Mr. Masaru, where have you gone?
How much did you see?
I'm glad Shirogane was safe.
But that puppet that saved Shirogane in the well...
was she able to have a soul in the end?
None of your business.
Maman... Angelina died because of you, Sadayoshi!
Show yourself already!
No, I'm Masaru!
Silence!
Guri-pon.
Get your hands off Master Sadayoshi!
An automaton. What could be more proof than that?
Leave him to me, and go!
Go where?
Why are you asking me? Just do what you want to do!
What I want to do...? I know.
Running away again?
I'm not running away. I'll be back to prove who I am!
Let it bloom or let it wither
The setting sun ignites the horizon
And the gears turn
When the horn blows, the flames dance
The story waits for no-one
Off they go, the gears are churning
A red past chases after you
The jester's smile
What's behind the mask?
You can't erase the scars
No matter how they burn
Let it bloom or let it wither
The setting sun ignites the horizon
Alone in the depths of the night
Let out a cry that can cut through fate
That's the cue to begin
The curtain is rising, it's time to dance
Everybody sheds tears at the end
So hold them in now and keep going
Until the day the curtain falls
The gears will keep turning
#19 The truth behind the shadow
I just have to find Dean to prove that I'm not him.
Mr. Masaru!
I finally found you! I'm so glad you are safe.
Why are you here?
Forgive me, I couldn't help it and had to look for you.
The whole circus has come, too.
Éléonore.
Get away from Sadayoshi.
Why did you do that?
Why did you attack him?
There's no time to explain.
Mr. Masaru!
-There he is! -In the bushes!
Éléonore.
Éléonore!
No...!
She has drunk Aqua Vitae too?
And she has the soft stone inside her.
Don't make her walk the same path I did.
This is a disaster!
Not just automata, but shiroganes will also be out looking for her.
This girl, Éléonore, has died.
And Angelina has disappeared with the soft stone.
You mean for us to lie?
It's a very painful lie, but yes.
There's no other way to save her from her accursed destiny.
20 YEARS LATER
From that day on, this storehouse in Kuroga Village was Éléonore's home.
Did you have a nightmare again?
Mr. Guy...
What kind of dream was it? Tell me.
I decided to never let her see me.
She must grow up as an orphan. It's better she doesn't know me.
It's the same nightmare again. Puppets attacking her, a man choking her.
The Francine doll had melted into the Aqua Vitae in the well.
It must be the doll's memory.
But what about the other recurring dream?
About how a kind person came to her when she was locked up in a small room?
That's it.
That doll had the real hair of the human it was modeled after.
It must be that person's memory, then.
Either way, Éléonore's memory will be eaten up by the other memories.
She won't be able to tell the difference between her memories and the others.
Shoji.
Won't you leave her to me?
I'll travel the world with her for a while.
Once everything has calmed down,
I'll take her to Quiberon as a lost orphan.
To make sure Éléonore can fight whatever may disrupt her happiness,
she should train as a shirogane.
Once she's trained enough to stand on her own,
come to Quiberon and take her home.
37 YEARS LATER, QUIBERON
Years passed.
I'm searching for the soft stone that was lost in Japan.
So please send your youngest female shirogane.
I have just the child for you.
It's a girl that Guy Christophe found while traveling in Scandinavia.
I know that already.
Because Guy and I made that lie up.
Finally.
We finally meet.
My beloved daughter.
No, this is our first time to meet.
I must be businesslike. Like a person asking her to do a mission.
H-Hello, nice to meet you.
It has been a while, Mr. Shoji.
How do you know me?
Why do you ask? We've met so many times before.
What? I've never come to meet her.
Éléonore...
I'm not Éléonore.
My name is Shirogane.
A poor puppet who's even forgotten how to smile.
You told me that over and over every time we met.
Who told you that?
Shoji.
Circumstances have changed.
That girl must go now to Eastern Europe.
-But... -Shiroganes are destroyers of automata.
-Good day. -No...
You're my daughter.
We were going to live in peace in Japan.
Éléonore!
So somebody is posing as you and is plotting something.
The same thing happened at Kuroga Village, too.
Who could it be?
You must already know.
Who other than the automata could've known our moves?
And who knows how to make marionettes and could pull off pretending to be you?
No, you don't mean...
Sadayoshi Saiga.
Real name, the shirogane Dean Maistre.
But what for?
I don't know yet.
But I'll look into him.
Nobody knew about Dean's past.
SADAYOSHI'S MANSION, TOKYO
What is it?
I've messed up big time.
Seems like I knocked a girl up.
What...?
What will you do? Are you going to marry her?
Yeah right, I'm too old for that.
But I might pay her to raise the kid.
And maybe name him Masaru.
Because "Masaru" means to win. And I like winning.
I'd never seen Sadayoshi looking like that before.
And so Masaru arrived at the Saiga mansion.
I loved him like he was my real grandson.
One day, Sadayoshi called me to Karuizawa.
"PUPPET 14, SADAYOSHI SAIGA"
What's this?
It's my notebook. Take a look.
Masaru is bait.
If I leave my fortune to Masaru,
the family will hire the Kuroga clan and fight over Masaru.
The divided Kuroga clan will use their puppets to kill one another.
Masaru is the bait to make that happen.
What the... Is this what you took Masaru in for?
Just kidding.
It's a joke, lighten up.
I shuddered.
Because despite his words, I knew Sadayoshi meant it.
SADAYOSHI'S MANSION, TOKYO
Lucille, I want to renew my plea of 15 years ago.
Please send that Éléonore girl to Japan to help me find the soft stone.
Masaru, I love you now as much as my own daughter.
I know Éléonore will be able to protect you.
I'm sure it must be safer for Éléonore, too, than to fight automata.
I didn't know then, but I was already walking into the trap Sadayoshi had set.
Yes?
Help us...
Who is this? If it's a prank, I'm hanging up.
Hello.
Can you hear me?
Sadayoshi. What's going on?
There's been an outbreak of ZONAPHA at Kuroga Village.
What did you say?
Come see for yourself. But don't tell the shirogane headquarters or Guy.
What took you so long?
What have you done?
-That's what I'd like to ask you. -What?
I can finally make you pay.
For what? You...
It's not your turn to speak now.
I've been waiting for my turn for over 100 years.
Of course, you won't be getting a turn, since you stole Angelina from me.
Stole Angelina from you?
-You don't mean... -That's right.
I'd had my eyes on her for much longer than you ever had.
But she suddenly disappeared from Quiberon.
When we finally heard from her,
she was wed to some monkey from a faraway barbaric island!
What a joke, huh?
Then why did you pretend to be my aide?
I was going to wait for Angelina to come to her senses.
But...
I'm pregnant.
That's wonderful!
Congratulations, Shoji.
Angelina's love is really yours now.
Angelina became nothing to me ever since that day.
She's just a foolish woman who didn't choose me.
So you attacked her for the soft stone?
For eternal life!
What?
Even shiroganes age.
Even if only once every 5 years, they age too.
But some things never age.
Automata?
That's right. I yearned to be like them.
Automata can live on forever just by changing parts.
So I decided to use Aqua Vitae to change my parts, too.
These parts that people call the "body."
You're crazy.
No, it's very simple.
I'll let somebody drink the Aqua Vitae that I've melted myself into.
Then my memories and personality can be reborn in a new body.
So you needed the soft stone to be able to do that over and over.
Right. You can make all the Aqua Vitae you want with the soft stone.
Angelina died because of that...
Yeah, that was a failure.
I'd cleared the village of villagers by posing as you.
But the soft stone wasn't inside Angelina's body.
So tell me before you die.
Where's the soft stone now?
I'll never tell you! Not you!
How dare you hit me!
Answer me this.
Why did you pretend to be me and feed her ideas?
Have you heard of the human downloading theory?
Download?
You change all the brain's information into electrical signals.
And you transfer it to another brain.
-I'm asking you about...! -Yes, Éléonore.
It was when I went to Quiberon as Dean.
It was another fateful meeting, just like with Angelina.
Should I protect her to form a strong bond?
No, I failed with Angelina using those tactics.
So then, I realized.
That I could use the download theory I was working on.
Instead of protecting her, I'd make her protect me.
I'd put ideas into her head to make her want to protect me.
So she wouldn't stray from me again.
Shirogane, protect young Masaru.
Protect him with all your heart.
And you won't be a puppet anymore.
And I'd become that Masaru.
Me, in Masaru's body, and Éléonore will be bound together with a strong bond.
That way, I'd be able to gain two things at once.
One, a new body that will lead me to an eternal life.
Two, a beautiful guardian who will never be able to leave my side.
Good idea, huh?
You're disgusting. You make me want to throw up.
-But you helped me with my plot. -What do you mean?
You read my notebook and called Éléonore to protect Masaru.
Remember what you told Masaru?
That Shirogane would protect him.
Not knowing that I'd be downloaded into that Masaru.
You bastard! I'll never forgive you!
I have no use for you anymore! Die!
Running away?
Hey now, I know you won't die with just that.
I used you, and now I'm going to kill you.
You need lots of data and precise equipment for downloading, right?
So what?
Did you think I hadn't been watching you?
You know something?
I bet your precious data is burning wonderfully now.
No...
You lose.
Sh... Shoji!
He's lying. I know he's lying.
I can't die yet.
KARUIZAWA
It'll take years to prepare a new download!
Shoji...!
You'll be fine now.
I've healed some people.
Now go save the rest.
I gave up most of my blood to save the villagers.
And fell into a deep sleep.
We must protect Master Shoji.
Grandpa, no... You said you'd be back soon.
Circumstances have changed.
Work at the circus in Tokyo for the time being.
Wait there until Masaru comes to you asking for help.
Shoji Saiga.
Éléonore will do exactly as I told her to in the letter.
And I'll prepare the download in the meantime.
Avoiding the crowds, I walk in the dark
And wait with bated breath in the wings
My expression is calm while I scream inside
On the verge of being torn apart
I dance and beckon you to join me
As a shadow swings across the stage
I tell myself this is the last time
But I can't seem to cut myself free
Too scared to stop for a moment
My impatience hides the cries of somebody left behind
Nobody notices the shadow standing in the sudden rain
Somewhere far away, a memory of you is saying goodbye
I stand here watching, no longer able to reach you