In the bedroom of Okudera Miki's apartment.
Rei Ao had already left. Only Miyamizu Mitsuha and Okudera Miki remained.
They sat side by side on the edge of the bed, heads slightly lowered.
Both still had a lingering blush on their cheeks; the mood was awkward and delicate.
So… they were now… sisters?
The kind who share the same man!
It had all happened too fast, too surreal, leaving both of them a little dazed.
After a long while,
Miki was the one to break the silence.
She turned to the clearly more flustered young woman beside her and, with a complicated tone, said:
"Um… Mitsuha, little sister? Is it okay if I call you that?"
"Uh, o-of course!"
Mitsuha answered nervously.
"Don't be nervous. One way or another, we're in the same boat now."
Mitsuha met Miki's eyes for a second, then quickly looked down again.
Her voice was barely above a whisper: "Mm… I-I guess so. That's what Rei Ao-kun said…"
Another spell of silence.
"Actually…"
Miki drew a deep breath, trying to make her voice sound natural.
"Before he left, Rei Ao gave me this."
A chat-group interface appeared in front of her—visible to Mitsuha as well.
Rei Ao had granted her a sub-group.
"He also told me a few things about himself."
There was disbelief—and a dawning realization—in Miki's voice.
About who Rei Ao really was, and the existence of the chat group.
"It's still mind-blowing, but it kind of explains everything."
She had wished for the ideal man—
and ended up with someone who could command a comet, freeze time, swap souls, maybe even cross dimensions… a godlike being?
"Unusual" didn't begin to cover it. It was like hitting a jackpot on a cosmic scale.
And the last thing Rei Ao did before leaving was beyond her comprehension.
Offhandedly, he told them:
Because of her wish and the comet's strange effects, this world's timeline had gone askew.
Mitsuha's original point in time wasn't now (Miki's present) but three years earlier.
In other words, Miki's wish accidentally pierced time and linked to Mitsuha three years in the past.
To fix it, Rei Ao simply took hold of this world's very source and did a light consolidation of time.
In his own words:
"This way, Mitsuha, you can naturally stay at this point in time without any rejection."
A casual line that implied the unimaginable power to rewrite the rules of the world!
Becoming the one and only god? Altering the timeline?
After her initial shock peaked, Miki actually felt a strange sense of "so that's how it is."
Who but someone like that could fulfill such an outrageous wish?
She looked at Mitsuha, who seemed to still be digesting it all.
A soft sigh rose in Miki's heart.
Along with it, a subtle sense of connection.
Because of a wish, a man, and an unbelievable accident, they were now tightly bound together.
What would the future hold?
Miki didn't know.
But when she looked at the straightforward, yet much-tried young woman beside her, the guilt she'd felt about "cuckolding" slowly gave way to something complicated—part shared misfortune, part the feeling that they might truly be in this together.
She tentatively took the hand Mitsuha had resting on her knee.
Mitsuha's body trembled slightly, but she didn't pull away.
They met each other's eyes.
In them, they found shyness—and a faint, tentative hope for an unknown future.
Sunlight poured into the room, warm and bright.
Their brand-new, unpredictable story with that man seemed to be only just beginning.
…
Tokyo, 20th Ward.
The midnight cold burrowed into bone like maggots gnawing marrow.
The air carried a warped mix of the sour stench of rotting trash and the metallic tang of blood.
A slender figure staggered into a narrow, dim back alley crammed with discarded boxes and garbage bins.
Her movements had lost their usual agility; every step was heavy and agonized.
Her left arm clamped her abdomen; thick, dark red fluid oozed between her fingers, soaking her dark uniform even darker.
Blood pattered onto the filthy concrete, blooming into ominous crimson flowers.
It was Kirishima Touka.
Her face was so pale it was almost translucent, slick with cold sweat.
A few deep-blue strands clung to her temple and cheek.
Her breathing was rapid and ragged.
Each inhale tugged at the wound in her belly, sending waves of tearing pain through her—she had to bite down on her lower lip to keep from groaning.
She pressed herself into the shadow of a cold, rough wall,
curling up behind a heap of discarded cardboard,
holding her breath—
even her own heartbeat seemed deafening.
"Over here! The blood trail leads this way!"
"Search carefully! She's badly hurt—can't have gone far!"
"Stay alert! Target is S-class—extremely dangerous!"
Cold, hurried footsteps and low, barking orders drew nearer.
Beams from flashlights sliced the darkness at the alley mouth like icy blades, a few times nearly sweeping inside.
CCG investigators!
Touka's heart hammered like it would burst from her chest.
Her body quivered slightly from tension and blood loss.
She clamped the wound tighter, trying to slow the bleeding.
She knew that, in her condition, facing a team of investigators, her odds of survival were slim—
but she was ready to fight to the death at any moment.
The flashlights hovered at the mouth of the alley for a few seconds, apparently spotting nothing deeper within.
"Nothing here!"
"Check over there—she might have headed for the main road!"
~~~
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