Kimi no Na wa Chapter 7

I ran.

I ran and ran along the rough forest path, repeating his name over and over.

Taki-kun. Taki-kun. Taki-kun.

— It’s okay. I still remember. I won’t forget.

Before long, the light from Itomori Village began to peek through the gaps in the trees, and my ears began to pick up the faint festival music riding on the winds.

Taki-kun. Taki-kun. Taki-kun.

In the sky above, Tiamat’s Comet, with its dazzling tail trailing behind, sparkled brighter than the moon. I screamed his name in an attempt to push back the crushing fear.

Your name is Taki-kun!

The rumbling of a motorcycle engine became audible, and a pair of headlight beams shone into my eyes.

“Tesshi!” I yelled and ran towards the bike.

“Mitsuha! Where the heck were you!?”

Tesshi, wearing a big ridiculous helmet with a flashlight attached like he was going cave exploring or something, scolded me. Unfortunately, I couldn’t exactly explain what happened. Instead, I conveyed Taki-kun’s words.

“He said sorry for breaking your bike.”

“Huh? Who?”

“Uh, me!”

Tesshi looked skeptical but didn’t question any further. He cut the engine and, as he ran off, yelled, “You’re gonna explain everything later, okay?!”

Itomori Electrical Substation – Entry Forbidden.

A plate with those words was attached to the metal fence, and beyond it lay the silhouettes of power transformers and steel towers and other complicated looking devices. It was an unmanned facility; the only light came from the red lamps installed on the machines.

“It’s gonna fall? That? For real?!” Tesshi, looking up at the sky, asked me.

We were standing in front of the fence surrounding the substation, gazing at the glittering comet above.

“It’s gonna fall! I saw it with my own eyes!” I said, staring straight into Tesshi’s eyes. Only two hours until impact. There was no time to be explaining things.

Tesshi gave me a suspicious look for a brief moment, then broke out into a little laugh. The laugh seemed to be more out of desperation than anything else. “Oh, so you saw it, huh? Well then I guess we have no choice!” With renewed vigor, he zipped open his sports bag, revealing a cylinder shaped like a relay baton wrapped in brown paper tightly packed in there. A water gel explosive. I gulped at the sight of it. Tesshi then took out a large pair of bolt cutters and began snipping away at the chains blocking the entrance to the substation. “Mitsuha,” he said. “Any further than this and it’s not just some prank.”

“Please, keep going. I’ll take all the responsibility.”

“Are you dumb? That’s not what I was asking for,” he said almost angrily, and for some reason turned a little red in the face. “Now we’re partners in crime!”

As if to smash the encroaching darkness, the sound of the chains being severed rang loudly throughout the surrounding air.

“Once the town’s power goes out, the school will switch to its emergency power system right away. Then we can broadcast!” Tesshi yelled into his smartphone.

I held his phone up to his mouth as he drove the motorcycle. A few homes beside the prefectural road sporadically illuminated our path. And ahead lay a dense gathering of light amidst the dark mountains, our destination: Miyamizu Shrine, site of the autumn festival. A strange sense of nostalgia suddenly overcame me, as if I were returning home after a long period of absence.  

“Mitsuha, Saya-chin wants to talk to you.”

“h.e.l.lo? Saya-chin?” I put the phone against my ear.

“Ahhh Mitsuhaa!” She was crying, or at least on the verge of it. “Hey, do I really have to do this!?”

A sharp pain shot through my chest when I heard her voice. If I were in Saya-chin’s position, I would probably be crying too. Just sneaking into the broadcast room at night alone by itself was no easy task.

“I’m sorry Saya-chin, but please.” Nothing I could say would make her job easier. “If we don’t do this, lots of people will die! Once you start broadcasting, keep going as long as possible!”

No response. Only a faint sniffling.

“Saya-chin? Saya-chin!”

As anxiety began to take hold of me, the speakers suddenly burst back to life.

“Fine whatever! You and Tesshi owe me big time!”

“What did Saya-chin say?”

“You owe her big time.” Putting the phone away in my skirt pocket, I answered loud enough to be heard over the motorcycle engine.

“Alright, let’s go!”

The moment Tesshi let out his battle cry, the sound of a loud explosion, like that of a giant firework going off, rang out behind us. Stopping the bike, the two of us turned around. Two, three, four. More explosions followed one after another, and fat columns of black smoke began to rise up from the middle of the mountain where we were just minutes ago. An enormous transmission tower gradually tilted over, as if in slow motion.

“Tesshi!” My voice quivered.

“Ha.. ha…” His breathing, which almost sounded like laughing, also trembled.

Then, with an explosive bang, all the lights in the village abruptly went out. We did it. We really did it.

All of a sudden, the violently loud, ear rupturing wails of the emergency sirens burst out of speakers all around town. The ominous sounds, like screams of a giant, reflected off the mountains and completely enveloped the village.

Saya-chin. She took over the wireless disaster system. Tesshi and I locked eyes, nodded, then got back on the motorcycle. As we started out towards the shrine, Saya-chin’s voice began flowing from the speakers, as if to cheer us on. She read exactly what we had planned out in a voice so calm no one would have believed that she was crying just moments ago.

Tesshi steered off the main road and onto a narrow mountain path. Going this way, we could reach the back of the main shrine building without having to drive up the stone staircase along the main entrance. I listened to Saya-chin’s voice sound throughout the village as I clung onto Tesshi’s back in my violently shaking seat. It was almost identical to her older sister’s voice; almost no one would doubt that it wasn’t an official broadcast.

“This is it! Let’s go, Mitsuha!”

We jumped off the bike and began descending the flight of wooden stairs on the slope behind the shrine. Through the gaps in the trees I could see the countless stalls lined up on the grounds and the crowds of people walking between them like fish swimming aimlessly in a dark, overcrowded tank. As we ran, we threw off our helmets.

We reached the bottom, which put us right behind the main shrine building. Surrounding us were the silhouettes of people gathered for the festival and rapidly growing seeds of uneasiness among them. As if racing each other, Tesshi and I sprinted through the crowd, yelling as we went.