One-way traffic

"Itomori Town, is that it?"

A small town with a history spanning thousands of years.

Even without a detailed investigation, one can sense that the sense of strangeness here far outweighs that of a normal social structure.

The first person stood up and gazed at the scenery of the small town before him.

So they decided to set off.

He went to find another person who, in his view, was equally unusual.

--------------------------

"Mitsuha... are you really okay?"

"Yes, if you're not feeling well, it's best to ask your teacher for leave as soon as possible...?"

Imperial envoy, Zao Yexiang.

These two are my classmates, a boy and a girl, and they are also my good friends.

...I guess that's the setup?

"I, I'm really okay."

Miyamizu Mitsuha waved her hand, but the two people in front of her still looked at her with troubled expressions.

"You just used the male pronoun 'I' again when referring to yourself."

"Uh... well, that was just... a slip of the tongue."

"You're not possessed by a fox, are you? I've read about it! It's in a supernatural magazine that if a fox possesses you, you'll exhibit mental confusion and become completely different from your usual self!"

"Ah... don't make things worse, Imperial Envoy. I think Mitsuha is just stressed out because of the upcoming Harvest Festival, right?"

"That's not true at all! I'm absolutely telling the truth! Look, the symptoms described in this book are exactly the same as Mitsuha's!"

"You should really stop reading supernatural magazines...!!"

The two people in front of me seem to be arguing again.

"Ugh, really... please stop arguing!"

Unable to contain her anxiety, Mitsuha sighed and cried out.

"Whoa-!"

“Ahh?!”

As if startled, she never expected that Mitsuha, who was usually so docile, would speak in such a tone.

"Sorry, but I'll still... well... I'll just go and be alone for a little while."

"Oh...I see, then let's..."

"oh, I understand now."

Sayaka and the imperial envoy nodded, and after learning of Mitsuha's request, they decided to let her relax on her own for a while.

But that was, of course, just an excuse for Miyamizu Mitsuha.

It was merely an excuse belonging to a boy named Taki Tachibana who resided within Mitsuha Miyamizu's body.

'Damn it... I have no idea what's going on! I thought it was a dream, but I've never had such a vivid dream before, I can't even wake up!!'

She ran to the rooftop alone and found it to be completely empty, so she quickly went inside.

bang-

After the rooftop door was closed and she confirmed several times that no one was around, Miyamizu Mitsuha—Tachibana Taki—finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Seriously, what on earth is going on in this place! Itomori Town... Miyamizu Mitsuha...?"

She walked slowly to the railing on the rooftop and looked into the distance.

A magnificent lake view then came into view.

What a beautiful landscape! No matter how you look at it, the scenery of this town is so picturesque.

"While the scenery is indeed beautiful,... this whole thing feels really weird."

No.

Ultimately, is this really... a dream?

Miyamizu Mitsuha sighed, sat alone by the railing, and took out her phone to look at the contents.

Photo albums, wallpapers, Instagram accounts...

These are all styles that only genuine girls would have.

Whether it's the things on the phone or everything we see in reality, it all proves that these things are real.

"I…"

She gripped her hands tightly and whispered something with mixed feelings.

"It really has become...this girl..."

Swah——

Suddenly, a sound like a flock of birds flying by came from behind.

"Huh…?"

Attracted by the sound, Mitsuha turned her head and looked behind her, only to see a flock of birds flying by.

"Is it just my imagination...?"

I have a feeling that something just flew by.

Ah... this day has passed, and my nerves have been on edge the whole time. I guess I'm just hallucinating.

Mitsuha scratched her head and turned around.

Then I saw it.

The figure fell from about fifty meters in the air without any suspense.

call--! !

The hurricane blew everything around it away, even the tightly closed doors were blown open in an instant.

A person dressed in black and white with white hair landed smoothly in front of the rooftop with their hands in their pockets.

“…Huh?”

That moment.

Miyamizu Mitsuha wondered if she had really lost her mind.

"It really was... a dream, yeah, that's right. If not, then there must be something wrong with my mind..."

She walked forward in a daze, not even noticing her phone lying on the ground.

I was focused on walking towards the rooftop gate, wanting to leave as soon as possible.

click-

The monstrous figure pressed one hand against the rooftop door, slamming it shut in an instant.

Where are you planning to go?

that moment.

White hair, red eyes, coupled with that eerie aura and terrifying tone.

At least Miyamizu Mitsuha believed that she was frightened.

"Waaaaaahh ...

She screamed suddenly, as if she had seen a ghost, and instantly ran in the direction behind her.

Accelerator, who had just arrived, had a look of utter bewilderment on his face.

...Do I look that scary right now?

Chapter 712 The Two Who Swapped Bodies

"I said."

"Alas—?!"

"Shouldn't we be getting down to business?"

There was no one else on the rooftop of Itomori High School at this moment.

There are only Accelerator and Mitsuha Miyamizu here.

…No.

"Isn't it about time you explained your true identity? You've been pretending to be someone else for so long. I'm getting sick of it, even if you don't feel awkward about it."

"Eh…?"

Miyamizu Mitsuha immediately showed a stunned expression, because Accelerator's words made her feel incredulous.

Could it be possible...?

"There's no need to think about anything else."

Accelerator pursed his lips and bluntly got to the heart of the matter.

"What stupid thing are you planning to do now that you've crawled inside that woman's body without permission, kid?"

boy.

In other words, is the other party fully aware of their current situation and true identity?!

And he doesn't need to think about anything else... What does that mean? Can he read people's minds?

No, I'm not kidding. How could something so ridiculous possibly be true?

"Pretending won't work. I can read your mind right now, including what you're thinking."

"Ugh—Ugh?!"

Mitsuha was so frightened that she screamed.

"You...you can really read my mind?! And you even know that my real identity isn't a girl, but a boy?!"

Mitsuha, no… the boy in this body called Mitsuha Miyamizu, Taki Tachibana, hurriedly pointed at the person in front of him and shouted in disbelief, even in a state of being so frightened that he stuttered.

However, what about the one-way passage on the other side?

He simply maintained a calm expression, staring intently at me.

Just looking at him was enough to make one feel an unimaginable sense of oppression.

Ooh... Waaah...!

"Really?! You can even read my mind? No, no—you just fell from the sky onto this rooftop, right? That's for sure!!"

"...That's why I say this kind of situation is the most troublesome, damn it."

If I had known, I should have knocked this guy unconscious, then taken control and read his memories.

With Nathos and the "Doomsday Destroyer" not at his disposal, Accelerator is not in a position to do these things.

"No matter what, your soul doesn't belong to this body, right?"

"Uh... I, I'm not really sure either."

Even after Accelerator pointed these things out to him, Taki Tachibana still couldn't explain or accept them properly.

The boy, dressed in the body of a young girl, leaned against the wall, looking completely bewildered.

"When I woke up this morning, I found my body had changed like this. As for this girl, I have absolutely no idea about her...!"

"So, you're saying that none of this was something you did on your own?"

"You can read my mind, right? Aren't you a superpowered person? Then you should be able to tell whether I'm lying or not."

Of course, even without deliberately using his abilities to investigate, Accelerator could tell that this was not done by the boy named Tachibana Taki.

That's precisely why things seem even stranger.

"The timeline vector on you does not belong to this spacetime."