Narration: “On the last day of the performance, the morning dress rehearsal had just ended--” The co-actors look stunned.
Actor A asks, “...what was that? Just now, that one time...it felt totally different from before.”
Actor B wonders out loud, “Just now...what had happened?”
Actor C says, “Let me say, let’s do the rehearsal one more time. We cannot always come to a stop like this.”
Actor D shouts, “Habuta-san! Regarding that added part, I have a suggestion...” Kingo watches as Iku is talking with Kasane.
Narration: “And at that moment, through this drama, the strength of an actress called ‘Kasane’ had attained dynamic life. And, it’s time for the official performance.”
Kingo tensely watches on as Yoi hides among the bushes. She is looking at Ake who is surrounded by the anticipating villagers. Ake is about to start dancing the kagura. Yoi looked on longingly at Ake who gracefully dances to the musician’s tune.
Then, a villager notices Yoi. He points her out to everyone. Ake looks surprised at distraught and frightened Yoi. As the audience tensely looks on, the villagers started to throw rocks at Yoi to drive her away.
Ake just watches Yoi as she quickly rushes off to safety. In her shack, Yoi breathes heavily at her altar table wherein some offering had been tossed on the floor.
“Those people hadst already forgotten about me who is’t did pray for this piece of landeth, they has’t already forgotten the ancient ancestors (gods)...If’t be true the mountain miko is doomed to perish... *cries as she looks back* then, alloweth everything in this landeth... endeth together... with me!!”
Four villagers are talking in front of a fireplace.
Villager A says, “Rain won’t falleth, the farmland hadst did dry up, diseases more oppressive, huge numbers of pests...it is without a doubt...this is definitely the ‘mountain miko’s doing.”
Villager B asks what to do.
Villager 3 exclaims, “Kill her!! Must immediately killeth her!!”
Ake shouts, “Please waiteth!! That person...ought to be a miko liketh me. Don’t killeth her!! Let me...go ahead and convince her to leaveth this landeth.”
With a lantern, Ake goes to Yoi’s shack. Yoi immediately grabs Ake’s neck which caused her to shout, “Please definitely listen to my briefeth words! Or else, you will attact the calamity of death!!” Ake tensely looks at Yoi’s angry glare.
Yoi angrily asks, “You... Not only thy outward appearance, even thy spirit is so pure and cleareth? Why are thee and I so different... We art obviously both mikos, why is it like that...” Iku’s eyes soften as she recalls the two of them during junior high. Kasane seems to have noticed this.
Yoi backs away from Ake and says, “Behold outside.” Ake is shocked as she realizes the villagers are holding their farm tools ready to attack. Yoi says, “Once thee leaveth here, those people shall conveniently dash inside and killeth me. *uses a knife to slash her palm* even if’t be true that thee wanteth to saveth me, this world will also take mine own life.”
As Yoi wipes her bloodied palm on her lips, Ake looks outside in disbelief and says, “How can that be...” Yoi continues, “...So, *dashes towards Ake and stabs her with a knife* I SHALL BECOMETH THEE! Only by becoming thee...I’ll attaineth the right to liveth in this world.”
Nogiku tensely looks at her hooded seatmate. Yoi wipes the bloodied knife on the red powder in a bowl. Then, she wipes it on her lips. Dying Ake says, “...that ‘cinnabar’ is...”
Yoi looks at her and says, “That’s right. This is the ‘cinnabar’ sung in the kagura— Originally, we are common people who did exist to guardeth this ‘cinnabar’s power. gods' blood, human blood, smeared on the lips *goes to kiss Ake* Whether it is good or bad, they’ll switch.”
Nina’s mother looks on with wide eyes. Ake looks up with a drool drip from her lips. Draping herself with Yoi’s snake designed cloak, she goes out and face the villagers.
Villager A shouts, “Ake! Are thee alright?”
Villager B shouts, “Quickly get away from there!”
Scowling Villager C shouts, “In the endeth, we shouldst killeth that woman!”
Ake smiles and says, “‘Ake’...? *takes out her fan* Nay. I am... *opens her fan and flames came out* Yoiake. I am Yoiake. *everyone and buildings burn around her* Burneth everything, crimson flame. Ah Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha
Humans until they’re dead, World until it’s extinguished. This flame shall totally burneth all traces until nothing is hath left. All belongs to darkness--” After a corpse has been burnt, everything went dark. While covered with her cloak, Yoi crawls on the floor.
Looking at her dirty hands, she says, “Slaughter... burned down... everything hadst becometh ashes... Ah, Ake, I basically did want to becometh ‘human’... However, even if I useth thy beauty, I’m still a demon.” A bright light sudden shines towards her.
Startled Yoi holds out her trembling hands and says, “Don’t... shineth towards me. I already knoweth. No matter how I struggle, the flame will totally be exhausted, houses destroyed, people dead, the fire within the body will not only solidify, rather, the sineth shall have more layers...
...*crawling* The ugliness won’t decrease even for a little bit!! *goes out of her cloak as tears fall* I...I’m known as Yoi... Ah ah ah! *stands up as she faces the light* ...pure, cleareth dawn, even if it be true, all the more Yoi shall be burned into nothing!!”
Narration: “Yoi dances, similar to a moth that threw itself to the fire.” Kingo watches on. Nina’s mother looked unmoved while Nogiku looked surprised-moved. From the back, standing Nobuhiko watches the play.
Narration: “Copying Ake’s dance posture and movement. Clumsy and unsightly. Ugly, malevolent, utterly comical. *audience look shocked* But...” As the light is shown above the mountains, shadows called out, “Beautiful, giveth it light. Ugly, giveth it darkness.”
Yoi says, “Ah...darkness is so scary. Night is so scary... but,” The shadows continue to say, “Ugly, giveth it light. Beautiful, giveth it darkness.” Looking scared of them, Yoi exclaims, “Do not shineth the light towards me!! *looks at the unmoved audience staring at her* Ah...so many stars are... *teary-eyed* looking at me...”
The shadows call out again, “Beautiful, giveth it light.” Yoi calls out, “Ugly, giveth it... Even if it is like that, *holding out her arms while she pleads* please, I begeth of thee... begeth of thee... giveth me light...” And everything became darkness.
Later on, Kingo and Kasane are talking in the empty theater. Kingo says that he never seen the audience applaud and cheer in such a frenzied way. Kasane protests that among the audience, there are still some who’ll scowl and look away from her.
Kingo tells her that they ought to not understand. “After all, you, the one with an ugly appearance, is still on the stage— But, it is definitely because in this world, there are no words that exist which is capable of describing you. Come. *holds out his hand to her* You’ll go to the party celebration, right?”
Kasane looks at her and says, “Yes. *takes his hand* But, I’ll be a little late. Nogiku has come to see me. I want to talk with her for a while. After chatting, there’s something I have to do.”
Kingo replies, “Then, later on, chat with me, too. Talk about creating what kind of drama (work) [we’ll do] from today on. Right now, my creative juice is flowing. I want to quickly start preparing for the next play with you...” Kasane looks at him then kisses him. This stuns Kingo.
Kasane jumps down from the stage and says, “Thank you, Habuta-san. Thank you for bringing me into the world of theater. Then...see you later.” Kingo says, ah...yes. He still looked bewildered.
Narration: “What has stunned me isn’t the kiss rather, it is her expression. The stupid me has not noticed it again, until the moment I have already lost something.” Kasane smiles as tears falls.
It is snowing. She goes out the theater and looks at the side to see two figures waiting for her. “We are other people’s fragments,” Looking straight at them, Kasane somewhat smiles. “‘The we who cannot be pieced together to become complete,’ ‘greed, in order to fill itself, attain [things] and lose [things].’”
While Nogiku look tense and worried, Nina’s mother holds up a book. She says, “I’ve seen it...Nina’s diary. In the end, I guessed it right.” She is holding a kitchen knife. “So, we fight each other, and from time to time, we rely on each other.”
Much later on, at an alley, Yuuto is calling out to Nogiku. With a stab wound on her stomach, Nogiku wakes up and is surprised to see him. He nervously asks what had happened. She notices Kasane’s figure sitting by the wall as blood drips from her face.
With wide eyes, Nogiku quickly sits up and shouts, “Sister!!” Crying Nogiku wants to rush towards her but Yuuto stops her. “Calm down a bit. You are also stabbed...Kasane is already beyond saving!! Her throat has been severed, it is already... But, I don’t want you to also die!! *Let yourself...be free.”
The sirens are blaring. In front of Kasane, Nina’s mother is laying on the ground with blood coming out from her left face. She nervously looks at her bloodied hands.
Narration: “TANZAWA TSUGUMI, SHE...” Flashback: Stabbed Nogiku had fallen unconscious on the ground. Kasane is sitting in front of her. She is holding her bleeding left eye.
With a drop of blood splattered on her cheek, Tsugumi said, “...I originally want to immediately kill you, *used the knife slash her own palm* but, how can I let you off so easily. You want to fulfill Nina’s forever unfulfillable dream of being on the stage, and after leaving behind beautiful memories, you’ll die perfectly satisfied?
...How can that be. *puts on the lipstick on her lips* How can I let you off so lightly.” With that, she rushed towards Kasane and kissed her. Narration: “From me, she stole away Fuchi Kasane (me).” End flashback.
Tsugumi [Kasane] looked at her old wrinkled hands. After many years, old Tsugumi is knitting in a small house in nowhere. Narration: “‘Forever switch’ didn’t leave even a tiny bit of trace of the original me. From the finger to toe, all of my appearance and body is totally switched...
...Afterwards, starting from that day on-- this flesh grew old and weak along with time. The criminal record of MURDERING FUCHI KASANE, and the loneliness of being cut off from the rest of the world is my life’s everything.”
On Nina’s notebook beside the basket of yarn, it is written, ‘[My] beautiful appearance is left in other people’s memory’. Kasane says, “...Nina, if this is the fate that you want me to bear, then I won’t tell anyone about the lipstick’s power and my true identity. ...It is just that, right now, I also felt my own self was taken away, the fear of being forgotten and loneliness...”
Scene of a hand gesturing [<- probably Nina doing sign language before] and a feather. Narration: “Regardless of being beautiful or being ugly, even if right now, I’m living and growing old as someone else, the Kasane (me) in this body has not faded even in the slightest degree.”
There is scene of a curtain being blown by the wind. Looking up, Tsugumi [Kasane] closes her eyes. She has a scar on her left eye. “On contrary, as time passes, it become more and more bright, clear, and dazzling. *opens her eyes as young adult Kasane* As long as I still want to be me.”
With the theater curtain behind her, Kasane basks under the light above.
The End.
Comment: Ah...the ending gave me such a heavy heart. I admit that after fast reading it the first time when it is out, I couldn’t sleep that night. ^^; I kept on thinking of the ‘why’ and ‘what if’. Though somehow, I felt that the possibility was high for it to have this kind of ending due to Tsugumi being at the play.
At first, I want to blame Nogiku as to why she has to bring Tsugumi there. But then, perhaps, Tsugumi forced her with that knife. Then, I recalled, Kasane said before, “...And also, Nogiku, there is something that I want to ask of you. Even if you no longer wanted to kill me, but in order to end everything...”
Later on, Kasane gave Nogiku that notebook and Nogiku seems to want Kasane to change her mind by saying that it is fine with her if they keep switching faces/even a permanent switch but Kasane refused. So, I guess they want to end everything by seeking atonement from the one whom they have sinned against [Nina] through her mother.
That is the reason why Nogiku tore off the page ‘You’re not at fault’ from Nina’s notebook since she doesn’t want to be forgiven for it either. Still, because of what happened later on, would Nogiku feel very guilty about it? Like, she shouldn’t have done it like what Kasane wanted or she’ll be okay with it somehow since it is what Kasane wanted?
Nevertheless, perhaps, things will be okay since she has Yuuto with her. I do wonder if he also watched the play or happen to be there. I’m not too sure if Kasane called him to go there. Also, for Nogiku to be stabbed, was that from defending Kasane or Tsugumi wanted to kill both sisters for what happened to her daughter so she stabbed Nogiku first?
It seems that like the first switch, in the last switch, Kasane got the injury she got before the switch. So, she retained the injured left eye. Kasane was probably hoping for just death but got this instead. Still, she is quite amazing to accept it all and bear it until the end.
In a way, it is a fitting punishment to feel what her ‘victims’ felt when she did the switch with them. It is also what Nina and her mother had felt all those time when they were ‘trapped in limbo’. Loneliness among other things.
It is quite painful that she decided not to tell anyone the truth and bear it all alone. Perhaps, it would also be painful to still be like that while everyone is living their own lives or perhaps, might make her long for acting again. Still, she let Nogiku, Iku and Kingo believe that she died horribly like that. Or perhaps, it wouldn’t be an ‘atonement’ if she told others.
It is also somewhat debated if she deserved that fate. Was her sin equivalent to her punishment? It wasn’t like she deliberately stole Nina’s face and identity since Nina did agree to it first. Kingo enabled it all to happened. Nogiku was the one who killed her.
Perhaps, Kasane couldn’t live with the guilt of using Nina’s identity without permission after she went into a vegetative state. Deceiving Nina’s mother like that and causing her to become a recluse. Caused so much trouble as she wanted to ‘be on stage’.
In a way, her fate is similar with her mother’s. They died with a secret regarding their true identity. Living the life of someone else. Like Izana, Kingo also didn’t notice what Kasane was thinking at that time or else, he would probably stop her. Though, in a way, the kiss can be interpreted as Izana’s approving kiss...a job well done for Kingo for fulfilling her dream for Kasane.
As expected, everyone is amazed with Kasane in the play. Her acting had caused her co-actors to become like her before...sudden stopping at a scene and I guess to prevent the audience from seeing their shocked expressions, they are made into shadows in that epilogue. Nobuhiko even came to watch...though probably at the near end.
The play did show the switch. It gave Tsugumi an idea on how to pull it off, perhaps? I don’t know how much Nogiku told her though. Apparently, the permanent switch can be done by switching then killing off the ugly one. Now, it is most likely Tsugumi kissed her then committed suicide while in Kasane’s body, right?
So, I’m wondering why does Tsugumi-Kasane have to be jailed for the murder because surely, through forensics, they can find out that it was suicide. Did they just see the bloodied hands and knife and conclude that she did it? Anyways, with a murder criminal record, she won’t be able to find any job and has to live alone because of that reputation.
Somehow, I feel that the sisters ‘played’ Tsugumi. Kind of like used her so that they’ll be atoned for their sins. Based on the play, I’m somehow wonder if Tsugumi ended up like Yoi. Because she wanted to get back at the sisters, she stained her hands. In the end, because of suicide, she won’t be able to atone for it.
To somehow make me feel good, I would want to think that in the end, Kasane attained redemption. In that last scene, unlike Yoi, she can face the light. And, after everything, she came to love herself, and want to be herself even if she is in someone else’s body.
As a whole, the manga is really quite amazing. I’m impressed with the mangaka’s writing skill. The build-up of each arc can be somewhat slow but the climax and revelations are really wow. I actually started reading this because of the beautiful cover of chapter 1. =P
It was a long journey for Kasane from hating herself to loving herself. The characters are fleshed out quite well. My favorite arc is Macbeth because of that final curtain scene. ^^ Well, since this is kind of a horror genre, so I guess it won’t let the lead character get off easily after ‘using the forbidden’.
Still, it is an ending that I won’t forget anytime soon. It is sad because of Kasane’s choice. It is happy because in the end, she found the light and accepted herself. Anyway, thanks for reading my summaries for this series ^-^ Scans by 网易汉化
Quote of the day:
I believe that we are solely responsible for our choices, and we have to accept the consequences of every deed, word, and thought throughout our lifetime. ~ Elisabeth Kubler-Ross