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 weather—hardly 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 it—just 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 all—it'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 logic—but 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 Itomori—Mitsuha Miyamizu, Your Name."
As he understood it, those two works are often considered part of Makoto Shinkai's shared universe—perhaps 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 world—two 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 fate—the 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 members—people from different worlds she had never met—an 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.
The rain kept falling.
Hina clenched her fists. The fear in her aquamarine eyes was still there, but now it was joined by a glimmer of struggle—and a resolve to seek change.
…
While Hina spent a rainy night in another world, her heart roiled by the truth of her fate and her exchanges with visitors from many worlds in the chat, night had already fallen in Rei Ao's comparatively calm world.
A thousand lights outlined the city. In the warm Kato family dining room, soft light pooled on the wooden table where a family of four sat together for dinner. The air was full of the aroma of home cooking. It should have been an ordinary, cozy scene, yet there was a barely perceptible undercurrent.
Mrs. Kato, a gentle, refined woman, was serving her husband more rice when she glanced—seemingly casually—at her elder daughter, Hiromi Kato, and asked with concern, "Hiromi, you didn't come home the night before last, did you? Were you working late at the office, or out with friends?"
Hiromi, who had been sipping miso soup, paused almost imperceptibly. Her fingers tightened slightly on the spoon. On the face that resembled her younger sister Megumi Kato's, though more mature and alluring, a fleeting trace of panic flashed and was quickly covered by her usual easy, slightly languid smile.
"Ah… mm. Yeah. I met up with a friend I hadn't seen in a long time. We talked too late, so I just stayed over at her place."
Her gaze drifted; she didn't much dare to meet her parents' eyes. And of all people, the one Hiromi least dared to look at was her younger sister, Megumi.