"Is the title of this chapter, the name of the work itself?"
That was rare. It wasn't the finale, so why use such a direct, thematic title?
With that tiny confusion in mind, Chinatsu turned to the next page.
What greeted her was Shirogane's trademark artistic flare.
A man working at a desk.
Cherry blossom petals drifting in from the window onto the keyboard. His expression numbed, he stood up from his chair and walked out into the world.
Chinatsu immediately understood.
That's Takaki.
Takaki, all grown up.
At the start of the story, Akari and Takaki exchanged letters. In high school, Takaki began using a mobile phone. And now, in this chapter, he was working at a computer.
So the university arc had been skipped entirely?
Straight into adult life?
But the manga didn't give her any time to dwell on it.
Soon, a familiar scenery appeared.
The street lined with falling cherry blossoms. The railway crossing cutting through the town. The alarm bells ringing as the gates prepared to lower.
As Takaki stepped forward, a woman approached from the opposite direction.
Chinatsu froze.
That face, that silhouette...
Akari?
Were they really going to reunite like this?
At the same cherry blossom slope. On opposite sides of the railway. In the very same positions as all those years ago.
All they needed was to turn around.
The two passed each other exactly at the center of the tracks, but the sudden alarm startled them, and neither looked back.
Both walked toward their respective destinations.
Takaki's inner monologue echoed:
"If I were to turn around right now, I feel certain she would turn around too."
He slowly turned.
And for a moment, just a moment, he thought he saw the woman across the tracks also start to turn.
Then the sound of a rushing train filled the world.
Steel roared between them, scattering cherry blossoms in a violent swirl.
Chinatsu's fingers shook as she flipped the page.
But the manga suddenly shifted into a flashback.
It was night.
Takaki waited for the elevator after work. A woman called out to him, but, he didn't answer.
At the same time, far away, Akari boarded a train to Tokyo under her parents' supervision.
"Last night, I dreamed of old things, of when he and I were still children, It must be because of the letter I found."
The scene cut to the letter she had never mailed, more than ten years old, illuminated at the bottom of the page.
The perspective returned to Takaki.
As Chinatsu read, the whole picture slowly became clear.
Akari had something to attend to, so she boarded the train. Takaki, meanwhile, had once dated someone in university.
Huh?
"Takaki had a girlfriend back then?"
But the message from that ex-girlfriend made Chinatsu go speechless.
"I still like you even now. But I believe that even if we exchanged a thousand messages, our hearts would only be one centimeter closer."
Chinatsu felt her heart tighten.
The title of the work overlapped with those words.
Cherry blossoms fall at five centimeters per second.
And two people who exchange a thousand messages, only become one centimeter closer.
Kanae felt that distance.
His university girlfriend felt that distance. Every girl around Takaki did.
Was it really so hard for people to grow closer?
No.
It was because Takaki closed his heart, refusing to let anyone in.
The rest of the chapter drifted like petals, loose scenes, filled with Takaki's inner monologues.
But those monologues were everything.
At that exact moment, Takaki and Akari seemed to be thinking the same thing, at the same time.
Takaki: "Last night, I had a dream. In the dream, we were only thirteen."
Akari: "A countryside covered in deep white snow."
Takaki: "The smoke from the chimneys was too far away to reach, only two faint trails."
Akari: "On the fresh snow, only two sets of footprints. And then…"
Takaki: "Someday, we can watch the cherry blossoms together."
Akari: "He and I both truly believed that."
In the original animation, this sentiment was expressed through music and a cascade of flashbacks, showing how two children who once loved each other deeply slowly drifted apart, fading into memory.
But a manga couldn't rely on soundtrack or motion. So Rei drew scenes from the original novel, weaving them as soft, painful flashbacks.
After their parting at the station, Akari and Takaki wrote letters eagerly.
But as time passed, Akari made new friends at her new school. Takaki moved to a seaside town and met Kanae.
A single letter took half a month to travel thousands of kilometers.
Their passionate feelings gradually cooled.
At night, Akari would pick up her pen, yet couldn't write what she truly wanted to say.
Takaki grew increasingly isolated.
At first, they both waited for the other's reply.
But with months of distance, and two-week letter exchanges, their words dwindled to polite greetings. The tender thoughts they wanted to express, neither knew how to place onto paper anymore.
Until one day, a delayed delivery caused them to miss each other's letters entirely.
After that, both tacitly stopped writing.
They walked past mailboxes pretending not to see them.
They still held each other in their hearts, but could no longer put those feelings into words.
Chinatsu's eyes reddened.
"They never lost contact. It's just… over time, they couldn't communicate anymore."
This was the cruelty of distance and years, the silent erosion of young love.
Although Takaki no longer contacted Akari, he never let go of her in his heart.
Kanae saw this and held back her confession.
His university girlfriend noticed too, even while they were dating. In the end, she broke up, realizing Takaki's heart belonged elsewhere.
Only Takaki himself, had almost forgotten his own childhood feelings.
He needed dreams to remember Akari.
But Akari's presence lingered in him so strongly that he could never truly love anyone else.
In the flashback, something else was revealed clearly, why Akari had come to Tokyo.
She was getting married.
Her wedding with her fiancé would be held there.
When this fact appeared on the page, Chinatsu froze.
Akari… was getting married?
And Takaki?
He had never moved on from that night more than a decade ago. He still believed they would one day watch cherry blossoms together again.
He still couldn't love anyone else. He still hoped, quietly, stubbornly, for a reunion.
Tears pooled in Chinatsu's eyes.
Everything she imagined earlier shattered.
There was no romantic reunion in university. No destined meeting after years apart.
Akari was getting married.
Did Takaki and Akari, still have a chance?
The emotional buildup peaked, and the flashback dissolved.
Reality returned.
The railway crossing.
Falling cherry blossoms.
The passing train.
Akari and Takaki walked past each other on the tracks.
Takaki turned around.
Chinatsu's heartbeat thundered in her ears.
'It's just marriage! Romance manga crash weddings all the time! The wedding wasn't held yet!'
What was there to fear?
If Akari stood waiting on the other side of the tracks, If they could speak even once, their old feelings would surely ignite again.
Cruel to the fiancé? Maybe.
But this was pure love. This was fate.
Please, Shirogane-sensei, let Akari and Takaki start over.
Eyes filled with tears, Chinatsu turned the page.
...
💎