Fate / Body+Soul

At the scene of Amachi’s disappearance, Aoki retraces her last steps in search of leads.

Search for Her Body

As field investigation is under the jurisdiction of Criminal Affairs (as Aoki had ironically told Amachi days before), a fellow member of the Ninth confronts him and admonishes him to back off.

But Aoki already knows that:

Striking out on his own, Aoki ends up at the plastic surgeon’s clinic Amachi visited right before her disappearance. He realizes too late that he was right all along — Amachi’s dreams did in fact contain all the clues: the jar of cheap jewellery she brought him in the dream and had mentioned in their last conversation, the scent of Japanese cypress — the serial killer’s trophies, the surgeon’s perfume as she extracted Amachi’s brain. He is knocked out and, all of a sudden, in lethal danger: Having seen the surgeon’s face and the collection of jewellery and organs, he cannot be allowed to return. He is placed next to Amachi’s body in the morgue freezer, his heart to be carved out and sent back to the Ninth in lieu of his brain.

In a Dream You Were Alive

Recognizing Amachi’s physical presence by her scent, he begins to dream. In Amachi’s dreamscape, he searches for her, cool box in hand, ready to get the brain back to its owner posthaste. He finds her sleeping on a floating step in the sky. When she opens her eyes, he puts her brain in its proper place, and they happily enjoy their reunion.

Feeling the temperature drop, Aoki urges Amachi to get out of the dream and come back with him. Amachi, however, cannot go back anymore, and pleads with him to stay. As Aoki’s body temperature sinks further and further, his struggle with impending death in Amachi’s frozen world overlaps with scenes of Amachi’s desperate pleas to be saved from the cold as her brain was removed. In his dream, Amachi clings to his immobile body and holds him gently as he steers closer towards death, asking him to stay, assuring him that everything will be fine soon and that she will be by his side. All he has to do is let go and stay.

As it turns out, Maki stuck a tracking device on Aoki in a wise bout of foresight, surmising that he may be the next victim. Aoki is saved at the last minute. For Amachi however, it is too late. Lying motionless on the operating table next to Aoki, her one hand, now in the state of rigor mortis, has strangely managed to reach out and clutch his jacket tightly. He gives it to her as a parting gift.

Here, the story asks a question without offering an answer:

A Smiling Face

The night before Amachi’s funeral, the Ninth gathers to watch the end of her dream, the images recorded right before the termination of her brain activity. As with Aoki’s near-death experience, it is a dream triggered by the rush of endorphins designed to ease the pain and anguish of death, a happy world conceived by the brain. In the dream, Amachi, though still a newbie, is a fully acknowledged member of the Ninth. She serves Maki coffee without spilling it. She offers Aoki her help. She receives praise, encouragement, proper instruction, the opportunity to be helpful and to grow, and, most importantly, thanks and smiles from all of the team, Aoki most of all.

Her halcyon dream hits the spectating team hard, and moves Aoki to tears.