| A talking crow--Haine--taunts Shin about the 'elimination' of Ushio. It copies Akari, a girl Shin and Ushio had just saved from Shadows. It also reminds Shin of just how close to the Event Horizon he is, then summons a small army of Shadow monsters ('Strays') to attack him. Things seem hopeless and all Shin can think of is to remind Haine that she will also lose Akari's copy if this loop comes to an end. For some reason Haine calls off the attack, the Strays vanish, and she reverts to a crow and flies away. Shin wonders if the fact that in his pocket he was grasping the seashell pendant that once belonged to Ushio might have something to do with it. Shin attempts to call Hizuru, Suo and Mio to warn them that Ushio is dead and arrange a meeting to make a new plan. The island of Torajima, which can only be reached at low tide (which is 30 minutes away), seems a safe place. But he has cell phone trouble and cannot reach them. Nevertheless, they recieve calls from what seems to be Shin--Haine has copied him. The real Shin brings the rescued children to the Kofune diner where Adam tells him that after getting a call from him Mio and Sou left to meet him in Adam's garden. Shin wonders if he has been copied. He thinks Haine might have done so during the 3rd loop and is using his Shadow in this one. Shin finds Shadow Mio nailed to the floor in Mio's room and frees her. She shares her memories with him: it was the real Mio who did this, because after being told that Ushio was dead she felt her Shadow could not be trusted anymore. Shadow Mio knew Shin has a Shadow as well; she saw it in Ushio's pseudo-loop. Shin wonders how the Shadows have a working copy of his phone when the original still exists; he remembers his phone was also copied in the 3rd loop, then Haine would have absorbed it along with everything else at the festival cataclysm. And he realizes that Haine has copied Hizuru's memories, too. Shin gets a call, supposedly from Hizuru. But it's actually from his own Shadow. It dares him to come see what has become of Hizuru at Torajima and Mio and Sou at the garden. He might save one group or the other, but not both. Shadow Mio reminds him that Haine is thinking with his own mind, too, and this might be a trap. But Shin feels he must do something. We flash back ten minutes and see Mio and Sou encounter Karakiri in Alan's garden. He transforms into Shide. Meanwhile, Hizuru, Nezu, Tokiko and Tetsu view Torajima from a distance. They are prudently cautious and suspicious. Hizuru fears that Shin's looping ability may have run out, which would leave them in a world observed by Haine. They agree that their main goal is to kill Haine. Ryuunosuke takes over Hizuru's body and advances alone, talking on his sister's cell phone and hearing a faint, highly irritating noise. Shadow Shin--actually, Haine--is waiting to meet him on the beach of Torajima. When Hizuru/Ryuunosuke make it clear that they have not been fooled, Haine reminds Hizuru of how she vowed that she would kill her if they ever met again. Karakiri/Shide comes up behind Ryuunosuke, but he can see two seconds into the future and is extremely agile and dodges the attack. Shide recognizes that this is actually Ryuunosuke; Haine says she copied him 14 years ago. She also says "My personality from when I was human couldn't bear the fact that I'd eaten my friend's brother. So I expelled that part of myself, along with Ryuunosuke's data. But there was a slight accident. The coordinates shifted, then they were printed. Coordinates in time, not space. More precisely, two seconds ahead in time. Ryuunosuke is currently controlling Hizuru's body from two seconds in the future." Shide blames Hizuru for 'getting close' to Haine and causing her to 'have doubts'. He says this deeply hurt Haine and as a result she has only a few months to live. Shide says Haine can predict what Ryuunosuke will do in two seconds and is relaying this information to him, thus cancelling out the advantage. He shows Ryuunosuke a sample of the black mud, "Things that were once Shadows and those who are currently nothing at all. The mud reacts to my will and changes its form". Ryuunosuke reasons that there must still be a slight time lag--a fraction of a second--between Haine transmitting her prediction of what he will do next and Shide recieving and understanding it. But the wound he suffered at the gymnasium has opened up and Hizuru's body is exhausted. Hizuru has an idea how it might be possible to penetrate Shide's 'armor of corpses' and deal with his human body. She takes over, and Ryuunosuke is surprised to find that he remains conscious as well and can talk to her in real time. Apparently this was an ability Hizuru had been saving for an emergency. "Go ahead and break my body!" she tells Ryuunosuke. "Make full use of me!" |
| So, Haine could have employed a copy of Shin ever since the 3rd loop, but is just now doing so? And their cell phone is a 3rd loop copy of a destroyed 3rd loop original, which is why it works?
Obviously Ushio isn't really dead. Anyway, having to put these events into my own words helps me understand and remember them. Still, I fear I am losing track of just what is possible, who can do what, what has been cancelled out by loops, etc. |
