Chapter 9

Around Taki was a whirlwind of thoughts, memories and emotions, and he was sitting right in the eye of the storm. It was beyond doubt – he had lived as Mitsuha, breathed the air of Itomori in her place, while she did the same in his body here in Tokyo. They were memories, not dreams, and every one of them was a story he was only just now properly recalling.

There were still gaps, of course. The book – Itomori: The Town That Vanished – had brought back many suppressed memories, but not all of them. Besides, such a massive dump of information was quite hard to process. It wasn't like filling in blanks, since he never felt as if there had been any blanks in the first place. No, the experience was more like being in two places at once – one day he was himself, the next he was Mitsuha, but looking back it felt like both lives were being lived simultaneously. It was surreal.

But strangest of all were the feelings. Unbidden, they trickled in without knocking. The beautiful town, which he had been obsessed with ever since the dreams began, had tickled his heart every time he looked out over the landscape of Itomori's town, lake, hills and forests. Yotsuha and Grandma, sudden yet welcome additions to his family, became more important to him than he could explain. Saya-chan and Tessie, who had quickly begun to feel like old friends, were already sorely missed.

And then there was Mitsuha herself. At first he had been confused – they both had – and that first week of getting used to things and setting down some ground rules had been exhausting and far too difficult. Messages were left, most of them understandably angry and reproachful. But it didn't take long before they were living each other's lives with ease, and he slowly learned about Mitsuha not from Mitsuha herself, but from the way the people around her interacted with him in her place. And eventually he began to feel a kinship…or perhaps even more.

Absorbed in his cascade of memories, Taki was oblivious to Mitsuha's footsteps as she entered the lobby, but he did become aware of the silence when she suddenly stopped in her tracks. He turned his head to see her staring straight at him. She didn't seem as lively as before…not that she had been particularly lively earlier in the afternoon, but still. In fact, Taki realised, he probably didn't look so fantastic himself. Taking a second to attempt to clear his mind and put on a (slightly) more amiable expression, he caught Mitsuha doing the same, and as she approached him he stood from his seat.

"Have you been waiting long?" Taki was trying to think of something to say but Mitsuha beat him to it. Well, the less awkward silence the better.

"Not really. I mean, I'm not actually sure, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't long…" The answer was vague and scatter-brained, but at least it made Mitsuha smile a bit – which in turn made him smile. Look, they were cheering up already. "So, did you find what you were looking for? The manuscripts or whatever it was."

That seemed to perhaps not have been the best thing to say, as Mitsuha's smile froze and she began to stumble over her words. "Ah, yeah, kind of. I mean, yes, they were what I was looking for. Actually, they were a bit more than I was expecting."

"Mm. I know what you mean." And he did – after all, his own experience this afternoon had been a bit…much. Not knowing exactly how right he was, Taki dropped the topic and ploughed on to the main subject at hand; he both knew that neither of them really wanted to talk about what they'd been reading. "So, what do you want to do?"

"Well, you were the one who asked me to meet up, so…" Mitsuha replied.

"I just sort of blurted it out…wasn't really thinking about anything in particular…" Taki thought for a moment before making a suggestion. "How about we just head towards the city centre and decide on the way? Unless you want to stick around here."

"No, that's fine. I don't really know this area much anyway."

"Me neither. Let's get to the station then."

〈◆〉

The subway was fairly busy as it was lunch hour, but not so packed that it was uncomfortable. After a few stops the two managed to secure a couple of adjacent seats and began to chat over the noise of the train. Neither were hungry so they decided to take Mitsuha's suggestion and visit Shinjuku Gyoen. Taki had just been sketching there earlier that morning – he still had his sketchbook with him – but there was no harm going back, and he couldn't deny Mitsuha her first visit. They left Shinjuku station just shy of two o'clock and headed straight to the park.

"You know, I'm pretty sure this park wasn't here a few months ago. I'd definitely have noticed it." Mitsuha was talking nonsense, so of course Taki was going to play along.

"National parks don't just get up and move you know. How did you manage to miss this?" Taki spread his arms out – they were beginning to approach the centre of the park and from here you couldn't even see the roads anymore. "It's pretty big."

"I guess I just wasn't paying attention. I literally walked along that street there," Mitsuha had only just noticed it was no longer visible and stopped gesturing, "the one in that direction. I walked along it the day we came house hunting. Well, not so much walked as ran…" Taki looked at her questioningly and immediately came to regret it. "Don't look so sceptical. What, you think girls can't run or something?"

"Hey, I never said that! I just didn't think anyone, girl or otherwise, would run along the length of Shinjuku Gyoen in the middle of the day and not notice what was right next to them. It's got nothing to do with what you have or haven't got between your-"

Before he could finish, Mitsuha poked him in the ribs. "Don't be so crude!" she said, her face going ever so slightly red.

"I still can't believe you've never been here. This is one of the top tourist attractions in the city, you should've come here on your first day."

"Well I'm not a tourist so that doesn't apply to me," Mitsuha retorted, crossing her arms. "I'm a permanent resident of Tokyo, so I don't have to go to all the touristy destinations!"

"But you are a tourist," Taki said, putting on his most neutral expression. "You still count as a tourist until you've lived here for a whole year." Complete nonsense of course, but he was itching to tease Mitsuha a bit. "Were you old enough to vote, you wouldn't be able to vote here until next April."

Mitsuha levelled an annoyed glare at him. "Don't be ridiculous, you won't get me with that one. Besides, where am I supposed to vote then? Supposing I could."

Taki almost said 'Itomori' but caught himself just in time. "Hida, I guess. That's where you lived before, right?"

For some reason Mitsuha seemed as if she'd only just realised this. Of course, she was thinking of Itomori same as I was, and there aren't going to be any elections there any time soon. Or ever, probably.

"Wait, but I have been here for more than a year. I lived in Ikebukuro for at least that long, so I'm definitely not a tourist anymore. I'm a fully-fledged citizen of the great city of Tokyo!" she proclaimed loudly, startling some birds in a nearby tree.

Taki began to put on an upper-class accent. "Well then, the prefecture is most improved by your presence. Now that you are a full citizen of this marvellous city, what will be your first order of business?"

Mitsuha stood up straighter and held her head high. "Firstly, we must leash all national parks." Man, she catches on quickly.

"Leash them? Like dogs?"

"Yes. They cannot be allowed to run rampant around the city, popping up in any old place like this one here. Leash them to the nearest subway stations. They must also all be clearly signposted, so that no-one else like myself can claim ignorance of them."

"But they are all already signposted. Every sign within a mile of this park has directions to it."

"Well that's not good enough. Yes," Mitsuha nodded solemnly, "we need blimps." At this point both were looking straight at the other's faces, trying to keep in character. "Each park will have a giant blimp with the name of the park on it."

"And what if we cannot source any blimps? They have been in precious short supply these last few decades." I wish Takagi and Tsukasa would play along for this long, they always crack so early…

"Then we will use hot-air balloons." Mitsuha gestured with her hands, miming one of her imaginary balloons. "They will be this shape, and-"

"Surely they'll be bigger than that?" Taki interjected, and he was disappointed to see that Mitsuha didn't falter one bit.

"Don't be silly, of course they'll be bigger! This is only a prototype. Now," she continued, "the balloons will be multicoloured, and they will have giant arrows pointing down saying 'National Park Below!', and they will be refuelled by smaller balloons three times a day, and…"

Mitsuha paused, and small smiles began to form on both of their faces. Neither could contain themselves any longer, and they burst out laughing simultaneously. All the tension, the stress, the self-doubt…in those few seconds, Taki let it all out. And unknown to him, Mitsuha was doing the same. The two of them finally truly relaxed around one another for the first time. As Taki looked into Mitsuha's face, and she did the same to him, he found he couldn't force the smile away from his lips.

"What…what the heck was that?!" Mitsuha finally managed to splutter out as her laughter died down and her lungs resumed normal operation. "I'm still confused as to how all that even happened."

"I have no idea," Taki confessed. "I'm just kind of random sometimes. You know, daydreaming I'm in imaginary situations and stuff." He beamed proudly at Mitsuha. "I guess you're just good at improvisation."

"So are you," she replied.

"I live off improvisation. I mean, it's not like I actually plan anything I do."

"I can believe that."

"C'mon, how can you say that?"

"I know you. Better than you think."

And once again the mood reverted to a slightly awkward silence. Walking along the edge of a grassy open area, the pair could hear the gentle breeze rustling the trees beside them. They slowly moved across the park, with no destination in mind. Both were thinking the exact same thing, of course – the question was whether to actually discuss it or not. Perhaps she hasn't remembered properly yet. I should hold off for now. That was how Taki justified his silence, but soon enough, he found he was wrong.

"You know where I'm from, right?" Mitsuha abruptly asked. Out of the corner of his eye, Taki could see she was focusing straight ahead. He decided to play it safe.

"You're from Gifu, right? Hida city."

"That's not what I meant."

I guess we're doing this now, then. So both of us were at the library for the same reason after all. Well, no time like the present. So Taki spoke aloud the name he hadn't dared mention for months. Heart suddenly hammering against his ribs, he answered quietly.

"Itomori. You're from Itomori."

Finally, Mitsuha turned her head to face him. She continued walking, and Taki matched her slow speed. At this pace they wouldn't be across the park for another hour…but that was alright by him. They had a lot to talk about.

〈◆〉

"How long have you known? About the…swapping, I mean." Mitsuha's expression was serious, but not unkind.

"Only a few hours. I guess I always knew you were from Itomori – always suspected it, anyway. But today was when I confirmed everything." He looked her straight in the eye, unflinching. "Do you remember that morning on the train? When we said we knew each other from our dreams, but couldn't remember them? Well, now I remember. Most of them, anyway."

"Is that why you came to the library? Was there something you were looking for?" Mitsuha was very interested, but then again she had a right to be. There was no reason not to tell her.

"There's a book I read once, a long time ago. In Hida. It's called 'Itomori: The Town That Vanished.' I thought that it might help me remember, and it did." He smiled slightly. "There was a picture of you in it."

Mitsuha's calm composure faltered. "Me? Huh? Why?"

"It was of you and Yotsuha, at some festival or other, doing the dance with the fancy dress and the bells and stuff." Mitsuha's face was getting more worried by the second, which only spurred Taki to carry on. "You were all made up to look super fancy, and your face was covered in white powder…"

"Why?! Aaaargh! Why did someone have to go and put it in a book? It's so embarrassing! I can't believe you saw that!" Mitsuha had stopped in her tracks and was getting more frantic by the second. "Was it the 2014 festival? Please don't let it be that one, I tripped over my own dress and nearly fell over, it was so bad…." She suddenly snapper her head towards him and began to bombard him with questions. "How did I look? Was I pretty? Did I look better than I usually do?"

Taki was slightly taken aback. "Erm…well, you looked…hey, that's a loaded question! How am I supposed to answer that? You're just going to get mad at me no matter what I say."

"Don't dodge the question!" Mitsuha retorted.

"When even not playing isn't a winning move…" Taki sighed, but he was still smiling inside. "Can we get back on topic, please? Um, what were we talking about? Before the photo, I mean."

"We were talking about how you remembered everything, it was because of that book you read. So, continue."

"Oh, yeah. That's it, pretty much. I read it and remembered almost everything. Alright, your turn!"

"Huh?" The two began to walk again, and as they did so Mitsuha began to play with the ribbon in her hair, suddenly calming down now that it came to her turn. "Well, it's kind of a long story…"

"How long?" Taki asked.

"About…1,200 years long? Give or take half a century," Mitsuha casually responded.

Taki balked. "Can we get the short version, please? Maybe, I don't know, ten minutes?"

Mitsuha dropped her hand from her hair, crossed her arms and huffed. "Bit impatient, aren't you? Alright, in the interest of time I'll skip the details. Basically, a couple of hundred years ago, Miyamizu shrine in Itomori was burned down, including all the documents it contained. So we have no way of knowing why we do what we do, and no way of verifying that the comet that destroyed Itomori 1200 years ago was the same one that fell two years ago." She peeked at Taki for a second. "You're not surprised by this? That the comets might be the same?"

"No, not really. I already knew."

Mitsuha almost tripped over. "You knew? How? Not even grandma knew that, and she knows everything anyone alive knows about Itomori!"

"Er…" Taki scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "I'm…not sure, really. Must've been something I picked up while I was you."

Mitsuha's eyes narrowed. "Oh yeah, that. We're going to have a nice long discussion about all that in a minute." Suddenly the memories of groping Mitsuha's chest came back to him, and Taki simultaneously went red from embarrassment and pale from fear. He laughed nervously, but his suffering was coming soon, he could feel it. "Anyway, it turns out the comets are the same. I went to the library to look at some old manuscripts, copies of the shrine's documents made by Empress Go-Sakuramachi's scribes before the fire, and that's when I remembered."

Taki nodded, as much an affirmation as to keep Mitsuha talking less about his…perversions, and more about the topic at hand. "I guess that's…convenient? To have copies of everything available here in Tokyo. Then again, if it's anywhere it's probably at the National Diet library. I guess you have to really know what you're looking for though."

Mitsuha nodded back. "Yeah, that was part of the problem." Her anger seemed to have died down…for now. "But I found it eventually, with the help of a researcher who works at the library, and a teacher from school as well."

"You mean Yukino-sensei?"

"No, Takano-sensei. I do know Yukino-sensei as well though, she was my literature teacher in Itomori and she also runs the literature club here."

Taki's eyes went wide. "Oh yeah, I remember now." No wonder he'd felt she was familiar. He'd never had her as a teacher though, so he never got a chance to talk to her. Info that she was from Itomori just got to him through the grapevine – that kind of gossip always spreads fast. "I was in one of her lessons once, as you. She taught us a local term…kataware-doki, that was it. She was a nice teacher."

"Speaking of being me…" Mitsuha turned a pair of angry eyes towards him. "Mind explaining why my sister caught me fondling myself on several occasions? Because I sure as hell wasn't doing that first thing in the morning!"

"So you were doing it at other times?" Taki's comment earned him a punch on the arm. "Ok, ok…I mean, I did just wake up in a girl's body, I needed to, erm, assess the situation, get used to the new territory…you know…" Mitsuha didn't seem convinced. "Oh, and I suppose you didn't do anything like that, huh?" She shook her head. "You…didn't? Not even once? Not even go to the toilet?"

"Not even once. Unlike some people, I value other people's privacy and personal space!"

"Well, technically I was you, so it was actually my own personal space at the time-" Taki backed away before receiving his second punch in as many minutes, and bowed deeply. "I'm sorry, I really am! I won't do it again, I promise!"

"Well of course you won't, you dolt! You won't get the chance to!" Taki had his head down, so he couldn't see Mitsuha's face at all. He peeked up and saw her expression had calmed slightly. "Alright, whatever. Perv. Now get up, people are staring." By the time he'd raised his head and straightened his clothes, Mitsuha had already strode off ahead, and Taki had to hurry to catch up.

"You know," he said as he fell in step with her, "we're both taking this quite well. Not that I'm complaining, but…I guess what I'm trying to say is that it isn't much of a shock, for some reason."

Mitsuha nodded beside him. "I know what you mean. It's like remembering some details you just happened to have forgotten. Now that I know, it would feel weirder not knowing." She paused. "There is one day that I don't remember though. The day of the incident, when Itomori was destroyed, I can't remember that at all. Can you? Or maybe we didn't swap that day…"

Taki shook his head. "No, we definitely did swap that day. I remember arguing with your father, he noticed that I was different. And grandma definitely knew, somehow." Mitsuha didn't seem too surprised by the idea that her grandma knew more than she let on, so he continued. "I also remember talking to Saya-chan and Tessie as well, but I don't know what we talked about…hey, what's so funny?" Beside him, Mitsuha was trying to hide a grin and failing badly.

"It's just how you talk about them – you said 'grandma', not 'your grandma'. And you called them Saya-chan and Tessie, same as I do." Her smile fell slightly. "Same as I did. I haven't talked to them for ages. They're still living in Hida. I think they're planning to enrol in a university here in Tokyo once they graduate high school, but that all depends on exams and stuff."

Taki looked across to Mitsuha, and the surfacing of a new memory made him smile. "You really need to teach me how to do that sometime."

"Do what?"

"Your hair. Everyone would know it was me because I'd just put your hair in a ponytail, since I couldn't do it up properly. Even when I tried to act like the Mitsuha I imagined you to be, everyone was still on guard since they could tell just from the hairstyle whether it was me or you."

"That reminds me of something." Mitsuha lightly touched the red cord that was holding her hair in place. It was by that cord that he'd first recognised her. "I gave you this, didn't I?"

"Huh? Um…then how do you have it now?" Taki asked confusedly.

"I guess you must have given it back somehow. But I definitely gave it to you." Taki frowned – they'd never met in person, so that was completely impossible. "I remember meeting you once, somewhere. I have no idea where, though. I mean, I went to Tokyo the day before the comet fell, but I can't remember anything about what happened. It's just a bunch of jumbled moments. Did you ever visit Itomori? Maybe I gave it to you then."

"I only visited once, but that was after it was destroyed, so I couldn't have met you there," Taki recalled. "In fact, I can't remember much of what happened that day. Apparently I told Tsukasa and Okudera-senpai to go home and leave me there. I woke up on the side of a mountain, or large hill…actually, I have a drawing." Taki stopped and took off his rucksack. "I've been sketching my dreams again. Here," he said as he withdrew his sketchbook. He put his bag down on the grass and opened to the first page. "Do you recognise this?"

Mitsuha gasped. "That's where the shrine god is buried. You went there?"

"Apparently," Taki answered. "I'm not sure if I actually went down to the tomb – no, I did go once, as you. To put your kuchikamizake there."

"Ah, so that was you? I always wondered…hey, that stuff's sacred! You can't just handle it however you please, even if you are in my body!"

"Calm down! I didn't exactly have a choice, did I? Besides, I can only remember up to when we crossed the stream. I can't recall the rest. So whatever kind of secret stuff is in there is still secret."

"Hmm…well, I suppose it couldn't be helped. At least you didn't have to dance in the festival, that would've been a disaster." Mitsuha thought for a moment, still pondering over the drawing. Her hair swayed slightly in the breeze, but Taki held down the corner of the page so the wind didn't turn it over. "Do you have any more of these drawings? Of Itomori, I mean."

"Yeah, I have loads. About thirty, maybe. Do you want to see them?"

"I think…yeah, I think I do. I have an idea, if you'll hear me out."

〈◆〉

"I'm home!" Taki called as he unlocked the door and stepped into his flat.

"Welcome back. Good sketching session?" Taki's dad came round the corner into the hallway and abruptly stopped at the unfamiliar face. "Oh, you've brought a guest?"

"I'm Miyamizu Mitsuha, I'm in Taki's class at school. Pleased to meet you," Mitsuha said with a smile and a bow, which Taki's dad returned in kind.

"Ah, so you're Mitsuha-san! I've heard so much about you from Taki." He winked at Taki, who scowled and gave his dad a dirty look.

"C'mon Dad, don't be like that. We're just doing some school stuff. A project for the literature club, apparently. Once she tells me the details." Taki shot a glance at Mitsuha; she still hadn't told him what she wanted from him, only that she wanted to see the drawings first. So here we are, without even a reason why I've invited a girl back to my house. Dad is going to really milk this one later.

"Literature club? Pretty sure you were part of the pack-bags-go-home club last time I checked. Well, have a good time doing…writing, I guess. Want some tea or something?"

"No thanks," the two said in unison. "We'll be in my room," Taki said as they took off their shoes and walked to said room. As soon as the door was closed, Mitsuha leaned against it and slid down to the floor, a look of relief evident on her face. "You alright?"

"I nearly called him Dad…that would've been so awkward…" Taki watched the girl look around the room, a smile in her eyes. "I swear this room hasn't changed a bit since I was last here. It feels more like home than my current one does." Acting like she owned the place (which she kind of used to), Mitsuha sat down on Taki's bed as he took a stack of drawings out of a drawer. "You have no idea how many times I fell out of this bed."

"Heh. Getting used to sleeping on tatami was kind of weird as well. Not bad, just…different." Taki chipped in his own two cents as he closed the drawer. "Your house was way cooler than mine, though. An actual house, not a flat in a run-down apartment building."

"If it's not in a hundred thousand pieces like mine is, I'll take it." Taki sat down next to her and passed her the paper. "Are these all of them?"

"Yep. The bottom dozen or so were done right after the dreams ended last year. The rest have all been drawn since April."

"Hmmm…" Mitsuha clearly wasn't paying attention. "Wow, they're so detailed! Like this one, I'd forgotten how the roof tiles looked on that house. It's bringing back so much…"

For the next ten minutes, Mitsuha sat beside Taki and went through every drawing, one by one, pointing out details she'd forgotten or that Taki had slightly misremembered. There's supposed to be a post-box on this road, or you even remembered the calligraphy style on that shop sign. As Mitsuha focused ever more intently on the drawings in her hands, Taki's mind drifted away from the paper in her hands to the girl herself. She'd swept back a few loose strands of hair behind one ear, and the ribbon that tied it all together was slightly longer on one side than the other. She sat slightly hunched, completely focused, never moving her eyes from the pages.

As Taki watched, Mitsuha's hands stopped moving – she'd paused on one of the first drawings he'd done of Itomori. It was the one that had helped him find it in the first place, a full landscape of the entire town beside the lake. Then there was a light tap, like a droplet of rain falling onto an umbrella, and a dark spot appeared on the page. Taki looked up, and saw a second tear make the slow journey from the corner of Mitsuha's eye, down her bright cheek, and arrive at her chin, only to fall once again onto the paper.

"Mitsuha…" Taki softly spoke. He reached out a hand to brush the tears away, but Mitsuha's own beat him to it. She sniffed and wiped away the tears with the back of her hand, before handing back the drawings to their original artist.

"I'm sorry, I cried on your drawing. I hope I didn't smudge it…" She blinked a few times, took a deep breath to compose herself, and turned towards Taki. Her eyes were still wet, but her gaze was strong. "The literature club. Every year, they – no, we – make a book for the cultural festival. The book is always based around a theme, and this year that theme is origin. One of the manuscripts I saw at the library today was telling the story of the founding of Itomori. I didn't have time to read all of it, but I got the general idea.
"One thousand two hundred years ago, in the place where Lake Itomori is now, there was a small village – only a few hundred people. In this village lived a couple, a weaver and her husband. As the weaver's skill grew, she began to have visions, to see things in her threads, at the same time as the comet appeared overhead. Then one day, she saw the comet would fall. But only her husband and a few friends believed her. As the comet split and began to fall, more and more people came with her. Eventually the entire town was evacuated…except for one child, an orphan girl, who had fallen asleep and nobody had come to wake her. The weaver's husband went back to save her. They tried to run, but the impact still knocked them off their feet. The man died protecting the child in his arms as a piece of debris hit him.
"The town was rebuilt along the shore of the new lake, made by the impact and subsequent heavy rainfall. The lake helped the town to grow even bigger. The new town was named Itomori, meaning Town Protected by Thread, after the weaver whose visions had saved them. That day was commemorated with a festival, to remember the events that had occurred. The orphan girl was adopted by the widowed weaver, and gave herself the family name Miyamizu, meaning Water Shrine, devoting her life to the deity who had given the town its lake. And the small meteorite that had fallen atop the mountain beside the village was entombed and worshipped as the resting place of the god. The traditions of the weaver and the girl were kept alive for over a thousand years, passed down through the Miyamizu family, in the hope that next time the comet came, nobody would die."

She took a deep breath, her voice strong and steady, with determination in her eyes. "Now I'm not going to pretend like I know what all that means. I don't know whether it's true, or how it's related to Itomori's destruction two years ago. I don't know what I have to do with all of this, if all this body-swapping business is related at all. But what I do know is that it's a damn good story, and if I'm going to write anything for the club's book then it's going to be this. And a good book needs good illustrations. Not just of back then, or of now. I also want to show people how Itomori was, before it was destroyed. I don't care if everyone finds out where I'm from, this is my legacy and I'm going to tell it to the world. So, are you in?"

Taki was still trying to process exactly what he'd heard, so it took him a minute to understand the question. Itomori, Miyamizu, Tiamat…could it all be true? But then he finally understood what Mitsuha had said. She's right, it is a good story. And a good book does need good illustrations. I'm one of the only people left with memories of Itomori and the skill to put those memories down on paper. This is her chance…her chance to show Itomori to the world, in a new light. And if I can help her with that, help her show people not only the destroyed Itomori, not only the broken Itomori, but the Itomori that was…

Taki looked up and met her eyes. Such strong eyes. He smiled, and nodded.

"Yeah. I'm in."

A/N

Well there goes the upload schedule! This chapter is two weeks late, and for that I am very sorry, but if I'd published it when it was due then you would all be looking at an empty page right now. This chapter was so ridiculously difficult to write, I got complete writer's block and ended up changing the entire structure of the chapter away from what it was originally intended to be. There's now absolutely no chance this story will be completed before the end of the year, but over Christmas I will have more time (I already said that about these last few weeks as well but whatever) so stuff should get published on time…maybe?

We are rapidly approaching the emotional climax of the story, but you will have to wait and see exactly how it all pans out! I feel like I channelled a little too much of myself into Taki this chapter, but you don't get enough of Taki or Mitsuha in their natural habitats in the film so I kind of have to make it up as I go along.

I now have a Reader Pass to the British Library, yay! That means I can do proper research with proper books and manuscripts like the ones Mitsuha was looking at last chapter. Also, if anyone wants to write Itomori's origin story as a full fic then go ahead! I may or may not do it myself, and even if I do it won't be any time soon, so if anyone wants a go then please feel free.

Over the past few weeks I've watched a lot of plays (including acting in one), films, read a few books, and listened the heck out of the Kimi no Na wa. OST. Also, Pokémon Let's Go is pretty decent, Katamari Damacy is hilarious, and Celeste is getting a physical release (and won two awards at The Game Awards)! End of term is not far away, there's only one more coursework deadline, and then I can focus completely on writing (and procrastinating), yay!

One final shameless plug: there's a cool new site called Ficdb which is aiming to be a fanfiction-based review site. I've already put this fic up on there but of course I can't review it myself, so if you feel like it then go and give this story a review on , and a comment right here while you're at it. Also add any other fics you're reading to the database, help it grow! Thanks for all the reviews so far, see you next chapter!

Talndir