That Soft Wish ... (その やわらかな願いは ..., Sono Yawaraka na Negai wa ...) is the twelfth episode of the Aria anime and the twelfth episode of the first season.
Summary[]
On a snowy day, Akari visits Neo-Venezia's oldest bridge, outside the current city. As Akari crosses it, cats appear, and on the other side the snow is mostly melted, the sky clear, and the canal dry.
She meets a woman, Akiko, who does not recognize her uniform or know what an undine is. Akiko invites Akari home for tea, in a neighborhood Akari doesn't recognize. Akiko and Akari both attribute their ignorance about the other's life to being new immigrants, but when Akari sees the memory card in Akiko's camera is the same format as the letter delivered in episode 4, she realizes she has traveled in time to before Neo-Venezia was built.
Back at the canal, people gather to witness the arrival of water, a result of the terraforming—an event one watcher calls a sign that Aqua has finally accepted the colonists. When Akari says goodbye, Akiko, who has realized where Akari is from by her anachronistic comments, says cats are a link between past and future, and bids farewell to her future, and when Akari crosses the bridge she is back in the snow of her own time.