reina refuses to accept it.
she lost her own parents
she can't lose taki-sensei too.
eventually her desperate pleading moves chris to negotiate with the auditors
using the argument that sensei's injuries have already put him on the brink of death anyway
but when chris returns
he is not alone.
the head auditor steps into the office.
reina grabs a fistful of his pants
kneeling
pleading
but the auditor violently kicks her aside
"don't touch me, you disgusting little third."
he turns his attention to taki-sensei
who glares at him weakly
the auditor smiles as he raises his leg
pressing his shoe onto his broken back
taki-sensei cries out in pain
struggling helplessly
the auditor laughs
"it does look like chris was telling the truth. you're as good as dead."
he releases taki-sensei
who gasps in agony
the auditor crouches down in front of him.
"unfortunately for you though, i don't care how dead you may be. you see, taki-san, you brought the ire some of my superiors yesterday, because you didn't beg for mercy even after 640 blows. i didn't anticipate that. i do have to applaud your tenacity. however, we can't give the impression that others can get away with what you did. this is not about ending your life, taki noboru. it's about ending what you stand for."
he rises and sees reina crawling towards taki-sensei
he stops her with a nudge of his foot.
"and you, little girl. you may be talented, but your mistakes might cost you the lives that your director bought back yesterday. you better be more careful around me from now on."
the auditor turns back to taki-sensei.
"your execution will be at 5:30 PM tomorrow in the front parking lot. i think you should be informed that you are sentenced to die by fire."
he opens the door to leave
"sleep well, taki-san."
the lights shut off in his wake
as night finally falls.
taki is still for a moment
listening to his numbered heartbeats.
each pound in his ears is like a ticking second
slowly counting down to zero
yet he isn't afraid of what lies at the end.
he has been prepared to die since a long time ago.
reina curls up next to him
sobbing uncontrollably
taki reaches out
pats her head
"reina-chan"
"don't cry"
he tries to smile
"i'm not completely dead yet"
reina chokes angrily through tears
"i hate them"
trembling on the floor
"I HATE THEM!"
now
taki knows it's time.
that night
his last night
he gives his plans to his daughter
who promises to carry out his revenge
"Kill the King."
but more importantly
more than anything in the world
he passes to her his original oath
as director
to protect the students with her life.
he asks her to seal the promise
with her blood
just as he had done nine years ago
when he graduated from college
and began his teaching career.
he watches as reina cuts into her palm
letting the drops soak into the wooden floorboards.
how silly it had seemed then
but it was as if both his father and professor takano knew that this was coming
as if they knew that noboru would one day have to choose between his students' lives or his own.
taki watches from the floor as reina tilts the knife in the window light
examining her bloody palm
eventually she glances at him
"sensei?
taki presses his lips together
"what?"
he already knows what she's thinking
he's thought about it too.
reina swallows.
"do you... i could... if you don't want to burn alive... your wrists have major arteries..."
taki shakes his head
"no"
"they'll punish you for that after i die."
he can't piss the auditors off again
he can't let his last moves endanger his students
he can't leave like that
no matter how much he wants to.
reina sighs
"sensei… why do you have to be so selfless?"
taki feels a bizarre urge to laugh
except it would hurt too much
so he smiles in the darkness
"just another day in the life of a high school band director."
