Kumo no mukô, yakusoku no basho

Hiroki Fujisawa:
[Narrating] Now, those days are long gone... Our promised place was beyond those clouds.

Hiroki Fujisawa:
[about Sayuri] She always said she felt like she was losing something. At the time... I was in middle school, and couldn't understand what she meant. But... those words had a strange effect on me.

Hiroki Fujisawa:
[Narrating] At the time, we were drawn by two things: One was our classmate, Sawatari Sayuri... The other was the giant tower across the Tsugaru Strait. I was always looking up at that tower, I felt that something very precious waited there, I yearned to go there... One day... One day... I will go there.

Hiroki Fujisawa:
[Narrating] Back then, I felt that this place, this time would last forever. The tower I admired that lay beyond the clouds... became the place of a precious promise. At that moment we weren't afraid of anything. But in reality, the world and the flow of time kept on going all around me.

Sayuri Sawatari:
The sun... is taking its time setting...

Hiroki Fujisawa:
[Narrating] That was a really special summer. But the world around me would betray me again and again after this. Since that day three years ago, I haven't seen Sawatari once.

Sayuri Sawatari:
The chill wind seemed to blow from the depths of space, and the scent of a different universe was present.

Sayuri Sawatari:
The sky, the clouds, the ruined city... No matter how far I walk, nobody appears.

Hiroki Fujisawa:
[Narrating] Once I got to my room and shut the door, it felt like the bones in my body were tearing through my skin... as I was overcome with an intense, heartfelt pain.

Hiroki Fujisawa:
[Narrating] Living alone, the nights seemed to last forever. When I couldn't pass the time effectively, I went to a nearby train station and pretended to wait for someone.

Hiroki Fujisawa:
It's as if I've spent my days holding my breath under cold water... It's as if... It's as if...

Sayuri Sawatari:
It's as if... I'm the only one left in the world.

Sayuri Sawatari:
In the dream, I am alone in an empty universe. In that dream, my whole body... fingers, cheeks, fingernails, heels, and even the tips of my hair are painful with loneliness. Those warm days we spent together seem more like a dream. But as long as I don't lose those memories, I think I might be able to keep a grip on reality in the future.

Sayuri Sawatari:
This might sound weird, but... do you promise not to laugh?

Takuya Shirakawa:
What is it? I won't laugh.

Sayuri Sawatari:
Then I'll tell you. It's... about this dream I've been having lately.

Takuya Shirakawa:
[after some time in the train] Big towers? Like the Union's?

Sayuri Sawatari:
No... they're distorted, and have this weird shape. There are lots of other towers around the one I'm on. I don't know how, but I know that each of those towers is another world, different dreams that this world has. I can't move from that place, and I'm all alone and so lonely. And when I think that my heart is going to disappear... I see a white plane in the sky

Takuya Shirakawa:
A white plane?

Sayuri Sawatari:
Yeah.

Takuya Shirakawa:
Then...

Sayuri Sawatari:
That's where my dream ends.

Tomizawa:
For the past twenty-five years... that tower has been a part of the scenery, and has been symbolic of many things. Symbolic of the state, war, people, or even despair and admiration. How someone interprets the tower depends on which generation they're from. But we all see it as something we can't reach or change... and as long as we see it that way, this world will not change.

Sayuri Sawatari:
I always have this feeling... The feeling that I'm losing something. The world is really beautiful, but... it feels like it's just me... who's drifting away from it.

Takuya Shirakawa:
It's a choice between saving Sayuri... and saving the world

Hiroki Fujisawa:
[Narrating] On those now distant days... we made a promise we couldn't keep.

Takuya Shirakawa:
Sawatari. This time, for sure... let's go to the promised place.