A/N

Welcome to Threads of Fate! This is a Kimi no Na wa. (Your Name.) fanfiction, and I do sincerely hope you enjoy it. There are just a few things I need to mention before we start:

Firstly, this story makes exactly one change to canon – in this story, the Itomori incident happened in 2015 rather than 2013. This makes Mitsuha only one year older than Taki, rather than three. Everything else is the same – if I get anything wrong, please do correct me. I may take liberties on minor details if it makes the story more interesting, but generally I will stick closely to canon. I have only watched the film, so if there are details in the books I am missing, I do apologise and may change or add things if I am informed of any inaccuracies. Oh and if you haven't either seen the film or read the books…you probably shouldn't be reading this fic!

Secondly, a note on Japanese. I really dislike using Japanese when writing for an English-speaking audience, but some things must be kept in. Notably, names will be in the order family-name given-name, for example Miyamizu Mitsuha or Tachibana Taki. Use of honorifics will be used when appropriate, for example -senpai (senior), -sensei (teacher) and -san (general respect). If honorifics or nicknames are used in canon they will be used here, for example Mitsuha calls Taki and Sayaka Taki-kun and Saya-chan respectively in the film, so they will be mirrored here. There are a few important Japanese terms in the film such as musubi (knotting/connectedness) and kataware-doki (twilight/witching hour) – if these words are ever used, I will attempt to explain their importance as much as I can, both in the story and in a subsequent author's note. Whew. I hope all that doesn't put you off, it should very rarely cause any issues, but please do ask if you think something requires extra clarification.

Thirdly, upload schedule is one chapter every other weekend. I will always be at least one chapter ahead, and if a chapter gets delayed it will be delayed for exactly one week. I may upload more regularly if I get too far ahead, but no promises, and hopefully I won't fall behind. Chapters are ~5000 words, and this story should be somewhere between 10-20 chapters.

Finally, I appreciate any reviews or messages that aren't blatantly hateful – please do give me some (constructive) criticism, whether that's on my writing style, characterisation, world building, plot, or any inaccuracies to either canon or real life. I would much prefer a 'this is good/bad, [but] it would be better if…' than 'it's great' or 'it's terrible'.

Without further ado, find a comfy seat and enjoy the story!

Threads of Fate

Prologue

The first thing Mitsuha noticed was the light. It was very white, and very bright – even with her eyes closed she could feel the intensity pushing at her eyelids. Trying to move her arms, she noticed the dull aches pulsing across her body, like someone had poured cement into her bloodstream. With no painless way to avert her eyes, she opted to open them instead. As they adjusted, Mitsuha began to make out sounds – people scurrying to and fro, the sounds of quiet conversations, and the steady ticking of a clock.

Suddenly realising where she was and the source of her injuries, she gasped and sat upright – only to collapse back against her bed with a wince. There was no way she could get up as she was now; she would talk to a nurse once one noticed she'd awoken. As she relaxed her body, her hands naturally unfurled from where they had been gripping the sheets in pain, and Mitsuha caught a glimpse of black ink on the palm of her right hand. It took her a few moments to read it upside down, but then she smiled. I love you, written in handwriting that was somewhat familiar to her.

The only problem was, she couldn't for the life of her remember whose handwriting it was.

〈◇〉

It took only a few days for Mitsuha to be released from Furakawa hospital in Hida. There were still a few people recuperating both there and at the larger main hospital, but one thing was known for certain: there had been no fatalities. The evacuation hadn't gone exactly as planned – it had been far too close for comfort – but at least everyone had survived. As one of the last evacuees helping others to safety, it seems she ended up getting hit by the blast and taking quite the bumpy ride down a hill, along with a number of other stragglers…including her father. Luckily for the residents of Itomori, mayor Miyamizu listened to his daughter's plea and went ahead with the evacuation to the town's school. Unluckily for the mayor, his injuries will keep him in hospital for another two weeks at least. For now, Mitsuha could take relief in her completely unharmed sister and grandmother, the latter being one of the only ones to know it was her who…her who had…

…who had what? She vaguely remembered Tessie and Sayaka being there with her the day of the incident (that was what the media were calling it) but both of them had received some level of concussion and didn't remember any more than she did. The only one who seemed to know anything was her grandmother, but the old woman was keeping suspiciously silent as usual. Also, according to Yotsuha she'd even gone to Tokyo one day prior, to go on a date…or something. Another event she had almost no recollection of.

Whenever Mitsuha began to think about the events of the destruction of her hometown, she would end up opening her right hand and looking at her palm. The marks had all but faded away, but she sought solace in the three single characters that had been written there. Someone, somewhere, loved her. If only she could remember who, or where. Subconsciously, Mitsuha's other hand moved to the ribbon that was now tied around her recently shortened hair. The Miyamizu shrine may be a pile of rubble, the surrounding town utterly decimated – but she had at least this single memento of the life she once despised so much. For so long she had wanted to fly away from the quiet, empty town of Itomori, desperately wishing for another life in another place – so why was it so hard to let go?

"…home? Hey, onee-chan, are you alive in there? Did the doctors not fix you properly?"

Mitsuha looked up just in time to see her sister's pointed finger heading straight for her eye. Luckily for her, Yotsuha noticed her return to the world of the living and decided to forgo the painful probing of her face. "Sayaka-senpai called. She said Teshigawara-senpai's been released from the hospital, and she's going over there to meet him."

"Teshiga…Tessie's out? Oh, Saya-chan will be happy…" Mitsuha mumbled, her mind still trying to find the name of that one person she so wanted to remember. She stood up, took a deep breath to focus herself, and walked towards the front door of the place they would be renting for the foreseeable future.

"Huh…where are you going? To the hospital?" Yotsuha poked her head around the corner, watching her older sister put her shoes on.

"Yeah. I'll check on Dad while I'm there. Tell grandma I'll be back in time to cook dinner."

〈◇〉

Despite being the mayor of the hole where Itomori used to be, Miyamizu Toshiki couldn't do much to help his former townspeople. Most of Itomori's residents went to live with family members or stayed in Hida while trying to find a place to live permanently. Some had already relocated to nearby towns and cities in Gifu prefecture. Although home insurance pays out for earthquakes and tsunami (Japan is situated over numerous fault lines after all), it doesn't typically cover meteorite strikes; however, the Japanese government did award all homeowners with some compensation, enough to make a deposit on a house at least.

After the dust settled (both literally and figuratively) everything that remained of the town was retrieved, the few undamaged buildings abandoned, and a new life began. There was plenty of administrative work to be done – the local council was small and the scale of the disaster large, so it took a good two months until the media and government gave the mayor any time to breathe. By mid-December two things were clear: firstly, the Miyamizu family would be staying together from now on; and secondly, they probably wouldn't be staying in Gifu. Toshiki needed a job, preferably far away from the most terrifying event of his life; his mother-in-law, Hitoha, was remarkedly indifferent about the loss of the shrine of her heritage, and just wanted somewhere interesting to settle down; Mitsuha had wanted to leave Itomori for years, albeit ideally of her own volition; and Yotsuha was naturally devastated but was making a conscious effort to move on.

It wasn't until early January that the family moved in with Mitsuha and Yotsuha's paternal grandparents, in a house in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, over 200 kilometres from their small town in Gifu. There were still near-constant trips between Tokyo, Hida and Itomori, which made the family's life very disruptive – hence living with the girls' paternal grandparents, where they would be looked after whenever Toshiki was away. Not that they needed it – they had been just fine with the two of them and grandma back in Itomori – but it was nice to have some regular contact with dad's side of the family.

It wasn't until February and the kids' mysterious abundance of free time that they realised nearly five months of school had been missed. Yotsuha was largely unaffected as she could catch up without too much trouble, she was only in grade 5 after all. But Mitsuha's was a different story – with the hassle of losing her home, helping her dad sort out the remains of the town and moving to the city she had ended up too far behind to go into third year. It wouldn't have been a major problem but for the fact that it was both the most difficult and most important year of her education so far, as it was the year students would apply for and take university entrance exams. Under pressure from her dad, Mitsuha ended up effectively retaking her second year in the form of a part-time catch-up school. With her friends still in Hida and her normal daily school routine disrupted, she felt that she had lost much more than her town – her entire life had been ripped out from under her, without her having any control or choice over it.

And so, months passed by uneventfully. Toshiki tried to make it back into politics, but his heart wasn't really into it. Yotsuha was excited about her new life, but as the novelty of the city wore off she began to miss her beautiful lakeside town. And Mitsuha tried to enjoy her time in Ikebukuro, but had this constant nagging feeling that there was something she was missing. That until she found who, or what, she was looking for, her life wouldn't truly begin.

Mitsuha's dad was retiring from politics for good, which meant going back to his old job. His degree in business and economics meant he was in a good position, but his lack of recent experience was quite the hindrance. It wasn't exactly what he was looking for, but the store manager of the Shibuya branch of a new chain of department stores was honestly a bit better than he was expecting. Being recognised at his interview as the man who had successfully evacuated Itomori may have had something to do with it, although he wouldn't mind keeping that bit of information hidden if possible – becoming a minor celebrity had never been very high on his to-do list. Nevertheless, this was exactly the kind of break he had been looking for.

〈◇〉

"Ikebukuro's too far. Ideally I want to be within a half-hour commute of central Shibuya. That means Shibuya, Minato, maybe eastern Setagaya. Shinjuku as well. I'd rather avoid the tourist traps if I can help it, but, well, it is Shibuya we're talking about here."

"An hour each way, that's certainly an inconvenience, but not impossible by any means. Staying here isn't such a bad idea." That was grandpa, he did always used to ask them to visit more often.

"And we can tell, Toshiki. You're still hurting. You don't need to be so hasty to move away. It's been lovely having you and the girls here." Grandma's soft voice barely made its way under the door.

A moment of silence, then a quiet sigh.

"You're right. But I have to move on somehow. I want to spend more time with my daughters – they're putting on brave faces, but I know they miss the town as well, far more than I do."

Mitsuha moved closer to the sliding door, being careful not to accidentally knock against it. This voice, a voice of care and empathy, gentleness and calmness, reminded her of back before Yotsuha was born; when they were all living together, and Mum was still alive.

"Working so far away will make that difficult. I want…we want to be a family again. I think we need some time to ourselves. It's also not fair to you that you have my mother-in-law to take care of too."

"You're making excuses son, and you know it. And it's been nice to have some more company, we don't really mind Hitoha staying too."

"It's not just that. Mitsuha still hasn't settled in or made any friends, and Yotsuha doesn't really like it here. I'm a city man, but they're still country girls. I can tell she misses the openness, the greenery. As contradictory as it sounds, the further into Tokyo we are, the more nature there is. There are national parks near the centre of the city big enough to drop a small town into. Ikebukuro just doesn't have what my daughters need, but Shibuya does.
"I've been so distant from them for so much of their childhood, I want to do at least this much for them."

After that the talk moved to uninteresting topics – cost, space, travel, things Mitsuha either didn't care about or didn't really understand, although she was pretty shocked at the figures the adults came up with for a single flat's rent. She had listened in for long enough, and slowly made her way back to bed, making sure to keep her movements quiet lest she wake her sister. Sliding into her futon, she considered her feelings about what she'd just heard.

She should have been ecstatic, but there was a feeling of numbness and indifference that surprised her. Tokyo was still a mixture of exciting and alien to her, but although the desire to live there hadn't faded, she just couldn't help but feel that it not being her choice undermined the importance of the event. The crux of the matter was that they were moving. In the end they would simply be exchanging one city for another, but Dad was right about Yotsuha. She would definitely like a place near a national park or something. As Mitsuha drifted to sleep, she wished only for the passion she once had, those couple of months before her life went to hell.

〈◇〉

The three of them set off two weeks later, grandma staying home since it would take far too long to get around with her hobbling along behind them. Dad had some properties in mind that he'd found on the internet or in newspapers, but the real purpose of their expedition was to explore the area. He hadn't wanted to bring them along at first but eventually ceded to Mitsuha's appeals that they were all moving house, not just him, and it was only fair to let them have a look too. They started off at Shibuya station and moved outwards, first visiting the store Dad would be managing, then looking at some more residential areas. It took them the better part of four hours to cover most of Shibuya, ending their morning (to Yotsuha's insistence) with a walk through Yoyogi Park. Unfortunately they hadn't had enough foresight to make a picnic and ended up buying a makeshift lunch outside a nearby station.

"This area is fairly aesthetic. It's close to a main station, and the prices are…manageable…" Toshiki muttered to himself and went over the places he had seen and the addresses he'd written down as he looked at the notebook resting in his lap, his face frowning in concentration.

"I really like the park! Maybe we could live somewhere near it?"

"Well of course you liked the park, there was a shrine there after all," Mitsuha immediately replied, rebuking her energetic sister. Unlike herself, Yotsuha had loved being a part of the running of Miyamizu shrine back in Itomori.

Yotsuha crossed her arms, which was made difficult by the drink she was holding in one hand. "Maybe I'll become a shrine maiden of Jingu Shrine. Just like back home."

Mitsuha almost spat out her own drink, not because of Yotsuha's proclamation but from the name Yotsuha had casually tossed at her. "Jingu…." She was sure she had heard that name before, and Shibuya station was also beginning to ring a few old bells. Perhaps this is where she had come that day one year ago, the day she apparently took a spontaneous trip to Tokyo. Kind of a random destination…but there was no other explanation. Was there?

The feeling of nostalgia only strengthened as the family entered the station to take the metro up to Shinjuku. Despite their initial concerns it seemed Dad and grandpa had found some relatively affordable housing there, so that was their next stop.

"Onee-chan, where are you going? That's the wrong platform."

For some reason Mitsuha had automatically moved towards the westbound platform as her sister and father turned the other way to descend to the northbound. She'd better not get separated – there's no phone signal underground so contacting each other would be a pain if she got on the wrong line. After getting on the correct train they ended up passing straight under Shinjuku station and towards the Toyama quarter, where a few good flats were for sale.

After a couple of hours of looking around the area, as well as having a brief look at some nearby schools, they began to move back towards the main station. Yotsuha seemed pretty intent on Yoyogi, and Dad liked the area, so Mitsuha was fairly sure that's where they would end up. It was quite strange; she had wanted to come to central Tokyo for a long time, since she was Yotsuha's age, but the excitement was gone – or more accurately, it had yet to arrive. There was something nagging at her mind, like a name she couldn't quite place or a flicker in the corner of her eye, but no matter where they went she just didn't feel like it could be a new home for her. There was something missing, some old memory telling her of some other place…

Ignoring Mitsuha's brooding, the family made its way to the main road that led to the station, which ran alongside a national garden for a few hundred metres. Toshiki really wanted to get back to Ikebukuro before rush hour started, or the trains would be packed…

The last twelve months had really changed Miyamizu Toshiki. After witnessing the destruction of his town and dealing with the ensuing fallout, he had felt like a complete failure – and to top it all off he'd nearly ignored his daughter's warnings about the meteorite strike, which would have killed every single resident had she not managed to convince him. He felt helpless in other ways too – he couldn't help his people get their lives back, there was no way to truly compensate them for the land and possessions they had lost…but most of all, he felt that he had failed his family. After his wife's death, he had blamed the shrine and its way of life and left his daughters with his mother-in-law to grow up almost entirely without him.

The incident had woken him up to the reality that his children's lives were going to flash by with he, their father, simply watching from the sidelines. Once he moved back in with his parents, Toshiki began to recall memories of his own father from his childhood, the kind of man he had been to his daughters before Futaba's death, and compared them to the man he had become after her passing. With some guidance from his elderly parents, he aimed to be a better man from now on. And his efforts weren't going unnoticed, especially by Mitsuha – but he was still a long way from where he wanted to be.

Toshiki felt a pull at his shirt sleeve. "Um, Dad, nee-san's acting funny. I think she wants to eat something." His eyes moved in the direction his youngest was pointing to see Mitsuha staring intently into the window of a café, with an amazed expression painting her face. 'Il Giardino Delle Parole', a fancy Italian place…seems expensive. He would prefer to wait until they got home, then have a proper dinner, but he was also making an effort to try and dote on his daughters a bit more.

Just as he was making up his mind, Mitsuha suddenly turned away, paused for a second, and without warning ran straight into the crowd.

"Mitsuha? Mitsuha!" His shouts failing to reach her, Toshiki grabbed Yotsuha's hand and began to follow after Mitsuha, but it was hopeless – she had already disappeared.

"I'll call her." But no matter how many times he hit redial, he couldn't get past Mitsuha's voicemail. Not bothering to listen to the full message, he instead kept cutting the call and trying again. "What has gotten into that girl's head?" he mumbled angrily as he jabbed at the screen once more.

"Ah!" Yotsuha proudly pushed her own phone up in front of her dad's face. He had finally given in and got her one now that they were moving to Tokyo, and she seemed incredibly pleased to get a message from her sister. 'Tell Dad I saw a friend, they're in a rush so I can't stick around. I'll be with them for a while but I'll call once I have a chance.'

"Honestly...I'll have some stern words for her once she gets back. And since when did she have any friends from Tokyo? She was staring into a shop window just a second ago!"

"What should we do now? We were just about to leave, but we can't go back home without her."

Toshiki's face hardened, before he let the tension fall from his shoulders and turned back towards their original destination. "We'll wait in the station. There's plenty to do around there while we wait. Once she does decide to show up, she'll be having a very unpleasant journey back…"

Yotsuha's face became apprehensive as she recognised her father put on his politics face for the first time in months, but he didn't notice – he was too busy devising a suitable lecture for when his usually well-behaved daughter came back.

〈◇〉

Mitsuha turned away from the shop window and ran. She now knew exactly where she was. Rushing through the crowded pavement, she stopped only to silence her constantly ringing phone and type out a quick message to her sister. A few hundred metres along the main road, she turned off into a side street and quickly wove her way through the residential area towards her destination – a small block of flats near Suga shrine. Rounding the corner and slipping past a woman with a pram, Mitsuha immediately recognised the building in front of her – the building that felt more like a home than any of the places she had visited today.

She barely had time to get excited before arriving at her destination. Eagerly pushing the button for the top flat, she waited, breath ragged and heart beating viciously...but no-one replied through the intercom. After a couple more attempts were met with nothing more than quiet static, she turned away, shoulders slightly deflated, and began to walk to the closest station.

Mitsuha took a good look at her surroundings as she walked, slowly getting her breath back. She knew this place, this road, that house, those signs. They were imprinted on her memory, like someone had branded a map into her mind; more than a map, as she could remember journeys taken, an orange sunset, the sound of commuters, making breakfast each morning…it was like a dream of a life she had once lived. Even the ticket barriers, the escalator down to the platforms, the colour of the train seats, all felt natural and so very normal. Despite never having been to Shinanomachi station before, she felt like she'd walked through those doors dozens of times before.

Once she boarded the next westbound train, the world outside the windows faded into a dark tunnel and Mitsuha had some time to think. This really wasn't like her, being so impulsive and lying to her dad like that. But once she sat down and thought things through, she realised that she had absolutely no idea what she was doing or where she was going, or even why she'd boarded the subway. She needed to change lines soon, she knew that much, but after that there was no plan.

A very rational fear began to grow in the front of her mind - it was like her instincts had taken control, guiding her to places she had never been to, but knew all the same. Once again, Mitsuha's unfocused gaze drifted from the passenger opposite her to her right hand, seeking refuge in the words that had been inscribed there so long ago. And somehow she knew that had someone answered that door, she would have met the one who had written them.

Changing to the Yamanote line, Mitsuha was completely unaware that her dad and sister were barely 50 metres away from her, enjoying some very nice ice cream inside Shinjuku station proper. Of course, the sole purpose of such a purchase was so Yotsuha could tease her about it afterwards and discourage any more impromptu adventures – but Mitsuha's mission was far more important than a frozen dessert, even if she wasn't sure exactly what said mission was.

Stepping off the platform at Shibuya, she made her way to the surface, and walked outside. She had come here earlier this morning, turning westwards after leaving and following her dad to his new workplace. This time however, she turned away from the setting sun, and Mitsuha's feet carried her all the way to Jingu high school. It was just short of half five, so there were a few students still having their club activities – she could see the track and field club in the distance, with one figure clearly in the lead and the rest of the pack tiredly trying to catch up. However, she knew she wouldn't find the person she was looking for – if a person was even what she was looking for. She would usually be at school herself, except the owner of one of the flats they had visited would be out all next week so today was their only chance to talk in person. In fact, she probably looked pretty suspicious – she was the right age, at the wrong school and with no uniform on to boot. She'd better scram before-

"Can I help you?" A deep voice intoned from around a foot above her head. Mitsuha shrieked and leapt back, which was exactly the wrong direction to leap in as the man was standing directly behind her. Turning, bowing and apologising profusely, Mitsuha looked up to see –

"Oh, Kitamura-sensei." The man – who must clearly not be called Kitamura by the expression on his face – looked down and frowned. His slicked-back hair managed to stay perfectly still as his broad face creased slightly around his thin eyebrows and mouth, and the hands clasped behind his back managed to make his shoulders seem even wider than they already were as he leaned down slightly to peer at the perfectly ordinary girl in front of him.

"And who would you be, exactly? You're not one of my students, so how do you know my name?"

"Eh…oh, um…you look like…like my uncle, who's also called Kitamura…" Mitsuha mentally zipped her mouth shut and threw away the key, to prevent herself from saying anything else she really shouldn't know.

"Really?!" Somehow this seemed to be the right thing to say, as the man straightened and his features smoothed out, his eyes staying focused while the corners of his mouth barely moved upward. "Perhaps I have a long-lost brother!" Suddenly his slight smile began to feel more dangerous than amused.

"Now really, why are you here? If you have business with the school, you should make your way to the reception. Shouldn't you be in school yourself anyway?"

"Actually, um, I might be applying here next year. For my final year. Since I'm moving into the area and all…"

"Oho, a prospective student? Unusual, but not unwelcome. Well, you should come along with your parents within the next two weeks, before the spring holiday. Our current second year is a little small, so there should be some space. Providing you have decent grades and behaviour of course." He seemed to have already forgotten that future student or no, she really should be in school herself.

"Of course. I'll talk to my dad about it." Her phone had begun to buzz in her pocket – she really shouldn't keep them waiting any longer.

After a promise to come visit again before the start of the next school year in less than a month's time, Mitsuha walked around the corner and out of sight before checking her phone, only to find it was a regular 'Upgrade your contract!' text from her network. Now she really did feel bad about running off the way she had. Pocketing her phone, she began the short walk back to the station.

〈◇〉

The ride back to Ikebukuro was not what you would call 'fun'. Not only was it irresponsible to go off alone into an unfamiliar city, but it was also incredibly rude to the people with you – or at least, that's what her dad tried to drill into her head. It took him twenty minutes before he realised that lecturing his daughter would yield no gain for either of them. However, many years as a politician had taught him a thing or two about dealing with people. Time for a different direction of attack.

"So, who's your friend?" His tone had changed completely, although his slightly annoyed expression rather ruined the non-confrontational vibe he was trying to give off. "You said you saw a friend. I didn't know you knew anyone from Tokyo."

"Hm? Oh, him, well he came to visit Itomori once and we ended up accidentally meeting near the shrine. I just happened to see him coming out that cafe." After managing to tune out her dad's reproaches she had spent the journey so far trying to come up with a convincing lie. The story came to her quite naturally, and she felt it was pretty believable.

"And what was he in a rush for?" Press them for details and they'll slip up eventually.

"He has a part-time job. At a restaurant." Or maybe not. Perhaps this guy really does exist… "He showed me his school."

"I thought you said he was late for his job?" Raised eyebrows and a focused line of sight was enough to convey her dad's scepticism of her story.

"He had to, um, pick up some stuff from school first. That's why he was in such a rush." Phew. That was a close one, luckily Mitsuha's improvisation skills were up to scratch. "The school's really good, it's a senior high school in Jingu. It's really close to Shibuya station, and probably within walking distance of that place Yotsuha liked, the one near the park."

"You mean in Yoyogi?" He had already found a couple of good schools slightly closer, and he could tell she wasn't completely telling the truth. For some reason there was a certain measure of excitement in her voice. She wanted something, and he controlled it. He had found his line of attack. Time to put the mayor face back on again.

"You run off following some boy you met exactly once, send a single, uninformative text, leave us alone for an hour and come back wanting to go to his school? I can't think of a single reason why I should listen to you."

"But it's a really good school. And-"

"What's his name?" The final nail in the coffin. Toshiki didn't buy his daughter's story for a minute – she wasn't one to tell tall tales, but once he proves she's lying she'll admit defeat.

"…" Mitsuha's face fell, and for a moment she looked very vulnerable, much more vulnerable than she'd ever seemed before. She turned towards the window, opened her mouth, took a breath – and slowly exhaled, turning her face downwards.

"I don't know. I can't…remember. And, I get the feeling he can't remember mine either."

As his daughter stared intently into the hands now placed in her lap, Miyamizu Toshiki saw a deep sadness, something a girl her age should in no way have. But then her eyes became bright and filled with determination, and they pierced directly into his. For a moment he saw in them a scene he had only seen once before – a scene of a comet falling on a helpless town, and the girl whose determination and belief had swayed his mind.

Perhaps she was really telling the truth…but truth or not, there seemed to be a deep reason why she wanted to go to this school. After her not so pleasant time in the Ikebukuro school he had chosen for her, it's only fair she gets to choose this time. Treating his family like opponents to be defeated wasn't right. She wasn't just any girl; she was his daughter, Miyamizu Mitsuha. Perhaps he could give her what she wanted, just this once.

"…I'll consider it."

A/N

This prologue was a bit weird, quickly covering the time between the meteorite destroying Itomori and the start of the story proper. I'm not sure if you can actually retake a year in Japanese school – if anyone knows whether my explanation was satisfactory or not, please let me know. It's one of those small liberties I can take for the sake of moving the story in the direction I want. If you've already figured out why I made Mitsuha retake her second year, well done, and see if you're right next chapter!

Talndir

11/08/2018: Corrected spelling mistake.
18/08/2018: Changed name of 'La Boheme' to ''Il Giardino Delle Parole' (see next chapter's AN).