Saya bought a ton of convenience-store food and spread it all over the desk, so it sort of feels like we’re having a party. Teshigawara and I are standing behind a map, outlining our carefully engineered evacuation plan to Saya. I almost want to play some energetic music to set the stage. Something percussive and a bit unhinged—something that sounds like a strategy meeting. Taking a gulp of coffee milk from a pint-size pack, Teshigawara continues. “There’s lots of explosives in my dad’s company’s warehouse, for construction stuff. If I don’t have to worry about gettin’ caught afterward, I can snatch as much as we need.” “Then, next,” I say, opening a melon bread wrapper. I’m really hungry, and for some reason, everything I eat when I’m in Mitsuha’s body tastes really good. “Y-y-y…you’re gonna hijack the signal?!” Saya’s voice cracks. Munching on curry bread, Teshigawara explains. “Rural wireless disaster alert systems like ours are easy to take over, as long as you know the transmission frequency and the superimposed wake-up frequency. The speakers are made so they’ll activate as long as a specific frequency is layered over the audio.” Melon bread in one hand, I pick up where he left off. “That means we can send the evacuation order all over town from the school broadcasting room.” I point at the map of Itomori. There’s a circle with a diameter of a little less than a mile, centered on Miyamizu Shrine, and I trace its edge with my finger. “This is the area that’s supposed to take damage from the meteorite. As you can see, Itomori High is outside it.” I tap on the location of the high school. “In other words, we just need to evacuate people here, to the schoolyard.” “B-but that’s…” Saya begins stammering nervously. “That’s a full-blown crime!” Even as she says it, she’s putting the strawberry—which she saved for last—in her mouth. “We’ll never get the people around here to move without committing a crime,” I tell her coolly, sweeping away the chocolate drops I’d scattered over the map. That’s right. As long as it gets the people inside this circle to leave, it doesn’t matter whether it’s a crime or not. “Y’know, Mitsuha, it’s like you’re a different person.” I grin and take a big bite of melon bread. When I’m in this body, I unconsciously start talking a bit like a girl, but I’ve completely abandoned trying to act like Mitsuha. As long as these guys are still safe when everything’s over, nothing else matters. As long as we’re all alive, things will work out. “…So. You’re the one in charge of the broadcast, Saya,” I tell her cheerfully. “Why?!” “Well, you’re in the broadcasting club, right?” “Plus, your big sis is in charge of the Town Hall broadcast. Get her to tell you the wireless frequency,” says Teshigawara. “Huh? I can’t just…” Ignoring Saya’s protest, Teshigawara happily points to himself. “I’m the explosives guy!” “And I’m going to go talk to the mayor,” I say, pointing to myself. “Huh?!” Saya is speechless, and Teshigawara picks up the explanation. “We can probably set up the evacuation on our own with the plan we just talked about. But if the town hall and firefighters don’t come out at the end, there’s no way we’ll get everybody in all one hundred eighty-eight families to move, y’know?” “That’s why we need to persuade the mayor,” I tell her. “I’m his daughter. If I can explain it to him rationally, I’m sure he’ll understand.” Teshigawara folds his arms and nods, patting himself on the back. “It’s a perfect strategy!” That’s exactly how I feel. True, our methods are a bit rough, but I don’t think there’s any other way to do it. “Haaaaaah…” Saya watches us with her mouth agape, though I can’t tell whether she’s amazed or appalled. “Well, I’m impressed you thought it through that far, but… This is all just in case something happens, isn’t it?” “Huh?” I hadn’t expected that question this late in the game, and I’m at a loss for words. “Uh…not exactly…” If Saya doesn’t get on board, this plan won’t work. I don’t know what to tell her, and I search for something to say. “That ain’t necessarily so!” Abruptly, Teshigawara jumps in, thrusting out the screen on his phone. “Do you know how Itomori Lake got made?” Saya and I squint at the screen. It’s a site that looks like the town’s home page, with a header that says The Origins of Itomori Lake. Then the words A meteoric lake from twelve hundred years ago, and Incredibly rare for Japan. “It’s a meteoric lake! This place already had at least one meteorite strike!” As Teshigawara says this, a triumphant look on his face, something clicks in my mind. I start speaking before I even know what it is. “That’s right—he’s right… That’s why!” That’s why there was a picture of the comet in a place like that, I realize. Comet Tiamat has a twelve-hundred-year cycle. Itomori Lake is a twelve-hundred-year-old meteoric lake. The meteorite strikes every twelve hundred years, when the comet passes. A presaged disaster. That means it should be avoidable. That picture was both a message and a warning. I feel as if I’ve picked up an unexpected ally. I can’t hold still any longer. The preparations for this were laid a thousand years ago! “Good one, Tesshi!” Without thinking, I stick out my fist, and Teshigawara bumps it. “Yeah!” This will work. It’s gonna work! “Let’s do this!” We turn to Saya, speaking in unison, spit flying with enthusiasm. “…What are you talking about?” The voice is rough and heavy, like the sound of scissors cutting into thick cardboard. I get increasingly flustered. I talk louder, so as not to get steamrolled. “I told you! You have to evacuate the townspeople, just in case, or—” “Be quiet a minute.” His voice isn’t raised at all, but it shuts me up. Mitsuha’s dad, Mayor Miyamizu, closes his eyes wearily and leans back in the upholstered chair in his office. The thick leather creaks audibly. Then he exhales, slowly, and gazes out the window. The shadows of the leaves sway in the bright afternoon sunlight. “…The comet is going to split in two and fall on this town? More than five hundred people could die?” He taps the desk with his fingertips, leaving a long pause. Then finally, he returns his gaze to me. The backs of my knees are sweating. For the first time, I realize that’s where Mitsuha gets sweaty when she’s nervous. “I know it’s hard to believe, but I do have grounds for—” “How dare you come to me with nonsense like that!” Out of nowhere, he explodes. The creases between his eyes grow deeper. “Do delusions run in the Miyamizu bloodline?” he grumbles quietly, as if talking to himself. He fixes me with a piercing look and speaks in a low tone. “Listen, Mitsuha. If you’re being serious with me, then you are ill.” “…Wha—?” The words won’t come. I realize the confidence I’d had in the clubroom just thirty minutes ago is gone without a trace. The uneasy feeling that I’m actually misguided is building rapidly. No, that’s not true. I’m not deluded, and I’m not sick. I’m— “I’ll send a car around for you.” The mayor picks up the phone, suddenly sounding concerned. He starts dialing, initiating a call even as he’s speaking to me. “Have a doctor at the city hospital look at you. After that, I’ll hear what you have to say.” The words send an unpleasant jolt through me. This guy is seriously treating me, his own daughter, like a head case. The second it registers, my whole body goes as cold as ice, while the core of my brain flares so hot it might as well be on fire. It’s rage. “—Don’t you talk down to me, you bastard!” The words come out as a scream. The mayor’s wide eyes are right in front of me. Without thinking, I’ve grabbed him by his necktie and hauled him up. The phone receiver falls to the floor beside the desk, and I hear the tiny buzz of a dead line. “…Ah—” I relax my grip. Slowly, the man’s face recedes. Mayor Miyamizu’s lips are slack and trembling slightly, in either shock or bewilderment. We’re staring each other in the eye. Neither of us is able to look away. A cold sweat opens every pore on my body. “Mitsuha.” The mayor sounds as if he’s struggling to squeeze the air out. “No… Who are you?” He’s trembling. With a nasty sensation, like a little winged bug the wind carried in, the words linger in my ears for a very long time. Faintly, I can hear the reverberations of hammering in the distance. It’s sometime between midday and evening. The town is too quiet, and even sounds from very far off reach my ears on the breeze. Tok-tok, tok-tok. After leaving the mayor’s office, I trudge along the hill road overlooking the lake, picturing a nail being driven into hard lumber in time with the noise. An iron nail, wedged into dark, cramped splinters, destined to rust. They’re probably getting ready for the autumn festival up at the shrine, I think absently, gazing at the wooden lanterns that line the road. Hearing children’s voices above me—“’Kay, see you later!”—I look up. Farther up the slope, kids with backpacks are waving to one another. “Mm-hmm, I’ll see you at the festival.” “Meet us below the shrine.” With that, a boy and girl part ways with their friend and come running toward me. They’re in the middle years of elementary school, probably about Yotsuha’s age. It fell on the shrine. “Don’t go!” The boy’s just about to run past me, and without thinking, I grab his shoulders. “Get out of town! Tell your friends, too!” Between my arms, the expression of a kid I don’t even know slides into terror. “Wh-what’s wrong with you?!” He shoves my hands away. I come back to my senses. “Sis!” When I turn toward the voice, Yotsuha’s running down the hill toward me, wearing her backpack and a worried expression. The two kids make a break for it and dash away. I can’t do stuff like this. I’ll just seem creepy. “Sis?! What’d you do to those kids?!” Yotsuha pounces on me, grabbing my arms and looking up into my face. What am I supposed to do now? I look at Yotsuha. She’s anxiously waiting for me to say something. “If Mitsuha had tried…” I murmur the thoughts as they come. “Could she have talked him into it? Is it just me who can’t do it?” Yotsuha’s bewildered, but I ignore her and keep going. “Yotsuha, before evening comes, take Grandma and get out of town.” “Huh?” “If you stay here, you’ll die!” “What?! Sis, c’mon—what’re you talkin’ about?!” “This is important,” I tell her, but Yotsuha desperately raises her voice, trying to push my words back at me. “Sis, snap out of it!” Her eyes are tearing up. She’s scared. As Yotsuha speaks, she stands on her tiptoes, gazing into my eyes. “You took off for Tokyo all of a sudden yesterday, too. You’ve been weird all the time lately, Sis!” “Huh?” I feel a strange sense of wrongness… Tokyo? “Yotsuha, did you just say Tokyo?” “Heeey, Mitsuhaaa!” It’s Saya. When I look up, she’s waving wildly from the back of the bike Teshigawara’s pedaling. It brakes, skidding a bit on the asphalt. “Did you talk to your dad?! How’d it go?!” Teshigawara’s leaning forward. I can’t respond. I’m confused. I don’t know what to think anymore. The mayor wouldn’t listen to a word I said. Not only that, the guy asked his own daughter who she was. I made him do that. Is it because I’m in Mitsuha? Is that why it didn’t work? In that case, where is she now? Yotsuha says Mitsuha went to Tokyo yesterday. Why? When was “yesterday”? “Hey, Mitsuha?” I hear Teshigawara’s puzzled voice. “What’s wrong with your sis?” Sayaka asks Yotsuha. Where is Mitsuha? Where am I, right now? What if…? I lift my eyes. Beyond the houses, the rolling outlines of mountains build on each other, and beyond them, there’s a misty blue ridgeline. The mountain I climbed. The body of the god at the peak. The place where I drank the sake. A light, cold wind blows up from the lake, stirring Mitsuha’s newly short hair. The strands stroke my cheeks softly, almost like someone’s fingertips. “Is she…there?” I mutter. “Huh? What? What’s the matter? Is somethin’ up there?” Yotsuha and Saya and Teshigawara all follow my gaze. Mitsuha, if you’re there— “Tesshi, let me borrow your bike!” Even as I speak, I grab the handlebars, wrenching it away from him. I straddle the seat, then kick off. “Hey, wha—? Mitsuha!” The seat’s really high. Standing up to pedal, I start climbing the hill road. “Mitsuha, what about the operation?!” As I get farther away, Teshigawara yells after me. He sounds like he might be about to cry. “Get ready, just like we planned! Please!” My shout echoes through the hushed town. Severed from her body, Mitsuha’s voice rebounds between the mountains and the lake, filling the air for a moment. As if chasing that voice, I stomp on the pedals with all my might. Someone’s tapping my cheek. It’s a very faint pressure, probably just the tip of a middle finger. Whoever it is, is being gentle, trying not to hurt me. The fingertip is very cold. Chilly, as if a moment earlier it had been touching ice. Who in the world would wake me up like that? I open my eyes. Huh? It’s really dark. Maybe it’s still night. Another tap on my cheek. No… This is water. Drops of water have been hitting my face. When I sit up, I finally notice. “…I’m Taki!” Without meaning to, I say it out loud. As I climb the narrow stone steps, the evening sun lances straight into my eyes. I must have been in the dark for quite a while. Taki’s eyes sting and tear up. When I’ve climbed all the way to the top, my guess is confirmed: I’m on the mountain of the body of the god. What is Taki doing here? Without really understanding what’s going on, I emerge from beneath the giant tree and begin walking across the basin. Taki is wearing a heavy camping parka and hiking shoes with thick rubber soles. The ground is soft and wet, and it might have just stopped raining—the low grass is thick with water droplets. When I look up, though, the sky is perfectly clear. Thin, shredded clouds stream in the wind, glowing and golden. My memories are oddly vague. Still unable to remember anything, before long I come to the edge of the basin, the foot of the slope. I look up the hill. This whole area is a depression. The top of this slope is the top of the mountain. I start climbing. As I do, I search my memories, trying to remember what I was doing before I came here. Then my fingers touch the edge. Festival music. A light summer kimono. My own face, hair cut short, reflected in a mirror. That’s right. Yesterday was the autumn festival. Tesshi and Saya asked me to go, so I put on my traditional clothes and went out. It was the day the comet was supposed to be brightest, so we were going to watch. Yes, that was it. It all seems very distant somehow, but it was definitely yesterday. My new haircut really startled Tesshi and Saya. Tesshi’s mouth gaped so wide, you could practically hear the sound effect for shock. They were so shaken I felt a little sorry for them. The entire walk to the hill, they whispered behind my back. “Hey, do you think she got her heart broken?” “Why do you go there?! Are you some old guy from last century?” When we’d climbed all the way up the narrow one-lane road and turned at the traffic mirror, there it was: an enormous comet in the night sky, straight above us. Its long, streaming tail shone emerald green, and its head was brighter than the moon. If I strained my eyes, I could see particles glittering around it like fine dust. We forgot to talk to each other and just stood there with our mouths open like idiots, staring, fascinated, for a long time. Then, at some point, I realized the comet had split. There were two big, bright tips, and one seemed to be steadily coming closer. Before long, several delicate shooting stars began shining around it. It was like the heavens were falling. No—that night, the stars actually did fall. It was a sight straight out of a dream, an impossibly beautiful night sky. I finally reach the top of the slope. The wind buffeting me is cold. Below me, a blanket of clouds unfolds like a shining carpet. Through them, I can see Itomori Lake, which is beginning to be tinted with faint blue shadows. Huh? I think. How strange. For the past little while, I’ve been shaking so hard it’s as if someone’s put me on ice. Out of nowhere, I’m so scared I can’t handle it. I’m terrified, anxious, sad, and lonely, and it feels like I might lose my mind. I’m gushing cold sweat as though a tap has broken. What if…? Maybe I have gone crazy. Maybe I cracked before I even knew it was happening. I’m scared. I’m scared. I want to scream right this minute, but sticky breath is the only thing that comes out of my throat. My eyelids open wider and wider, driven by a will that isn’t mine. The surfaces of my eyes are desert dry. They’re gazing at the lake. I know. I’ve seen it. Itomori is gone. A bigger round lake has formed, overlapping Itomori Lake. Somewhere inside my mind, I think, Well, of course it has. After a thing like that fell on us. After that leaden, sweltering mass came down on our heads. That’s right. That night, I… It’s as if my joints have broken without a sound. I drop to my knees on the spot. That night…I… The air that leaks from my throat becomes a voice, just barely. “That night…” Taki’s memories flood into me. The comet disaster that destroyed an entire town. The fact that Taki really lived in Tokyo three years in the future. The fact that, by then, I wasn’t anywhere anymore. The night the star fell. Back then, I… “…I died…?” Where do human memories live? Are they in the synaptic circuitry of the brain? Do retinas and fingertips hold memories, too? Or is there an invisible, amorphous, mistlike, spiritual collective somewhere, and that’s where the memories reside? Something we’d call the heart or the mind or the soul. Is it something you can take out and stick back in, like a memory card with an OS on it? The asphalt cut out a while back, and I’ve been pedaling over unpaved mountain roads. The low sun flickers through the gaps among the trees. Mitsuha’s body is sweating nonstop, and my bangs are plastered to my forehead. As I pedal, I wipe the hair out of my face along with the sweat. Mitsuha’s soul must be in my body right now. After all, my heart’s here, in hers. But… This is something I’ve been thinking for a while. Even now, we’re together. Mitsuha, or at least some fragment of her heart, is still here. For example, her fingers remember the shape of her uniform. When I put it on, I naturally know the length of the zipper and the stiffness of the collar. When Mitsuha’s eyes see her friends, I feel relieved and happy. Without even asking, I can tell who Mitsuha likes and who she’s not comfortable around. When I see her grandma, memories I shouldn’t even have rise hazily in my mind, like a projector with broken focus. Body and memories and emotions are bound together inseparably. Taki. I’ve been hearing Mitsuha’s voice inside this body for a while now. Taki, Taki. Her tone is earnest, pleading, as if she’s about to cry. A voice trembling with loneliness, like the glimmer of distant stars. The blurry image sharpens. Taki, Mitsuha’s calling. “Don’t you remember me?” And then I recall her memories of that day. That day, instead of going to school, Mitsuha got on a train. She went to a big terminal station, where the Shinkansen to Tokyo stopped. The local train she took to get there was empty, despite the fact that it was rush hour, when students were heading to school. Since there were no schools along the track, everyone who commuted around here drove. “I’m goin’ into Tokyo for a bit.” This had been Mitsuha’s abrupt announcement to her little sister when they left the house that morning. “Huh? Now? Why?!” Yotsuha asks, startled. “Um… For a date?” “Wha—?! Sis, you have a boyfriend in Tokyo?!” “Uh, well… It’s not my date.” Unsure how to explain herself, Mitsuha breaks into a run. “I’ll be back tonight. Don’t worry!” Gazing at the scenery flying past the window of the bullet train, Mitsuha wonders: Why am I crashin’ Okudera-senpai and Taki’s date? It’s not like the three of us can just hang out together. Besides, I’ve never been to Tokyo before. Will I even be able to find Taki? Even if I do, will it bother him that I’m showin’ up out of the blue? Will he be surprised? Maybe he’ll be upset… With an uncomplicated ease almost inviting disappointment, the Shinkansen slides into Tokyo. The incredible crowds leave Mitsuha breathless, but she tries calling my cell. “…Because the unit is out of range or turned off, the number you are trying to reach is…” She hangs up. Just like the other calls, it didn’t go through. I’ll never find him, Mitsuha thinks. Still, after staring at the station information board like it’s a quiz, she heads into the city, relying on her vague memories. But if I do see him… She rides the Yamanote Line, the city bus, walks, takes another train, then walks some more. What’ll I do? It probably will bother him, right? Maybe it’ll be awkward. Or maybe— She sees the words Comet Tiamat at Closest Point Tomorrow on a big outdoor TV screen. Or, if I do find him, just maybe, will he—? Tired from walking, she gazes at the sparkling lights of the buildings from a pedestrian bridge and thinks, almost praying: If I find Taki, maybe he’ll be just a little bit happy… She starts walking again, still thinking. I’ll never find him searchin’ randomly like this. I won’t, but I know one thing for sure. If we meet, we’ll know right away. “You’re the one who was in me. I’m the one who was in you.” Mitsuha’s certain of this, as if it’s as simple as two plus two. The evening sun sinks through the gap between the station platform roofs, as weak as a dying flashlight. Mitsuha’s feet are sore from all the walking she’s done, and she plants herself on a bench with her legs kicked out in front of her. She stares absently at the setting sun, which is much paler and less reliable than in Itomori. A musical chime plays, and a voice announces: “The local train to…Chiba…is arriving on…Track Four.” A yellow train glides onto the platform. The cars kick up a warm wind that ruffles her hair. Mitsuha gazes at the train windows without really seeing them. Abruptly, her breath catches. She jumps to her feet as if she’s been stung. He’d been there, in the window that had just passed in front of her. Mitsuha breaks into a sprint. The cars have stopped, and she catches up to the window almost immediately. The evening train is crowded, though, and she can’t find him again from outside. With a sound like a giant exhalation, the doors open. The car’s so tightly packed that the people are practically spilling out, making Mitsuha shiver. Even so—murmuring “Excuse me” and sweating behind the knees—she pushes her way into the crowd. With another giant sigh, the doors close. The train begins moving. Repeating “Excuse me” over and over, little by little, Mitsuha works her way forward. Then, in front of one boy, she stops. The sounds around her vanish. It’s me. The middle school “me” from three years ago. I can’t go any higher on the bike. No sooner have I had the thought than the front wheel catches on a root, and I slip. On reflex, I grab the trunk of a nearby tree. The bike slips out from under me and tumbles down the slope, hitting the ground about ten feet below with a huge racket. The wheels are bent all out of shape. “Sorry, Teshigawara,” I mutter softly, and I take off running up the narrow mountain track. Why did I forget? Why didn’t I remember until just now? As I run, I stare at the memories welling up inside me. Mitsuha, that day, three years ago, you came to see me— Taki. Taki, Taki. For a while now, Mitsuha has been silently rolling my name around on her tongue. I haven’t noticed her at all, even though I’m right in front of her. She keeps fretting over what tone she should use to address me and what expression she should wear, so earnestly she seems liable to burst into tears. Then, forcing a bright smile, she says: “Taki.” The middle school me is startled hearing my name out of the blue, and I glance up. We’re still about the same height, so her big, vaguely teary eyes are right in front of me. “Huh…?” “Um, do you…” Smiling desperately, Mitsuha points to herself. I’m bewildered. “…Huh?” “Don’t you remember me?” asks this stranger, timidly, looking at me through her lashes. “Who’re you?” Mitsuha gives a small, breathy shriek, then quickly turns red. She lowers her eyes, speaking in a voice that’s barely audible. “Oh… I’m sorry…” The train sways. The passengers all adjust to keep their balance, except for Mitsuha, who staggers into me. Her hair brushes the tip of my nose, and I catch the faint scent of shampoo. “I’m sorry,” she mumbles again. Weird girl, thinks middle school me. Mitsuha’s muddled mind races desperately. But you’re Taki, so why…? For both of us, time passes awkwardly. “The next station is…Yotsuya.” The announcement offers Mitsuha a bit of relief. At the same time, though, she feels unbearably sad. Still, she can’t stay here any longer. The doors open, and she moves with the rest of the crowd to exit the train. Watching her receding back, I suddenly think, Maybe this weird girl is somebody I should know. This inexplicable, intense impulse drives me to call out. “’Scuse me! What’s your name?” Mitsuha turns back, but the waves of disembarking passengers push her farther away. Hurriedly, she undoes the braided cord tying back her hair. She holds it out to me and shouts: “Mitsuha!” Without thinking, I reach for it. It’s a vivid orange, like a thin ray of evening sun in the dim train. I shove my way into the crowd and grab that color tight. “My name is Mitsuha!” That day, three years ago, you came to see me. Finally, I know. A girl I didn’t recognize spoke to me on the train once. To me, that was all it’d been, and I completely forgot about it. But Mitsuha had come to Tokyo carrying the weight of all those feelings, had been hurt badly, gone back to her own town, and cut her hair. There’s a lump in my throat. Still, there’s nothing I can do about it now, so I just keep running, hell for leather. My (Mitsuha’s) face and body are smeared with sweat and dirt. The next thing I know, the trees have ended, and I’m in a rocky, mossy area, with clouds like a golden carpet below me. I’ve finally reached the peak. I suck in a huge chestful of cold air. Then, as if I’m expelling all my emotions from the pit of my stomach, I yell at the top of my lungs. “Mitsuhaaaa!” I hear a voice. I lift my head. I stand, looking around. I’m up on the rocky area surrounding the body of the god’s basin. The evening sun is almost gone, and all the shadows are stretched and elongated. The world is divided sharply into light and darkness, but there’s no one around. “…Taki?” I murmur. I draw in a deep breath of cold air. Then I shout, using Taki’s throat: “Takiiii!” I hear it. She’s here. Mitsuha is here. I set off running, climbing the slope up to the mountain’s peak. I do a complete 360 scan of the area, but no one’s there… She has to be here, though. I feel it in my core. “Mitsuhaaa! You’re here, aren’t you? In my body!” It’s Taki! I’m sure of it. I shout a question into the empty sky: “Taki! Taki, where are you?! I can hear you, but I can’t—!” I start sprinting around the rim of the basin. I can hear a voice. Just a voice. I don’t really know whether it—my voice, Mitsuha’s voice—is actually creating sound or whether it’s just echoing in something like my soul. After all, even if we’re in the same place, we must still be three years apart. “Mitsuha, where are you?!” Even so, I shout. I can’t not shout. I sprint around the edge of the basin with everything I’ve got. If I do— If I do, I’ll catch up to Taki. I run, spurred on by that delusion. “Oh!” Crying out in spite of myself, I stop. I stop, hastily looking back. Just now, I’m positive I passed her. There’s a warm presence in front of me. My heart is leaping in my chest. I can’t see him, but I know Taki’s here, very close to me. My heart is racing. He’s here. I reach out my hand. She’s here. I reach out my hand. …But my fingers touch nothing. “Mitsuha?” I wait for a response. Nobody answers. It’s no good, then? We can’t meet? One more time, I look around. I’m standing stock-still, up on the mountain, all alone. At my wits’ end, I lower my head and let out a long, thin breath. The wind blows gently, softly lifting my hair. My sweat has dried completely. Sensing a sudden drop in the temperature, I glance at the evening sun. While I was distracted, it slipped below the clouds. Released from direct sunlight, light and shadow melt together, and the world’s outlines grow soft and vague. The sky is still bright, but the Earth is enveloped in pale shadows. The air is filled with pink, indirect light. That’s right. There were names for this time of day. Twilight, tasogare. The time when the outlines blur, when you might encounter something not of this world. I murmur its old name. Half-light. Our voices overlap. It can’t be. Slowly, I shift my gaze away from the clouds to the space right in front of me. Mitsuha’s there. She’s watching me, eyes wide and round, mouth hanging open. That lame expression strikes me as funny and lovable. The emotion is stronger than my surprise, and, slowly, I start to smile. “Mitsuha.” When I call to her, Mitsuha’s eyes rapidly fill with tears. “…Taki? Taki? Taki? Taki?” As she repeats herself like an idiot, her hands find my arms. Her fingers tighten, squeezing. “Taki, you’re here for real!” Her voice sounds hoarse and tight. Big tears roll down her cheeks. We’ve finally met. Really met. We’re facing each other, Mitsuha as Mitsuha, me as myself, in our own bodies. I feel deeply relieved. A sense of profound peace wells up inside me, as if, after being abroad for a long time in a country where I didn’t know the language, I’ve finally come home. A calm joy fills me. Mitsuha just keeps sobbing. “I came to see you,” I tell her. Her tears are as clear and round as little marbles. I smile and keep going. “Seriously, it was a rough trip! You’re way out here.” That’s right: way, way out here. Somewhere even the time is different. Mitsuha looks at me, blinking. “Huh? But… How? Back then, I…” “I drank the sake you made.” As I tell her, remembering how much I’ve gone through for this, Mitsuha’s tears stop dead. “Huh…?” She’s speechless. Well, sure she is. Anybody would be really moved by that, right? “Y…y…” Slowly, Mitsuha backs away from me… Hmm? “Y…you drank that?!” “Huh?” “Idiot! Pervert!” “Huh—? Wha…?!” Her face is bright red. Apparently, she’s mad. Wait, is that something to get mad about?! “Oh, and—! You touched my chest, didn’t you?!” “What?!” I’m completely rattled. “H-how do you know about…?” “Yotsuha saw you!” Mitsuha plants her hands on her hips, talking as though she’s scolding a child. “Uh, yeah, sorry… I just…” Tch! Rotten little blabbermouth. My palms are getting sweaty. An excuse. I’ve gotta give her an excuse. On the spur of the moment, I blurt out, “Once! It was just once!” Like that’s any kind of excuse! I’m a moron! “…Just once? Hmm…” Huh? She’s considering it. So “just once” is okay? I might actually get through this. However, as if correcting herself, Mitsuha’s eyebrows come down. “No, it’s the same no matter how many times you do it! Idiot!” So it’s not going to work. Giving up, I clap my hands together and duck my head in apology. “Sorry!” I really can’t tell her that I actually felt ’em up every time. “Oh, that’s…” Mitsuha’s expression changes abruptly. She points at my right hand in surprise. I glance at my wrist. “Oh, yeah. This.” It’s the braided cord. The one she gave me three years ago. I undo the little metal fastener that keeps it in place and unwind it from my wrist, talking to Mitsuha as I work. “Listen, don’t come visit me before we meet. How was I supposed to know it was you?” I hand the cord to Mitsuha. “Here.” Remembering what she felt on that train, a softness fills my chest. “I’ve had it for three years. This time, you hang on to it.” Mitsuha looks up from the cord in her hands and smiles happily. “Uh-huh!” When she smiles— I hadn’t noticed before, but it’s like the whole world is happy right along with her. Mitsuha wraps the cord around her head vertically, like a headband, and ties it into a bow over her left ear. “How’s this?” She blushes, looking up at me through her lashes. The braided cord bounces at the side of her bob, like a ribbon. “Uh…” It doesn’t really work, I think. It’s sort of little-kiddish. And she didn’t have to chop off that much hair. First she shows up without asking, then she gets traumatized for no reason… I like long black hair, all right? That’s my immediate reaction. In cases like this, though, compliments are the best move. Even I know that. Even the Conversation skills for the person who’s never, ever been the tiniest bit popular! link Mitsuha sent me said it was always safe to compliment women. “…Well, it’s not bad.” “Wha—?!” Mitsuha’s expression immediately clouds over. Huh? “You don’t think it looks good on me!” “Huh?!” How’d she know?! “Ha…ha-ha… Sorry.” “Honestly! You’re such a…!” She turns her face away, thoroughly disgusted. What is this? Talking to girls is friggin’ impossible… Then Mitsuha bursts out laughing. She holds her sides, giggling. What’s with her, anyway? Crying and getting mad and laughing… Still, watching her, the urge starts building inside me, too. I look down, put a hand over my face, and chuckle. Mitsuha’s cracking up right along with me. For some reason, we’ve started enjoying ourselves. We laugh out loud together. In our corner of the softly shining, half-lit world, we giggle and titter like little kids. Bit by bit, the temperature is falling. Little by little, the light is fading. “Mitsuha.” I suddenly remember the way I felt when I was a kid, when I’d played my heart out after school, wanting to stay with my friends for hours and hours longer but knowing it was almost time to go home. “You’ve still got things you need to do. Listen.” I outline the plan for her that I’d hatched with Teshigawara and Saya. As she listens, Mitsuha nods seriously, and I realize she remembers that the star fell, that the town vanished. That she died once. For her, tonight is a reenactment. “It’s here…” Mitsuha looks up at the sky, and as she whispers, her voice trembles slightly. I follow her gaze. In the western sky, which is turning a deep, dark blue, the shape of long-tailed Comet Tiamat is faintly visible. “It’s all right. You’ll make it.” I say this definitively, as much to convince myself as anything. “Yes, I’ll try… Oh, half-light’s already—” Before I know it, Mitsuha’s turned the color of pale shadows, too. “—It’s already over,” I finish. The last traces of the evening sun are fading from the sky. Night will be here soon. As if to shove down the anxiety suddenly amassing inside me, I force a smile and speak cheerfully. “Hey, Mitsuha. So we don’t forget each other after we wake up…” I take a felt-tip pen from my pocket. I catch Mitsuha’s right hand, then write on her palm. “Let’s write down our names. Here.” I give the pen to Mitsuha. “…Sure!” She breaks into a smile. It’s like watching a flower bloom. She takes my right hand and sets the tip of the pen against it. Tunk. There’s a tiny, hard noise by my feet. I look down, and there’s the pen on the ground. “Huh?” I raise my head. There’s nobody in front of me. “What…?” I turn this way and that. “Mitsuha? Hey, Mitsuha?” I call louder. No response. Unnerved, I pace the area. The shadows are sinking into blue-black darkness. Below me are leaden, featureless clouds, and in the gloom below them, I can just make out gourd-shaped Itomori Lake. Mitsuha’s gone. Night is here. I’m back in my own body, three years in the future. I look at my right hand. There’s no braided cord on my wrist now. On my palm, there’s just one thin, short, half-drawn line. I touch it gently. “…I was going to tell you…,” I mutter quietly to the line. “No matter where in the world you are, I’ll find you again. I swear.” Up in the sky, the comet’s nowhere to be seen, and a few stars are beginning to twinkle. “Your name is Mitsuha.” I close my eyes, making sure of my memories, turning them into something I can count on. “It’s okay. I remember!” Confidence deepening, I open my eyes again. There’s a white half-moon in the distant horizon. “Mitsuha, Mitsuha… Mitsuha, Misua, Misua. Your name is Misua!” I’m yelling her name at the half-moon. “Your name is…!” Abruptly, the outline of the word I meant to utter blurs. I quickly snatch up the pen and write the first letter of her name on my palm… Or I try to. “……!” After a single line, my hand stops. The tip of the pen starts to tremble. I want to make it stop shaking and grip it tight. I try stabbing it in like a needle, to carve a name that won’t disappear. The pen won’t budge a fraction of an inch. My lips move. “…Who are you?” The pen falls from my hand. They’re vanishing. Your name. Your memories. “Why did I come here?” I want to tether them to me somehow, to scrape the fragments of memory together, so I say them aloud. “Her… I came to see her! I came to save her! I wanted her to live!” It’s disappearing. Something so precious to me is disappearing. “Who are you? Who are you, who are you, who are you…?” Slipping away. Even the emotions I know I felt are leaving me. “Somebody important, somebody I can’t forget, somebody I didn’t want to forget!” Everything’s vanishing, sorrow and love alike. I don’t even know why I’m crying now. My emotions are disintegrating, crumbling like a sand castle. “Who are you, who are you, who…?” After the sand has completely eroded, just one thing remains. I know it’s loneliness. In that moment, I understand. From now on, this feeling will be all that stays with me. I’ll hold nothing but loneliness, a burden someone’s forced me to take. Fine, I think defiantly. Even if the world is cruel, even if all I have is loneliness, I’ll still live with everything I’ve got. Even if this emotion is all I have, I’ll keep struggling. Even if we’re separated, even if we never meet again, I’ll fight. As if I’d ever resign myself to this! The powerful, fleeting resolution feels as though I’m picking a fight with the gods. Very soon, I’ll forget even the fact that I’ve forgotten something. And so, making that single emotion my foothold, I demand of the night sky one last time: “What’s your name?” The cry becomes an echo, rebounding off the dark mountains. Asking its question of the void over and over, it diminishes, bit by bit. Finally, silence descends.