Chapter 7

I'm getting dressed for school. My uniform is different. I have a red bow just below my neck, and the colours are white and red rather than blue and green. I also have long hair, but I don't know how to tie it properly, so I just make a rough ponytail with a red braided ribbon. I look in the mirror, but I can't remember what I saw.

I leave my bedroom. It's just how it always is when I dream – Japanese style, with tatami mats and sliding doors. Looking out the window, I can see the sky, and there are no large buildings. It's definitely somewhere very far from Tokyo.

I go down the hall and into the living room. I'm asked why I'm wearing my uniform, and going back to my room to look at my calendar I see that today is a Sunday. I can't remember the exact date though. I replace my uniform with a more casual set of clothes.

I can't remember why, but next I'm walking up a hill. It's evening and a little bit cold. It's so green, and so fresh and clean. The old woman and the girl who calls me 'sis' are with me. We come to a stream, and the old woman tells us about knots, and souls, and other things I don't understand. She tells us that beyond the stream is kakuriyo, the realm of the dead.

We cross the stream, and I carry the old woman on my back. She tells us about kuchikamizake, and I see my reflection in the water, but it's moving so much that I can't tell what I see there. My body feels different, but not by much. I'm shorter, and I walk and move differently, but I'm still quite physically fit as I don't feel tired after carrying the woman.

It's kataware-doki.

She asks me if I'm dreaming. I wake up. I'm crying.

〈◆〉

Taki closed the notebook, having just re-read the latest entry in his dream journal. For the last two months he'd been writing down the contents of all his dreams. At first it was impossible to make any sense of them – by the time he'd sluggishly moved to his desk, opened the notebook at the right page and uncapped a pen, he'd forgotten most of the dream. There would just be some vague shapes and sounds – a person's silhouette or the odd spoken word.

But slowly, he managed to piece things together. The dreams still evaporated from his mind faster than he could put them to paper, but he was beginning to spot patterns and make out things that he hadn't previously understood. Taki was sure he'd had this same dream a few times before over the last six months, but only after writing everything down could he connect the dots and really describe what he'd seen and heard.

There were some strange words in there as well. Kuchikamizake – it wasn't the first dream that word had been mentioned. It only took a little research to find out what that was, but why they talk about it so much was still a mystery to Taki. Then there was kakuriyo, which just means underworld. But kataware-doki was a new one. He would have to find out what it meant later. Perhaps he should ask that girl Mitsuha hangs out with sometimes, what was her name…Kana? Apparently she was a bit of a wizard when it came to archaic words and characters.

Mitsuha…it was her arrival that had triggered this. Not that Taki was complaining – on the contrary, finding the one person who could acknowledge and understand his strange feelings and memories was what had spurred him to record his dreams. They hadn't spoken at all about that kind of thing, but he could tell she was trying to figure it out as well, in her own way.

Taki put down the notebook, exchanging it for a sketchbook and some pencils. He'd also started to sketch what he saw in his dreams. Some of them were familiar, almost identical to ones he'd done in the weeks leading up to his visit to Itomori. Others were…not so similar. Only one of the pieces he'd done back then was verifiably of Itomori itself, so it was possible that even if those older sketches were also from his dreams, that they weren't of Itomori at all. And now that the entire town was gone, there was almost no way to check for sure. Unless he showed them to Mitsuha…but that was still pure conjecture.

There was one thing Taki desperately wanted to draw, the one thing that had eluded him thus far in his dreams. Every time he saw a mirror, it was as if a hole had been cut out of his field of vision and he just couldn't see what was reflected back. Immediately after waking, he would still remember the lingering feelings of strangeness, curiosity and…happiness, whenever his dreaming self saw its reflection. But those feelings would turn to frustration as he wrote down the dream's events – I look in the mirror, he would write, then pause, rack his mind and memories, before finally giving up and finishing with but I can't remember what I saw. Even in the stream, no details of his reflection could be made out. It was agonising. All he knew was that he was a girl, and even then it had taken him a good few weeks to realise that long hair, wearing a skirt and having a girl call you 'sis' doesn't tend to happen to guys. But he wanted to know more about this girl whose life he lived in his dreams. He needed to know.

Removing his rain jacket from his rucksack, Taki put his sketchbook in the laptop pouch, then put his pencils into a box and added them to the main compartment. There was still a mostly full water bottle from a few days ago, so he should be good to go. Grabbing his wallet, phone and train pass (just in case), he slung the bag onto his back and left his room.

"Hey Dad, just going out for some sketching."

"No problem." Taki's dad was sitting at the table, a mug of tea in one hand and a newspaper in the other. "Just be back by five, I want to start dinner around then so I can watch the match."

"Five? I'll probably only be out for a few hours max, so I'll definitely be back by then."

After putting on his shoes and heading out the door, Taki made his way through the streets of his district towards Shinjuku Gyoen, a nearby national park. It was only ten minutes' walk away, and he had begun to visit there more often to gain inspiration for his artwork. As someone who prefers the peace of open nature to the hustle and bustle of regular city life, this particular park had become one of his favourite places to come when lacking motivation. More recently, the improving weather and his familiarity with the area meant it was relatively easy to find a well-lit, fairly deserted area to sit in.

Fortunately, it was around ten o'clock so the majority of tourists and other visitors hadn't yet arrived, giving Taki plenty of spots to choose from. Today he wanted to sketch the dream he'd had last night – the one he'd just re-read, of climbing a hill and crossing a stream to reach the underworld. For this one, he wanted an open space, like the depression at the crest of the hill. Being an enormous park meant there were plenty of open spaces, and luckily there was a sizeable one almost devoid of visitors. Seating himself at the edge, he unpacked his pad and pencils, and began to translate the dream he'd experienced into something more tangible.

Over the next hour, Taki sat and sketched, completely absorbed in his work as he overlaid the scene from his dream onto the landscape before him. Although the terrains looked nothing alike, the greenery and serenity of his surroundings allowed Taki to focus intensely on bringing his sometimes distinct, often vague, memories to life. A fair few people had come and gone, but Taki had ignored them all. Some walked on, others paused to briefly look at his work, but none dared approach after seeing his absolute concentration.

It was only when he stopped to sharpen one of his pencils for the second time that he flexed his hands and took a break, finally realising how much time had passed. Taking a good look at his sketch so far, Taki didn't feel any sense of pride or accomplishment, only determination to finish it, and satisfaction at the day's productivity. However, he would get no more out of the park today; knowing this, he briefly rested, took a drink from his bottle, then packed up and left.

…Actually, there was one more thing he could do today. It had come to the point where it was almost guaranteed that the places he was drawing and dreaming of were Itomori – there was just too much evidence, too many links. So instead of walking eastwards towards his home, Taki went north, to Shinjuku-Gyoemmae station. To be honest, he wasn't sure which route would be faster, from Gyoemmae or from Yoyogi, but the latter would need at least one change before he reached his destination, and he was already fairly close to the northern edge of the park. In fact, that station was really close to his favourite café…

〈◆〉

Just under forty minutes and one snack later, Taki arrived at his destination – the National Diet Library, national library of Japan and one of the largest in the world. There was one particular book that he was looking for, one that he was sure the library would have a copy of – "Itomori: The Town that Vanished." It contains all the information there is on Itomori in one single place, including photographs and a list of all the victims…no, that can't be right, since there weren't any victims, were there?

His mind in a mess from conflicting memories of the last time he'd seen the book in question, Taki entered the library through the main entrance. However, the gates wouldn't open for his ID card – it must have expired. He could vaguely remember being told it would only be valid for a year, but it was worth a try anyway. No matter – he'd just turned eighteen one month prior, so there should be no problems in extending the validity or just getting a new one. Taki followed the signs to the visitors' entrance where they issue ID cards, but before even seeing the reception, he heard voices.

"…called a few days ago," a familiar voice was saying.

"One moment…yes, I have you registered here. Please wait for a minute while I make you a day pass." That must be the receptionist speaking. A few moments later, Taki rounded the corner and saw a girl with her hair tied up with a red ribbon. There was no doubt as to who she was.

"Mitsuha?" She turned as her name was called, and her face reflected his own surprise. "What are you doing here?" Mitsuha huffed and crossed her arms, and Taki realised too late the tone he'd just taken. "Um, that is-"

"You do know this is a public library, right? And besides, I could ask you the same question."

Taki scratched his head awkwardly. "Ah, you know what I mean. I just didn't expect to meet anyone I knew here, it's not the kind of place you can find the latest bestsellers. I'm only here because there's a specific book I need to see, and I knew for sure that they'd have it here."

Mitsuha relaxed somewhat and gave her own answer. "I need to look at some old manuscripts and things, and as far as I know, this library has the only copies."

Taki's eyebrows rose questioningly. "Manuscripts? This must be some really old stuff." Since it was the national library of Japan, most important old documents, even ones thousands of years old, were housed here, but why did Mitsuha need them? "What kind of stuff?"

"Eighteenth century." Mitsuha dodged the question, instead countering with one of her own. "What book are you looking for?"

Considering that Taki strongly suspected Mitsuha was from Itomori but didn't yet want to bring it up, that wasn't a question he wanted to answer. "Oh, it's on some…natural disaster, from a while ago. Just something I'm interested in." He tried to make his answer as vague as possible, and although Mitsuha clearly wanted more detail, she was forced to turn towards the receptionist as he handed her her day pass – a single day ID card, unlike Taki's regular one. That reminded him-

"Excuse me, but I think my card's expired. Since I'm eighteen now, could I have it renewed permanently?" The man took the card, scanned it, and started to tap away at a computer.

Usually you need to be over eighteen to be allowed into the library, but there are exceptions for students whose studies would be hindered without access to the special resources and materials the library had to offer. Last year, everyone in second year was required to do a group research project on an important place in Tokyo, and Taki's group had been given the National Diet Library. Since they were researching it, it was only natural that they required access to the building itself, and it had really helped them in their work. Now that he was eighteen, he could just get his existing pass renewed instead of filling out all the paperwork for a new one or getting a temporary day pass like Mitsuha.

"Here you go," the receptionist said as he handed back Taki's card. "The librarian you spoke to a few days ago will be here soon," he informed Mitsuha, before going back to his work.

"Is someone taking you around?" Taki asked.

"The documents I'm looking for are really old and are originals, and some of them are badly damaged, so the librarian I talked to over the phone will be showing me them." She still hadn't elaborated on what those documents were, but since he'd deliberately avoided telling her the same, it would be best not to push it.

"Alright, well I need to find my book. There are electronic catalogues back in the main lobby, so I guess I'll catch you later." He walked past Mitsuha and scanned his newly renewed card, and this time the gate opened. Just before he left, purely on impulse, he looked back – and saw Mitsuha looking at him and smiling slightly. She raised her eyebrows at him, questioning why he was turning back towards her, and he glimpsed one end of the red cord that always tied her hair.

"Do you…do you want to meet up later? After you're done?" Taki's voice was calm and easily carried over the few metres that separated them, but what was coming out his mouth was only just being registered by his brain, and his heartrate quickened. "Since we're here and all…"

Mitsuha's face was momentarily surprised, but then her smile grew. "Yes, I would be delighted. Should we just meet here?" There were a few chairs and tables around, so it was a decent place to wait.

"Yeah, sure. See you later." With a small wave, Taki turned and rounded the corner – but not before catching the eye of the receptionist, who was trying to hide a tiny smile.

〈◆〉

Using one of the digital catalogues in the main lobby, Taki soon found the book he was looking for. In fact, the library didn't have any physical copies – the only way to view the book was digitally, so he went upstairs to find a computer. The library was very quiet, as most libraries are, but also quite empty. It wasn't difficult to find an empty desk, and he sat down and logged in with his ID card number. Opening the book viewing service, he searched for the book he needed and opened it up in the viewer.

Itomori: The Town that Vanished.

He'd flicked through it once several months ago but couldn't remember much. It was probably in Hida, when he'd taken that trip to Itomori last autumn. It was definitive guide on Itomori. Since the town was so small and unknown, there wasn't much information about it, and not that many photographs, but everything that could be found would be in the book, Taki was sure of it.

To be honest with himself, he didn't really know why he was reading it. There was just a feeling that there might be something to trigger some forgotten memories, or a way to definitively prove (or disprove) that his dreams were actually of Itomori.

Taki opened the digital book at the first page, which contained a double-page spread of a photo of Itomori before it was destroyed. You could see the entire town, curving around the perfectly circular lake, and the way it simply sat there alongside nature reminded him exactly why he liked the country so much. Taki didn't recognise anything, but he couldn't remember ever having any dreams of actually leaving Itomori; it was to be expected that he wouldn't have seen such an image before, except of course from the last time he'd looked through this book nine months ago. Over the image was written the date of the impact – October 4th, 2015. Moving along to the next page, Taki began to read the introduction:

Itomori: The Town that Vanished.

On the eve of October 4th 2015, the small town of Itomori, located near Hida city in the prefecture of Gifu, was completely and utterly destroyed. During the preceding month, comet Tiamat had been visible over the skies of Japan, with its beautiful colours gracefully trailing after it every night. The splitting of this comet, for reasons still yet unknown, caused a large piece to fall to Earth; it was this that erased the very existence of the town known as Itomori.

Miraculously, there were no fatalities – all 1,500 residents were evacuated safely, and there were only 104 injuries, none of them more serious than concussion and minor memory loss. Even more incredible is the legend passed down among the Itomori residents – that the lake along which Itomori laid was in fact formed by a falling comet around 1,200 years ago. Many of them believe that the comet that destroyed their hometown, and the one that formed it, are one and the same.

Now, almost one year on, most of those residents have moved away and put the terrifying disaster behind them, but some of them have been willing to recount their experiences for us in this book. We will explain Itomori's history and culture, complete with…

Taki skipped that last bit and moved on to the next page, where he was greeted with a two-page photograph of Itomori in ruins. His breath caught, as a surge of unexplained emotions rushed up through his stomach and chest, but still he forced himself to take a good look. The town was unrecognisable, with a second circular depression partially overlapping the original one, turning the lake's shape into an eight. Collapsed buildings and rubble were everywhere, with only a few buildings at one end of the town left relatively unscathed. It was completely uninhabitable.

Taki began to click through the pages, ignoring most of the text and focusing on the photographs. Some parts seemed strangely familiar, while others were completely foreign to him. The first part of the book focused on Itomori's destruction, with a lot of before and after photos of various important areas and around the actual impact site. Seeing one particular image, Taki recalled the scene he'd been drawing earlier that morning. He opened up a web browser and navigated to Google Maps, searching for 'Itomori' in the top bar.

As expected, the satellite imagery was of the now-destroyed town. However, Taki wasn't looking for the town itself, but a hill located very close to it. After a few minutes of searching, he found it, confirming his suspicions.

Before him was an aerial photograph of a plateau in a depression atop a hill just outside the town. In the centre was a stone structure, and around it was a stream. There was no doubt about it – this was kakuriyo, the underworld he had dreamed about. The hill, the water, the grass…all was exactly as he had dreamt and drawn.

Taki let out the breath he had been subconsciously holding in, and his body relaxed. So it's true, I really do have some sort of connection with that place. For so long, he had been confused and conflicted by his obsession with a small town in the country, not even remembering what had happened on his visit there. But now he had confirmation. While it still didn't answer the question of what those dreams really meant, it at least put his mind to ease, knowing that whatever was going on wasn't just all a silly fantasy. Those dreams…no, those memories, they were real, in one way or another.

Given sudden energy by this weight coming off his shoulders, Taki switched back to his reading application and continued to run through the pages, hoping to spot more landmarks he could remember from his dream journal. Damn, I should've brought it with me, and all my drawings too. Taki always tore out his artwork and stored it safely once he was finished with it, so currently the only piece in the sketchbook he was carrying was the drawing he had been doing that day. Trying to recall as much of his dreams and drawings as he could, he nearly missed a single word that struck out at him like lightning.

Miyamizu. He was sure he'd just seen…there! Two pages back, in the section on the cultural traditions of Itomori, there was the name. Miyamizu Shrine. A shrine…so Mitsuha was from a family of shrine maidens? The image looked very familiar – a torii gate at the top of a stone flight of stairs. Below was some more information, and Taki read it eagerly, long-forgotten memories reliving themselves in his mind between the words:

The Miyamizu have been a family of miko for over a thousand years. Although belief in the old Shinto gods is waning, the shrine still stood as the centrepiece of the town, with a long, established history of tradition and respect. The shrine was closely tied to the affairs of the town, with the last mayor, Miyamizu Toshiki, even taking their name when marrying into the family-

He tells me I must be sick, that it comes from her mother, not him, and it makes me rage. He continues in that hard, emotionless voice, threatening to call a doctor and have me taken to a hospital. Such mistrust in his own daughter – my blood boils and I grab him by his tie, one foot on his desk and my mouth spraying spittle into his face. "You son of a…!" Finally I coerce something out of him as his face twists in fear. "Mitsuha! No…who…who are you?"

The shrine is, of course, the primary location of all festival activities, which makes it even more incredible that there were no fatalities – the comet in fact struck on the day of the autumn festival, directly onto the shrine itself.

"Grandma, listen. A comet will strike Itomori tonight and everyone will die," I tell her grandmother. "Nobody will believe that," she replies, but I can't bring myself to get angry at her. If she knows about the dreams as well, and if they really were all for what will happen today, then I'm the only one who can change things. No, not me – she is the only one…

Legend goes that the lake around which Itomori lay was formed by the falling of a comet, and the shrine paid tribute to the god who brought it down; many residents believe that the falling of the comet once again was inevitable, just the way things were meant to be.

"It's just a what-if, right?" But I know better. "Do you know how Lake Itomori was formed?" And then they realise that the meteor that struck this land centuries ago will strike once again tonight, and that we are the only ones who can do anything. Us – and her.

The most important tradition of the Miyamizu is that of cord-braiding (see next page) – weaving together hundreds of strands of thread in an extremely specific pattern, yielding beautiful cords of incredible strength and resilience. Unfortunately, the meaning of the patterns and the weaving has been lost through time.

"Musubi?" I ask. "Musubi is the old way of calling the local guardian god. This word has profound meaning." I don't quite understand what she's saying, but I don't interrupt. "It means 'tying thread.' It also means 'connecting people' and 'the flow of time.' These are all the god's power. So the braided cords that we make are the god's art, which represent the flow of time itself."

Below: Miko perform their traditional dance at a festival, before creating kuchikamizake to offer to their deity. This image, taken with a spectator's phone, is the only known photograph of this beautiful performance. Yet another piece of tradition is lost to the Itomori incident.

We've crossed the stream and move towards the stone structure where the god of the Miyamizu lies. "In exchange for returning to this world, you must leave behind what is most important to you. The kuchikamizake." I'm confused. "The kuchikamizake?" I ask. "You'll offer it inside the god's body. It's half of you," she explains. I feel overwhelmed. What I'm holding, is no less than half of her…half of-

Below is an image of two girls doing a traditional dance at the shrine, wearing pale make-up and white kimono, holding and swinging golden bells and red ribbons.

But I don't even need to look to know who it will be. Because I didn't just dream her life, I lived it. The girl I see in the mirror every time I sleep…is Mitsuha.

A/N

The threads are coming together (pun completely intended)! Finally, we get to see what Taki's been up to. The book 'Itomori: The Town that Vanished' is featured in the film – you can see Taki reading it in the library in Hida. Thanks to that, and his diligent sketching and, uh, dream-journaling? Well anyway, he's finally convinced that he and Mitsuha have something going, and they can finally have a heart-to-heart – that is, if I let them…

To clarify, the timeskip is between two and three months – if that wasn't clear, please say so and I will add something a bit more obvious. Next chapter we will see what Mitsuha has been doing, and rest assured, she hasn't been idle. The story is finally kicking into a higher gear!

Thanks so much for the reviews, but unfortunately I can't respond to them if you post as a guest, sorry! Here's a pretty hilarious one I got from an anon:

"Finally, another of the predicted 10% of Sturgeon's law.

It's not filling in one of the gaps, so this is an AU. Seems good, not a fucking rip of the movie script. Decent grammar, characters talk naturally.

Oh right, there is something wrong. All works like these come from college students strapped on time, feelsbadman. Have fun with your lectures lol"

Made me chuckle. Anyway, thanks for reading!

Talndir

23/10/2018: Reworded a sentence, fixed Taki treating a digital book like a physical one (thanks Le (guest) and bigpboy).