People stared at the sudden smoke, some of them flustered.
Now!
Mitsuha drew a deep breath, lifted the megaphone, and lowered her voice to make it hoarse and eerie:
"Disaster approaches! Do not go down the mountain! Stay high! Do not go down the mountain! Stay high!"
Bouncing off trees and buildings, the amplified voice turned strange and wavery, almost oracular.
Smoke. An uncanny voice
Together they created an odd effect.
The murmuring swelled.
"What was that?"
"A warning from the gods?"
"Disaster? What disaster?"
"You've got to be kidding."
Most of the believers there hovered between doubt and fear. Some, spooked, reflexively edged away from the smokeonly to move closer to the mountainside.
"Enough nonsense!"
A barked order cut through the noiseher father, Toshiki Miyamizu.
Face like thunder, he strode out from the crowd, sharp gaze sweeping the grounds.
"Who's playing at being a god? Come out!"
Mitsuha's heart almost stopped. She shrank behind the tree and held her breath.
"A prank?"
"Maybe some kid"
"But this smoke"
Her father's voice worked like a stabilizer. The crowd settled a little, though the unease and questions remained.
The seconds bled away.
8:40 p.m.
8:41 p.m.
Mitsuha's heart hammered at her throat.
Right then she wanted her dream to be wrong, for everything to be fine
and she feared it was right, and her plan would fail
Just then
Someone shouted first:
"Look! Up there! What is that?!"
Everyone looked upincluding Toshiki, who'd been hunting for the troublemaker.
In the pitch-black sky, a point of light far brighter than any ordinary comet streaked across with a long, blazing white tail, scything through the heavens at a terrifying speed!
Its glare was so intense it lit the astonished faces below.
And it was getting brighter.
Bigger.
Its pathstraight toward Itomori.
"A shootcomet?"
"No it's getting bigger!"
"Is it coming this way?!"
"Then what she said was true?!"
A huge terror seized every heart.
That burning star, heavy with ruin, filled every eye and shattered any last shred of wishful thinking.
"Run!!"
Someone screamed, and panic exploded through the crowd.
Instinct said to scatter in all directions
but home lay down the mountain, and that terrible star was falling that way.
"Don't go down! Don't go down!"
Mitsuha forgot all about hiding and burst from behind the tree.
In her own voice, she shouted herself hoarse: "Higher up! Into the woods behind us! Move!"
Her cry was swallowed by the roar of panic, but some people heardand sawher.
"It's Mitsuha!"
"The miko!"
"Do as she says! Up the mountain!"
In the chaos, some began, almost on instinct, to follow the instruction and run toward the higher forest behind the shrine.
Toshiki stared at his daughter, then at the death-ball in the sky growing nearer by the second. Disbeliefand the collapse of his worldviewwashed over his face.
BOOM!!!
There wasn't an immediate impact sound, but on the far horizon an enormous sun-bright sphere of light erupted, turning night into day.
A split-second later came a deep, earth-heart-splitting detonation.
Rrrrrrr!!!
The ground heaved violentlyworse than any quake.
The shockwave followed.
Winds screamed; trees thrashed as if they'd be ripped out by the roots.
Shrine buildings groaned and creaked in agony; roof tiles came crashing down.
People shrieked, knocked sprawling, then flattened themselves to the ground, clinging to anything solid.
Mitsuha was thrown down too. She clamped her arms around the roots of the nearest tree and lifted her head toward Itomori below.
The glare slowly faded.
In the distance, the basin where Itomori had been was swallowed by a towering pillar of dust and rolling firelight.
The hellish sight froze her blood.
The violent shaking went on; the wind kept howling.
No one spokeonly the wind, the crackle of flames, and the ragged sobs and gasps of those who'd survived.
And yet some could find no calm at all
they were alive, but their family and friends
Anime Girls are Moist
Bleam
Chapter 901: Miyamizu Mitsuha Trade Request
After a long while, the tremors finally subsided.
People, shaking, helped one another to their feet. They were all dazed. The mountainside was a mess their homes gone.
If not for that eerie oracle, if not for the accident that kept them on the mountain They couldn't even imagine the consequences.
Mitsuha's father stood there like a man whose soul had slipped away. He looked down toward the foot of the mountain, then back at Mitsuhapale but with a trace of relief on her face, ringed by Sayaka and Tessiehis eyes a storm of conflicting emotions.
""
He moved his lips, but in the end nothing came out.
Mitsuha herself was trembling.
In the distance, flames and billowing smoke were devouring the entire basin. On the nearby slope, a dense crowd stood, still in shock.
Just when Mitsuha thought it was all over, she realized she hadn't seen that familiar figure.
After a brief, deathlike silence came a crashing, surging collapse.
"Yotsuha!!!"
A scream so raw it seemed to rip open the night burst from the crowd.
Mitsuha searched but couldn't find any sign of Yotsuha; even her grandmother said they'd gotten separated in the chaos.
Mitsuha crumpled as if every bone had been pulled out of her body, and the people beside her scrambled to catch her.
Miyamizu Mitsuha felt as if a red-hot blade had been rammed into her eardrums, grinding up her brainuntil her whole world was nothing but a loud, buzzing roar.
Yotsuha? Dead?
Her lively, laughing little sister who'd begged for fried fish that very morning dead?
No! Impossible!
She'd brought everyone up the mountain. She'd done ithadn't she?
Why why would Yotsuha
"Do you know when you last saw Yotsuha?"
Her father's voice was hoarse and urgent as he questioned the person who said they'd seen her, terror quivering beneath forced restraint. He grabbed the man by the arm.
"Speak clearly!"
"N-Near the town elementary school" the man choked, unable to go on.
Near the elementary school
Mitsuha remembered. At dusk, Yotsuha had muttered about going to a classmate's house to grab a forgotten workbook. That classmate lived right by the school!
All of Mitsuha's attention had been locked on her plan. She'dshe'd completely failed to notice! Completely failed to stop her!
Cold remorse stabbed every inch of her skin, every cell, like a thousand needles.
She had saved so many people, and yet the one she missed was her dearest sister.
More wails rose from below the mountainclearly, the bad news was not just one. Those who hadn't made it up in time, or who'd stayed in town for any number of reasons their families were enduring the same hell.
The joy of success hadn't lasted a heartbeat before brutal reality ground it to dust.
Rescue had never been complete. Death still took its tribute with precision.
Miyamizu Mitsuha stood there, motionless.
The cries, the gasps, her father's stifled breathing, a soul-rending howl somewhere in the crowd all of it grew distant and muffled, as though behind a thick, icy pane of glass.
Her vision lost its focus. The colors before herthe red of fire, the black of night, the ashen facesbled away, leaving only a dead gray.
The world lost its meaning.
She had done so much, wagered everything, even pretended to be a god and for what?
She hadn't saved her own sister.
A sharp, physical pain stabbed where her heart was, so fierce she could barely breathe.
Something jammed in her throat so tightly she couldn't make a soundcouldn't even cry.
She just stood there, like a broken doll abandoned in the ruins.
Her father let go of the messenger and staggered a step. The habitual severity and rigidity of his face cracked, revealing the raw pain and confusion beneath.
He had lost a daughter.
His gaze went to Mitsuha, standing there blank and hollow-eyed, as if her soul had slipped free. His lips parted, as though to speak, but in the end any words of comfort felt hopelessly pale.
He knew the one hurting most right now wasn't him, but MitsuhaYotsuha's closest person. He was the one who had flatly dismissed her warning. And she was the one who had given everything, only to be left with an irreparable regret.
He reached out, meaning to pat her shoulder, but his hand fell limp before it touched her.
Any comfort, in this moment, was futile.
Time seemed to stopyet also race by.
Mitsuha had no idea how long it was. Maybe only a few minutes. Maybe a century.
The soundproof, lightless bell jar smothering her finally shattered under a stronger forcean icy yearning rising from the marrow of her bones.
No.
Not like this.
Yotsuha can't die.
This cannot be the end!
There's still a way one last hope!
Her eyes snapped back into focus, a near-mad, obsessive blaze igniting within them.
She almost shoved aside the people trying to steady her. Her shaking gaze fell to the group-chat interface only she could see.
The screen lit up. Right now, that chat icon felt like her only salvation.
She ignored the messages that were still flooding in, scrolling instead for Rei Ao's name.
A moment later
[Trade Request]
[Trader]: Miyamizu Mitsuha
[Terms of Trade]: Make everything that happened change!
[Consideration Offered]: "Unlimited usage rights of my body"
She didn't even thinkshe threw everything she could think of onto the bargaining table!
The price!
If it would bring Yotsuha back, reset everything, she would pay any price even this body, even this soul!
The instant the message sent, it was as if all her strength was drained away. She stared at the screen without blinking.
Almost at once, what had been a private chat with Rei Ao was mirrored into the main chatroom.
[Trader]: Miyamizu Mitsuha
[Terms of Trade]: Make everything that happened change!
[Consideration Offered]: "Unlimited usage rights of my body"
~~~
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Chapter 902: Tears and Tears of Joy...
Frieren: "?"
Yomogawa Ayame: "What is this? Mitsuha?"
Stella: "A trade? What do you mean? Mitsuha? @Miyamizu Mitsuha."
Sui: "What happened? Didn't Mitsuha's plan work?"
Izawa Shizue: "Looks like it wasn't as simple as we thought."
Yukinoshita Yukino: "Can someone explain what exactly happened?"
Yotsuya Miko: "Eh? Eh? The plan failed?"
Hiiragi Shinoa: "Mitsuha? Are you okay?"
Misaka Mikoto: "What on earth is going on?"
Erica: "Such a resolute price to pay it seems something brutally unexpected happened."
Julis: "@Miyamizu Mitsuha, calm down! Whatever happened, there has to be another way!"
The chat exploded in an instantcelebration flipped to shock, confusion, and fierce worry.
Everyone was stunned by the sudden trade request and its staggering terms.
Miyamizu Mitsuha stared at the messages streaming past. Tears finally burst the dam and blurred her vision. Choking up, she replied:
Miyamizu Mitsuha: "It worked, the plan worked a lot of people were saved."
Miyamizu Mitsuha: "But Yotsuha, my little sister Yotsuha, she didn't"
Miyamizu Mitsuha: "She wasn't on the mountain then, she"
Miyamizu Mitsuha: "She's dead"
Miyamizu Mitsuha: "It's my fault, I didn't notice, I didn't notice her!"
Miyamizu Mitsuha: "Rei Ao-san, please please save Yotsuha!"
Her words were a blood-weeping cry, and the boiling chat fell into dead silence.
Everyone understood.
Behind the relief of survival lay a loss that carved to the bone.
She saved the many, but lost her closest kin.
How cruel.
Frieren: "How sorrowful."
Yomogawa Ayame: "How could this be."
Stella: "What an utterly unexpected outcome."
Sui: "My condolences."
Izawa Shizue: "What a pity."
Yukinoshita Yukino: "..."
Yotsuya Miko: "Mitsuha, don't worryRei Ao-nii will definitely help you."
Endless mourning and silence spread through the group; any words felt pale before life and death.
And then, Rei Ao's reply appeared beneath the trade requestsimple, direct, definitive.
Rei Ao: "Since I've accepted your trade, it means I'm one hundred percent certain I can do it. Wait."
The instant that message appeared, Mitsuha felt an indescribable power descend.
Everything around herthe wailing crowd, wavering flames, the howling wind, even the dust and the scorched smell in the airfroze.
Sound vanished. Motion stopped. It was as if someone hit pause on the world, plunging it into absolute stillness.
Her father's grief, fixed on his face. A tear on her grandmother's lashes, suspended before it fell. Flames in the distance, locked in a strange, motionless poise
The entire world became a vast, uncanny, three-dimensional tableau.
Only Miyamizu Mitsuha's mind and body could still move.
The extreme silence was more terrifying than the earlier clamor. She turned her stiff neck in panic, looking around.
Then a calm voice, with a hint of playful amusement, sounded right behind herso clear it seemed to echo directly in her head:
"Mitsuha, do you want everything to return to before the incident, or should I simply restore everything around you as it is nowincluding your sister Yotsuha?"
Mitsuha spun around.
At some point, Rei Ao had appeared, standing a single step behind her without a sound.
He looked as unreadable as ever: ordinary clothes, features that seemed clear and yet indistinct, and eyes so deep they felt like they held the birth and death of countless stars.
He just stood there, out of joint with the frozen world around himlike the only real "existence" in a painted backdrop.
Time had truly stopped?
Mitsuha's heart pounded so hard it nearly broke her ribs.
What was happening was beyond anything she understood.
Freezing time? That should be a divine power, shouldn't it?
If he could do this was he truly omnipotent?
From the depths of despair, a searing hope flared.
She locked her eyes on Rei Ao, drew a deep breath, forced herself steady, wiped her tears, and said solemnly, "If possible then take everything back to before the accident happened! Let everything change from there!"
Her voice trembled with agitation and nerves, but it was unwavering.
This broken rescue wasn't what she wanted. She refused a "success" bought with Yotsuha's life.
