Episode 22

THE ZOO

Saya approaches the Zoo in heavy fog. She hesitates at first, but together with Hagi, she opens the gate. Back on the Red Shield ship, everyone’s medical tests all come back negative, meaning they’re not contaminated. Red Shield has learned that Saya has gone to her point of origin, the zoo. As David explains to Kai, this is the place where she was born.

During this time, Saya and Hagi are walking through the ruins of the estate. Saya starts to remember when she first met Hagi; Joel I had introduced him as her friend. At first the two didn’t get along because Saya acted selfishly and wanted Hagi to do servant-like duties (polishing shoes, helping her change clothes). Joel wanted her to consider Hagi’s feelings more. Amshel interjected that before long the two will…, but Joel cut off his sentence. Even in the past, Saya was receiving treatments in the form of blood in a wine glass. Saya had decided to teach Hagi to play the cello, but the young Hagi had quickly gotten frustrated. Saya ended up comforting the crying Hagi with a hug. As the days went by, the two had gotten closer and closer. At one point, Saya had even told him that when she grew up, she wanted to leave and see the world with Hagi.

The years went by and Hagi soon became better at the cello than Saya. When Saya tried to play, one of the strings happened to snap, cutting her finger. To Hagi’s surprise, the wound immediately healed itself. He had gone to ask Joel about why Saya hasn’t changed at all since he came and why her wounds heal like that. All Joel was about to say was that he knows that blood is necessary for Saya to live, but doesn’t really know why. Saya had overheard the conversation between them, and later confronted Hagi about how he felt about her. She had stood up in the rowboat that they were in, rocking it and knocking herself into his arms. Saya had wondered why time flowed differently for the two of them even though their hearts beat at the same rate.

Back in the present, Saya realizes that Hagi had also stopped aging at one point. Hagi directs her gaze to the nearby cliffs, and Saya realizes that it was she who stopped time for him. Back then, she had wanted to pick flowers for Joel’s birthday, but the type he liked (lilies) were growing on the cliff-side. Hagi had gone to pick them in her place, but had lost his grip and fallen all the way down. By the time Saya got to his body, blood was pouring out of his head. In desperation, Saya had, through mouth-to-mouth, fed Hagi some of her own blood. It had the effect of putting Hagi through a seizure-like experience, and Saya started to cry because Hagi had no heartbeat. Hagi lived, and he tells Saya that the reason he stays by her side now is because she stopped time for him by giving her own blood.

The rest of Saya’s memories aren’t so clear. When Saya returned to the mansion, it was up in flames; Joel had died that day and there was a smiling girl with blood coming out of her mouth. Saya remembers running towards a tower and asking to be friends with someone. The response was a blue rose falling from above. Saya identifies that person as Diva, her little sister. At this point in the present, Solomon appears and says that Saya and Diva are blood-related family and are the Chevalier’s mothers and lovers. Solomon asks if Saya remembers.