Episode 23: “God is in Heaven…”
Summary: Flashback to South America with Hei fighting against a Contractor who has the ability to shoot some sort of massive force. Hei dodges his attacks and eventually defeats him with the help of his trusty grappling hook. Hei comes running to his sister, Bai, who is standing on a puddle of water surrounded by dead Contractors.
The private detective, Guy, is in his office where his client, a mother and son, are asking for his service to obtain stories buy interviewing people about their memories of the old starry sky, which is the subject of her son’s report for school. They think this subject is probably brought about by the rumors that stars will be seen later that day. Guy and Kiko accept the job and are pain 100,000 yen to obtain 100 stories. Meanwhile, at the police headquarters, Hourai and Kirihara are talking about November 11 and EPR. Kirihara is wondering if there is a reason for EPR to kill Decade. Horai says the right to investigate the matter has been stripped from their department and insists that Kirihara stop investigating this. Kirihara comments that PANDORA’s forceful actions recently makes her doubt that they are merely a research institution. Hourai cuts her off and reiterates that she’s off this investigation; that there is only 1 Contractor who died and that’s all there is to it. Kirihara tells him that November 11 was a person who had great pride whether he was a Contractor or not and that the last words he said to her was to trust her instincts and take action in what she believes. Hourai is quite surprised to hear this and asks if she has been contacted by November 11 during that time. Kirihara tells him with a serious face that she was just joking.
Huang is telling Yin and Mao about Heaven’s Gate in South America. He says all he knows is that there was a dispute within the Gate and in that battle, many Contractors were deployed as weapons, including Hei and Amber who were in the same organization. Apparently, Hei was not yet a Contractor at that time but he’s already well-known as the Black Reaper. There were other contractors to be feared then, like Hei’s sister, Bai. Flashback to Hei’s memory where Bai is sleeping in his arms, both of them sitting together as Hei is looking at the sky. Amber drops by and comments that Bai is still paying for her contract (which is sleeping) and that Bai and Hei are always together. She notices that Hei is looking at the stars again. Hei says he’s only looking at them since he has nothing to do. Amber says no matter how long he looks, he won’t be able to see the old stars. Back to the present, Huang is talking about the bright light that was seen at Heaven’s Gate. Mao wonders why Amber is after Hei, and thinks that if Amber is trying to repeat what happened in South America then it makes sense that she needs Hei’s power. Huang wonders if there’s a relation between the disappearance of the Gate and Hei. He then realizes that if that’s the case, the organization will now be after Hei and them. Meanwhile, Nihijima has also come to the same conclusion about BK-201 and has already taken action to eliminate Hei and his unit.
Guy and Kiko are at Hei’s apartment and interviewing the land lady about the old stars. When she can’t seem to remember anything, they ask the old man and surprisingly he answers them and tells them about his memories of the old starry skies with his family. On their next destination, the restaurant where Hei often eats, the store owner initially can’t remember the old stars but then when his daughter is talking to Kiko that they might not able to see the rumored stars tonight since the weather report says it might rain., he is then reminded about a memory with his family long ago. Meanwhile, Kirihara is driving around town and she realizes she is being followed by a couple of cars. She manages to trick the tailers and finds out that it’s Saitou and Konou, commenting that they have a lousy way of tailing. She asks them who ordered them to follow her but they don’t answer. She drops by the place where November 11 died and sees a bouquet of flowers and some cans of beer placed there in his memory. As she was walking around, she runs into Hei (whom she still recognizes as Li). She asks him if he’s hungry and invites him for some meal.
At the restaurant, Hei asks her if he looked that hungry to her. Kirihara says “just a little” then adds that he reminds her of someone she knows. Hei says he hopes it’s not some criminal that she’s chasing after. This makes Kirihara choke a bit on her food. Hei says it’s true after all. Kirihara immediately denies this. Just then, Hei speaks in a serious voice, telling her to stay still since there’s someone targeting her from the seat behind. Kirirhara is silent for a moment then suddenly bursts out laughing, saying that it was a lousy attempt and there was no intensity at all in his statement since, apparently, there was a grain of rice stuck at the side of Hei’s mouth when he tried to say that serious statement. Kirihara then says that she’s been tangled up in her job and it seems she’s been suddenly swallowed into the organization and feels like she lost a part of her. Hei says all organizations are the same and that they only use a person for their convenience. As they are leaving the restaurant, they run into Guy and Kiko who apparently have been eating there too. They leave the place together. Guy tells them of their new job, and that he thinks that since the Gate appeared, everyone has been insecure. Adding that after those bombings, everyone is acting like everything is okay but in reality are probably feeling insecure and that’s probably why they want to have some memories about the old stars. They part ways, and Kirihara and Hei go together on a batting range.
After hitting a few balls, they proceed to rest at a bench. Hei comments that the view of the city up there is great. Kirihara asks if he likes it. Hei says he doesn’t hate it and that initially this city was just somewhere he’s passing through but now he thinks it’d be nice if he could stay here. Kirihara comments that this city has recently become dangerous. Hei says he thinks it’s still peaceful and that the place where he was with his sister was much worse. Kirihara asks if the place where he was from was in dispute. Hei confirms this. Kirihara asks if his sister is still in that place. Hei doesn’t exactly answer this directly. Kirihara assumes she died and says he must have been sad about it. Hei says he might have felt relieved. Kirihara asks him if he’s heard the rumor about the stars that night. Hei says he’s heard about it but doesn’t think it’s real. Just then they notice that all lights in the city is being turned off and people are going outside to see if they might indeed be able to see the stars. Kirihara wonders if everyone is planning to stay up all night to look at the stars until it clears. Hei asks her if she wants to see the old stars. Kirihara says rather than see them, she wants to show them (?) and adds that if the present stars don’t go away then they won’t be able to see the old stars. Hei says they’re all fake stars. Kirihara says that if all those fake stars were to disappear, it would be a sad thing too. Kirihara then receives a message on he cellphone, then tells Hei that she has to go now. She tells Hei that she was glad she talked to him since she has been thinking of many things and was a bit lost. Hei tells her, “When you’re lost, I think you trust your instinct and act.” This surprises Kirihara for a moment, remembering November 11’s last words to her. Hei notices and asks what’s wrong. Kirihara says it’s nothing and tells Hei that he’s right. She then shakes his hands and thanks him for hanging out with her and that it was fun. Hei shakes her hand back and says it was fun for him as well. Kirihara then goes her way as Hei is left on his own, staring up at the sky.
Flashback again: Hei remembers that time again where Bai is standing in the puddle of water then collapses in his arms. Bai tells him that a lot of stars fell again then falls asleep. Hei grabs Bai’s throat for a moment with what seems to be a sad, empty look in his eyes. His wandering thoughts are interrupted when Amber appears, telling him that it’s over. As Hei looks over at her, Amber is surprised to see a tear falling from Hei’s eyes.
It turned out that at 12 midnight, it started to rain and the rumored stars won’t be seen after all. Guy tells Kiko that detectives have to be realists or they won’t be able to do their jobs. He says that even if the stars disappear and a weird gate appears, no matter how much their circumstances change, people’s lives won’t change. Meanwhile, Hei is on his way home but Mao cuts him off warning him not to go back to his place. Hei asks why. Before Mao can answer, Huang’s car suddenly screeches by. Huang tells Hei to hurry and get in since they’ve just been cut loose from the organization. Hei wonders why they’ve been let go. Huang says he’s asking the same thing. Mao then asks Hei if he’s hiding something about the disappearance of Heaven’s Gate. Before Hei can say anything, they are attacked by a gravity-user contractor who tells them he was ordered to do this. Before he can kill Hei and company, Wei suprprisingly appears and easily kills the gravity-user. Wei tells them that he’s here on an errand from Amber. He is asked by Amber to tell Hei that she is waiting for him inside the gate and that he is sent to be their guide on their way to the gate. Mao is hesitant about this and is surprised when Hei says it’s okay. Hei tells Mao that he really doesn’t know what happened at Heaven’s Gate and that he doesn’t know the reason why Bai disappeared either, the only one who knows is Amber and he wants to ask her that. Huang tells Hei to get in the car and he will take them as far as he can towards the Gate.
Meanwhile, Kirihara is baffled to hear that the top-ranking people are taking action instead of them in the police department. Matsumoto thinks there is some kind of intervention going on. Kirihara then receives a call from her father who is frantically telling her to evacuate Tokyo immediately and that he’ll tell her the details later. She then realizes that what happened in South America seems to have begun in Tokyo. In Amber’s corner, she is briefing her team about their plan. They are to guide the dolls inside the gate and destroy the particle accelerator. She then breaks the meteor fragment in pieces and distributes it to her team.
~ end of episode
My Impression: This episode didn’t have much action at all, much more talk. I still liked it though. We finally got to see Bai, and we got to have a peek at what happened in South America. Aside from that, I also probably like this ep because I got to see some more Kirihara x Hei moments. :3 It’s a little ironic that Kirihara feels at ease with Li, not knowing that Li is actually BK-201 who’s the contractor she’s been chasing after. It’s really nice to see them together, that Kirihara can let down her guard when she’s around him, and I like their chemistry.
I’m quite impressed that even when Hei wasn’t a contractor yet, he was already feared as the “Black Reaper.” It’s really touching how Hei cares so much for his sister. That part where he grabs her neck with that sad look in his eyes… He just doesn’t want Bai to have to go through all this crap. It tears him apart seeing her suffer like that. Seeing him cry a tear breaks my heart. It makes you realize that the situation he’s in — the choices he has to make are between unfavorable ones. Now I’m more curious to know how Contractors get their contract. From a previous episode involving Mai, it seems that she obtained her powers from when she was little because of the presence of the gate (if I remember it correctly) but in this episode, since Hei isn’t a contractor yet but eventually became one, I wonder how it happened. Actually, besides contractors, I’m also still curious on how dolls came to be. It hasn’t been really explained in previous episodes. Same with Hei, I also want to know why Bai disappeared and what exactly is his role in Amber’s plans.
Anyway, although it’s a bit sad that it will be ending so soon (just 2 more episodes!), I’m still looking forward to how they will wrap things up. I have a bad feeling that Hei and Yin might die in the end, but I’m still crossing my fingers that this won’t happen. I’m still wondering what role Kirihara will play in all this, I think she’s bound for some more surprises after November 11’s death.
Note: Episodes 24 and 25 will each be one-part episodes.
Next episode: The war in Tokyo and Hell’s Gate has begun. Lots of action and lots of death on the way.
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