You can't look yet, okay?
Four Years Ago
Okay, you can open your eyes.
Minami!
Happy...
Birthday!
Hitoe...
Futaba...
A dream...
I'll tell you.
Hitoe's probably at the house with the elm tree.
I see.
The Eleventh Bone The Butterfly Vanished in November, Part 2
A Story Dedicated to Those Trapped by the Past
Is that it?
Hey, Hector! Calm down...
Hector, stay!
Listen. I believe something you like very much is buried here.
Find it and tell me.
Go, Hector!
"Find it"? Just like that?
But Hector's...
Is something wrong?
No, nothing.
Hitoe must be inside.
Let's go.
Oh, okay.
In here?
Lethe... diana...
H-Hitoe?
Hitoe!
Stay with us, Hitoe!
Hitoe!
Hitoe-san!
She's still breathing.
The only thing that's dead is the dog.
Hitoe's alive?
Yes. It seems the butterflies were attracted by the dead dog.
It's a sleep-inducing drug.
Don't worry. This is far from a lethal dose.
Hitoe!
Huh?
Mina, why are you—
You idiot!
What do you think you're doing?!
Huh?
Oh... I'm alive?
Of course you're alive!
So I failed again.
If you felt bad enough to die, why didn't you talk to me?!
You're such an idiot...
Sorry, Minami...
Thank goodness.
I wasn't too late this time.
Oh... I'll call an ambulance, just in case.
Wait, boy. It's too soon.
Huh?
Sounds like he found it.
It's quite an unusual thing that he excels at finding.
Sakurako-san, do you mean...
What'd he find?
A body.
Did you find it?
Ah... Well, now.
The radius,
one of two bones that constitute the forearm.
It's thin for an adult's.
It must have belonged to a young girl.
S-Stop!
I don't want to see something like that!
How could you speak of your former best friend that way?
Look how beautiful it is.
Sakurako-san, by "best friend," you don't mean...
Yes, the one buried there
is the girl who went missing four years ago,
Nishizawa Futaba.
You must have been ready for the possibility.
Boy, you are standing idle.
Continue.
I want to examine the skull and surrounding bones.
But...
Let's get her out.
Sensei...
I'm sorry, Futaba.
You were alone all this time in the dark earth.
It must've hurt so much... You must've been so lonely...
I'll get you out of there now, okay? Just hang on...
So...
Which one of you killed Nishizawa Futaba?
Was it you?
N-No...
It wasn't me!
Then was it her?
No!
Hmm?
No one killed Futaba!
Futaba...
Futaba committed suicide!
This is a secret place only we knew about.
Futaba found it and brought us here.
Hitoe was fed up with her parents' tight restrictions,
and Futaba was in a fragile state of mind.
She cut her wrists several times.
I had my own reasons why I didn't want to go back home.
Each of us, with our own problems,
didn't have a place where we felt we belonged.
More than our names,
that fact created a strong bond among us.
That's why we decided to make this our home.
It was fun.
While we were here,
we could be our true selves, without worrying about anyone else's opinions.
We could value each other's presences, but still be free.
For the first time,
we believed the world was beautiful.
We could feel glad to be alive,
that it was fun.
We were happy.
But one day, Futaba said,
"Let's die together, while we're still happy."
Of course, I stopped her.
But Hitoe...
She agreed with Futaba.
At first, I thought they were joking, just going through the motions.
But things kept getting weirder.
When they brought rope to hang themselves from the shed,
I knew they were serious.
So I got scared...
And I ran.
I thought I'd die if I stayed, and I didn't want that.
So I left them and ran!
I ran all the way out of the forest,
but then I got worried about them.
Hitoe?
F-Futaba...
She's dead!
I tried to help her,
but I was too late.
No...
That can't be...
Help me, Minami!
We're best friends, right?
Futaba hanged herself on a branch so low, her feet touched the ground.
I couldn't believe she'd managed to die that way.
Hitoe had hurt her hands trying to save Futaba,
so I buried Futaba on my own.
Futaba loved this elm tree, so...
I see.
It was a beautiful friendship.
So why did you distance yourself from her after the incident?
Well, because...
I was trying to forget about Futaba.
Oh?
After what happened, I couldn't stop thinking about Futaba.
What her face looked like,
the weight of her limp body...
But Hitoe started avoiding me and hanging out with other girls,
like she wanted to erase everything that happened!
I couldn't believe it, and I was angry, too.
But if I said anything to anyone...
That's why I... I did the same!
S-Sakurako-san...
It's well preserved.
That wasn't it.
I see.
It would seem that best friends are not something good to have.
What are you talking about?
This body didn't die from hanging.
It was strangled.
The thyroid cartilage and the hyoid are broken.
Nishizawa Futaba didn't commit suicide.
She was strangled to death by someone else.
That can't be true.
That's not...
It's no lie.
Futaba's bones are telling me,
"I was killed."
Normally, even if she'd hanged herself, these bones wouldn't be broken.
Not unless she applied a great deal of force, or weighed a lot.
Based on the length of her radius, Futaba was slight of frame.
Not to mention...
You said she hanged herself on a branch so low, her feet touched the ground?
That's impossible.
This girl faked Futaba's death as a hanging.
She probably strangled her to death with the rope,
then hung her on a nearby branch to make it look like suicide.
Bodies are heavy.
It must have been a lot of work.
You must have found yourself quite out of breath.
You're lying!
Futaba killed herself!
Then how did you hurt your palms?
That was from the friction when you strangled Futaba,
or when you hoisted her up with the rope, wasn't it?
Hitoe...
Did you kill Futaba?
Answer me, Hitoe!
That's right.
Why?
What choice did I have?!
She was serious!
There was only one rope.
She asked me to strangle her with it.
She said that if I wouldn't, she'd strangle me, then kill herself after!
She rushed me with this horrific look on her face!
I was terrified... I didn't want to die.
By the time I realized it...
You'd strangled her with the rope, is that it?
You lied to me?
It wasn't my fault!
Futaba really wanted to die.
That's why...
I hung Futaba.
But I realized that didn't accomplish anything.
Someone would find her.
If anyone suspected, they might learn what happened.
I realized I had to hide the body.
Then, Minami... You came back.
That's horrible...
Horrible?
Look who's talking!
Because you ran off, I had to kill Futaba.
Who's the best friend now, huh?
Who are the "three sisters"?
You're the one who betrayed us first!
That's right!
If it hadn't been for you,
I wouldn't have become friends with a dull, depressed girl like her—
Enough!
Stop it, Hitoe.
Don't say another word.
I'm sorry.
I didn't realize you were all in such pain.
No, that's not true.
I was afraid of being hurt myself,
so I looked the other way.
Hitoe, Futaba, and Minami were all my important students, and yet...
I'm so sorry.
It isn't here... The butterfly isn't here.
S-Sakurako-san?
Boy, this skull is missing the sphenoid!
I see... So that's it!
Now all the bones have been connected.
What a farce!
We've all been manipulated by the Sphenoider.
The Sphenoider?
Yeah.
That's the moniker my uncle gave the thief who steals the sphenoid bones.
Thief?
He's been involved in numerous cases.
Just during the time when my uncle was active as a coroner,
the sphenoid had been deliberately removed
from its rightful place, right here, from a dozen or so bodies.
There were no patterns in the locations
where the bodies were discovered, or the time and cause of death.
He never found any hair or blood to lead him to a killer,
and the cases have gone cold.
For a time, I even doubted my uncle's hypothesis
that the same individual was behind all the cases, but...
I've finally found you,
Hanabusa!
H-He has nothing to do with this!
This is a great opportunity, so let me ask you.
What kind of man is this painter named Hanabusa?
Hanabusa-sensei
is an angel.
An angel?
That's right.
I've never seen anyone more beautiful.
He's a special man, chosen by God.
As proof, no unsightly hairs grow anywhere on his body!
Futaba died, and Hitoe had left me.
When I had nowhere to go and was all alone, he saved me.
He knew everything, yet he accepted me.
You told him about Futaba?
How could I lie to an angel?
He forgave me.
He cleansed me and made me special, too.
Foolish girl...
That's how he works.
He uses clever words to pour sweet poison in your ears.
He only pretends to give his victims what they desire most.
Sensei took good care of me!
He needed me!
His love is what finally convinced me that I was worth anything at all.
Ha! Love?
That is ludicrous.
Hanabusa would never love another.
That's a lie.
He loved me!
That's not true.
Hanabusa took advantage of your loneliness.
Why else would he abandon you and latch on to Hitoe?
To the Sphenoider, both you and Hitoe are just pawns.
Pawns for him to obtain sphenoids without dirtying his own hands.
That's not true!
He...
He gave me, and only me, real wings.
Special wings, to let me take flight into a beautiful world that isn't here...
You'll become my butterfly, won't you?
Society's rules exist only for those who have no wings.
Those with wings need not be misled by such things.
You're special now.
I'll give you wings.
Wings of the Lethe diana... The most special wings I have.
I was loved...
You had quite a nightmare.
I suggest you forget it immediately.
Hanabusa would never love you.
Not until you've turned into bleached bones.
Boy, we're done here.
You can contact the police—
S-Sakurako-san...
Don't die...
Don't die!
Don't die, Shoutarou!
We have more to report on the body of a high school girl abandoned by her classmates.
According to the police press release,
more unidentified skeletal remains were found
in the same area where Nishizawa Futaba-san's remains were recovered.
We have a reporter at the scene.
Saijou-san?
Wow, Chick Pudding!
I'm so happy!
Which should I have first?
How are you feeling?
I'm totally fi—
Ow...
I'll be discharged soon,
so I'll help shovel snow again this year.
It must be hard with just you and Gran.
Boy, there's something I need to tell you.
Huh? What is it?
I'm certain now that Hanabusa is the Sphenoider my uncle was investigating.
Not to mention, he may also have been the mastermind
in some of the cases you and I were involved in.
What?
I should have noticed sooner.
It was all my fault.
Please forgive me.
That's not...
I don't like when living things die.
I know.
You only like bones, right?
As far back as I can remember, people around me die often.
It's truly unbelievable how often it happens.
I think you've said that, too...
That you run into bodies whenever you're with me.
Wh-What's all this about?
That is why I must
say goodbye to you.
Hanabusa is...
He's an abyss you mustn't gaze into.
He's ferociously cunning.
Without raising a finger himself,
he uses words to make victims do his bidding,
then takes their sphenoids as trophies.
Or perhaps he chooses victims for their sphenoid bones...
I believe you said this on the very first case we solved together.
"And when you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you."
You're exactly right.
Hanabusa is probably already aware of both our existences, yours and mine.
You and me?
Yes.
That's why you must stay away from me from now on.
You can't come to my home, either.
You must break all contact with me.
I never want to see your bones.
This is goodbye, boy.
Is that why...
Is that why you never called me by name?!
Yes, that's right.
Goodbye, Shoutarou.