Vol. 6 Ch. 3 Ep. 5: Harmonica 2

I thought you might've dropped this, so I picked it up...

O-Oh! It's not because I want you to play it right this moment!

That'd be asking for a bit much! Even I know that.

But I would love to hear it again someday...

Just like back then... I want to hear you play again...

A-Ah...

(This isn't what I wanted.)

("You mustn't look away from your responsibilities.")

(I should've known better.)

She's gone?!

Subaru!

We have to go after her. For now, she shouldn't be able to leave the Arius School grounds.

"Hello? What's going on?"

Sensei? The third angel just showed up!

But, um... How do I even explain this...? The third one did show up, but as soon as it did, the other two disappeared!

It was like, the third one absorbed them? I don't know!

I thought I saw someone inside the angel for a second, but it was just a split second!

I know this sounds totally crazy, but I thought... I thought it looked like Subaru!

Sensei!

"Right! That confirms it!"

"Thanks, everyone! Call me if anything else happens!"

Understood!

(...)

(The sky I see from here is so overcast.)

(But in Saori's memories just now...)

I see.

Saori.

So this is what the sky looked like to you.

(The scenery in Arius always stayed exactly the same.)

(And we, who lived there...did too.)

(In a sediment basin, everything flows in, piles up, and is forgotten.)

(Arius was a sediment basin.)

(Maybe not at first, but that's what it became, eventually.)

(The world abandoned Arius, and then chose to forget about us.)

(No, even that's too generous an assessment.)

(Humanity has a tendency to sweep cumbersome things under the rug when they think no one's looking.)

(Then, they'll stride off proudly in directions previously unthinkable)

(But who remembers those who were left in the wake? Who will hold onto the memories of the forgotten?)

(Who will leave behind a murmur of those voices that can't be heard?)

Oh, right! Play your harmonica, Subaru! The harmonica!

Playing my harmonica in these ruins, pretending to be lost in our feelings...

...maybe we've outgrown that a little.

Um, I also...

Please, stop.

Since you're finally back...

...Please. I'm begging you. Just stop.

I really, really want to hear you play.

!!

?!?!

Do you regret it?

Atsu...ko...

It's okay. We were the same.

But Arius...

The things Trinity has done to us...!

Yes. We can't just let that go.

In spite of that...

Isn't it a bit unfair to torture yourself to this extent over it?

Do you remember this line?

"It is hard for you to kick against the goads."

...!

Let's do this together.

Stop trying to shoulder everything yourself.

Now? After all this time?

Yes. After all this time.

If you're honest about it, Sensei will definitely help you.

...

Oh. Along the way, we may need to take a vacation to the Corrections Bureau, so I'll count on you to take care of Arius, okay?

...

No... No. I can't do that.

I just can't.

I...

We...

Arius just can't accept it.

As you said, that's the kind of place this land has become.

Someone needs to pay the price for what's happened to us.

For the sake of everyone we've lost, we need justice.

And I am not suggesting we don't.

You've become consumed in the vortex of your own thoughts. No one will get through to you like this.

But we were all that way too, once. And Arius has just the thing for times like this.

Pardon...?

All right.

Why don't we have a little talk, the Arius way?

Atsuko? Are you okay? You looked as if you were praying.

Yeah, I'm fine. I just had a little..."call" to answer.

You took a call?

I don't really know, but something along those lines?

Something along those lines.

Then, Sensei...

Will you help us wake up our senior? She seems to have lost her way in a dream, causing her to oversleep.

We'll handle it the Arius way, of course.

Just do what you've always done for us, Sensei.

Maia, could I count on your help as well, please?

...Yeah. Count me in.

For Subaru and Sensei, I can do it!