Unlike Your Name, Weathering With You was deeply oppressive between the lines.
This oppressiveness didn't stem solely from the incessant heavy rain that fell throughout the book and the protagonist's circumstances—it also came from Fang Qiu's exceptionally superb prose.
Even after Hodaka Morishima found Keisuke Suga, the man who had once saved him, and joined Keisuke Suga's studio, the wonderful time he spent there was but a small sliver of warmth amid the oppression.
The Inazuma City in the book was as cold and indifferent as the sky-wide downpour.
Just as Hodaka Morishima was about to toss that gun back into the trash can of that tavern—
He saw the girl who had brought him food that night being dragged into that establishment by the young man who had tripped him on that same evening, a malicious look on his face.
So Hodaka Morishima stepped forward and took the girl away.
After a chase, Hodaka Morishima fired a shot.
The gun was real, and the young man was cowed into submission.
The girl hurriedly led Hodaka Morishima away.
It turned out the girl had been fired from the restaurant, which was why she'd been trying to find a job.
But once she'd calmed down, the girl realized that had it not been for Hodaka Morishima, she would by now have strayed down the wrong path.
To express her gratitude—
Atop an abandoned building crowned with a shrine, the girl revealed to Hodaka Morishima a miracle-like power.
"Hey, from now on, the sky is going to clear."
The girl pressed her palms tightly together and began to pray.
Under the girl's prayer, the once overcast sky cleared.
Just like a miracle.
As the sky cleared, Fang Qiu's prose seemed to clear along with it, suddenly turning brisk and bright.
Reading this far, Bai Qing couldn't help but feel somewhat shaken.
A technique Fang Qiu often used.
It signified that after meeting Hina Amano, Hodaka Morishima's whole world had cleared up.
A highly professional writing technique.
The suppress-then-elevate technique.
By using the prose to suppress the reader's emotions before Hodaka Morishima's chance encounter with the girl, and then, after the encounter, releasing that surging emotion all at once through the shifts in the prose, the weather, and the change in Hodaka Morishima's mood in that very moment.
There were many benefits to writing this way.
It could amplify the reader's emotions to a greater degree and strengthen their sense of immersion.
It could also deepen the reader's impression of the plot.
Aside from Fang Qiu, quite a few bestselling authors handled by her senior colleagues used this technique too.
Things like "one sword splits open the gate of heaven," for instance.
However, after Fang Qiu employed it, more and more authors began using this technique.
Only, most of them were rather stiff, lacking Fang Qiu's naturalness—the way things flowed effortlessly to fruition, with outstanding effect.
If this scene could be made into an animation like Your Name, it would surely be incredibly stunning.
Hodaka Morishima also learned the girl's name.
Her name was Hina Amano, and she was about to turn eighteen.
She was Hodaka Morishima's senior.
After passing through that shrine, she had gained the power to briefly make the weather clear.
Next, Hodaka Morishima began working at Keisuke Suga's place while also taking up the Sunshine Girl work together with Hina Amano.
That is, together with Hina Amano and her little brother Nagi Amano—who was popular with the girls—they formed a Sunshine Girl team.
Taking money to help clear the skies.
Thanks to this work, Hina Amano also solved her money troubles.
Reading the book's brisk prose and its lighthearted everyday story, Bai Qing couldn't help but smile.
Truly worthy of Fang Qiu.
So wonderfully written.
Especially the part where feelings quietly blossomed between Hina Amano and Hodaka Morishima—it made one want to lie in bed and roll around helplessly.
Ah, the callow love of a boy and a girl.
At the same time, they also helped many people.
When she read the scene where Hina Amano's clearing power allowed the festival to proceed smoothly, after which Hodaka Morishima and Hina Amano sat together on the rooftop watching the fireworks—
Bai Qing couldn't help but recall that during the Lantern Rite fireworks gathering, she too had seen a boy and a girl holding hands in front of the Dango Milk shop, buying Dango Milk together.
After the fireworks bloomed, they too, just as written in the book, gazed up at the fireworks blossoming across the sky.
Only, after this festival, as though rebounding off rock bottom, the next day's rain fell far heavier.
Keisuke Suga was refused a meeting with his daughter by his mother-in-law, after which he and Natsumi Suga set out for a shrine to investigate a legend about the weather, hoping to write an article based on it.
Meanwhile, Hodaka Morishima and Hina Amano came to an old lady's home to help her clear the weather.
When Bai Qing read the description of a grown-up Tachibana Taki, she couldn't help but freeze.
She hadn't expected that Tachibana Taki would actually appear in Weathering With You—this sense of dislocated time and space...
It brought her a touch of delight.
Especially since, on Tachibana Taki's ring finger, there was an exquisite ring.
She remembered reading it in some book—was it Mondstadt or Fontaine?
When people in love get married, they exchange a pair of rings.
Tachibana Taki had gotten married!
Bai Qing's pupils contracted slightly, and she hurriedly read on, hoping to catch sight of Miyamizu Mitsuha.
Unfortunately, Miyamizu Mitsuha did not appear, and the description of Tachibana Taki was very brief.
Still, with Fang Qiu's caliber, she surely wouldn't have Tachibana Taki marry someone else, right?
No, wait!
That gal actually seemed capable of it...
No—be confident... drop the "seemed"...
That gal really would dare!
Otherwise she wouldn't have written that book 5 Centimeters per Second—heaven knows how many reader letters the editorial department received after that book was released...
If Fang Qiu really intended to have Tachibana Taki marry someone else this time, then no matter what, she'd make Fang Qiu change it!
In the next section, the scene shifted to Keisuke Suga and Natsumi Suga. They were inside the shrine, listening to an old man tell the story of the weather maiden.
The old man told Keisuke Suga and Natsumi Suga that the weather maiden could commune with the heavens, but her fate was generally a tragic one.
Reading the old man's words, Bai Qing's hand couldn't help but tremble.
Here it comes!
Bai Qing bit her lower lip and let out a long breath.
The old man's words were no longer hinting—they were stating it outright.
The weather maiden's fate was always tragic.
Just like in The Forest of Fireflies' Light, where the impossibility of forming a bond was explained from the very start, or in The Legend of Sword and Fairy 2, where Han Lingsha's lifespan was hinted at from the beginning.
Fang Qiu was about to wield the knife.
Seeing Bai Qing's smile gradually fade, a female editor who had been observing her from time to time swallowed, poked the female editor beside her, and said, "Look, quick—it seems Fang Qiu is wielding the knife again."
"Hiss... looks like it... seems we're in for drinks again tonight."
"I hear that lately, that Mr. Zhongli from the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor has been going to that tavern beneath the Wanwen Bookhouse, waiting for the moment Ah Qing cries. Let's head there today too—maybe we'll even get to exchange a few words with the gentleman."
"Sure, sure, count me in. It just so happens everyone under me is slacking off and there are no manuscripts at all, so it's the perfect chance to observe Ah Qing up close."
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