Chapter 3

Taki slapped at his bedside table before finally finding his phone and turning the bleeping alarm off. He'd deliberately set it to something as annoying as possible to force him to get up. Fat lot of good that did when he could turn it off without even getting out of bed! Yet somehow, he was at least disciplined enough to be on time for school. Sure, he skipped afternoon classes for work sometimes, but you can't be late if you don't turn up at all…

For some reason, he felt more groggy than usual this morning. Sitting up and rubbing his face, he looked around his room and remembered why he was so sleepy. He'd fallen asleep at his desk in the middle of a new sketch, and had woken up a few hours later to find he'd almost crumpled the paper with his sleeping body. Luckily there was only a minor fold in one corner, his progress so far just as he had left it.

Pulling his covers off himself, he went to the bathroom to wash his face and get dressed. Since his dad worked from home he often ended up working through the night and getting up long after Taki had left for school. Today was no exception, so Taki made himself some eggs and toast for breakfast as he tried to remember what he had dreamed about the previous night. They'd had noodles the previous night which meant no leftover rice, so he also put a cup into the rice cooker for lunch.

That's strange, I almost always have a dream of some sort. But I can't remember a thing this morning. It was unusual for Taki not to dream about, well, whatever it was he dreamed about. The problem was that while he knew he always dreamed about the same things each night, he could never remember them in any detail. Ever since Itomori he'd been getting these recurring dreams and would sometimes try to draw what he remembered once he woke, but for once his mind was absolutely clear.

Cleaning the dishes, making lunch, brushing his teeth – it was the usual routine. Yet as Taki grabbed his bag and checked everything was inside, he felt as though something had changed. Glancing over at his desk, he put down his bag and moved closer. To be honest, he couldn't even remember what he was drawing when he fell asleep, but a quick inspection told him it was a scene from the day before. Rough outlines of a café decked with tables and chairs, two boys sitting in front of empty plates…

…and a girl, leaning back and laughing. Her face was still a simple oval and a few lightly sketched lines, but her hair was a book of details. The black locks, elegantly tied up into a style no-one but her could pull off, fastened with a hand-crafted ribbon whose method of braiding had been passed down through the Miyamizu family for over a millennium. Even while half asleep he had given that ribbon more detail than anyone but its creator or owner could know, and both of those happened to be Mitsuha herself.

Perhaps he had been dreaming after all.

〈◆〉

It was only a few minutes' walk from the flat Taki shared with his father to Shinanomachi station, where he would beard the Chuo line going west, then change at Yoyogi to go south until-

That hair. It was there. Right in front of him, just along the carriage. The hair with the braided cord, the one he'd drawn, the girl whose name he didn't know…wait a minute. He does know her name, and it's Mitsuha, there's no reason to panic so much, calm down Taki, you met her yesterday, no, you met her long before that, back when the dreams started…

Taki waded through the other passengers entering the carriage and, after rudely pushing past some older men, ended up just next to Mitsuha, who was trying to find a handhold before the train started moving. He lightly tapped her on one shoulder, and as she turned to look at him her ribbon disappeared from view to be replaced by a face of mild surprise.

"Taki-kun?" the surprised face asked, as the train doors closed.

"Good morning, Mitsuha. I didn't realise you took this train." Taki spoke the first reasonable thing that came to mind, since in true Tachibana fashion he had not planned this conversation at all.

"I live quite close to here, in 3-chome, Yoyogi. It's the closest station."

"Ah, so that's where you live. I'm in Shinjuku, so I come along Chuo and then change here." Yoyogi, huh? He'd forgotten to ask where she'd moved to yesterday, or he would've known she'd take this route. "Near the park?"

"Yeah, quite close, Yotsuha really-" The next sound to come out of the girl's mouth was more of a small 'eep' than an actual word as the train jerked forward and began its journey south, accelerating rapidly. Mitsuha, having been distracted by Taki at precisely the wrong moment, ended up with nothing to hold on to and fell rather ungracefully right into Taki's chest. Luckily for them both, he was born and bred in Tokyo and had the instincts that came with frequent subway travel - one hand steadied the girl leaning against him while the other snatched out to grab a metal rail just above and behind his head, keeping them both from falling over in an undignified heap.

Mitsuha looked up at her saviour with slightly red cheeks, and they looked at each other a moment before she stepped back and opted to hold Taki's arm for support. "Sorry about that. You don't mind if I…"

"Ah, er, not at all." Mitsuha looked away from him awkwardly, and the pair fell into an uncomfortable silence, with only the noise of the train and a couple hundred fellow passengers to keep them company. The train slowed and stopped, the doors opened, passengers boarded and alit, the doors shut once again and they continued on their way. Taki's thoughts didn't stray far from the girl holding his arm, and eventually he couldn't contain himself anymore.

"Do you remember me?" Taki blurted out.

The world blurred and faded away, and only the two of them remained, as Mitsuha looked up to see the serious and vulnerable look on the otherwise calm face of the boy she was holding onto. Driven by impulse and emotion, Taki had asked the question on both of their minds, and neither were truly ready for it.

"I…I…" Mitsuha struggled to form the words, as she didn't yet know what her answer was. In truth, she couldn't even explain the meaning of the question were someone to ask her. Just then, the train began to turn and the noise amplified threefold, obliterating any chance of conversation between the two.

Taki looked into Mitsuha's sad eyes, before moving his gaze down to her mouth, trying to read the words her lips were forming. He could already imagine her mouthing a 'no' – what she was saying no to, he couldn't be sure. Was it 'I don't know'? Was it 'I don't understand'? Was it…was it, 'I don't remember'? Yet as Mitsuha's strengthening grip on his shoulder brought him back to reality, he saw no words, only tears in the corners of her eyes and a nodding, slightly smiling face. And as the train straightened, slowed and quietened, pulling into Shibuya station, she pulled herself closer to him and explained in a bittersweet tone.

"I see you in my dreams. I just wish I could remember them."

〈◇〉

Mitsuha and Taki entered the classroom together. They had walked in companionable silence since they had left the train, comfortable in the knowledge that whatever bond they felt they shared was real, even if they didn't understand it. To simply have those feelings acknowledged was enough, for now.

"Do you know where I sit, Mitsuha?" Taki asked, glancing around the half-full classroom. "I wasn't here yesterday, I'm assuming you already did all the seating and stuff?"

"Yeah, I think you sit there." Mitsuha pointed at a desk near the centre of the room, second row from the front. "It was the only empty one yesterday." Moving towards her own desk, she put her bag down and began to unpack her things. There were only a few minutes until first period, and she wanted to make a good impression.

"Good morning." Mitsuha had been so absorbed in her own thoughts, she almost missed Hiraoka's greeting.

"Ah, good morning Hiraoka. I didn't notice you." Taking her seat, Mitsuha looked over to see Hiraoka looking at her slightly strangely, with a hint of concern in her face.

"I couldn't help but notice that you were talking to Tachibana earlier." She leaned in, and her face became serious as she lowered her voice. "You know, you should be careful around him. He's trouble, and even more so than usual these past few months. I'd advise keeping your distance."

Mitsuha smiled a cheeky smile. "That's funny, he said the same about you. In fact, he and Fujii told me a hilarious story about you two." She had to contain her laughter as the other girl's eyebrows shot up her forehead, nearly disappearing behind her fringe. Just then, the door closed and Mitsuha glanced across to see the teacher had arrived. Both girls leaned back into their seats, one with confused and troubled eyes, the other with amusement written all over her face.

〈◇〉

After a pretty useless fifteen minutes of homeroom, the class had two fairly relaxed lessons, taking them to eleven o'clock. Since it was the first lesson of each subject, the teachers were generally quite laid-back and ended up mostly going over last year's material, quickly running through the coming year's curriculum and checking who would be applying for their subject at university later in the year. For Mitsuha this meant making sure she knew everything that was expected of her and asking about anything she hadn't covered when she'd retaken her second year.

Usually classes ran until twelve, there was a one-hour lunch break, and then three more classes until four, but today there seemed to be an extra hour's break for some reason.

"Hey Hiraoka, why are classes stopping early? I thought lunch wasn't until midday." Mitsuha turned to the girl who sat next to her, slightly confused at all the students getting up and chatting when there should be their next teacher coming along any minute. "Is it to do with why so many students are absent today?"

"They're not absent, they're running the club activities fair. On the second day of term there's always an extended lunch break to give everyone enough time to have a look around." Hiraoka stood as she spoke. "It's mainly for first-years, to show them what kind of clubs are on offer. I don't know about the school you came from, but here clubs aren't compulsory, although you are generally expected to join one. Most third-years drop out because of entrance exams, but it's still worth having a look."

"Wow, I had no idea. Are there that many clubs that they need so much time to show them all?" Mitsuha stood as well and followed Hiraoka out the classroom with the other students, and joined the crowd making its way to the main yard at the front of the school. "My school was pretty small, so we didn't have that many clubs."

"How big was it?"

"Around 250 students, maybe? I don't know the exact number."

"That's pretty small for a senior high school, you'll be lucky to find one around here with less than twice that."

"Oh no, that wasn't the senior high, that was everything."

Hiraoka stopped in the middle of the busy corridor and turned to face her blissfully ignorant country friend. "What do you mean, everything? It was a combined junior and senior high? That's even smaller then!"

"No, I mean everything. Elementary, middle, and junior and senior high schools." By now people were starting to glare at them. "We really shouldn't just stand here like this, it's blocking everyone's way…"

"Twelve grades?!" Hiraoka nearly shouted, causing even more glares, and Mitsuha began to mutter apologies to nearby students as she attempted to physically turn her friend around and get her moving. "Twelve grades with 250 students total? That's one, no, less than one full class per grade!" She'd finally managed to get the girl moving, albeit at a snail's pace. "That averages at twenty students per grade, which means if we take the average lifespan to be eighty years old then that means…"

Hiraoka stopped once again in the middle of the corridor and Mitsuha had to suppress her frustration as she began to once again try to bodily push her along. Then the other girl turned with her eyes wide.

"Sixteen hundred?! That was the population of your entire town?"

"Fifteen hundred actually, and can we please stop with the shouting? It's kind of annoying everyone."

"I knew you were from the country, but I guess I had no idea. You really do come from the middle of nowhere…"

"You were right, Taki. So very right about her," Mitsuha muttered as she finally lost her patience and literally dragged Hiraoka along by the arm.

〈◇〉

Just inside the school's entrance, in the gym and across the tennis courts were stalls representing every single club at Jingu high. Run by second- and third-years, their goal was simple: attract as many freshers as they could and grow their club's numbers. Each stall varied greatly – some of the smaller clubs simply had a desk and banner with a few flyers to hand out, while the sports clubs boasted much larger groups of students with some live martial arts demonstrations and even competitions.

After Hiraoka had recovered from her revelation as to how small some parts of her country really were, she accompanied Mitsuha around the stalls. In truth, she was simply accompanying her because the alternative would mean having a two-hour lunch break completely alone, but at least part of her genuinely wanted to show off the variety at her school. Not that it was particularly difficult to boast to Mitsuha – the school was almost the size of her entire town, after all.

Mitsuha was definitely impressed, mainly by the sheer size and numbers. Back in Itomori they had barely enough students in the football club to field an entire team, let alone six different martial arts clubs and multiple teams for several different sports! Not to mention the incredible variety in both the academic and cultural clubs. Despite being in her final year, Mitsuha was as excited as the first-years and really wanted to join a club , just to get the full Japanese high school experience. However, she was worried about time commitments – and rightly so, as many clubs demanded attendance after school every day and throughout the holidays as well.

Hiraoka could read the conflict in her new friend's face all too well; it was a dilemma she had been in herself since she'd joined the school two years ago. It wasn't that she had that much to do outside school, but rather that the time necessitated would become too restricting and she would have to ditch the club just to get her own life back. Aware of the problems worrying Mitsuha's thoughts, she made sure to direct her towards some of the more laid-back clubs available.

"Most of the clubs in here don't need much commitment – a few two-hour meetings a week, probably nothing over the summer or winter holidays." Hiraoka advised Mitsuha on the best clubs to satisfy her needs as she guided her into the school gym. "They'll also be fairly relaxed about attendance since you're already a third-year."

Mitsuha looked over at Hiraoka as they entered the building together. "What about you, Hiraoka? Were you part of any clubs last year? Will you be joining anything this time?" The stalls were arranged in a large rectangle with some more in the centre, and the two girls began to orbit around the edges of the room as Mitsuha briefly examined each one.

"I was in the tea ceremony club for two years. It was three two-hour meetings a week, and the teacher who ran it was-" Before she could continue, Mitsuha firmly cut her off with a sharpness she hadn't seem from her before.

"No thanks, I've already had my fair share of ceremonies, tea included, and I'm not about to volunteer to do more." She'd already spent her entire life so far as a shrine maiden, she hadn't moved to Tokyo to do even more boring rituals and ceremonies!

Hiraoka raised an eyebrow at Mitsuha's sudden outburst and displeased face. "…Okay, well nobody's forcing you. I didn't expect you were trained in that sort of thing though."

"More than you know, and far more than I would like."

Mitsuha continued past more stalls, Hiraoka falling behind as she thought on what her friend had just said. They passed more clubs, none of them really catching Mitsuha's eye – drama, calligraphy, literature, broadcasting…

…literature? That seemed interesting. She'd never been that keen of a reader, but Japanese language and literature were subjects she enjoyed and had already considered studying at university. Besides, if it was just a reading club, it should be pretty lax about, well, everything really. Just read some books in your own time, check in with the club once or twice a week, maybe discuss whatever you'd read or recommend new material to each other – it seemed the perfect way to kill some time without shackling yourself to a demanding schedule.

At the stall was a boy Mitsuha didn't recognise, but he noticed her looking over and gave her a shy smile. Leaving Hiraoka trailing behind her, she went over to talk to the boy.

"Hi, are you interested in joining the literature club?" He was clearly a bit nervous, and some of that nervousness rubbed off on Mitsuha as she asked him about the club's activities.

She'd been mostly right – the club met twice a week, collectively decided which books to read and then gave a reasonable number of chapters to read between each meeting. There they would discuss what they'd read and talk about anything they found interesting in broader literature. The club was of a fair size, with around thirty members last year and the same expected turnout this year. However, along with reading:

"Wait, you write as well?" Mitsuha found herself unreasonably surprised; it was only natural that those interested in reading would also want to try their hand at writing, they were two sides of the same coin after all.

"Yes, we write short stories and poetry." The boy had got more comfortable talking to her, and his excitement was beginning to show. "Personally, I find the creative aspect of writing your own fiction to be far more enjoyable than simply enjoying others' work, although of course a writer must always be consuming new and varied forms of literature," he nodded wisely.

While they had been chatting, Hiraoka had appeared beside Mitsuha, looking slightly bored. "They write a book every year and present it at the cultural festival. Last year was a book of poetry; it was okay, nothing fantastic. Not that I'm a poetry connoisseur or anything."

"You seem like quite the reading type actually, Hiraoka. Why didn't you join?" Mitsuha suggested.

"I prefer to keep my reading to myself, and my writing too."

"Ah, so you write? What kind of writing do you do?" the boy interjected, fishing for a potential new member.

Hiraoka's face went slightly red, and she looked away in dignified embarrassment, or as close to it as one can get. "…you didn't hear that."

Hehe, I won't forget this, my friend. It seemed the brusque girl had some interesting sides to her, and Mitsuha wasn't about to let this valuable information go that easily. But there were more pressing matters to attend to – Mitsuha was completely uninterested in writing herself, and publishing in a book with the other students of the club seemed very intimidating. But at the same time, reading other people's work and helping them improve sounded surprisingly fun.

"Do you, um, have to write? I mean, can you join and only do the reading?" Mitsuha fiddled with her hands, still unsure about whether to join or not. If she had to write, then it was a definite no, but if there was a choice then she may still give it a shot. Out of all the clubs she'd seen, the sports clubs could be dismissed immediately, followed by anything about Japanese culture or heritage, and finally narrowed even more by time commitment. For some reason, she really wanted to join a club and be a part of something bigger, and this seemed to be one of the only clubs to fit the bill.

"Well…" the boy began, and Mitsuha's heart sank. "I suppose we are primarily a literature club, so reading and discussing existing literature is our main objective. I don't think anyone will mind if you would rather not contribute directly to the book, but of course you will then have to help in other ways. Yes, in fact the student who did all the formatting for the poetry book has left now, so perhaps you can fill that role…"

"So I can join and not write? It's just, that's not something I'm too interested in."

"Yes, I'm sure no-one will object."

I'll quote you on that if I have to, Mitsuha thought. "So when do you meet?"

"Mondays and Thursdays, after school in class 2-1. We usually start with one-hour meetings, but they tend to get longer as we begin to plan for the book and the cultural festival."

"There are no clubs first week anyway, so you can decide next Monday whether you want to go or not." Hiraoka had recovered from her earlier slip-up and was tapping one foot impatiently, probably eager to go and eat her lunch.

"Alright then, I'll decide by then. Thanks," she said to the boy before turning away and walking quickly to catch up to Hiraoka's furious pace.

"So, Hiraoka, you do some writing of your own?" Hiraoka seemed the type to mainly keep to herself and not leak much of her personal life to others, so Mitsuha was definitely going to ruthlessly tease her with any interesting information she could get.

"Don't even start. You should just forget you ever heard that." Her face was down and her eyes narrow, and the girl began to pick up her pace even more. Mitsuha hurried after her.

"It's nothing to be ashamed about. You could join too, you know."

"I said forget about it!" Hiraoka snapped at Mitsuha under her breath, quietly but still with some force. If she was this upset over it, it was probably best to drop the issue. She'd rather not push it too much if it was something sensitive, although why it would be so touchy was beyond her. Even if you didn't show anyone what you wrote, there was nothing embarrassing about others knowing about it, right?

Except there was, Mitsuha realised. After all, hadn't she been in the same position herself? She had been a miko, a shrine maiden, and she had despised how everyone had known about it. By itself it wouldn't have been so bad but combined with her dad's position as mayor it had made life pretty trying at times. A lot of adults seemed to think it was a great honour and a fantastic opportunity to be involved in both the culture and politics of Itomori, but unlike her sister, Mitsuha found the whole thing to be annoying and socially difficult.

The worst was when people she knew from school would come to see her and Yotsuha perform their rituals at the shrine. The ancient dances and costumes were bad enough, but it didn't end there – every year they had to make kuchikamizake, alcohol made by fermenting rice with virgin spit. Knowing that some of her classmates were watching her chew rice and spit it into a pot was almost unbearable, and she'd had to do it annually since she was a young child.

No wonder she wanted to avoid any kind of ceremony club like the plague. And while sharing your writing was understandably uncomfortable, Mitsuha could appreciate why many would prefer to keep quiet about even the fact that they write at all.

"I'm sorry. It's embarrassing for people to know stuff like that about you – I know that better than most. I won't bring it up again."

Hiraoka slowed her walking to a normal pace and looked up at Mitsuha; her tone of voice had surprised her. And sure enough, her face had become serious, and her eyes had lost their previous amusement. Hiraoka filed this information away for later and decided to change the subject to something lighter.

"Earlier, in the classroom, you mentioned something about Tachibana; something to do with me. What were you referring to? I don't recall ever doing anything noteworthy with that boy."

"Ah, that." Mitsuha's smile returned, and she looked over at Hiraoka again. "Fujii-san told me all about it. About how you got back at Taki-kun for losing your pen by blowing up his chemistry experiment. He's still kind of terrified of you, you know. How long ago did that happen, anyway?"

Hiraoka looked at her blankly. "You mean that time he didn't pay attention and had to clean the labs for two weeks? What's that got to do with me?"

Now it was Mitsuha's turn to look confused. "Huh? Taki-kun said it was you who set up the whole thing. To get back at him for losing your pen, or something petty like that." Both girls had stopped now, standing outside the gym with confused faces.

"That wasn't me, that was just Tachibana. He genuinely can't tell the difference between magnesium and zinc. You're saying he thinks it was me? Over him losing my pen? I'm quite a petty person, but I'm not that petty." Hiraoka made a slight 'Ah!' as she came to a realisation. "So that's why he bought me an eight-pack of the same pen the very next day! I just thought he felt really bad about it, but I suppose he thought I'd set him up."

"So it really wasn't you? It was just his own, well, stupidity?"

"Basically, yeah. Way to jump to conclusions, Tachibana. I didn't think my opinion of you could get any lower, but I guess it just did."

And with that heartless remark, the shorter girl turned away and walked back to her classroom, the older girl following behind, shaking her head.

"You were right, Taki. So very right about her."

〈◇〉

Mitsuha collapsed onto her bed, face-first, and exhaled.

"I'm tired." Why do we have beds? Why can't I just have a nice floor to sleep on? What's wrong with just rolling up in a futon, huh? Just 'cause we're in the middle of Tokyo…

After several months of doing basically nothing all day every day, Mitsuha was woefully unprepared for school life. She was hungry at eleven, nodding off by one, and absolutely exhausted by the time she'd come though the front door at four. She'd nearly fallen asleep on the train and it was barely mid-afternoon!

"I can't deal with this every day…" Turning her head so her face was free to breathe in air instead of her duvet, she closed her eyes for just a moment…

… and opened them a few seconds later. Next to her bed was a number in red, on the front of the clock on her bedside table. Eighteen. Eighteen, huh? What's that in twelve-hour format? Four? No, five…no, it has to be even. Six, then…SIX?!

Mitsuha shot up, instantly feeling dizzy at getting up too quickly. She'd been asleep for over an hour! Six o'clock meant Dad would be home any minute, and nobody had started dinner, and where were grandma and Yotsuha, anyway? Taking a few moments to recover, she left her room and moved down the hall to her sister's room, slightly opening the door and peeking in. In the light of the sunset she could barely make out Yotsuha's prone form, lying in foetal position. It seemed both of them had had an exhausting day.

Mitsuha allowed herself a wan smile. Life was going to get a whole lot more interesting from now on.

A/N

This wasn't supposed to happen like this, but it just kinda did. The scene on the train was 100% improvised, for better or worse, but I think it's solved some of the issues I would've had without it.

I initially predicted 10-20 chapters; at the moment it's looking closer to 8-12 otherwise the middle section (which is beginning in a couple of chapters) will just be dull and far too drawn out. There's a certain scene that this entire story is building to, and the story's overall length will depend on how far past that scene I decide to go. But that isn't for a good while yet.

Thanks for the reviews!

Talndir