Mini-Gallery
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Vol 0: T·Y·O |
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Vol 1: Babel |
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Vol 1.5: Destiny |
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Vol 2: Dream |
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Vol. 3: Call A & B |
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Vol. 4: Crime |
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Vol. 5: Save A & B |
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Vol. 6: Old |
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Vol. 7: Box |
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Vol. 8: Rebirth |
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Vol. 9: News |
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Vol. 10: Pair |
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Vol. 11: End |
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Despite such a difficult start in life, Subaru's altruistic nature has only been enhanced. He is the epitome of innocence, purity and self-sacrifice, but he is continually plagued by a lack of confidence; he can't understand why others care so much for him and fears that he is incapable of accomplishing anything worthwhile in his lifetime.
"He's not trying to be a saint. That's just how he is. He has such a hard time being nice to himself. Yet to him, cherishing others is easier than breathing."
~ Hokuto-chan
Seven years after his encounter in Ueno Park, Subaru is working as an Onmyoji in Tokyo while attending high school. He has been reunited with his dear sister and they live in adjacent apartments in the Shinjuku district.
While chasing his shikigami through Ikebukuro Station, Subaru, too busy looking above him, trips. As he tries to pull himself back together, a man in an expensive suit comes to his aid. As the two speak, Subaru learns the man is a veterinarian, something he had once hoped to be. With this common interest, the two quickly strike up a friendship.
The vet's name is Sakurazuka Seishirou; he is almost nine years Subaru's senior, and a member of the clan in opposition to the Sumeragi. However, Seishirou swears that he is merely a distant cousin of the Sakurazukamori and that he poses no threat to the Sumeragi twins. He takes Subaru under his wing and allows the boy to spend time helping at his surgery.
Before long the man has become a staple component of the twins' lives, and even professes love for the younger sibling. Hokuto becomes enwrapped in the romantic notion of two men from enemy clans - one the head, the other an heir - falling in love; however, Subaru is much more reserved. He has little experience with love and can't understand what Seishirou would see in him. The fact that they are of the same gender along with the age difference also worries him. He concludes that both Seishirou and his sister must just be teasing him.
Below are in-depth synopses of each story from the Tokyo Babylon manga, and therefore contain spoilers.
In Roppongi, Subaru helps Akie-san, a young woman who committed suicide after being used for sex by a celebrity. He then moves on to exorcising a woman's Chanel suit that has been taken hold of by the grudges of those unable to buy the suit.
The event brings up a discussion between the trio of how people merely pay lip-service to important issues around the world as they are so caught up in looking good and having fun, and how Tokyo so strongly represents this attitude. But despite this, they all love the city in which they live.
"Where else on Earth do so many people enjoy
their decent into destruction?"
~ Seishirou-san
Volumes
Strange tremors are being felt at Tokyo Tower; however, strangely they only seem to affect one floor of the structure. When Subaru is called in to find the reason for the phenomenon, Seishirou decides to tag along, saying that it would make for a romantic evening.
The cause of the occurrences makes itself known that night; she is a young actress, Kato Kazue. Originally from Fukuoka, Kazue-san hated Tokyo but loved the tower; even thought she still couldn't see the stars in the sky, she could look down upon the stars of the earth. When the movie she had a small part in was cancelled (the main actress walked out on the project) she couldn't stand the thought of admitting defeat to the family she had run away from, and committed suicide. Through a heart-to-heart talk with both Subaru and Seishirou, she feels ready to pass over and allows Subaru to perform the exorcism rights.
Before leaving, Kazue-san says she is able to love Tokyo a little more thanks to Subaru. When Seishirou-san speaks of how in this city love simply isn't enough, a question is raised in the Onmyoji's mind.
"Then why do people love at all? If love is useless, then what use could we have for such an emotion?"
~ Subaru-kun
"Because we're lonely. As long as we can love, we can dream. Human beings aren't strong enough to live without their dreams. Let me tell you, I truly do love you, Subaru-kun. But I'm not stupid enough to demand the same feelings from you."
~ Seishirou-san
Subaru dreams of a meeting he had under a sakura tree as a child with a high school boy. He attempts to remember more of the event, but can't figure out if it was real or not. When Seishirou-san begins to joke that the time at Ikebukuro Station wasn't their first meeting, Subaru realises that the veterinarian reminds him of the teenager in his dream.
The threesome decide to take a trip to Ueno Park, despite the trees only being half in bloom. While walking, Subaru happens upon a sakura in full glory, just like the one that appeared in his dream. Seishirou-san begins to tell him the same story as the boy had, of the corpse buried underneath cherry blossom trees. Just as Subaru begins to think that perhaps Seishirou-san is the same person as the one in his dream, his mind suddenly goes blank and he cannot recall what he was just thinking.
On a visit to the family residence in Kyoto, Subaru's grandmother tells him of how the cabinet investigation division of the government suspects the Sakurazukamori of assassinating one of their officials. This urges Subaru to ask whether everyone with the name of 'Sakurazuka' is related to the Sakurazukamori, and he is relieved when she tells him no. And, anyway, how could he even contemplate that someone as gentle as Seishirou-san is linked to such a person?
When Subaru returns to his apartment in Tokyo, the memory of something that happened to him in grade school returns in a dream; a girl he was close to telling him how she hates him as he isn't normal. Subaru doesn't understand why he is remembering such a thing now, but his thoughts are interrupted when he not only finds his sister hiding in the covers of his bed, but Seishirou-san as well.
While Seishirou gives Subaru a lift to his next job, he tells the older man of his dream and how deeply he was hurt by the girl's words.
"When she said that, it made me so sad. It was like they say on TV about having a broken heart. I realised that was true ... that feeling ... my chest actually hurt."
~ Subaru
Still confused as to why he suddenly remembered the event, Seishirou-san tells Subaru that perhaps his dream has some importance behind it; as the onmyoji has spiritual powers, it could be a clairvoyant dream. He also teases Subaru, saying this girl must have been his first love.
Arriving at a hospital in Ebisu, Subaru begins to read over his case. A sixteen-year-old girl, Kaburagi Mitsuki, has been in an unexplained coma for four months. But it isn't until he sets eyes on the young woman that he realises it is the girl from his past.
"I just saw her in my dream today ... I guess I truly am "not normal"."
~ Subaru
When he is unable to detect a vengeful spirit or possession, he decides the only course of action is to dive into her mind and ask her personally what has happened. There, he discovers that Mitsuki never forgot him as he had thought and, in fact, remembers him fondly. However, when he tries to talk to her about the reasons for her coma, she fights back, not ready to reveal her secret. She refuses to believe that the young man with her is truly Subaru and surrounds herself with doppelgangers of how Subaru appeared as a child.
As Subaru is unwilling to protect himself for fear he will hurt Mitsuki-chan, Seishirou-san comes to his rescue by sending in his eagle shikigami. With her defense shattered, Subaru is able to uncover what happened; Mitsuki was abducted and raped by a gang of men.
Mitsuki opens up to Subaru, explaining how she wishes the rape was only a bad dream, and that the scenes she plays over in her mind were real: scenes of her and Subaru playing together as children. She admits that she could never stop thinking about Subaru, her grade school crush, over the years, and how she had always loved him. But he was always nice to everyone; she wanted to be special to him as he was to her. So she told him she hated him hoping that it would make him pay more attention to her. When she fell into the coma, she began to call out to him, believing he would be the only one who could help her wake up.
By telling her that if she never wakes up, not only will her mother never be happy again, but that he will be very sad too, she is able to pull together enough strength to resurface. Before she leaves the recesses of her mind she tells Subaru she is sorry for what she said to him as a child and thanks him for what he has done for her.
When she opens her eyes, she is able to see the real Subaru for the first time in eight years.
While on a 'date' at Sunshine 60, Seishirou-san and Subaru come across a fortune-telling centre. In the Sumeragi clan it is forbidden to receive a fortune from another clairvoyant. However Seishirou-san feels that as this centre uses a computer, it isn't strictly disobeying with family rules, and asks for a compatibility reading. As the reading prints out, Subaru receives a page from Hokuto-chan: he has job.
Several people with phone numbers ending 1999 have been receiving strange calls from a Dial Q2 line, and each of them has suffered from some form of accident shortly afterwards. Subaru recognises that the calls were in actual fact spells, and suspects amateur occultists of committing the attacks.
Calling the Dial Q2 line, Subaru confronts the three teenage girls responsible for the calls. Taking him as an enemy, they send a spell at Subaru, which he easily deflects back, but he's loses contact with the call line.
In a second attempt to stop the girls, Subaru dons his ceremonial robes and sends his shikigami to narrow down their location. When he finds out where the three live, he encounters unstable barriers set up in their rooms. Due to their mistakes, as well as the normal backlash upon the user when performing spells, the girls have awakened a number of poltergeists. Subaru has no option other than to charge through the barriers and attack the spirits with his shikigami in an attempt to save the girls from harm. However, such a step weakens him greatly and he ends up running a fever.
Despite this, however, Subaru knows he can't sit back too long with the potential danger the girls are in. After a brief rest, he contacts the line again. Only one of the girls is currently connected and Subaru is able to convince her that the barrier spell has been written wrong and that it is putting her in danger. With the spell torn down, Subaru begins to exorcise the ghosts around her; however the other girls dial into the system. They begin to throw spells towards the onmyoji, and he is unable to protect himself without causing harm for the other girl. As soon as the exorcism is complete, Subaru passes out.
When Hokuto-chan runs to his aid, Seishirou-san is able to put her into a deep sleep from a simple glance. He goes to confront the girls that hurt Subaru.
"...if you harm one hair on Subaru-kun's head
...I'm afraid I won't forgive that."
~ Seishirou-san
Unlike Subaru, he does not hold back and his spells are able to overwhelm the two girls easily, no doubt causing permanent psychological damage.
Subaru is disheartened when, on his way to meet with Hokuto-chan and Seishirou-san, he finds that another shrine being torn down. He feels terrible that there is nothing he can do, but his sister tells him that he needs to think constructively and do what he can without worrying so much about what he can't.
After breakfast, Subaru heads to the Yasukuni Shrine to do the extra-credit assignment his art teacher gave him to help him graduate despite his absences from school. After he finishes, he is to head over to Seishirou-san's apartment for dinner. His painting is interrupted when Subaru feels an intense spiritual force from within the shrine. He finds a middle-aged woman who has just buried something in the ground, and realises the object in the dirt is the head of a dog. The woman is attempting to create a Inugami, a dog spirit that will obey her commands. When Subaru tells her that not only the target of her curse will be claimed, but her as well, she doesn't seem to care. There is no way that it can compare to what she has been through already.
She tells Subaru of how she used to have all that she wanted: a happy marriage and a daughter just about ready to start grade school. However, one day her daughter, Mai, disappeared and after a month of searching, the child's body was found; she had been drown. The police were able to find the man responsible for the murder of her daughter, however, he was declared mentally insane and unfit for trial. He was never charged.
When she heard the judge's decision, she decided that if the law wasn't going to kill him for his crimes, she would do so. She was ready to stab him at the hearing, however she knew she'd be viewed as having killed an innocent citizen. Therefore she decided to do the same as he had: if she killed him with a curse, there was no way she could be convicted. Even if people found out what she did, it wouldn't be a crime; she'd simply be a woman who went a little crazy.
Despite her feelings, Subaru knows he can't let her go ahead with the curse. He tries to plead with her, that this wouldn't be what her daughter would want, but the mother won't listen. Reluctantly Subaru tells her he could channel her daughter; he is sure the little girl would not want her mother to do this for her.
However, when Subaru performs the ritual, he is shocked by what Mai says; the child is in immense pain and begs her mother to punish the man for what he did to her. Subaru is extremely disturbed by the girl's pleas. As the mother cannot hear what the spirit of her daughter is saying, Subaru takes the painful decision of lying to the mother. As she believes Mai would not want her to commit such a crime, the mother gives up on her plan of a curse. However, Mai gives Subaru an accusatory glare, screaming at him that it hurts.
Later on Subaru shows up at Seishirou-san's apartment, but rather than coming in for the meal he was promised, he tells his friend that he has a lot on his mind and that he should head home. When the older man realises that Subaru has been crying, he pulls him into the apartment. Subaru tells him about what happened at the shrine and about how he's a liar. He believes that he didn't tell the mother the truth selfishly, and denied her the right to decide what would make he happiest. But Seishirou-san tells him that he should forgive himself as if he was wrong to lie, it was an unwitting mistake.
"But if you need validation, I'll speak up. I think that you were right to lie. And if you were wrong, then that makes me wrong as well."
~ Seishirou-san
He tells Subaru to sleep and that he will watch over him, ready to chase away anyone who comes around to call him a liar.
Despite having only slept for two hours, Subaru is committed to going to a study session at school in the hopes of gaining additional credits. While Hokuto-chan helps him get ready, she asks if he is still wishing to go to university to study veterinary medicine. Subaru hopes that one day an onmyoji will arrive who is stronger than him so that he'll be able to hand over his role as master. But until then he will work towards his childhood dream, no matter how long it takes.
"Don't worry. Your big sister is behind you every step of the way. Just...no matter what...don't ever give up on your dreams."
~ Hokuto-chan
Before he is able to leave for school, Subaru receives another job. He leaves to meet someone with more information, and is surprised to discover that this person is none other than his grandmother. The Ministry of Education wants to investigate a cult that has been attracting people mostly in middle and high school. They want Subaru to investigate this cult, the MS Research Institute, by pretending to be a normal student. But this isn't the only reason for his grandmother's visit to Tokyo. In fact she came to tell him of a vision relating to him.
"It said that the cherry blossoms are planning to
steal you away, Subaru-san."
~ Obaa-chan
His grandmother has been wracked with guilt for leaving him alone as a child and she begs him to be careful and to never take off his gloves. Confused as to what she means, Subaru agrees regardless.
At the Institute, Subaru is introduced to a girl in his class, Hashimoto Kuniko. Kuniko-chan came to the Institute in the hopes that they would help her deal with being bullied at school. He also meets the top-level director, Nagi Kumiko. Kumiko-sensei is able to emotionally affect the students easily, without raising her voice or stirring them up. Everyone except from Subaru and Kuniko-chan are controlled by her. Kumiko-sensei notices this fact and takes the two aside to talk. She tells them that children need a pillar to rely upon more than adults do, and that the Institute proves this, and that with prayer they could help heal the problems they both suffer from. This sends Kuniko-chan into a rage; she has done everything she has been told to do, but her situation in school hasn't changed at all.
Subaru and Kuniko-chan run into each other a while later away from the Institute. She has just undergone another round of bullying and when Subaru tries to help her, she strikes out, accidentally cutting his face. When Subaru simply smiles at her and gives her a handkerchief, she's shocked and starts to talk to him about what is happening in her life. Kumiko-sensei told her she could improve the situation if she could love and believe in herself, but no matter how hard she's tried, nothing has changed. Subaru tells her that he can't understand a fraction of what she's gone through and that he doesn't know what to say. For the first time it seems that someone has said what she has desperately needed to hear; she smiles and thanks Subaru for his kind words.
The next day at the Institute, Subaru asks Kuniko-chan how her injuries are and gives her cookies made by Hokuto-chan. Just as she is about to give Subaru the handkerchief back, the class begins. She holds the handkerchief and blushes; it seems she's developed a bit of a crush on Subaru.
In art class while at school, Kuniko-chan has to endure more bullying. However, this time, when one of the girls uses Subaru's handkerchief to wipe paint, Kuniko-chan strikes back, pushing her to the ground. As the fight becomes more vicious, the bully is able to grab a painting knife and stabs Kuniko-chan in the face. Despite the injury, she seizes the handkerchief.
Kumiko-sensei tells Subaru of the attack, and how, if Kuniko-chan had just prayed harder, it would have never happened. She also reveals that she knows Subaru has supernatural powers and that those are the root of his own suffering. In light of what has happened, she wants to make sure she is able to save Subaru. However, Subaru's anger at the woman boils to the surface and he tells her she can't save anyone and that she can't understand the pain Kuniko-chan has been through. In the midst of Subaru's shouting, Seishirou-san appears. Rendering Subaru unconscious, he kills Kumiko-sensei. It seems that while Subaru was told to investigate the Institute, the government hired Seishirou-san to assassinate its leader.
Speaking to the sleeping Subaru, Seishirou-san tells him of how it's been many years since their paths have crossed in the line of duty. Attempting to take off the boy's gloves, Subaru's grandmother's spell is unleashed against the older man, causing an injury to his hand. In respect to her, Seishirou-san says that he will hold off until the final day.
Visiting the hospital to see Kuniko-chan, the girl refuses to let Subaru into her room. She tells him that she wants to become stronger so that she can survive in this world, but for now she is not ready to face him. Until then, could she hold onto his handkerchief. When she is ready, she'll return it to him. Subaru tells her that he's looking forward to the day they can meet again.
NOTES: The chapter Annex // Start in the manga's final volume takes place after the death of Kumiko-sensei.
After exorcising the spirits from a family suicide, Subaru comes upon an old man in a local park and is amazing by how he communes with the birds. When one of the birds takes an interest in the onmyoji, the elderly man explains that the birds are his friends and how animals can pick up upon how someone is feeling. Subaru understands this well, describing the relationship he had with his childhood pet, and tells the man of his dream to become a zookeeper. Subaru has a hard time expressing how he feels so is always worried about saying something that may another pain. But with animals there is no need for words. The man can sympathize as that is the very reason he worked as a zookeeper himself before retirement. He tells Subaru that he should never give up on his dreams and that he is able to survive as he still has a dream to accomplish.
After a while of speaking together, Subaru apologizes for keeping the man; he must have a family and he doesn't want to make them worry. But he tells the boy that no one is worried about him and he is merely excess baggage.
The two continue to meet on occasions and Subaru even starts to call the man "grandpa". One day at the park, he asks grandpa what is his dream. Grandpa's wife died thirty years before, while their daughter, Sachiyo, was still young. On her deathbed she asked her husband to one hundred things to make Sachiyo happy as she was never able to do much for the child. Grandpa now only has to do one more thing and then he can be proud to face his wife again. He shows Subaru of a picture of his him, his wife and daughter in which Sachiyo is eating a banana. As a girl she used to pretend to be sick as she knew her father would buy her bananas to make her feel better.
While waiting for grandpa one day, Subaru hears a ruckus from nearby. Dashing towards the noise, Subaru finds the elderly man lying in a pool of blood; he had run across a road in such a rush he did not see a truck heading towards him. Still hanging onto life, grandpa pushes a paper bag full of bananas into Subaru's hands, telling him to give them to his daughter, who has become ill due to stress, and that now he can be with his wife once again.
Subaru, covered in blood, goes to the family's house. He angrily gives Sachiyo the bananas, telling her her father died trying to bring them back home for her. She breaks down, the guilt of how she has been treating her father crashing down upon her. She begs her father to forgive her for taking out her frustrations upon him.
Subaru, Hokuto-chan and Seishirou-san go to the park Subaru and grandpa always met to lay flowers on the bench they shared. As the trio speak, Subaru sees grandpa's family walk by. They are going to his and her mother's grave site as she wants to tell him again how sorry she is. As Subaru watches, he sees grandpa's spirit appear, birds fluttering around him, watching over his family. He smiles at Subaru before disappearing.
Seishirou-san is treating the twins with a visit to a karaoke box. Hokuto-chan decides that they should play "random karaoke" and if Subaru doesn't know the song that is selected, he must do anything that Seishirou-san says. Low a behold, Subaru doesn't know the song that comes up but Seishirou-san comes to his rescue, asking Subaru to nip out and get him some cigarettes. As Subaru happily dashes off, Hokuto-chan tells Seishirou-san that she know he sent Subaru out on purpose as he never smokes around either of them and that he has just lost the perfect opportunity to seduce her little brother.
Subaru is shocked by both his sister's mischievous and Seishirou-san's attempt to rescue him, thought he doesn't believe hold older friend would have forced him to do something crazy. While mulling things over, Subaru is dragged into another karaoke box by a young woman. While she sings, he realises there is something differ net about her and asks her what happened to make her so sad. For a second he regrets asking her about something that is none of his business, but she doesn't mind. He is right and she tells him that his eyes are only beautiful but they can see the truth as well.
She explains how she had an affair with a married man at work. Initially she was just in it for the fun and had no illusions of her lover leaving his wife fro her. However, the longed the affair went on, the more she realised she was falling for him. So she began to come to the karaoke box every day. Singing songs about similar occurrences made her feel as if she wasn't alone, that if it could happen to others, that she wasn't the only stupid one. One day her lover told her the affair had to end and to her it was as if her whole life was over. She had always laughed at the girls in songs that suffered the same fate; now it's her time to be laughed at. But Subaru tells her that know one can know what her suffering was like and that they don't have the right to laugh at her. He hopes that next time around she can live a life without regret. She thanks him for his words, and passes into the next world. It seems she had committed suicide rather than live on without the man she loved.
Rejoining his friends, Seishirou-san tells him that he did well, and Subaru wonders if he knew about the woman.
After catching the 'flu, Subaru is at Shinjuku Hospital. Hokuto-chan is with him, eternally worried about her little brother as he developed fevers over the smallest of things as a child. As he waits for his sister to get his medicine, Subaru meets a young boy, Yuya-kun, who is at the hospital for kidney dialysis. When the boy has to leave for his treatment, he asks Subaru if he'll be there again and the onmyoji says that he has to come back in a few days. As Yuya-kun is at the hospital every other day, they will be able to meet again.
Subaru is deeply affected by the boy's condition and Hokuto-chan begins to worry about how much pain this meeting will put her brother through.
"...because of his job as an onmyoji, he's seen so
many people's
bad sides, and experienced so many unpleasant things
and he's never been able to get used to it...
I've always thought, ever since I was little, that
Subaru won't be able to survive in this world.
He's too pure. I've always been so scared
that one day his heart will just break...and he'll die."
~ Hokuto-chan
Subaru returns to the hospital to meet Yuya-kun again, when the boy takes a turn for the worst. As Subaru sits with the boy while he sleeps, he hears the Yuya's mother begging a doctor to help her son receive a donated kidney, but there is nothing that can speed the process. Subaru visits the boy a few days later along with Seishirou-san, and bare witness to Yuya's mother's escalating desperation to help her son: when a patient at the hospital dies, she rushes toward his wife in the hope she will agree to donate her husband's kidney, however, Seishirou-san is able to stop her before she reaches the widow.
Speaking with Yuya's doctor, Subaru and Seishirou-san discover that Yuya-kun had a sister, Maya-chan that suffered from the same illness, and that their mother made the decision to donate her kidney to the little girl. However, the organ was rejected and Maya-chan died. The mother, wracked with guilt, believing that if she had chosen Yuya-kun, there would have been a happier ending.
After the doctor leaves, Subaru tells Seishirou-san that he would give his life if he could help people needing donations.
"I don't think I'm capable of accomplishing anything worthwhile while I'm still alive, so I'd be much happier knowing I could help someone that way, instead of just being burned to ashes. But still... Hokuto-chan and obaa-chan would be very sad for me."
~ Subaru
Hugging Subaru, Seishirou-san tells him that his sister would be happy for him if it was something he really wanted, but that if he died before his sister did, Hokuto-chan would be very mad and that she's very scary when she's mad.
The next time Subaru comes to visit Yuya-kun, he has decided that he is going to offer to donate his kidney if he is a match. However, the boy has suffered another downturn and is being rushed to surgery. His mother has broken down and is begging for forgiveness for the decision she made. In her desperation, she attacks Subaru, and after initially trying to avoid her swipes with a knife, he gives up defending himself. Just as she is about to make another leap forward, there is a shattering of glass. Opening his eyes, Subaru sees a figure before him; Seishirou-san has put himself in the way of the woman's attacks and has bore the brunt for Subaru. His right eye has been hit, but regardless, the man is able to disarm the mother.
The fact that his friend has been injured so badly hits Subaru with the force of a train. As Seishirou-san is taken in for surgery, Subaru can't stop himself from calling out his name and banging on the OR's doors. Not even Hokuto-chan can break him out of it.
After the events at Shinjuku Hospital, Subaru has sequested himself in his bedroom. He is broken with guilt and can't do anything other than whisper his friend's name. When Hokuto-chan attempts to help him, all he wants to know is Seishirou-san's condition. Unable to lie to her brother, she tells him that he is blind in his right eye and no amount of surgery can help him. He begins to slam his fist into the wall, but Hokuto-cahn grabs him, telling him that no matter how much he cries and screams, it'll won't help to heal Seishirou-san's eye. She tells Subaru that instead, he needs to think about not only what he can do for Seishirou-san, but what he wants to do first. Subaru wants to visit his friend to say sorry for what happened, and Hokuto-chan promises him they will go to the hospital the next day. Subaru stays in his sister's arms for the rest of the night.
Outside of Seishirou-san's hospital room, Subaru tells Hokuto-chan that he doesn't believe the older man will forgive him, but that he needs to at least apologise to feel somehow better. But needent have worried; Seishirou-san acts as if nothing has happened, asking Subaru why he isn't at school. Subaru can't hold his tears back, and taking the man's hand, chanting "I'm sorry" over and over again. Seishirou-san seems not to understand why Subaru is apologising; he made the decision to protect Subaru, so the only one at fault for the injury is he himself.
But he does bring up the point that it wasn't that Subaru couldn't move out of the way of her attack, but that he wouldn't move. Subaru wanted her to stab him if it could help allivate her pain and if it could help Yuya-kun.
"Everyone's actions are entirely selfish. Even when
we want to
do something for another person, it's only because we want
the satisifcation that we made someone else happy. You
were prepared to let that woman seriously injure you.
I preferred you to be heathly. So I got in her way."
~Seishirou-san
But if Subaru is so distressed over what happened, there is something he could do: get Seishirou-san something sweet.
As Subaru happily runs of to a donut shop, Hokuto-chan goes in to see Seishirou-san. She tells her friend that Subaru didn't lose control solely because of what happened, but as he has subconsciously decided that Seishirou-san is special to him, and that soon he will realise that fact for himself. But for some reason, this fact is sobering rather than cheerful to Hokuto-chan; she has a feeling that due to it, Seishirou-san will take her brother away from her.
By the time Subaru returns to the hospital, the Police are talking to Seishirou-san about the incident. Listening at the door, he is overjoyed to hear that the man has no plans to press charges against Yuya-kun's mother.
As Seishirou-san is busy, Hokuto-chan decides that they should bring
the pastries to Yuya-kun's room, as the vet suggested to her.
As the twins talk to the boy, he describes how lonely he has been as his
mother hasn't been able to visit him in a while. Hoping to ease
this seclusion, Subaru gives Yuya-kun his phone number, telling him to
call him anytime he felt lonely.
Back at Subaru's apartment, while they eat dinner, Subaru apologies to his sister for making her worry so much about him over the past while. She tells him that it's okay as he's been stubborn ever since he was a child.
"I've learned that even you can be reckless sometimes. It was refreshing to see my little brother as a person with real feelings."
~ Hokuto-chan
Just as Hokuto-chan begins to say something to Subaru, possibly about Seishirou-san, the phone rings; Yuya-kun is on the other end of the line, crying. He asks Subaru if his mother has hurt someone.
The twins rush to the hospital to be met by a media circus at the front door; the story about the attack has been leaked. Yuya-kun's doctor lets them both in by another door, and as Hokuto-chan speeds to Seishirou-san's room, Subaru rushes to look for the boy. He finds him in the dialysis room, but as Yuya-kun attempts to ask about his mother again, he passes out.
When the boy has recovered, the siblings visit Yuya-kun once again. This time he is sitting watching the news reports about the incident, newspapers, many with text to difficult for him to read, scattered over the floor. He feels that it is his fault that his mother has done such a thing, that it's because he's weak.
Subaru explains to the child that there is a great difference between "reality" and "truth", that it is true his mother hurt someone, but that there is a reason it happened and why she was suffering so much: because Yuya-kun is precious to his mother. She is willing to make herself unhappy to ensure that he is happy.
People accept what they see in the media too readily. Most news may be true, but it doesn't get to the emotions behind the incident; people see the "reality" of what has happened, but not the "truth" behind it.
Subaru tells Yuya-kun that rather than just listening to the media reports, he can ask his mother the truth. Just because the news says so, he doesn't have to believe that his mother is a bad person. He needs to judge the information for himself and decide. Yuya-kun feels that his mother isn't bad, and Subaru says that then he should ask her about how she felt at the time, and then after that tell her that he loves her and that being with her is what makes him the happiest. Now that their younger friend is calm, the three tuck into some sweets Hokuto-chan had baked.
When Subaru wonders if Seishirou-san has had any trouble with journalists, Hokuto-chan informs him that he wasn't in his room when she went to look for him. She also finds it suspicious that his name hasn't yet been leaked to the media.
On the roof of the hospital, Seishirou-san watches the media circus below, casually smoking a cigarette.
"It seems the time to settle our bet has finally arrived, Subaru-kun."
~ Seishirou-san
In a dream, Subaru has a vision of himself as a child, below the branches of a glorious sakura tree. Due to the robes he is wearing, he realises it must be sometime shortly before he became Head of the Sumeragi Clan at nine years of age. His younger self is performing some kind of spell on the tree; Subaru remembers this as his first job.
After the spell fails, Subaru sees the child speaking to a boy in his late teens, someone he doesn't recognise. The teenager tells a story of bodies buried under the sakura tree and how their blood taints the petals red. Subaru realises that he made a bet with this person all these years ago, but he can't remember what it was about; wind blows over the words as he tries to listen.
Then a hand creeps onto his shoulder, and a deep, but familiar, voice, speaks of how it is now time to settle their bet. Turning round, he sees the figure picking up a body; the clothing and facial features of the corpse match his own. The shock wakes him, and he screams half a name into the air.
Subaru feels that the vision was too vivid to be a simple dream. It must, in fact, be a memory. But he can't even recall the name he was calling out when he awoke.
Putting the dream behind him, Subaru gets ready to visit Seishirou-san again at the hospital. As he prepares to leave, he runs into Hokuto-chan. She is on her way to play badminton with a friend, but she takes this chance to confront Subaru about his feelings for Seishirou-san. She tells him that although she was born only able to perform a few omyojitsu spells, she has the ability to know what is in Subaru's heart.
"You can see into other people's hearts, Subaru.
But
you don't understand yours at all. You're sensitive
to other people's pain and sadness...but
you're numb to your own emotions."
~ Hokuto-chan
She asks him who went through the biggest change over the course of this incident. When Subaru answers that it was Seishirou-san, Hokuto-chan disagrees, saying the only change with him has been that he has stopped pretending. She explains to him she has a feeling that soon he will find out the meeting behind the gloves he has worn for so long. Before she is able to say much more, she hugs him fiercely, telling him how much she loves him and begging him not to leave her.
As Subaru walks to the hospital, Hokuto-chan's words endlessly repeat in his head. He tries to do as she asked, to attempt to figure out exactly how he feels about his older friend. He himself can't understand why he cried so much when Seishirou-san was injured, why he lost control so fully that he couldn't even hear his sister's voice.
Before he is able to analysis his feelings further, he happens upon a number of teenagers worrying a blind man's guide dog. Subaru politely but firmly tells the boys to leave the dog alone, but they refuse. The leader of the group throws a punch at Subaru's face, but the Onmyoji easily dodges it, grabbing a hold of the youth's hand and twisting it behind his back painfully. He chastises them for teasing the man and his guide dog for their own fun, and when Subaru lets go of the leader, the teenagers run in fear of Subaru's unnatural health.
Even though guide dogs are trained not to be emotional to anyone while they are outside, this one takes an extreme liking to Subaru. Subaru says that he is sorry for meddling in the situation, but the man is thankful; although those boys were an extreme, so many people try to pet or call out to his dog, and such a thing is frightening when you are blind. He tells Subaru that the things he said to the boys are what he has always wanted to say himself. Subaru tells him of how a friend of his has lost the sight in his right eye.
He asks the man if he has any plans and if it would be okay if they could go somewhere to talk about guide dogs. Subaru brings him to a café Hokuto-chan recommended; however, the place does not accept guide dogs. The man tells Subaru how this is a common problem and they settle for drinking canned coffee in a nearby park.
Subaru tells him more about Seishirou-san's injury and how the doctor said that eventually he would go blind in his left eye as well. Subaru hopes that, as he is a veterinarian, Seishirou-san should be able to get used to using a guide dog easily. The man recommends that the application should be done as soon as possible so that Seishirou-san can begin to train the dog before he loses his sight completely; but even if the application was put in now, it may be difficult to get one. They cost a great deal of money to train and so far there aren't that many in Japan. In addition, so few places, such as restaurants and hotels, treat the dogs any differently to normal pets.
The man can tell that Subaru is deeply concerned for his friend from his voice and Subaru tells him that the injury was his fault. Subaru wants to do something to help him, but feels there is nothing he can do, so when he saw the guide dog, he thought that Seishirou-san would do well with a guide dog. The man gives Subaru a contact card for the guide dog foundation in Japan, even if the chances of success are low.
He tells Subaru that there is indeed something he can do for his friend: until Seishirou-san receives a guide dog, Subaru can be his eyes; as he loses his sight, Subaru can be there to look out for him.
"You've endured a difficult experience, just
as he has. So now it's
time for you to live together as a pair. Two of a kind."
~ Blind man
When he says to Subaru that he can tell from his voice that Subaru truly loves this person, Subaru is shocked. It causes Subaru to think deeper about his feelings as he continues on his way to the hospital.
He realises that the reason for his extreme reaction was that he was terrified that Seishirou-san would hate him. Subaru has never worried about other people's opinions of him before. If they disliked him, it was something he couldn't control, and he would be the only one to blame. He feels that he is useless and there isn't much to like about him but, regardless, he was so afraid that Seishirou-san might hate him and that he would never see him again.
It is this fact that puts Subaru in touch with his true feelings for Seishirou-san: he is in love with his older friend.
Tears streaming down his cheeks at the revelation, Subaru pushes open the doors to the hospital room. However, he is shocked to find himself standing in the midst of darkness. A sakura tree stands in the distance and there is a figure leaning against it. Studying the person harder, Subaru discovers that it is Seishirou-san. Before Subaru is able to ask what is happening, Seishirou-san speaks:
"It seems the time to settle our bet has finally
come, Sumeragi Subaru-kun."
~ Seishirou-san
In the midst of Seishirou-san's maraboshi (illusion) Subaru stands shocked. His friend's demeanour has changed completely from what he recognises; behind his smile there only seems to be amusement and coldness.
Subaru has no idea of what this "bet" is, and is only confused further when he is told that today is a year to the day that he and Seishirou-san "met again". The dream Subaru had that morning comes to him once more. Once the vision concludes, Seishirou-san tells him to look closely at the figure in the high school uniform. As Subaru stares at the young man, he realises the face is familiar: it looks like a younger Seishirou-san; they had met once before seven years ago under this sakura tree. Subaru has no memory of the event, and Seishirou-san explains that is as he erased his memory of it.
Seishirou-san implores Subaru to search him memory to see what was lying at his feet. As Subaru does, the body of a young girl becomes clear. Shocked by the injury to the girl's chest, Subaru tries to rush to her aid, but Seishirou-san holds him back; it is merely a memory so there is nothing he can do for the child. Disturbed, Subaru begs to know who hurt the girl, and Seishirou-san simply answers that it was him.
This fact shatters the reign on Subaru's hidden memories of the event. He remembers how he left the spot his grandmother had told him to stay as he felt something was calling out to him. Wondering the streets of Tokyo, he came upon a sakura tree that seemed to harbour the grudges and hatred of many people. In awe of the tree's beauty, Subaru wanted to exorcise it of the grudges; however, it was his first time using spells and he could not purify it.
With his hands held out, attempting to catch a falling petal, something red hits his palm. Looking up into the branches of the tree, he sees the figure of young man in a high school uniform. As he gazes closer, he notices that the older boy is holding the body of a young girl; his hand is through her chest, blood dripping from his fingers.
Within a split second, the teenaged Seishirou-san has Subaru unconscious, the memory of the murder wiped from his mind. The child is the only person to have seen him in the midst of a job, and on top of that the assassin realises that the boy is in the same trade as him. He therefore decides to play a little game with the nine-year-old Subaru. When the boy awakes, he is oblivious to the dead body at their feet, believing that he must have simply fainted and thanks Seishirou-san for rescuing him.
Subaru doesn't believe what is happening. He begs Seishirou-san to tell him that this is only another dream, but the man shots down Subaru's hopes, telling him that is his memory. Subaru still doesn't believe, feeling that Seishirou-san could never murder a child; it is at this point that the veterinarian reveals that he is, in fact, the Sakurazukamori.
Again, Subaru denies that this is true. If Seishirou-san is the Sakurazukamori, then why is he still alive? His grandmother always told him that if someone was to see a Sakurazukamori at work they too would die. Therefore this dream can't be real. Seishirou-san, however, reveals the reason he didn't kill Subaru: the two of them made a bet.
The vision shows the younger Seishirou-san kissing Subaru's hands, carving the assassin's symbol onto their backs to mark him as the prey of the Sakurazukamori. The gloves that Subaru has worn for the past seven years cover those brands.
Finally Subaru seems to accept the truth. The Sakurazukamori comes behind him, taking Subaru's hands within is. As he begins to shred his prey's gloves, he admits that, although he knew him to be another Onmyoji, he had no idea until they met again that he was the thirteenth head of the Sumeragi clan. He is amused to think that the previous head must have been surprised to see her beloved grandson marked with the symbol of their clan's archenemy. And despite her efforts, when his and Subaru's paths crossed once again, he was easily able to read the marks.
The Sakurazukamori reiterates that their bet is now over; however, Subaru still cannot recall that part of the memory until the Sakurazukamori reveals it for him.
Seishirou-san's teenaged self tells the younger Subaru that if they should ever meet again, he will live in the boy's life for one year. His heart is the inverse of Subaru's and he believes the child will grow up as innocent and pure as he is now.
"...I will try my hardest to learn to love you... And after that year, if I can consider you "special", you will have won and I will not kill you."
~ The Sakurazukamori
However, if after their time together he cannot distinguish the difference between Subaru and the corpse of the little girl, he will kill him.
Now, seven years later, the Sakurazukamori reveals that he still cannot feel anything. He explains to Subaru how there is only one Sakurazukamori at any given time, and like the Sumeragi, they have a ceremony of succession. This ceremony entails the murder of the previous Sakurazukamori. In this case, it was Sesihirou-san's own mother; she was the first person to die by his hands when he was just fifteen. Despite who she was, he felt nothing when he murdered her. He has never been able to distinguish between "people" and "things", and to prove his point he breaks Subaru's right arm.
"...If I did fall in love with you, I would take the appropriate actions. I would look only at you ... protect only you ... But it appears to have been all for naught. Because seeing you suffer like this ... I feel nothing."
~ The Sakurazukamori
He begins to viciously kick Subaru to the point he is coughing up blood, even standing on the broken arm to inflict more pain. Telling the boy he has lost the bet, the Sakurazukamori wraps him against the tree with branches. Regardless, Subaru doesn't fight back, frozen in shock, even though he is powerful enough to break the spell. All he can do is look sadly at the person he loves and whisper his name.
"Why do you look so sad? Are you really so hurt that I've betrayed you? Things like this happen in Tokyo every day. People betray people. These things ... they happen all over the city."
~ Seishirou-san
He tells Subaru that he doesn't hate him, but neither does he love him; he is merely an object and despite being with his pure soul for so long, he has not changed.
As the Sakurazukamori prepares to kill Subaru, there is a disturbance in the illusion: Subaru's grandmother's shikigami appears. It is only a momentary distraction, however, and the Sakurazukamori sends his own shikigami to deal with it. But the maraboshi suddenly shatters. It seems the previous Sumeragi head has done something to break the spell, no doubt at severe consequence to herself.
Subaru falls out of the illusion and onto the floor of the hospital room. Hearing the commotion, nurses run to his aid. As they tend to him, Subaru locks himself away in his own mind. All he can think is:
"Seishirou-san ... I loved you."
~ Subaru
After leaving the hospital, Subaru sits in his bedroom in a state of catatonia; he won't eat or speak, even at Hokuto-chan's insistence. His twin is beside herself with guilt. She was the one who pushed them both together; it's her fault they became so close. She was always heartbroken by the fact Subaru never thought of himself, that he didn't think it would matter if he died as he didn't know how badly both she and their grandmother needed him. She wanted him to have something to devote himself too, to give him a purpose. At first she thought this may be his wish of becoming a zookeeper, but it wasn't strong enough.
Then she met Seishirou-san and knew immediately how special he would become to her brother. She sensed that he was dangerous but she desperately wanted Subaru to live, to realise that he had a soul. But she had never wanted things to turn out this way; she feels she has made him suffer something worse than death. The Sakurazukamori has stolen Subaru's soul away and she will not let him kill her twin. She takes Subaru's ceremonial robes from his wardrobe and tells him she can't let things go on as if nothing has happened. Before she leaves, she begs him to come back to them one final time.
A month passes and Subaru is still catatonic. His now crippled grandmother watches by his bedside. Despite the family frantically searching, they have had no leads as to where Hokuto-chan has disappeared to.
All of a sudden, Subaru hears her calling his name in his mind. The end of the dream he had a month before comes again, however, this time he understands the truth behind it: the corpse that the Sakurazukamori picks up is not his own. It's Hokuto-chan's.
Tears streaming from his eyes, he wakes screaming her name. As he tries to run towards his wardrobe - the last place he saw his sister stand - hand outstretched to its doors, his grandmother grabs a hold of his legs, pulling him to kneel on the floor. As he realises that his sister is dead, murdered by the Sakurazukamori, he falls to the ground, his hand lowering.
Before he is able to tell his grandmother what has happened, the phone rings to inform her of that very piece of news. Subaru pulls himself up from the ground, leaning against the balcony doors of his bedroom, and asks his grandmother if he killed his sister, though he knows what the answer will be.
Telling his grandmother that he is quitting school pursue the Sakurazukamori, Subaru makes a vow:
"I, and only I, will kill him."
~ Subaru
At the Sakurazuka Veterinary Clinic, Seishirou-san places an unconscious Subaru onto one of the tables. Speaking to the sleeping boy, he tells him that it was entertaining to see Subaru angry with someone as it is such a rare occurrence. He believes people with power are defined by those powers, and while some become overly confidant, others, like Subaru, become timid.
"You ... are kinder than anyone to others, yet harsher
than
anyone to yourself. Just like a true martyr."
~ Seishirou-san
Looking towards the cages, he notes a puppy, its guts and blood overflowing. He explains that this is the real reason he is a veterinarian: to use the sick and injured animals as a sacrifice so when his spells rebound he is left unhurt. He wonders if Subaru would still smile at him if he knew the truth.
It's almost been a year since their reunion, and Seishirou-san still feels nothing for Subaru. He's tempted to end their bet early as he doubts anything will change in the interim, but he will continue to wait until the year plays out.
He looks towards the fortune the two had taken at Sunshine 60; beside it on the notice board Hokuto-chan has doodled "Ignore this! You must work to make love happen!" But the fortune isn't in the slightest accurate as it was made using his and Subaru's false birthplaces, and Seishirou-san's false birth date; he rips the paper up. He has known all along that Subaru was born in Kyoto and not Tokyo, but wonders why Subaru gave him his true birth date when the boy must have been told by his grandmother the danger behind such honesty.
Fingering Subaru's neck with his blood-coated fingers, holding the boy with his other arm, he tells him he will take his beloved Sumeragi Subaru-kun home.
NOTES: This chapter takes place after Seishirou-san kills Kumiko-sensei in Vol. 5 // Save A & B.
Subaru sees Hokuto-chan running towards something. Even when he calls for her to wait, she doesn't stop, and he finds himself unable to follow her. Looking down, he discovers sakura branches twined around his legs. Suddenly his sister appears before him and comes to touch him; however, there is a mirror between the two. Her clothes change to his ceremonial robes, and then she passes through the mirror to hold him. She begs him, crying, to come back to her, before running away once again.
Before him the Sakurazukamori and the sakura tree appear, with Hokuto-chan standing before the man. Subaru knows what is coming next, and bangs frantically on the mirror separating them, screaming her name. He hears Hokuto-chan telling the Sakurazukamori that she will never let him kill Subaru and that even though she knows she doesn't have the power to kill him, there are certain spells that only she can perform. And that is why she wants him to kill her instead.
...and Subaru has to watch again as his sister is murdered by the man he loves.
As she releases her final spell, the mirror shatters. The face of the Sakurazukamori wakes him from his nightmare.
Subaru bolts upright on his sofa, sweating and breathing heavily. He now appears much older, at least in his early twenties; his hair has been cut much shorter and his clothing is much plainer.
He opens the curtains to allow some light into the apartment and in the corner of his eye catches a glimpse of a mirror. He cautiously approached the object and when he looks into its surface, he sees Hokuto-chan standing behind him. The vision brings back a memory of his older sister telling him of how, despite the fact they look so alike, they are two separate people, and therefore it is important to be considerate of one another.
"So no matter how hard your work gets, no matter
how sleepy
you are, I want you to say "Good Morning" to me. That
alone will make me love you even more, Subaru."
~ Hokuto
The memory pains Subaru deeply. He whispers "Good morning, nee-san" to the mirror before smashing it with his fist.
Subaru sits in a park near to a number of apartment complexes reading notes on his most recent job. There have been a number of disturbances in the area, starting with electrical and phone disruptions, to actual physical destruction. Subaru cannot feel any paranormal energy in the area and decides to reinvestigate that night.
After darkness begins to fall, Subaru's attention is attracted by a woman with a pram. When her baby begins to cry, she looks at the child viciously; Subaru can't understand how anyone could look at their child with such eyes. As he lights a cigarette, the mother's eyes begin to bother Subaru; they remind him of how Seishirou-san's eyes appeared as he killed his sister. He crushes the cigarette within his hands in anger.
Just then, a piece of playground equipment is damaged, and then a park bench fractures into two. There is still no paranormal presence but Subaru can sense a "power of will".
The next morning the incident has attracted both the police and a crowd of local residents. Amidst the group, Subaru feels someone pulling upon his coat; it's a little girl who asks Subaru to play with her. Something about the girl seems to upset Subaru, and he follows her over to the swings, asking her why she invited him there. She tells him that she hoped that he'd be able to help, and as Subaru asks whom she wants him to help, there are more disturbances. She tells him that she knows he can here it, but runs away before Subaru can find out what "it" is.
Using his ofuda, Subaru tries to find out the answer. As he listens, he hears the crying of a small child. Sending his shikigami to locate the source of the sobs, Subaru follows it to one of the apartments in the surrounding buildings. As he arrives at the door, the mother he saw before exits the apartment; she seems to be in a daze.
Calling up information upon the inhabitants of the apartment Subaru learns that a 30-year-old man and his 28-year-old wife live there. However, the man has been away on a business trip for the past while. The only unusual behaviour seems to be that the wife hasn't left the apartment often lately, but this isn't considered overly strange.
As Subaru sits on the park's swing going over the information, the little girl from before appears again. She asks Subaru to help that child as he is always crying. She asks Subaru if he can hear it. As she starts to beg Subaru to save the child, saying that he is hurting, the pavement is torn up. Subaru runs to the apartment he felt the force come from before. As he gets closer, the baby's crying becomes louder. A powerful psychic wave throws him from the door, but Subaru tries again, forcing his way through the door with a spell.
Inside the mother sits slapping the child's face, his cheeks already covered in blood; the baby's cries are almost inaudible as she has stuffed a piece of cloth into his mouth. Subaru screams for her to stop, but she doesn't listen, leaving Subaru no alternative but to put himself between the two and pick up the crying baby.
Protecting the boy within his arms, Subaru asks the woman why she is doing this. She feels that the child is a part of her, and there is nothing wrong with hitting herself, with punishing herself. As Subaru pulls the cloth out of the boy's mouth, letting his cries ring out, the woman breaks down herself. She starts crying into thin air, asking why he doesn't come back to her, why he likes that other woman better.
Back in the park, Subaru speaks with the little girl once again. She thanks him for saving the baby, and asks why the woman was doing that to her son. Subaru explains that her husband left her for another woman and that, as she saw the baby as another image of herself, she thought if she punished him, her husband would come back to her.
As the child's cries were muffled, they were turned into power which he used to call for help from the outside world. Subaru asks the girl if the reason she could hear the boy's cries was because she had suffered in the same way, but in her case, she had died.
She tells Subaru that her mother killed her. Her father had died leaving a number of debts and they couldn't cope. Her mother said that she was the most important thing that she had and she couldn't leave her daughter alone, so she killed her. But the little girl feels that she is her own person; she is not her mother and she didn't want her mother to decide when it was right for her to die. She wanted to make her own choice. But her mother was lonely and that's why she killed her, and she thinks that it was the same for the mother who was abusing her son.
"Maybe all people who do bad things are just really lonely."
~ Little girl
She tells Subaru that she came to him for help as she thought he'd be able to hear the cries as she could tell he had pain in the deepest part of his heart, just like her.
The wind begins to pick up, signally that it is time for the girl to pass over. As her spirit begins to disintegrate, Subaru asks her if his sister is in the place she now lives. She asks him what she is like, and when Subaru responds that she is just like him, the girl misinterprets, telling Subaru that there is no one there with such lonely eyes as his.
Subaru runs the girl's words about loneliness in his head and for
a moment contemplates that maybe Seishirou-san does the things he does
as he himself is lonely. But Subaru shakes the though from his head, disregarding
it, and walks off into the night.
TOKYO BABYLON
[1990-1993]
END.
