Nageki and Hitori, untangled from The King’s wreckage, and I, fall through the stars.

We touch down in a field of silver grass.
It is like nothing we saw inside the egg, or in the beautiful dream kingdom.

Hiyoko!

Ryouta!
I’m so glad you all made it out okay!

Yeah.
And we knew you’d get out just fine, Hiyoko.

And… you too, Nageki. You did really well. It must have been hard.

I’m fine.

Cooooooooooo!
(Nageki is tough! He has the soul of a buff, manly man!)

I don’t want to think about where we’d be right now if you two hadn’t broken through back there.

I’m really quite grateful.
Thank you, Nageki.

…right.

Hmph! You call yourself a hero of justice, but you can’t even get by without relying on your juniors, can you?!

Well, that’s a little harsh.
I’d never seen anything like this before, either– can’t you cut me a little slack?

Hmph. You are too sloppy!
You never manage to do anything without slipping up.

But… I suppose there is no harm in considering there to be some value in your efforts to come rescue us.

Why thank you.
That alone makes all of this worth it.

Merry Christmas!
(Miru and Kaku will praise you, too!)

Merry Christmas!
(GJ! GJ!)

Hey there! Looks like everybody’s together again!

Oh, Mister Migrant!

…

Aww, come on! Do you have to look so angry, old friend?
Your forehead’s gonna end up permanently creased!

Wait… you know the Doctor?

No, we’re complete strangers.

Ouch… that’s cold…

Anyway, let me introduce my new friends!
Over here, guys!

!

More of the pushy peasants!
I’ve heard enough out of you lot!

Don’t worry! They’re all going back to being migrants, like me.

Aaaah, my shoulders are so stiff!

That was a long nap… man, I could eat a horse!

Wow, what a dream! Wow!

Hey! Don’t go stealing my lines!

…the birds The King had absorbed?

Yeah, that’s them!
We’re all going back to wandering the night sky.
You too, of course!

I don’t want to! I’m scared…!

Where’d he come from?

Mister King, you’re way too quiet! I didn’t even realize you were here!

I’m so tiny now… just leave me alone…!

That’s no good.
If we left you on your own here, you’d just do the same thing again, wouldn’t you?

Besides, traveling the stars isn’t that bad! You don’t need to be scared.

You’re lying!
You don’t know where the train will go either, do you?!

Nope! That’s what traveling’s all about!

Waaaaaah!

You made The King cry, Mister!
You meanie!

Wait, you mean me?!
Since when am I the bad guy?!

It looks like you are now.

L-look, I’m sorry, okay?
I didn’t mean it like that… uhh…

When we return our names to the stars, we’re leaving on a journey into the night.

We make all sorts of memories while we’re alive, right? Good ones and bad ones.

All that baggage is too heavy. We can’t carry it with us into our next lives.
So we journey through the night sky, letting our memories go a little bit at a time.

I don’t want to!
Forgetting is scary!

But if you keep clinging to your memories, you can never be reborn.

We’re like stones washing down a river.
You might start as a big, jagged lump, but as you keep washing along, you get worn down until you’re round and smooth.
The sparks as your corners chip off are what make the stars shine.

And when you’ve journeyed through the night sky until you can’t get any rounder, you turn into an egg and fall back to Earth.

Back there again?!

Don’t you want to be reborn, Mister King?

Noooo!
I don’t want to go through all that again!

Come on, it won’t be all bad!

…well, I guess it might be. You never know!

Waaaaaah!!!

You made him cry again!

The King’s Station!
The King’s Station!

Leaving on a journey? Heading home? This is the line for you, either way.

This is the Earth-Southern Cross line, that’s right.
The train to Earth will be coming next.
Don’t get on the wrong one!

It’s the train!
Come on, before it leaves!

Come with us, Your Highness.
Oh, would you like a caramel?

-sniff-…

Beautiful scenery! Jolly companions!
What a wonderful day!
Come on, let’s go.

…oh, right!

I completely forgot!
Come here for a second, old friend.

…please, don’t act so familiar.

Let me give you a present before I leave!
As proof of our friendship.

Hmm, give me a minute… what do I have…?
Sorry, I can never keep my things straight.

Indeed.
You’re always picking up useless gew-gaws, and you never put them in order.

Uhh… ahh, here we are!
I picked this up in Orion’s Belt.

It’s a fossil!
Look at it! Isn’t it cool? It’s huge!

…are you a child?

Hey, geology is fun, too!
You should try going on an excavation sometime. I bet you’d love it!

I shall… keep it in mind.

Their chemistry murders me.

And you!

…?
Me?

Let me give you… this amber.
Isn’t it pretty?

Err… yes, it is. But why are you giving it to me?

I actually meant to give it to you a long, long time ago…

Sorry, I’ve got to go.
Take care of your mother, okay?

I…

All aboard for the Southern Cross!
We missing anybody?

…what about me?

Oh…

I completely forgot.
We fought The King with all we had so we could all go home, including Nageki, but…

Maybe that’s not where he needs to go.

What do… what do you want to do, Nageki?

I…

I want to stay on Earth a little longer.
There’s still so much I want to see.

Maybe this is greedy of me.
Maybe I’m being selfish, like The King.
But–

There are still important things that I need to remember.
I can’t release memories into the night if I don’t have them.

So, I want… time, until I either remember everything, or replace it with new memories.

I dunno, kiddo.
We never recommend haunting as a deathstyle choice, you know?
Too easy to go all black and bitter.

You mean Nageki could turn into something like The King?
I really don’t think he would do that…

If I start turning bad, I’ll get on the same train as The King.

Is Nageki not allowed to stay with us, Mister Conductor…?

Like I said, I can’t recommend it.
But you said you’ve lost your memories?

If you don’t have any ill will left over from your lifetime, you’ll probably be okay.

And mister, you burned up your free pass.

You don’t look like you have any other tickets, so you’ll have to wait until they’re reissued anyway.

So, Nageki can…!

For now, he can go back to Earth.

…all right.

Yay!
I’m so glad, Nageki!

For better or worse, I suppose.

This is definitely for better!
You wanted to go home yourself, after all.

And if the conductor had tried to force you on he would have gotten a taste of my right straight, left uppercut combo, anyway!

Hey now, I’m not looking for any trouble!

…what’s a human girl doing at the birds’ station, anyway?
This is all getting kind of weird.

Last call for the Southern Cross!
The train’s pulling out!

The train climbs upwards into the starry sky.
I hope The King and the others have a nice trip!

Come on, everyone! Let’s go home!

…
We release our unhappy memories, and are born again.

I can’t escape mine.
I can only go on and make more.
But…

When I touched his wing–

The school bell rings.

And that’s all for your sophomore year.
Take care, everyone!

So that’s the end of the semester… I guess we have spring break now, but we have to plan ahead for exams, so it’s not so exciting.

Coooooo!
(Release, aah, glorious release!
Until we meet again, loyal friends!)

I wonder what kind of class I’ll be in next year? I hope we’re all together again.

Hmph, that would promise to be another unpleasantly noisy year.
I hope you all will have learned to behave yourselves by then!

Cooo!
(Okosan is always behaving himself!)

You’re the worst of the lot!

Hey, Hiyoko.
Are you doing anything over the weekend?

The weekend?
Aside from Sunday morning TV, no. Why do you ask?

Umm… I was wondering if we could meet up somewhere.

Of course!
Gosh, you don’t have to be so formal, Ryouta!

I guess that’s true. I’ll send you an e-mail, okay?
See you!

 

Something crashes.

Merry Christmas!
(SHOCK!!!)

Have you two knocked another flask over?
I keep telling you two not to go running around the infirmary.

Merry Christmas!
(Miru and Kaku didn’t do anything!)

Huh?

…I’m sorry, my wing slipped.

You’re the last one I’d have expected to see break something, Doctor.

I was thinking about… things.

…in any case, I’ve lost my concentration now.
I think I would do well to take a little air.
I shall leave early.

He seems to be recovering a lot more slowly than me.
I wonder if he saw something particularly terrifying in that dream.

Anyway, time to clean this up.
Could you two get me the broom?

Merry Christmas!

Last time my grand plans were swept aside by some unrelated and thoroughly ridiculous incident, but–

Today, I settle the score!
You shall have a front row seat for the (second) unveiling of my wonderful masterpiece now!

Prepare yourself, Isa Souma!
The artistic weapon I shall unveil today is–

 Your target isn’t here, not-so-young kiddo.

Wh-what…?
And hey, what kind of name is that?!
I am offended!

Iwamine Shuu went home.
There’s nothing for you to do here.

What rotten luck!
This is too much!
Where does he live? I’ll break in through his window if I have to!

And here the commander, the Snow-Demon Sage, falls.
Overcome with anger, the Disciple of the Violet Rose, reaches out the forbidden-

Wait, Anghel… didn’t the Disciple of the Violet Rose go across the border to train himself in the last chapter?
Even if the Snow-Demon Sage loses, won’t it take him a while to find out?

!
I see… yes, that is correct, Edel Blau.
This is a terrible contradiction! It stinks of the Demon Spores…

This is a little puzzling. I wonder if there was some translation disagreements here. In Absolute Zero, Yuuya is the “Disciple of the Violet Rose”, but who is the “Snow Demon Sage”? Could it be… foreshadowing?!

These Demon Spores sure are scary, Anghel!
Come on, let’s think about how the Disciple of the Violet Rose should make his fall into darkness, okay?

Noooo!

Very well. In accordance with the contracts of old!

…you two are awfully noisy.
Be quiet in the library.

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