Are you holding the Admission of the Living Ceremony?
Living who have lost the means to support themselves have decided to emigrate to Ortus.
Tonight we will bequeath peaceful deaths unto them.
Does that mean you're killing them?
That's right.
Does Ulla know about any of this?
I'm sure Ulla doesn't know!
What makes you so sure of that?
Because... Ulla is still amongst the living.
"Her eyes are reflections death."
"Her words are expressions of death."
"Her body brims with death."
"There is no escape for those amongst the living."
None can escape from Koroshiohake.
"I am the king of mankind."
"I shall smite the visiting gods during their unscrupulous equinoctial week."
"I am the protector of the deceased."
No...
It can't be!
Ai, hang in there!
Ai!
Julie-san...
That is the darkness Ortus harbors.
Any who are seen by that princess,
who hear her voice or who are touched by her, will die if they were of the living.
Ulla... is the Koroshiohake.
Please, my God. Tell me, what should I do?
dareka ga sashinobeta te o furihodoite susumu
誰かが差し伸べた手を 振りほどいて進む
I break free of the hand someone reached out to me with.
"jiyuu na fujiyuu" habikoru basho de
『自由な不自由』 蔓延る場所で
"freely restrained" in an infested place.
nani ga ni owareru you ni ikiisogu mainichi
何がに追われるように 生き急ぐ毎日
I live every day as if I'm chased by something.
shinjitsuzuke ta shinjitsu mo wakara naku naru
信じ続けた真実も わからなくなる
I become even unable to believe the truth I kept believing.
nani ga hontou no shiawase nandarou
何が本当の幸せなんだろう
What is true happiness?
sono kotae o shiru mono nado koko ni wa inai
その答えを知る者など 此処には居ない
There isn't a single person here who knows the answer.
Where is my God?
arehate ta yume ga nemuru daichi de
荒れ果てた夢が 眠る大地で
My shattered dreams lie in the sleeping ground.
shinda you ni ikirunte boku ni wa dekinakute
死んだように生きるんて 僕には出来なくて
Living as if I'm dead is something I just can't do.
umarekaware ima hikari o hime shi
生まれ変われ 今 光を秘めし
I shall trust the light to the new truth, being reborn.
saigo no kibou soshite kiseki
最後の希望 そして奇跡
My final hope, and then a miracle,
mou ichido sekai ni kagayaki o hanate
もう一度世界に 輝きを放て
release once again radiance to this world.
I swear, I can't lose my place.
Now, it's time to birth.
Ortus III
Come along.
We're going back.
Did you know about this?
No.
He told me just a minute ago.
Why?
Why are you doing all of this for me?
Because you're of the living.
And because until last year...
...I was alive myself!
Ortus is a country that exists for the deceased.
It is required that any living outsiders who wish to move in must die first.
However, the children that the immigrants bring with them are an exception.
The children grow and mature as the living.
Once they turn 15, they must choose.
Will they remain here as one of the deceased?
Or will they leave as one of the living?
I chose to stay.
It was my dream to become an artisan who specialises in making masks.
It happened just like that for me as well.
There was neither pain nor suffering.
Indeed, it seemed extremely natural to me.
But you're a human who came from the outside!
You've never put much thought into what it means to live as one of the living or as one of the deceased, have you?
I...
What if you accidentally got caught up in all of this and died?
That's totally unacceptable!
But Ulla is the first young girl I've ever met.
We laughed together- we laughed a lot!
We became friends and I had so much fun.
I had a really good time.
Even so, she is Koroshiohake.
Stay put at your inn!
Let's go.
Do you think she knows?
Do you think Ulla knows about her own powers?
That she has the power to kill others?
W-What type of question is that?
She was born with that ability!
How could she not know?
But if she's had it her entire life,
she may not realise she has that power.
Ulla is surrounded by nobody but deceased.
What if those around Ulla told her that all of the deceased were of the living?
Ulla wouldn't know any better.
Isn't that right?
I see.
It looks like you've figured it out.
It was the same for me.
I was raised to believe that the deceased around me were actually amongst the living.
Ulla is me.
She is who I was until just recently.
She is me when I was surrounded by kindness and lies back at the village.
She is me when no one would tell me anything!
She was me when my job was forced upon me while I was still ignorant of everything.
You and Ulla are different.
Your village's lies were bound to crumble.
Even if your father never came,
the village still would have fallen.
But Ortus' lies, my lies, are different.
Eventually, all of the living will die.
That's right!
Once everyone in this world perishes,
Ulla's eyes will be rendered meaningless!
You're...
My lie simply needs to last until then.
And by that point...
...there will be nothing left to hurt Ulla.
And when will that time come?
Ulla is amongst the living!
The deceased around her don't age, do they?
Neither do you, Kiriko!
After a long, long time passes...
There is no friggin' way I want to become the last human!
Ulla would be the only one to grow old.
She'd... be all alone!
But even so!
It is my duty to protect Ulla.
I must not hurt Ulla in any way.
I was assigned to serve as her instructor so that I could deceive her.
"Without ever letting that child realise what you're doing, create a world."
"Switch the living and the deceased."
"Make it so that her eyes are meaningless."
I'm honoured to meet you, Princess Ulla.
My name is Kiriko Zubreska.
Kiiko?
Please call me Kiriko.
That is when I decided that come what may, I would protect her.
I swore I would protect her with all of my might.
I... love her.
Kiriko Zubreska loves Ulla Hecmatika.
She is a good girl.
She is kind and considerate of others.
She has a truly adorable smile...
She has a truly wonderful laugh!
She has truly beautiful eyes...
Ai, what would you have done?
If you had the chance to hide such a wonderful child from the cruelty of the world,
what would you do?
Could you refrain from lying to her?
I don't know...
I might lie to her...
In that case-
But even so!
I still have to tell her.
We've been waiting for you, Ai.
Um, but I'm going to go tell Ulla...
That's fine.
I'll drive you to the castle.
I know!
If you tell her all of this,
I am sure that Ulla will despise you.
Didn't you hate the person who set you free?
Don't you regret what happened?
Didn't at least a small part of you wish that you could have lived forever in those villagers' lies?
Do you realise that what you want to do does not guarantee salvation?
I'm sorry.
I know it's late...
Today I came to tell you something.
Um, I'm going to tell you about myself as well as you.
I am half human, half gravekeeper.
I was born in a small mountain village,
which is where I was raised.
But it was a village of deceased.
They hid that from me as they raised me.
Until just recently, I never knew that fact.
And Ulla, we were raised in such similar situations that they're like two sides of the same coin.
Um, please try to remain calm and hear me out.
The people around you,
the people you've always thought were alive,
are actually deceased.
The ones who were actually amongst the living were the people who gathered up at that tower today.
But they are no longer of the living.
All because they fell under your gaze, Ulla.
Ulla, you have the power to kill those you look at,
those you speak to and those you touch.
Am I Koroshiohake?
Yes...
Your powers were absolutely necessary for this country to allow the living to move in.
Kiriko has deceived you this whole time, but he did that...
...to protect you!
Is that all you wanted to tell me?
Yes...
I'm sorry.
I thought that I was telling you for your own good, Ulla,
but deep down, I might have been doing this for myself.
Kiriko-san?
Now you know everything, don't you?
Then it's over.
It's all over.
I know.
You can't bring yourself to forgive me.
That is only natural.
Kiriko, I have a favour to ask of you.
Please deceive that child.
That is all the elders want.
Right now, do those two have sad looks on their faces?
I don't want them to be sad!
I love the both of you so dearly.
Please... do not put on sad faces.
For you see, I already knew without Ai needing to actually tell me.
You knew?
Even though I said I knew, I only knew half of the story.
I had a feeling that my eyes did something to people.
I was also aware of how hard you and the others worked to hide that from me, Kiriko.
Although I must admit, I did not realise what precisely I was doing.
Then why didn't you say anything?
Because I didn't feel a particular need to find out about it.
If it was something that no one wanted me to know,
I figured that I didn't really need to know about it.
But now I see...
I kill people, don't I?
With the way our world is now,
I still do not truly understand what it means to kill someone.
But you see,
there were some who smiled as if a weight had been lifted.
There were some who heaved a long sigh of relief.
People bearing arms ceased their fighting when they entered Ortus.
There were others, who turned to the wastelands rather than joining us.
But everyone always looked as though they had been set free.
Tell me, Ai.
This death... and me... do they seem bad to you?
I don't know...
Yes. I do not know, either.
Ai, you must be traveling so that you can come to unravel this puzzle.
You may be right.
Ai, the two of us are very similar.
But we are still different.
You are a free individual.
You are a bird that belongs in the sky, hating to be caged!
But I am different.
I love this cage called Ortus.
Besides, Kiriko is here in this cage.
No matter what happens, you are always there,
tenderly protecting me.
Thank you, Ulla.
I'm sorry for all I've done...
I love the person who I am now.
But there are two things that I deeply regret.
One is that I cannot see you, Ai.
The other is that I cannot hug you, Ai.
I feel the same.
Ulla, you're a dear friend, and yet...
That's why...
Princess?
Hurry.
You two are so bright...
I wish to introduce you to someone.
Scar-san!
And Julie-san?!
Well, uh, you see...
After you ran off, I noticed her stumbling along...
This is Celica Hecmatika.
She is Ulla's older sister.
She has been asleep since birth.
Ulla's mother despised her encompassing circumstances.
The changed world, the nomad lifestyle she married into,
and her dead husband.
But what she hated above all else were the twins that had been left inside her womb.
Crazed at the brink of death during labor,
she wished hard, with all of her might.
May all the people die.
Ulla was the one who innocently accepted her mother's wish.
Inversely, Celica here rejected the wish.
Scar?
It was you, wasn't it?
This is the one who has been calling out to me.
"I've always had this feeling..."
"I've felt as though my sister froze time for herself,
waiting for something."
"Now I know what that 'something' was."
This is... my baby.
"Scar-san, please look after my sister."
Ai Astin, huh?
I never expected someone else to share the same dream as me.
The world really is... incredible!
School?
Gora Academy?!
You have my permission to enter our school.
You've been dumped, huh?
My ghost pulled a nasty prank.
Hey! It's nice to meet ya.
W-What's up with this?
Gora Academy I