In the downpour, Sakura is running in terror. She blindly grasps for a broom and turns to face the upper-half of a PPOR moving about in the refuse area outside her apartment. She smashes one of the robot's eye-lenses with the broom handle and runs away down the street.
The scene changes to a short while earlier, when Sakura is looking up information about Tataki on a computer. Then, sitting slone in the dark after Key's departure, she says quietly to herself, "I'm such a jerk..."
At the temple of the Golden Serpent Prayer Salvation Society, Key is drying herself off from her walk through the rain. As she does so, Janome explains that just after Key left the temple earlier, one of the couples who follow his religion carried in their son. The boy, he explains, is in a pitiful state: barely conscious and very likely not going to surive the night. As Key dresses in the dry robe provided by Janome, he further describes the boy's plight. "They say there are holes in his internal organs, and pus is building up in his abdomen. I never told them they couldn't take him to a doctor!" he says, helplessly. "I never said that they shouldn't have him operated on! We don't have any stupid doctrines like that here!" Janome turns and opens the door to Key's room. "So why didn't they?" he exclaims.
Outside, Sergei observes from the van's instruments that his "target" has stopped. The back of the van is dark, with the dormant PPOR looking somehow ...expectant.
Back inside, Key and Janome are seated as the priest continues. He says that with medicine being what it is today, the boy's condition shouldn't be fatal. The boy's parents must be placing all their faith in the gods; they prayed over him, using one of the crystal balls wrapped by a golden snake like a talisman. Janome notes that their own efforts failing, they brought their son to the temple in hope that Lord Konja and his "prince" (Janome) could save him. The parents also told the other followers in the area; they came to the temple to pray for the child.
Janome seems rather humble as he admits his gratefulness in the faith with which his followers apparently have in him and for their faith in general, so much so that it "brings tears to my eyes." "I must have been blessed to have been given the opportunity to found a religion...but the odds are too great for me today. There isn't anything I can do for him...it is probably too late to do anything for him." Key responds, saying that they should take the boy to a doctor. Janome replies that no, they can't--the boy's parents are doctors themselves and that they have no hope for a cure by the arts of medicine.
Outside, Sergei is powering up the instruments in the van. Close by, Tomoyo's computer beeps, apparently receiving a signal from the van.
Janome is leading Key into the sanctuary. "I've told them you're my best pupil," explains the priest, "and that you've just returned from a long period of study." "But I don't what I can do," says Key as Janome slides the door open and they stand on the threshold.
In front of the statue of Konja, the group of people kneeling there turn toward the opened door. The boy's father, after a moment of recognition, stands and asks, "my lord, is this her?" The priest nods silently. The followers, their eyes suddenly alight with hope look at Key. "It's Lady Tokiko! She's come!" The parents of the boy rush to kneel before Key. "Please, help us!" they plead. "Save our son's life!" The rest of the people come to kneel before her, begging for her help. Key looks forlornly at the group before her as Janome quiets them.
Janome and Key approach the altar, in front of which lies the stricken child. Key kneels beside the child and looks at him as Janome addresses his flock: "You can relax now. Tokiko can work miracles even greater than mine! If we combine our faith, this child's life shall surely be saved!" The priest and his people begin to pray as Key stares at the dying boy. As she tries to grasp the problem before her, we can hear the sound of her gears and wheels once more.
In the van, Sergei is seated in the control chair, concentrating on waking the PPOR. As it awakens, its progress is observed by the team in Ajou's main lab. Ajou himself is there, watching. Just after the PPOR activates, Ajou gets up to leave. The employees ask if he isn't going to watch D's operation. Ajou replies, "a waste of time. He's chasing shadows. Mima's granddaughter is of no use to us. She doesn't have that power Sergei was going on about, and never did." The man with the broken foot is angered by this. "You've got room to talk, jerking us around with those delusions of yours!" the man says, to the consternation of his fellows. "Every day I spend in this forsaken crypt drives me a little crazier!"
Ajou seems unmoved as he admonishes his team. "With all the extra telemetry I've had installed, why have you overlooked so much information? I want to know *today* what is causing my poor sons' sickness." As Ajou turns to walk from the room, he mentions that they will be performing a Gel extraction test in the morning and to prepare a test subject. This elicits a sudden fear from the injured man who hobbles after Ajou, asking him to wait a moment. As the door closes behind Ajou, the man stumbles back to his station, remarking that his foot was causing so much pain the retort at Ajou just slipped out. As the fellow seats himself at his console to resume work, he suddenly tenses and turns to see his comrades standing behind him and staring rather cryptically. "What's with you two?" he gasps. "The boss wasn't serious, he was just kidding!" The other two men don't seem to think so as they chloroform and drug the unfortunate man. As they do so, the main viewscreen shows Sergei once more exerting his control over the PPOR.
Ajou, in his private elevator, is huddled on the floor, gibbering. "Sergei, you fool! I'll make you pay! You're going to die today!" As the elevator doors open, Ajou looks up to see his Miho PPOR standing silently in the doorway. Ajou smiles...
By the light of the candles, the statue of Konja gleams as Janome and his people pray, calling on their patron's name. "Grandpa...I don't understand," says Key to the memory of her grandfather as she gazes at the boy. "What am I supposed to do? What can I do? They say he is about to die. I am not God. I can't do anything." (The boy gasps, not breathing for a moment) "He's dying! He's about to die! Help me, Grandpa. Help me, Sakura; I'll never make any trouble for you again. Mr. Tataki...Tomoyo...Miho...I don't know what to do. Will you tell me? Will all of you tell me before I break down and die? I...what should I do...?"
A tear trickles down Key's face as she despairs. In her body, something incredible is happening--living tissues and organs are rushing to replace the mechanics. Her pupils dilate with the sudden awareness of emotion... In her apartment, Sakura suddenly looks up, as if she heard something.
Key is crying. She collapses on the boy's bedding, sobbing uncontrollably. In the van, the powerbox disruption feeds back on Sergei once again. In the nearbly alley, Tomoyo observes the information on his computer.
Sakura is looking out her balcony window, searching for the source of the noise she heard earlier. She notices something very strange amid the rubbish pile on the road below. In the lab, one of the scientists shouts that the anomaly is happening again and tries to contact D. The visuals return, just in time for the scientists to watch as the PPOR tries to strangle D! The scientists try to shut off the PPOR, but it isn't responding. One asks about using the Gel controller, but his partner notes that they are too far away for it to work. As the camera shows the third scientist, now laying in a drugged stupor on the operating table, the other scientists tell D to hang on. In the excitement, no one sees Sakura on another video monitor as she approaches the PPOR in the rubbish pile. As that PPOR tries to get up, Sakura screams, dropping her umbrella.
In the van, D is hunched over the PPOR, still trying to pry its hands away from his throat. D reaches inside his jacket and grabs the PPOR finger joint (that he picked up from the spot where the PPOR that was assaulting Tamari was destroyed) and uses it to smash one eye-lens of the PPOR. The lab screen goes blank, prompting the scientists to go out and check the scene. As they leave, one of them notes that the other PPOR's visual has failed as well. That PPOR is seen with one end of a broom handle jammed into the eye-lens and a terrified Sakura grasping the other. In the van, Sergei stands, rubbing his neck. "Like father, like son...they weren't kidding," he mutters.
At the temple, the followers keep vigil over the boy while Janome speaks with Key in another room. "What's the matter?" he asks. "You saw that boy; he won't last much longer!" "I know...but..." says Key, helplessly. "Save him! I'm begging you!" pleads Janome. "Make it real flashy, just like you did yesterday!" Key says that she isn't able to, but Janome persists, saying that even though he was pompous with her earlier that day, in truth there is nothing he can do to heal the boy. But he did see what Key could do. "I don't have any powers like that," Key insists. "I don't have any powers at all. I don't remember what happened yesterday, or this afternoon." "You're just pretending you can't remember," says Janome. "You're trying to hide those incredible powers." Key is shaking her head, but the priest is undaunted. "I saw what you did with my own eyes! No human could have done that. Curing a disease should be simple in comparison! I don't know if you're a living god or what, but it was like the sun was shining down upon me when I saw you standing in my doorway, soaking wet. 'Maybe I can still work some miracles after all,' I thought. Truth all told, I had been praying that you'd come, even before they brought the boy here. Please, give it a try, just once more? Okay?" Key (almost imperceptably) nods.
In the van, Sergei loads a pistol and steps out, leaving the PPOR as it was on the van's floor.
As Key enters the temple sanctuary once again, the people entreat her to please try to save the child. As Key looks over at the child, she seems distant..as if she were only partly conscious of the room. In the van, the inert PPOR's hand suddenly twitches. The sound of her own body, mingled with the voices of the followers and the sight of the dying child are too much for Key, and she clutches her head as if in pain. She falls to her knees, eyes squeezed shut against the wash of sensations flooding through her; she is kneeling alone in the darkness.
A ceremonial drum begins, and with the wind whistling through the trees, a torch suddenly abolishes the dark. Key opens her eyes to discover that she is kneeling on the forest floor. As she stands she smiles; they are are all here once again! Her grandfather and Tomoyo, Sakura and Tataki, people from the events at the restaurant even the people of Janome's temple! Key looks around at her friends, who are standing along a path leading to the Shinto shrine. Kneeling on the floor of the shrine is the priestess, holding in her arms the sick boy. Key, standing before them, looks down at the boy. The priestess hands the child to Key, and just for a moment as we see the profiles of the priestess and Key, it is as if we are looking at mother and child. From the gathered people, tiny, actinic pinpoints of light seem to rise until nothing but the two priestesses and the boy can be seen. The points of light rush inward, enveloping Key as she closes her eyes and leans down to kiss the child...
By the light of the candles before the altar of Konja, the priest and his people stare, amazed. Key is kneeling over the boy, kissing him. A moment later, Key sits up, smiling at Janome and at that moment looking like the Shinto maiden from the vision. Just then, a sudden nausea overtakes Key as she spits up some sort of bile. Janome asks whats wrong, and Key vomits the rest of the bile all over him just before she faints. As the priest tries to wake her, the boy's mother gasps. The boy is sitting up, with no sign of illness evident. Janome stares at the boy, then down at the unconscious Key. The boy stands and points toward a corner of the room; the people turn to look.
"Hand over that girl," demands the shadow-hidden form of Sergei. "Wha-? Nothing doing! Who are you!?" demands Janome. "You have no business here. Leave!" Sergei raises his pistol and fires a shot into the floorboards at the priest's feet. As the other people stand and ask what is going on, Sergei starts shooting them down in no particular order. Janome, horrified, demands to know why Sergei is doing this. As Sergei hefts the gun into his other hand and aims at Janome, the scene appears in profile through the viewfinder of a night-vision scope. The scope swings from Janome to Sergei. Tomoyo, wearing night-vision goggles and armed with a wrist-mounted subversion slingshot, takes aim and slings a curious white projectile straight into Sergei's hand. The projectile has shattered into flechette slivers and are stuck like quills. Sergei, in sudden agony, fires a wild shot that breaks the head of the Konja statue loose then drops the gun.
As the gun hits the floor, Tomoyo dashes into the room and kicks the gun out of reach. Tomoyo delivers a roundhouse kick to Sergei, who is knocked down. As Janome picks up the gun, Tomoyo explains to Sergei that the flechette weapon will render his left hand useless for life. Sergei tears away the glove in a splatter of blood and flexes the "useless" hand. As he delivers a powerful punch, (watch the scene carefully, it is the punch the PPOR in episode 1 used) Sergei notes that his hand still seems to work pretty well.
At Tataki's apartment, Tataki has made a copy of the "Voice" DAT and is playing it. Just as he does so, someone begins pounding on his door. As he opens the door, Sakura rushes in, gasping, and collapses in his arms. "Key's going to die!" she stammers. "They're going to kill her!"
In Ajo's penthouse, the viewscreen of his personal theatre shows the Miho PPOR laying on a bed. Ajou is standing above her, holding a scalpel and obviously in another one of his moods. As the scene changes to the inert body of the drugged scientist in the main lab, the viewscreen for the PPOR in the van begins receiving again. The view is of trees; the PPOR has left the van and is wandering. In the temple, as Tomoyo tries to stand but then falls forward, unconscious, the terrified priest is holding Key with one arm and pointing the gun at Sergei with the other...
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