RahXephon Movement 15: The Night of the Children/Childhood’s End

A young Makoto shows Itsuki and Helena the Dolem like mud doll he discovered. The next day their teacher punishes them for sneaking out at night. Makoto says they read that a painting moves at night and Helena dared them to go see it. Later, they practice singing but Helena and Makoto start bickering. The teacher tells them to stop and says he was going to leave the next day, but doesn’t think he can with their attitude. He reminds them that they’re chosen people with great potential. Makoto wonders if it’s true and says he’s always the one who gets scolded. He says it’s because he’s a D and the teacher says it’s not true. The butler uses a tuning fork like device and the teacher wonders if it’s still alive. He says it might die if left alone. Makoto and Itsuki go see the mud doll again and Makoto says it’s harmless because he heard it singing. Itsuki notes that it’s badly injured but Makoto says it’s been getting better since he feeds it rocks. Helena finds them and threatens to tell, but Makoto sings, causing it to rise and send a blast of wind at her. He says if she tells, he’ll sick it on her. That night, they discuss it in bed and Helena says she hasn’t seen anything about rock eating monsters in her witch book. Makoto asks what she’d know and she says a D can’t talk to Bs like that. Helena says she’ll destroy the demon, but Makoto says it’s not a demon. Makoto and Itsuki wonder when Helena became that way, and Makoto says it’s because she found out she was a blood relative of Lord Bahbem. Makoto says he’s closer to a normal person and wonders what it’s like to have real parents. He says his real parents are out there somewhere and that he’ll find them one day. The next day they are given an assignment to catalogue the local plants. Helena says she can do whatever she wants because she didn’t over sleep, and the boys get to work. Makoto shows Itsuki the rocks he feeds to the mud doll and Helena tells them to get to work. Helena collects improvised ingredients to a magic spell and mixes them in a box. She takes it to the mud doll, but it gets up and fires into a wall. It then turns to Helena.

Helena tells the butler and troops are sent down into the caves. Makoto and Itsuki see them and sneak down into the caves. The troops open fire and Makoto tries to stop them, but Itsuki holds him back. He starts singing and forms a sound barrier, which stops the bullets. The mud doll blasts the soldiers and flies away with Makoto and Itsuki. Makoto hopes they can make it out and recalls when a bat flew into their room. Itsuki remembers Helena tried to burn it and says she hasn’t changed. Makoto remembers being praised for saving it and that they should save the mud doll too. He says they’ll help it find its parents, but Itsuki wonders if it has parents and Makoto says it must. The teacher looks at failed Dolems and comments on how they were only occasionally successful, even when they followed Bahbem’s directions. He says when one finally manages to live longer, it bonds with a mass produced instrumentalist. The mud doll makes it out of the cave with troops waiting for it. Makoto says goodbye to his teacher, but the mud doll starts falling apart. Makoto tells it to hang on, but it crashes. Makoto has a memory of similar looking men calling him version 3.20 and saying how pitiful he is. Makoto cries in the mud and says they could have found their parents. Their teacher says it couldn’t survive outside of the mansion’s force field and that it doesn’t have parents. Makoto asks if they’re the same way. The teacher cuts Makoto’s hair and says he’s different from the other two, but still special. He says Makoto should be proud that Bahbem is his parent. Adult Makoto thinks about how he never grew his hair long after that and his desire to find his parents died when he became an adult. He thinks of how he found what he has to do and looks at a lock of his clay encased hair. He wonders if the mud doll found his parents when it returned to the mud.