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."