| Shin catches Ushio as she falls to earth. Haine says Ushio can't make a complete recovery 'off a few strands of hair' and Ushio seems to be reverting to a childlike appearance. Haine says Ushio can't fight anymore as Shide approaches. Shin asks Ryuunosuke if he can 'possess' Shide's armor. Ushio telepathically tells them of her idea to 'stuff' her into a shotgun shell and shoot it into Shide's armor which she will then attempt to hack. But she needs two minutes or so to 'print' these shells and therefore Shin and Ryuunosuke will need to keep Shide occupied until then. Haine says Shide can't read minds or transform. "Even his weapon was created by Hiruko, which is why he keeps her close." Haine accuses Shide of having 'changed' for the worse. He says now he is simply obeying his personal desires to survive. Shide charges at Shin/Ryuunosuke (S/R for short). The shotgun is ineffectual so S/R (it's hard to keep track of whether Shin or Ryuunosuke is speaking) instructs Ushio to 'change weapons'. She transforms the gun into a copy of Hizuru's sledgehammer, which S/R use to land a heavy blow. Shide soon recovers and says they can't predict the future or loop. Shide creates a bolt-action rifle for himself. Ryuunosuke says "when I attack an echo is reflected at me" (whatever that means). Shin gets his left hand chopped off. He senses that time is moving more slowly here in Tokoyo than in the normal world (which presumably means that the two minutes Ushio needs will feel a lot longer than that). Ryuunosuke won't be able to fire the hacking shell, Shin will have to do that (with one hand). Shin asks Ryuunosuke to try to possess Shide's armor at least enough to keep it from moving for a moment (to make it an easier target for the hacking shell, I assume). Ryuunosuke doubts if he can do it but Shin urges him to have more confidence in himself. Ushio says that without Ryuunosuke's support Shin won't be able to survive. Shin agrees. Shide wonders how S/R keep managing to dodge his blows even without foresight. Shin manages to touch Shide's armor for an instant, injecting Ryuunosuke into it. Shin is on the verge of collapsing from pain and blood loss. Shide ejects a clump of his 'mud' that contains Ryuunosuke and shoots some sort of darts into it (pinning it to the ground?). Shide says he saw through their plan because Hizuru tried to do the same thing on Torajima island. The sledgehammer transforms back into the shotgun, but how will Shin reach it? His body begins to disintegrate. Shin declares that he, not Shide, will have Ushio's eye and therefore the 'conclusion' has already been determined. Shides says he just wants to go on living--he has already lived for 326 years by swapping bodies. He says a few months ago he changed his thinking. "If I can't live to see the end of the world, why don't I just do it myself?" He vows he will reach that end. Ushio signals that the shells are ready. Both Shin and Shide dash for it. It looks like Shin won't make it in time but Haine (I think) somehow makes the gun move towards him. Shin vows that the sacrifices everyone has made will not be in vain and, his aim aided in some manner by Ushio, shoots Shide. Shide convulses and begins to disintegrate. Shide laments that if Hiruko is erased his armor will disappear and he won't be able to move by himself or see anything. Hiruko falls to earth and Ushio picks her up. She tries to end Hiruko's pain but everyone--Shin, Ushio, Haine and Ryuunosuke (now with a body of his own) are transported back to the human realm. They find themselves on the beach where the dead whale containig Hiruko washed ashore 300-odd years ago. Ushio says they are just there as data, separated from their original bodies. Shin suspects that Hiruko is trying to transfer he data into her past self and start over, and urges Ushio to erase her. The original Haine comes along. She can't see or hear anyone else, but she feels Shin tugging her arm, which she interprets as a ghost and runs away. Ushio says Hiruko actually brought them to this place and time so that her whale-self could be erased, because she doesn't want to start over. Ushio erases the whale. Hiruko and Ryuunosuke vanish as well. Shin wants to vanish along with Ushio but she insists that he return to 2018 and let her fix his mangled body. She says Shin must reach this 'conclusion' because everyone is waiting for him there--including her. |
