As the music starts, the screen is slowly filled with a close-up of a wooden desk, with two notebooks one on top of another (one slightly wider than the other) and a neat stack of lined paper next to it. Two pens are also lined up by the side of the notebook-one is a black biro and the other is a fountain pen. There are not particular indications as to where this desk is or whom it or the items on it belong to.
mieru? kono me no namida
inochi no iro ni nijinde iru
nani o nokoshite ataeta?
toikakete tsuburete
Can you see it? The tears in my eye
I'm blurred by the colors of life
What did you leave me?
Ask me - I'll collapse
When the vocals kick in, the image fades to show a scene of Sosuke sitting at his desk in his school uniform, concentrating hard on writing, in side view so that the window can also be seen. The lights are on, suggesting that it is dark outside. But rather than showing the view outside, the window displays a replay of various scenes that have occurred in the story thus far: Sosuke spotting people through the window and deciding to follow them, talking with Mihoko at the party, the two of them at various different times in the Student Council room, uncovering information about The Parade in the archives of his law firm, handing over the cereal bar across his desk. The scenes play through very quickly, and are in black and white and slightly grainy as if part of an old-fashioned film.
ao to aka to shiro mazaru
kono yo no naka de sakende iru
nani o motomete aruita?
oikakete tsukarete
Blue, red, and white are mixing
I'm shouting from this world
What was I wishing for?
I was tired from chasing after it
The scene slowly changes to show Mihoko sitting in the graveyard, back against a tree and huddled in both winter clothes and a blanket as she also writes in a notebook, though at a more frenetic pace than Sosuke had been doing. There is a slight mist around her, and it is in patches of the mist that faded versions of past scenes replay around her, in a loop: talking with Sosuke at the party (her point of view), glaring at him over the photocopier, other scenes in the Student Council room, trying to grab his papers only to have her wrist grabbed instead.
dono kurai ijō?
How abnormal am I?
The scene glitches suddenly, filling the screen with static.
kowashite iru no?
kowashite shiru no?
sore de mo namida itai itai
kimi ni todoita no?
utau koe ni saigo no
kotoba narabete mo
kasanaru iro nijinde
Are you breaking me?
Do you know what destruction is?
Even so, my tears hurt
Did it reach you?
To the singing voice
I lay out my final words
But the overlapping colors are blurred.
The new scene alternates between Sosuke and Mihoko, each of them walking through an empty white expanse and both wearing out-of-school clothes (Sosuke in his usual black suit and white shirt, though unusually his tie is loosened, while Mihoko is clad in a light yellow jumper and dark blue high waisted jeans), apparently looking for something. As they walk, turning corners and occasionally seeming to change their mind and then reversing directions completely, sheets of paper start to float down gently, the way flower petals usually do. As some twist and turn, it becomes clear that they have lines of writing on them-some neat, others messier-and whenever one of the sheet petals hit the ground, it seems simply to disappear. Gradually, Sosuke and Mihoko encounter each other, each coming in from different sides so that they come to face each other. Then, they stop and pause, sheet-petals falling around them.
kowarete iru no?
kowarete iru yo
sore de mo iki o shitai shitai
kimi ni miete'ta no
yume no yō ni saigo no
kotoba mo tsumaru yo ERROR
Am I broken?
I'm broken
But I still want to breathe
Just like the end of the dream
That I showed you
Even words are stuck ERROR
As they stand there regarding each other, the background slowly darkens and the sheet-petals disappear to be replaced with a version of the scene of them talking outside the law offices on that one windy night, with a streetlamp at either end of the screen view. The wind whips around Mihoko's hair and tangles Sosuke's scarf as there are a few closeups, alternating between the two of them talking though it is unclear if this is the same conversation as they had before or the lyrics being sung at that moment.
In any case, when Mihoko smiles, the scene zooms back out to show them facing each other with the streetlamps either side, but instead of only Mihoko walking away, they both do. When they each reach their streetlamps, the scene fills with a glow that gradually spreads out from the streetlamps out across the whole scene, almost blinding.
When the light fades ,in the last few seconds of the music, the screen has returned to the close shot of the desk shown at the very beginning. But this time the notebooks are open, and filled with writing, one with extra sheets tucked into or slipping out between the pages. Next to one, the now-almost-empty biro pen lies, and across the other notebook the fountain pen lies with its lid off. Slightly off screen, there appears to be what looks like a brown envelope also on the desk. This image remains for a couple extra seconds once the song has ended, the pages ripple as if there is a breeze coming into the room, and then the screen goes black.
Translation credits to ElectricRaichu and t12111 via the animelyrics site. More than likely by the time I have managed to get this up I will have put the song on the playlist, but just in case it's '-ERROR' by niki ft Lily.
Also, was the writing of this technically completely unnecessary because the next chapter has a long-planned ED song chapter paired with it? Yes. Did I decide to do this anyway because I was hit with the inspiration at the time and I knew it'd hammer home the feels? Also yes. So, hope you enjoyed it!