闇よりも Than Darkness
UTW
Presents
ＳＨＩＮＳＥＫＡＩ
ＹＯＲＩ
Mutants...
There lived a boy in the village.
He was a boy of great intelligence, but he had one weakness.
Shun!
Solitude was his only friend and confidant.
Unbeknownst to him, the boy's karma spiraled further out of control.
He had turned into a karma demon.
Karma demons ought not to walk this world.
He quietly walked his body to the bottom of a lake.
Where are you?
Saki.
What are you doing here?
I don't know.
Where... am I?
Shun... Shun...
Shun!
You shouldn't be here!
Go home.
No!
What's going on?
I won't budge until you tell me!
Saki...
I... Shun...
Shun... Shun...
I was almost killed...
You met a cat?
Yes.
Your charm saved me.
But I think there's another cat.
Ten minutes.
You can stay here for ten minutes.
I'll explain as much as I can in that time.
Is this your doing?
A mask...
Shun?
Come in.
Ten minutes.
I think I can keep it under control for that long.
Sorry about that.
Please bear with them for now.
Take off that mask.
It's so—
I can't.
We have no time.
Where should I start?
What's going on, Shun?
All problems stem from the human heart.
Our conscious self is just the tip of the iceberg.
The subconscious below the water is greater beyond comparison.
That's not what I want to know!
Tell me what's happening to you!
That's what I am talking about.
Despite our best efforts, we humans cannot fully control our thoughts and feelings.
Our subconscious, in particular, is rife with the unpredictable.
Our Cantus is the most tangible manifestation of this.
In the case of physical actions, there are multiple stages between the inception deep down and the eventual effect.
Although the original impetus is a product of our subconscious,
it needs to pass through our conscious thought before it can be realized.
Human reason can correct or altogether stop an action from being taken.
Cantus works differently, however.
We can consider the inception and execution of an action to be practically simultaneous.
Though it may be the wrong action, there is no time to correct it.
Wrong? What do you mean?
Isn't using our Cantus tied to picturing very specific things?
Some mental images are clearly and consciously conceived,
while others are shrouded in the darkness of the subconscious.
Nobody realizes this.
We try to keep our Canti strictly controlled through hypnosis and mantras.
But in the end, it always leaks through the holes opened by our subconscious.
Leaks through?
Our Canti are constantly leaking out.
In a sense, we are changing the world around us at the whim of our subconsciousness.
But...
What do you think the Holy Barrier is for?
Well...
Do you think it's there to protect us from unknown threats outside of it?
Isn't it?
No.
The Holy Barrier defends against internal threats, not external ones.
Internal threats?
It's our own, constantly leaking Cantus.
Consider fiends or karma demons.
We ultimately fear what spawns from within us.
Of course, the Canti that leaks out is feeble and won't ravage the world overnight.
But if our thoughts and ideas continue to amass and interfere with each other for an extended period of time,
then there is no predicting the results.
This means there is a need to direct it outwards.
Since our childhood, we've been conditioned to fear the outside world.
However, an image of that dark, boundless world also exists within us.
It becomes one with the dark universe inside ourselves—our subconscious.
By linking our subconscious to the outside world,
we direct such leakages outside the Holy Barrier.
The Holy Barrier is like a charm required for our purification.
What does the Cantus do outside the barrier?
The minoshiro's ancestor is most likely a sea slug.
Are you saying the leakage of our Canti created the minoshiro?
Not only the minoshiro.
Tigercrabs and haythatchers as well.
I don't know if you're correct or not.
But...
But I really don't think it matters either!
I just want to know...
I just want to know what's happening to you!
Don't worry.
That's Subaru.
Come here.
None of this... I really...
I didn't want to do any of this.
Do you understand now?
All this is the result of what's happening to me.
My Cantus just won't stop escaping.
It's also growing in intensity, and I'm less and less able to control it.
My subconsciousness has gone out of control, resulting in extreme leakages of my Cantus.
Under its destructive effects, everything around me is warped.
This is the Hashimoto-Appelbaum syndrome.
I've...
...turned into a karma demon.
That can't be...
It's sad but true.
All these books contain knowledge that was supposed to have been consigned to oblivion.
Your mother went out of her way to lend them to me.
My mother?
Reading these books is the only way to learn what changing into a karma demon is all about.
This is all we know.
I'm writing down my own experience too.
In the end, I'm merely the most recent case.
I have to add my name to the list.
Don't say that.
Is there any way we can reverse this?
Can't we seal your Cantus?
Head Priest Mushin tried that already.
My Cantus is like something with a broken lid.
It's unlikely that anything can hold it back now.
Is it because...
...I didn't restore your Cantus correctly?
It's not your fault!
You should go home now.
I'm focusing all my Cantus on the wasp balls right now so that it doesn't affect you.
Once my concentration wanes, I can't say when it will become uncontrollable again.
No! I won't go!
I want to be with you!
Saki.
My condition has already caused the death of my parents.
So please go home!
I don't want anyone else I love to die in front of me!
I...
...can't save you.
I can't do anything!
Shun.
Is there anything you want me to do?
Saki, no!
Stop...
Shun!
Subaru tried to rescue me.
Despite how futile it was...
I tried to leave him behind many, many times.
Still, he followed me every time.
Perhaps I was the lonely one.
I'd be all alone without Subaru.
It's not the cat's fault either.
It's here simply because it was ordered to end my life.
So you see...
I've taken too long to decide on what I should've done.
But...
I should have ended this much sooner.
If I hadn't been so indecisive,
Subaru wouldn't have had to suffer like this.
I was given a bottle of pills before I came here.
A combination of various types of poison.
Don't you think it's a cruel parting gift?
I'm glad you didn't take any of them.
You should've just thrown them all away.
I took them all.
They just didn't work.
I guess it's easy to detoxify poisons on a molecular level.
My subconscious desire to survive must've altered the elements themselves.
I think it's coming.
What do you mean?
Leave now.
The same happened when my home was swallowed by the earth.
Isn't it funny?
It's just like the Spirit of Blessing.
Yet instead of blessing you, all it brings is death.
Hurry!
I'll put an end to it now.
I've had enough!
Saki...
I've always loved you.
Goodbye.
Shun!
I have to stay alive.
ＳＨＩＮＳＥＫＡＩ
ＹＯＲＩ
Episode Ten
Than Darkness
Nakisou na aoringo kakaeteru mune no oku
泣きそうな 青リンゴ 抱えてる 胸の奥
In my chest, I carry a green apple that wets my eyes
Korogatte tsuyogatte
転がって 強がって
I fall over yet pretend to be strong
Kyuukutsu na sora niramu
窮屈な空睨む
I glower at the sky and it seems to suffocate me
Unmei ni juujun ni
運命に 従順に
Do I look like I'd wait quietly
Jukusu no wo matsu mon ka
熟すのを 待つもんか
For destiny to ripen it?
Sen no kaze
千の風
The winds
Agaite sakende
足掻いて 叫んで
I struggle and scream
Fuke fuke
吹け吹け
Blow and blow
Watashi wa shabondama
私はシャボン玉
I'm a soap bubble
Soredemo shinjiteru
それでも信じてる
And still I have faith
Yokisenu arashi ni
よきせぬ 嵐に
In a sudden storm
Joushou shite kakou shite
上昇して 下降して
I rise and fall
Aragau shabondama
抗うシャボン玉
I fight, soap bubble that I am
Soredemo ikiteku
それでも生きてく
And still I live on
Hajikeru shunkan niji hanate
はじける瞬間 虹放て
I make a rainbow when I burst
FROM THE NEW WORLD
Have you forgotten about me already?