When I got dressed and came downstairs, an NHK anchor was talking cheerfully on the TV. I stared at it, standing with a wide intimidating stance in order to shake off the cramped feeling of wearing a skirt, something I had not felt in quite a while.

“Tiamat’s Comet, which has been visible with the naked eye for the past week, will reach its closest approach to Earth at about 7:40 tonight. It is expected that the comet will be its brightest at this time. At the long awaited climax of this astronomical spectacle, which occurs only once every 1200 years, various celebrations…”

“… Tonight! There’s still time!” My body started trembling in excitement.

“Good morning Mitsuha. Yotsuha left first today.” Turning around, I saw Grandma standing there.

“Grandma! Looking great!” I instinctively ran up to her. Judging by the teapot she held on a plate, she was probably planning to have some tea in the living room.

“Hm? You…” Grandma took off her gla.s.ses and examined my face intently. “… You’re not Mitsuha, are you?”

“Wha…” How!? A feeling of guilt came over me, like the one you get when something bad you did that you were sure no one would ever find out about gets exposed. But wait, this might actually be convenient. “Grandma… you knew?”

Not seeming particularly perturbed, Grandma sat down and said, “Nope. But watching you recently made me remember. When I was young, I remember I had a strange dream.”

Seriously!? Well this’ll be easy to clear up then. I’d expect no less from the family of j.a.panese folktales. As I also took a seat by the table, Grandma poured me some tea.

Sipping her cup, she continued speaking. “It really was a strange dream. Or, rather than a dream, it was more like someone else’s life. It was like I had become an unknown boy in an unknown city.”

I gulped hard. Exactly the same as us.

“But those dreams stopped suddenly one day. All I remember now is the vague fact that I had a strange dream. Who I became during those dreams or any details like that have disappeared from my memory.”

“Disappear…”

I repeated that word, as if it were the fateful name of a grave illness. I, too, forgot Mitsuha’s name for a period of time. I had started to believe that it was all just a delusion. Grandma’s wrinkle riddled face bore a slight tone of loneliness.

“So treasure what you are experiencing now. No matter how special it is, a dream is still a dream in the end. Once you wake up, it will eventually disappear. My mother, your mother, and I all had a similar period in our lives.”

“Then… could that mean?”

A sudden thought popped into my mind. Maybe this was a duty pa.s.sed down through the Miyamizu family. In order to prevent the disaster that rears its face every 1200 years, they were given the power to communicate through dreams with someone a few years in the future. The job of the shrine maiden. A warning system that leaped from generation to generation through the Miyamizu lineage.

“The dreams of all of those people from the Miyamizu family… they may have all been leading up to today!” I faced Grandma straight in the eye and spoke a.s.sertively. “Grandma, listen.” She raised her face. Her expression remained unreadable to me, yielding no hint as to how she was taking my words. “Tonight, a meteorite will fall on Itomori Village and everyone will die.” Now, her eyebrows furrowed in suspicion.