--211-- The summer of my fourteenth year. Those days came upon me like a sudden storm, and were gone just as fast. The candy-coated bullets she kept shooting, The live bullets I unsteadily fired... --212-- Each and every one a tiny soldier, going off to war against the world. --213-- Early morning, October 4th. Mt. Nina. (pant pant pant) --214-- Stay here. I'll go take a look. Just as Mokuzu had predicted, a storm had come. --215-- So by now, she must've returned to the life of a mermaid. Laying lots of little bubbly eggs in the Sea of Japan with her mermaid friends. Before they depart, splitting up and heading for waters unknown. ...If only that were really how it was. If only all those stories she told were true...!! Nagisa. --216-- Let's get off this mountain. --217-- The little girl... is dead. She's... all in pieces. (flip) I found this on top of her body... --218-- Farewell Mokuzu Ah... "She's turned to sea-foam." --219-- Mo- I don't think you should see her. She was such a beautiful girl, with her pretty black hair and big eyes... But right now, she's a very ugly sight... Gh... --220-- (rip) Mokuzu...! The oceans are connected, all throughout the world. So really, I can go anywhere I like. (pant pant) --221-- Sure. If you want to run away, Yamada Nagisa, I'll come with you. (pant pant) --222-- --223-- --224-- She had been befouled by the filthy hand of her father. My pretty Mokuzu. You're totally covered in bruises... What a mess you are, Umino... You... can just get messed up too, Kanajima Shouta!! 'Cause she's an idiot, you see. I love my father very, very... I'm sorry! I'm sorry, Dadd... (crumple) --225-- "To love, is to despair..." --226-- ... --227-- Frightened, resigned... It was an expression I'd seen on her face before. But Umino Mokuzu's eyes simply stared back at me, empty. --228-- We burst into the early-morning police station. My mouth was trembling too hard for me to speak, so my brother had to explain the body on the mountain to them. He spoke with his head bowed, unable to look them in the eye. Finally, tears began to stream down his face. My brother was no more looking down on the world from God's vantage point. His shivering arms felt so frail as he just held me close and stroked my head. --229-- This was the brother I knew but hadn't seen for three years. Perhaps that pink fog I seemed to sense receding was something he had exchanged for things like friends, a normal life, a future, love, and so on... Perhaps that was a sort of "candy", too. --230-- We've located the body. Hurry up with the identification! They're right in here. Nagisa! Tomohiko! ...Tomohiko... --231-- The Umino's daughter... /Murdered/...? My God... I... I guess this is what the call the "sickness of our times"...? People are so complicated... Don't just babble on like some ignorant TV pundit! Anyone who'd murder a child is plain fucked-up in the head! End of story! To hell with the "times"! ...God damn it! --232-- There were rumors, there were reports from people in the neighborhood... There were even plans for Child Protective Services to take her into custody, but... Whenever we talked to Umino herself, she would cover up for her father, and it never went anywhere... Since I became an adult, I've thought of myself as some kind of Superman. Like with you, Yamada. I felt so sure of myself. I thought, even if she ends up hating me, if I can just get her into high school... Just the same with the Umino house. I assumed things would work out, somehow or other. I figured Superman would make it on time. He would find a way to save the day. But I was wrong. For one of my own students to die... on my watch... --233-- Ahh... Umino... If you'd lived just a little longer, you'd have become an adult. But tell me, Umino... --234-- Did you even want to keep on living? --235-- --236-- (gulp gulp gulp gulp) It had an odd, mineral taste to it. I could feel it trickling down into my dried-out body. --237-- But I got the sense that no matter how much I drank, that dryness wouldn't go away. Ah, I see... --238-- So this was Umino Mokuzu's true form. --239-- The lead suspect at this time appears to be the victim's father, Mr. Umino Masachika... Now, if you listen to the suspect, Umino's, debut single, "Bones of a Mermaid"... Pay special attention here to the lyrics of the third verse-- Good morning! Hey, did you hear about it? Yeah, I did...! --240-- So Umino Masachika confessed to it. (murmur murmur) All crying and acting like some kind of tragic hero... Man, I really don't-- Ah (slide) --241-- Nagisa. You missed a lot of school, right? Here... I copied my notes. I mean... with finals coming up and all, you know? Th... Thank you. --242-- Here, you too! Not looking too swell for you either! I... I get it, geez! (giggle) (slide) Take your seats, now. Looks like we've got everyone here. --243-- Aoki? Here. Before I realized, the scent of summer had faded away. --244-- Autumn was just beginning to deepen, when one day my brother suddenly cut his flowing, silky hair right off. Hm? Oh, just kind of felt that way, you know? I was shocked. ... (Faculty Room) He joined the Self-Defense Force? Yes... and apparently he's insanely fast at assembling and disassembling a machine-gun. He even does it gracefully. Well, now. --245-- So now they're calling him the "Machine-Gun Toting Noble," or something. Ha ha... So, that brother of yours... Really has started firing "live bullets," huh? In a literal sense. That's right. That's why... --246-- No more will anyone be firing any "candy bullets." Excuse me. No more will anyone be throwing bottles of mineral water at my back, or calling the bruises on her body "contamination." (Directory of In-Prefecture High Schools) --247-- No more will anyone say to me "Let's run away, I don't care where." --248-- (limp) --249-- --250-- (fsssshuu) (roll roll) (conk) --251-- At that summer's end, --252-- There were soldiers, comrades, who fought the world beside me, and died. The proof of their existence is engraved silently in my chest. --253-- Though I become an adult, my soul will never forget them. (fssshuuu) --254-- Sugar-candy bullets, can't pierce anything. [I've used the common translation of the title, but its meaning in context is a little unclear. Is she saying the "bullets" can't escape her memory?]