Yurts and the Land
The UNF was devoting all its resources...
...to tracking down the group that attacked its base.
But it's no simple matter to track helicopters that are flying at nap-of-the-earth altitude.
They say that an investigator from HQ's...
...lnternal Audit Group is being dispatched here.
We lost a HAVWC in the Metazone temple operation.
Was it the right decision? Did anything improper take place?
For the time being, though, it's a voluntary investigation.
The L-T is worried that Command will try to make Lt. Nikkanen into a scapegoat.
A scapegoat?
If there were no problems with the SDC's actions, that would mean...
...that the root cause for the Flag recovery operation's failure lies in the operation itself.
In other words, the fault would lie with its planners, the General Staff Office.
So to evade responsibility...
They're going to pin the blame on Lt. Nikkanen?!
How can they do that?!
As far as this incident goes, I have no objections to everything going on the record.
The little lady was angry, huh?
The L-T is mad?
This might turn into a full-blown storm.
Can't say I blame her.
At around the same time, another problem was taking place in the medical room.
You're sending him back home? Is that safe?
His wounds aren't so severe that he has to stay in bed.
The shock of combat seems to be the most pressing problem at this point.
The man who was hurt when caught in the crossfire during the previous day's battle...
...steadfastly refused to accept treatment at the base.
The next morning, the decision was made...
...to send the nomad man back to his family.
I bet you didn't know this about Lt. Nikkanen. He's a certified nurse.
Wow, I guess you really can't judge a book by its cover.
Still, do they have a doctor out there?
I don't have all the details,
...but there's apparently a doctor who travels the steppes, practicing traditional medicine.
This sounds kind of fishy.
Are you sure it's safe to leave him in that guy's hands?
Well, we've finished the basic treatment of his injuries, so I think so.
Plus, it's what the patient wants.
So, that's the doctor, huh?
That's how they make felt from sheep's wool.
Felt?
The yurts are made out of that.
They hang up lots of layers of that across the exterior.
Wow, so yurts are made of wool...
If children and adults alike don't work from sunup to sundown, they might not survive.
Life out here is hard, so people age a lot faster than they do in the city.
But out here, you get these wide open skies.
Fewer and fewer editors these days know how to use contact prints,
but I guess that's because they're used to digital cameras.
Yes, I've noticed some unsettling movements lately.
I thought it was a strange thing to do at a delicate time like this.
I took these at the old Subasci International Airport.
These are recon planes.
Normally, they only send up flights in the morning and evening,
...but according to NGO watchdogs, there have been 28 flights in the past three days alone.
It wasn't just recon flight activity that had grown more active.
The movements of the UNF units inside the city had developed a strange tension, too.
Well?
He took his pulse and examined him.
That doctor sure didn't look very friendly, though.
They say that he is called Dr. Tson.
He says that you should go away now.
What's he mean, go away?
Fine, we know where we're not wanted.
He says he wants IBH charts and heparin transfusion packs.
IBH charts?
Wrong. What I asked for was IVH catheters and heparin.
Hey, you can speak our language!
But neither of those is necessary to treat this man.
They aren't for him. I have another patient who needs them.
I understand. I'll try to work something out with the Medical Division.
Hakan!
Oh, these are for me?
Maybe they're to thank you for helping that man. I bet they are.
But he was hurt because of us in the first place.
Saeko, you really love to take pictures, don't you?
I can't help it, the people here have such great faces.
They'll be delivered here, but not until tomorrow morning.
It'll have to do.
"lt'll have to do"?
Does that mean you'll be coming here again tomorrow morning?
Um, my stomach is hurting, so is it okay if I stay here until tomorrow?
All right.
Consider it repayment for the catheters and medicine,
...but it sounds like her stomach is hurting really badly.
Um, it only hurts a little.
Would you mind looking after her until tomorrow morning?
Just a little.
All right. If I have to.
Official orders have come down for me to return.
The investigator is already waiting for me at the base.
Don't worry. I'll come to pick you up tomorrow morning.
Make sure the doc here gives you a thorough checkup, you hear?
Nothing... Every web site I've tried has been quiet since this morning.
No luck. I've gone to every last guy I know with ties to Pou.
Looks like something really did happen.
They've all gone into hiding like snakes hibernating in winter.
Even inside the UN itself, it seems like the flow of intel is being blocked somewhere.
At this point, maybe Shirasu managed to get away...
...from this stiff, faintly creaking reality, if only for a fleeting instant.
Um, the pain is just about gone. I've gotten much better.
It doesn't hurt anymore.
I won't know that until I take a look at you.
You've been left in my care, so I'm responsible for you.
Step inside.
Pardon me...
Are those medicinal herbs?
That's right.
Carry this outside.
What about my diagnosis?
There's nothing wrong with you.
I'm not some quack who would fall for an obvious lie like that.
Now, carry this outside!
Oh, you knew I was faking?
Why did you let me stay, then?
I could use you for manual labor.
So you spend all year travelling from yurt camp to yurt camp doing this, huh?
How long have you been doing this?
For a long time.
There isn't a single person around here who doesn't know me.
Okay, all better now!
Let's go.
Here, carry this.
Hey, what...
House calls.
Namaste...
She wants to know where you come from.
I'm from Tokyo.
She isn't doing well?
Old-timers are tough.
She must be in a lot of pain, but she doesn't complain at all.
We'll check in on her again on our way back this evening.
Wow, you treat animals, too?
If it has a pulse, I treat it.
That stuff I was carrying was medicinal plants for cows?
It's not a cow, it's a yak!
Come on, eat up.
Put that down and give me a hand.
Yes, sir.
Come on, eat!
He doesn't want to.
I don't care if he doesn't! This is medicine!
Come on, you've got to eat!
Hold him! Hold him down!
Everything had come to a standstill, like it was holding its breath.
This stillness in the air had been there since before the cease fire.
At this point, we had yet to capture the dark shadow of legend in our viewfinders.
She's asking where you come from again.
Tokyo, ma'am.
I'm from Tokyo...
Ma'am, what kinds of good things have happened to you in your life?
"Lots of things," she says.
Does she have any pictures?
She says the images are burned into the inside of her eyes.
It's the same with pictures.
The instant you click the shutter, it becomes the past.
But having lots of happy pasts means that you've had a good life.
Hey, isn't this you, Dr. Tson?
That's my father and me.
And the woman?
She's the old woman you met today.
She was so pretty!
Live long enough, and everyone ends up looking like that.
Pictures can be cruel sometimes.
That's not true! This is a lovely memory!
Put that camera down and come eat. You never sit still!
Apparently, my father and the old woman were childhood friends.
I don't know anything more specific than that.
But that old lady was so beautiful and full of life...
...that if you saw her, she'd take your breath away.
She fought with her first husband and broke up with him.
Her second husband was conscripted into the military,
...and she never saw him again.
What do you think? Pretty tasty, huh?
Yes!
- It's sheep's eyeball. - I know!
You know, maybe my father was in love with the old woman.
After that, my father would come and look after her,
...and after he died, I inherited the job of caring for her.
I'm stuffed! Thanks for dinner!
Are you paying attention?
Did you become a doctor by following in your father's footsteps, Dr. Tson?
When I was young, I got fed up with my father's devotion to traditional medicine,
...so I studied modern medicine in America.
Oh, that's why.
Now it makes sense. You only talked in the local language the whole time,
...so you had us completely fooled.
Back then, I had a blind devotion to the medical technology of advanced countries.
But what I saw while I was there...
...was people who were being kept chained to this life by machines and medicine.
I thought to myself, "If death is just another gift from heaven,"
"...then maybe what Ru Pou said was right all along."
Do you know Ru Pou?
I used to be his chief physician.
You were?
He was also the one who sent me to America.
He probably did it to show me that the slow death of the spirit...
...was far more terrifying than the physical death of the body.
You're a journalist, so you've seen enough of the world to understand that, right?
People each have their own places where they live.
And there, they laugh, cry, and so on.
So each of them has their own way of living and of dying.
Oh, it should be just us old-timers who get sentimental over the past!
You keep on snapping away!
Keep taking pictures of everything you see around you!
Huh? We don't see you for one night, and you get all rugged on us!
Where'd you get that cut?
Um... Long story.
Where's Lt. Nikkanen?
He's being questioned.
He is, huh?
We lift off in ten minutes. Get ready to go.
Okay, everybody! Line up!
Look this way! Hey, where are you going?
Come on, now!
Okay, here we go!
Cheese!
I found out that the catheters and medicines Dr. Tson asked for...
...are powerful tranquilizers used on patients in the final stages of cancer.
I don't think that old lady has very long to live.
He could have asked us to take her to a big hospital, but she decided against it.
No matter how wonderful the smiling faces in the picture,
...the instant you click the shutter, it becomes a thing of the past.
That's why people like us always have our cameras raised,
...ready and waiting for that next instant.
Just one time, just one is enough.
I want to see a beautiful light.
No matter long the night that comes,
...even if darkness should fall,
...if I know that light will shine down on everything,
...I don't need anything else.
"Please don't let me be swallowed up by sadness."
"Please let me have some purpose in my stride."
We just need to wish a little harder for it,
...wish for a light to erase the shadows that have come upon us.
Every time I lose my way, I'm pierced by the pain...
...of losing a little bit of myself.
And every time I set out again,
...I realize and relish that I have the strength to crush the darkness underfoot,
...and I'm able to wait for the stars once again.
Presented by Gray_Phantom #Gray_Phantom @ rizon
Next Time 0 1 0 SDC + 1
Accepting Ru Pou's challenge, the SDC finally takes action,
one that borders on insubordination.
Having seen too much, Shirasu finally begins to closely identify with the unit...
...when they make their decision to fight alone.