Noriko Katayama (P2) 08/11

You watch.

You watch as Anna withdraws.

From school, from clubs, from friends. From any who try to offer her a helping hand.

You have certainly tried to help.

But all of your offers have been turned away as Anna falls.

(You can't do this again)

She falls further and further into a depression, and you hate that you live in Japan, because it's not talked about, and maybe somewhere else it would be!

And so, once again you are useless.

Once again?

It hits you that this feels like Deja Vu, like you once watched things fall apart, and are doing so again. Just as helpless to change things as a person tied to the middle of the train tracks in one of those old cowboy movies. And the train driver is not some grand design like fate, just some careless asshole, who is a car driver, and it is not you tied to the tracks, but Anna.

You are just a witness to this tragedy, who can not look away, because it isn't some stranger on the tracks.

It's Anna.

The hit has already happened, and the aftermath is a mess, and you don't really know what to do in the aftermath . She's not dead yet, but she certainly doesn't want to live, and one day you fear you will see her falling from the clocktower where she sits.

You've never been afraid of heights, but you are afraid for her.

So you have to do something.

But what can you do really?

You know his name and you know where he works, and you want to follow him to work one day and vandalize his car. Except that presents too much of a risk, and you don't want to get caught, that won't reflect well on her.

It's in your thoughts, as Anna recovers. She still doesn't seem to want to live, but doesn't want to actively die, but passively, you feel she wouldn't care if she got hit by a bus.

Daisuke Kaneda. You wish he would die. You want him to die for making Anna feel like she wants to.

When rumors of the JOKER come to your ears, you don't really believe it. But, you dial your own number anyways, figuring it doesn't hurt to try.

Despite telling yourself you don't believe it, your hands are shaking as you whisper his name into the phone.

You don't believe it.

And then Daisuke Kaneda dies.

You start to wonder what other rumors have a basis in reality.

Daisuke dying doesn't make Anna's life better. It might not have hurt you, but it is hurting her, because your principal is giving her shit over it.

(In another life, he became a better person)

This isn't another life, you tell that voice in the back of your head,

The second time you call Joker, your hands are shaking with anger.

When it works, you should feel horrified, but you feel righteous. Justified.

It works.

You can protect her like this.

"The time flows as you leave me behind

I know first hand that I stand adrift in the twilight

"There is nothing that doesn't change

Your words are regretful"

Translated Lyrics for JOKER

Original Romaji

"Watashi o oiteiku toki no nagare

Hada de kanjite tasogare ni tatazumu no

"Wawaranai mono nante nai yo"

Anata no kotoba kuyashikute"

Original singer is Hiroko Konishi. PsP uncredited, but arranged by Atsushi Kitajoh