KAMITSUBAKI CITY UNDER CONSTRUCTION (神椿市建設中。)

Cycle #1325.

Destroyed through a witchling's song.

This has opened up a new path.

Will it get through at last?

I merely want to know...

Why was I born? I want that answer.

Is this good news...

or despair?

Regenerate

Where am I?

That's right.

I saw this in Koko's memory egg.

I-I'm so high up.

Everyone! Are you here?!

I couldn't fully believe in myself, and lost the drive to live on.

I ended up singing while at the mercy of despair.

I hate that this happened.

I gave up on living... I dragged everyone into it...

Is everyone else here, or did they make it back to Kamitsubaki City and I didn't?

Because I don't care enough?

Do I really want to go back?

Kamitsubaki City is a world

that left the people I care about behind a thousand years ago.

And the Phenomenon will never happen again.

What if we went back, and I still couldn't do anything?

No matter how much it hurts, I want a new future!

I want to go with my friends to see a world we chose ourselves!

Kafu's amazing.

She suffered so much, but she chose to keep fighting.

The world Kafu talked about choosing must be the one Dad wanted to protect.

I wanted to become strong. But I failed to do it.

Everyone...

I see now.

The really strong people are the ones who can decide for themselves how they want to be.

In the future, I'm going to choose my own existence for myself.

Of all the futures I'd seen,

this possibility was never among them.

I must have been too removed from things to ever make it here.

I made it here now because everyone chose to move forward.

If I had remained a puppet of the Church, I would never have gotten through.

Sophia said...

that Maxwell is a being without a soul.

But is that true?

I'm going to keep moving forward of my own will,

heading for the future I want to see.

What is this? It feels strangely familiar.

I've lost so many things for this.

The people of the city, the lives of the witchlings...

Even Kugel.

I haven't done what I'm meant to do yet.

I'll protect everyone.

If there's something I can do, I want to see it through.

I finally have the chance to see it through.

This is a world with no do-overs.

Yet the others all sang with me.

Rime, Sekai, Haru, Koko...

When you find that radiant world,

I likely won't be there

Yet I'll continue to sing

because I want to see

the future

the light

I'm betting you worked through it all

The surrender and the despair

Yet you still kept it all safe

I want to be strong the way you are

Of course I'm afraid

I'm terrified, deep down

It's not easy, finding the meaning of our lives

I meant to protect, but I think you protected me

It's a shameful state of affairs Someday I'll look back and laugh about it

I may catch sight of despair between the shining lights

But even if I do

I can paint over it in the color you gave to me

Beyond the pain I went through

I think I caught sight of hope

Tinged with a gentle warmth,

this spell will light the light

Is this the end?

I don't want to live without her...

What's going on?

Haru!

Don't come out looking like that.

Kill me, damn it!

Kill me already!

No...

You're not what I want to become!

Haru!

Do you know what you did to—

I do.

I'll carry it with me the rest of my life.

I won't lose my grip on what I care about again.

Sekai!

Haru...

Ms. Sekai, we've been waiting.

Listen... the Phenomenon will not occur again.

Then I'll get to see a version of you I've never seen before?

Kugel...

Kugel saved me again?

This is no time to give in to this pain...

You're not going to sing?

I...

I'll sing.

I want to sing!

Sing, Kafu.

Kafu!

Thank you, Laplace, for always caring about me.

You're the reason I was able to come back.

The Phenomenon isn't occurring.

Koko!

Kafu!

You guys!

Haru! Sekai!

I'm glad you're—

I'm fine.

You all followed those threads of light too, right?

Yeah.

Where's Rime?

Hastur blew himself up with his memory egg.

If you need a familiar to return...

Yes. Then Rime...

can't return.

No!

Why didn't the Phenomenon occur?

Maxwell...

Did you really make it to the upper world?

Yes.

Kafu!

There's no point in hiding it.

You attained contact with a higher dimensional being,

which I could not do over a thousand cycles...

What did you see? Was Noah there?

Or Sophia?

Noah?

We met Sophia.

She really exists?

How did you reach her?

What did you do to make it there?

Is a witchling's song needed?

Does it have to be Kafu Morisaki's song?

Or your song,

or yours,

or yours?

Tell me.

Even if you knew, I don't think you could do it.

I can steal your memory eggs and find out.

You need a song, but you still want to kill us?

I will recreate you.

Give me all you've seen.

Agni!

Maxwell may not know that the Phenomenon will never occur again.

He truly seems intent on killing the witchlings.

What?

It's me?

Everyone! Look!

It's making us!

To make us sing...

Maybe they can't sing?

It seems he does not comprehend the meaning of the witchlings' song.

He thinks that mouths are all they need.

At this rate, Kamitsubaki City will...

The rest of you, look after the witchlings.