Taking in Yotsuha's guilty, crestfallen expression, Miyamizu Mitsuha reached out and playfully flicked her forehead. "Now you understand what happened, don't you?"
"Yeah," Yotsuha murmured, her voice small. "I understand. Even though it's magical and almost impossible to believe, it really happened." She hung her head, the weight of her childhood mischief pressing down on her. "I'm sorry, sister. I shouldn't have swapped the positions of our kuchikamizake."
Mitsuha's expression softened. She cupped her younger sister's cheek, tilting her face up. "Silly, what are you apologizing for? Because you did that, Hozuki Nozomi was able to use your body to help me. We successfully saved everyone together, didn't we?" Her voice was warm, reassuring. "Yotsuha, you contributed to this too."
The gentle words wrapped around Yotsuha like a warm blanket. A swell of emotion rose in her chest, and she couldn't help but launch herself into her sister's arms, burying her face against her shoulder and hugging her tight. She stayed there for a moment, basking in the comfort, when a stray thought suddenly surfaced in her mind.
"Sister," she said, pulling back slightly, her eyes narrowing with a knowing glint. "I always wondered why you liked rubbing your chest so much every morning back then. So that's why…"
"Ah! Don't say it! Yotsuha, please forget about that matter!" Mitsuha's face erupted in a fierce blush, her hands flying up to cover her burning cheeks. The memory of those mornings, of waking up to find his hands exploring her body, was too mortifying to discuss.
Yotsuha giggled, finding her sister's flustered reaction hilarious. "Okay, okay, I won't say anything… um, wait a minute!" Her amusement vanished, replaced by a sudden, cold dread. Her eyes went wide. "Sister, since I swapped bodies with him yesterday, he… he didn't do anything weird to my body, did he?"
Mitsuha's eyes darted away, her blush deepening. "Uh… probably not."
The non-answer was all the confirmation Yotsuha needed. She let out a wail of dismay and immediately gritted her teeth. "Sister, what are you thinking? That guy seems like a total flirt. You even went looking for him yesterday." She fixed her sister with a suspicious glare. "You're not thinking of just throwing yourself at him, are you?"
"What do you mean, 'throwing myself at him'? That sounds so awful!" Mitsuha sputtered, her face now a shade of crimson. "I just… I just wanted to thank him! He saved all of us, didn't he?"
"Oh, really? And how exactly were you planning to thank him?" Yotsuha's expression turned sly, her earlier guilt forgotten in the face of this new, far more entertaining revelation. "Hmm? Let me guess. You were thinking of marrying him, weren't you?"
"Of course not!"
Mitsuha's embarrassment reached its peak. Her hand shot out, pinching Yotsuha's cheek and pulling it to the side. "I thought he didn't remember me at all, but it was all you, you little brat, deliberately messing with your sister!" she scolded, though her voice cracked with a mix of indignation and residual mortification. "I was a nervous wreck all last night! I barely slept!"
"Oww! Sister, I'm sorry! Please let go of my face!" Yotsuha begged, her words muffled by her stretched cheek.
The two sisters continued their playful squabbling for a while before finally making their way to the kitchen to prepare breakfast together. The easy camaraderie between them smoothed over the strangeness of the morning, grounding them both in the simple routine of family life.
Afterwards, they parted ways to head to their respective schools.
Yotsuha arrived at her middle school gate with a complicated knot of emotions twisting in her stomach. Yesterday had been surreal, and she had no idea what kind of situation she was walking into today. Just as she was steeling herself to enter, a crisp, cheerful voice called out to her.
"Good morning, Yotsuha!"
"Eh… m-morning!" Yotsuha stammered, turning automatically toward the source of the voice. Her eyes widened in surprise. Greeting her with a warm, easy smile was none other than Kosaka Kirino, widely considered the most popular girl in their class.
"Come on, let's walk to the classroom together," Kirino said, falling into step beside her as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"Oh… okay!" Yotsuha replied, still caught off guard but quickly falling in beside her new friend.
As they walked, Aragaki Ayase appeared and linked her arm through Kirino's, casting a brief, appraising look at Yotsuha. There was a hint of wariness there, but also curiosity. Yotsuha offered a shy smile in return.
What puzzled her far more, however, was the behavior of the Nagase trio. The girls who had made it their personal mission to mock and belittle her now froze the moment they saw her, their faces draining of color as if they'd seen a ghost. They practically scurried past, throwing her nervous, forced smiles that reeked of desperation to please.
Yotsuha stared after them, utterly bewildered. Then, she remembered. Nozomi had been the one attending classes in her body yesterday. Whatever he had done, it had clearly made an impression.
Throughout the day, Yotsuha found herself navigating a completely new social landscape. With Kosaka Kirino's apparent endorsement, her classmates treated her with a warmth and enthusiasm she had never experienced before. People who had previously ignored her now went out of their way to say hello.
And then, during the afternoon break, she opened her shoe cabinet and found two folded pieces of paper—love letters—nestled inside.
She stared at them, dumbfounded. Her cheeks flushed. What on earth had that flirtatious big brother done while wearing her face?
Despite the strangeness of it all, she couldn't deny that it felt… nice. For the first time in a long while, school didn't feel like a battleground. The worries that had weighed on her for months had quietly, inexplicably, melted away. A small, secret smile tugged at her lips as she closed the cabinet door.
That afternoon, Miyamizu Mitsuha found herself standing outside Sakura Dormitory once again.
She had told herself she was just passing by. That she simply wanted to see the place again. But as she stood there, her heart began to beat faster, pulled by an invisible thread toward something—someone—she couldn't quite name.
Acting on an impulse she didn't fully understand, she turned around.
And there he was.
The boy standing a few meters away wore the crisp uniform of Soubu High School, but it was his presence that drew her in—a quiet, gentle magnetism that made the world around him seem to still. His eyes, warm and knowing, met hers.
Miyamizu Mitsuha's breath caught in her throat. Her feet moved forward of their own accord, closing the distance between them. She opened her mouth, but no words came. After three years of searching for something she couldn't remember losing, she was finally face to face with it.
Hozuki Nozomi smiled—a soft, familiar curve of his lips that made her heart clench. He opened his arms in a welcoming gesture. "What's wrong? After three years, don't I deserve a reunion hug, Mitsuha?"
The sound of her name on his lips broke something loose inside her. Her eyes grew wet, but she stood frozen, overwhelmed by the flood of emotions she couldn't articulate.
Nozomi let out a small, theatrical sigh. "It seems Big Sister Mitsuha doesn't want anything to do with a high school student like me."
A surprised laugh burst from her lips, cutting through the tension. The sound was bright and unguarded.
"Pfft!"
Before she could stop herself, she closed the remaining distance and threw herself into his arms, wrapping her own around his waist and holding on as if afraid he might disappear. "Idiot," she mumbled against his chest, her voice thick with emotion. "It's not like I look down on you."
She pulled back just enough to look up at him, her cheeks flushed. "Besides, you did so many terrible things to me. You have to take responsibility!"
Nozomi raised a hand and gently stroked her soft black hair, his touch feather-light and tender. "Well then, would you like to come up to my room for a bit, Miss Mitsuha?"
Inside Sakura Dormitory, Hozuki Nozomi's room was exactly as Mitsuha remembered it. She sat on the edge of his bed, her hands folded in her lap, her gaze sweeping over the familiar furnishings with a mixture of nostalgia and wonder.
The desk by the window. The books neatly arranged on the shelf. The faint scent of him lingering in the air.
Everything was the same, yet completely different. Before, she had only ever seen this room through his eyes, inhabiting his body, experiencing his life as a guest in his skin. Now, she was truly here, sitting on his bed as herself.
"How does it feel?" Nozomi asked, settling beside her. "Nostalgic?"
"Mm," she murmured.
"I remember you used to sneak sweets in here," he said, his voice laced with amusement. "You almost made me gain weight."
Mitsuha huffed, a hint of her old fire returning. "Whatever you ate went into your stomach. Getting a little fatter would have done you good. Maybe then you wouldn't attract so much attention from every butterfly and bee around."
Nozomi laughed softly at her resentful tone. He reached out and wrapped an arm around her slender waist, drawing her closer. "Mitsuha," he said, his voice gentler now, "tell me about the past three years."
She felt her body relax into his hold, the tension she hadn't even known she was carrying slowly melting away. Meeting his patient, searching gaze, she nodded and leaned into him, letting the familiar warmth of his presence ground her.
"After that day," she began, her voice soft, "I forgot everything about you. All my memories were just… gone." She paused, the old ache still faintly present. "Father doesn't remember why he ordered the evacuation either, but his actions that day were recognized. Everyone from Itomori left to rebuild their lives elsewhere."
She turned her head slightly, her cheek brushing against his shoulder. "Father brought us to Kyoto. He became a councilor, and his political career began to progress again. It was… a fresh start for everyone."
Nozomi listened patiently, his thumb tracing idle patterns on her side. When she finished, a note of something sharp—something that might have been jealousy—crept into his voice.
"Mitsuha," he asked, "have any boys confessed to you over the years?"
She tilted her head up to look at him, a small, knowing smile playing on her lips. "Of course. It's not like I'm ugly."
The arm around her waist tightened almost imperceptibly. Mitsuha bit back a laugh. Yukino Yukinoshita and the others were right. This guy really was possessive.
"Idiot," she said softly, reaching up to brush her fingers against his cheek. "I turned them all down."
His eyes searched hers, waiting.
"Deep down, I always felt like something was missing," she continued, her voice barely above a whisper. "Like there was a hole in my heart that nothing else could fill. I couldn't bring myself to date anyone. It never felt… right." She looked up at him, her gaze clear and unwavering. "Seeing you again, I finally understand. I was only ever complete when I was with you."