Kouichi and Raimei wake on the floor with blinding headaches, and realize that the Kira user took Miharu with him. They search the city with no luck, and finally report to Thobari-sensei.
They left no trace, it's impossible to tell where they went, says Raimei. Thobari says he'll go to Iga,
and Kouichi protests that they don't know anything yet. What other option do I have? sensei asks, sounding exhausted and desperate.
The kids [notice that it's subtly becoming they who look after him] tell him that he just got back from Kanagawa,
and needs rest ("you look terrible," says Raimei); there's no
need to dash off without thinking because Miharu is definitely OK. Can you prove that?--Thobari says, and sinks his face into his hands. I'm responsible for this! I assumed that the Kairoushuu had taken their attention off Miharu to concentrate on finding the scrolls--I'm such a fool!
They try to calm him down but he's completely distraught, saying that he should never have let them travel home without him and that he doesn't know what he'll do if Miharu is killed.
Kouichi finally yells at him to calm himself, which shuts everyone up (it's startling for someone as polite as he to shout at a teacher this way): he composes himself and points out that Yoite didn't kill the two of them, though he could easily have done so, and whether it was the Kairoushuu's
orders or his own decision, it does seem to indicate that they don't intend to kill Miharu. Sensei gets a grip, apologizes and says they should get some rest and think this over.
Yukimi, watching all this with binoculars, says "Bedhead-niisan seems troubled" =) He reports to Hattori that Yoite isn't there and that "that asshole Yamase" has been causing problems.
To think that Yoite would be hanging around Rokujou Miharu, saying whatever he pleases... The chief says that Yoite must be reaching his limit and there'll be problems if they can't get him under control. Easy for you to say, grumbles Yukimi; he's unpredictable, and if I tell him not to act on a whim
he might just kill me. Don't you think he'll come back after he's had his way? Yukimi-kun, says Hattori, don't you realize that as well as revolutionaries trying to change the world, we are criminals? The blond sighs. Of course, I fully approve of your ideals, Chief, and will obey your orders, he says resignedly.
But in the surface world I am a writer, so I need to gather materials and also stop for some ramen. Hattori ignores this. Speak with my secretary as soon as you've secured Yoite, he says, she'll give you your next orders. --Understood. Yukimi signs off, complaining that their indifference to others' feelings is why he hates kids.
Yoite and Miharu are walking silently through an abandoned, overgrown train yard. Miharu glances over at the assassin,
and tells him that he knows the Kira technique kills its user.
Are you dying for the Kairoushuu's sake? You want the hidden technique that much even if you die for it?--Silence.
Then Yoite says that he's not alive and therefore doesn't fear death.
--They come to a train so long abandoned that bamboo has grown up through the floorboards and ceiling, its windows shattered. Yoite climbs into a car
and takes a seat. [This is creepy: in the manga this trainyard is haunted by desperate people who've heard that a death god hangs out here and are hoping for a chance to die. Yoite scornfully says that he wouldn't waste any of his "whittled-away life" for their sakes.]--Where are the other Kairoushuu, asks Miharu, and Yoite tells him they have nothing to do with
this, he just wanted to talk to Miharu alone; I want you to grant my wish, he says. Miharu sighs and says "you, too." [In the manga he thinks "just like Yamase-sensei". Poor kid.]
But the assassin takes off his hat and says quietly, "I wish to have never existed." You want to die?--asks Miharu.
No: he wants Miharu to change the past so that he was never born. He grips the hat in his clenched fists.
You don't have to understand, he says, and I'd rather you didn't
try to; but it's something I can't do with the Kira technique. Miharu says that he understands, but he can't do that;
the wisdom is too much for me, he says, I have to train my mind to accept it. But if you can overcome that the wisdom will
be yours, says Yoite. What do you plan to do with it?
[--there is an intense pull of empathy between these two trapped, gifted, angry kids as they sit on opposite sides of the train car, staring at the floor.] Miharu tosses his head impatiently. Nothing, he says, I just want to get rid of it and get back to my life.
But why? The shinrabanshou belongs to you, says Yoite. Miharu replies "Kumohira-sensei tells me that changing the laws of the universe is an unforgivable act," and Yoite grimly says that people have already carried
out more than their share of selfish acts. I don't care, says Miharu, watching as an ant runs along the floor and out into the grass below. ==You don't think about saving others? isn't there anyone precious to you?
Miharu is still looking at the floor. No love, just doing as others say and claiming it's nothing to do with you--is that what you believe in,
Rokujou Miharu?
Miharu breaks away, jumps out a broken window and races into the forest. Yoite vaults through the bamboo, lands ahead of him and faces him; then coughs blood and folds against a bamboo trunk, his cap falling to the ground. You're even less alive than I am, he says coldly, wiping his mouth on his sleeve.
First option: if the hidden technique is removed, someone else will use it, and you will go on not caring about this world.
[Yoite never raises his voice, but he can alter its temperature, and it would crack glass now.] Second option: you'll use it for yourself. Third: you'll use it for me.
He looks straight at Miharu, blood on his mouth. You have three choices, he says, but if you choose options one or two I will immmediately kill your friends.
The kid gasps: why? he asks. If I kill your friends, you'll think neither of committing suicide nor of getting revenge--you're too indifferent for either one, replies the assassin. (Miharu lowers his head, thinking of the others' expressions of loyalty and concern for him.)
So I have no reason to spare them, says Yoite, and he crooks his gloved fingers: release, he says. Miharu thinks, so I didn't really have a choice at all... if he chooses one or two they all die, but what he he chooses option three? Will they all hate him? will it be farewell? he decides that's all right with him: he has no right to depend on them, and that they could die for his sake is absurd.
and he's tired of accepting kindness when he can't give it in return... he steps forward, picks up Yoite's hat and holds it out to him. I choose option three, he says. It seems the easiest.
Yoite lays both hands on Miharu's shoulders, speaks fast and intensely. This is something between just you and me, he says; until you've erased me from this world, I'll cooperate in any way that I can; I will make you the King of Nabari!...and they stare at each other.
We see them climbing the long stairway toward Miharu's house. You should continue to collect the kinjutsu, Yoite tells him; the forbidden scrolls contain knowledge and skills that aren't found in normal ninjutsu. You should definitely find hints there on how to use the shinrabanshou.
Miharu asks how he knows this and he replies that unlike normal ninjutsu, which use the forces of nature, forbidden techniques rely on the user's own strength and mental ability. Its requirements may be different, he says, but your hidden technique should be fairly similar. --He looks back at Miharu.
I learned the Kira technique from a forbidden scroll, he says; that's why I believe that as long as it tells you how to do so, you'll find a way to control the shinrabanshou. Then the forbidden scrolls do contain information on how to use the hidden technique?--asks Miharu. --Correct. While both the Kairoushuu and the Fuuma are seeking ways to remove the
shinrabanshou, I believe we can use the same methods to discover how to use it. [Note the "we".]
They reach the top of the stairs and Yoite leans over panting, hands braced on his knees. Are you all right?--asks Miharu. It's a long time since I've talked so much, Yoite says, it's worn me out.
He adds that
"for the time being" they should remain with their respective groups [I think he already senses that will change], and Miharu asks, "Will I see you again?" [..wow.] We see Team Banten trudging into Miharu's family restaurant, presumably to confess their failure to find him--only to see him there in his apron, unconcernedly flipping okonomiyaki on the grill as if nothing had ever happened.
Joyous is the reunion that follows. (well, on Thobari's part, anyway.)
And we see Yukimi typing at his keyboard as Yoite walks in. Welcome home, he calls; I won't ask where you've been, it's all OK as long as you didn't kill that demon kid. Yoite glances back, walks on.
--Um, you didn't kill him, right? Give me that much, OK?--prompts Yukimi uneasily, and Yoite, sitting on the floor,
says "I didn't." Fine then, Yukimi says, and begins to chat on about how he went to five ramen restaurants supposedly searching for him.
Yukimi is wailing about his fast-approaching deadline as Yoite begins to drink the hot lemonade.
Notice, BTW, that although this is the first time they've spoken, both Yoite and Miharu call each other by their first names alone, without the usual polite suffixes of address (in their cases, -san or -kun) that we expect in Japanese dialogue.
This is a familiar, even intimate, gesture that's normally reserved for close friends
and those you know well, and it would usually be considered presumptuous and rude to use it in a first meeting. Ordinarily,
in these circumstances, we could guess that they were speaking as enemies and deliberately insulting each other, but their manner and tone, especially in parting, makes it clear
that the opposite is the case--they feel known to each other almost at once, and they realize that the feeling is mutual.
...go on to next episode.
--I made a promise, Miharu says, but when Yoite asks to whom, he realizes that he can't remember the name (though we see small Miharu hugging a slim woman with shaggy hair--his mom?). I don't know, he says, sounding stricken. "Promises to someone you don't know..."
Yoite gets up and leans on the window by Miharu's head, telling him that if all he's doing is acting on the will of others
he won't be able to stop thinking of himself. Learn to use it, he says. Accept it for my sake.--Miharu stares up at him.
[You can practically see Miharu's studied indifference cracking under the force of Yoite's intensity and despair.]
--We hear someone making his way toward their train car outside. Inside, Miharu is saying that he can't give the technique to Yoite--it apparently just flees when forcefully removed. The Fuuma think so too, don't they?--asks Yoite. That's why we're after the forbidden scrolls, to find a guaranteed method of obtaining the hidden technique. Miharu is startled: even if you find a way to remove the shinrabanshou from me, he cries, there's still a chance I could die!
--Yoite looks up warily as (who else) Yamase climbs into the train car. [In the manga this is one of the suicidal derelicts, since Yamase is already dead.]--No matter what you do your time is almost up,
Yoite, he smirks; give Rokujou to me! Yoite shoves him out of the car, saying he has no intention of cutting short his own
life for Yamase's sake. Yamase pleads with Miharu to come with him but--Yoite points at him, and the man crumples in agony.
Miharu, horrified, tries to bolt, but a gloved hand closes around his throat. Where do you think you're going? asks Yoite.
Take a look: this fool will die here. --He keeps his finger trained on the writhing Yamase while holding Miharu with the other hand. He screams, the assassin says calmly, but he doesn't know true despair. You're the same, right?
Pain stabs through Miharu's injured eye and he sprawls to the ground, covering it with his hand. Through the Kira
technique, Yoite explains, I fire a fragment of my life force into my opponent.
When my physical body dies, my life force dies with it: the two are partners. That's why if you killed me right now,
four other people would die--you, the one after you in the Fuuma village [Thobari] and the two from Banten.
Miharu stares up at him. --How is it, Yoite indicates the eye; can you see? and Miharu realizes his vision has returned. Because I cancelled the technique myself, Yoite explains, the fragment of life force disappeared and you were able to heal. [--you'll recall Miharu wondering why his
high-speed healing powers hadn't been able to restore the sight in his eye. Now we know.] --Yamase was right; my remaining life is very short, says Yoite softly but with great force. If you cannot quickly master the technique and grant my wish, you know what will happen.
--Yeah, says the assassin. Miharu walks to his door, looks back:
"Sayonara, Yoite."
"Sayonara, Miharu."
[Quite plainly, he is no longer thinking this one is anything like Yamase.]
"Yukimi," interrupts the kid, "am I alive?"
Sure you are, says Yukimi carelessly, and then looks over at Yoite, who is curled in a tight huddle on the floor with his
face buried in his knees. But no one even notices that I'm alive, the kid says. ==Are you saying I don't notice you either?
--Yukimi gets up and starts to fill two mugs from a big tea urn on the shelf. You're over there breathing, aren't you?
--Existing only to affect others' lives and carry out someone's orders, do you consider that life? asks Yoite.
The surface world is covered with scars and so is the world of Nabari: the more people gather, the more we harm each
other. Why do people even still want anything to do with each other? --Maybe it's the only way mankind can demonstrate
their existence, says Yukimi. ==Yoite sees the way Miharu smiled at him as he handed back his hat. The only thing I understand is hurting others, and I can't do anything about it; after all that's all I can do, he says, eyes closed.
[I think his meaning is "that's all I'm good for"]. I'm definitely not alive...
Yukimi stirs the mugs and hands Yoite one; here, it's lemonade, he says. [he uses the English word, and there are clearly lemon slices in it, but it's steaming hot. Maybe a lemon tea mix of some kind.] Yukimi admonishes him that carrying out his orders ought to be enough for him, but adds
in a gruff, gentle tone that whether Yoite is alive or dead this is his home, and if he's ever caught in the rain or in any trouble, he's always welcome to come here. --Yoite gazes into the steaming mug and says "that was really sappy." Brats are so annoying, growls Yukimi, and Yoite smiles a little.
..go back to Episode Guide mainpage.