W-where am I?
I try to move, but I can't. I try to move my head. That won't work either. Why can't I move? Then I hear a girls' voice:
"It's done."
I can see a little now, but I feel like I'm looking through dirty windows instead of my eyes. I can see a robot in front of me. But not a regular robot. This one looks dirty and broken. Even though it is a mess and kind of scary-looking, I feel a warmth coming from it, like it is something very familiar to me. That seems strange to me since I'm pretty sure I've never seen it before. The robot is looking at me as if expecting me to do something. I try again to move, but I can't.
Hello? Can you hear me? HELLO?
I try to speak, but I find that I can't do that either. I start to panic, but then I see the girl I heard before walk over and stand by the robot. I don't know why, but when I see her, a rush of warmth rushes over me, like the feeling I would get when my mom would hold me and comfort me when I was a child.
That's strange. I'm sure I've never met this girl before. Why would she feel like my mom?
The robot then starts slowly clapping its hands at me. As much as I struggle and scream, I can't do anything but helplessly watch the robot beckon for me in vain. Tears start welling in the girl's eyes.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry." She cries while holding the robot.
I start to cry as well, even though my body shows no signs of me doing so. I scream at the top of my lungs.
I'M RIGHT HERE! I'M TRYING TO COME TO YOU! WHY CAN'T YOU HEAR ME?
No sound comes out. The girl then picks me up and takes me outside. I am amazed at the beauty that surrounds me. Flowing meadows as far as the eye can see, and an incredibly huge sky filled with giant pillows of clouds. The girl sets me down and I hear the sounds of digging. What are they doing? Soon, the girl comes back and picks me up again. She then puts me in a shallow hole in the ground? Hole? This is a GRAVE!
NO! I'M ALIVE! I'M RIGHT HERE! WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?
The girl still doesn't hear me as she sobs and sets dirt on my still-unmoving body.
NO! I'LL TRY HARDER! DON'T DO THIS!
I feel myself lift out of the lifeless shell now in the ground and hover over the small group. Everything feels like it is moving in fast-forward as the girl and robot start to build a new machine. Then another. Then it is snowing and the two of them wander off to the horizon. I watch as the girl falls into the snow. I reach out to help her, but my hand goes right through her. The robot is holding the girl, but can't do anything to help her suffering.
I don't want it to end like this! I don't want it to end like this!
I cry out as I hear the girl humming something. A ball of light blinds me, and then all is dark.
"I don't want it to end like this!"
I hear his words as I slowly open my eyes.
"Daddy? Where are we?"
Akio's eyes grow wide as the sun-bathed little girl in his arms speaks to him. He is overcome with emotion as he just sits there holding his daughter and whispering
"Thank you."
"Thank you."
"Thank you."
On their walk back, little Nagisa starts humming the tune that she just recently heard from the girl in her dream, which is echoed by the radio of a car passing by on the street.
Dango, dango, dango, dango...
A/N: I'm putting this at the end so as not to spoil the story. This is my attempt to explain how Nagisa knew of the 'World that ended' story, and why she has such an emotional attachment to the Dango song. Plus the second robot felt like symbolism that I felt wasn't fleshed out enough in the anime.