Chapter 1: Mitsuha goes to AnotherWorld

Mitsuha goes to Another World

The girl put her hand on an old wooden fence next to a steep cliff . No, she wasn't thinking about committing suicide . Yamano Mitsuha is 18 years old . With straight black hair stretched to the edge of her shoulder blade that shines naturally, a pretty low height for her age at 152 centimeters and a baby face, is a little girl who can be mistaken for a middle school student, or even an elementary school when being crude .

Mitsuha lost her parents and two years older brother in an accident six months ago and suddenly became alone . Although she has relatives like aunts and uncles, she has only met them a few times, and will never meet them again in the future .

As soon as the end of the funeral and post-events finished, Mitsuha had to fight against her uncle trying to steal her inheritance and insurance money that her parents left her . And while living alone she had to reject the school's delinquents advances, who wanted to make money by using her house as a hangout . The time and the mental burdens were large and so she failed her university entrance exam .

Mitsuha who was very attached to her brother suffered greatly after losing both him and her parents . She was able to manage herself at first because she was so busy but afterward the depression was terrible and she wasn't able to concentrate on her studies .

And so after the pain of failing the exam is subsided to some degree, the gloomy Mitsuha came here looking for a change of pace . With a fence made from a simple tree on the edge of a good vantage point, and only a coin insertion binocular telescope and a public toilet nearby, she was vaguely looking at the sea from a "lookout" . Because it is afternoon on a weekday, besides Mitsuha there are only college couples, elderly couples, and Chara(チャラ男) people with bad heads around . Although there were only three young men that fit in the last category .

(tl note: Chara is Japanese slang for men who are players and constantly try to pick up girls)

Even after failing the exam, there are still a number of universities that Mitsuha could go to with her test scores . However, there was only one university she could attend from her parent's house which was a very difficult school . It wasn't at a level that Mitsuha couldn't get into normally but she was in her worst condition when taking the exam . Originally she had planned to commute to a university from a boarding house or dormitory but now that she's alone she didn't feel like leaving the house where her family lived and picked the one college that she could attend from home .

(Oh, I wonder what I'll do...)

Mitsuha was troubled . Should she challenge the university again next year or should she get a job with her high school education...?

The remainder of the loan for the house was paid in full with her father's life insurance . Although there was still a lot of money, school expenses for four years in a university, the cost of living, the maintenance of the House, and other many things will consume a good portion of it .

How about keeping her money and look for employment as is? Her income may fall somewhat compared to a college graduate but it isn't like there is a big enterprise where she can attend from home in this town, and coming out of a university wouldn't necessarily get her good employment in this age . If she gets married and has children, it will be difficult to keep working as a regular employee, and thinking about the cost of a four-year college and the amount she could earn in that time, she doesn't really have to go to college .

Mitsuha who didn't have a dream job thought vaguely while looking at a beautiful sea .

"Hey, are you skipping school in a place like this?"

When Mitsuha turned to the sudden voice behind, there were three men standing and laughing with bad grins on their faces . One of them, a man about twenty years old who dyes his hair blond, has spoken to her .

"How about we go for a little bit of fun? We'll take you to an interesting place . It'll be our treat . "

(Oh, they think I'm a middle schooler who skipped...)

Mitsuha had a tired face . It is said that women like to be seen as young but she is not pleased at all if she is seen as a middle schooler at her age . However, correcting them will likely unintentionally motivated them even more . Well, it may not do much since they are trying to pick up a junior high school student . It doesn't seem like they call out to her because thought she was an elementary school instead, or at least she doesn't want to think so...

Don't want talk with them, but behind me is a wooden fence and a cliff . Can't help it .

"No, mom and dad are coming to pick me up soon..."

Mitsuha tried sounding young . They wouldn't mess around with her if they thought she was still a child . They will likely go away soon if they think her guardians will come soon, or so she thought .

The blond guy looked around and confirmed that there was no one who seems like a guardian, and went to grab Mitsuha's arm .

"Just come with us!"

The two others also came close to Mitsuha with a grin .

When looking around in a panic, maybe the young and old couples didn't want to be involved in the trouble, they pretended to not see, and doesn't help .

(Yeah~ You wouldn't want to be involved~)

Can't help it . I'll take care of it on my own

Despite her appearance, Mitsuha's intelligence and physical ability aren't bad at all . Her courage is quite something especially at the times of need . If not, she wouldn't have been able to repel her uncle's family from taking her inheritance and the delinquents . Her body moves before she plans anything, and kick the crotch of the blond man in front .

"........."

The blond man faints in agony without a sound . ... Oh, he collapsed

"What the hell are you doing?"

The other two were pissed off, and after saying a typical small fry line one of them pushed Mitsuha .

"Ah..."

Hit by her pushed body, the wooden fence made an unpleasant "Baki" sound, and she felt the unpleasant feeling of her body floating .

(...Aa . Ee,eee~~!!)

(Aaaaaaaaaa!!!)

(Falling, Falling, Falling, falling......

I don't want to die or I don't want to dieeeeeeee ~ ~ ~!! )

Shouting, Mitsuha prayed . From the bottom of her heart . With enough feeling to bleed .

(I don't want to die! I don't want to dieeeee!!! )

pop!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! ! !

After hearing a strange sound and her unrecognizable loud scream Mitsuha's consciousness faded .

"This is..."

When she woke up, she was in a forest .

No no no no no, I fell off a cliff, didn't I! Bottom, Sea... I mean, it was rocky on the beach! No, I'm not complaining that this is not rocky! If it was rocky, I'd be dead!

And, while thinking about carefree things, her body automatically stood up to see if there was any abnormality in the rising limbs and torso .

No, this is my normal behavior? Special skill? Habit? I'm not sure, but I've been doing this since I was a child . My body automatically moves before I think about it . Being somewhat different from other people made me curious so I did a lot of research but I still don't understand it well .

Usually, if a ball flies in front of you, you'll grab or avoid it immediately . You wouldn't slowly think at a leisurely pace "Oh, the ball is flying . What should I do? I wonder if I should try to avoid it . Should I avoid to the right, or should I avoid to the left . " and then act right?

But when you are shopping, you don't reflexively buy anything without thinking, right? When you have time to spare you will take your time to decide; when you don't, you use what information you have intuitively at once, well I wonder if it's like reflexively acting during an emergency .

However for other people, it seems to apply only to a simple body movement and in my case scope of application is quite broad, something like that... . Well, my friends say, "You think about the reason after you act," and named it "Sekihan"... as in "Spinal Reflex"... When a girl is called "Sekihan", it brings unpleasant things to mind!

(tl note: I have no idea what she means, also stop avoiding reality Mitsuha)

Well in the end, the result is more or less the same even after slowly thinking it through after an instantaneous judgment . I think maybe people can think and judge very quickly and they usually think slowly to convince themselves it's a good idea .

... Aa, no no, I really need to think about my situation right now . There are no injuries and no abnormality with my body . My wallet and house key are in my pocket . I no longer have the student ID that I had been carrying for the last three years . There is a shoulder bag hanging on my shoulder . The contents are a folding umbrella, some tissues, and grocery bags . No, these grocery bags can be useful for a variety of things .

And right here is a pretty dense forest . There is no sign of it being cared for . There is no such thing as a road . And of course, there are no signs of people . ...Okay, let's walk . It is possible to think while walking .

... I'm tired . It has been two hours since I started walking . I can't find my bearings in a forest where the sunlight doesn't enter and can only progress in what seems like the right direction . There is no guarantee I'm going straight because I'm avoiding the rocks and trees . There is a possibility that I'm going around in a circle .

At times I leave something like a mark, but I never see it again . If I don't get out of the woods before night, who knows what kind of dangerous animals will appear . If I can't get out of the woods by night I can climb a tree and sleep on the branch . But if I fall while sleeping, I'm screwed... . And, if I don't find water it'll be dangerous . I wonder if there is a creek or spring, maybe even fruit somewhere .

... I'm tired . It has been four hours since I started walking . Because there is no road, I'm walking with bad footing which is tiring me out . I'm going to hurt my leg . It's getting dark soon . If there's a good tree I'll use it as a place to sleep . I'm not going to sleep properly, but it would be suicidal to keep walking on the ground at night: physically, in the event of falling, and in the event of meeting big nocturnal friends...... .

......... I'm tired . It's been about three hours since I've started walking at dawn . I couldn't sleep at all last night . I was afraid of falling from the tree branches, in the first place I couldn't sleep on a hard tree with nothing to lay down on . I haven't found water or food and the pain of my recently twisted left ankle is gradually becoming worse . I'm hungry . I'm thirsty .

As for the current situation, I thought about it repeatedly yesterday, I had plenty of time after all . First of all, the time lost when I had lost consciousness yesterday wasn't very long, at most 20-30 minutes . I checked it on my wristwatch . There wasn't such a wide forest nearby where I could have been moved in such a short time . And to begin with, it's impossible to fall off that cliff and still be unharmed .

Conclusion 1 . I am already dead, and this is the afterlife .

Conclusion 2 . I'm unconscious in the hospital, dreaming .

Conclusion 3 . Caught up in paranormal phenomena, I was teleported . ... No, even I read fantasy novels!

P, preferably, I hope it's 3! Please pardon me from 1 and 2!! If I managed to get to a village, I contact the police in if in Japan, if outside of Japan I'll look for an embassy .

............ I'm tired . It's the third day after waking up in the forest . Well to be exact I woke up in the afternoon and it's still early in the morning, so it's only been about a day and a half . Until now no food or water has been found and in a last ditch effort, I ate some leaves of a suspicious plant . Aside from hunger, thirst is unbearable . I'm going to die...

The frequency of the breaks she takes compared with yesterday increases and the number of times she falls by tripping on roots of trees and rocks increase likely because of her staggering . Her arm and feet are already filled with small wounds . The pain of her left ankle is getting even worse . But if she stopped moving she would die for certain, so she kept moving her feet out of willpower . When her sense of time has faded and her consciousness was faint, finally, she finds a place like a path . It is only "what might be a road", with only a width enough for one person and is hardened a little .

(This is a trace of people walking right . It isn't an animal trail, right? Please...)

Maybe because of her relief of finding what seemed to be a road, when Mitsuha tries to bend into a sit she collapsed and loses consciousness on the spot .