Mitsuha's first instinct was that she was flying. Her second was more accurate, she wasn't falling. Yet looking down, she was not sure she could fall in the first place. All around her, there seemed to be simply a bright white light, brilliant but somehow not harsh to her eyes. It didn't appear to have a source, even if she cupped her hands the space inside stayed as brightly lit as that without.

This is the beginning of your story.

She looked around for a source, but she could not find any.

This is a projection based purely on your past knowledge and not your memories. You haven't been created yet, though the moment of birth is close.

Sure is a clean OT, she thought to herself.

This is matter. That is, all the matter there is in the Universe. Though it is calm now, there is only one factor missing to turn it into the first version of the Universe that exists today. Can you guess what that is? I'll give you a hint, it is necessary to cause anything.

"Time", Mitsuha whispered.

Yes, correct to the both of you.

"Both of us?"

Both of you are watching the same scene, just in separate dimensions. Don't worry, I'll put you two back together when it's TIME!

The light seemed to shimmer, dim and grow brighter in small bursts. Almost unnoticeable at first, the bursts soon grew to be sufficient to trigger epileptic fits, yet again Mitsuha did not feel much discomfort.

Time has met space, in a higher dimension. From now on, there are actions and each causes an effect. Action and reaction, however, requires multiple objects. One shall, therefore, become many.

In spots, the light was being replaced by blots of darkness, all around her it was gradually becoming darker.

That is space, the gaps in matter.

Rapidly now, the gaps grew larger and larger till they began merging with each other. Suddenly, the process stopped.

The moment of your birth

Taki was suspended alongside her, his eyes reflecting her bewilderment.

"Well, at least we aren't in each other's bodies anymore.", Mitsuha offered weakly.

A single block of light broke away from the whole, breaking into two as it slowly hurtled away from them. Then suddenly, a red thread materialized in the midst of the gradually growing distance between them. Rapidly extending in both directions, it embedded itself into the two blocks, shimmered and disappeared.

And that would be mine.

The scenery changed, they were floating in what was nearer to the image of space Mitsuha knew. Pinpricks of light could be seen in every direction, but in front of them floated a behemoth encompassing the entirety of her vision in that direction, for as far as she could see it, the inferno frothed and bubbled. There wasn't any doubt this time, they were near a star. At a distance Mitsuha imagined would have set even their ashes on fire had they been there in reality.

The consciousness possessed by the One fractured at the moment of creation. Though most of the fragments didn't receive such consciousness, certain segments did. These segments yearned instinctively for nothing more than a return to the Whole, for their in state they felt incomplete. Yet, that was impossible, Time is a wheel that cannot be turned back. The conscious fragments did, however, seem to possess an exclusive property, gravity. Every star you see has at it's core a conscious being, and every one of it's orbital bodies a small fragment of it's consciousness. At the moment of separation, therefore, they reached around for other conscious fragments, though most were not fortunate enough to find any nearby. You were, as you must have realized, exceptions.

"And you were the link?", Taki's voice was comfortingly back to his own. It wasn't that Mitsuha disliked her own voice but hearing it from another person was simply uncanny.

Yes, you both invested in me portions of your consciousness. I did not, however, possess a material form and therefore I did not have to be subjects to the forces of physics as you were. Though distance would weaken me, I would never break. No matter how many light years separated you, I would connect you.

"So then what happened?" Mitsuha spoke up.

The force of the separation was too strong, you both were flung apart. Your consciousness, Mitsuha, became one of the Universe's first stars, you attracted sufficient matter around you to ignite, something that greatly increased your's and, as a result, my strength. I had fallen dormant at the great distance that existed between you two, however with the increased strength I was revived and you both gained knowledge of each other's position. In a few moments, you will witness your first reunion.

A streaking jet of fire was hurtling their way.

Don't worry, it isn't time yet for you to get hit by a meteor.

Mitsuha had unconsciously clenched her fists as it rapidly closed the distance. It was unnerving, though she knew it wasn't real there was a great sense of dread in her heart as she watched it come at her and, was it remembrance?

"How long back was this?", Taki spoke up from beside her.

Hmm, I believe in your units it would be...5 billion years ago?

"There wouldn't happen to be a bank anywhere around here, would there?"

I enjoyed the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy too, master.

"Come on, did you have to do that?"

The meteor had meanwhile come on them. Mitsuha closed her eyes as it was kilometers away, preparing for contact she knew would not come. When she opened them, it had passed them by and continued on it's trajectory, straight to the surface of the sun.

There was a explosion as it met it's target, a great wall of flame shot up on all sights and it sunk, leaving merely a few ripples as a mark of it's existence. A few seconds later, even the ripples had disappeared. Then, something began to change. The frothing bubbles grew larger, the jets of flame brighter.

This was the first time you were reunited since your separation, nine billion years before. None of us knew what was going to happen next.

The surface was at it this time clearly growing more and more agitated. It seemed like the brightness too was increasing, though Mitsuha was impervious to it as she had been with everything else before she was feeling a chill run down her spine.

As it turned out, so much of the One's consciousness being in such close proximity was not something that allowed stability. Your gravity well increased substantially in strength, the various bits of matter that used to orbit you fell into increasingly closer orbits till...

A small planet she hadn't seen so far had entered Mitsuha's vision. At first look, it's orbit looked to be normal yet, looking closer, Mitsuha could discern it's increasing proximity to the star. Closer, closer yet and then finally it collided. The walls of flame were larger this time, and the planet vanished in seconds.

Well, that happened, repeatedly. As must be obvious, this only served to increase the body of consciousness inside the star and thus accelerated the process even further. It's a sad sight, so I shall show you the end result directly.

The star had grown noticeably less luminous, and the light that it exude was red rather than the earlier brilliant white. It felt much farther away, though, Mitsuha thought. Was she imagining it?

We are indeed much father away, our previous location is currently inside the star.

"Is that a red supergiant?", Taki let out a low whistle beside her.

Yes, those that you know of are also I believe similar cases. It is very rare for those with a connection to truly be united, most were flung to galaxies too far apart and will not meet for hundreds of billions of years yet. But watch closely, the most spectacular show I have ever seen is about to begin in 3...2...now.

The star disappeared in a flash of brilliant light. Two plumes of blue flames shot out in opposite directions, the light was reminiscent of the first scenery Musubi had shown her. In the meanwhile, a wave of what appeared to be debris was approaching their position, it passed them by with a speed Mitsuha had a hard time believing could exist.

"Ah damn I forgot the X ray plate at home."

The scenery changed again, now they were in a giant cloud of dust, all around them a sky dotted with innumerable stars.

Driven apart after a very short period after such long years of searching, you were overtaken by grief, masters. However, that did not exist forever. Eventually, you began to gather around yourself more matter in the way Mitsuha had done before, you were to be the beacon this time and she the seeker. Again, I was revived. However, this time, there was something different.

They were on the surface of a planet, her's Mitsuha realized. Not only her planet, this was her home. It had to be Itomori but the houses, it didn't make any sense.

Taki had however not been simply waiting, Earth was his project. Protected from random pieces of debris by the gas giants, on Earth he wanted to experiment with the new forms of matter that had been the parting gift of your separation. The result of these experiments was a new configuration of matter that, infused with only a portion of his consciousness, could over time increase its volume through a process that would seem to defy the Universe's laws. Every consciousness would merge with him on the cessation of it's material body and thus his own abilities increased, allowing him to design increasingly complex configurations. I believe the culmination of these attempts is fairly obvious?

A baby's cries pierced the heavy silence that hung on them after Musubi had finished speaking. It seemed to be coming from the house in front of them, the house that looked suspiciously like something out of a period movie.

This is year 797 in your current calendar

"Cool, I'll definitely find a bank this time."

That is first contact, as you would call it. Mitsuha, you are currently very far away, it should not be possible for this child to be born. However, with the strengthening of Taki's own power, mine too increased and I was able to reach, not merely through space but also through time. I could not move physical objects through it, of course, so I had to improvise. This is only possible because this site shall be where a part of your physical body will crash in sixteen years, you were barely within my range.

"So this is before the shrine to you was founded?"

Indeed, the only ones to know me at this time were you two. Well, not even you two, since the greater portion of your consciousness are both at this time in mortal form where all knowledge acquired before your birth is beyond your reach, though far apart as yet to avoid any issues that you could not resolve because of physical inability.

"What do you mean by issues?"

The last time your two consciousnesses were combined, there was a supernova. You get my drift.

"Ah, that."

Indeed. Though these forms seemed to hide some aspects of your nature, such as the insane force of gravity generated by the concentration of so much consciousness in such a small area all we knew about them was experimental. If we were going to find out how they did when two came close together, it would only make sense to wait till you both were physically capable specimens and not children.

"So, what happened?"

This.

The scene changed. They were still in the same spot however it was night. Mitsuha raised her eyes and caught sight of the comet's piece as it hurtled towards them, in the distance the muffled sobs of several people could be heard. A wall of dust and debris was flying at them as the flames of the impact reached for the stars and they were back at the cave.

Do you know how stubborn you people are about not believing dreams? I kept showing you what would happen, kept trying to get Taki there to come here to save you. Nothing, both of you stayed put and tried to play it off as merely dreams. In the end, I tried to switch your vessels to convince you it wasn't a dream but that drained me. I was unable to do much more. Taki managed to survive the impact but it was winter and there weren't any villages nearby, his vessel expired three days later from exposure. You took his place, used his position to bring settlers here...

"Wait, who was I?"

Since you got to choose who you would be born as, you really aimed high. It presented quiet a few problems to Mitsuha, I had to constantly show up in her dreams to guide her to avoid suspicion.

"You didn't answer my question."

Emperor Junna.

"Just a second."

Taki was furiously typing on his phone and a moment his face lit up with a devilish grin.

"Have a look at this."

Mitsuha accepted the phone. Emperor Junna's Wikipedia page was opened up, to the section on consorts and children.

"I...I..."

If you are done, master, will I continue?

"Yeah, of course."

Along with the new settlement, a new shrine was founded. I knew that in your next encounter, I would have to switch your vessels however I could not afford to be taken out of the action after just one switch. So, in this place, I gathered power over the years, from the thoughts so many independent fragments of consciousness had of me. The corded braid was designed to reduce the strain of a switch on me, I perfected it's use over generations of swapping the consciousness of dynasts of the Miyamizu clan with outsiders who came through my manipulations to possess such a braid, when your present vessels were born, it was finally time and I set in motion the present chain of events.

"The present chain?"

Remember.

The word seemed to reverberate inside Mitsuha, starting as a soft purr and growing into a loud roar. A crowded Tokyo train, two suspicious friends, a belligerent customer, a cute coworker. A twilight lit mountain, three words written on her palm. It had all come back, had they truly been apart so long?

Turning towards him, she knew Taki remembered too.

"Why did I forget?"

You had tasked me with judging if bringing you two together could be dangerous. A repeat of last time would have wiped away this world, a world where something truly unique exists. I was supposed to bring you into contact eventually but manipulate events so as to pull you apart should I feel the need to do so. I had begun the first stage of the plan, only.

"Only?"

There was a complication I could not handle.

"What?"

Her.

From the depths of the cave, beyond the places where the light filtering in from the entrance could be seen, the sound of footsteps arose.

A/N:This definitely has been the most interesting episode to write, I actually got the basic inspiration from Zenzenzense too. Really would appreciate feedback for the first section especially, I disliked using so much narration but I couldn't find any other method to give so much exposition.