Chapter 11

It was the day of the cultural festival. The event itself was impossible to miss – arriving an hour earlier than usual, and on a Saturday to boot, Taki was greeted by banners, signs and posters outside the gates. On the inside, many students and teachers were setting up stalls and booths. The entire school was being transformed for just this day. But the effort was much greater than it seemed; with over a month of preparations, everyone had been kept busy, especially the student council. Tsukasa had been doing more than his fair share of work to prepare for this, so Taki hoped it would all pay off, for his friend's sake at least.

Taki weaved between the stalls, all in varying stages of assembly, and entered the main building. He switched to his indoor shoes and took the usual route to his classroom, where he was expected any minute now. He should count himself lucky – many students had done much more work and had had to arrive much earlier than him. Still, he couldn't stifle a sigh as he entered the classroom.

For the cultural festival, each class held some sort of event that everyone was required to participate in. Supervised by their homeroom teacher, the students would decide on, plan, organise and run any event of their choice. In addition, many clubs also had their own activities, which meant people tended to be stretched pretty thin. There was also the matter of choosing something everyone agreed on, which usually ended with a vote, hence how a lot of classes ended up with something simple and easy. But to choose a café…how boring could you possibly be?

The second-place choice had been a music recital – music from popular singers, films and anime – which would've been performed in the gym three or four times during the festival. Sure he'd probably end up playing the triangle, but that was infinitely better than waiting on his fellow students for half the day. Then Hiraoka with her big mouth had told everyone he worked as a waiter part-time and suddenly he was made in charge of training everyone. Now everyone treated him as the resident expert, partly in mockery…

Only a few people had arrived – good, he wasn't late – and were setting up tables according to a plan they'd drawn up a few days before. Part of the room, farthest from the door, was sectioned off as the 'kitchen'. Originally they were only going to make tea, coffee and other drinks, and serve pre-made cakes and pastries, but somehow someone had managed to source two (semi-) portable electric ovens, which had prompted a few of his classmates to decide to become bakers for the day. He was pretty sure it was Tsukasa's influence in the student council that had got the idea through the health and safety paperwork, for better or for worse.

Well, at least he wasn't trying to juggle two things at once. Many students, Mitsuha included, were spending some time with the class and some with their club, which meant less manpower overall. Everyone also got half the day off to actually enjoy the festival of course, which meant an even smaller workforce. Depending on how busy it got in here, things might get pretty tight. Luckily he had trained his classmates well. Hopefully, it would all be a success.

〈◇〉

Mitsuha had arrived even earlier than needed, yet she wasn't in the classroom with the majority of her classmates. Instead she was busy carrying boxes of books, wood and other things from one of the school's storerooms to where the literature club stall was. It was one of the smallest stalls, but that was because it was one of the simplest – all they had to do was sell books and advertise the club. Unfortunately they had ended up with a sub-optimal location, which was to be expected as their stall wasn't going to be that popular. Several would be serving food, so those would of course get all the prime spots and also more space per stall, leaving the smaller stalls such as theirs in the less desirable locations.

However, that didn't mean the literature club had little to offer. Along with the book they had collectively written, they also sold all the books students needed for school, such as books read for Japanese class, textbooks and exam preparation guides. The books were sold at a discount, and even though you could order a lot of them through the school, the literature club still managed to sell a fair few each cultural festival. They also gave book reviews and recommendations, although not many people would come to the stall just for those.

After carrying several boxes of books to and fro, Mitsuha was exhausted and took a short break. Man, why didn't they give me a wheelbarrow… Books being made of paper, and paper of trees, meant a box of books was about as heavy as a large block of wood – that is, far too heavy for a not-completely-fit girl of eighteen to heave about for twenty minutes on end.

Before long her time was up, and she was needed by her own class to set up their little café. She would work in the classroom for a couple of hours, then at the book stall for a couple more, before finally having the afternoon off to explore and actually experience the festival. Since she had arrived early to help with setting everything up, she wouldn't be needed to pack everything away in the evening, which was a relief.

Mitsuha arrived at her classroom to find the desks and chairs rearranged and the temporary kitchen already under construction. It looked like there were around a dozen students so far, which was about right, since only half the class was required to arrive early. The desks had been pushed together in pairs or fours, with chairs set around them to make tables. Some desks had been used for the kitchen area, and the teacher's desk near the door was going to be used to hold menus; the person in charge of seating would stand there and seat guests as they arrived. At least, that was the idea – Mitsuha was pretty sure nobody had actually been assigned to make the menus, which meant they probably didn't exist. The tables were currently being covered in tablecloths by Taki, who was so engrossed in perfectly aligning the table he was working on that he didn't notice Mitsuha sneak up behind him.

"Good Morning, Mr Head Waiter! Miyamizu reporting for duty!" she announced, trying to startle him. Unfortunately, the general noise level in the room meant he barely even made out what she had said.

"Nice of you to finally turn up, Miss Book Girl. And please don't call me that, the others are already making it difficult enough as it is," he responded without turning. "How long have we got?"

"Around half an hour, a bit more. And I already told you I was going to be a bit late because of the literature club." Which was true. It was expected that some students would be involved in their club's activities as well, which meant they would be doing a shorter shift, arriving later or leaving earlier, as organised with the rest of the class. "What needs doing?"

Taki finished perfecting his current table and finally turned to address her. "Everyone else is here, so you should take the girls to the changing rooms and get changed. Us guys will go down once you're done."

Nodding in confirmation, Mitsuha rounded up the other six girls and relayed Taki's order. Together they collected their bags and went down two floors to the gym changing rooms. Once inside, the girls began unpacking their clothes and comparing outfits.

Once a café had been decided on, one of the first items of business was what kind of style or theme they were going for. A lot of the boys had seemed worryingly obsessed with the idea of a maid café, which few of the girls seemed to share their sentiment for. Fortunately, the idea had been scrapped…well, sort of. Collectively the class had agreed that they wanted a relaxed, yet professional atmosphere, which meant somewhat formal clothing. However, since a maid outfit did technically fit the bill, one particular classmate had decided to go for it anyway. Apparently she had almost brought cat ears, before a more sensible friend of hers had managed to talk her out of it.

Mitsuha had purchased a normal, smart-looking waitress uniform in a cheap shop she'd found in Shinjuku – what she was going to do with it after this, she had no idea. As she looked at the other girl's clothes, she saw mostly similar outfits to her own, with minor variations. Black top, some short-sleeved, some long; black trousers or frock; tied-back hair with a hairband or scrunchie (Mitsuha replaced her usual red cord with a black one); and some had white aprons, herself included. Taki had warned them they wouldn't match if they all got different outfits, but they were close enough – except for the maid outfit of course, with headband and all.

The group of seven got a few looks as they went back up to the classroom, and made sure to tell anyone who was interested which class they were from, in case they wanted to pop in later. Not that they were the most curiously-dressed students there – Mitsuha was sure she would see some far more wacky outfits soon enough.

〈◇〉

Business was slow. It was early, which meant nobody was hungry. In the two hours since the festival had officially 'opened', the room had never gone past half-full. Fortunately, that meant less work for everyone. Unfortunately, it meant they were way too overstaffed. It was pretty much just Taki and Mitsuha waiting, while their ten classmates baked and decorated cakes and biscuits at an incredible rate. If this kept up, there would be enough sugary treats left over to give the whole class diabetes.

The two of them stood side by side, leaning on the counter and watching as students walked past, peeked in, and decided now wasn't the best time for a snack. The rest of the class had visited them a few at a time, as well as their homeroom teacher – they had stayed to eat and drink something of course, but they'd all come and gone already.

"Taki," Mitsuha began, still watching the door. "Do you think business will pick up soon? The seating area is half-empty and the kitchen's way too crowded, shouldn't it really be the other way around?"

"People will start coming in more over the next hour. Things should peak around lunchtime, between midday and one, and then slowly decline over the afternoon. There might be a second peak at around three, if we're lucky." She caught him looking over at her. "But you won't be here to see any of that, you need to go soon, don't you?"

Mitsuha sighed and looked at the clock. "Now, actually. I just wanted to see a bit of the action, but I guess I'm going to miss it." She looked toward Taki. "As hectic as it was, being a waiter at that place you work at was pretty fun."

Taki smiled at the memory. "You kept taking extra shifts to pay for all that food you kept buying, and they always ended up on days that we didn't swap." Despite being so near to so many other people, neither tried to lower their voice – the noise from the hallway, the focus of the bakers on their jobs and the lack of details in their conversation meant that it was unlikely someone could glean anything from their conversation. "Okudera still wears that apron."

Mitsuha grinned. "The one I stitched up?"

"The very same. She wears it every day she can." Mitsuha had really liked Okudera and wanted to see her again one of these days. Taki had definitely had a thing for her, and she'd set up a date between them, but Taki hadn't mentioned her yet, so they couldn't be going out.

"How did your date go, by the way." Taki looked confused – perhaps he didn't remember? "You know, the one I set up for you with Okudera, on the last day we swapped. Didn't you get my message?"

"Oh, that one." Taki laughed awkwardly. "Yeah, that didn't go so well. She kinda got the impression that I liked…someone else." He looked away from Mitsuha as he continued. "I guess it didn't really click on that day, for whatever reason. I just felt out of it, no idea why. Besides, looking back I'm kind of happy that it didn't happen. I mean," he said as he looked back at Mitsuha, "you were the one that got me that date. It was your personality, your character combined with your imitation of me that actually got me that far. She's looking for someone a little more…feminine than I am. Which is why I'm trying to get Tsukasa to go for her. He's definitely got a thing for her."

"Tsukasa? Hmm…yeah, I can see that. More feminine, huh…" It made surprisingly more sense than she'd expected, but she could see it now. Okudera and Tsukasa, that could work.

"Speak of the devil and he shall appear," came from beside her, and she followed Taki's gaze to find none other than Tsukasa himself entering the classroom. Extraordinarily busy with student council work, he had been the only member of the class yet to visit.

"How are things?" he asked, looking around with a neutral expression. "A bit slow at the moment?"

"It hasn't got any fuller than this so far." Mitsuha looked over to the clock – she really had to be going immediately. "I need to go and get changed, I'm going to be helping at the literature club stall in about five minutes," she explained as she picked up her bag from the pile of belongings in the corner behind the counter. "I'll be back in the afternoon, as a customer of course."

Taki and Tsukasa waved as she walked to the door. "I'll visit you there after my shift," Taki called out as she left. His shift finished at midday, and hers finished at one o'clock, so there was plenty of time for him to come down and buy the book they'd been working on together. Speaking of which, Hiraoka and Kana should be turning up at the stall at some point during the day; perhaps they had already come and gone. Hiraoka's café shift was in the afternoon so it was likely she hade already bought the book early, and as for Kana, she didn't really know since she was in a different class.

After getting changed back into her regular uniform, Mitsuha put on her outdoor shoes and left the main school building. The corridors and stairs had already been busy, but she'd managed to ignore everything going on as she beelined for the gym changing rooms. However, outside was a different story. The doors were propped open, with a steady stream of people entering and exiting; for the first time Mitsuha was annoyed at the Japanese obsession of indoor and outdoor shoes, as the shoe lockers were way too crowded.

Finally getting out the doors, the first sense to be assaulted was her nose. The smells of grilled meat, fried fish and green tea all invaded her nostrils as she waded through the sea of students (and the odd teacher). All around the main entrance were food stalls selling all sorts of sweet and savoury snacks. Their classroom had been quite empty, due being on the top floor and only serving drinks and cakes, but out here the food game was in full swing, and it was only going to get more hectic as lunchtime approached. This was the one choke point in the entire school, the only way to go from inside the building to outside or vice-versa, so naturally the stalls here were seen by literally every single student at the festival, attracting a lot of business.

Along with the mish-mash of smells came the noise of a large, uncoordinated crowd. All around Mitsuha were groups of friends chatting away, shouting to each other and advertising their goods. At least two different pieces of music were playing in the near distance, and although Mitsuha could barely see the stalls supposedly surrounding her, their large banners and balloons were certainly visible.

For a moment all Mitsuha could do was stand there, turning in circles and looking, hearing, smelling…just experiencing the event taking place all around her. Except it wasn't just around her – she wasn't merely a visitor or spectator. She was a part of this grand event; only one small piece, but isn't that what a machine is made of, a million tiny pieces all working together? For the first time since she'd arrived in Tokyo she truly felt like she was a part of something. So this is what a school festival is really like.

Back in Itomori, school festivals were tiny. They were fundamentally the same idea, just executed on a far smaller and less impressive scale. The full-town festivals were much larger and as guardians of the shrine, the Miyamizu family had always held a central role in any major celebration – she herself had performed at many of them. At the time she'd always hated the autumn festival; she found the dances embarrassing, the rituals pointless and the whole event far too much work. But looking back, there had always been a feeling of unity and belonging, of being part of something greater. Sure she'd attended a couple of festivals in Tokyo since she'd moved here, but she had never been a real part of them in the way she had been at Itomori, where they brought the entire town together to celebrate as one. Now, for the first time since the comet had fallen, she was getting the chance to experience that again.

Closing her eyes and smiling amidst the noise, Mitsuha basked in the feeling of belonging. For a few moments she just sensed, experienced the atmosphere. Finally opening her eyes again, she began to move with the flow of the crowd. She had somewhere she needed to be.

〈◆〉

It was lunchtime, and everything was a shambles. Every table was full (they had already brought in extras), there was a small queue outside, and three drinks had already been spilled. But the real problem, the source of all this colossal, far too eventful mess, was-

"Satou, where's table three's hot chocolate?" Taki called across the counter. "They've been waiting for ten minutes."

"Table three wanted a hot chocolate?" The boy looked around before spotting a note that had fallen to the floor and bent to pick it up. "Oh yeah, right here…hot chocolate…sorry, I must've dropped it…"

It was the staff, of course. Uncoordinated, slow and forgetful, they had made everything ten times harder than it should've been. Of course, they weren't all bad – Taki had taught them himself. A little crash course on taking and delivering orders, efficient communication, and what to do when things go wrong. The problem was that the students best at being waiters wanted to do all the pouring and baking, and that left all the terrible waiters doing the serving. And it didn't help that the changeover was at midday, exactly when business started getting busy. Fortunately one of the new arrivals was Kaneda, a normally prim and proper girl who had suddenly gained an immeasurable aura of confidence and power after putting on her uniform. She was co-ordinating things in the 'kitchen' while Taki sorted out anything on the main café floor. He could already hear her snapping at Satou to get the drinks done more quickly.

Taki spotted a group of four leaving and quickly weaved through the packed classroom to get to their vacated table. It was vital that tables were cleaned immediately to allow a new group to enter as soon as possible. As he carried away their plates and cups, Taki signalled to Fujinuma – four fingers raised, indicating that a table for four had just become available. He would fetch someone in, seat them and tell them what was available, as apparently nobody had taken the initiative to make any menus. The dirty dishes were carefully dumped in a large bucket, which when full would be taken to the nearest sink (there wasn't one in the classroom) and washed. They were also piggybacking multiple multi-socket extension leads on each other, which was a pretty big safety hazard. I told them this would be a bad idea….

When the vote had been cast, Taki had unsuccessfully tried to persuade the class that a café was more trouble than it was worth. There was no easy way to deal with the mess or dirty dishes, business would be extremely inconsistent, and nobody really knew what they were doing. At least they had listened when he told them it would be better to take orders than line up at the counter – lining up would mean a long queue crowding the room and people standing in line for ages, thanks to the absurdly slow service they were providing. At least this way they lined up outside and got a seat as soon as they were shown in.

Perhaps he was being too harsh on his classmates. He was a professional – he knew the manners and etiquette, had the skills and know-how. He could carry four trays at once, two on each arm, without spilling a drop. Meanwhile, the others had been given a simple, whirlwind explanation and then told to get it right on the first try. And maybe the routine he'd given them was a tad too complicated. But still, when someone spills their drink you don't shout at them to clean it up themselves! It's one of the basics of good customer service…

"Tachibana!" After working so long as a waiter, Taki was used to daydreaming while working on autopilot, always keeping one ear open in case he was called. He turned to see Kaneda looking down at him…or at least it felt like that, even though she was six inches shorter. This new Kaneda is kinda scary, but also…actually, let's not finish that thought.

"What is it?" Taki asked.

"It's one o'clock," she said, hands on her hips. "Why are you still here?" Taki looked at the clock – it was indeed a few minutes past the hour…wait, one o'clock already?! "You've been here an hour longer than you should've. Go and enjoy the festival already. I think the queue outside is getting smaller, I'll be able to handle the rest myself." The scary Kaneda is angry at me… "Hey, I said scram!" And with that she turned back to the coffee machine.

It's one already? Mitsuha's shift at the stall has finished already, but maybe she'll still be there. Taki grabbed his bag, gave a quick wave to anyone looking vaguely in his direction and snaked through the tables to the door. Behind him he heard a shout. "Tachibana! Hey, Taki!" He turned and saw Kaneda looking at him. "I liked the book!" She smiled, and Taki returned it, before they simultaneously turned away – they both had things to do.

Outside, there was a short que of students waiting to be seated – apparently word had gone around quickly, and somehow they were the only place in the school offering hot chocolate and brownies (which had been accidentally mass-produced in the morning but were now finally being of use). The rest of the hallway had a fair few students, but it wasn't packed, although looking out the window, he could see that the main entrance would be absolutely impenetrable. Taki dashed along the hall, skipped down the stairs two at a time and ran into the empty gym changing rooms, where he quickly replaced his work uniform with his standard school attire. Running to the school's entrance, he had to tell a couple of first-years to move along before he could access his shoe locker and swap his shoes.

Taki forced his way out the main entrance and past all the big stalls. He didn't know where the literature club space was, only that it was quite far from the entrance and probably much less crowded. He ignored everything and everyone around him – he had somewhere he needed to be, and besides, he'd seen it all a dozen times before. He could enjoy it later; for now-

Breaking through the crowd and round a corner, Taki saw two parallel lines of much less busy stalls. And right there, just ahead and to his left, was the one he had been looking for. But as he approached, he couldn't spot Mitsuha. Nearing the stall, he was afraid he'd missed her – until a girl facing away from him turned around and he breathed a sigh of relief. I'd have recognised her earlier if she'd been wearing her usual red cord in her hair. For some reason she'd changed to black today. She looks pretty…

…pretty bored! I meant pretty bored! Not pretty! Nope, no, not at all…well, maybe just a bit. And now I'm blushing. Better relieve her of her prettiness, I mean boredom! Mentally hitting himself, Taki decided to put Mitsuha out of her misery. "Hey," he called as he finally entered her line of sight.

Her head turned and her face lit up. Immediately she stood up straighter and smiled at him, then seemed to remember she was supposed to be ticked off. "Hey. I mean, hey!" she corrected, saying the same word, just more angrily. "Weren't you supposed to be here an hour ago? Have you been having fun without me?"

"Only if you call managing a rag-tag bunch of misfit waiters 'fun'. Business picked up right after you left," he explained.

"Oh great, I left just as things got interesting and arrived here just as things calmed down. Apparently it was busy in the morning, but now not many people are actually stopping to talk or buy anything." So that was why she looked so bored.

"It would've been good if you'd stayed at the café then. It's been pretty hectic, especially since midday. The changeover was right at the busiest part of the day, and all the good waiters wanted to do the baking, so it's kind of a mess. I guess I kind of lost track of time organising the new group." Taki grinned at Mitsuha. "You and I would've been great together, doing the waiting. You left at just the wrong time."

"If it was that hectic then I'm glad I got out when I did," she said. "Well anyway, buy a book already so I can go and enjoy the festival." Taki dug around in his bag and found some money. "It's 900 yen." Mitsuha answered his question before he had time to ask it, and Taki handed over his 1,000-yen bill. Beside Mitsuha, a tall, blonde girl opened the money case and gave him his change. Didn't know there were any foreigners here, you'd think I'd have seen her around at some point.

Mitsuha handed him the book, and already he was hit with a surprise – the front cover artwork was one of his (and hardback, which explained the high price). Turning the book over, he saw it continued onto the back. To get a better look at the full picture, Taki carefully placed the book on the table longways, spine facing up, and picked up the front and back covers with one hand each so that they opened up to make one continuous image.

"How do you like it?" Mitsuha had come to stand beside him and was looking at him intently. "It was Erina's idea." She pointed towards the blonde-haired girl, and Taki finally realised who she was.

"You're Erina, the literature club president?" Taki asked.

She nodded. "I was very impressed by both your artwork and with Mitsuha's story. Most of the stories didn't have any artwork, and you had done so much, so we decided to use yours for the front, back and inside covers. I hope you don't mind."

"No, not at all." Taki was speechless. In front of him was a printed book, a real book with stories and poems and imagination and dreams and people would read it and see it and…and the first thing they would see, right on the front cover, was his artwork. It wasn't even something Mitsuha had asked him to draw, he'd just done it on a whim – a massive skyscape of the comet as it fell, cascading blues and greens soaring through the starlit night, the main piece landing on the front cover and the smaller landing on the back. Just seeing it in front of him like this somehow made it feel so real, almost as if he was there himself….

Taki took a deep breath, got a hold of himself and picked up the book normally. In the inside front cover was his drawing of Itomori in the daytime before the disaster, and in the inside back cover was his drawing of the destroyed Itomori. Turning back to the front, he navigated to the contents, finding the entry for Mitsuha's story. Threads of Fate by Miyamizu Mitsuha (Class 3B): page 88. He quickly flicked to the right page and started to move through the story one picture at a time. Having already read some of Mitsuha's drafts, he skipped over the actual text – he would read the full thing later. Right now, all he wanted to see was how his drawings had come out, and just as with the covers, he was not disappointed. Some had been cropped to fit on a single page, but they were all full-colour, and most of his drawings were present.

Out of the corner of his eye he could see Mitsuha's gaze moving between the pages and his own face – she wanted to gauge his reaction. Satisfied, he closed the book, composed his breathing, and faced her. She was smiling, and he could feel that smile reflected on his own face – not just on his lips, but on his eyes, too. Right then, all he wanted to do was hug her. But not now – not yet. There would be time for that, just a little later.

"It's amazing, Mitsuha," he finally managed to get out.

"Isn't it?" she replied, her eyes sparkling. "It's really turned out well."

"It sure has. I've never seen my artwork used like this before. And I haven't read the story yet, but I know it's even better."

"You've already read the earlier drafts, so I guess I can believe you. But I still expect a full review later, okay?"

"Okay."

They stood, looking at each other for a few moments, before Erina rudely butted in. "Are you two lovebirds going to be staring into each other's souls all day?"

Taki and Mitsuha laughed awkwardly, one scratching his neck as the other played with her hair in embarrassment. But neither even tried to deny it.

〈◆〉

"Man, I'm exhausted." Mitsuha had really made the most of the festival, dragging Taki this way and that and generally going everywhere and doing everything. Taki had seen and done it all before, so the novelty was lost on him, but Mitsuha's energy and enthusiasm had made this year's cultural festival feel like his first, rather than his last. So for her sake, he'd accompanied her everywhere she went.

They'd visited every single classroom – haunted houses, plays, cosplay, art galleries, tournaments…you name it, they'd seen it. There were various competitions and performances put on by sports and performing arts clubs, and of course they had gone back to their own class and had some tea and cakes when things had quietened down. Kana joined them for a while, they saw Tsukasa once or twice, and Hiraoka was working at the café when they went there to eat, but other than that they spent most of the day as a pair.

It was nearly four o'clock and the festival was dying down. Although it officially closed at the hour, some things would probably go on for a bit longer, but it wasn't worth sticking around unless you either hadn't seen everything (they had) or were on clean-up duty (they weren't). So when Mitsuha declared herself tired, Taki made the suggestion that they make their way home – they did take the same train, after all.

"Oh, I can't go yet, I'm helping the literature club pack away the stall."

"Didn't you help in the morning? And with our class as well?"

"They had a shortage of people willing to help out, so I volunteered." She checked the time on her phone. "They should be packing up in around ten minutes, so I'm going to stay until then at least, and give them a hand if they need it. You can go if you want."

"Well, actually there is one thing left to do." He'd saved this for last on purpose. "There's something I want to show you." Leading Mitsuha inside and to the art storeroom, he simply ushered her inside in response to her quizzical look.

"This is just the storeroom for art supplies, right?"

Taki moved to a large drawer, opened it, and withdrew a large, plastic folder. "I want to give this to you," he said, and presented it to Mitsuha, with two arms outstretched and a slight bow.

"For…for me?" Mitsuha took it and bowed in return, wondering what it was. It looked like a blank piece of paper enclosed in a giant plastic wallet…and then she turned it over, and gasped.

On the reverse side was the drawing that adorned the cover of the literature club's book – a massive, star-filled night sky, lit up even further by comet Tiamat splitting in two and leaving behind a glowing trail. But there was more – at the bottom was a crater at the top of a mountain, and on the edge were two shapes. They were definitely human, but they were tiny, impossible to properly make out other than that they were facing each other. Around the two floated a red line, a thread of some sort. It reminded Mitsuha of something, something she knew she needed to remember, but now wasn't the time. The drawing took her breath away; she didn't have room for anything in her mind but the expanding beauty of what Taki had put into her hands.

"This is…" She didn't have words to describe it. She'd seen the scans of course, and the book cover, but seeing the original like this, and having it given to her as a gift, made it so much more special.

"I finished it last night," Taki explained. "The scan I sent you back in September was as far as I'd got, and it wasn't something you'd actually asked me to draw, so I didn't get round to finishing it." He paused, and began to speak more quietly. "I just woke up one morning with it in my mind, I don't know where it came from. I don't even know for sure who those people are, although I can make a good guess. Anyway, I was going to give you the one of daytime Itomori, but I figured you'd like this one more."

Mitsuha was completely absorbed in the details. "Yes," she breathed, "I do like this one more." Placing the drawing onto a nearby table, she opened her bag and pulled out something – the red braided cord. She must have switched it with the black one to match her café uniform, Taki realised. "This red line here, this…thread. Is it…this?" she asked, pointing to the drawing with one hand and holding the cord in the other.

Taki nodded. "I don't know why I put it there, it just felt…right."

Mitsuha smiled, more to herself than to him. "Yes, it does," she whispered. Then she reached a hand up, and slowly pulled one hanging end of the black cord in her hair. As the loop shrunk and eventually vanished, Mitsuha's hair unwound itself and cascaded down her shoulders and back. Jet black and slightly wavy, Taki watched enraptured as Mitsuha swept it all behind her neck, coiled it round onto itself, and deftly retied it with the red cord, all without taking her eyes off the cord in the drawing. Finally managing to tear her gaze away, Mitsuha turned to face Taki, walked towards him, and wrapped her arms warmly around his neck.

"Thank you," she whispered. "For this beautiful drawing, for all the drawings, for helping me, for being there, for recognising me that day, for swapping with me all that time ago…thank you so much, Taki."

Taki carefully placed his own arms around Mitsuha's slender body, comfortable in their embrace, and closed his eyes. He could feel her hair on his face, her hands on his shoulders, her breath on his neck. It felt perfect. "No, thank you," he replied, tightening his hold as he felt her tighten hers. "For pulling me into your life, and living mine, and for never forgetting about me." His voice broke slightly. "I feel like you brought back a part of me that I'd been looking for for a very long time."

Taki felt something brush against his nose, and opened his eyes to see the red braided cord right in front of his face. This close, he could see the intricate detail – the interwoven patterns, meticulously formed, the dance of the threads; a tradition refined over centuries of practice. And he saw it as if with newly opened eyes.

It was made from thread, in the town protected by thread – it was their very own red thread of fate.

A/N

They're so close, yet so far! They still have a long way to go yet…literally. But before we get to the lovey-dovey stuff, Mitsuha needs to deal with the fallout of the story she just published (and boy will it spread fast). There's also going to be an interesting development next chapter which will set the grounds for the ending of the story. For those of you eagerly awaiting our heroine and hero to officially get together, fear not! Also, in case you didn't catch it, the 'red thread of fate' is an East Asian belief that a red thread or string connects destined lovers. The Japanese term for this is 'akai-ito' and shares the character for 'thread' with the 'ito' in 'Itomori'.

The first half of this chapter was hard to write, but the second half just flowed super easily to the point where it ended up being about 2,000 words longer than I'd expected. Oh well, more for you guys to read I guess. It's back to uni now, I hope you all had a good Christmas, New Year and winter holiday in general!

Interesting news: I am now betaing a fic! The fic is Fate: Unbalanced Scales by SomeWritingGuy. It's a Fate/Zero and Fate/Stay Night canon divergence fic where Kiritsugu has some premonitions about the fourth grail war and decides to take some…precautionary measures. The latest chapter (chapter 8) has just moved beyond the end of the fourth war and is ready to begin setting up for the fifth, and you can expect it to be an all-star cast! I've been working on the plot of my own F/SN canon divergence fic for several months now, so expect that to be the next fic I start after this one finishes (favourite me if you want to be notified when it comes out).

As always, please review/comment if you liked/didn't like the chapter/story/writing style/overuse of slashes in this sentence.

Talndir