Taki Meets the Manga Artist (2016) (Chapter 1)

Taki was determined to climb up the outside of the large crater, so he could reach the shrine he was so strangely fixated on. He knew deep down that this was the only way to make things right, but he still couldn't exactly figure out what was driving him forward. Once he reached the top, and could see the small shrine far down on the other side, surrounded by that ring of water, he noticed that someone was sitting on a nearby rock, drawing up the landscape.

The person was oddly dressed, and he had an incredibly unique hair style, with green zigzagging front facing bangs. The man turned toward him, surprised to see another person around this ruined town and countryside, and said "Hello! Did you come here to see the sights as well, kid? What's your name?" Taki shook his head, and said "Umm, my name is Taki. I need to get to the shrine. It's incredibly important!"

But as he continued to stare at this stranger, he started to recognize who he was looking at, and he quickly shouted "Wait! You're the famous manga artist, Rohan Kishibe! Why are you on this mountain?" Rohan laughed, and said "Are you a fan? Personally, I enjoy taking inspiration from real life, and the sadness that exudes from this place moves me. Are you interested in an autograph, Taki?"

Taki shook his head again, and said "I can't! There's no time to spare. I need to save her!" Rohan looks with a bit more interest, and he says "Her? Your girlfriend, maybe?" Taki stares blankly, and says "Wait, who was I talking about? Whatever! I'm sorry Mr. Rohan, but I need to hurry!" Now Rohan's interests were heavily piqued, so he stands up and says "Hold on a second, Taki!" Taki turns around, and Rohan shouts "Heaven's Door!" and uses his stand to view Taki's memories.

Before he looks, Rohan mumbles, "He wants to save someone, but he can't remember who? I wonder if this is because of a stand user?" As Rohan flips through Taki's memories, he notices that some of the memories couldn't have been experienced by a teenage boy. Some of them had Taki believing that he was a woman, and the name Mitsuha popped up frequently during those memories. Eventually, he reaches a page that shows that Taki completely switched bodies with that girl named Mitsuha, who was a resident of Itomori.

Rohan thinks to himself, 'This doesn't make sense! Itomori was wiped out 3 years ago, and there were no survivors. Unless…' He then double checks all the pages when Taki inhabited the body of Mitsuha, and realizes that during those times, the year was 2013. Rohan exclaimed "He was interacting with the past! Is he attempting to change the past as well, now? This is incredibly fascinating!"

Rohan then records everything that Taki experienced while he was in Mitsuha's body, as well as what he did once the switching seemed to end. Rohan says to himself, "This could make a perfect new manga, but I only have what Taki saw through his soul! If only this Mitsuha survived, then I could see her side of the experience, and have a clearer picture. But this was a good enough find by itself."

Then Rohan undoes Heaven's Door, and Taki quickly regains consciousness, and Rohan says "Are you okay, Taki? I think you were staring into space." Taki stands up and apologizes, before running down into the crater, so he could reach the shrine.

Rohan watched Taki go, and said to himself "I wonder what you'll do Taki. I've just found a new inspiration!"

←To Be Continued