"Saya! Tessie!" Mitsuha half-sobs. "It's really you!"
She unconsciously steps forward to pull them into a tight hug, but to her dismay they both recoil in caution. Through her teary vision, Mitsuha can see Tessie's confusion and Saya's fear, then she remembers her situation.
Saya fidgets from behind Tessie, her eyes darting side to side, looking for some sort of salvation or chance to escape. "Hey. . .we should get out of here," she suggests.
"How do you know our names?" Tessie asks, all but ignoring Saya. "Who are you?"
Mitsuha had already let their names slip, so she figures she might as well press on. She's feeling rather bold now, her fears of her friends being dead allayed. Finally, Mitsuha speaks not as if she were Taki, but as herself.
"Well, it's hard to explain. . .and I know you won't believe me. But I know you. And you know me. Because. . .well, it's me. Mitsuha."
Before Mitsuha can register what's happened, Saya is suddenly between her and Tessie, eyes full of disdainful anger. "What's wrong with you? You must be sick!" she shouts, face contorted in disgust. "You know us? You think you're Mitsuha?! How dare you use her name like that!"
Her arm flies up to slap Mitsuha across the face, but Tessie catches her hand. "Come on," he tries to calm her. "It's not worth it. He's trying to make you mad. He must've seen our names in the news or something. Let's go home."
Saya deflates, sufficiently chastised. ". . .Yeah."
Mitsuha had expected as much, but it still sends a sharp pang through her chest to have her friends treat her this way. She can't exactly blame them, though. As survivors of the disaster, it's likely they've been in the media and harassed before. If only she had some way to convince them. Some hard, incontrovertible proof that, at the very least, Taki had some sort of connection to her.
But the opportunity continues to slip away as Tessie and Saya slowly disappear back into the faceless Tokyo crowds, and Mitsuha stays rooted to the sidewalk. At the very least, she knows that her friends survived, which gives her hope that maybe her family did as well. It's a reassuring thought, but Mitsuha still watches bitterly as the people she's known her whole life leave her behind without a second thought. She roughly wipes away her tears and lets her hands drop when she just barely happens to brush a soft weight in her pocket.
Her braided cord.
The morning after she returned from Itomori, Mitsuha had immediately taken the cord off of her wrist. She couldn't bring herself to wear it, having felt as though she didn't have the right, but she still found herself carrying it around. Almost as if the cord was the last part of Taki remaining in this world, just as her kuchkamizake had been her last connection to Taki. Saya and Tessie would recognize the braided cord. They have to.
Cord in hand, Mitsuha takes off in the general direction her friends went, hoping against hope that she might stumble across them and that they might give her just the smallest chance to explain. She has so much to tell them, so much to ask from them, and these desires propel her faster and faster until she spies the couple slowly walking towards a nearby subway station. Before they begin descending the steps, Mitsuha reaches out and grabs Tessie by the arm.
"Wait! Please!"
Tessie turns, his face dark. "You again. . .what do you want?!"
Mitsuha thrusts her fist forward, cord in hand. Before she can say anything, however, Saya realizes what she's showing them. Slowly, her face grows pale as she struggles to put her thoughts into words. "That's. . .that's her cord. Mitsuha's cord. That shouldn't. . .how do you. . . ?"
"Please," Mitsuha begs. "Just give me one chance to explain."
The three of them shuffle into some chain café. It's not exactly how Mitsuha wanted her first visit to a café with her friends to go, but she's just thankful they're okay. Tessie heads to the counter to order some coffee, so Saya and Mitsuha head to a table in the far corner of the café. The oppressive silence between the two is unbearably awkward, but thankfully their wait is brief. Tessie returns balancing three steaming cups.
"Black coffee," he explains. Mitsuha just nods gratefully and takes one of the offered cups. She's never liked the bitter flavor of coffee, but the warm liquid and savory aroma are soothing enough for now.
After a short pause as they each sort out their beverage, Saya now chooses to speak, reassured by Tessie's presence. "You said you were Mitsuha." Saya vaguely gestures at Mitsuha. "Then who is. . .who's body is this?"
"His name was Taki Tachibana," Mitsuha says.
Her use of the past tense doesn't slip past either of her listeners. "'Was?'" Tessie asks.
Mitsuha takes one last sip of her piping hot coffee in preparation, ready to talk for quite some time. "I know what I'm about to tell you is unbelievable, but all I ask is that you hear me out," she prefaces her story. Satisfied by the lack of protest from Tessie and Saya, Mitsuha begins.
She starts all the way back at the beginning. Her own vague recollections of forgotten dreams about someone else's life, and the sudden revelation that she was actually switching places with someone else.
She tells them about Taki. A Tokyo high school boy, living three years in the future. Her frustrations with how he seemed to mess up her carefully crafted life, how she too interfered with his own relationships. Their petty squabbles through diary entries exchanged across time and space. And the realization that she loved him.
She recounts her last memory before waking up as Taki. That fateful autumn evening, standing in an open field with Saya and Tessie as they watch Tiamat pass by in awe and wonder, and the incredible sight of the comet splitting apart. The sheer terror as she could only watch helplessly as the comet came down upon Itomori. Finally, nothingness.
But then she woke up in Taki's body again, inside the cave where the Miyamizu Shrine god's relic lays. Gazing down upon the remnants of Itomori after the comet disaster and remembering the impossible memory of dying.
And the heartbreaking realization that she only lived because, somehow, Taki had switched with her once last time and died in her place.
Her piece said and with Saya and Tessie deep in thought, Mitsuha returns to her now-lukewarm cup of coffee. The rich aroma of coffee is long gone, and she knows that the once bitter yet complex drink is now overwhelmingly sour. Even so, she hazards a sip and predictably puckers up the second the acrid liquid touches her tongue.
It's at this inopportune time that Tessie finally finishes deliberating and addresses Mitsuha. "That was quite a story you told," he says. "You were right about it being unbelievable. There's so much that just can't be explained."
Mitsuha shrinks in her seat, prepared for rejection. "I understand," she says meekly. "Thank you for your time." She makes to leave, but Tessie stops her.
"I'm not finished," he continues. "There's a lot of stuff that has no possible explanation, but there's also so much that just adds up. Why Mitsuha was having those wild personality changes and random memory loss. How she knew that the comet would split and fall on Itomori, and that the high school would be safe." Tessie rubs his eyes, as if he can't believe the words about to come out of his mouth, yet he says them all the same.
"I believe you, Mitsuha."
Mitsuha slumps into her chair, all of the tension in her body and mind washed away by a surge of something that's not quite relief or happiness, but rather an emotion that's more a sense of vindication or fulfillment. She's so shocked Mitsuha still isn't sure if she heard Tessie right—but it's his use of her name that tells her that she did.
"Oh, Tessie," Mitsuha says, uttery lost for words. Unable to sum up the jumble of emotions she feels, Mitsuha simply expresses her gratitude. Perhaps, however, that's all she needs to say. "Thank you, Tessie."
It's simple yet heartfelt, yet the sincerity of her words and expression fully convey Mitsuha's thoughts and feelings to Tessie.
Across the table, Saya silently watches the subdued, short exchange between Tessie and (presumably) Mitsuha. After so long, after she thought she could at least put the hurt and sadness behind her, this stranger appears and opens up old wounds. Saya wonders if she'll ever get the closure she wants, no, needs. But what was initially an unwelcome encounter now has Saya questioning what she knows. Everything she's heard today, like Tessie said, matches up too well. Only someone who was there with them, who knew them and lived with them, could have known so much. And this boy before her, who claims to be Mitsuha, is either putting on one convincing act or truly is (or thinks he is) Mitsuha. Saya racks her brain, but she just can't think of any reasonable explanation for why this stranger would claim to be Mitsuha. And perhaps most convincingly, Mitsuha's braided cord. At the very least, it proves a connection between the boy and Mitsuha, and Saya just can't ignore that.
"I'm sorry about earlier," Saya begins by apologizing. "I was a bit quick to anger."
Mitsuha shakes her head in understanding. "Not at all. If I were you, I think I would've reacted the same way. . .I was just so glad to see that you two were all right. But, I take it this means. . . ?" Mitsuha trails off in hopeful expectation.
Saya pauses for a second, but not because she's reconsidering. She just can't believe, can't process the idea that Mitsuha is really alive and here with her. Finally, she slowly nods in affirmation. "I guess so. . .Mitsuha."
The companionable silence isn't quite what Mitsuha would have expected from the cathartic reunion with her friends, but the calm quiet is a welcome reprieve from the nervous desperation she'd felt up until this moment. Save for the idle chatter of other patrons and the muted whir of a coffee grinder, not a sound comes from the three of them. In fact, the break in conversation serves as a much-needed respite for each of them to organize their thoughts and feelings.
Finally, Tessie asks the question that's at the forefront of everyone's minds. "So, where does this leave us? Even if Saya and I believe you, I really doubt anyone else would. Unless someone had gone through the exact same thing, they'd just think you're crazy."
"You're right. You two are the only ones I can confide in," Mitsuha sighs, but she still ruminates on Tessie's last statement. The dreams she and Taki had all seemingly led to a single, pivotal moment in time—the chance to save the people of Itomori. This union was something only shared between her and Taki. Once again, that word gives Mitsuha pause and reminds her of something, or rather someone, she had briefly let slip from her mind. "There's something else I need to know," she begins shakily. "Yotsuha, and Grandma. . .and my dad. Did they make it out, too?"