I'm sorry.
Momo.
I said we'd talk once we're inside.
Yes.
Mayumi.
Sit.
I kept in contact with her.
Why?
Takuma.
It might not be for me to say after running from the church
but you should face it.
Face it?
She's due soon.
- I'm.. - Getting divorced?
If you want to,
then talk it over with her.
Wait, then what about today?
What was it?
Well...
if I had to say...
it was a rite.
A rite?
I'm not suited for love or marriage.
It was a rite to show my decision
to live alone.
I don't understand.
You don't need to.
Dear, sit down.
Give me a break, I...
As Momo says...
if you're going to divorce me, then do it.
I just want to talk it over and decide properly.
For the day...
this child asks...
about his papa.
Pooh...
that's not...
something to smile at.
"Born to be a Flower"
You can't just ask for forgiveness!
Give us a proper explanation!
I saw a movie called "The Graduate".
There's no time for that!
Everyone be quiet!
Why did you do that?
Give us a reason.
She plans to carry the guilt...
live alone, and...
become a flower arranger.
Honestly, it's...
artistic sense or sensitivity.
I don't understand it either.
Momo felt she had to recover...
as a flower arranger no matter what.
So, she destroyed her own happiness.
She'll never love again.
She told me she would never marry or have children.
We can't understand how an artist or a rich lady thinks.
It makes no sense to commoners like us.
I get it.
I don't understand, but I get it.
But, that's just Momo's convenience.
It doesn't mean she can walk all over someone else.
It's just as you say.
Kazama.
I'm terribly sorry!
Apologising doesn't help!
Money!
You've caused him embarrassment,
so you should pay him consolation money.
It's alright.
Please raise your head.
Pooh!
You don't need to be kind.
Aren't you the driver?
This will get us nowhere. Bring her father here!
That's not...
- Why not? It's a normal courtesy! - Listen!
I said it's fine!
For example...
imagine if...
a frog loved
a water lily
in Monet's painting.
Just looking at it makes him happy.
Let's say he thought, I want him to paint
more and more.
Then, Monet says
I can keep painting,
but in exchange,
I might do something
horrible to you.
Don't you think it's okay
if the one who wants him to paint
gives him permission to do the horrible thing?
In other words,
Momo is Monet...
the water lilies are flower arranging...
and the frog who wants him to paint is me.
If I agree,
and ask him to keep painting anyway,
then there's no problem.
What's this?
No way.
It's been a long time.
How is your father, Hyoma?
I am his wife, Ruriko.
I am their eldest daughter, Momo.
You are the one
famous for mastering arranging from behind?
I'm honoured.
Though it seems you can't see it now.
Huh?
Your cast-off self.
You're very astute.
You get more people every day.
The flower arrangers you can meet, AKB Business.
Are they your students?
They were juniors at my high school.
They were hopeless brats.
I got them back on the right path.
- I wonder. - Huh?
They're my family now.
I have to provide for them.
I think that side of you is great.
Just that side?
I'm competing against my sister.
I see.
I'll do my best...
for you.
I'll arrange the flowers well...
but I don't know how it'll turn out.
I might not...
be a match for my sister...
but I'll do my best.
What's wrong?
Nothing.
Aren't you going to answer it?
Huh?
It's probably my mother.
I skipped a dinner tonight.
It may have been
like a marriage interview.
Marriage interview?
The next headmaster from Kyoto is here.
Of the Jingu style?
Oh,
your two daughters are competing?
I envy the Jingu family.
Tsukishima has no sons to inherit it.
I want to see that!
Ichimatsu,
please allow me
to watch the competition between your daughters.
No, that's not...
Is there a problem?
Well,
- not a problem as such... - It's fine.
If we can demonstrate
even a part of the essence of Tsukishima.
Right, Momo?
Yes.
Headmaster.
Flickering light and shadow.
Was that it?
By the way, Hyoma.
Do you know the flower arranger, Ryuichi Utsunomiya?
Well... yes.
I know him well.
- Don't be impertinent... - He's my younger brother.
What?
- An illegitimate child? - Yes.
I don't know much about his mother.
Has he caused you any trouble?
No.
Ri-chan?
She was too good for me.
A very beautiful person.
Really?
Do you have a picture?
No.
Wouldn't she be worried about you, if she's your lover?
Once I'm gone,
she'll fall in love with someone else.
Isn't that what women do?
Look for the next man.
That's true.
My mother was like that, too.
When she broke up with father,
she found a new man quickly.
That's tough.
Not tough,
more like disgusting, sickening.
Don't say that.
Hopefully Ri-chan isn't like that.
Don't you have a girlfriend,
or rather,
someone you like, Souta?
Me?
Well...
I guess there is someone.
Do you have a picture?
Stop it! Hey! Stop it! Stop it! Hey!
- Wow. - What is it?
You're sneaking pics of Mei?
- That's terrible. - Give it back!
Show me, show me!
Look at this... isn't it terrible?
Who'd want to be liked by him, right, Mei?
Right, Mei?
This is a crime.
- So disgusting. - Hey, delete it.
Hurry up and delete those photos of me.
Oh, she told you!
No...
I don't.
Have you heard from Momo?
She'll soon forget
the man she dumped.
That's true.
She won't be interested in who you go outwith next.
Right?
It's mechanics.
Even though the one who was dumped can't forget.
Well, cheer up!
One woman's trash is another woman's treasure.
Gain-loss theory.
Huh?
I...
Should've looked sad...
at the church when she left.
Then,
she would've felt like she'd done something horrible,
and felt guilty.
But you smiled, Pooh.
Why did you smile?
Gain-loss.
It's a term used in psychology.
Gain means you get something.
Loss means you lose something.
The bigger the gap, the more dramatic
an impression people get.
That's confusing.
Simply put, it's contrast.
Between a scary teacher
and a kind teacher.
Whose praise makes you happier?
I see.
It makes you really happy when the scary teacher praises you.
The loss from being scary is big,
so the gain of being praised is dramatic.
That's gain-loss.
Yeah.
What impression do you think I had on her?
Just a nice guy.
That's about the best.
I'm not good looking or rich.
That's true.
You didn't have to agree...
If I looked really sad from the shock of being betrayed,
that'd be what she expected.
I see. That's why you smiled?
Why?
How could he smile?
Isn't he sad?
Doesn't he care?
In other words,
I gave a dramatic impression through gain-loss,
and planted a seed in her heart.
So, right now Momo can't stop thinking about it?
I shouldn't have done that...
for her sake, as she tries to become a flower arranger.
But,
at that moment, I couldn't stand
the thought of her forgetting me.
I see.
That's why.
So...
I planted a seed.
Flower seeds that will never bloom.
Maybe disgusting flowers will bloom?
- That could happen! - Right?
You should hold back a little!
Wait a sec...
Here.
This is...
Yes.
Pooh didn't submit it.
You went to see him?
He went back first thing in the morning to get it back,
before it was processed.
So, he knew even before you went to see him?
That's why he smiled?
Huh?
He smiled!
I looked back as I left hand in hand with Takuma.
That teddy bear smiled!
Why are you angry about that?
After doing something so horrible.
That's true, but...
but,
if he's not sad...
how do I put this, the guilt is...
Do you really need that?
Huh?
The other you...
is too abstract for me to understand.
Hyoma could tell straight away.
The next headmaster of Jingu?
He guessed that I couldn't see it.
It gave me the shivers.
I'm stronger having someone I like.
I feel like I can do my best, and he gives me courage.
I want to put that happiness
- into my flowers... - Nana!
Being so lenient
won't get you a single flower in the competition.
You couldn't beat me even standing on your head.
Well, I'll do a handstand at least.
And show off your underpants?
That's true.
Nana.
I'll do it.
- Your boyfriend... - Hm?
- Please. - Please.
I'm sorry.
No.
Here.
Ruriko is cheerfully dressing up.
Is she meeting you later?
Yes.
Then, you can do it today.
What's wrong?
Surely you aren't hesitating now?
She...
Nana might break from the shock.
That's fine.
Someone who doesn't know the dirtiness of this world...
can't know its beauty either.
Some people live happily
without knowing the dirtiness.
That would be fine for an ordinary woman...
but not for one who wants to master the arts.
Weren't you going to cooperate with Tsukishima?
If you succeed,
Tsukishima will repay the debt.
I understand.
I shared a meal with Hyoma.
Yes.
He's a monster.
The kind that occasionally appears in the flower arranging world.
He's just a sheltered rich boy.
I'm not so sure.
Ryuichi hates me.
I guess that happens.
Only the oppressed can understand their pain.
Because he's an illegitimate child?
Yes.
Then, that would be a boring hatred.
- Boring? - Yeah.
A soul affected by its environment
is vulgar.
And, if your positions were reversed?
That's a pointless question. It can't be changed.
Really?
Ah, it's no good.
Your cast-off self.
You call it the "other you".
Have you ever not been able to see it, Hyoma?
No, I haven't.
To me, that sounds like...
you've never loved anyone.
This time for sure.
We'll match.
I got it!
Congratulations.
I'll give it to you, Momo.
Thank you.
Why?
Nana!
Ah, that's right.
I'd promised to take her for a drive.
You...
Iruka?
Iruka!
Hey! Wake up, Iruka!
"Arakawa Library"
Don't move his head.
Call an ambulance.
You don't know where you are?
Then go to the road.
Yeah. Stop a passing car.
Yeah.
Hello.
Is something wrong?
My friend collapsed.
That's terrible. Are you going to the hospital?
Yes, that's right.
Do you have a car?
Museum.
Hurry! There's no time to waste, right?
Come on!
Okay.
Hey, stop! Stop! Hey!
Hey!
Don't be stupid!
Darn it...
Iruka...
don't die!
Sorry,
I can get a taxi.
Shuto Expressway is coming up soon.
It's too late for that.
Nana won't answer my calls either.
Is that so?
How long have you
been with Ruriko?
For a long time now.
You're the worst.
I thought you were smarter than that.
It was a rite of passage.
Rite of passage?
For her to awaken as a flower arranger.
Tsukishima's...
flickering light and shadow,
purity and murkiness, love and hate.
You don't mean...
the headmaster...
It's the same as him breaking your marriage.
Ruriko is his wife!
Did he tell you to seduce her?
At the beginning, she was the one who approached me.
She wanted to work together
to make her daughter the next headmaster.
I can imagine that.
They haven't had sex for a long time.
It was easy for a young man to tempt her. It was the headmaster's idea.
It was a condition of the arrangement
between Tsukishima and me.
What was your demand?
I want...
to be the next headmaster of Kyoto's Jingu style.
Hyoma...
I'll fight him.
Just like you sisters.
The scale is different between Kyoto and us!
Yes, Kyoto's internal troubles
will shake the world of Japanese flower arranging.
If it comes to a competition,
the headmasters of each school will judge it.
I've got three schools on the verge of bankruptcy.
The problem is...
one last vote.
You want the Tsukishima vote?
That's four votes.
I'll win!
Coward.
He's the coward!
Just by being the legitimate child,
he's lived in luxury his whole life.
What kind of horrible life do you think my mother had?
They call it traditional culture?
The people in that world
pretend to be artists!
How many illegitimate children are ignored and not provided for?
You should just disappear.
Those excuses...
You didn't need to tell me them.
If you've finished your mission to break Nana...
you should have disappeared
without calling me.
That's...
You're worried...
about Nana now?
They're so helpless...
People who can't live ordinary lives.
Well...
I'm not much different.
"Around Japan"
Ri-chan?
I'm sorry.
He's conscious again.
Maybe...
I should've let him...
die there.
Hm?
He wanted to die.
It might not have been what he really wanted.
Now he's been found...
he'll have to have...
the scary operation.
It was scary
because he wanted to live.
That's...
There's no suicide that can't be prevented.
You...
saved him.
Souta?
Are you Souta?
Thank you!
Ri-chan?
Yeah.
Thank you!
Are you going back to Tokyo?
He told me...
she was a real beauty.
Iruka did.
I see.
It's not true!
You were completely wrong, Iruka!
Why didn't you tell me Nana was in there?
No-one told us you were looking for Nana.
What?
You get told off by Momo!
No thanks.
- Hurry up! - Yes.
Nana.
Nana...
Nana.
You're a nurse?
Yes.
That's why I reacted like that when you said your friend collapsed.
I'm sorry.
It's fine.
I'll make it to my night shift.
You really helped me.
Thanks for the food.
Um...
what do you do?
I sell bicycles.
I have a store in the shopping district.
Wow! You read difficult books, so I thought you might be a professor.
I'm just a book-loving bicycle seller.
That might be even deeper,
or something.
Contrast?
It's called gain-loss in psychology terms.
Huh, is that right?
Gain-loss.
Oh, that's right.
We haven't given our names yet.
I'm Chiaki Shinjo.
I'm Naoto Kazama.
- Kazama? - Yes.
Oh,
but everyone calls me Pooh.
Pooh?
- I'll call you Pooh as well. - Okay.
Are you married, Pooh?
I'm a fake divorcee.
How is your sister?
She's seeing the family physician.
For her mind rather than her body?
Yes.
Is Ryuichi involved somehow?
No, how could he be?
You're bad at lying.
Are you good at seeing through lies?
Your cast-off...
no...
your other self. Do you want it back?
I thought I had regained it.
I...
Did something horrible to someone,
and faced the loneliness
- with that guilt... - Well...
it just means you can't forget that person so quickly.
Maybe...
Or...
part of you doesn't want to forget.
No, that isn't the case.
He planted a seed.
Eh?
That man...
planted a seed...
without you noticing.
In your heart.
I...
Need to win against my sister for the sake of my late mother.
I have to become headmaster of Tsukishima.
Is that more important than anything?
Truthfully...
I don't know.
It may be...
a more fundamental desire...
as a flower arranger.
When I could see the other me...
everything disappeared...
and I became one with my creation.
That elation...
A sense above all others.
Ecstasy.
Yes.
An evil that fascinates the beholder.
You will become a large, beautiful butterfly
that dances among the flowers...
lightly scattering scales.
I want to regain
that "me".
Then, don't hesitate.
You should be joined with someone
you don't have romantic feelings for.
You jest.
No.
The seed in your heart
is a hindrance.
If you do that...
you can burn that seed.
Headmaster.
- You don't have to get up. - No.
I...
May have pushed you too far...
in the mirror room.
That's not it.
It's not?
Mother...
What about Ruriko?
Headmaster...
she's betrayed you.
You poor girl.
I don't know what you found out...
but I am on your side.
Father...
It is sad, but...
there are many people...
who lie to justify themselves
and betray for their own gain,
without regret or repentance.
Yes.
You should despise them...
and struggle in that darkness...
as you search for a beautiful ray of light.
That is the essence of Tsukishima.
That is what it means to become headmaster of Tsukishima.
Okay.
On the other hand...
you could give up on that,
forgive...
and live with compromise.
I will not forgive.
I will never forgive.
Yes, I can see that.
He showed me his fist
and sadly
smiled.
- Finally, in the ring-- - Hey, finish up soon.
I'm closing up.
Then let me finish.
No, Pooh,
- you haven't sung at all. - Wake up.
- I'm just tired. - Hey!
- Are you still feeling sentimental? - You're a stubborn guy.
Don't you say that!
At your ex's store every night!
Ah, he's snapped!
Ouch!
You go home too,
- and talk to your wife! - I don't need you to tell me!
You're cheeky!
Sorry, we're closed.
Momo!
Listen,
women can't explain
each of the actions they take.
They'll get defiant and say...
God only knows.
Ah, I see.
It was a joke.
A giant practical joke.
Our Momo is back!
Hey, Pooh!
Good evening.
Would you... join us?
She may just want to see you,
but when she sees you,
the words that fall from her lips...
are perverse.
Sorry, that's not it.
This.
Handed down the Kazama generations.
From grandfather to grandmother,
grandmother to father,
father to mother,
mother to Pooh.
From me...
to you.
I thought I should return it.
What? That's it?
For just that,
you could've asked your driver.
Thank you for going out of your way.
A better woman will turn up for you, Pooh.
Someone less messed up than me.
They hurt as they speak them...
Thank you very much.
Please don't...
worry about me.
They're sad to hear it.
I see.
For a moment...
I saw a dream of something too good for me.
Isn't that a nightmare in the end?
If results were everything,
life would be empty.
All the more so...
if the means are the best.
The best?
Yes.
You are a flower out of reach.
Just by blooming beautifully,
somewhere,
just being there, is enough.
Yeah.
Is it alright if I think that's why you smiled, then?
That's right.
Yes.
Good night.
It's...
thoughtlessly wonderful.
Trying to...
act cool.
I'm going to sing...
the last song!
Yeah! Go, Pooh!
But, when she's alone...
she cries.
"To be continued"
- You're going with elegance? - I won't forgive.
Has it started?
My love is wonderful.
I love you.
- Held by Hyoma. - The other "me".