It was Akari Shinohara, the girl with whom Takaki Tono had become close friends in grade school, who first pointed out to him the speed of falling cherry blossoms as 5 centimeters per second. "They look like snowflakes," she exclaimed. He thought the world of her and tried spending as much time with her as he could. And even after she moved away to Tochigi, he looked forward to receiving her letters and phone calls, responding in kind and maintaining the hope that one day they'd be reunited. But...