Episode 19 Summary - The Returnees

A ship is found washed ashore with its crew missing. Out of the 82 passengers only 7 survived, 4 of them with Apathy Syndrome. In other words, only 3 of the people who were aboard survived. However, for some reason their identities did not match with their profiles.

At the same time, Megumi was performing somewhere as the crowd cheered her on. Shin and the others were impressed with her street dancing but Takuro comments it will be a pity that this was going to be her last dance. Megumi smiles, saying that they'll be third years and the upcoming autumn performance will be for second years. Besides, it was the best dance she had ever had. Takuro felt it was because she managed to take a large burden off her shoulders while she was in Yatsuo and everyone agrees smiling.

Later, Jun is asking Megumi to teach him some dance moves. Although a little surprised, Megumi agrees and suggests he joins the dance club too once he's in senior high. It was really more of a hobby club they arranged themselves than anything official. Megumi and the others was hoping they will manage to make it popular enough for it to be recognised by the school.

Takuro teases Jun that it will be an all girls activity but Kanaru steps in to say that Jun may become the reason why more boys decide to join in too. Megumi agrees and tells Takuro to stop teasing when he doesn't have much of a dance talent himself.

Meanwhile, Shin was too busy thinking back to the time he had to fight with his own brother Ryo until Takuro wakes him up. He points his attention towards a group of people sitting by the sea. The number of people who wanted to disappear seems to have been increasing lately and those were some of them; people who had lost the goals in their lives and just wanted to be taken away.

It was a scary thought and it was as if everyone was starting to become victims of the Apathy Syndrome. The friends think back to the mass outbreak that happened ten years ago and Takuro remembers Shin was in Ayanagi at the time. However, Shin didn't quite remember what happened. Just then, a white feather passes by and they notice a man appearing next to them.

The man looks at his hands as if surprised he was here. He looks over at Shin and the others before starting to slowly walk away. However, as if he recognised the man, Takuro gets up and grabs hold of him by the collar demanding to know why he was being ignored. Shin and Megumi step in to pull him away as Takuro calms down, apologising that he must have got the wrong person.

Back at the police department, Akihiko was looking into the sudden strange cases of people appearing with different identities. It appears those who had disappeared were returning but in someone else's body for some unknown reason. Yuko Sema at the Sema Inn in Kurobe had managed to identify the man who had appeared before her as her long lost husband when she talked to him but, his looks were completely different. On the other hand, one of the submarine crew identified him as one of their missing members.

The incidents were just like what's happened to the survivors of the shipwreck and there were reports many more similar incidents taking place around Ayanagi. Even the Senior Managing Director of Hiragi Pharmaceutical Company, Kiyofumi Nagai who had a light case of Apathy Syndrome suddenly woke up as a different character during interrogation.

Arriving back in Akihiko's office, Kunio reports that he didn't find out much from Nagai before he had fallen victim to Apathy Syndrome. He only said that he dealt with the Marebito because he wasn't satisfied about his position in Hiragi and he needed funds. Just in case, he was involved in any more crimes, Kunio planned to show him to the criminals in the Hiragi kidnapping incident to see if they recognise him.

A flashback takes place as we hear a voice near young Ryo. It says that he had quit the research group knowing that there are some things that can't be sacrificed and that one should remember their values as a human being.

Shin and Jun had returned home now and Shin was looking over the Feathers of a Whale their parents wrote. For some reason, he has become very curious about it lately. Jun drops by after locking up the windows in his brother's room and tells his brother that was Takuro's father they saw by the sea when the feathers had appeared. He abandoned Takuro when he was younger.

As Shin locked up the door to their parent's studio, he thanks his brother for telling him about what he managed to read from Takuro's mind. Giving Jun a pat on the head, Shin says it must be tough being able to read other people's sad thoughts and keeping it all within. He had thought it was strange how Takuro acted and had planned to speak him later anyway.

Just as Jun was going to say something to his brother, Ayane appears before them. She tells them the Whale is scared.

Somewhere else in town, Takuro is standing outside the barbers, revealing to Megumi and Kanaru that the man they saw was his irresponsible father. As they go to the station, he tells them he disappeared when he was five years old while he was in town, enjoying a "Cycloid V" attraction, a very popular superhero at the time. In the end, his mother was left very upset and went to look for another man.

Takuro apologises for talking about such depressing things before the girls but they say it was all right with them. He continues that he didn't understand why his father had pretended to not recognise him back there. Megumi comments his father still looked very young after all those years which Takuro realises was indeed odd. Just then, a young girl in a pink shirt appears before them speaking in a very masculine manner (she uses "omae (you)" and "ore ( I )" which is only used by males) and claims to be Takuro's father. She appeared to be very happy to see Takuro again.

Getting up quickly, Takuro rushes the others into the train that just arrived thinking there was something mentally wrong with the girl. The doors close just as the girl mentions "Cycloid V". She continues to run after the train as Takuro is puzzled why she would know about his past.

Back outside the Kanzato residence, Ayane tells of how the Whale was falling very ill. That day, both Ayanagi City and its sea had become part of it. It could sense the pain that the people were feeling and she was part of it all. The Whale was within the sea of minds and being rejected. Ayane looks at the feathers and say they were just the exterior of the Whale that represented its shrieks of pain.

Remembering where he had seen Ayane before, Shin demands to know where his brother Ryo was. She replies he was with the Whale. He didn't want anything and just wanted everyone to disappear. With that, Ayane disappears with a flash of red light and a trail of white feathers drift away.

Soon, Jun and Shin had arrived back at the dorm. Just as Jun was about to tell his brother something, the girl who had approached Takuro earlier appears before them. She asks if they knew a student named Takuro Sakakiba and when she finds out they did, she was going to reveal his identity but decides not to. Instead, she just hands Shin a package to give Takuro. Shin tries to tell her Takuro just stayed nearby but Jun reminds him Takuro must be at work just now. Takuro's father tells them he just couldn't face his own son and there wasn't much time left before rushing off.

Moments later, Megumi also returns with Kanaru while Takuro had gone back to look for the girl. When they see Shin holding something, they ask him what it was. When they learn he got it from the girl they had met earlier at the station, they decide to go contact Inui.

In the car, he tells them that the girl may really be Takuro's father and explains that all around Ayanagi, those who had disappeared were reappearing but with their conscious in someone else's body. What they have confirmed is that the memories of the missing are somehow being placed into those who have fallen into a state of Apathy Syndrome. The mind and body shouldn't be able to be separated so easily. Something must be distorting nature and they have no idea why it's occurring in Ayanagi and around the Toyama area.

At the Sexual Bomber store, Takuro couldn't concentrate after the events of the day. Mayuri notices this and asks him what was wrong, saying it wasn't like him to be lost in thought like that. Takuro smiles, saying he didn't do it as often as Mayuri did. He doesn't know what's bothering her but tells her to be careful when she's walking about in the streets or giving customers their change.

Just then, Shin and others arrive at the shop to hand Takuro the package his father gave them. He unwraps it to find a figure of Cycloid V which Inui recognises as a first press edition. Shin tries to tell him that the girl may really be his father but Takuro already knew. He tells of the time when they used to watch one of the tapes many times over and whenever his mother would get mad, his father would say, "There's a lot to learn about Cycloid V". Takuro laughs at his father's idiotic words and puts down the figure, thinking nothing of it until Shin tells him that there isn't much time left. Shin doesn't know why but he feels his father won't be staying around for much longer.

As Takuro thinks back to the day his father abandoned he and his mother, he returns to the very same place they had separated. There, his father was waiting for him. He looks away saying his father was cheating coming back in the body of a girl so that he couldn't hit him.

A brief silence forms between them before his father asks how he has been doing since that day. Takuro was a bit angry at first but replies that he moved to live with his grandmother. After she died in the mass outbreak, he moved to live his grandfather until junior high when he moved out to live in the dorm. Takuro's father assumed he was treated badly but Takuro tells him to let it be. Ever since he changed his hairstyle, not many have dared to bully him.

Takuro continues about how he and his mother had wanted the father to stay with them no matter how much they suffered trying to repay debts. Takuro's father embraces Takuro, apologising for leaving them the way he did until he remembers he was still in the body of a girl. Takuro puts his hand on his head awkwardly and says he has become exactly the opposite of what his father was. He will never make girls cry and will not betray those who have faith in him.

Hearing this, Takuro's father was satisfied. A soft light glows as he ascends into the sky slowly and says goodbye, happy to be able to see his son one last time. Takuro takes out the Cycloid V figure he got and tries to get his father to take it with him because of how much he liked it. However, Takuro's father doesn't take it and fades away into a collection of white feathers as he says, "There's a lot to learn about Cycloid V."

Outside, everyone was waiting for Takuro. As he walked up to them, Jun asks how much was there to learn about Cycloid V. Takuro replies there was quite a bit and Inui suggests he could go rent a room for them all to watch the show. The girls were also interested so they decide to go get rent it along the way back. However, Takuro interrupts them saying there was no need because he had it on DVD. He glances briefly back at where he had last met with his father.

Meanwhile, many more people were appearing by the sea as a large amount of white feathers surround them.

Next episode, "Memories".

Thoughts

Well, that was unexpected... A young girl pops up in front of Takuro and claims to be his father?! I know before that Akihiko and Kunio had explained the missing were returning as other people but, it still felt odd with a girl saying, "I'm your father!"

We now have Takuro covered. Just missing Kanaru now really unless they decide to cover all the Marebito too. A nice reunion for the guy but it must have been awkward when his father was in the body of a cute girl around his own age. I guess it's fine as long as Takuro saw beyond the physical appearance which he did.

It also looks like he took that advice from Saki about dressing smart during work!

There's a brief flashback of young Ryo again which just like before, doesn't quite fit in with the rest of the episode but, it sounds like he overheard his father talking about how he didn't want to be involved with some inhumane research anymore. If that's the case then it would explain why Ryo was so keen to stop what the Marebito and the others have been researching about Personas.