Saturday morning, April 16, dawned with clouds over the city of Nagoya. A bitter cold wind swept through the city. The noise of the wind had caused Taki to sleep restlessly through the night. But not only because of the wind noise. What made him more uneasy were the revelations Mitsuha had made to him about the problems in the Miyamizu family, even more so than the challenge of the work activities he would have to face that Saturday morning.
At about six o'clock in the morning he couldn't sleep anymore, so he got up, took a quick shower and went downstairs for breakfast at the hotel cafeteria.
Upon arriving at the cafeteria entrance, a hotel employee asked for his room number, recorded it in a notebook, escorted him to an unoccupied table and left immediately after a quick bow.
Taki sat there for a few seconds, puzzled as to what was to happen next. He turned and saw that there were a couple of hotel passengers circulating in a nearby aisle where there were different dishes to be served. «Ah, this is self-service,» he thought, feeling a little foolish as he stood up and went to the buffet. He was amazed at the variety of food that was available for breakfast. He walked around twice looking at all the dishes, weighing the different alternatives. There were so many, that choosing just a few became a difficult task. In the end he helped himself to kishimen and other typical Nagoya dishes. Before he knew it, he filled his plate with things he would never have eaten for breakfast at home.
Taki returned to his table, and was halfway through his breakfast when Ozamu Gondō appeared in front of him, wearing a rather casual sports outfit.
"Good morning, Taki."
"Good morning, Ozamu."
"I see you woke up early today."
"Yes, I couldn't sleep any longer, so I came early for breakfast."
"Nervous about today?"
"Maybe a little," said Taki, feeling a little embarrassed.
"Don't worry, today will be a relaxing day, let's just hope it doesn't rain. I looked out the window and there is an annoying wind blowing."
"Is that a problem?"
"Not necessarily, but we have to take pictures, and the wind can complicate things. Wait, I'll go get something to eat."
Ozamu wandered away strolling among the buffet trays. He returned to Taki's table and set down his plate. He walked away again and then returned with a cup of steaming coffee in one hand and a bowl of miso soup in the other. As he sat down, he couldn't help but notice Taki's astonished face.
"Ah, I don't usually drink coffee in the morning, but on occasions like this it's worth it. It's imported coffee beans," said Ozamu, winking at Taki.
Taki looked at the cup of coffee. Its aroma was really appealing, but it wasn't something he was very used to.
"I'm trying things I've never had for breakfast before," said Taki, after looking at Ozamu's plate, which looked even more exotic than his.
"Well, it's not every day you have breakfast prepared by a hotel chef. This place is not that expensive, that's why we chose it, but the food doesn't look bad at all. Itadakimasu," said Ozamu, starting to eat.
Taki continued to eat in silence for a minute, almost finishing his meal.
"Do you know how to handle an SLR?" asked Ozamu suddenly.
"Yes, I learned with my father's old 35 millimeter. And in college we used a digital SLR."
"I brought a Nikon, my preferred camera. Do you know how to handle them?"
"Sure, I've used one of those before," said Taki proudly.
"Good. I hope you take all the pictures we will need. Our contact from city hall will meet us in the hotel lobby at 9 o'clock at..." Ozamu looked at his watch and was silent for a few seconds, carefully calculating the amount of things to do, "...in a little more than an hour. I hope Tsuyoshi hasn't overslept and will be down for breakfast soon."
Ozamu settled back in his seat, looked discreetly in all directions, and leaned toward Taki, speaking to him in a reserved tone.
"I want you to be clear about something. The proposals will be evaluated with at least a 50% weighting by people from Nagoya City Hall. And that means that what they think is vital. What they say is worth more than any great idea we have."
"And... wait, but for someone from the city council to tell us these things... isn't that access to privileged information?" Taki asked with concern.
Ozamu lifted his bowl of soup, took a big sip, and set it empty on the table. And then he leaned forward, gesturing for him to come closer. Then Ozamu spoke to him in a somewhat ironic tone.
"And do you think... the rest of the competition doesn't do the same for a living?"
Ozamu leaned back, laughing at his own witticism, as he took some more from his plate to eat.
Taki was perplexed, thinking about the implications of what he had just heard.
"But... I read the invitation of bidder document, and there they are... all the details," finally said Taki, "So why did we come here?"
"The official invitation of bidder says almost everything. But it doesn't say what the evaluators care about, or their tastes. We need to know that first hand. We need a lot of images and material to know exactly what is there now, and to know what they think about what they have. And on that material, you have to fine-tune our proposal, one that the main evaluators like.
"So, today we have to...?" Taki asked, somewhat confused about the whole plan.
"We have to listen carefully to our contact. The criticisms of what is there, and what they would like to see in the future. And based on that our proposal has to be better than the rest. Of course, it has to be grounded to what we can do as a construction company."
"Ah... and that's why Tsuyoshi came with us, right?"
"Ha, ha, I see you're learning already, my boy," said Ozamu with a smile. "This afternoon we'll go over everything, starting with our draft proposal. We need you to update it with what we get today. But your ideas have to pass Tsuyoshi's reality filter."
"I understand, but if we're going to see the people at City Hall now, what will we do with them on Monday?"
"Monday is the formal meeting. Obviously, we can't comment that we met with their people over the weekend, can we? That's con-fi-den-tial. We have to make ourselves known as a builder company, and sell them the design concepts that will go into the final proposal we'll make, the ones that you are going to refine in depth over the next few weeks. If we convince them that our ideas are what they really want, they will choose us, you understand?"
"I think this is more difficult than I thought..." said Taki a little worried.
"Of course it is! It's going to be hard work, boy. Tomorrow Sunday, at about seven o'clock in the evening, you and Tsuyoshi have to have our proposal adjusted to the new design lines, with examples and some sketches. That's what we're going to show them the day after tomorrow. I will be the one to speak at the town hall, but you will be there to support me, if there are any doubts or specific questions."
"I... I'm getting it," said Taki.
"Okay, I've finished my breakfast, so I'll go see what's going on with Tsuyoshi. See you soon."
Ozamu stood up to leave, when Taki almost without thinking felt he needed to ask something that was bothering him, so he interrupted his retreat.
"Ozamu-san, wait. I wanted to know if I... had to attend to an urgent personal matter this weekend... is it possible that some space could be made in the work schedule?"
Ozamu frowned quizzically and sat back down.
"Wait, Taki. What are you talking about?"
Taki saw the worried look on Ozamu's face, and regretted opening his mouth. But he could no longer turn back.
"It's, it's about my girlfriend, Miyamizu Mitsuha, do you remember her? She might need my help this weekend, something to do with her family. They live in Shizuoka. That city is halfway from here to Tokyo.
"And by giving them help... what are you talking about, specifically?"
"Mitsuha is going to visit her family this weekend, and there are some problems they need to solve, but if something bad were to happen, maybe I would need to, well, leave for a few hours to help her…"
"For a few hours? Taki, I think I told you that this weekend we need to get things finished for Monday's meeting. You can't be thinking about leaving us right now!"
"No! I'm not saying I'm going to disappear. I'm just asking if it would be possible, if it would be only a few hours, just if necessary... but I'm committed to get all the work done, no matter what!"
Ozamu narrowed his eyes, looking at Taki, weighing the situation. Finally, he gave a sigh.
"Look... I know we asked you to come with us all of a sudden. But you accepted it. If you were going to have problems, if you knew you couldn't do it, you should have said so from the beginning!""I just didn't know! She only told me last night when we got back to the hotel after dinner," Taki tried to explain.
"Do you do realize that this trip and the whole project could fall apart if you are absent and don't do your part of the job, right?"
"Yes, I know. But believe me, Ozamu-san, if that... problem, does happen, I will do everything in my power not to affect the plans. I could bring my laptop and work on the proposal even during the train ride, so as not to waste time. And then we will have everything ready tomorrow Sunday afternoon, just as you asked me to do. I just need you... to trust me, I know I can do it."
"At this moment, I have almost no choice, Taki, but to trust you. But don't make me regret having chosen you and having brought you with us…"
"I won't make you regret, Ozamu-san. I promise to have everything ready according to plan."
"I hope this problem, whatever it is, doesn't happen then, boy. For her sake, and for yours...; and now, go and get ready, I'll see you at nine o'clock in the hotel lobby."
"Yes, I will be there."
Ozamu stood up again, and started to walk to the exit, but he stopped as soon as he took a couple of steps, and turned to Taki.
"Look, I know you're in love, and I don't doubt that she must be a great girl, but we are men with responsibilities, Taki. We have to fulfill our obligations, our commitments, regardless of our feelings, understand? Keep that in mind, boy" and Ozamu turned and left.
Taki froze. He felt that perhaps he had destroyed his working career with them before he had even completed twenty-four hours of it. But, if Mitsuha was in trouble, he knew he would never leave her alone. He decided that he would take a gamble, and would respond on both fronts if necessary.
"Well, Tachibana, show us what you're made of!" he said to himself with determination, and stood up to return to his room.
As he walked through the corridors of the hotel, Taki made up his mind that this weekend he was going to show them all how good an architect he was. For him and especially for her, as Mitsuha had asked him to do the night before.
§
By early Saturday afternoon Mitsuha was finally finishing the housework she had neglected all week. She finished picking up and folding the towels she had left drying on the balcony and put them on top of the laundry basket. She looked with satisfaction that all the clothes she had left drying were neatly folded. She tossed her phone on top of the towels and walked with the bundle into her room, where she began to carefully store each garment in its own space. Sorted by type of garment, and then by color...
When she finished, she picked up her cell phone and saw that it was almost three o'clock in the afternoon.
"It's time to get ready," she thought, then took a deep breath, closing her eyes, and trying to eliminate the tension that suddenly appeared at the thought of the visit to her grandmother's house.
Half an hour later she was walking out casually dressed, wearing a long moss green coat and a medium sized shoulder bag, carrying change of clothes and her personal items for the weekend.
She stopped at a shop near Kinshichō Station to buy a box of delicate namagashi sweets, which she knew her grandmother liked. As she carefully put the box away in her shoulder bag, she couldn't help but think that it was a kind of peace offering.
She continued her journey on the Sobu line until she reached Tokyo Station, where she transferred to the next Tokaido-Sanyo bullet train bound for Shizuka. She bought her ticket at the same station and within minutes was settling into her seat.
Once seated on the shinkansen, she felt the urge to call her sister to let her know she was on her way. But she stopped herself before pressing the call button. She thought her sister might not even answer. With a sigh she considered the options: call her grandmother directly, which was definitely something she preferred to avoid, or text Yotsuha. After weighing it, she opted for the latter, so at least they wouldn't be able to reproach her for not letting them know.
«Hello Yotsuha. I just got on the shinkansen. I'll be there at about 5:30,» she wrote. To her surprise her message was immediately marked as 'seen' by the messaging app. Mitsuha stood for a couple of minutes staring at the screen and waiting in case her sister replied back, but Yotsuha said nothing.
In the end Mitsuha gave up, preferring to devote her attention to writing a message to Taki.
«I'm already on the train to Grandma Hitoha's,»
«I'll be there about five-thirty. I'll let you know how it's going over there.»
She saw that Taki was not online, so she started to review the images that the architect had been sending her during the day. There were lots of beautiful shots of parks, bridges, gardens, buildings, and several others pictures showing him and his team. Mitsuha felt envious that she could not be with Taki in Nagoya at that very moment.
She went back to review the photograph of a wooden bridge that passed over a small pond. Taki had sent many from that location, of the bridge itself and some with him in the pictures. Taki had said that this was the design he had done on a previous job, and that it had been built in Nagoya.
Mitsuha looked at the images of Taki's bridge for a long time, and couldn't help but admire the details and how well it was integrated with the surroundings. Somehow, she could feel that Taki had put his soul into that work, and so the result was wonderful in her eyes. Then she remembered that Taki had told her about that work before, but he had never shown it to her with pictures. She felt annoyed that she had been left out of it.
«The pictures are beautiful, and I loved the pictures of your wooden bridge. But why didn't you show them to me before?» she reproached him.
She put the phone away, and stared out the window. The city-scape of Tokyo was blurred by the breakneck speed, and barely visible were the rooftops and structures peeking over the walls in which the high-speed line was encased. Only the cloud-stained sky seemed to stare motionless at their journey.
Suddenly memories of her trip to Tokyo in 2013 came back to Mitsuha's memory. When she had traveled blindly to find Taki. Now she could remember everything! She realized that a week ago she barely had even a vague recollection of visiting Tokyo in 2013, looking for someone, and returning defeated to Itomori, never being able to understand who she had gone to see or why she had felt heartbroken. In fact, Yotsuha had persistently asked her for several months what had happened on her trip to Tokyo, and with whom she had gone on a date. Mitsuha was angry with her sister because she thought she was pulling her leg, but even more infuriated with herself that she could remember almost no details.
Now she remembered everything clearly. She closed her eyes and remembered her anxiety during the outward journey, the uncertainty of whether she would find Taki, and the anguish of thinking that, if she did find him, maybe he would be all lovey-dovey with Miki Okudera and then the boy would reject her in front of Miki. And then she remembered how in the late afternoon she had managed to come face to face with Taki. She remembered the emotions she had felt when he ignored her as if he didn't know her. A hint of sorrow again surfaced in her chest, just like that moment, but it was diffused by her certainty that she was now with him.
Mitsuha now laughed at her foolishness. That 2013 Taki, the boy of about 14 who was on the train, really didn't know her. But she had interpreted it as a sign that her Taki didn't care for her. She laughed ruefully at how foolish she had been for not realizing that the Taki she had encountered in 2013 was not only shorter, but still wore a mid-school uniform. But the sadness she had felt at that moment had been genuine. An ache of a loss that she had continued to feel for the next 9 years…
"Taki, thank you for finding me…" she said without realizing that she said it verbally, in a low voice, almost talking to herself, as she sank into the seat, hugging her shoulders and looking out the window at the sky.
Mitsuha was lost in the reverie of her memories for a long time, until the sound of a message on her phone brought her out of her trance. She pulled it out somewhat groggily, and eagerly read the newly arrived messages. They were from Taki.
«I did the design, but I had never seen the bridge in person.»
«Seeing it today was amazing. It was like meeting a son.»
A son? Mitsuha laughed at Taki's strange idea.
«Do architects always think of their works as their children?» asked Mitsuha back.
Mitsuha stared at the phone, expectantly. Taki was typing. He was on the line! A few seconds later she got the answer.
«Maybe not everyone. But that's how it is for me. You leave your essence in each design. It's something unique, something intimate. Like a son.»
Taki's words left Mitsuha with a strange feeling. «That bridge... is a son of Taki…» she thought. She closed her eyes and sank into the seat, imagining that she was beside him, holding his hand, as they both looked at that bridge...; she managed to visualize the scene clearly, as if she was there...; suddenly in her imagination appeared a girl of about 5 years old walking towards them, over Taki's bridge, holding hands with an even younger child, no more than about 3 years old. The boy laughed, and so did the girl as she took playful steps, as if she were marching. As the two got closer, Mitsuha saw that the girl looked like herself when she was little, and the boy was like a mini-Taki! They came to stand in front of her, less than a meter away. They stopped and looked into her eyes, stretching their little arms up and moving their lips, talking to her, no voice coming out of their mouths. But her brain read clearly the word those little lips had spoken without a voice, only by their movement:
"Mommy."
Mitsuha opened her eyes with a start, amazed by the vividness of the image she had just seen. A strange warmth ran through her chest. She had just imagined not an abstract child of Taki, but flesh-and-blood children of Taki and... of her!
The idea startled her. For the first time she realized that it was not an idea that she dislikes. Something in her began to long for that future. To start a family with this man.
She looked at the chat, and thought about telling Taki what she had thought. To her surprise, she looked at the phone and realized that almost 10 minutes had passed. Had she fallen asleep?
She was left wondering what to do. She found it hard to explain to Taki what she just saw or felt. Or worse: would he think she was going crazy?
Mitsuha laughed at the witticism. Yes, maybe it was a bit of madness, but a madness that made her happy. Finally, she wrote a message that summed up everything she was thinking.
«I'd like to be in Nagoya with you. Or wherever, and be a family.»
A few seconds later Taki answered him.
«I want that, too.»
Mitsuha read the message and felt like shouting for joy. She restrained herself, but realized belatedly that she had given a squeal of happiness, and a couple of people sitting nearby had turned around quizzically looking at her for an instant. She blushed and sank back in her seat a little more, laughing to herself. Yes, she was sure. A family, that's what they had to build.
Then she remembered that she was on her way to visit hers. Her grandmother and her sister. Her own Miyamizu family. And they had so much to talk about. So much to say, and as much as she had given her the runaround, so far, she still didn't even know how to start that conversation.
It had been somewhat easy to tell the truth to Sayaka and Tesshi. And with Yotsuha it had been a borderline experience, but telling her everything had flowed naturally in the end. But in both cases, she had been with Taki by her side, and now she was traveling alone. This time she would be alone face to face with her grandmother, and that made her stomach clench. She sensed it was going to be a difficult conversation.
§
Yotsuha was anxious. Ever since she had received her sister's message, after three in the afternoon, she had begun to feel a strange pressure in her chest that suffocated her. Mitsuha was on her way! Finally, she could see her, face her and tell her everything she felt, everything that had been torturing her during that week.
After reading her sister's message, Yotsuha was aware that her body began to shiver, beyond her own control, as if she had an uncontrollable cold. She felt the urge to tell Grandmother Hitoha about the message, but restrained herself. She debated with herself what to do for a long time. Finally, she concluded that, if she told her grandmother and waited for Mitsuha at home, her grandmother would interfere between them and she would not be able to speak freely. What she needed most at that moment was to talk to her sister alone. So, she got dressed and prepared to go out into the street to meet her.
Yotsuha slowly peeked out the door of her room, and when she was convinced that her grandmother was nowhere in sight, she slipped out of the house as quietly as she could.
But Yotsuha did not know which way her sister would go. She started walking down the main street of Miyamaecho with a blank mind, guided only by her instinct. Around five o'clock she arrived without knowing how at a busy corner. She looked to her left and saw that, across the street, the entrance to the local Yunoki train station was about twenty meters from the opposite corner, on a side street. She crossed the street until she reached the station. As it was part of the local Shizuoka-Shimizu line, it was very small, with barely a room where one could buy tickets and access the platforms. There were a few people coming and going. Yotsuha felt uncomfortable. She didn't want to be with people retraced her steps and walked back across the street to where she had come from. There was a tree that gave ample shade to the whole place, which had several vending machines crammed into that cooler corner. Not knowing what else to do, she stood under the shade of the tree, clinging to the wall and trying to remain unnoticed by the people circulating around her.
From where Yotsuha stood, she could not see inside the station, but she could see those entering and exiting halfway down the opposite block.
«Why did I come here?» wondered Yotsuha after a while, when she realized how far-fetched her adventure was: Mitsuha could have taken another route, arriving via some larger station like Higashi-Shizuoka on the Tokaido line, or she could even have taken a cab, and then she wasn't going to find her. She looked in the direction she had come from, and pondered whether she should retrace her steps and wait for Mitsuha at an intermediate point, where her sister would have to pass no matter which route she took. Or maybe... she could call Mitsuha and ask her which way she came. But a strange certainty seized her. She felt that this was the right place, the precise place where she should be at that instant.
Minutes passed, and nothing happened. At the end of the street, she saw several trains arriving and departing in both directions. Each time, small groups of 5 to 10 people left the station. But none of them had Mitsuha on board.
Yotsuha began to grow impatient. She thought maybe she was fooling herself. She pulled out her cell phone and looked at the time. It was five thirteen. She let out a loud sigh, thinking about giving up, when she looked up and saw a new train arriving from Shin-Shizuoka Station. She decided to give it one last chance.
Some people began to leave the station, and among them a girl wearing a long light gray coat, brown pants tight to the ankle and holding a medium-sized bag on her shoulder. It was Mitsuha.
Mitsuha began to walk steadily in the direction her sister was. When she reached the corner, she turned northeast without crossing the street and without noticing that her sister was looking at her from the opposite corner. She continued walking in the direction of her grandmother's house with a firm step.
Yotsuha was paralyzed. She didn't know how she had managed to wait for her there, but that really was her sister! But Mitsuha was quickly moving away from her. She felt hesitant about how to introduce herself. She swallowed saliva and gave herself courage. She crossed the street almost without looking, and began to walk after her sister.
Mitsuha was already at least fifty meters ahead. After a minute of chasing Yotsuha was able to close the distance to about fifteen meters, but she realized that she wasn't going to catch up with her soon unless she broke into a run, and she was getting tired, so she decided to call out to her.
"Mitsuha!" called the girl, but her voice was muffled. And her sister gave no sign of having heard her.
"MITSUHA!" she called again, this time almost shouting. Her voice sounded strange, and was so unexpected that even an elderly couple walking on the opposite sidewalk turned to look at the girl, startled by the sudden shout.
Mitsuha stopped in her tracks and turned to her sister, unable to hide her surprise at seeing Yotsuha following her.
Yotsuha stopped dead in her tracks, and went blank. All the negative feelings seemed to crystallize in the person of her sister, who was now looking back at her. She could not move, and felt her body twitch.
"Yotsuha? What are you doing here...?" said Mitsuha, growing more and more puzzled as she realized that her younger sister was pinned to the sidewalk, pouting, with her arms stiffly attached to her body and her fists tensed, without approaching her.
The young girl could stand it no longer, and began to advance towards her sister with long strides, her eyes fixed on Mitsuha's eyes.
Mitsuha saw the look of tension on the girl's face, and felt a sudden fear. Her sister's attitude reminded her of the incident just a few days ago when Yotsuha had almost killed Taki. What was wrong with her sister now? She was seized with an imminent desire to run, but her feet did not move, and before she could do anything else, Yotsuha had stopped an arm's length away in front of her, staring into her face with teary eyes.
"Yotsuha, what's wrong with you?" said Mitsuha softly, her voice a little shaky, not knowing how to react.
"You... you really came! Finally... you came!" said Yotsuha jumping forward and hugging Mitsuha with all her strength, and bursting into desperate tears, letting out all the anguish accumulated during a whole week.
"I'm here, little sister, I'm here," replied Mitsuha, hugging her sister back, caressing her head and trying to comfort her. "I don't know what happened to you these days, and I knew you were upset, but I'm here now and we can fix everything. Easy now, Yotsuha, easy..."
The girl continued to cry for a long time hugging her older sister, who silently comforted her. When Yotsuha began to calm down a little, Mitsuha gently separated from her and took her by the shoulders.
"I know you've been having hard thoughts all these days. And I think it's because of me. But I'm here now and let's talk, okay?" said Mitsuha as she gently wiped her sister's crying face with the sleeve of her jacket.
Yotsuha nodded weakly.
Mitsuha looked around and saw that across the street was a cab company building that had a vending machine on the side of the front parking lot.
"Look! I'll buy something to drink, I think we could use it, we can have a drink while we talk on the way home. Come with me," said Mitsuha taking her sister by the hand, who gave in and let herself be led as they crossed to the sidewalk across the street.
Outside the building there was a cab driver, who had his car parked waiting for customers. He had been cleaning it while he watched with surprise the scene of the couple of girls who seemed to be arguing and crying on the sidewalk in front of the building. When he saw them approaching, he stopped cleaning and questioned them.
"Hello ladies, are you alright? Do you need transportation?"
"No, actually we're going nearby," said Mitsuha. "My sister is a bit sensitive, and I'd like to buy something to drink from that machine, could we...?"
The driver looked at them for a second and shrugged.
"Well, it's for customers and drivers, but I don't think it will be a problem. There's a couch back there, if you need to sit in the shade while you drink your beverage," said the driver, indicating the garage behind him.
"Oh, that's very kind of you, we will accept your offer," said Mitsuha with a small bow.
Mitsuha bought a couple of fruit juices, then went back to holding hands with Yotsuha, who had remained crestfallen the whole time. When they reached the couch the cab driver had indicated, they sat down and Mitsuha passed a juice to her sister.
"Here, drink this. It will comfort you."
They both drank from their beverage cans in silence. Mitsuha watched her sister discreetly, seeing that she was gradually calming down.
Yotsuha finally wiped her face with her hand, until she wiped away the tear marks. When she finished, she looked straight at her sister.
"What are we doing here, Mitsuha?"
"Well, I was hoping it would help you calm down..."
"No! You know what I mean. Why are we here again, alive? If we really died in another... world, is this around all real?"
Mitsuha let out a weary sigh. What she had feared was exactly what was happening with her sister. She smiled somewhat sadly, and stroked her face.
"It's as real to me as our full life has always been, sis. And you're not the only one who's been questioning that. I saw Sayaka yesterday, and she told me that she and Tesshi were also going through the same... existential doubts."
"They also...?"
"Yes, Tesshi has been questioning similar things. But they're adults now, and I think they've managed to handle it better. But I feel like you've been overwhelmed, haven't you?"
"How can I not be? You revealed to me that... that... that we were dead, and now suddenly, everything is back to normal, and we are living again, just like that, as if nothing happened. What do you want me to think then?" said Yotsuha, raising her voice.
Mitsuha looked worriedly at the cab driver who had turned for a second to look at them.
"Sssshh, don't ever yell something like that in public again, Yotsuha!" Mitsuha reprimanded her sister, lowering her voice and approaching her sister to speak more discreetly. "We don't want to make a scandal or have people find out about something so delicate... or get locked up in an asylum, do we?"
Yotsuha looked at her with a sparkle of anger in her eyes. And she answered her in a lower voice, but with clear rancor in her voice.
"So... do you realize this is all crazy? You told me something that could get me committed to a mental hospital, and you expected me to just suck it up and go on living happily ever after?"
Mitsuha stepped back, surprised at her sister's reasoning. She realized that she hadn't thought of any such thing. And Yotsuha, sensing her sister's thoughts, continued.
"Sure, you... you found that guy, and it looks like you've been going at it all this week like a couple of lovebirds, but in reality, you're a couple of stupid lovers who aren't using your heads one bit!"
"Yotsuha, don't speak ill of me or Taki. We're not fools..."
"Then answer me! Why-why-are-we-here-again, alive?"
Mitsuha opened her mouth to respond, but... she was speechless. She closed her mouth, and looked at the can in her hands. There was barely a little of its contents left. She took a gulp, and finished it. Then she squeezed it, almost without realizing it, as she responded to the girl.
"I don't know, Yotsuha. I don't know. We don't know. Neither I nor Taki know why all this happened. I only know that we lived through it together, and I know that he saved us, that somehow what he did brought us back. But neither I nor he have any power that we know of, or at least none that we can control. This all has to be stuff... of the gods. Stuff of... Musubi."
"From Musubi?" Yotsuha repeated, as if stunned. "Is that all you can say? Are you getting senile like Grandma Hitoha?"
"And what do you want me to tell you? That's all I know! Now we know that this body-swapping thing is something that we Miyamizu have been living since forever. We were for generations serving at our shrine, serving Shitori-no-kami, and these things have been going on like this since who knows when. And then, when... when that comet fell, Taki came back to save us when he drank the kushikami sake that we had offered to the god. And who else but a god would have the power to... to change reality? If not Musubi, then who?"
Yotsuha stared at her now empty can. She began to move it around in her hands, thinking, thinking, until her thoughts exploded. She raised her arm to throw the can away.
"Then you don't know anything!"
But Yotsuha's arm stayed up, shaking uncontrollably and unable to throw it. After a couple of seconds, she lowered her arm, putting the can in her lap, and she folded in on herself.
"Then you don't know anything," Yotsuha repeated. "We don't know anything... we don't even know who we are at the mercy of, whether this is real or not, or if we will wake up at any moment... and simply return to reality... to the real world where we are dead."
"Don't talk like that, Yotsuha! That's not true!"
Mitsuha approached her sister and hugged her, forcing her to sit up a little, placing Yotsuha's head on her chest, while stroking her hair.
"I have no answers, sis," Mitsuha continued, "but I know that something, or someone, wanted us to come back from the dead. I don't know who, I don't know why, but I know it's true, and I know it happened. And if something like that happened, it had to be for very powerful reasons, too powerful for everything to go back to the way it was just because."
"I'm afraid, Mitsuha," said the young girl, snuggling closer to her sister's chest. "Since that day I've had many nightmares, I'm afraid of losing everything again. We lost everything, and it took me years to be able to sleep peacefully. And now I was being happy. I was having a normal life, I had friends at school, I was doing what I liked... and now I know that... that maybe all this is just a fantasy, a stupid dream and that I could lose it all again because of the wishes of something or someone we don't even know who it is!"
Yotsuha broke away from her sister abruptly and grabbed her by the shoulders.
"How can you sleep peacefully, and be happy knowing all that?"
Mitsuha sighed, and could not hold her sister's gaze. She looked down as she spoke in a whisper.
"I never slept peacefully. For almost nine years, many mornings I woke up crying, without knowing why. Many days I lived them feeling empty, feeling that something was missing in my life, that I had lost something forever, something so important, and yet... that I could not remember..."
Mitsuha looked up and put her hands on Yotsuha's shoulders as well, almost clinging to them.
"You don't know what it's like to feel that your life is incomplete, day after day. You don't know what it's like to be living in Tokyo, fulfilling your dreams and still feel that at times everything was a nightmare. You don't know, Yotsuha! But now I remember everything, I remembered Taki, I remembered that my greatest longing was to find him, to see him again and finally we are together! Finally, this last week I feel like I found that thing I was always looking for. And it has to be for a good reason, Yotsuha. I can sleep peacefully because now I know that everything is fine, and it has to be for something important that..."
Mitsuha let go of Yotsuha's shoulders and stood up.
"I can't believe this is all something evil," she continued. "There is a great power behind what happened to us. Something powerful brought us back to life, and I can't believe that this power is against us. I don't... I couldn't accept it. I don't accept it! And..."
Mitsuha was silent, blinking and suddenly realizing that she had overlooked something very important, all this time. Her face suddenly showed concern.
"What... What's wrong, Mitsuha?" asked Yotsuha suddenly worried by the strange change in her older sister's attitude.
Mitsuha kept looking in all directions, as if searching for something.
"S-Something is wrong?" Yotsuha asked again, becoming more and more nervous.
"No, it's not that... but I think you're right about something..."
"I-I'm right?" said Yotsuha with fear in her voice.
"If we came back to life, and all this was Musubi's work, shouldn't we thank him?"
"I don't... I don't understand..."
"Well, you're afraid... you're worried we're going to lose this new life we have now, aren't you?"
The girl nodded with wide eyes.
"So, if this was the work of the Miyamizu shrine's god, and we want him... well, if we want Shitori-no-kami, the shrine god, to maintain this reality where we are alive, shouldn't we, at the very least, make offerings to him and thank him?"
Yotsuha stood up as well.
"But... but we don't have our sanctuary anymore, how could we do that?"
"I don't know, but... we could at least start by going to some Shinto shrine, we should ask the gods to take our thanks to Musubi, right?"
"Now?"
"Sure, come on now, let's go by the Gokoku shrine on the way home. Come on, let's go."
Mitsuha stretched out a hand and offered it to Yotsuha. And they both started walking back towards the street.
"Are you sure you don't need a vehicle now?" asked the cab driver as the girls passed by his cab.
"We really appreciate it, but now we will go to the Gokuku shrine nearby."
"Oh, I see. Yes, it's only a couple of blocks away," said the man despondently. "Hold on a second, though, miss..."
The man opened the door of the cab, half-sucked his body inside, looking for something, then sat up, took a few steps and stood in front of Mitsuha, passing her a business card as he bowed.
"If you need transportation, you can call me. There is also the number of the central office, if I am not on duty."
"That's very kind of you, I appreciate it," said Mitsuha taking the card, examining it for a couple of seconds and then putting it carefully in her purse.
The women left the parking lot and continued walking down the sidewalk in silence. Mitsuha was looking worriedly at Yotsuha, who was walking calmly beside her, but crestfallen and thoughtful. Suddenly the girl raised her head and questioned her older sister with a vehemence that startled Mitsuha.
"If all this was because of Musubi... then did he send us that comet? Was he punishing us for something? For something you did?"
Mitsuha paused, blinking in surprise at the unexpected question and the worse accusation.
"Because of something I did?"
"Yes! You didn't offend Musubi, did you?"
Mitsuha suddenly felt an impulse to laugh, which she tried to suppress, but could not, and burst out laughing.
"Ha, ha, but, but, but what witticisms, sis."
"I'm serious, Mitsuha!" said the girl annoyed by her sister's attitude.
Mitsuha put her hand on her sister head, as if she were a little girl.
"Look, at that time I was the same age as you are now. Think what could you do today that would offend a god enough to... to destroy a whole town?"
Yotsuha looked down, and stood thinking. Mitsuha interpreted the girl's silence as a sign of victory, and started walking again. Her sister began to follow her, but always thinking.
"I remember you always complaining about your life, and once you even shouted on the shrine steps, that you hated your life, hated serving at the shrine and all that," said Yotsuha, as a conclusion to her long thought. "And that was just a few days before the star. Could it be that you... caused Musubi to hate us?"
Mitsuha was taken aback by this reasoning. She slowed her pace, weighing her sister's words.
"No... I don't think so," answered Mitsuha. "If so, if Musubi had been angry with me, why then did he reward me by allowing me to switch bodies with Taki? If that hadn't happened, we wouldn't have been saved. And if he was angry with us, why bring us back to life? It doesn't seem that Musubi was thinking of destroying us, quite the contrary."
"So, who... who caused all that?"
"That's a good question. Maybe... it's something we should ask Grandma tonight."
Yotsuha let out a loud sigh.
"I bet she's going to say she has no idea, that it's all that damn Mayugorô's fault..."
Mitsuha raised an eyebrow at her sister's unexpected imprecation, but inwardly agreed with her.
"Maybe she knows something, or remembers something our ancestors taught her. Something that maybe we always overlooked... but... I hope she's willing to talk. You know she's been being very hard on me since I decided to stay in Tokyo."
"Yes, but you don't provoke her either, although... I don't know, she's been acting weird today."
"Weird like what?" asked Mitsuha in surprise.
"It's that, last night... last night I was distressed, I couldn't talk to her, I didn't... I didn't want to talk to anybody, and... last night she came into my room, we argued and I exploded. Grandma Hitoha comforted me, I don't know how but I fell asleep, and this morning I woke up and she was, I don't know, different."
"Is she sick?" Mitsuha asked worriedly. "Different in what way?"
"No, it's not that she was sick, on the contrary. She was cheerful. She wasn't morose like every morning, in fact, she was humming shrine tunes. In fact, she was humming shrine tunes. She even brought me breakfast to my bedroom! And she repeated several times that you were coming today."
"Did he bring you breakfast...? Yes, that's strange. She only brought it to me when I was really sick. Wait, she said I was coming? I never confirmed that to her. I only told you this afternoon... Uhm, and did you tell her I was on my way?"
"Eh... no, I didn't tell him"
Mitsuha exhaled wearily. Well, they were almost there, so it didn't matter at that point.
"Look, there's the Shinto shrine. Let's go in!" said Mitsuha, cheerfully.
The girls crossed the street and entered the complex, taking the path that led to the Gokoku shrine. They passed silently under the Tori arch that welcomed them. They walked down a path completely surrounded by trees. By the time of the afternoon, it was beginning to get dark. They walked a long way in silence, crossed a wooden bridge, until they reached a more open space where some cars were parked.
The girls went to the temizuya fountain to perform the purification ritual. They continued walking until they reached a large tori arch that led to a wide central path, which separated two large grassy areas that ended on either side in a dense forest. In the background, the large temple building stood out against the green foliage of the trees that enclosed the space.
"Wow, it's been a long time since I've visited a Shinto shrine," said Mitsuha, overwhelmed by the beauty of the sight.
"With Grandmother Hitoha we have been coming frequently. The high priest knows Grandmother and has allowed her to sell through this shrine some kumihimo ropes. She was even asked once to teach people how to make them. She did it a couple of times."
"And do they sell a lot of them?" asked Mitsuha in surprise.
Yotsuha shrugged her shoulders.
"I still sometimes help him make them. But I don't think they sell too many. Maybe two or three a month."
"I see... but she has never asked me for more money, has she...?
"I don't think it's for the money. It's to maintain the tradition..."
«A tradition that may die with her,» Mitsuha thought somewhat guiltily.
Mitsuha gazed ecstatically at the rows of cherry blossoms that still had their pink buds, until they reached the main pavilion of the shrine. In the center of it the doors were open and a large offering box faced outward.
"Good. Let's make an offering and ask Musubi to receive our prayer of thanks."
Mitsuha took out several 5-yen coins, handed some to her sister, and they both respectfully approached the offering box. They performed the ritual in silence, side by side, eyes closed. Then they withdrew in silence. Already the roadside lamps were beginning to light.
"Did you ask the kami to take your prayer to Shitori-no-kami?" asked Mitsuha as they walked back.
Yotsuha nodded her head.
"And do you feel calmer now?"
"I asked Musubi to allow us Miyamizu to have a shrine again, to honor him, to keep ourselves and his cult alive."
Mitsuha was silent the rest of the way back. The path through the trees was now illuminated by the stone lamps that had been lit. They reached the entrance to the compound, and stepped out into the street, heading for Hitoha's house, which was at the side of the shrine compound, only about two blocks away.
"You heard what I said, didn't you?" asked Yotsuha, puzzled by her older sister's sudden silence.
"Yes, I heard you. All my life I wanted to get away from the sanctuary to live my own life. Now, now I am myself. But I am also a Miyamizu. And I don't know what to say. Are we destined to have to serve in a Shinto shrine for all eternity?"
Yotsuha looked at her and then lowered her head.
"After we left Itomori, at one point I also thought it was liberating to not have to be a shrine miko for the rest of my life. But if what happened to us... if the gods are in this, maybe that's our destiny..."
Mitsuha sighed. The fate the gods wanted; What did Musubi want from them?
And they arrived in front of the entrance of the Miyamizu family's house.
"Well, now... it will be good for the three of us to talk," said Mitsuha.
"I'll go in and let grandma know that you are..."
The light at the entrance to the house switched on, and the girls suddenly found their grandmother Hitoha standing in the doorway, looking at them.
The old woman watched them for a few seconds, while adjusting a shawl around her shoulders. Neither of the two young women could say anything. In the end Hitoha focused on Mitsuha, and gave her a smile.
"Welcome! I knew you would really come today," said Hitoha.
"Grandma!" Mitsuha said still surprised, bowing. "I heard your message, and I came as you asked me to."
"Come in, come in, Mitsuha, we have a lot to talk about."
Hitoha turned and disappeared inside the house, leaving the door open and the two girls speechless.
"She's really acting strange," said Mitsuha after waking up. "It's been a long time since she received me... so well."
Yotsuha simply shrugged her shoulders, as if to say «I told you so.»
And they both entered, in silence, not knowing what to expect.