Muvluv - TSP - Extra - Part 4

Muvluv: The Synopsis Project
*Extra mode – Part 4
For a bit about this project, take a look at The Synopsis Project .

Turning to more serious matters, the war between Meiya and Sumika has reached a high point. After a grueling match of air hockey, which eventually ends with Takeru being knocked out by the puck, Takeru and Yoroi head over to the springs for a soak. While they’re there, they can hear Sumika and Meiya meeting on the women’s side. There, the girls start talking, with Sumika admitting to that since Meiya’s arrival, many things have changed, and that the relationship between Takeru and herself needed to change also. Hearing the conversaion, Yoroi takes his leave, and leaves Takeru to hear the rest on his own.

Both of the girls decide that it is time to openly admit to each other that they both love Takeru and they say so out loud. Meiya admitted that at first, she had paid no attention to the other girls around Takeru, because she had believed that she had ties of absolute fate with him, and so she saw everone else as merely air. That is, until Sumika came into the picture and so Meiya wants to accept Sumika as an equal rival. If it weren’t for Takeru, they probably would have been good friends, but because of him, only one could be happy.

Takeru now feels the weight of the situation that has beset him, and when he turns around, he finds that Yuuko has been sitting there the whole time listening along. Surprisingly, she gives him a bit of advice, she quotes a phrase “Time is the most cruel, and the most kind. Though it is people who make time cruel or kind.” The first part of the line, players of Kiminozo would recognize as the words of the doctor, who happens to be Yuuko’s elder sister (not to mention they share the same voice actress). At some point, Takeru will have to choose between the girls.

That night, Takeru once again has a dream about his childhood playground. He’s talking to Sumika, but the conversation seems strange. Sumika sounds somber and disinterested, and she doesn’t know her own family name. Takeru asks Sumika when her birthday is, and then immediately offers to marry her so that they can celebrate birthdays at the same time. Since Sumika tells him that you can’t marry until they’re adults, he makes a promise with her to marry her when they both grow up. With that they begin playing together, but soon after, some adults come to take Sumika away, and Sumika cries that they won’t meet again, that they’re taking her far away and Takeru swears that he’ll keep his promise as the dream ends.

The next day, Takeru wakes up wondering about his dream – he had always figured he was seeing Sumika in his dreams, but now isn’t quite sure. In anycase, breakfast calls and that’s that. Everyone then starts talking about what there is to do, Yoroi mentions that there are some limestone caves nearby to explore and everyone decides to go. While Takeru and Meiya are waiting for the others to come, seems that there’s some sort of plot going on – everyone is late, Tamase appears for a split second before getting dragged off by someone. In anycase, the two of them decide that the others will catch up and go into the caves together.

Inside, they start talking about what will happen in the future. Takeru and everyone else is going straight into Hakuryoudai but Meiya says that she isn’t going on. In fact, she has already graduated from university, though not a Japanese one. Naturally, Takeru asks her why she came. Although she doesn’t speak directly as to why she went through all this trouble, she tells him that she came for him. To be by his side, to hear his voice, to feel his presence. When asked why she would do that for a total stranger, she instead starts talking about how, as the head of the Mitsurugi Zaibatsu, it is almost time for her to put aside her personal life and assume the role as head of the zaibatsu. She tells him that she doesn’t see dreams.

Takeru refuses to accept that such reasoning makes sense and they get into an argument. In the middle of it Meiya tries to run off, but slips and injures her leg. And so, Takeru winds up having to carry her up out of the cave. Along the way, he reassures her that no matter how much she’ll change being the head of the zaibatsu, in the end, the people who know her as Meiya will still know her as Meiya. He also promises to search for the reason that she refused to tell him about. Hearing that she holds onto him as he carries her up, saying that even within Mitsurugi, she’s especially blessed, and that she too, has a dream.

When they get back, it’s the end of the day, and after dinner, the whole gang flees from the teachers. Apparently, Yuuko loves to sing karaoke, and a karaoke session becomes something more like a personal recital. She’s supposedly pretty good, but it gets boring after awhile. Everyone decides to go to their own rooms except for Sumika, who bravely invites Takeru go to to the springs with her. On the way Tamase asks them where they’re going, and Meiya swoops in to ask Tama to help her pick out souvenirs.

Sumika takes Takeru to a small little bath, made for families, and the both sit there soaking shyly talking about old times gone by. There, Sumika tries her best to see if Takeru will look at her more than just a childhood friend. As she scrubs his back, she mentions that she wasn’t able to go to the cave because she saw Meiya and Takeru having fun talking to each other, and thought it’d be okay to lend him to her for awhile. After that, there’s a bit of a mishap where she drops her towel, but instead of hitting him, she shyly says that if it’s him, it’s alright, that she’s even locked the door. Takeru, however, panics and when Sumika presses him asking whether he can look at her as a woman instead of just a childhood friend. He really has no idea what he was supposed to do, and he fails to convince her and Sumika quickly puts on a brave face and runs out.

Sitting alone in the pool, Takeru starts thinking. How was he supposed to act when she practically wanted him to toss her to the ground all of a sudden, was it a test to see how far he’d go? But he knew of her feelings, knew how since Meiya came, her feelings for him have changed. But then he also wished that she’d been more up front with things, since he had accidentally found out about her feelings, things were even more difficult. He knew that she was doing her utmost, but did she have to run ahead so far on her own?

The next day, it was time to go home, and while both Meiya and Sumika were sitting next to each other sleeping, Yuuko calls Takeru over and Marimo joins in. Yuuko asks whether he had ever thought of Sumika that way, and he looks back. Whenever there was a cute girl around, the first thing he’d do would be to compare her against Sumika, good points and bad. Whenever friends would say they liked someone, whenever friends introduced their girlfriends, he always had Sumika within him. And it wasn’t like he’d just use her as a ruler, it seemed like she always won out in the end. Even when Meiya came, he was always looking at her. And even so, he hadn’t once thought about it. He realized that when she had said that since Meiya had come, they had to change, he should have paid more attention and thought about it.

Marimo, in her infinite experience at being dumped, tells him that it’s just better to end things cleanly. She also gently makes Takeru realize that both girls are putting their current relationships on the line for this, and that he has no choice but to choose, not just to think about the present, but also about the future. Advice that we’d all wish Takayuki of Kiminozo got.

That night, Takeru looks back, he’s spent most of his life with Sumika, spent years talking to her from their windows, and in just a few brief moments, everything has changed. He had never thought that things would end, but he knew that he couldn’t wait for them to end, that he’d have to be the one to end it. Getting thirsty he goes downstairs to get a drink.

There, he overhears Meiya and Tsukuyomi talking in the dark. Something about how there had been some progress, and how it made her happy, but that there isn’t much time left before the promised time. He then turns on the lights and the two are shocked that he’s awake. Meiya asks him whether he has overhead what they were saying, and he replied that he had heard a one thing. Meiya and Tsukuyomi both immediately leave the room.

Later, while Takeru is sleeping in his bed, Meiya comes to him to ask him something one last time. She asks whether there was anything that he could remember about the bond between them. In his sleepy daze, he replies that he hasn’t. He asks whether she’s done and she tells him that it’s over. She asks whether she could stay there, holding his hand, as she tells him goodnight.



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