""I always have the feeling that I'm losing something," she said." "I was just a middle school student at that time, so I couldn't possibly understand what she meant." "But still, her words moved me." "It was before the war, when the huge island called Ezo was still a foreign territory." "Amazing!" "An airplane!" "On that day long ago, beyond those clouds, lies the place of our promise." "She recites a poem by Miyazawa Kenji "Eiketsu no Asa" or "Morning of Final Farewell"" ""In your delirious fever, panting, you asked me for the last bowl of snow that fell from the sky, galaxy, sun and atmospheric strata ...Between two pieces of granite sleet makes a solitary puddle." "I stand on them, precariously, keeping the pure, white, two-phased balance of snow and water, and get for my gentle sister her last food..."" "In those days, we admired two things." "How much longer?" "We still have time." "Here!" "That's hot!" "Thank you." "Hiroki, when do you work next?" "Well, I've got club activities today and tomorrow, so maybe the day after." "How about you, Takuya?" "Tomorrow morning's my last day of training too." "Then it's decided, the day after tomorrow, okay?" "Okay." "One of the things that we admired was our classmate, Sayuri Sawatari." "And the other was that enormous tower that rose beyond the border across the Tsugaru Strait." "I didn't know how to solve that problem at all," "I was always looking up at that tower." "so I asked the teacher and..." "And?" "I felt something very important to me was waiting there." "I was filled with yearning." "Someday..." "Someday," "I will go there." "Shirakawa-senpai!" "We'll go on ahead." "Yeah, sorry." "Well, you seniors are stepping down today, so..." "There's something we'd like to give you." "Go on, Kana-chan!" "What?" "Hey..." "Well..." "Here!" "So you turned her down?" "Just like the others." "Yeah..." "Matsuura, huh?" "That's a shame." "She's pretty cute." "Then you go out with her, Hiroki." "What?" "!" "Would you have hooked up with her?" "What?" "No..." "Why would I?" "You like someone else, is that it?" "What?" "Why?" "No, well, I mean..." "I think she's cute and all, but..." "I don't really know what to do when you're, uh, dating someone." "You're not the one she confessed to, you know?" "Hey, you asked!" "Sawatari..." "Fujisawa-kun!" "Sawatari..." "You're going home late today." "Yeah, I stayed behind." "I was practicing..." "Violin?" "Yeah..." "Shirakawa-kun's not with you?" "No." "I was practicing too." "For my club." "I notice you sometimes practice archery alone." "Y-Yeah..." "Oh, I'm not any good, so I get distracted easily, so..." "Do you have any plans for spring break, Fujisawa-kun?" "Yeah." "Takuya and I have a part-time job lined up." "A job?" "I'm so jealous!" "Where is it?" "A factory in Hamana." "They do subcontracting for the military." "We'll be putting together guided missiles and stuff." "I see." "It's great that you've got a job." "All I've got are my club activities..." "Oh yeah?" "Yeah..." "The next station is Nakaoguni, Nakaoguni." "After Nakaoguni, we'll stop at Oodaira." "We're already at my station." "You know what?" "Last night, I had a dream that I would go home with you like this." "Bye-bye!" "I'll see you next semester!" "Okay..." "Meanwhile, it appears tensions raised by Japan's response to the North-South problem will be the focus of the 11th Summit, a proposed three-day meeting between America and the Union set to begin on the 12th." "The Union government voiced deep concern regarding the reinforcement of Misawa Base and other American facilities, while the American government ... expressed apprehension that the Union has yet to reveal the purpose of the enormous Tower facility built on Ezo territory." "Hello!" "Alright!" "Tea time, huh?" "Sure is, come have a seat." "Okay." "You're late, Hiroki." "Sorry." "Hiroki, I heard what you did." "A Chukar is an Asian bird similar to the European pheasant" "You guys went and stole a Chukar target drone from the MSDF?" "Like I said..." "That's not true!" "We didn't steal it." "We found it in Amagamori!" "So you stole it." "Well, they are flying a lot of drones in their training exercises these days," "I guess it'll be all right." "Just make sure they don't trace it back to you." "That's right." "The Public Safety Commission already keeps an eye on this place." "Don't say things that could damage my reputation!" "Back to work!" "Work!" "Yes, Sir." "See you later." "Okay." "Okay." "And you two." "Starting tomorrow, you show up ready to work, okay?" "I'll be workin' you for the cost of those materials and then some." "Yes, Sir." "Well then..." "If you'll excuse us." "Okay." "There was a reason we started working." "I heard that when Ezo was still called Hokkaido, and it was still part of this country, there were plans to dig a tunnel under the Tsugaru Strait." "It ended up being interrupted due to the Separation between north and south, but in the mountains around here, you can sometimes find tracks and abandoned stations, remnants of the old construction days." "Last year, we started building something in an abandoned station at the top of this mountain." "Emishi Manufacturing does subcontracting for the US military, and we started working there so we could buy parts for this thing." "The place that looks so close it's like you could reach out and grab it, but you can never actually get to." "We wanted to see it with our own eyes... that strange island and the enormous Tower that rose from it." "A lot of the snow has melted away, huh?" "I'd like to get started again soon." "Here's hoping we don't get any more snow..." "In any case, we'd better try and get all the remaining materials." "We still don't have the exterior nanonet or the self-starting motor." "The superconducting motor's the main thing, right?" "And we're also gonna need kerosene..." "Even with this part-time job, we may not be able to make enough money." "Don't worry." "It'll work out." "There's always summer break." "Yeah, that's true." "We were planning to fly in this airplane we named Bella Ciela to that Tower beyond the border." "That same dream again..." "Sawatari." "Takuya-kun..." "Um..." "So, anyway..." "Oh, sorry." "That's okay." "Hiroki said..." "Hiroki said..." "We haven't talked that much, have we?" "Just the two of us." "Guess not." "Takuya-kun, do you like physics?" "What?" "Oh, this book?" "Yeah, it's kinda interesting." "That's amazing." "They say my grandpa was a physicist." "Really?" "That's more amazing." "I've never met him, though." "Because of the Separation?" "Yeah..." "Oh..." "The train bound for Hirosaki is arriving at Platform 3." "Hey, do you guys still have that job?" "Is it fun?" "I don't know." "It's run by this scary old man." "He yells at us and makes us work hard." "Is he really that scary?" "He's like a demon or something." "Really?" "You wanna come and see for yourself?" "Well..." "But won't I be in your way?" "No, I bet Hiroki will be happy to see you too." "Okay!" "I'll come by!" "The train bound for Kanita and Minmaya is arriving at Platform 2." "Please step back and wait behind the white line." "Hey, Takuya-kun?" "This may sound strange, but promise that you won't laugh?" "What is it?" "I won't laugh." "Then I'll tell you." "It's..." "Why did you go and do something like that?" "What could I do?" "The conversation just kind of went in that direction." "What do we do?" "Do we tell her about flying to the Tower too?" "Bad idea." "Yeah..." "But what do we do if she asks us where we're going?" "Um..." "Hey..." "Yes?" "Hello." "Hey, it's hot today, huh?" "Hello." "I hope you don't mind me stopping by." "Oh, sorry." "Thanks for always looking after these two morons." "So..." "Do you think Okabe-san is single?" "Nah, I heard a rumor that he's divorced." "Somehow that makes sense." "I didn't know there was a place like this here!" "It's so big!" "Amazing!" "An airplane?" "That's right." "You two are building this yourselves?" "Yeah..." "We've been working on it little by little since our eighth grade summer vacation." "We've been working at that factory back there to get parts and advice from Okabe-san." "Right?" "Yep..." "It's still far from complete though." "It's amazing..." "Hey, this is really amazing!" "Thanks..." "Hey..." "When do you think it will be done?" "We'd really like to finish it during summer vacation, but..." "That's probably not gonna happen." "It looks like it's gonna take a lot more time." "I guess we're hoping to finish it before the end of the year." "Oh..." "Say, where are you going to fly it to?" "To the Tower." "Tower?" "Do you mean the Union's Tower?" "Yep..." "We think it'll take about forty minutes to fly to the Tower." "The real problem is how we're going to cross the border, but we've got some ideas about that too." "Wow!" "Hokkaido sounds great!" "Do you wanna go too, Sawatari?" "What?" "Would that be okay?" "Sure!" "Really?" "Okay, I'll go!" "I really wanna go!" "Wow!" "Thank you!" "But I don't know if it'll even fly, though." "Don't worry!" "It'll fly for sure!" "Yeah!" "We're going, then!" "It's a promise, okay?" "Yeah." "It's a promise." "Okay!" "In those days, I felt at that time... that place would remain unchanged for the rest of my life." "The Tower that stood beyond the clouds became an important promised place to me..." "At that moment, we weren't afraid of anything." "The truth was that the world... history was changing." "But in those days, the smells of the night wafting into the train, the trust I had in my friend, and the presence of Sayuri that lingered in the air... these were everything in the world to me." "US-Japanese and Union forces clashed in a minor armed conflict last night until just before dawn this morning." "The skirmish occurred in the buffer area between the Tsugaru Strait and the 42nd latitude." "Upon hearing this, the Metropolitan Police Department announced that they will deploy 3300 guards in Tokyo prefecture as a precaution against terrorist activities directed toward the Union Embassy by organizations such as the Uilta Liberation Front." "Yeah" "If you've got the money, I'll sell you kerosene or whatever, but jet fuel's gonna be expensive." "Why don't you guys just use a reciprocating or large electric motor?" "You know how to do the rest?" "Yes." "All right." "Take care of it." "Why do you wanna go through all the trouble of using a jet engine anyway?" "'Cause it's cool!" "That's the only reason?" "Hold on a second, we had other reasons, right?" "Let's see..." "Oh, yeah!" "That one!" "'Cause we were lucky enough to find it!" "That's not it!" "What was it?" "Remember, the reason we made it a dual engine?" "There was a good reason for it." "Oh, that's right!" "'Cause we wanted it to transform!" "That's not it!" "Whatever..." "I don't care what it was." "Just don't kill yourselves, all right?" "It'll be a hassle for me." "Oh, yeah." "You two be sure to come here every day when summer vacation starts." "Yes, Sir!" "So..." "You really want me to play it?" "Yeah, we'll come see you after school." "I'm not that good, though." "Don't worry." "I've never even seen someone play a violin." "Let me hear it." "I'd like to hear too." "I'm so nervous..." "Signs from left to right:" "Building A Locker Room English Department Audiovisual Room Math File Room Student Council Room Music Room 1" "Nanonet doesn't reflect radar, right?" "But we'll be flying into the buffer area." "Nanonet trim or not, if we aren't careful, the US military will spot us even before the Union can." "I guess we'll have to fly as low as possible, so we can blend in with the waves and the contours of the land." "If we leave early, we can use the morning haze as cover too." "Do we have a map of Ezo?" "This is the only detailed one we've got." "We won't know the landscape until we get there, so we have no choice but to measure the altitude once we're over land." "But as long as we're over land, Union radars won't spot us, right?" "The Bella Ciela's radar profile should be smaller than a bird." "Yeah..." "Unless we're really unlucky." "Sawatari!" "Hold on!" "It's all right." "It's not that high." "We've done this before..." "I'm glad I made it in time." "I'll just..." "Are you all right?" "Yeah..." "Sorry." "Thank you." "Hey!" "Ha!" "He wasn't expecting that!" "What did you do that for?" "!" "Stop it, Hiroki-kun!" "Sorry, I just had to." "What did you say?" "!" "What the heck are you thinking, anyway?" "C'mon, don't be so angry." "I'm angry all right!" "Just stay there!" "Let's go, Sawatari." "Takuya..." "Sawatari, say something to him!" "Sorry, Takuya-kun." "Hiroki's stupid." "Forget about him and let's just go." "Hey, Takuya..." "Earlier, for just a second," "I was having a dream." "A dream?" "What kind of dream?" "I forgot." "But it was probably about that Tower." "It's an unbelievable view, isn't it?" "The Union is incredible." "The tip of the Tower looks like it might even lead to some other world." "The sun..." "It's setting so slowly, isn't it?" "That summer was truly special..." "But from that point on, the world around me would betray me many times over." "It's been three years since that day... since I last saw Sawatari." "Pay no mind to our visitors, all right?" "First phase completed." "Next phase." "Okay!" "Next is the filtering stage." "Commencing second phase." "Directional resolution is 25 percent higher than before." "That's good." "I wonder if we can do it this time?" "Choose a good algorithm, okay?" "Yes, Sir." "How's that algorithm, Shirakawa?" "I modified the filtering for group sampling." "This idea's based on Ekusun Tsukinoe's thesis." "Ekusun Tsukinoe?" "From the Union?" "Yes." "What?" "How did you..." "A moment, please." "Reaction is starting to increase." "Who's that?" "The Union researcher who first proved the existence of parallel worlds." "They say he designed the Tower." "I have it!" "Exposure reactions confirmed in orientations XA, YC and ZC." "There are five, no, six branch universes!" "Six?" "Begin harmonization stage." "Get us a link, all right?" "Commencing third phase." "Each of you try connecting with the closest parallel world." "Begin your approach." "Yes, Sir!" "He's fast!" "Shirakawa-kun is the closest." "Twelve more Exa to reach the connectable territory, 11... 10... 9.4... 9.2..." "We have a connection!" "We've successfully connected to a nearby branch universe." "The exposure reactions are stable." "Good, let's move on to the conversion stage." "Commencing fourth phase, spatial displacement with the parallel world." "That spiral is the tower?" "Yes, that's right." "We're going to switch this minute center section with that of a separate universe." "Disparate matter conversion confirmed." "Radius is 60 nanos." "It's expanding rapidly." "We'll soon be able to confirm visually." "That part is completely different matter, composed of a totally different universe." "You mean like the experiments done on the Ezo Tower?" "Yes, but that was on a much larger scale..." "We succeeded once out of many tries to replace the space the size of a particle of sand." "This isn't good." "It's no good!" "Exposure reactions are decreasing." "We can't maintain the connection with the parallel world any longer." "Wave function has converged." "The branch universes have completely disappeared." "We succeeded in replacing approximately a 1.3mm radius of disparate matter." "Good work." "Thanks." "Professor Tomizawa, is Shirakawa-kun free now?" "He is." "I swear, you two are always together." "You were the one who asked me to stay close to him until he gets used to this place." "I said that?" "By the way, Maki-chan, I'm going to Tokyo tomorrow on business." "That meeting to discuss our research findings, right?" "That too, but it seems they found the key." "The key?" "You mean the one you told me about before?" "Yeah." "Things could get busy for you and the rest of the Brain Science team." "Maki-san..." "There've been a lot of military officers here recently, huh?" "The one in the suit is probably with the NSA." "NSA?" "The National Security Agency." "Oh..." "Well, there have been a lot of rumors about terrorism lately." "Did it go well today?" "Still not well enough." "We've just barely managed to replace enough matter to see with the naked eye." "We're a long way from the Union's Tower." "Well, that can't be helped." "They had a big head start on us, right from basic physics." "I saw that Ezo aerial photo too." "What we don't know is why the disparate matter conversion stops at a 2km radius from the Tower." "If the Tower was built to be used as a weapon, it doesn't make sense." "Maybe an accident or something knocked it out of commission..." "Or maybe it's nothing more than a simple experimental facility." "Either that, or the matter conversion is something the designer didn't even intend." "Professor Tomizawa says there may be some external factor keeping the Tower from functioning properly." "Say, Shirakawa-kun..." "What are you doing tomorrow?" "High school's on break too, right?" "Uh, I kinda need to do some research." "At the library?" "No." "At a factory that someone I know runs..." "Someone wants to see the factory?" "We don't offer tours, y'know!" "Huh?" "What was that?" "A girl?" "How old is she?" "How should I know?" "But I'd say she's pretty... probably." "Okay, then!" "I'll be waiting." "Wow!" "What amazing antennas!" "Well, some of them are a little illegal, but they can pick up signals from some pretty interesting places." "So you specialize in brain research, Maki-san?" "Yes." "Things like memories, sleep and dreams." "But you and Takuya work at the same lab?" "I thought you were studying the Tower." "I am..." "I do research on the Tower and..." "How can I put this?" "Both of our research deals with parallel worlds." "Parallel worlds?" "You know how a person will have dreams at night?" "Well, the universe has "dreams" too." "Our world hides all these different possibilities, things that could have been, inside dreams." "We call these "parallel worlds" or "branch universes"." "My research involves studying the effects that these parallel worlds have on people's brains and dreams." "A popular theory states that the Union's Tower is observing these same things." "Technology has allowed us to view the parallel worlds, but the nervous systems of various life forms may have subconsciously sensed them for millennia." "What we call "precognition" or "premonitions" may actually be a kind of exchange of information about the branch universes that occurs at the quantum level within the brain." "That's the kind of research that I do." "Wow." "The dreams of the universe..." "Sounds romantic, huh?" "Romantic?" "Got a problem with that?" "Nope..." "No..." "I think you're amazing, Maki-san." "Imagine, being a researcher at a facility that does consultation work for the government at such a young age!" "Please, it's nothing special." "The Tower fascinates me, it's fulfilling work." "To tell you the truth, it used to fascinate me too." "Anyway, the one who's really amazing here is Shirakawa-kun!" "He's not just the youngest outside researcher we have, he's the most enthusiastic one!" "Right from the start, I thought he was really cool!" "What?" "No..." "I'm not like that at all." "I'd better be going now." "Oh, I'm sorry." "It looks like I ate most of them." "Don't worry about it." "Takuya, you going to the city?" "Yes, I'm taking Maki-san home." "Give me a ride too." "Huh?" "Okay." "What?" "!" "Can you drop me off at the station?" "Aren't you going home, Okabe-san?" "No, I'm going to Tokyo tomorrow on business." "Okabe-san ..." "Huh?" "Have you thought about that favor I asked?" "What was it again?" "Uilta." "Ah." "Persistent, aren't you?" "Anyway, it looks like the lab is keeping you pretty busy." "And the work is good, right?" "That's not really the point." "I just want to settle this Tower business... and soon." "What's the matter?" "Oh, no." "Well, I didn't think you could see the Tower from Tokyo too." "Well, there are days like that sometimes." "But the air is quite clear today." "This way, please." "That's the progression of her condition since she was admitted to this hospital." "She began showing symptoms in the summer of her eighth grade." "Cause: unknown." "Her sleep cycles gradually grew longer and in just the first two months she was only able to stay awake for limited periods of time." "She's been sound asleep for the past three years." "So she's been having some sort of dream?" "That's what the brain waves we've recorded would indicate." "Ah." "And what about the DNA test?" "On page six." "I see..." "Her family's separated, eh?" "Fine." "Thank you." "These are the documents requested from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare." "You'll receive the official documents as soon as the transfer date is decided." "What's this letter?" "The patient wrote this letter when she first arrived." "Have you read it?" "No." "Emishi Manufacturing..." "Thus, by analyzing the deviations between the multiple universes, it becomes possible to render a highly accurate prediction of our own future." "Herein lies the ultimate goal of my own research laboratory." "This is not a conventional theoretical model or probability theory, this is information based entirely on the results of an actual future." "The influence it could have on decision-making in the political and military arenas will likely be incalculable." "However, to be perfectly rational, we must also consider that the Union has already applied quantum gravity theory to technology far superior to our own." "Construction of the symbolic Ezo Tower is thought to have started in 1974, immediately after the North-South Separation." "Its operation started in 1996 or so." "It is ironic to us, in the Alliance, that Ekusun Tsukinoe, said to have played a central role in its design, is originally from the mainland." "So..." "Next, I'll explain some of the technological innovations... that we've already used to glean information on the parallel worlds." "When I saw you, I thought, "Now there's a guy with a bad attitude."" "Hey, I was listening." "Basically, you wanna have a peek at God's dreams and do a little analyzing, right?" "Well, that's more or less correct." "What's this, Oka-chan?" "You find this interesting?" "I've done my homework." "Let's do something tonight?" "It's been a while." "Shirakawa is excellent." "He's definitely got talent." "You're glad you talked to him, right?" "Yeah." "But tell me, Oka-chan, just when did you start helping students find jobs?" "Well, ...these two are a little special." "These two?" "Yeah." "There's another one who should be in Tokyo by now, but I can't get hold of him." "I'm a little worried." "Y'know, those two were building their own airplane." "Hey, that brings back memories!" "Wait." "You came to Tokyo for that?" "I thought you were here for something completely different." "Like what?" "Uilta." "Actually, you're right." "That's the main reason." "We're going to get our hands on a PL outer-shell bomb." "Don't ask from where." "I don't have to." "I already more or less have an idea." "So what are you getting at?" "Don't tell me you're asking if it'll work against the Tower?" "Bingo." "I'm sure it will." "The exterior of the Tower will likely vaporize instantly." "The interior is supposedly made up of huge nanonet ribbons, but it'll probably go down in flames too." "Yeah..." "A PL outer-shell bomb may be the best suited for the job." "I see." "You know..." "You might want to reconsider." "If Uilta does this, it will increase the chances of starting a war." "That's why we're doing it." "It's already been decided on?" "More or less." "A lot of powerful people are eager for war." "I thought Uilta's philosophy was reunification with the North." "Still is." "It just feels like destroying the Tower would be such a waste." "From the Alliance standpoint, it's the product of unbelievable technologies." "Besides, it's just standing there." "Its impact on us is negligible..." "Don't be coy with me." "The Tower appears to currently be out of commission, but it's possible that it's an extremely powerful weapon... one that can turn the space around it inside-out." "You knew about that?" "Yeah." "It sure makes for a beautiful view, though..." "Every once in a while, there's bound to be a romantic who thinks like you." "Can I ask you a question, Oka-chan?" "Not too long ago, they found someone who might be connected to the secrets of the Tower." "Is that so?" "A girl, still in her teens." "I see." "And?" "You know her, don't you, Oka-chan?" "I'm not trying to pester you, but it'd be better to keep this from Shirakawa-kun until we know more about her." "Especially if they were close." "He'll find out eventually." "Even so, we don't have to worry him about it now, right?" "And anyway, this has already fallen under the NSA's jurisdiction." "It'd be best if you stayed out of it." "What kind of dreams does the universe have?" "I'd like to have them too..." "A cold, deep wind blew there, a wind that seemed as if it had come from a distant universe." "Even the air had the smell of a different universe." "The sky..." "The clouds..." "A city in ruins..." "There are no people, no matter how far I walk." "I'm cold..." "What am I doing in a place like this?" "Someone..." "Someone!" "Hiroki-kun..." "That dream again..." "We ended up not flying the Bella Ciela, after all." "It was kind of a shock when Sayuri disappeared without saying anything three years ago." "Because of that, we stopped working on the plane, and I think that in turn made us angry at ourselves." "After graduating from middle school," "Takuya entered a high school in Aomori Prefecture, and I entered one here in Tokyo." "From here, I thought," "I wouldn't have to look at the Tower anymore." "But I was in for a disappointment." "Sometimes, when the weather is nice," "I can still see it in the distance... and I'd be overwhelmed by a depression that would last all day." "These tanks are going all the way to your hometown, right?" "Yeah, I guess." "This looks slow enough to jump on, don't you think?" "What do you say we hop a ride to Aomori together?" "Sometimes Okabe-san would send me letters, letting me know how things were going." "I've never once written back to him." "Every time I get to my room and shut the door," "I feel a stabbing pain in my heart as if all the bones in my body are breaking through my skin." "And I wonder when it was that I became burdened with something like this." "And now the latest news on the highly tense international relations." "At the UN Security Council held on the 19th," "America once again demanded that the Union allow a UN inspection group into its Ezo Tower facility." "In response to this, the Union Government stubbornly maintained their staunch refusal..." "I was living alone and the nights felt long." "When I couldn't find anything to occupy my time," "I would walk to the nearby station and pretend I was waiting for someone." "Once I grew bored of that," "I'd walk back to my room as slowly as possible." "I had friends at high school, but I found that other than when I was wearing the uniform," "I really didn't want to be around them." "Come to think of it, in a city of more than thirty million people, there wasn't a single person I wanted to see or talk to." "Sometimes, on days like those," "I would dream of Sayuri." "I'd dream that she was in some cold place all by herself." "I would look for her, frantically..." "But in the end, I never find her." "Even after I awoke, however, I could feel Sayuri's presence lingering inside me, and it would make my heart tremble." "One day, I realized it was my third winter since I'd come to Tokyo." "It was as if I was holding my breath underwater..." "Cold, deep water." "And it was like that every day." "I'm the only one..." "I'm the only one left in the whole world..." "That's how it feels." "It was my dream to come to Ezo someday." "Now here I am, easy as that." "Yeah." "It's just the southern tip, though." "You have family on the Union side or something?" "No, it's nothing like that." "Your generation was born after the Separation, so I can understand your fascination with it all..." "But the boss got taken away from his family because of the Separation, so I'll bet he feels differently about the issue." "Really?" "Still, I didn't expect this." "Huh?" "I didn't think that the boss would involve you in this." "I begged and pleaded." "And I said that if he didn't bring me along," "I'd file a report with the Public Safety Commission." "What a dangerous thing you said..." "Boss!" "This is not funny!" "What a stupid official!" "They found out about our communication!" "Ship us out!" "That was a little too close this time." "Yeah, but now we're that much closer to infiltrating their airspace." "I guess it was a good thing we came all the way out here." "Right?" "Boss, there's a ship!" "It's a patrol boat!" "Your ship is in our territorial waters." "Halt, or we will open fire." "It's already decided that we're goin' to war anyway..." "We repeat..." "What're they taking their jobs so seriously for?" "!" "This is not good." "Lose them!" "Yes, Sir!" "Three more minutes 'til the border!" "Sato, Miyagawa, get to the gun emplacement!" "Halt, or we will open fire." "Takuya!" "Are you all right, Takuya?" "!" "Those wings..." "I know them!" "When I wake up, for a second..." "I don't quite know where I am." "Sometimes, I think that maybe I came to the wrong place." "By now, I feel the dream about Sayuri... is more real than reality itself." "She's in a hospital?" "Sayuri..." "Hiroki-kun..." "Takuya-kun..." "I'm sorry for leaving without saying anything." "It makes me sad..." "I wanted to spend the summer with you." "When I woke up, I was in a hospital in Tokyo, and I've been here ever since." "The people here tell me I should sever all the ties I had from before, but I begged them and so now I'm writing you this letter." "I'll send this to Okabe-san so the two of you will read it." "But I don't quite know what I should write." "I've been having the same dream, over and over." "A dream where I'm all alone in an empty universe." "I'm so alone that my fingers, cheeks, fingernails, heels and even the ends of my hair, everything aches from the loneliness." "The times we spent together in a world filled with warmth seem more like a dream to me now than my dream." "But so long as I don't lose the memories of those days," "I think that, even if just a little, I can stay connected to reality." "She was transferred?" "Yes, about a week ago." "The hospital she was transferred to would be able to tell you more, if you'd care to ask them." "Okay..." "Oh, which room was she in?" "Hiroki-kun..." "Takuya-kun..." "Did that beautiful white airplane of yours make it to the Tower beyond the sea?" "What is this?" "It feels like my dream..." "Sawatari..." "Are you there?" "I've been looking for you looking for you for a long time." "Sawatari..." "I really want to keep my promise this time." "I'm going to fly you to the Tower in the Bella Ciela." "I feel if I do that, we'll meet again." "I won't leave you alone." "And I won't give up anymore on anything." "I'll protect you forever." "I promise." "Yes, it's a promise." "Let's fly to the Tower... together." "Professor!" "Please come over here!" "Operational levels at the Tower have suddenly increased!" "The range of the disparate matter conversion is also expanding rapidly!" "Conscious activity in the subject is increasing at the same rate!" "This could be an indicator that she's waking up." "Does this mean..." "Disparate matter conversion is now in excess of a 20km radius." "Do they..." "Do they plan on overwriting the entire world?" "Conscious activity in the subject is decreasing!" "Disparate matter conversion is also slowing down..." "It's going to stop." "An area of approximately a 26km radius has been overwritten with a parallel world." "Conscious activity in the subject has returned to normal." "The subject's sleep is stabilizing again." "Professor Tomizawa..." "Yeah." "As we thought, it's the subject's sleep that has been keeping the Tower's activity in check." "For now, information that the Tower acquires from the parallel worlds is being discharged into the subject's dreams rather than eroding the surrounding space." "We have no choice but to ensure that Sayuri Sawatari keeps dreaming." "It might have just been a dream..." "But even so, the places where Sayuri brushed my skin remained warm." "On that distant day, we made a promise that we couldn't keep." "Hey, Takuya-kun..." "This may sound strange, but promise that you won't laugh?" "What is it?" "I won't laugh." "Okay, I'll tell you." "Listen..." "It's about a dream" "I've been having a lot lately." "A tall tower?" "You mean, like the Union Tower?" "No." "It's more... crooked." "It's a really strange shape." "I'm inside it, but there's a bunch of others just like it all around." "For some reason, I know that each one is a different world..." "A dream that this universe is having." "I haven't been able to leave that place for a long time." "I've been all by myself and very, very lonely." "And then... just when I feel like I'm going to lose myself..." "I see a white airplane in the sky." "A white airplane?" "Yeah..." "And then?" "That's the end of the dream." "Thank goodness!" "Shirakawa-kun, you're awake." "Maki-san..." "I was really worried." "Um... why?" "Does your shoulder still hurt?" "No." "Pardon me." "It looks like your fever's come down too." "Say, are you hungry?" "Do you want something to eat?" "I've got apples and bananas." "I even went and bought some cakes." "What would you like?" "You can't get in there with that ID card, Shirakawa-kun." "How's that shoulder?" "Better?" "Yes." "Sorry for making you worry." "Um..." "So Maki-chan told you, eh?" "You want to see her?" "They say she stays asleep because the Tower is feeding her information from the parallel worlds and her mind can't cope." "Personally, I think if her sleep is broken, the parallel worlds will swallow up this one in the blink of an eye... starting with that Tower." "Still, we don't even know how we could wake her up." "With the war about to begin, they've decided to transfer her to NSA headquarters in a couple of days." "The Alliance has really fallen behind in this field, so this girl's a valuable sample." "Why did it have to be Sawatari?" "There's a lot more we don't know that they do, but it's probably no coincidence." "Ekusun Tsukinoe, the designer of the Tower, is her grandfather." "As you've heard, it's clear now that the Tower is a weapon." "Over the past twenty-five years, the Tower has become a part of the everyday scenery and it symbolizes many things." "Another tribute from the director to Kenji Miyazawa." "Iwanami Shoten is a famous Japanese publisher (est. 1914)." "Iwanami Bunko is a series of West and East classics published in 1927." "Nation." "War." "Race." "Despair." "Even admiration." "How it's interpreted differs between generations..." "But the one constant is that everyone sees it as a symbol of something beyond their reach." "Something that can't be changed." "And as long as they do, this world probably won't change, either." "Three days from now, early in the morning, the American government will declare war on the Union." "We're going to take advantage of the confusion and blow up the Tower." "We'll enter Ezo airspace with an unmanned Predator, and hit the Tower with a Seeker missile fitted with a PL outer-shell warhead." "The Uilta Liberation Front will be disbanded on the same day." "As of now, this factory is shut down." "Okay." "Okay, got it." "See you tomorrow." "Hey." "It's been three years, hasn't it, Takuya?" "When did you get here?" "The day before yesterday." "I've been sleeping in the abandoned station." "In the station?" "Yeah." "What happened to your arm, Takuya?" "Oh." "Just a little accident." "What do you mean, an "accident"?" "I'll tell you later." "I guess it's closed again today." "Hey..." "Chobi!" "How are you?" "It's been a while, huh?" "You want to fly the Bella Ciela?" "With Sawatari on board?" "Yeah." "Another day or so and I'll be done putting it together." "All that's left will be the bug in the control software to deal with." "Wait a minute." "Did you even hear what I said?" "Sawatari just stays asleep and the Tower is..." "The Tower is going to be the target of the terrorist attack, right?" "That's why I need your help!" "I told you already..." "If I fly her to the Tower," "I think she'll wake up." "You..." "You came back here for something like that?" ""Something like that"?" "!" "We made a promise!" "I have a dream about Sawatari..." "It repeats, over and over." "She's by herself, in a place that's completely deserted." "She says she can't remember anything." "But she remembers the promise." "I promised her again in the dream, that I'd really take her to the Tower this time." "I can't believe it's just a dream." "You come waltzing back into town..." "Here I was wondering what it was about, and you tell me it's about some dream?" "You tick me off just looking at you." "I don't have time for these games." "The problem is you've been obsessed with something like this." "I'm gonna help you forget." "Don't!" "Takuya!" "It's either save Sayuri or save the world." "Oh." "I, uh, forgot something." "You did?" "Aren't you gonna go home, Sawatari?" "Yeah." "I will." "Hiroki-kun..." "What happened to your cheek?" "I kind of had a fight with Takuya." "Is everything okay?" "Yeah, it's fine." "We'll make up soon." "Probably." "Okay." "Good night." "Hiroki-kun!" "Are you going to the station?" "I always have the feeling... that I'm going to lose something." "The world is really beautiful but it's like I'm so far away from it all alone" "But to me," "Sayuri looked like she was at the center of the brilliant world." "Ah, I see." "I just felt like I sort of understood something very important, but it's gone..." "Hello!" "Is anyone home?" "Okabe-san!" "It's me, Hiroki." "Okabe-san!" "I can at least find out how to get hold of him." "Hiroki..." "I thought it was you." "You've grown." "Okabe-san?" "Hey, what's this?" "Takuya told me everything." "Show me just how determined you are." "You guys destroy the Tower." "I wonder if the rumor about the terrorist bombing is true?" "Who knows." "But the war is probably right about to begin and when it does, researching the Tower could be the very last thing on our minds." "In terms of protesting the Separation, I get the feeling that what Tsukinoe's doing is no different from terrorist organizations like Uilta." "You're a little mysterious, aren't you, Shirakawa-kun?" "I bet you have a lot of secrets." "No, not at all..." "Sorry." "I'll make some tea." "And let me take a look at that cheek, okay?" "Shirakawa-kun..." "You get hurt a lot these days." "Sorry..." "Are you in trouble or something?" "No." "I'm fine." "Sorry..." "He was my best friend." "What?" "The one I had a fight with." "We both longed for the same thing..." "We had the same goal..." "But we went in different directions and..." "How can I put this?" "I was filled with an energy, a drive I didn't understand... but I ended up not knowing which way I should go." "That's why I was so relieved that I could join this research lab," "because I felt like I had found something I should be doing and..." "I was also happy that I met you, Maki-san." "That's why..." "I don't want to involve you in this." "There's something that I absolutely have to do." "When it's all over," "I'd like to see you again." "Shirakawa-kun!" "Sawatari..." "This time, for sure..." "Let's go to the place we promised." "What's the big idea, Oka-chan?" "You're going to use kids for something like that?" "They're the ones who wanted to do it." "Besides, the area surrounding the Tower has been swallowed up by those parallel world things, right?" "Not like anyone's gonna die there." "That's still no reason for..." "Calm down, Tomizawa." "And anyway, by the time they get back, they won't be kids anymore." "You want me to guess what's going through your mind right now?" "Oh, jeez..." "Talk to you later." "Looks like the final curtain's about to drop." "Is this really going to wake Sayuri-chan up?" "For some reason, I'm now convinced that it will." "The promise from that day is probably her link to reality." "Even now, in her dream, she's waiting for the Bella Ciela." "I think both Hiroki and I sensed that somehow." "The Bella Ciela is just a two-seater, and I can't pilot with this arm, so I'll stay behind and watch what happens to the Tower." "I thought it was cold." "Now it started snowing again." "Well, I'm leaving now." "Yeah." "Hey, it's been a long time since you and Hiroki have worked together." "Be sure to get along now!" "Which one is it..." "This one?" "You heard from Okabe-san?" "Yeah." "Takuya!" "Which version of the BIOS should I use?" "You changed the rudder location, didn't you?" "I still don't have the right one." "It's on this." "It also has one for the Seeker missile." "What's left?" "I still have a little wiring of the superconducting motor." "Other than that, just some fine-tuning of the software." "They're scheduled to officially declare war in five hours." "There's no other way but to fly right into the middle of the war." "I'll take care of the software." "You finish up the wiring." "Okay." "Hey, Takuya, what the heck is with that error message?" "!" "Huh?" "The one on version check." "Version check?" "Didn't you write that thing?" "Three years ago?" "Huh?" "I did?" "You haven't changed..." "Idiot." "Hiroki, take a look at this." "What is it?" "The forecast of the battle conditions off the coast of Tsugaru." "It's pretty much what we expected." "So, the frontline will be up to about the 42nd latitude." "The inland area is virtually empty, especially around the Tower." "Well, the erosion has gotten pretty advanced on land." "How do you want to go in?" "Slip through flying low on the jet engine until we're clear of the strait." "We'll pass the 42nd latitude and right around here, when we reach the mountains," "I'll take her up to cruising altitude." "How's that?" "Yeah..." "I don't think there's any other way you could do it." "When you get to the Tower and Sawatari wakes up, the disparate matter conversion on the ground should start again." "When that happens, get out of there fast." "Once you're about 10km away from the Tower, shoot the Seeker missile." "I programmed it so that it will fly straight to the Tower." "So that's all you have to do." "It'll be over." "Ok." "Everything will work out, right?" "Yeah." "There's still nearly two hours before the war starts." "We finished it earlier than we thought, huh?" "Yup." "Hiroki..." "Yeah?" "By any chance... can you play the violin?" "You're still a single-minded idiot, though." "Who asked you?" "!" "Besides, you're the one who asked me to play!" "Look over here and start playing!" "Shut up!" "Just shut your mouth and listen!" "I can tell my body's trembling:" "it knows that I'm going to wake up." "I feel more afraid than anxious..." "Why is that?" "Sayuri said," ""I always have the feeling that I'm going to lose something."" "I have a vague sense of that same feeling now." "But..." "Just like I promised on that day after school..." "I will go to that Tower." "The Tower's operational levels are rising again!" "The branch universes' erosion area is expanding!" "Current radius is 36km and gradually expanding at a rate of 0.4km/hour." "Is this a reaction to the signs of her awakening?" "Everything will be okay..." "Right, Oka-chan?" "Professor!" "War has just been declared!" "The first conflict will soon take place off the coast of Tsugaru." "The land!" "Sayuri, look." "It's the place of our promise." "Those wings..." "It's the Bella Ciela." "The dreams... they're disappearing." "I get it now." "I know now what I'm going to lose." "Oh, God..." "Please, God..." "Please wake Sayuri from her sleep." "Please..." "Please... even if it's just for a moment that I wake up, please don't let this feeling disappear." "I have to tell Hiroki-kun... how special the connection we shared in our dreams was." "How in a world with no one in it... just how much I longed for him and he longed for me." "Sayuri..." "Please!" "I have to tell him how much I've loved him all this time." "If I can just tell him that much then I don't need anything else." "Please, even just for a moment..." "Don't let this feeling disappear!" "Sayuri..." "Fujisawa-kun..." "Disparate matter conversion is rapidly expanding!" "Ezo's being swallowed!" "Sayuri..." "I..." "I have to tell you something..." "Something very important..." "But now it's gone!" "It's all right." "You're awake now." "You can get it all back again, starting now." "Welcome back." "Sayuri" "We've lost the place of our promise in this world, but even so, our lives begin now."