Casshern is still agonizing over what he has done to the community. Friender watches over Wrench's dead body, while eyeing Casshern with hostility.
Meanwhile, a person is being attacked by a group of marauding robots. He hides behind a large rock boulder and manages to avoid detection. When the robots are gone, he decides to camp there for the night.
an encounter most unexpected
Back in the community, Friender has dragged Wrench to the church. Casshern attempts to take shelter there as well but is rebuffed by Friender, which seems to blame him for Wrench's death. Sadly, Casshern walks out alone into the night. The next day, however, he encounters the strange person who was earlier attacked by robots.
This person turns out to be a human, named Akoes. When Casshern appears shocked at this discovery, Akoes says that humans are not that rare. Although you will see them very seldom, they are still around. Akoes takes a particular interest in Casshern, at first because he is the first robot he has ever seen who has not been affected by the ruin, then later on because Casshern seems to not like being followed. Yes, our first human is a tease.
Soon, however, Casshern begins to open up to the human and even helps him hunt for food. Akoes knows a lot more about the world than Casshern so he gives him a brief history while they travel together. Apparently, part of the cause is the humans and never-ending lust for power. At some point there might have been a war, which spelled the end of humans and the rise of the robots.
Akoes also tells him something that humans are efficient beings since they have to do a lot of things just to survive, while robots have nothing to worry about. But this is not saying that he is unaware of the ruin that's spreading across his mechanical counterparts. Still, it's not something he should beat himself up over it.
a strange kind of beauty
Meanwhile, back in the community, Wrench has finally disintegrated, her body completely consumed by rust. Friender leaves her side and goes into the night to seek out Casshern. At that moment, Casshern is with Akoes, who comments about his brooding. After some hesitation, Casshern reveals to him that he has committed a sin. But instead of condemning him, Akoes says that he, too, has committed many sins but has realized that feeling bad about it is not going to make the sin go away.
The next day, the two of them start their journey again. This time, Akoes reveals that he was just like Casshern before, seeking something, asking questions but that later he realized that he was just running away and he was tired of it, so he stopped. This seems to hit a note with Casshern so that same evening, he leaves the campfire and goes out to meet Friender.
on a journey to redemption
Casshern has decided to "stop running away." He will start by meeting Friender's judgment head on. But Friender, perhaps sensing the sincerity of his atonement, lets him go with little more than a scratch.
The next day, Akoes and Friender become best buddies. Casshern is still his same brooding self but he seems to have accepted that from now on, he will be traveling with Friender and Akoes. Yet, surprisingly Akoes declines his invite. He says that he is going to take a look at the community, despite Casshern's warning that he won't find anything there. Akoes has accepted his own death. Before he goes, however, he gives Casshern assurance that he, as himself, does not bring death to all around him.
COMMENTS:
A slightly different look at death. This time from the human side of things. Nicely played out too with a kind of desperate inevitability at the same time the tiniest shade of hope -- not hope of not dying but hope of accepting with grace that death is simply the conclusion but not necessarily the end, and in so doing, managing to overcome it. That's what accepting death really means.
Hah, that last cap reminds me of BT-X.
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