In the next instant, before Hina could recover from the cascade of shocks, a semi-transparent, futuristic interface unfurled in her awareness like a scroll. Its design was clean yet arcane, faint streams of data glimmering along the edges. Lines of text were racing upward at dizzying speedcontent so fantastical it blew past anything a girl her age could imagine.
Frieren: "@Rei Ao, rightwhat exactly was that 'world-gate permission' when you traded with Rin?"
Misaka Mikoto: "Oh yeah, that was a thing."
Bibi Dong: "Sounds like a passage that crosses between worlds."
Rei Ao: "Exactly. It's a straightforward world gate."
Rei Ao: "I currently have full control over access to Rin's world."
Rei Ao: "That means I can go back and forth anytime, no time limits."
Rei Ao: "I can also grant temporary or permanent access to other members so you can visit her world."
Tohsaka Rin: "Eh?! So Saeko-nee, Mikoto-nee and the others could actually come hang out at my place? (surprised-but-excited.jpg)"
Misaka Mikoto: "Seriously?"
Yotsuya Miko: "We can go to a world with magecraft and Heroic Spirits? Amazing! I'm going!!"
Akame: "No trade needed? Does that mean ours can be opened too?"
Hiiragi Shinoa: "I just checkedit's tied to 'special trades.' Just submit one; it's simple."
Kirishima Touka: "Ahem. I can put in a request anytime."
Shiba Miyuki: "Same here."
Miyamizu Mitsuha: "Wow! Other-world travelI really want to see it!"
[Ding! New member "Amano Hina" has joined the group chat!]
With that system prompt, the torrent of messages briefly paused. Everyone online noticed the newcomer. Then a wave of welcomes flooded in.
Busujima Saeko: "Oh? Another new member? Welcome, Amano Hina."
Misaka Mikoto: "Welcome, newbie."
Miyamizu Mitsuha: "Welcome, Hina-chan! Your name is so pretty!"
Kirishima Touka: "Welcome."
Blizzard of Hell: "Welcome, newcomer!"
Hina stood frozen beneath the torii. The rain still lashed her small frame without mercybut she no longer felt the cold, nor heard the wind or rain. All of her attention was locked on that impossible interface in her mind. Her dark eyes were wide, brimming with confusion, disbelief, and the daze that comes from sheer information overload.
Other worlds? Magecraft? Heroic Spirits?
Each word was a boulder smashing into her once simple, barren view of reality, sending shockwaves through it. It was too muchtoo strangetoo far beyond imagination. Her mind nearly stalled; she couldn't process what she was "seeing."
She was just a normal girl (well, perhaps not entirely normal, given her "sunshine maiden" gift)working part-time at McDonald's, scraping by, sometimes sneaking up a high-rise to pray for clear skies. How could she suddenly be in a chat group that sounded like it belonged in myth, fantasy novels, or cutting-edge sci-fi?
Her gaze, driven by instinct, locked onto the name everyone kept mentioningthe group owner: Rei Ao.
Was he the one who invited her? Could they all speak directly inside her mind? These people from what sounded like entirely different worldsso many kinds of peopleseemed to trust him, even rely on him.
A single thoughtthe only one that felt remotely "reasonable," and it came with awesplit her rain-numbed shock like lightning through storm clouds:
"Could this group owner, Rei Ao be a god?"
Only a being from legend could do something this impossible, right? The world had all kinds of myths. Hina didn't know if gods truly existed, but she knew she possessed the power to clear rainy skiesthe gift people said came from the gods. She was willing to believe.
Staring at the dazzling interface rewriting her worldview in real time, she felt like an ant that had blundered into a divine hall, trespassing into a mythic realm full of limitless possibilitiesand unknown dangers. Reverence swelled in her for the unseen god and this mysterious chat group; so did a vast uncertainty about her own situation and future.
Yet, deep within the churn of her thoughts, a faint but irrepressible sparkcuriosity, the urge to explore the unknownquietly caught fire.
The rain kept falling, drumming on every corner of Tokyo, drumming on her soaked body and shaken heart. But Hina knew: from the moment that cold chime rang in her mind, the gray, heavy track of her life had been shunted by an irresistible force onto a different pathone shrouded in fog and strewn with starlight.
Her world had already, quietly, changed.
Chapter 999: The Sunshine Maidens very existence becomes the offering to restore normal weather...
"Amano Hina?"
Seeing the new member's handle, a glint flashed in Rei Ao's eyes. He immediately thought of the heroine from Weathering With You, and also of the link between her world and Miyamizu Mitsuha's.
"Seems a bit unusual."
Rain slid down Amano Hina's cheeks and dripped onto the cold concrete. She didn't notice. All her attention was locked on the streaming messages, her heart brimming with confusion, awe, and an indescribable tremor. It was far beyond what an ordinary student could comprehend. In her simple, limited view of the world, only a god could do such things.
Trembling, she tried to "type" on that light-woven virtual interface with nothing but her thoughts. It was a strange processno keyboard, just focus. Carefully, she asked her question.
Amano Hina: "Um excuse me, is everyone here a god?"
That timid message appeared in the chat, and the atmospherewhich had been lively after the newcomer joinedstilled slightly.
Rei Ao: "First, as the owner of the Trading Chat Group, welcome, Amano Hina."
Rei Ao: "Second, no need to be nervous, and no need to call us gods. We're just members who can talk to each other."
His words seemed to carry a soothing power; Hina's taut nerves eased a little.
Rei Ao: "This is the Trading Chat Group."
Rei Ao: "As you can see, everyone hereincluding mecomes from different worlds, with different backgrounds and abilities."
Rei Ao: "And this place where we're speaking now is a platform that crosses the barriers between worlds, letting us meet, talk, and even help one another."
Different worlds?
Hina's breath nearly stopped. She'd already glimpsed hints of that in the earlier chatter, but having the group owner confirm it so plainly hit like a hammer. Her world was just one among countless others? Outside the universe, were there truly so many wildly different worlds? Did aliens really exist? And shea young woman working part-time at McDonald's who prayed for clear skieshad somehow (or inexplicably) joined such a miraculous group?
After the initial shock, a hard-to-name excitement and curiosity began to flow through her like spring water under thawing ice. She looked at the unfamiliar names and world descriptions, feeling as if she stood before an immense star-lit gate, with infinite unknowns and possibilities beyond it. She drew a deep breath to steady herself, then introduced herself politely. Since everyone came from different worlds, maybe what was "abnormal" about her wasn't so strange here.
Amano Hina: "M-my name is Amano Hina, I'm from Tokyo. I'm a student, and I work part-time at McDonald's."
She hesitated, then decided to share her secretsomehow it felt like she didn't have to hide it here.
Amano Hina: "I-I think I'm what they call a 'Sunshine Maiden.'"
Misaka Mikoto: "Sunshine Maiden? What's that?"
Misaka Mikoto: "You mean someone who can control the weather, like an esper?"
Busujima Saeko: "Could also be something like a yuki-onnasome kind of yokai."
Akiyama Mio: "Eh? But she said she was just a regular student."
Miyamizu Mitsuha: "A sunshine maiden that sounds like a weather-related divine rolelike the deity our Miyamizu Shrine enshrines."
Interest in "Sunshine Maiden" swept the group. Most took it as a name for some kind of special power or magecraft.
Rei Ao: "A Sunshine Maiden isn't just simple superpowers or magecraft."
Rei Ao: "In her world's lore, when the land falls into extreme weather and the sun doesn't appear for a long time, a Sunshine Maiden will emerge and, through prayer, bring back the light."
Amano Hina: "!!!"
Amano Hina: "Group Owner, you you know about that?"
She was stunned. He'd said he was from another world, yet he knew her world's legends!
Frieren: "Haha, don't be too surprised. Rei Ao knows a lot."
Frieren: "But I'm curious about your ability."
Hiiragi Shinoa: "Being able to clear rainy days is super handyespecially when you need good weather to go out."
Tohsaka Rin: "Huh? Weather control? Would that count as some rare magecraft attribute?"
But Rei Ao's next reply froze everyone's light curiosity solid.
Rei Ao: "However."
His tone seemed to turn grave.
Rei Ao: "That recovery is only temporaryclear skies borrowed from the heavens."
Rei Ao: "To truly return the weather to normal requires a tremendous price."
Rei Ao: "At its core, a Sunshine Maiden's power is an exchange with the world's weather rules."
Rei Ao: "If this power is overusedespecially in large-scale prayers that reverse extreme weatherthe Sunshine Maiden's 'connection' to the world will be stripped away bit by bit."
He paused, then sent the words that plunged Hina into an icy abyss.
Rei Ao: "The final result is being spirited away."
Miyamizu Mitsuha: "Eh? Spirited away?"
Miyamizu Mitsuha: "That means disappearing from the world entirelyas if you never existed."
Rei Ao: "Exactly. The Sunshine Maiden's very existence becomes the offering to restore normal weather."
"!!!"
A chill shot up from the soles of Hina's feet, colder than the rainher small body shook violently, her face turning paper white.
D-disappear?
Completely vanish from the world?!
She'd always thought her ability to clear the skies was just a small, special giftheaven's favor, even. She'd felt a secret pride in it, and leaned on it for solace on bleak days. She had never imagined that behind it lurked such a terrifying, brutal truth.
Every prayerevery clearing of the skywas consuming her own existence, leading in the end to total erasure.
Terror clenched her heart like a freezing giant hand; she could scarcely breathe.
The chat fell into a brief, deathly silence.
~~~
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Chapter 1,000: Awkward Situations in Kato's Family
Misaka Mikoto: "W-what? Disappear?"
There's a side effect like that to using esper powers?
Mikoto had never even heard of such a thing.
Stella: "That price is way too absurd. And it only clears up the weatherhardly impressive."
She really didn't think such an ordinary ability was worth a price like that.
Saeko Busujima: "A power that costs your own existence is basically a flaw."
Enju Aihara: "Umm it kinda reminds me of when we, as Cursed Children, used our power and slowly turned into Gastrea. In short, it's awful."
Mitsuha Miyamizu: "Spirited away a sacrifice how could it be like this?"
Thinking of the legends about gods in her own world, Mitsuha felt a chill run down her spine. Thankfully, the deity their shrine enshrines never gave such bizarre "blessings."
Touka Kirishima: "If that's the kind of power it is, I'd rather not have itjust like ghoul powers."
Fortunately, with Rei Ao's help in their world, that disgusting, terrifying power no longer exists.
Rin Tohsaka: "This this isn't a blessing at allit's a curse!"
Marcille: "Agreed! What kind of 'blessing' works like that?"
Shizue Izawa: "Some blessings in our world do have side effects, but not to the point of making the blessed person vanish."
Mio Akiyama: "Hina-san"
Bibi Dong: "Hmph. Trading away one's existence for interference at the level of fundamental rules? It does have a certain logicbut that kind of crude 'equivalent exchange' is downright ugly."
Everyone was stunned by the brutal truth.
What they'd assumed was just a special ability turned out to hide such a tragic fate.
At that moment, Rei Ao was holding a cup of tea. His gaze seemed to pierce space itself and fall upon the blue-haired girl standing in the rain, trembling with fear. His eyes were calm, but deep within, a glint of thought flickered.
"'Sunshine Maiden,' Hina Amano, Weathering With You."
He repeated the name in his heart.
"And in this group there's also a shrine maiden from ItomoriMitsuha Miyamizu, Your Name."
As he understood it, those two works are often considered part of Makoto Shinkai's shared universeperhaps lightly connected, maybe even the same world on different timelines. Mitsuha's story takes place in the past. Hina's story happens in the future. In the normal flow of time, their paths would cross by chance.
But that was the story as it was meant to be.
Now, thanks to this chat group that links myriad worlds, Mitsuha from the "past" and Hina from the "future" co-exist in the same space for conversation.
"A convergence of timelines? Interference from parallel worlds? Or does the very existence of this chat already transcend any single world's linear concept of time?"
Rei Ao gently swirled his teacup, watching the steam curl upward.
"Interesting."
Stories that might have remained independent under similar skies now intersect because of the chat. Which means the fates of their respective worlds may already be veering off course.
He thought of the split comet in Mitsuha's world and of the body-swapping that never happened without it. He thought of the unending abnormal rains in Hina's worldtwo major events closely tied to the heavens. With the chat group in play, and with his own intervention as a new variable, their trajectories and resolutions would likely no longer follow the original plot.
"Especially Hina"
His focus settled again on that name.
"The Sunshine Maiden's fatethe ending of being spirited away. If she's joined us here, then that so-called destiny now has a chance to be broken."
He took a sip of tea, hiding a meaningful smile in the rising steam.
Meanwhile, still standing in the cold rain, Hina Amano moved past the first wave of terror and confusion. Reading the concerned and indignant messages from group memberspeople from different worlds she had never metan indescribable warmth quietly welled up inside her, easing the bone-deep chill just a little.
At least she wasn't alone now.
She had a place where she could confide her secret, people who might understand her situation. And since that seemingly all-knowing "Kami-sama" Rei Ao knew all this, could he also change it?
A faint spark named hope lit up quietly in a heart soaked by rain and fear.
