Chapter 2

"I'm Taki. Tachibana Taki."

The two stood facing one another, the rest of the world a fading backdrop. Ignoring the students around them, the boy and the girl looked into each other's faces, and long-forgotten feelings and memories began to slowly awaken.

"My name's Mitsuha, Miyamizu Mitsuha," the girl finally managed to reply. "I'm new here."

"I know." Finally, I know. I know your name. The unvoiced thoughts spoken between the lines couldn't have been clearer to the two. Taki suddenly had the urge to pull out a pen and write her name on his hand, just in case, and for a moment he was back on the mountain. The mountain he'd cried on at twilight…

For a few moments they simply stared at one another, absorbing all they could – the sight of her thick black hair tied with a red hand-braided ribbon, the sound of her voice, the brightness in her eyes…Taki memorised it all. He couldn't, wouldn't, allow himself to forget. He still wasn't sure why he was so drawn to her, but it didn't matter – for now, simply knowing she was here was enough. For the first time in half a year, he felt at peace.

Now it was Taki's turn to be interrupted with a hand on his shoulder, and the bubble around the two burst as they once again became aware of the world around them. Turning his head, Taki saw that it was Tsukasa – they were supposed to meet at the gates, but as soon as he saw that red ribbon his legs had carried him to the girl in front of him before he could think.

Tsukasa's eyes widened slightly in surprise as he regarded Mitsuha with curiosity. "Miyamizu-san?" His head turned back towards Taki as he removed his hand from his friend's shoulder. "Do you two…know each other?"

A simple question, yet neither truly knew the answer, and Taki scratched the back of his head involuntarily as an awkward look came to his face. "Um…I guess? I mean, technically we only just met…"

"What Taki-kun means is that we've seen each other before." Mitsuha was the first to properly regain her composure, and told the boy as much as either of them really knew. "At least, that's how it feels, but I can't remember where." She had an inkling – the mountain above the shrine and a Tokyo train came to mind, but she couldn't say for sure.

Tsukasa gave an interesting smile. "Taki-kun, huh? Yet you say you only just met." But he didn't press the point – it was more fun to tease anyway – and gestured forwards along the pavement. "Let's go. Takagi can't come so it's just us."

"Why isn't he coming?" Despite asking Tsukasa, Taki's eyes were still on Mitsuha, but his ever-observant friend pretended not to notice.

"His mum has to pop into town, so he needs to watch his little brother while she's gone."

"Oh, okay. That's too bad." A few moments of silence, and the three looked at each other blankly before Tsukasa finally broke the silence.

"Well?"

"Well, what?" Taki and Mitsuha asked in unison.

"…you guys are really slow on the ball, you know that?" Motioning towards Mitsuha, Tsukasa moved forward as he spoke over his shoulder. "Since Takagi isn't coming, we should invite the new girl along instead, right?"

It took him a few seconds to realise nobody was following him, and he chuckled internally as he turned to see a mirrored pair of surprised expressions. Outwardly he kept his composure, raised his eyebrows and crossed his arms – he had a reputation to keep, after all.

"Are you guys coming or not?"

〈◆〉

Today was not supposed to be like this.

…Okay, that came out wrong.

Okudera-senpai had been ill, so it had been a perfect opportunity to skip the school entrance ceremony and induction, earn some extra money and get Okudera to owe him a favour. He knew Tsukasa liked her, so perhaps he could set something up between them; once up on a time he'd been interested in her too, although that had abruptly changed for some reason he couldn't quite remember. But now all thoughts of such machinations had fled his mind, as he sat in his favourite café with one of his best friends on one side and on the other…

It just felt too right. It was her, the girl whose life he had dreamed of, whose town he had lived in, whose name he had forgotten; she had recognised him, too, so there was no mistake. There was just one problem.

Awkward.

That was how he would describe this situation. To know her, and yet not know her – it was like wilfully ignoring someone you met a long time ago, pretending you don't know them and knowing they're doing the same, when suddenly you're forced to sit next to each other. And to make matters worse the too-smart-for-his-own-good Fujii Tsukasa was here, so if they said anything weird he'd pick it up right away, of that Taki had no doubt.

Vague feelings and memories, a word and a smile, that was all he had to go on. By Mitsuha's expression it was all she had as well, so despite them acknowledging each other there was still a strange fear – a fear that they were mistaken, that it was all a big trick of the mind and there really was nothing connecting them. That you would mention something important and the other would tilt their head with a blank look on their face and your hopes would just wither and die as you knew, you knew that they didn't know, that you were wrong all along, that it really was just a fantasy of the mind…

What Taki really needed was time. Time to think, consider, and come to a conclusion. Time alone with Mitsuha, so they could really talk things out when they were ready, if they even knew what to ask each other. Time to remember. As impulsive as he usually was, this was something he seriously didn't want to screw up.

But instead here he was, eating cake. And for a girl who had only just moved to Tokyo, Mitsuha knew the menu surprisingly well, and Taki had a feeling that wasn't the only strange thing about her. Oh what was he thinking, there's nothing not strange about this whole encounter, her initial reaction to seeing him all but confirmed it!

So lost was he in his own thoughts that Taki barely noticed his friend talking to him.

"Takagi's been moved to a different class." Taki looked up to see Tsukasa fork the last bite of his tart and pop it into his mouth.

"Heh, I guessed at least one of us would be moved out."

"After three years, the probability of all three of us staying together was just too low." Tsukasa agreed as he set down his fork.

"So how much of the class is the same?" Taki glanced at Mitsuha to make sure she wasn't feeling left out, but she was somehow managing to simultaneously scoff down her profiteroles and pay attention to their conversation.

"I'd say around seventy percent. It's class three, by the way." Leaning back slightly, the boy looked at his friend with a slight smile. "And since Masamoto-sensei left at the end of last year, we've got Furakawa-sensei for homeroom now." That would get Taki's attention.

"Furakawa! Oh man, this year is gonna be so chill…what am I saying, of course it's not, there's no way final year is going to be anything but mayhem…" Taki's voice dropped an octave as his enthusiasm was stopped by the harsh wall of reality. "Well at least old Furakawa will make it a bit less intense. Maybe." Glancing towards Mitsuha's plate, he saw that the girl had somehow managed to inhale her entire, rather massive, dessert before he'd got even halfway through his. She's going to inhale my wallet too at this rate…wait, I'm not paying for her again! I've had enough of that for one lifetime…

Confused at his own thoughts (Again? I've never been here with her before!) he managed to miss the first half of whatever Mitsuha had said to Tsukasa.

"…seem nice enough. Besides, I'd expected it to be a little less welcoming here in the city. That's from experience, by the way."

"So you didn't have a good time in Ikebukuro then?" Fujii asked, and once again Taki became thoroughly confused – he had got the distinct impression Mitsuha was from a town in the country somewhere. But now she was saying she was from Tokyo?

"It was only a year, but it felt like way longer. In a bad way. Well, at least you guys are nice. There was that other girl, Akane I think? She was pretty friendly. And Hiraoka, although she seems a bit-"

Taki almost spat out his last piece of cake, before coughing somewhat violently and eventually swallowing. That had certainly got their attention. His next words came out slightly hoarsely before he coughed and started once again.

"Hiraoka? As in Hiraoka Akira? Are you mad?" Mitsuha's expression was one of slight shock, and next to her Taki could hear his good friend sigh in discontent – he could already see the head shake of disapproval in his mind's eye but paid it no mind, choosing to instead focus his attention on the foolish girl in front of him.

"What's wrong with Hiraoka?" Mitsuha inquired as calmly as she could with Taki's terrified face staring at her.

"What's wrong with her?" Taki leaned in, looked his new (old?) friend directly in the eyes, and spoke in a harsh whisper the strongest deterrent he could possibly warn her with.
"She's absolutely bonkers, is what."

A few seconds of silence followed this incredible revelation, before Tsukasa sighed once again, and Mitsuha opted to join him, adding an eye roll for good measure.

"What? Tell her Tsukasa! You know it as well as I do!" The look on the boy's face was almost pleading as he asked his friend to come to his aid.

"Taki's overreacting. She's a bit…odd. But who isn't?" Seeing that his audience wasn't quite satisfied with this explanation, he elaborated. "The thing with Hiraoka is, her mind is too sharp to know what to do with itself – smart, but not very sociable, if you get what I mean. She ends up being quite blunt, and what she finds funny often tends to be borderline insulting to others. The phrase 'brutally honest' comes to mind."

"…I think I already know what you mean." By now Mitsuha was nodding in earnest and had already forgotten Taki's warning. "She was quite…it's kind of hard to describe…"

"You don't understand! She's dangerous! She must not be considered an acquaintance, let alone a friend!" Taki was practically begging her by this point, and Mitsuha was fairly confused at his extreme views on who she could only describe as a fairly ordinary classmate.

"Taki is somewhat prejudiced in this matter." Fujii adjusted his glasses and folded his arms over his chest, gaining an almost lecture-like aura. "You see, one day last year Taki borrowed one of Hiraoka's pens since he had forgotten his pencil case. However, he lost it-"

"It was only a pen! Over a single pen, she went and did…did THAT!"

"Did what?" Now Mitsuha was beginning to get slightly concerned – this story seemed to be going somewhere quite ominous…

"In chemistry class the following day, we were conducting experiments to create hydrogen gas – mixing zinc with an acid." Tsukasa stepped in to explain while Taki's face twitched in recollection. "Well, it appears that Hiraoka swapped Taki's zinc with three times the amount of magnesium…"

"Don't tell me – she put so much in that it actually…?" Mitsuha had always been good at the physical sciences, so she knew that if he corked the test tube and that much gas was generated then…

"It didn't explode, if that's what you're thinking." Taki's voice was hollow with defeat. "The cork blew off with a massive bang, the tube fell over and the acid spilt out and burnt a hole in my lab book." Taki's head dropped onto the table with a thud, barely missing his plate. "Of course, when sensei came over and saw the half-reacted pieces of magnesium he was pretty angry. Not only did I have to rewrite my entire hundred-page lab book out again, I also had to spend two hours every night for two weeks cleaning the labs. Nearly got fired when I told my manager why I couldn't come to work for a fortnight."

Mitsuha just sat where she was, wide-eyed for a few seconds, before leaning back in her chair…and almost exploding with laughter.

"Oh my goodness! That's…that's just too…too funny…!" Mitsuha could barely control herself, and Tsukasa's eyebrows raised in surprise, as did Taki's head. "What…what a genius…I bet you went and bought her a hundred new pens the very next day!"

"It's not a joke you know! This is serious! How can you laugh at such a terrifying event?! And yes, I did buy her some new pens, just ensure my own safety!"

"It was pretty funny though…" said Tsukasa, a smile slowly materialising on his face.

"Hey, whose side are you on?" Taki's head once more landed on the table, this time accompanied by a small 'ow' that only served as amusement to the spectators. "Oh, you two are hopeless!" And yet, despite himself, the corners of Taki's mouth twitched ever so slightly upward.

〈◇〉

Before the three had noticed, it was already afternoon and Taki had another shift at work – his own this time, not Okudera's. The three left the café and split up, each going their separate ways and promising to talk again tomorrow.

Mitsuha walked slowly along the pavement, humming a tune inside her head. Despite the slightly awkward start, she had got on really well with both of the boys, and it gave her a feeling of warmth and weightlessness in the centre of her chest.

Prior to moving to Ikebukuro she'd been sure she would easily make friends at whichever school she ended up at. It wasn't that she had been popular in Itomori – her status as both the mayor's daughter and a shrine maiden had set a fair few classmates against her – but the majority of the kids her age had been friendly with her, and she'd had Tessie and Sayaka as close friends.

But then they had moved, and she had started at that school in Ikebukuro, and she had made not one single friend. Sure, there were a couple of people who were friendly with her, but most of them were one year older and generally had no real interest in her. She'd got her fair share of attention when she mentioned she was from Itomori around one month in, but it was all over in a couple of weeks and then it was back to normal – back to being alone. Solidarity wasn't something Mitsuha was used to, and certainly not something she was comfortable with.

So it was no wonder she had been fairly anxious about starting at Jingu.

But things had progressed far more smoothly than she had anticipated. First there was Hiraoka, who noticed she was new and helped her out. Okay, so she was a bit blunt…and fairly dangerous…but so what? A friend is a friend, right? And being the most helpful person to her on her first day scored the girl some serious brownie points as far as Mitsuha was concerned. Not that the rest of the class were bad – they seemed genuinely friendly, just not that interested. Well, Mitsuha could live with that. As far as she was concerned, being interested and being nosy were two sides of the same coin. Fujii was also really nice, Akane had seemed really excited to meet her, and then there was Taki…

There was no doubt in her mind – he was the one she had been looking for, the missing link to her memories, memories she desperately wanted back. There were two major things Mitsuha found extremely strange about the Itomori incident, and both would be solved if only she could remember what had happened.

The first was that it was apparently her who had convinced her dad to evacuate the town. Nobody really told her anything else other than that – everything leading up to her opening her eyes in the hospital was one big blur. There was something about the power station and some sort of hijacking of the town hall's announcement system mentioned at one point, but nobody bothered to fill in the details for her, and she hadn't particularly cared – her town had just been decimated by a meteorite, after all.

The second strange event was her spontaneous trip to Tokyo one day prior. This was perhaps even more vexing than being told she had predicted the following day's events, funnily enough. Being so impulsive was very unlike her – but then, so was running off in the middle of Tokyo to visit a random school, and so was recognising a boy she'd never met before. Which led Mitsuha to make what most would consider a rather large shot in the dark; that the reason she had come to Tokyo-

-the reason she had come all the way to the capital-
-the reason she had skipped a day of school without telling anyone but her sister-
-the reason she had taken such an impromptu journey the day before her town was destroyed-

-must have been to learn more about the comet! It all made sense now!

Mitsuha's eyes widened and footsteps came to a halt as she considered the evidence that supported her theory. All the records of Miyamizu shrine had been destroyed in a fire two centuries ago, so all the history behind the shrine's rituals and inception had been lost. But everyone in the town knew that the lake was formed by a meteorite impact, that was what the town was known for after all. She must have made the link between the meteorite from 1,200 years ago and comet Tiamat last year and gone to the National Diet Library here in Tokyo to see if they had any old records. And then once she'd found out that the meteorite from back then had fallen from the same comet that was passing by Earth at that very moment, she had gone back to warn everyone!

The gears of her imagination spinning wildly, an excited smile took root on her face and she nearly laughed aloud. Things were finally coming together; the mystery was being solved! After a year and a half she finally had a lead on what had happened during the gaps in her memory. And it was all thanks to meeting Taki!

Mitsuha was so delighted by this brilliant piece of deductive reasoning, she skipped all the way to the station, and her smile lit up the dark city streets like a second moon.

〈◆〉

Taki ponderously made his way home, and almost got hit by a bus.

The reason Taki had nearly become half a smear on the road (the other half would have been on the front of the bus) was that his mind was very much occupied with a certain girl. It would have been better for his health had it been instead occupied with his own mortality, but such is the state of Taki's mind.

For the last three hours he had been working on his feet, taking orders, setting and clearing cutlery and delivering food to dozens of tables. Not only that, but he had done the same in the morning, then met Mitsuha, then had cake with her of all things, paid for her food (and Tsukasa's) and rushed back to the restaurant…the day had been rather eventful. Not to mention the glass and two plates he had broken in his second shift.

He was tired. Not just physically tired, but also mentally tired. He had done far too much thinking. Taki was a boy who relied mostly on instinct and gut feeling. Sure he was intelligent, but the way he used that intelligence was to make fairly reasonable snap decisions, not to spend hours poring over every little detail – which was exactly what he was doing right now and had been doing since noon.

The problem was that he didn't want to sound like a complete idiot in front of Mitsuha. If he was wrong, things would get pretty weird, pretty fast. Not that they weren't already weird, but they would get even weirder. And then Fujii had to get in the way too, so he hadn't got a chance to talk to Mitsuha alone, and it would be kind of out of character for him to ask to speak to her after school tomorrow – people would think something weird was going on. Which there was, technically, but it definitely wasn't what they would think it was!

He really should just go up to her and ask her tomorrow – before school, during lunch, any time he could, everyone else's opinions be damned. That was the easiest course of action, and for Taki it was also the most natural. The problem was what to ask – because he didn't really know himself. He didn't have anything concrete to go on, and he couldn't rely on Mitsuha approaching him and asking the right questions either, that kind of wait-and-see tactic would get both of them nowhere. Assuming she really did know him, and she really did want to solve this mystery. If there even was a mystery. If he wasn't just crazy…

For the last six months, Taki had been actively struggling with his memories and feelings. Ever since he'd found himself screaming into the sky on that mountain at Itomori things had just felt wrong, and he'd had far too much time to reflect on it. For a start, he had absolutely no clue why he had gone there. Okudera and Tsukasa had gone with him, but apparently all he'd told them was that he was looking for a place that he'd drawn some sketches of, and that place had ended up being Itomori.

On his return Taki had kind of mellowed out for a few months. His ferocity and boisterousness disappeared, and his desire to fly away from the city and into the beautiful countryside only amplified. More and more he found himself daydreaming, staring out the window and just watching the clouds go by, dreaming about a life that wasn't his own, memories that could never have happened forgotten at the moment of waking.

His friends had been worried, at first. But now that the new school year had come around he had resolved to ditch the fantasies and strange feelings and revert to his usual self. Over the short school holiday he had spent more time working, brushed up on his studies and moulded back into his old personality. But the dreams never stopped, and neither did the obsession about Itomori. And above all, the sensation of having a part of him missing never left him for a moment. He tried to put it all behind him, for his own sake, but as a person largely driven by emotion, such a task was just not in his nature.

Now along comes this girl and brings it all back. Well, he's endured it for this long, he can wait a little longer. After all, it won't all resolve itself at once. For now he'll be passive. He's one of her first friends here, there's plenty of time to get to know each other and work things out. And above all, he didn't want to feel like he had some sort of hidden agenda. He genuinely liked her as a person, and the last thing Taki wanted was to manipulate her for his own means – that was something he absolutely would not tolerate from himself.

Taki's mind was made up. He would forget all about it for now and get on with his life as normal. If Mitsuha was somehow related to his dreams then it would all come out eventually. And if not…

…if not, he would just forget all about it. Or try to, anyway.

〈◆〉

Taki climbed the stairs and stopped to get his keys from his bag. Unlocking the door, he heard the sound of sizzling and it took only a few seconds after stepping inside before the smell of noodles filled his nostrils. "I'm home!" he called in a flat voice before removing his shoes and entering the kitchen, bag in hand. "I thought I was going to be late."

"Nah, it's still got a few minutes to go." Taki's dad stood over the stove, the handle of a wok in one hand and a wooden spatula in the other. "My fault really, I should have started cooking earlier, but I guess if we're both late then everybody's on time, right?" He gave his son a small grin as he stirred the food.

"Heh, I'll try that one on Furakawa-sensei, he's always late." Moving back to the hallway, he opened his bedroom door and lightly tossed his bag onto his bed, where it landed with a barely audible 'flump'.

"Speaking of Furakawa, I got a call from him today. Apparently you weren't in this morning." His tone was carefully neutral – after all, it wasn't like he wasn't aware of his son's rather frequent skipping of school. But he couldn't really complain, since half the money Taki earned he willingly (and insistently) put towards bills and other expenses; as his father he had naturally objected at first, but it was not an insignificant amount of money given his own rather small salary. As much as he wanted to force his son to go to school, there were more…practical concerns to consider. But he hadn't been aware Taki would be skipping today's entrance ceremony.

"A co-worker was ill, so I covered for her."

"You know, you don't have to put so much pressure on yourself. You can stop taking every extra shift and take some time for yourself."

"I do take plenty of time for myself." Taki busied himself with setting the table. "Besides, it's not like anything important ever happens on the first day anyway, I've been through it all loads of times before." As he took a seat his dad entered with the noodles in a ceramic dish and set it down in the centre of the table before sitting down himself.

Taki was very much a carbon copy of his father's younger self – the same face, hair and eyes, and an almost identical height, with only a few centimetres marking the difference between father and son. However, the elder Tachibana was better built and wore glasses, which changed the overall look enough to make them seem significantly more different than they actually were.

"Itadakimasu." Saying the customary Japanese thank you in tandem, they both dived into their meal, and there was little conversation until both plates were close to empty.

"So what did you do after school? Before your main shift, I mean. I assume you weren't working all day solid?" He couldn't help injecting some worry into his voice at that last question.

"No, I went with some friends to a café."

"Fujii-kun and Shinta-kun?" The usual suspects.

"Actually Takagi couldn't come today, he had something to help out with at home, I forget the details. But instead Tsukasa invited a new girl along." Finishing off his food, Taki watched his father over the rim of his bowl to gauge his reaction.

"A girl? Heh, about time you started growing a pair. Back when I was your age I was already-"

"Dad! Those are NOT stories I want to hear!" As his father laughed at his son's embarrassment and discomfort, Taki saw the amusement in his eyes but refused to play along. "She's just a new classmate, transferred in from…from the country." He had almost said 'from Itomori', and for a second his hands froze up, before he carefully placed his bowl on the table. The three of them had talked about a fair few things that afternoon, but one thing that hadn't been brought up in detail was where Mitsuha had moved from, and yet the words had almost slipped right out.

"Hey, you alright? Uh, it was just a joke, you know?" Now his dad really did have concern in his voice as he looked closely at his son's troubled face.

"Ah, it's nothing. Just thinking about today."

"About the girl?"

"Dad!"

〈◆〉

After Taki cleared the table and washed up – the two family members always took turns with cooking and cleaning – he had a quick bath before changing into his nightwear, a loose pair of shorts and a t-shirt, since it was already getting into the evening. With a bit of time left before bed, he decided he wanted to do some more sketching tonight. Putting away the beginnings of a country moonrise he had started drawing a few days earlier, Taki brought out a fresh sheet of paper and sharpened his pencils before settling down to do the basic outline.

Within around fifteen minutes he had the basics of his scene – three friends at a table in a café, with recently emptied plates before them and an early afternoon sun settling on their figures at an aesthetic angle. There was a boy sitting upright, a girl leaning back in her chair and laughing, and another boy with his head and hands laid in defeat on the table before him. Now, which to start with…

Taki's mind slowed, his eyes drifting closed, but his hands never tired, and soon one of the three figures on the paper began to take striking form.

A/N

Mitsuha's jumping to conclusions, please laugh at her.

So Taki may seem a bit OOC here, and it's kind of deliberate – I think that in the short-term Taki would probably be much more heavily affected than Mitsuha, especially since he gets one less year than her to get over everything. He's also much more reliant on his heart than his mind, and seeing how he acted at the end of the film got me thinking that he probably changed a lot as a person after the Itomori incident, more than Mitsuha at least. But don't worry, he won't stay logical for long; he wouldn't be Taki if he did!

For the reviewer asking for more Taki, here you go! It should be around a 65/35 split between Mitsuha and Taki throughout the story, but it all depends on how things go.

Also, I got the chapter out early as I said I would! I think two chapters every three weeks is doable for me, so that will be the schedule from now on. See you in ten days!

Talndir