"Demise" - Noriko Kifune
Bright Win / Wheelhouse / -1:09:02
Chapter 4, the final chapter of Mystery of the Bright Win, picks up from the final scene of Chapter 2. In this chapter, Ichiko Yagura and Noriko Kifune finally reunite. The situation begins to speed towards its conclusion. Does salvation await at its end...?
Trying to save Noriko, Ichiro Nakajima fights with Offshoot B' in the wheelhouse. However, as it looks like he is about to drive the strange creature back at last, Nakajima's face is swallowed up into the body of Offshoot B'. Noriko watches her lover, morphed into an unbelievable form, in a daze. Having lost Nakajima, she has also lost the will to live. But there is something that gives her strength. The new lives inside her... It is the only tie remaining behind her and Nakajima now that he no longer exists, causing the maternal instincts lying within Noriko to flare up. Noriko flees to the front deck of the Bright Win. Offshoot B' chases after her. Cornered against the guard rail, only the red see churns wildly below. With nowhere to run, Offshoot B's tentacle extends towards her... In this desperate situation, the "essence of a dove" is put inside her foetuses. Realising that her body, already collapsing, has reached its limit, Offshoot B' chooses to live on by reviving herself from the level of a foetus. In a way, you could say that Offshoot B' transfers herself inside Noriko's babies. Because of this, the twins Noriko later gives birth to both contain the essence of a dove. Regardless of whether or not they are aware of it, the sisters are fated to be born as "monsters"... This is how Ikuko and Ryuko are born.
Afterwards, "another drama" unfolds at the lifeboat boarding point on the starboard deck. The ferry gives a huge lurch, and Ichiko is tossed over the guard rail. Noriko Kifune instantly reaches out and grabs onto her hand. Withstanding the force so great it seems as though it will pull her arm off, she somehow tries to pull Ichiko up. "...We'll be friends forever, right?" This is what they had always told each other. Around the wrist of Noriko and the wrist of Ichiko onto which she grabbed sparkle matching bracelets, symbols of their friendship. "...I'm sick of this! I have to (save Ichiko, if no one else)..." But as Noriko uses all of her strength to try to pull Ichiko up, she feels a sharp pain in her stomach. Noriko and Nakajima's child... Her momentary hesitation is decisive. Ichiko loses her grip on Noriko's arm. Her hand grabs onto Noriko's bracelet, breaking the metal circle... Forever losing any hope of saving Ichiko, who falls into the red sea with a scream, Noriko becomes the sole survivor of the Bright Win (after this, Ichiko Yagura's body, having sunk into the red sea, is used as a model by Otoshigo to create a Simulacrum).
As Noriko stares down at the red sea that swallowed Ichiko in shock, Offshoot B stands behind her. Along with understanding that she was unable to save Ichiko, she realises that her body is reaching its limit. "I want to sleep for a while... until I awaken again..." The time for Offshoot B's body to return to nothingness has come. But she feels as though she will meet with Ichiko Yagura again soon. "Ah, I can see that girl... I will meet her again." Even in her "next life", soon to begin, Offshoot B will deliver a warning to Ichiko Yagura as she is about to board the Bright Win. Will Ichiko heed the warning this time?
"A story that loops"
The Offshoot B that warns Ichiko Yagura as she is about to board the Bright Win at the start of Chapter 1 and the Offshoot B that returns to nothingness at the end of Chapter 4 are the same. As the wheel of time loops, the same people become connected. However, Offshoot B herself isn't actually aware of this. She has been "influenced" by humans, an experience which took place on the Bright Win due to her meeting with none other than Ichiko Yagura.
"Ichiko Yagura sinks into the red sea"
By watching the movie "Ichiko Yagura - 0:51:08" in Siren 2, you can see Ichiko's breath (bubbles) stop as she sinks into the red sea. This is where the human Ichiko's life ends.
[No.074] Jade Bracelet
The bracelet Noriko Kifune was wearing. It broke due to the pressure of holding onto Ichiko. Incidentally, when Offshoot B mentions a "circle... torn... warped" in Chapter 1, it is the broken bracelet to which she refers. Perhaps fragmented memories of what she once saw on the Bright Win remain.