(Saturday, 9th April 2022) (10:00 pm )
"Wanna have ice cream?!"
"Yeah!" Taki and Yotsuha replied joyfully.
After the heart-to-heart conversation and revealing to Yotsuha about the body swaps and it wasn't Mitsuha who had 'lost it', they finished their dinner and Mitsuha asked her sister and her boyfriend about ice cream.
She opened the tub of ice cream they bought, scooped out 2 scoops per bowl and served it to them and took a seat herself. All of them took a bite at the same time.
"Soooo tasty..." Yotsuha pouted.
"I don't eat Häagen-dazs regularly but, damn, they're good." Taki said.
"They're a little on the expensive side but for sure they're great." Mitsuha said.
"I remember while eating this, I got to know why Mitsuha is such a sweet tooth 'cause whenever I munched on anything sweet, it tasted sooo good with that tongue and taste buds. No wonder that you blowed my cash on it like you're gambling."
"She did that?! Oh, I apologise on behalf of her Taki-sama." Yotsuha bowed and forced her sister to bow as well.
"It's OK. I have surely recovered from that bankruptcy and there's no need to apologise. If I had taste buds like that, I'd have done the same too.."
"Umm.. I owe you a lot of money, I almost spent 15k on those. Sorry Taki-kun!"
"Gaah, it's OK, it's OK. You don't owe me anything! Meeting you was everything I wished for. Besides, I also did grope you, you did the right compensation."
"Uhh... you can forget about that, but. Thanks Taki-kun." Mitsuha said while she blushed.
"Look who's blushing!" Yotsuha joyfully said and received a punch on her head from her elder sister.
"YOTSUHA!!"
"Ha ha ha... You're so lucky to have such a savage sister, Mitsuha!"
"YOU BASTARD!!"
—-- (short time skip)
After they ate the ice cream, they proceeded to get fresh and prepared the beds.
After bathing, Mitsuha asked Taki. "Would you like to accompany me to bed today again?"
"Uhh... OK, if you're fine with it. Yesterday was just an emergency..."
"It's a yes then, come.."
"OK, then."
"Goodnight Yotsuha." Both of them said as Yotsuha headed to the guest room.
"Goodnight, have fun!"
"She's sometimes too savage..." He murmured to her.
"Good to know that now you're realising this." Mitsuha said while she opened the door of her room. "Welcome back to my room!"
"Back to Itomori Lite, let's ho..."
Mitsuha dived into Taki and pushed him to her bed as he was speaking. A loud bang came from the bed, the noise was more than enough to wake the whole apartment up.
Yotsuha, already lying on her bed, also heard the bang. She turned her head towards the door of her room, and murmured, "I just joked but they're actually having fun right now, I guess. Anyways, none of my biz..."
"That did hurt a bit, that was the loudest bang I've ever heard from a bed. I bet the noise must've reached to the whole floor!" He said.
"Now that I'm with you, it's fair to cross limits, right my Taki-kun?"
"I guess. I hope no one complains about..."
He got cut off from his sentence as he felt her face getting closer to him and inviting him in a kiss. Taki returned it and felt his day's stress, melting off with it. They separated after a while and made themselves comfy in the bed.
"You can touch me if you want..."
"Wait, WHAT?! You're Mitsuha, aren't you?"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah! It's me! I know you're my future husband so I can definitely allow you to do so..."
"For your information, I'm not that kind of pervert anymore.. Plus, I'd like to sleep RN, we had a long day." Taki said while getting cozy, facing the wall.
"OK, then. Good night SweeTaki-kun." She said while she hugged him from behind.
"That's a wierdly nice nickname." He now flipped to the other side, facing her. "Good night."
"Prepare yourself for a million nicknames, and dream about me if you do so."
"Sure, Sensei."
They both found it harder, keeping their eyes open and they drifted into sleep in just a few moments, still embracing each other.
The next day, (Sunday, 10th April 2022)
(08:00 am)
Taki opened his eyes, a little shocked again as he wasn't in his room but came back to his senses as he soon realised where he was. He turned his head, only to find that Mitsuha was still sleeping, hugging him.
"Just how cute she is. I can look at her like this for hours and hours.." He murmured.
But he can't be in bed anymore as his digestive system was already alarming him to take a trip to the washroom. He tried to get up as stealthily as an F-35 Lighting, he slowly got up from her embrace and finally stood up in the room.
"See ya soon." He murmured and then went to the washroom, humming.
(_) (scene change)
In the meantime, Mitsuha also started to break cover from her sleep. She opened her eyes and found herself alone in her 'Itomori Lite' room.
She thought while she got up.
She then proceeded outside the room towards the washroom. She tried to open the doorknob of the washroom slowly and found the door locked. Therefore, confirming that he's here. She had a look at Yotsuha's room as well only to find her snoring.
(30 minutes later)
Mitsuha prepared breakfast. Scrambled eggs and toast. The three of them assembled at the dining table and started eating as usual.
After eating, Mitsuha started washing the dishes and Taki checked for new messages on LINE on his phone.
"Uhh.. Taki-sama, I'm still really really sorry and I apologise for what I did last night." Yotsuha, still regretting what she did last night, apologised again to him.
"It's okay, I know we had stressed you out for the last 24 hours… but wait, can I ask you for a compensation?" To which Yotsuha nodded, confused.
Then Taki whispered to her, not letting Mitsuha know. "Can you tell me more about Mitsuha? I mean, her likes/dislikes and other stuff that you know better than me. Maybe I could create something to surprise her or something..." To which, Yotsuha agreed.
They talked as Mitsuha continued washing the dishes, smiling that the two were finally bonding and casually talking without any fear. The two of them discussed stuff in the guest room.
After somewhat 30 minutes, they ended their discussion and headed out of the room. As they came out of the room, Yotsuha told Mitsuha that she'll go for some shopping again as she couldn't do it the day before, thanks to all the "Emotional Damage" given to her by the couple. Mitsuha agreed and Yotsuha headed to the guest room to change.
"Hey, Mitsuha, are you free today?" Taki asked her.
"It's a Sunday so of course I'm free! Do you have plans to take me somewhere?".
"Yeah, but the location I'll be taking you to is a secret."
Mitsuha asked Taki about the location but to no avail, he didn't reveal even a single bit of it.
"So, when would be the best time to go for it?".
"Right after or when Yotsuha leaves."
"Ok then, since we'll be leaving early, can you help me do some dusting of the furniture?" She asked him.
"Sure! I'll do it. Anything else you want me to do?" He happily agreed and asked for any other job she wanted him to do.
"Nope, I'll do the rest. The wiping cloth is in that cupboard." She replied, smiling.
"OK, then." He said as he got the dusting cloth and started the job assigned.
(One hour later) (10:00 am)
They both finished their household chores and left for the Shinjuku Railway Station along with Yotsuha. At the station, they parted ways as they dropped Yotsuha there and she gave a cheeky grin to Taki as an 'all the best' gesture. Taki smiled back to her and the couple started walking their way there.
After a few moments, they started talking about the stuff they did in the past and laughed on them.
"You walked on the railway tracks?!" She asked him, with a surprised face.
"Yeah... and Sayaka kinda liked the 'shotcut' to the school."
After a few moments, Taki said, "Your body is so flexible, that I even did the 45 dance move from Michael Jackson's Smooth Criminal! I could've never done that with my body!"
Hearing this, she was shocked that she didn't even know the full potential of her body. "I'll definitely try that with you." She said, chuckling and Taki also gave a short grin to her.
(25 minutes later) (10:40 am)
Around 10:40 they were on the street right next to Yoyogi Park. They both continued walking in silence as Taki remembered the past.
Taki thought about all that time when Mitsuha was so far away from him, even beyond time and space! But now, she was right next to him.
He remembered when he came back home from the tragic trip to Itomori, he entered his home and right away, he headed to his room after saying "I'm back" to his dad. He landed on his bed just like an egg yolk on a frying pan and tears of unknown sorrow started flowing from his eyes.
"TAKI-KUN!"
Mitsuha pulled Taki who almost ended up literally crashing into an electric pole. He was so condemned in his thoughts that he even almost forgot the reason they were here. He let out a sigh of relief, seeing Mitsuha right by his side.
She asked him if he was OK and Taki nodded his head in agreement.
Just when he completed the nod, he realised that they were already at the place. He stopped, took his phone out of his pocket and confirmed the location on the map.
Mitsuha had a look at his phone and then looked to her left and squealed in happiness.
They arrived at 'Harry', a hedgehog cafe in the Harajuku area of Tokyo.
Taki winked his eye at Mitsuha, held her hand and entered the cafe.
"I've been through this road like a million times and how come I never noticed it!" Mitsuha said as Taki guided her towards the ticket vending machine.
"Uhh, I just came to know about this place when I was searching for some good places for us."
/Bless you, Yotsuha/ , Taki thanked his future sister in law in his mind as he completed the sentence and he got a couple of tickets out of the machine and proceeded towards the ticket checking counter.
As they entered the cafe, they saw a huge room with people and their hedgehogs. The walls were all covered in wallpapers and instructions on how to handle and play with the little creatures.
As they had a look around the place, a person approached them and took them
to an empty table which had a cute white hedgehog, curled in a ball and sleeping there.
Mitsuha sat first while Taki headed to get the mealworms and the free drink from a vending machine, included with the ticket price.
Taki returned to the table with the necessary stuff and sat beside Mitsuha. She just stared at that little one in awe. Taki also just stared at her the same way as she was doing it to the creature.
Mitsuha finally tried to reach out her finger towards that sleepy creature and poked it. "Ohayo, Hedgy-chan" Mitsuha called it and gave it it's own name.
/How the heck did she come up with that name so quick?!/ , Taki thought.
Mitsuha started to pet Hedgy-chan and it woke up and uncurled itself and invited them to play. She kept stroking it as Taki took out his phone and started taking some pictures.
Mitsuha asked him to play with it. Taki gave his phone to her and began to poke the hedgehog too. But Hedgy-chan did not invite Taki and curled into a ball again and stabbed his finger by raising it's spikes. Taki did a, "Ow! That's not fair!", on which, Mitsuha chuckled.
After a few moments, the hedgehog was relaxed and came to its normal self again.
Mitsuha started petting and stroking it again and Taki decided to feed it the mealworms. Mitsuha removed her hand and Taki took a pair of tweezers and took a worm from the box of mealworms and forwarded it to Hedgy-chan. It sniffed the worm and it didn't take long to end the life of the worm.
He repeated it again and asked Mitsuha to feed it, who was recording the events, probably to make Yotsuha and Sayaka jealous.
Mitsuha handed her phone to him, took the tweezers and picked another mealworm and fed it to Hedgy-chan.
By that time, Hedgy-chan had developed trust on both of them and it flipped to it's side, revealing its soft belly, inviting them to play with it. Mitsuha squealed at Taki.
"Quick! Stroke him, hedgehogs do this only when they trust you."
"But it stabbed me last time when I tried to stroke it."
"It shouldn't now, just try it once."
Taki started reaching out his finger, a little reluctantly but this time, Hedgy-chan welcomed his touch. Taki was a little shocked but he started stroking and petting it.
"See, it didn't do anything.", Mitsuha confirmed. "Hedgehogs enjoy this no matter who the person is."
After a while it was Mitsuha's turn to tickle Hedgy-chan. Taki pulled his hand and allowed her to have fun.
"Thanks for bringing me here Taki-kun. You literally made one of my dreams come true."
"Anything for my literal soul mate!", he answered, grinning and blushing.
"That was the worst pickup line I've ever heard! You have a lot to learn from now on." Mitsuha said and they chuckled.
"Yeah, Mitsuha-sensei."
They spent a total of 30 minutes there and later headed out happily, although they wanted to spend some more time with the hedgehog, but their ticket's time limit didn't let them do so.
They still had plenty of time so they decided to visit the National Art Center to recall some more memories.
They took a bus and reached the destination in 15 minutes. They got off the bus at the destination bus stop and walked to the place.
"Thanks for recommending this place to recall some awful memories", Taki said with a grin while walking.
Even though that joke was even more awful than his memories of the date, Mitsuha still grinned at it.
They entered the exhibition and had a really fun time as Taki shared whatever happened with him during that failed date with Miki Okudera back in 2016; because of his confusion and lack of experience, led that date to be a failure. He remembered and told Mitsuha about his God level nervousness, and all those freaking fake 'First Date Tips' which Mitsuha had shared.
"I honestly didn't know that those were mocks."
"Did you even bother to click on those and check if it was fake?"
"Nah.." She said with a playful face.
They chuckled along the way but Mitsuha was happy.
"But thank God that date was a disaster or I would've never got to be with you. I still curse myself for doing all this..", she frowned a bit and blushed immediately as Taki smiled and held her hand.
"Yeah, thank God it went like that. Oh, I forgot to tell you that Tsukasa and Okudera-Senpai are now engaged!"
"When the heck did that happen?!", Mitsuha asked with a surprised look.
"I also don't know exactly how they got so close, but I assume that it happened when we left for the 'then destroyed' Itomori. I'll make sure to take out some time from the job hunt for you so you can meet them."
"Yeah, but do congratulate them from my side."
Taki nodded and they continued exploring the exhibition. They explored for some more minutes until they reached the 'Hida' section in one of the separate exhibition halls. They were awestruck by one of the pictures of Itomori Lake.
"Brings back happy memories, huh?"
"Reminds me of some frustrating ones too."
They both chuckled on that and moved on to the rest of the exhibition. After seeing most of it, they had bulldozers running in their stomachs so they decided to go to Salon de Thé Rond restaurant on the second floor of the same building.
Taki ordered a couple of ham and lettuce sandwiches, raspberry mousses and cups of espresso. He took the order and the couple decided to sit at the very same table as of Taki's last date. They ate while chatting about simpler topics.
"Since we have a lot of time, would ya like to come to my house?", he asked while scratching his head.
"Is that even a question to ask? Of course I'm coming!", she answered, excitedly.
On his invitation, they decided to leave the Art Center and started heading towards Taki's apartment. They took a bus from the art center to Shinomachi Station and continued their way on foot.
--
"Here's the building from which I saw the comet, that night on 2013", Taki showed Mitsuha.
"OK, it seems like a good place for stargazing and stuff like that."
"I'll take you there sometime later and show you the beautiful view of the sky and Tokyo from there."
"Sure.", she answered, happily.
(@2:00 pm)
They reached his home, he unlocked and opened the door and did a 'welcome home' gesture to her as they entered.
"Oh man, it feels so good to be in your house after so many years! And for the first time, with my own body.", Mitsuha said while spinning around in the house as Taki opened his shoes and placed them in the shoe rack.
"Feels nostalgic?", Taki asked her, a little nervously as it was the first time he brought a girl, that too Mitsuha, in his house. She nodded on Taki's words.
"Is that still your room?", Mitsuha asked as she pointed her finger to what was supposed to be his room's door.
"Yup, it is.."
Mitsuha opened his room's door and nostalgia hit her even harder. It was almost the same as she last saw it. The only differences she could make out was that it was cleaner, with more books on the shelves and an iPad and a not-so-special computer on his desk and the little fan she last saw was still there, but he had got a bigger one as the little one did nothing. The rest was just the same. One big thing that was similar, was that the room was still filled with raw sketches on his desk and the room's walls as well.
While she was looking around the room, Taki got an orange juice Tetrapak carton and two cups and placed them on his desk.
After he placed the stuff he brought, Mitsuha asked him, "Your sketches are so good. I remember a drawing you once started in Itomori when you were me and I literally ruined it to hell when I completed it! Our art teacher was so surprised and sarcastically asked me if I had a split personality disorder."
They both laughed their stomachs out on this as Taki continued, "Well, technically we did!". They both chuckled again on this.
"I remember now that I helped you get an 'A' grade in art once... Oh, I have to show you something right now.", Taki said as he knelt down and took a folder from one of his smaller book shelves and reached out to her.
As she opened the folder, Mitsuha had slight tears in her eyes. It was Itomori! A sketch but so realistic that could even be used as the official art of the town.
"It's beautiful!" She said to him in awe.
"I know, right."
Mitsuha was impressed by the amount of drawings. It wasn't just one; the folder was filled with a dozen of them including the Miyamizu Shrine, the Kadoiri (Arch) Bridge, the High School and a lot more.
"These were the sketches made by me to find Itomori. I drew them a few days after we stopped switching, little did I knew whatever had happened there. So after having enough evidence, that's when, I, Tsukasa and Okudera-Senpai ventured out to Gifu Prefecture to look for the town but we couldn't. Later in the afternoon, we took a break at a ramen shop and the owner of the place had a look at my sketch and immediately recognized Itomori."
"Wait, did the owner of the ramen shop look a bit old, had a deep voice and smoked cigarettes every once in a while?", Mitsuha asked him, probably knowing the man.
"Yeah, do you know him?".
"Yeah. I forgot his name but he is a really great person."
"Yeah, he was, so, I asked for directions to go there but as soon as I asked the question, all of them gasped and had doubts about it being the actual place. That guy took us to Itomori and we only found out that...".
Taki couldn't continue as he realised that his throat was shrinking and was getting drier.
"It was destroyed...", Mitsuha completed the sentence with slight tears in her own eyes.
Taki opened the juice carton from his desk and drank two gulps directly from it and wiped the tears off of her eyes.
"Yeah, it was, I couldn't believe what I saw with my own eyes and I asked when and how did it happen. The shop owner said that it happened 3 years ago when Comet Tiamat split from its nucleus and its fragment hit directly at the Shrine and destroyed Itomori. The rest of the comet stuff, we have already discussed.
My friends still doubted that we were at the correct spot but I confirmed that it was because I recognized the landscape and the High School. I took out my phone, opened the diary app and opened the section where your entries were stored. It was there for a second but I saw it converting into codes and all of a sudden, I saw it literally vanishing in front of my eyes."
Taki again felt uneasy speaking this and took another gulp of orange juice as Mitsuha realised something.
"The notes vanished... Is that the reason you wrote your phone number on a sheet of paper instead of saving it in my phone?"
Taki placed the juice back on the desk. "Yup, after that incident, I never trusted diary softwares and apps or even my phone for some days and I also lost the habit of writing diary entries with the thought of 'if all of it vanishes someday, then what's the point of doing so'."
"That's really unfortunate. Would you like to start or have plans to restart writing diary entries again? 'Cause I know that you never completed your day without writing one."
"Let's see, I haven't decided yet and if I do, it won't be a digital one.", he said with a frown. "OK, continuing... So after that, the shop owner took us to the Hida-Furukawa Library as I told you earlier, to look for records about the incident and we found a book about 'People Deceased Or Went Missing In The Itomori Accident'. I wonder if it exists in this timeline though..",.
"I don't think so, 'cause if it were, we all from there would've been called 'ghosts' then".
Taki nodded thoughtfully and continued.
"I opened the book and it didn't take me long to find Saya-chin and Tesshi's name, followed by...". Taki broke into tears and couldn't finish the sentence again.
Mitsuha embraced Taki in her arms and slight tears also started flowing from her own eyes. She tried to console him.
"It's okay, Taki-kun, don't worry, I'm right here, right by your side now! And I'll never leave you again. I'll never leave my saviour! I'll never leave OUR saviour! Never ever my hero!".
Taki returned the hug and felt like he had won the entire world, just by seeing Mitsuha by his side.
It took some time for the couple to recover from it. After the tears had stopped, Taki continued.
"Now, before that point, I was in 'eager mode', but after that, I was in 'DESPERATION' mode! I couldn't think of anything, couldn't do anything except to just be frowned in front of that book. After that, we moved into a hotel to spend the night. I just sat at the coffee table in the room, Itomori's 2013 map on the table itself and I even started having thoughts like if you're a ghost. I was so depressed and exhausted that I fell asleep within seconds on that table. That night, I saw a really faded away dream, when you came to meet me in Tokyo. All I remembered from that dream was you saying, 'Don't you remember me?'"
Mitsuha gasped and shivered while hearing this. He asked her if she's fine and if he should continue and she told him to do so.
"OK, I woke up right after those words and an idea struck my head about checking out the 'Goshintai'."
Taki had a variety of images flashing in his mind about that massive crater, filled with greenery and the 'Kakuriyo' at the center of it. He continued.
"I didn't even know if the place was real but I needed to go there. I got up from the chair, got fresh and wrote a note to Tsukasa and Okudera-Senpai about me checking a final place and asking them to return to Tokyo without waiting for me."
"Why did you think that Goshintai was not real? After all, you found Itomori."
"I can't remember that. My guts continuously kept telling me that it was real but I don't remember why I thought it wasn't real."
"And, did Tsukasa and Okudera actually go back, or did they go out to find you?"
"No, no. Tsukasa told me that they went back to Tokyo."
"Ok, then.."
"So, I'll continue, I got out of the small hotel and dialled the number of the ramen shop and asked the owner to take me there. A few minutes later, he pulled up in his Daihatsu Hijet pickup and asked me to hop in. It was a journey of almost 20 minutes until he dropped me at the beginning of the walking trail. I was picking up my bag when he handed me a bento and told me that the sketch I made, this one only which is in your hands (points at it), was good. He also told me to be cautious and warned me about the dangers on the trail and told me to call him anytime if I stumble upon any danger."
"He's really a great man. I remember that he was always kind to the people back in the days.", Mitsuha said.
"Yup, he was a big help to me. I thanked him and got out of the car and started the trek. After like halfway down the trail, it started raining and I rushed to the closest cave and took a break and ate the bento. After the rain had stopped, I left the cave and reached the rim of the crater, saying to myself that it wasn't a dream and everything I saw was real. I started descending the crater and reached the edge of Goshintai. I started making my way through the water whose level had reached my waist, slowly and steadily, I crossed it and saw the big rock with a tree on top of it, or the so called 'God's Grave. I entered the cave, and saw the mini Shrine with you and Yotsuha's Kuchikamizake. I turned on the flashlight of my phone and had a look at both of 'em and I took your's, cleared some moss from it and opened it. It had surely turned into alcohol which even more confirmed the time gap which was between us. I took a sip after saying, 'If time can really be turned back, give me one last chance.'. Nothing happened. I started blaming myself and lost all hope until I got up, and my foot slipped on the moss there. After that, everything became moving in slow motion as the flashlight of my phone lit up the roof of the cave and revealed an ancient art of the Comet."
Mitsuha gasped again, as she had never realised that detail before.
"Was there a cave painting of the comet?!"
"Yeah, should be there now as well, after all it survived a thousand plus years."
Mitsuha nodded as Taki continued
"Now I remember something more, during the way from 2016 back to 2013, I saw your whole past. Your birth, when you were named Mitsuha, your growth, how your dad called you and Yotsuha as his 'Little Treasures', and some memories you know and I shouldn't say."
Taki tried and succeeded this time to hold his tears and Mitsuha knew what he meant by 'shouldn't say'. But still, she wanted to know.
"I know what you meant by saying that, but still, I'd like to know what you saw."
As she said this, she placed her arm on Taki's shoulder as he sat down next to her.
"Well, are you sure?"
"Yeah."
"Ok, right after that, I saw your mom on a hospital bed, along with your whole family except Grandma, sitting beside her and after that, I saw her final trip from the hospital to the graveyard. I also heard a very distant voice of Yotsuha, asking, 'When will mommy come home'?"
Mitsuha shed a single tear while they both sniffed.
"I also saw your dad arguing with Grandma, about how he loved your mom and not the Shrine. I also saw you collapsing outside the room after hearing all of that."
Mitsuha was in tears again and it was now Taki's turn to console her.
"It's OK, Mitsuha, that dark past is all gone now. I'm here with you now, and our future is bright!", He said while hugging her.
"Thank you, Taki-kun." She said, still sobbing.
It again took 5 more minutes for the couple to recover. After that, he continued the story.
"The last scene I saw of your 8 year old self was your father abandoning you all and Grandma promising to take care of you guys. After that, the vision skipped to your 17 year old self and I saw you reacting to everything I did, that 'who are you' I wrote in your literature notebook, you scribbling 'fool' on your cheek, frustrated with me, unknowingly crying on the day of my date and that fateful night of the old timeline. I saw you getting ready for the Autumn Festival and I shouted on you to run away from the town but to no avail, after that, I saw the most terrifying scene of my life. You were staring at the comet in awe until it split and I saw that huge chunk of galactic rock with its fragments fall... directly on y... (coughing) and I couldn't do anything but scream your name..."
Another round of tears came out from his eyes. He felt like he was killing himself by saying those words.
Mitsuha had no words for this. Of course seeing the death of your most loved person in the world was indeed a painful and traumatic experience. So, she held his hand, wiped his tears and rested her head on his shoulder to soothe him.
He continued when he calmed down a bit.
"...(still coughing) That's where the vision ended and I opened my eyes, only to find myself in your room again and it didn't take me long to realise that I was you again. As soon as I realised, I got up and hugged myself... or rather yourself. Tears started rolling down my eyes and I did blah blah blah again."
"By saying 'blah, blah' you mean fiddling with my chest?"
"Yeah, and after a few seconds, Yotsuha opened the door and saw me teary eyed, fiddling with your stuff and me being uncontrollably happy, I ran like a dog to hug her but she slammed the door shut on me", Taki chucked. "I still could hear her saying 'she's lost it' while she was going downstairs."
The atmosphere of the room suddenly changes with laughter replacing sorrow.
Mitsuha was getting thirsty, and took a serious look at the almost empty juice box.
"By the way, are you planning on drinking that whole carton of orange juice? It's been sitting there for a while and you already took some gulps out of it! I'm feeling thirsty!"
Taki realised that he drank almost half of it without even asking her to take some. He stood up, and poured the juice in the empty glasses he bought earlier, therefore finishing the whole carton and serving a glass to Mitsuha while he took the other one and threw the carton in his room's dustbin.
"Sorry that I didn't ask you for juice before.", he said while he scratched his head.
"It's OK. No need to apologise on such a small matter."
After taking some sips, Mitsuha looked around the room, thoughtful.
"Well, I just realised that I didn't see your dad. Is he out for work on a Sunday as well?"
"He went out for a business trip yesterday only to Osaka. He'll return by next week."
Mitsuha had a question in her mind that made her blush slightly.
"I had a question though, how did my Kuchikamizake taste?"
Taki almost spat out the juice he was drinking, utterly shocked. He drank the 'almost wasted' gulp.
"Absolutely yuck! I.. uhh... don't mean me wrong, but I'm not used to drinking alcohol. It was so strong and difficult to gulp. I was clearly not expecting that kinda taste. Again I'm saying, don't mean me wrong!"
"It's okay, I understand that you are not used to alcohol. Once, Yotsuha also sneaked in the place where our Kuchikamizakes were kept before offering it inside the Kakuriyo. She took a sip of the one she made and almost fainted because of the strong taste."
Taki never knew this and another 'stomach pain laughter session' started.
"Ha ha, it must've been even stronger for her as a kid at that time.", he replied, still grinning.
"By the way, I was thinking, whatever Yotsuha had to go through when you were me. It must've been kinda hard for her as well..", she said, a little concerned.
"Bruh... she's a great sister. I had a really fun time whenever I was with her. I had so much fun getting scolded, playing Uno and eating ice cream with her. I felt like why I don't have a sis in my original life. In fact, she was more like your 'Onee-chan', right?"
"Ha ha, I agree. Maybe I was a bit too lazy for her.."
"You were a lot lazy! Except female genetic factors, this body was really weak! But, I guess you aren't that lazy now since you have a job at such a prestigious company."
"Yeah, you even know my history, so I can definitely say I'm not a sleepy ass anymore."
They chuckled a bit on that note. After which, he continued with the story.
"Well, so continuing the non-fiction which feels fictitious, I got dressed up, got down the stairs and saw the TV broadcasting the news of the Comet being visible that night while standing in this position..". He stood up and imitated the same position he did at that time. "Just like how you control your pressure."
"Psst..", Mitsuha chuckled on this as he sat down again and continued,
"And that was the moment Grandma saw me and realised that was not youI."
"Well, if you stand in that position, anyone would suspect it wasn't me!", she said as another wave of laughter burst out in the room.
"Well that was the moment when she told me everything about her and your mom's experience of body swaps. I did tell her about what was going to happen in the town in a mere 12 hours but she shrugged it off by saying 'No one would believe that'.
"Wow, did she really say that?", she asked him.
"Unfortunately, yes. Even after knowing so much about those swaps, she didn't believe me. So, After that, I started the drill. Told everything to Tesshi and Saya-chin, making the plan in the discontinued club room with the snacks Saya-chin brought with your money and doing that unwanted 'prank' on Tesshi, oh by the way, she did burn a hole in your wallet."
Mitsuha shrugged it off and asked him to continue.
"After making the plan, Tesshi headed to his dad's workshop to get the explosives, Sayaka headed to her house to make the 'broadcast script' and I headed to the Town Hall to convince your dad to make the evacuation plan. I reached the place, waiting for a few moments outside the door of your dad's office room until I was called in. I told him everything that would happen in the town but he got mad. He scolded me for saying such 'nonsense' as of him and almost called an appointment to an asylum. Now was my turn to get mad and I took some heavy steps, pulled his tie hard and almost called him a son of a b*."
Mitsuha gasped at what he just said.
"You almost called him WHAT?! I hope he didn't spat out on you and...", she asked, nervously.
"Wait, wait, wait, I said 'almost'...", Taki interrupted her, putting a big emphasis on 'almost'. "...nothing like that happened, your tongue just stopped at 'son of a' and he looked at me nervously and said, 'You can't be Mitsuha, who are you?'"
"Did dad also knew?", she asked, surprised.
"Guess, he did. We would've to ask him when we meet him."
"Yeah, I never knew that someone like dad would know such a thing.". Saying this, she realised something. "Did my dad also swapped with my mom?!"
"Could be.. Only he and probably Grandma know about this in this world. We will have to meet them as soon as possible to know the answer."
"Yeah, I'll make sure that we meet them whenever we get the chance."
"OK, but, by the way, where's your dad living right now? You said that only Grandma and Yotsuha live in your Shizuoka's house."
"He currently lives in Hida and works in public service."
"OK, good to know that he's not in politics anymore. So, I'll continue… I had no answers and I left the Town Hall, defeated. I saw some kids returning from the Elementary School and I just stopped them and spat out at them to get out of this town! Then Yotsuha came to me and I told her to get out as well. She didn't listen to anything I said and started asking questions about 'Why were you acting so weird lately and why did you go to Tokyo without any valid reason.' Me not knowing why or when did you go to Tokyo, was confused and started looking all around in search of a plan B. By that time, Saya-chin and Tesshi also caught up and asked me what had happened in the Town Hall. Until my gaze froze at the direction of Goshintai and I murmured 'Are you there?' I snatched Tesshi's bike and started riding towards there and told them to prepare everything until I return. After that, I had a vision of when you visited Tokyo, you lying to Yotsuha about going to someone else's date, murmuring how I'd react when I'd see you, searching the whole of Shinjuku and not finding me there and returning to the station to go back to Itomori and finding my 14 year old self. Only to get disappointed and cut your ever beautiful long hair."
"Umm.. why do you like my long hair even though you didn't know how to manage it?" She interrupted.
"Uhh.. I simply like the traditional long hair on women. I'm just not into bob cuts, that's it."
"Cutting that much hair sure made me feel even more disappointed but it did make me feel light for that time. I kept different styles of bob hairstyle until a couple of years ago when I decided to grow my hair back to it's original length and now, it's even longer than before." She said with a grin on her face.
"I like you better like this only. Ok, so, back to the story…. That's when I came back to my senses because the tyre of the bike skidded on a tree's upgrown root and the bike fell straight into a ravine beside the trail and and I almost ended up breaking your bones but somehow I managed to grab a branch of the same tree to save yourself."
"Oh man! You must've been so lucky.. I don't remember having an injury while I was coming back from there. Thanks for saving my skin Taki-kun."
"I just barely managed to grab it. A delay if even 1 second could've sent your body into the ravine and my soul to your mom!".
"Initially, when I first woke up in your body in Kakuriyo and saw the view of Itomori from the rim of the crater, I collapsed on my knees and I had thought you swapped my death with yourself and I'd never be able to see you again.", she said, frowning.
"Fortunate enough that I didn't get to see that thing falling in front of me, as you. Lucky to see that from a safer distance. So, I guess that's all to tell about it, after this, you know everything about us meeting at Kataware doki and all thanks to you and team, you guys succeeded in saving the town!", he congratulated her again.
"You did a lot to save the town, you planned it and did your best to execute it, you don't need to give me all the credit. We all did it!", Mitsuha replied, and he smiled.
"Now I guess it's my turn to tell you what's next." Taki shivered, and asked her, "No need to remember all those traumatising events again! We've already shed gallons of tears today.". They chuckled a bit and she continued.
"Okay, I'll try to tell you in short and try not to be a crybaby this time and nevertheless, you will need to know what had happened someday so why not now, since we're on the topic.".
Taki nodded, defeated and she started her side of the story.
"After Kataware doki, I ran down the mountain, calling out your name so that I won't forget. I ran like 3 kilometres from there to the substation and fortunately, Teshi arrived on his Super Cub almost at the same time as me. He asked me if that thing's coming down for real and I told him I saw it with my own eyes, I still remembered till that moment. I also told him that you broke his bike and he was like 'Heh, who did?' And I pointed towards myself. He asked me to explain it later, even though I never did because the memories wiped out. He broke the lock of the substation with a bolt cutter and said, 'Now we're both criminals!' We placed the bombs near the each of the transformers and other stuff there, he gave me a helmet and then we ran away from there on his Cub! While on our way to the festival, I called Sayaka on the phone and asked her what was going on in the broadcasting room. She was really nervous and almost in tears as she hadn't done such a so called 'crime' before. I reached out my hand and held the phone for Tesshi to talk to her and he gave all the instructions of how to and when to start the evacuation siren and broadcast. I also gave her the confidence to do it before ending the call. As I ended the call, he asked me what did she tell me and I replied, 'You better buy her something'."
"Psst", Taki chuckled and he asked, "You guys have such a unique bond! Having comic thoughts in such a stressful situation. I gotta learn this from you guys."
"Haha, anyways, at this point, he literally shouted, 'AWRIGHT, LET'S DO THIS!!'. He now started riding in full throttle and a few moments later, it was now time for the substation to go wee. It went off just like we thought it would be. He stopped at the side of the road and we had a look at the explosion and the damages there. He started riding the Cub again as Sayaka had successfully hijacked the broadcasting system which started like a loud siren, just like the ones played in the World Wars and she started the broadcast. 'This is Town Hall, an explosion has occurred in the Itomori Substation. There's a danger of further expansions and and forest fires.' She repeated this again and again and now we took a narrow, off road route which leads directly to the shrine 'cause of course he won't run that moped on the stairs of the shrine. It wasn't a pleasant ride climbing up that route, the seat was violently shaking andI was a little scared that the bike could skid anytime and we could injure ourselves, not that I didn't trust his skills, nah I didn't, but the road was in terrible condition and it wasn't even meant to be used by motor vehicles and he was almost doing 35 km/hr on that road. On the way up, I told him that Sayaka was sounding exactly like her elder sister who was the official announcer of the town on which, he agreed."
"Good for her, that would've created no suspicion on the broadcast.", He said, a little seriously.
"Well, you gotta wait for it. By then, we reached the top and could see all the stalls and the lighting of the festival. Tesshi braked hard and he skidded the moped. I got off before the impact and he also managed to save his skin at the last second and let the bike drift off."
"Lucky, enough.", he said.
"Yeah. The impact did break the Cub quite badly but it eventually had to be destroyed by the Comet itself. I asked him if he's okay but he shrugged it off and we took the stairs to the festival and threw our helmets on the way. Now we started yelling and convincing people to evacuate to the High School on the excuse of forest fires. Now, it was my turn to forget 50% of everything, including your name. I zoned off for a bit and Tesshi grabbed my shoulder only to see tears in my eyes. I told him that I couldn't remember you or your name and he frustratingly said, 'you started all of this and we can't convince everyone to evacuate' and he asked me to go and persuade my father, for the second time that day but the first for me. Tesshi kept requesting people to evacuate and I ran another 3 kilometres to the Town Hall. While I was running, I heard an 'Oh!' With a 'What are you doing?! Turn that off!' on the loudspeakers, when Sayaka got caught."
"She got caught?! How?! I mean, how did they find her?!", he interrupted.
"She told me that she was being escorted out to the school ground while she burst out crying. After that, the official broadcast began from the Town Hall and told everyone that they were checking on the incident and asked people to stay put for the moment. Tesshi also said he almost got caught by his dad but by then, the comet had split and everything was awestruck at it. Now, while I was running, I also forgot almost 90% of the body swap stuff and I began saying 'Hey. Who are you? Who is that? Someone dear to me. I shouldn't forget, I don't want to forget. Who, who, who are you?! What's your name?!' I had a look at the comet and saw it broken apart and after that, I tripped on a broken part of the road. I did injure myself quite badly and I did get quite a number of bandages at the medical camps at the school ground. At that time, I remembered that someone or that 'dear to me' person wrote his name on my right hand."
"I guess I know what's coming up next.", Taki interrupted her again, got up the bed and took a Sharpie permanent marker from a pencil holder on his desk and turned to her. She also knew what's coming next and gave him her right hand and opened her palm.
"Close your eyes.", he said and she did the same.
She felt cool ink on her palm as Taki wrote something which she probably knew. He stopped writing and asked her to close her wrist and open her eyes. He now handed the marker to her and closed his eyes
"I hope you don't vanish away this time."
"Don't worry, our memories are now safe. I won't."
She started with a horizontal stroke and stopped right there and pulled away the marker. He got really scared at that and opened his eyes in sheer terror. But his heartbeat relaxed when he saw her right in front of himself. He let a sigh of relief and burst out at her.
"WHY DID YOU HAVE TO DO THAT??!! I got so scared!"
"Sorry, I just wanted to mess with you. Close your eyes again."
He did as instructed and she completed the words on his palm and asked him to fold his wrist and open his eyes. They now looked each other straight in the eye and Mitsuha started the countdown.
"In, 3,", he also joined the countdown and they both started in unison, "2, 1."
They both opened their hands and were awestruck at what they saw written there.
'Suki da (yo)' (I love you) was written in bold letters on both of their hands. Just what they wanted to be written on their hands for 8/5 years.
They both were really happy with tears of joy flowing out and shared a kiss, so emotional that they forgot everything, the world blurred, ambient city noises were now non existent and they felt an immense connection, just the two true long distance lovers, now together, forever.
"OK, let's come back to our senses 'cause there's still some stuff left to tell you.", she said as they separated.
"Uh, huh.", he replied and asked her to continue.
"That thing brought tears in my eyes and I murmured, 'I can't remember your name with this, you idiot.' I struggled getting up again but I felt a new wave of energy inside me and I realised I'm.. sorry, we're in love! We'll meet again and I'll survive this night! Even if the stars fall down, I'll live to meet you again! And I continued running towards the Town Hall with even more zeal. I stormed inside my father's office, surprisingly, Grandma and Yotsuha were there too, also surprised at seeing me. I reached out to my Dad and at first he was like 'Why are you here again', but only a split second later, he had a scared look on his face and he went to the broadcasting room, without speaking a word. I still dunno what convinced him to do this, but I'm thankful that he finally ordered an official evacuation."
"Woof! Finally!", he said, happily.
"Yeah, at close to 8:35 pm, he gave the final message, ordering people to reach the High School ASAP. We then, with the few people working in the Town Hall, escaped the place in a fire truck. The truck started moving towards the evacuation centre in full speed but before we could reach there, the comet hit the ground and its shockwave almost flipped the truck itself.
"Oh God! You guys should've left a bit earlier.", he said, concerned.
"Mayoral responsibilities, you know. The truck did end up with shattered windows and big dents which injured us even more but fortunately, we were out of the impact zone. We reached the institute, and I saw hundreds of people rushing inside and looking for their loved ones. I saw Sayaka running towards me and we shared a hug. We celebrated that the plan was successful. Until, we found out that Tesshi wasn't there."
"Heh, he wasn't?! What had happened?", a surprised Taki asked her.
"Wait dude! I'm here to tell you that only. I had thought he would be with her but she in return asked me if he was with me as he was with me at the festival until I made my way towards the Town Hall. At that moment, we had a look at the Shrine. It was looking like the ground had burst open, with magma oozing out. Our house, 200 years of history (after the Mayugoro's Fire) and 1/3rd of the town, were completely destroyed. I told Grandma that Tesshi wasn't here and we had to go and find him. She warned me at first but then she replied something out of this world. She asked me, 'This is your mission, right?'
"Thank God she did realise then. I was really surprised when she told me that no one would believe that.", he said, relieved.
"She had to realise that after seeing everything with her own eyes."
"Correct."
"OK, At that note, I was like, 'What?' But she caressed my face and she said, 'Go but be careful. The Gods are with you, complete what you started.' I hugged her and my sister too who was crying by then and we left. We asked the people going towards the school about him but no one knew where he was. By now, as people were coming in from the areas closer to the impact zone, I felt like a World War 3 had started because everyone was covered in dust, injured by the debris and exhausted like crazy. We came to a Y-point of the road and we decided to wait there and not split."
"Smart decision for the time. I'd have done the same.", he said.
She nodded and continued.
"We asked a few more people about him but we still didn't get an answer. After somewhat 10 minutes, we saw the people wearing the Teshigawara Family Builders' uniform and we saw Tesshi coming with them. Sayaka ran towards him and hugged him, only to hear a loud cry of pain from him. She released him then and there and I caught up to them as well. He congratulated us again on saving the town and he told us that they took cover behind a car but the car got pressed against the wall thanks to the shockwave and broke his dad's leg."
"Aaooowwww! That must have been the most painful injury amongst those 104 injured!", Taki sympathetically said.
"Yeah, he had to be airlifted to the nearest hospital. So, Tesshi couldn't hide behind the car but the wave pushed him to the wall and
something hit him. He then opened his jacket, only to reveal a big blood stain which I had only seen in movies."
Taki made a face, depicting the pain he must've gone through.
"I and Sayaka screamed seeing that but he said he was fine, with only a superficial cut and some broken ribs. Well then, his father now continued his way towards the school to find his mother. Now, It was now time to witness some of the cutest 'at wrong time' confession I'd ever seen."
"Oh, so that was the moment when they confessed?", Taki asked her and she nodded in return.
"After a little celebration, Tesshi asked me how I knew about the incident beforehand and how I said I had seen it before. Where and how did I? You already know that we forgot everything, and I had nothing to answer. 'I don't know, I can't remember' were everything that came out of my mouth. Tears started rolling down again and I screamed, 'WHO ARE YOU?! Who are you?! 'We then made our way towards the evacuation centre again, still sobbing. I got stormed with questions from both of them about anything I remember from that afternoon but 'I can't remember' was the only thing I could say. Sayaka told us to not disclose anything about the plan, on which we all agreed."
"Obviously, you won't tell anything about doing a terrorist attack, planned by 2 souls, in the same body."
She chuckled softly and continued.
"After a really slow journey, thanks to Tesshi's wounds, we arrived at the school ground again. By then, JSDF's Relief Forces had also arrived. Helicopters were airlifting injured people to the nearby hospitals in Hida. Tents were now placed as makeshift hospitals. Tesshi was now escorted by a doctor who had a look at his wounds. Then, we were dragged inside the gym to reunite with our families. My dad being the mayor, we were the last civilians to leave Itomori in one of the helicopters and I had the last sight of Itomori, never to be seen again. So, I guess that's it. We lived in Hida-Furukawa for 8 months, completed the final year of high school and made my way towards Tokyo for admission to a university."
"You never visited Itomori again after that?", he asked.
"Nope. Not yet but I'll definitely go there again before I die. Also, Sayaka and Tesshi never parted from each other's side since then on, and I hope we don't either.", she said and moved closer to him and rested her head on his shoulder as he had a huge grin on his face.
"There's still some more sketches for you to see.", she said and they had a look at the remaining beautiful sketches made by him.
As she flipped through the folder, she reached the last sketch, only to find out that it was a portrait of a girl without a face but with the same hairstyle with the Kumihimo cord she used to have 8 years ago.
"Is.. this...umm, me?", she asked him, blushing.
"Yeah, it's you! All I remembered after coming from that tragedy was your hairstyle, face structure and your Kumihimo cord. I somehow tried to remember you with this sketch but that's all I could do.", Taki replied, a little emotional.
Hearing this, Mitsuha pulled the Kumihimo cord off her hair and tied it in the same style as she used to, still blushing.
All Taki could do was to stare at her in awe. She was now more recognisable than ever! She now looked almost the same as he last saw her 8 years ago.
"If you can, why not complete it now?", Mitsuha offered him and tried to pose the same way as the sketch.
"Sure!"
Taki took some sketch pencils of needed boldness and started the sketch again. The pencil touched the sheet after 5 years and the 'ghost sketch' was now being completed, with a face, which he was longing to see on that sheet and even more longing to see that face in real life. It was more than a dream come true.
Taki, being the professional artist, already started giving the final touches to the sketch. He completed the sketch, and had a huge grin on his face. It was perfect!
"It's done!". he said as he showed her the drawing. Mitsuha was awestruck again and only 3 words came out of her tongue.
"It's.. so.. Beautiful."
Mitsuha embraced him in a hug and squeezed him, making him cough a little but he returned the hug.
"Thank you for completing all my dreams, Mitsuha."
"Same to you, Taki-kun."
"Finally, it's done after so many years! Now I've got a good source to have a look at you whenever I want."
"Pervert..."
"Aeyy.. I love to look at you, OK?"
"Haha, same here. Well, there's still one dream remaining for you, your dream job."
Taki readjusted his grip on her
"Well, you're with me now, nothing can stop me from getting a job!"
"He, he.". she replied and she snuggled into Taki's chest.
(@7:00 pm)
"Thanks for having me at your house, Taki-kun. It was fun being with you.", Mitsuha said as she was exiting the apartment.
"You're welcome at my home anytime! Just gimme a call or a message whenever you want to come. Have a safe trip!", he said, and waved goodbye to her.
"Wait, I gotta do one thing."
She stopped, moved closer to him and planted a kiss on his cheek.
"See you soon, Taki-kun." , she said while winking her eye at him.
"Oi! Wait."
He kissed her on the cheek as well.
"Best wishes for your QnA with Yotsuha!"
Hearing this, she stumbled a bit, then continued, waving goodbye to him and Taki did the same until she was out of sight. He returned to his apartment, sat on his desk, turned on his iPad and started searching for more job offers.
(_)
The trip back home for Mitsuha was uneventful, just like everyday. She reached her apartment, checked if the door was open, which it was and went inside the flat.
The open door meant that Yotsuha was already home so she said 'I'm back', to this, she heard, "Go get a bath, dinner will be ready soon!". She went straight to the bathroom to take a bath.
When she came out, dinner was already served and Yotsuha was already waiting at the dining table.
Mitsuha put her used clothes in the wash basket and turned on the TV and opened the NHK channel. They started munching on the curry rice Yotsuha had made.
Now was the time for the QnA, as Taki predicted.
"So.. how did it go?", Yotsuha asked.
Mitsuha choked a bit but she managed to get the food down her esophagus and gulped some water. She did expect her to ask this question but she wasn't ready. , she thought before replying.
"Well, nothing much, he took me to a hedgehog cafe and we visited the National Art Center as well before visiting his home and he also showed me some sketches he made of Itomori."
"He made sketches of Itomori?! Do you have any pics of it?"
"No, I'll ask him to send pics of those."
"My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined!" That's the only meme-y
answer she could think of.
"How was your day though?", Mitsuha asked and a reply came from her disappointed face.
"Nothing much either, did some shopping at Shibuya Hikarie and bought some clothes and school supplies and ate a Big Mac on the way home. That's it."
She got a nod and a facial reply indicating 'OK'.
Yotsuha was happy to see her sister happy all thanks to this Taki guy, who she even helped this morning and almost killed him following the 'super fiction' which was going on in her mind the day before.
They finished their dinner as Yotsuha cleaned the dishes as Mitsuha got fresh in the meantime. Yotsuha also freshened up herself and prepared the beds of both the rooms. At last, they crawled into their beds and they drifted into sleep in just a couple of minutes.
(10:30 pm, Taki's home)
Taki was checking his Inbox in Gmail on his iPad and he found a 'Resume accepted for interview' mail from Kengo Kuma And Associates. He almost bounced in joy as he was called for an interview from one of Japan's best architectural firms. He had sent his application yesterday when he updated his 'pessimistic language' in the text.
He was really happy and wanted to call Mitsuha but it was already late at night. He took his phone, opened LINE and texted her.
Tomorrow can be a really big day for me_
He also messaged 'good night' to his dad before turning off his phone and iPad, he took a yawn and now prepared his bed for the night. He got fresh, came inside his room and sat on his bed with thoughts like,
/Hopefully I'll get the job tomorrow, now that I have Mitsuha with me! I'll throw her a treat whenever I'll get it and buy myself a better PC or a Macbook a while later as a self gift. /
He turned off the lights, crawled into his bed and got asleep within a fraction of a second with one last thought in his mind.
/I love you, Mitsuha. /
(Chapter 1 ends here)
Author's note
Hello reader! I hope you liked the first chapter of this sequel of a sequel fanfic. I added some references from Belda's Thoughts And Dreams and the original Another Side-Earthbound novel. I guess that's all I have to say right now. See you in the next chapter!
-NoobShubhu