Tokyo: The Manga Begins with the Funeral of Frilian

It's almost 2 o'clock.

A woman pushed open the door and entered.

Her belly was high and round. She supported her waist with one hand.

Her other hand was being held by a tall, thin man.

The man's face was full of tension.

He helped the woman up step by step.

When Fujita saw the two people, he seemed to freeze in place for a moment.

"Xiao Lin."

Kobayashi turned to look at him, then smiled.

Her face was a little pale.

But his eyes were indeed very bright.

"Mr. Fujita."

she says.

"I want to see the blue I mixed with my own eyes."

"Where are you from?"

Fujita's voice trembled slightly as he spoke.

"I took the Shinkansen."

Sato said.

"We left Yokohama at five in the morning. She insisted on coming. The doctor said she shouldn't travel such a long distance, but she wouldn't listen."

"Xiao Lin."

Fujita said.

"you--"

"Mr. Fujita."

Xiaolin interrupted him.

"I've been waiting for this day for four years. I won't miss it."

Kimura walked over from the ticket booth.

"The last two spots."

He said.

  

"The back row, right in the middle. Best view."

Hoshino Rin watched from the sidelines.

Then he slowly handed the admission ticket in his hand to Kobayashi.

"This one is mine."

she says.

"Please sit down."

Aren't you going to watch?

Xiaolin asked.

"I'll stand and watch."

"That's what Hoshino Rin said."

"I've already seen it. This time, you can have a seat."

Kobayashi held the admission ticket in his hand, his eyes reddening slightly for a moment.

.........

It's exactly 2 o'clock.

The screening room at Suzaku Tower was packed with people, with all two hundred seats occupied.

Many people were standing in the aisle, close to the wall.

Kimura walked to the entrance of the screening room.

Then he turned around and glanced in the direction of Yuuma Kamiya.

"Can we begin?"

"Can."

Kimura nodded slightly and then stepped into the screening room.

Then the lights began to dim slowly.

The first image appeared on the screen.

At dawn, there was a tombstone.

In front of the tombstone stood a figure.

The clarinet played the first note.

The screening room fell silent.

Those eight notes flowed slowly and deliberately from the sound system.

Even as the eight notes came to an end, Frilian still hadn't uttered a single word.

On the silver screen, the morning light gradually spreads out.

The shadow of the tombstone was stretched long.

Frillie stood in front of the tombstone, her hair fluttering in the wind.

Her eyes were cobalt blue, a color that Kobayashi had mixed himself.

And it also carries the warm hue of the morning light.

No one spoke in the screening room.

The first shot lasts for a full minute.

In this minute.

There are no lines or narration.

It's just the first variation of those eight notes.

In the second shot, Frillie bent over like that.

Then they placed a small flower in front of the tombstone.

That's the Azure Moon Grass.

The blue moon grass on the screen was drawn one by one using a dip pen.

The veins on the petals were clearly visible.

The brushstrokes drawn by Yuma Kamiya on the original manuscript.

It was re-presented in the form of animation by Fujita's team.

Xiaolin sat in the middle, towards the back.

She gently placed one of her hands on her stomach.

Sato held her other hand tightly.

When the Azure Moon Grass appears on the screen.

Kobayashi took a very deep breath.

She saw the cobalt blue she had mixed.

The cobalt blue blended together with the warm hues of the morning light.

Covering the petals of the Crassula ovata.

She uttered a sentence softly and quietly.

"Oh, right."

she says.

"This is the color."

.........

After three minutes of silence, Frillie began to speak.

Her voice was provided by a young female voice actress.

The voice was very soft.

It was the kind of voice that an elf who had lived for a thousand years should possess.

"Simmel".

"Frilian said."

"I've come to see you again."

The seat on the side of the fifth row in that screening room.

The fifty-year-old man's shoulders suddenly twitched.

He hugged the first volume of the book he was holding even tighter.

.........

Outside the screening room.

Kimura peeked out from inside the screening room.

Looking at the situation inside the screening room.

There were two hundred people, from the first row to the last row.

They all stared intently at the screen.

Kimura, wearing those round-framed glasses, blinked slightly.

He has been working at the movie theater for many years.

Today was the first time he had seen two hundred people, and not a single one of them had been distracted.

Outside the small window of the screening room, Fujita stood leaning against the wall.

His eyes were red and swollen.

His fingers were clenched into a tight fist.

"Mr. Fujita."

Kimura said in a low voice.

"congratulations."

"It wasn't me."

Fujita shook his head.

"It's them."

He raised his head.

I looked towards the backs of the two hundred people in the screening room.

.........

The first episode is about 23 minutes long.

At the eighteenth minute.

A completely new shot appears.

Frillie walked alone on the abandoned battlefield.

This is a new scene added by Fujita that was not originally in the manga.

There were no more corpses on the battlefield.

All that remained were many weathered bones and rusted weapons.

Frillie walked past a skeleton with her head down.

She didn't stop, but she slowed her pace by a fraction of a second.

Rin Hoshino drew a scene of a desolate wasteland.

There are also several skeletons that were once dominated and have rather strange postures.

Now, they appear on the big screen.

This is not the original manuscript of the comic, but a scene from the animation.

Each skeleton has its own unique posture.

Hoshino Rin watched as what she had drawn appeared on the screen.

Her eyes slowly widened.

"Master."

She said in a low voice.

Yuma Kamiya was standing nearby.

"Um?"

"They started moving."

"right."

"Fujita made them move."

Hoshino Rin lowered her head to look at her hands.

Her hands were trembling.

Rin Hoshino herself never imagined that many skeletons would one day appear on the screen.

She looked up, her eyes already red.

"Senpai," she called softly to Shiori Shirakawa.

Shiori Shirakawa walked over to her.

"What's wrong?"

I want to cry.

"Then cry," Shiori Shirakawa said.

Rin Hoshino's tears fell in a stream.

She stood by the wall.

Tears fell one after another.

Shiori Shirakawa stood silently beside her.

He simply placed his hand lightly on her shoulder.

.........