Araya (before battle)
... mmy!
It's Mommy!
.......
What?
... Kid, did you see who was here before me?
Uh-huh.
.......
.......
Wanna... know who?
... Yeah.
This man in black came in, and... everyone fell.
So I hid. I'm good at that. Wanna see how long I can hold my breath?
Here... Huppp...!
That means Rien... took care of business before I got here...
Phaw!
Mommy, don't leave me!
What...?
Why are you calling me that?
Cause I know you. I'm locked in here but I still saw you lots.
I saw you in this picture.
... My picture?
There's something on the back. Project "Araya," Mass-production endeavor... Commissioned by... The Thumb?
You're here to take me home.
All the grown-ups here told me this isn't my real home.
Said home is where "mommy" is.
And now that mommy's here, I can go home.
.......
I'm glad I waited. Hehee~
You're back.
... I am.
Not even a drop of blood on you. Should I even ask if you've done the job?
... Father got there first.
Rien did?
Why didn't he share the damned Prescript with us if he'd gotten one?
20 years of living under the same roof, and I still don't know what that asshole's thinking.
Hmph, I suppose that's too much to ask for some fake bitch who doesn't even share his real name with us.
.......
Well, don't just stand there. Go back to your room if you don't have anything else to say.
Okay.
.......
By the way, Ticket?
About that thing in your bag...
You're gonna look after it, right? Just know that I won't give a flying fuck if that thing bites it like that dog - Saru, Shiru, whatever that bitch's name was.
.......
I can... keep her?
You know how much I hate it when kids start sniveling, hm?
Just keep the noise outta my ears.
... Okay.
See, see?
I'm good at hiding, right?
... You are.
...!
Y-you're not half bad.
Uh-huh, not half bad.
But... you don't...
You don't have a sword.
Nuh-uh, no sword. But I got mommy, and I got a home here.
You do.
... So...
... what do you want to do now?
Uhm... lotsa lots.
Wanna learn to play music, and, uh... Wanna...
The first encounter with that child...
... has revealed so much to you, so suddenly.
You found all the things you'd missed out on.
All the things you've longed for in the fathoms of your heart.
Your first rebellion was over that child, wasn't it?
That's why you were all so content with just letting it happen.
Because I was your sword, and a sword needs a scabbard - no, a fetter to keep it bound.
Mommy...
Not this kid. Don't you dare mess with her.
Why... are you trying to make another thing... like yourself?
I'm not.
I'm gonna make sure that this kid gets all the things I didn't get to experience... and more.
One day, you'll come to understand, too.
You will realize that you are inviting ruin into your own life by taking that thing under your wing.
Then you'll know too... what it's like to be bound by a fetter.
And when you feel it locking around your feet, dragging you down... I'll have a good laugh at your expense until I am gasping for air.
We'll be like two shriveling carcasses, laughing it all away.
You now understand the meaning of those words, don't you?
The chains of the fetter that bind you here remain unbroken, whether you remember it or not.
The inability to exist in the present because of the past that binds... Why, it is indeed an ineffable agony.
All that you people wanted was nothing more than a docile, obedient beast.
And when you realized that all the beatings were no longer enough to break the animal into obedience, you sought to put her on a leash.
You couldn't risk her embracing her beasthood, lest she abandon her home for the wilderness.
After all, you needed that animal to return at a tug of its leash and cut down anyone the House wanted dead.
But it worked... didn't it?
That's how fetters work.
Don't you dare put this on the kid.
You were the one who egged me on to begin with.
You've already picked up on it, haven't you? That the child is not long for this world.
.......
So, about the extermination mission you are to embark on in a few days.
Rien will call for a consensus,
and every Nursefather, myself included, will vote unanimously in favor of...
... letting you unsheathe that sword.
Here's something for you to consider: you couldn't possibly hope to escape this place without using that sword.
Why... are you telling me any of this?
Because I'm tired of being around you.
I'm sure the feeling is mutual.
Dihui Star, you...
All along, you've wanted to make me suffer to the bitter end, haven't you?
Yoshihide, it...
It never stops.
The sound of the fetter around my feet, rusted and heavy... How it clinks and rattles...
And the sickening sound of a butterfly tearing itself apart as it thrashes to escape the entangling webs... It's wings ripping, its body and limbs contorting and bending back...
It never stops... Oh, this noise... this horrible, cracking noise...
Rien? Where are you?
Why can't you let me be free?
... Stop...
I caught her. I caught the thing none of you could stop, so -
Shut up!
Once you've spent enough time snared by the web...
... you end up surrendering yourself to the fate of a mere observer.
Just as how...
... when you tried to take a step forward, the inseverable, innumerable clew of spider silk...
... bound your feet.
... -ou...
... -ou...
... Canno- be f-ee -rom -ere... wi-hou-...
... wi-hou- -evering... -he spi-er's --read...
.......
That is how you've finally come to accept the truth in your heart.
The truth that you wanted to tear everything away and begin anew...
That ember of an idea is what started the conflagration that consumed you.
No.
Such adamant denial... coming from someone who went on for quite a while without ever remembering this place.
I never stopped thinking about it.
How about this, then? In return for the child, would you snap those Golden Boughs with your own hands?
I don't know what you did to stitch that hateful tongue back in your mouth,
but if you won't tell me where Araya is right now,
this time, I'll cut everything up...
... and finish the job.