Huh?
It's open.
Good evening.
You look apathetic as always, Shiki.
Here you go.
Put it in the freezer.
You could at least lock the door.
Be more careful.
I've told you that before.
You don't need to ask permission to come in.
I've told you that before.
That wouldn't be proper.
Today's special is strawberry.
What? Did it melt?
I should have brought it in dry ice.
I don't like ice cream.
But since today was so hot,
I thought even you would want something cold.
I realized that ice cream was overly predictable, but I couldn't think of anything else that would fit you so well.
What do you mean?
Strawberry.
Häagen-Dazs, that is.
You didn't eat what I brought last time.
Strawberry fits me?
Just like your leather jacket.
Strawberries are scientifically classified as a kind of rose.
Huh?
Surprising, isn't it?
Everyone thinks strawberries are cute, but they're roses.
That's just like you, Shiki.
I'm not eating it.
What?
Today, at 2:10 PM,
a female high-school junior living in the Tokyo area
jumped from the top of the fourth complex of the Fujo Buildings.
She died shortly after from the impact.
This is the fourth suicide at the Fujo Buildings.
As with the previous three, no letter was left at the scene.
In addition to retracing Eiko's whereabouts,
the police are conducting an investigation into any possible emotional difficulties she had with family and friends.
Are you worried?
This makes it four.
Everyone will see the connections soon.
Connections.
Yes. Connections.
Or, should I say, the similarities.
All four people attended different schools and didn't know each other.
None of them had any problems in their lives, and everyone said they were good kids.
Not even their families have any ideas as to why they killed themselves.
Each case was handled completely separately.
No doubt, they all had a sudden impulse to kill themselves.
That's why there were no letters and why the police haven't seen a connection.
Like a suicide note?
Exactly.
If they wanted to die, why didn't they choose a way that wouldn't inconvenience anyone?
A suicide by jumping contradicts itself.
That's what you're getting at.
Why would you kill yourself if you had no statement to make to the world?
No suicide note means that they had nothing to say.
On the other hand, a public death in a conspicuous place is a suicide note in and of itself.
Nevertheless, they all flew without a message.
What do you mean?
They didn't want to die.
It's the same as being hit by a car when you go out shopping, or something.
That's what Mikiya said.
Him?
But he also said, "I can't think of any reason to jump from the top of a building while going shopping."
Oh well...
I wonder when he's coming back.
My little boy.
This makes five deaths at the Fujo Buildings.
The victim was a high-school junior, female, from the Tokyo area.
As with the previous cases, no signs of a struggle were found at the scene.
How long is this going to go on?
It will end with the eighth victim, and then nothing will happen for a while.
Huh?
Eight people.
There were eight flying things.
Did you go to the Fujo Buildings?
Yeah.
Interesting.
What kind of god-forsaken place is it?
During the economic boom in the 1970s, the Fujo Buildings were a group of skyscrapers built as a symbol of this city.
They used to attract a lot of customers just because of their observation decks.
But now, the buildings are becoming derelict and will soon be demolished.
Just recently, they've started vacating all the residents from the towers.
I don't care about that.
I don't know how to say this, but time is crooked.
Or rather, it's running backwards.
People's memories...
No, their traces...
That was what that building told us. It will take quite some time for it to leave behind their traces.
The traces of what happened to the girls there haven't yet covered their entire lifespans.
As a result, only the memories remain alive.
Even when someone dies, if someone remembers them, they don't just disappear.
Just like this smoke that doesn't dissipate the second I put out my cigarette.
What do you think, Shiki?
What do you associate with the view from an elevated place?
The urge you feel when you get a glimpse of the whole world you live in,
an unconscious realization violently forced upon you, even when you try to resist,
a feeling brought on when facing a commanding view.
The answer is out of reach.
The view from up there is magnificent.
Even useless things look beautiful from there.
But if you look too far, you also feel estranged from the rest of the world.
It is proper to recognize that the world we live in is the wide space we see, rather than the small space we feel around us,
but you still don't feel like you belong to the world you can see.
There will be conflict between what you sense through knowledge and through experience.
There will come a time when you start to lose one of the two, and your mental state becomes confused.
And then...
Your vision is not what your eyes see, but what your brain registers.
Our vision is protected by our own common sense.
People can't live outside of their private little boxes.
That's how it should be.
Breaking news.
There has been another suicide at the Fujo Buildings.
That makes six people.
That leaves two more.
Is there any connection?
To what?
Nothing.
They didn't want to die.
It's the same as being hit by a car when you go out shopping, or something.
Oh well...
I wonder when he's coming back.
My little boy.
Kokuto!
Let's go.
That boy is always dreaming.
Always facing straight ahead.
Ready to fly anywhere, whenever he wants to.
I want him to take me.
Can you fly?
You have...
no idea!
I see.
She did a good job of it.
She sure scored a point off you, though.
It's your fault that the hand was cut off so easily.
Well, if it's my fault, then it's not a problem.
What do you mean?
Nothing...
It's only been a month since the Asagami Fujino case.
Please be more careful with how you use the prosthetics.
Starting next time, then.
That's a good girl.
Hey, Shiki,
puppets and prosthetics can be almost as good as real body parts, if you take time creating them.
But in the end, without a soul, they're nothing but tools.
It's the same with a human body.
Without a soul, the body has no meaning.
It's just a tool.
Just an empty vessel.
Like you used to be.
Did I tell you about the first time Kokuto came here?
No.
He came here unannounced and told me to hire him.
He had seen one of my mannequins at an exhibition somewhere and fallen in love.
Without even a contact number, he tracked me down
to this office, called "Garan no Dou," where I had put up a mystical barrier to keep people away.
He stared at the dolls during the entire interview.
That mannequin sitting over there was his favorite at the time.
He might have seen your emptiness in my mannequins.
A boy like him, who loves these dolls so much...
I told him to avoid the Fujo Buildings.
Emptiness?
Hello, Shiki.
Did you hear about the girls jumping off the Fujo Buildings?
Tohko said she wanted to talk to you about it.
Oh, and by the way, could you pick up some coffee on the way?
I don't care what kind.
See you.
August 8th, 7:51 AM.
You have no more messages.
Try to move it.
It might feel somewhat strange, but you'll get used to it.
I spent twice as much money on it, so it's much stronger than the previous one.
It won't break unless an Indian elephant steps on it.
You have a talented hand.
He ended up like this because he ignored your warning.
It's his own fault.
Aren't you going to pick him up?
It's as I thought. These things have a mystic feeling about them.
In that case,
I'll have to kill them!
You don't have a place to stand in this world.
Are you flying?
Are you falling?
Your mind tricks won't work on me.
I haven't had any desires from the beginning.
I don't know the feeling or pain of being alive.
And I don't give a shit about you.
But I do have a problem with how you're keeping him from me.
He was mine first.
Give him back.
Fall...
Fall! Fall!
Now you fall.
A flower?
It's a lily.
Who is it?
It's a nice view.
Isn't it?
Yeah.
The moon is beautiful tonight, isn't it?
Yeah.
Of course.
I like the view from here.
Cherry blossoms.
In the spring, the cherry blossoms are very pretty.
The flowers flow through the air as if they're blooming in the sky.
I hope you can see them again next year.
You are...
my enemy?
Yeah.
I know the person you attacked, and also the one you were attacked by.
I have a couple of questions for you.
I understand your condition.
That's why I won't force you, but...
Please.
Excuse me.
Can I ask you your name?
It's Tohko.
Aozaki Tohko.
Nice to meet you, Ms. Tohko.
How long have you been here?
I don't remember.
A long time.
It's been a long time.
Day after day, I looked outside.
Day after day, right from this window.
Day after day, the same view.
That must have been hard.
But this view will never abandon me.
Even if I hate it,
I have nothing else.
That's why you've been staring out the window.
You burned the image into your mind and attained a commanding view.
By the time I realized it, my eyes were in the sky.
That's when you lost your vision?
Yes. My eyes couldn't see anything.
But...
The view didn't change.
So your consciousness was in the sky?
But if that ghost at the Fujo Buildings was you, you should have been killed by Shiki.
My self at the Fujo Buildings wasn't the real me.
What?
The me in the sky is gone.
She abandoned me and left me in this box.
It's not like you split your personality in two, but rather,
it's more like one mind is controlling two bodies.
Someone gave you a second self.
A dual existence.
That's what they called it.
Why weren't you satisfied with looking outside?
I don't think you needed to force the girls to fall.
Those girls were flying around me.
I thought I could be friends with them!
But they didn't notice me.
Of course, since they had no consciousness.
That's why!
I thought that if I talked to them,
if I made them aware of my presence,
they would notice me.
"I am here."
"Here I am," they would say.
That's all I wanted.
Why?
So you took my boy with you?
I saw him in the hospital corridor.
Week after week, always at the same time.
He brought beautiful flowers.
I...
wanted him to take me away.
Then, the woman called Aozaki Tohko left.
There are two types of escape.
Escaping without a direction, or with one.
You call the first one floating and the second one flying.
What meaning you make of your commanding view is up to you.
If you choose one because you feel guilty, it's wrong.
We shouldn't base our choices on guilt.
We should choose first, and then live with the resulting guilt.
Those were her last words,
but I'm pretty sure she knew what I would do.
Since I couldn't fly,
I could only float.
I'm too weak to do what she asks.
That's why
I can't resist the temptation.
That flash of light I felt when I was stabbed in the heart.
It was the beam of life being swept away in a flood of death.
I had nothing else.
But those two things remained inside me.
I can't have the same death I was given before, though.
I can't hope for such a vivid ending again.
Like a needle.
Like a sword.
Like lightning. Something that penetrates me.
That sort of death.
I'll try for something as close as possible.
It's okay.
I've decided the method.
I don't even have to say it.
I think the best ending for me is to be crushed from the place with my own commanding view.
Good morning, Kokuto.
Good morning, Ms. Tohko.
Sorry. It looks like I fell asleep.
Don't state the obvious. I can see that.
Can you make me something to drink?
Some coffee would be nice.
It will be good for your rehabilitation.
Coffee?
Rehab... ilitation?
This makes eight cases of suicide at the Fujo Buildings.
Under the same circumstances as the last seven...
Huh? Eight people?
Hey, Tohko.
No suicide note...
If humans could fly, would they have to come to such horrible ends?
People have never tried to fly under their own power.
Flying and falling are intertwined.
The more people tire of the sky, the more they forget that connection.
As a result, they end up flying over the clouds even after they die.
They aren't falling to the ground; rather, they are falling into the sky.
Sorry, but I don't really understand what you're talking about.
One girl was flying around the Fujo Buildings, surrounded by the ghosts of those she lured into committing suicide.
The number was eight.
Were they flying, or were they falling?
That's the premise of the story. It's an easy concept.
The way you put it sounds like those "Summon Night" light novels.
Doesn't it?
Is it okay to commit suicide, Mikiya?
Hm. I wonder.
If I contracted a plague from a dangerous retrovirus, and I might spread it to the rest of Tokyo,
and my death would save everyone else...
I would probably kill myself.
Whatever.
You can't use something so unrealistic to answer a hypothetical question.
Okay.
I'm weak, so I don't think I could go on living if everyone in Tokyo turned against me.
I'd kill myself.
That would be easier.
One moment of bravery, or a lifetime of it.
You know which is harder.
It might sound extreme, but I think suicide is the easy way out.
But what if you're the person trying to escape with nowhere to go?
You can't argue with it, and you can't deny it.
However,
I'm weak, too.
No, you're not.
By the way, Shiki,
I had a strange dream.
Dream?
Yeah, a dream about dragonflies.
I don't know if I was watching the dragonflies or if I was one.
Anyway, the dragonflies were flying pretty busily.
Then, a butterfly came and tried to catch up to the dragonflies, desperately flapping its wings.
Of course, it was impossible,
and it ended up falling to the ground, exhausted.
I wonder. If it had tried floating between flaps, could it have gone further?
However, a butterfly knows how to fly, and can't bring itself to float.
So it flew.
It wouldn't choose to float.
What am I saying?
That's not like me, is it?
Mikiya, stay the night.
What?
Why so suddenly?
Shut up.
No thanks.
It would be easier, but...
Do you have something you need me to do?
Strawberry.
What?
Strawberry Häagen-Dazs.
Your ice cream is still in the freezer.
Finish it.
I've no choice, then. I'll stay the night.
But, Shiki,
you can't tell me to finish it.
Please watch how you talk.
You're supposed to be a girl.
Shut up. I'll talk how I want.
All right, this is the place.
The eighth person to commit suicide was Fujo Kirie.
She was the first daughter of the previous owner of the Fujo Buildings, the late Fujo Yasuki.
She had a severe illness, and had been in the hospital for over ten years.
Kirie would have been 27 years old this year.
Azaka.
Looks like yesterday's suicide wasn't a high school girl.
Yeah.
She committed suicide because of her illness. It was unrelated to the others.
That's what the reporter said.
No connection, huh?
Yeah. I guess people will say that.
I don't understand people who want to kill themselves.
Do you understand, Tohko?
There is no reason to commit suicide.
So, you couldn't fly today?
Do you mean the suspect was injured?
It was just getting used to it.
Is it our...
I should have noticed sooner.
What's happening?
We will see each other soon.