| While gawking at the damage caused by a mysterious explosion, Kudo runs into his old friend Gwen and both are overjoyed. Kudo apologizes about how he 'disappeared without saying anything' after their last meeting a good while ago. "Anyway, what's going on with this Kowloon?" Gwen asks. "We need to get out of here right now!" (what will happen if they don't?). But Kudo refuses to leave, apparently because of Kujirai. Gwen describes how attached he has become to Miyuki (without using his name), even though he has been spurned. Kudo replies "I see. You're here so that you don't end up like me". Kudo describes himself, Glen and Miyuki as 'Outsiders' (I'm guessing Kujirai is an 'insider'). "This entire Kowloon is fake!" Gwen declares (is he able to tell that something is funny because he's an outsider?). Elsewhere, Miyuki mentions to Yulong that he is going to visit Dr. Wong's clinic. "Oh, it exists there, too?" Yulong replies (which suggests that this Kowloon is based on another one--the second one, perhaps?). Miyuki says "We don't know if the second version of the Doctor will be there". Yulong mentions that Miyuki grew up in Kowloon (this Kowloon?)? After having a heat stroke-like experience, Miyuki asks himself "Am I too conscious of Kowloon?". We see how Gwen and Miyuki first met in a bar at the time of the demolition of the second walled city of Kowloon. What Miyuki liked about Gwen was that "He's the first one who wasn't interested in finding out if I'm a man or a woman". Back in the present-day Miyuki finds himself in the women's dressing room of a Burlesque Club. The girls say they found him unconscious in an alley and dragged him there. He asks them if they know a half-Japanese dancer named 'Sihan', but they don't. They recommend he go to Dr. Wong's clinic. Reiko Kujirai happens to knock on the door. She asks Miyuki what 'Zirconians' are, and if she is one. He asks her what the state of her memories are, and she says she thinks all her 'missing' memories never existed to begin with. He implies that she is right. She mentions the concept of 'Absolute Self', which he adheres to as well. From what she tells him he concludes (to himself) that if Kudo knows (knew?) the original Kujirai ('Kujirai B'), then he isn't the second version of himself (Does everyone have a second version of themself?). "There are flesh-and-blood people here and Gwen and I can come and go, so that in itself isn't a big deal" Miyuki adds. To himself, he describes the current Kujirai as "Someone who looks exactly like your dead lover but is a totally different person. That's exactly the revenge I'm planning for that man (his father)". Miyuki says he 'can't possibly fathom' why Kudo would do this. He tells Kujirai that, paradoxically, she can't be her own Absolute Self unless Kudo acknowledges her. In answer to her questions, he tells Kujirai that she is neither a Zirconian nor a clone, "so we don't know what to call you ourselves". "You were developed later," Miyuki concludes, "a generic, if you will". Yulong is caught reading a doctor's (not Dr. Wong, I think) file on Kujirai B. His excuse is that he has been "paying attention to her as a reference for the Zirconian Project". The Doctor says she "took her own life". Kudo has a token with the word 'Faat' on it; he says he wishes it was some sort of scam (what's 'it'?). Elsewhere, Kujirai says to Yaomay that as she sees it, "'Generic' means that even though Kujirai B and I are alike, we are different, right? Then I can proudly say that I am me and maybe I don't have to shoulder the burden of her life". She says she will get rid of the furnishings of her apartment that presumably belonged to Kujirai B, and Yaomay enthusiastically agrees. Just before midnight Kudo rings her doorbell--because it's almost the anniversary of Kujirai B's death. "Something is definitely wrong with Kowloon this summer" he says. Kujirai changes her mind about moving out of the apartment. But she and Yaomay agree to go to Hong Kong to get some fabric for new curtains. Meanwhile, Gwen says Miyuki told him not to eat food from Kowloon. Kujirai and Yaomay are about to leave Kowloon when Gwen grabs Kujirai and stops her. "What do you think you're doing!?" he asks. A deliveryman on a motor scooter arrives with a pizza for Gwen. "We're the only place that would deliver to an abandoned ruin out here" the man remarks. Yaomay is offended at Kowloon being described in such a manner, since she and Reiko live there, but the man says "What? After the demolition, living here is supposed to be illegal". Yaomay doesn't know what the man is talking about. It seems that he can only see her and Gwen, not Kujirai. Gwen says the 'Second walled city of Kowloon' was demolished three years ago and the internet verifies it. "There are those who can see Kowloon and those who can't" Gwen says. He suspects that Kujirai can only exist within this apparently illusionary city and had better not leave it. Kujirai remembers Kudo saying something similar. |
