I feel as if I’ve picked up an unexpected ally. I can’t hold still any longer. The preparations for this were laid a thousand years ago!

“Good one, Tesshi!”

Without thinking, I stick out my fist, and Teshigawara bumps it. “Yeah!”

This will work. It’s gonna work!

“Let’s do this!”

We turn to Saya, speaking in unison, spit flying with enthusiasm.

“…What are you talking about?”

The voice is rough and heavy, like the sound of scissors cutting into thick cardboard.

I get increasingly flustered. I talk louder, so as not to get steamrolled. “I told you! You have to evacuate the townspeople, just in case, or—”

“Be quiet a minute.”

His voice isn’t raised at all, but it shuts me up.

Mitsuha’s dad, Mayor Miyamizu, closes his eyes wearily and leans back in the upholstered chair in his office. The thick leather creaks audibly. Then he exhales, slowly, and gazes out the window. The shadows of the leaves sway in the bright afternoon sunlight.

“…The comet is going to split in two and fall on this town? More than five hundred people could die?”

He taps the desk with his fingertips, leaving a long pause. Then finally, he returns his gaze to me. The backs of my knees are sweating. For the first time, I realize that’s where Mitsuha gets sweaty when she’s nervous.

“I know it’s hard to believe, but I do have grounds for—”

“How dare you come to me with nonsense like that!”

Out of nowhere, he explodes. The creases between his eyes grow deeper. “Do delusions run in the Miyamizu bloodline?” he grumbles quietly, as if talking to himself. He fixes me with a piercing look and speaks in a low tone. “Listen, Mitsuha. If you’re being serious with me, then you are ill.”

“…Wha—?”

The words won’t come. I realize the confidence I’d had in the clubroom just thirty minutes ago is gone without a trace. The uneasy feeling that I’m actually misguided is building rapidly. No, that’s not true. I’m not deluded, and I’m not sick. I’m—

“I’ll send a car around for you.” The mayor picks up the phone, suddenly sounding concerned. He starts dialing, initiating a call even as he’s speaking to me. “Have a doctor at the city hospital look at you. After that, I’ll hear what you have to say.”

The words send an unpleasant jolt through me. This guy is seriously treating me, his own daughter, like a head case. The second it registers, my whole body goes as cold as ice, while the core of my brain flares so hot it might as well be on fire.

It’s rage.

“—Don’t you talk down to me, you bastard!”

The words come out as a scream. The mayor’s wide eyes are right in front of me. Without thinking, I’ve grabbed him by his necktie and hauled him up. The phone receiver falls to the floor beside the desk, and I hear the tiny buzz of a dead line.

“…Ah—”