CHAPTER 2 THE BEGINNING

***CHAPTER 2

THE BEGINNING***

I don’t recognize that ringtone , I think drowsily.

An alarm? But I’m still sleepy. I was in the zone drawing last night and didn’t get to bed until it was almost dawn.

“…ki… Taki.”

Now somebody’s calling my name. It’s a girl’s voice…… A girl?

“Taki, Taki.”

Her voice is earnest, pleading, as if she’s about to cry. A voice trembling with loneliness, like the glimmer of distant stars.

“Don’t you remember me?” the voice asks me anxiously.

No, I don’t know you.

Suddenly, the train stops, and the doors open. Oh, right—I was on a train. The moment I realize this, I’m standing in a packed train car. A pair of wide eyes hovers right in front of me. A girl in a uniform is staring straight at me, but the press of disembarking passengers is pushing her farther away.

“My name is Mitsuha!”

The girl shouts, undoing the cord she’d used to tie back her hair and holding it out to me. Without thinking, I reach for it. It’s a vivid orange, like a thin ray of evening sun in the dim train. I shove my way into the crowd and grab that color tight.

At that point, my eyes open.

The girl’s voice—its echoes—still whispers in my ears.

…Her name is Mitsuha?

I don’t know the name, and I don’t know the girl. She looked really desperate somehow. Her eyes were brimming with tears. I’d never seen the style of uniform she was wearing. Her expression was serious, even grave, as if the fate of the universe rested in her hands.

Still, it was just a dream. It doesn’t mean anything. By the time I think about it, I can’t even remember her face. The echoes in my ears are already gone, too.

Even so.

Even so, my pulse is still racing abnormally fast. My chest is weirdly heavy. I’m sweaty all over. For the moment, I draw a deep breath.

Haaaah…

“…?”

Do I have a cold? My nose and throat feel funny. My airways are a little tighter than usual. My chest…really is weirdly heavy. How do I put this? Physically heavy. I look down at my body and see cleavage.

Cleavage.

“…?”

The soft mounds reflect the morning sun, and the pale, smooth skin gleams. A deep-blue shadow lies between the two breasts, like a lake.

Might as well squeeze ’em, I think, without missing a beat.

My hands gravitate toward them as naturally as an apple falling to the ground.

……………

…………

……?

…!

The sensation blows my mind.Whoa, I think.What is this? I keep kneading earnestly. This is just… Wow… Girls’ bodies are amazing…

“Sis? What’re you doin’?”

I glance in the direction of the voice.

There’s a little girl standing there. She’s just opened a sliding door. With my hands still pressed against my chest, I give her my honest impression.

“I was just thinking these feel way real… Huh?”

I look at the kid again. She’s about ten, with twin ponytails and sharp eyes, and she looks like the sassy type.

“…‘Sis’?” I ask the girl, pointing at myself.

So that means this is my kid sister? The girl looks thoroughly appalled.

“You still asleep or somethin’? It’s. Break. Fast. Time! Hurry up!”

She slams the sliding door shut with a sharpthwack.Fierce little girl, I think, hauling myself off the futon. Come to think of it, I am hungry. Suddenly, a full-length mirror in the corner of my vision catches my eye. I walk a few steps across the tatami mats decorating the floor to stand in front of it. Letting my loose nightshirt slip off my shoulders and fall to the floor leaves me *****. I stare at my full-length reflection in the mirror.

Long black hair flows down my back, although it’s sleep-tousled and sticking up in places. A small, round face holds big, curious eyes and lips that seem vaguely amused above a slim neck, deep collarbone, and a swelling bosom that seems to proclaim,Why yes, thank you, I’m quite healthy! Below are faint shadows of ribs, and then the soft curves of the waist.

I haven’t seen one in the flesh yet, but this is definitely a girl’s body.

…A girl?

I’m…a girl?

Abruptly, the drowsy fog enveloping my body is gone. My head clears instantly, then plunges into confusion.

I can’t take it, and I scream.

“Sis, you’re so late!”

As I open the sliding door and step into the living room, Yotsuha’s accusation flies to greet me.

“I’ll fix breakfast tomorrow!” I say by way of apology.

This kid hasn’t even lost all her baby teeth yet, but she seems convinced she’s handling life better than her big sister. I can’t show weakness by apologizing. I think, opening the rice cooker and scooping a gleaming white helping into my bowl. Whoops, is that too much? Well, never mind.

“Thanks for the food!”

I pour a generous dose of sauce over a smooth fried egg, pair it with rice, and put it in my mouth. Oh, yum. This just might be paradise… Hmm? I feel eyes trained on me, somewhere around my temple.

“So you’re normal today, are you?”

“Huh?”

Gran is watching me steadily as I chew my food.

“She sure was somethin’ else yesterday!” Yotsuha smirks at me. “Screamin’ all of a sudden like that.”

Screaming? Gran inspects me suspiciously, and Yotsuha grins (mocking me, I’m sure).

“Huh? What? What do you mean? What?!”

Seriously, what’s the matter with them? It’s creepy.

Ding-dong-ding-dooong

Suddenly, the speaker over the door comes alive, deafeningly loud.

"Good morning, everyone.”

The voice belongs to my friend Saya’s big sister (currently employed by the Regional Life Information Section at the town hall). This place, Itomori, is a dinky little town with a population of fifteen hundred, so most people either know each other or at least know someone in common.

“Here are the morning announcements from Itomori.”

The slow stream of words from the speaker is clipped into phrases.

“Here are…the morning announcements…from Itomori.”There are speakers outside, too, all over town, so the broadcast echoes off the mountains and overlaps with itself as if it’s being sung in rounds.

Twice a day, morning and evening, this disaster-prevention radio broadcast plays throughout the town. Every house has a receiver to faithfully relay the daily announcements about local events: the schedule for the sports meet, how to contact whoever’s in charge of shoveling the snow, yesterday’s births, today’s funerals.

“With regard to the Itomori mayoral election, which will take place on the twentieth of next month, the town election management committee has—”

click.

The speaker over the lintel falls silent. Gran can’t reach it herself, so she’s pulled the plug. She’s past eighty and wearing her usual traditional kimono, but even so, the gesture wordlessly conveys her anger. Even as I’m impressed by her chilly ire, I grab up the remote and turn on the TV without missing a beat. Picking up where Saya’s sister left off, the smiling NHK news lady starts speaking.

“We’re now just a month away from a visit by a comet that appears only once every twelve hundred years. For a few days, the comet is expected to be visible to the ***** eye.

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