Get your own Free Home PageThe camera starts in the sea, looking up the sun from under the water. It shows various aspects of sea; waves, streams and splash. Then water is swallowed into a black hole and, it appears, flows out as a shower over a dark-skinned girl. She, Merina Scafissi, is having a shower after the class along with her friend, Satou Asako. Asako is going to the sea after the shower while Merina doesn't have any particular plan. Asako has forgot to bring shampoo and asks Merina to let her use hers. But Merina gives no reply. Asako gets out of her cubicle and looks in Merina's. She has gone, even without turning off the shower.
OPSister Akane hastily runs through a tree-lined path to the shower room, where Asako is reporting what has happened to a woman teacher, Kouda Jasmine. Asako gives Sister a very simple description of the incident, "She's vanished."
Two boys arrive at a railway station in a morning mist. Tanami Ryuuzou urges Kijima Kaihei to go on right now but Kaihei tells Ryuuzou to go back. Ryuuzou is defiant as he has come here with a solid determination. Kaihei has been called here to be a new Chairman of the Trustee of a girls' high school and Ryuuzou has no intention to let him monopolise such a sweat experience.
At the bus stop, they find out that there will be no bus for two hours at this remote place. Ryuuzou runs back to the station to see if he can call a taxi. Kaihei, left alone, finds a girl walking on the hill in the mist. It is Merina. Although he doesn't know her, he recognises her uniform and leaves the bus stop without telling Ryuuzou to chase her.
Kaihei walks in the forest. He thinks he has lost her sight when he finds her behind a tree. He apologises Merina about his following and asks if she is a student of St Luminous. Merina doesn't answer and walks away into the mist. Kaihei, somewhat confused, follows her again. They get out of the forest to a open space which overlooks the school in another forest far away. She turns back to him and opens her mouth as if she is going to say something. But before she actually says anything, she vanishes in front of him. Now the mist around Kaihei has also gone. He is at a loss for a while but walks ahead to find Ryuuzou on a tractor. He has hitched it to the school.
Sister Akane is walking down the path hastily again, which wonders a student with music sheets [Shanon De Pye; she speaks in an odd Kyoto accent]. But another girl [Koushinzuka Yukine] next to her seems to be indifferent. Asako has escaped from Jasmine's class with her friend and is now sitting on the grass. Yukine, who has come across, offers a scent bottle of chamomile to her at a lower price but Asako turns it down.
Kaihei and Ryuuzou arrive at the entrance gate of the school. They are still arguing over whether Ryuuzou should come to the school. Sister Akane comes there to welcome Kaihei. She looks at Ryuuzou and asks if he is Kaihei's friend. Before Kaihei can say a word, he introduces himself and tells her Kaihei begged him to come together. He wants to be transferred to the school, too.
As Akane guides the two boys to the main building, she explains that the name "Luminous" was derived from Renaissance [how!? ^_^;;]. That is "revival". The basic concept is the nature as what it really is, in another word, individual. Thus the school was created to house an education system where no boundary is made between the various subjects. Ryuuzou distorts the idea; removing the boundary between boys and girls would fit well with the policy, which Akane doesn't agree.
Shanon has been playing the piano when she hears a sound of contrabass. The tune played by the School Head makes the windows tremble and impresses Shanon in a strange way "that's the horrible tune which only someone who saw the hell can play."
The Head, Tade Kuumi, is a small old lady clad in kimono. She let Akane and the boys enter her room when she has finished the tune. She is Kaihei's grandmother and glad to see him. She asked him to be the next Chairman and takes his being here as his acceptance of the job. She tells him her husband would also be glad as Kaihei was his most favourite grandchild. In fact, Kaihei hasn't decided yet but Kuumi is convinced. Akane hands an envelope, an article left behind by the former Chairman to his grandson. Its content turns out to be a pager.
Akane appears on the screens of computers and TVs in the school to announce the arrival of the new Chairman. In the studio, Kaihei stands by Akane while girls in the control room evaluates their new Chairman; "He's cute, isn't he?" The three first year students are told off by their senior to concentrate on their job.
Now it's Kaihei's turn to speak. He tells the student that, as he is still a high school student himself, he would like to study with them. The idea appalls Jasmine in the gymnasium. In the kitchen, two girls of the cookery course have been listening to the speech. One [Kijima Noriko] tells the other [Elizabeth Ryouko Bryan] that he is her "big brother." Precisely speaking he is her cousin but she has been calling him so. Then Ryuuzou, disguising himself as a girl, introduces him(?)self as Tanami Ryuu. It seems Ryouko finds him more interesting than the new Chairman. After the broadcast, Ryuuzou complains at Kaihei why he had to be a girl. Kaihei teasingly quotes him, "Who said 'I want to enter the school whatever I may have to do'?"
As Ryuuzou walks away to the dorm to do some paper work, Akane tells Kaihei he also has some work to do now. She hands some reports to him and explains that a student is missing for a few days. It's not rare for some girls to stay outside of the school overnight without a leave, but other possibilities, such as involvement in troubles, cannot be ruled out. A meeting is going to be held from now to decide what kind of action to be taken. Kaihei looks at the photograph of the missing girl and surprises Akane by saying "I saw her."
Eye CatcherKaihei comes with Akane back to the place where he lost the sight of Merina. Akane asks what happened there and Kaihei tells her, after some hesitation, "She vanished." The words remind her of those by Asako. Kaihei goes off to look for her while Akane goes back to school to postpone the meeting.
As Kaihei runs in the forest, his pager rings, with a message "When looking for something, start from the beginning." He cannot trace back the sender and wonders if his grandmother did it. As he continues the search, he rethinks of the situation. It is an odd situation; a girl called Merina Scafissi vanished once. Then he saw her before she disappeared again. Speaking of odd, it also seems odd for him to be a chairman of a girls' high school. Apparently it was written in his grandfather's will. But he only played with him when he was small and hasn't seen him for years.
Kaihei comes out of the forest to a road, where a farmer on a tractor offers him a cup of tea. Then he hears a voice calling "Big brother!" Noriko, who has come here on a bike with Ryouko, is calling him. Kaihei doesn't recognise her and looks around for her "brother." Noriko thinks he is just pretending and now calls him "Chairman". Kaihei's meek response, "Sorry but who are you", makes her rather angry and Ryouko laugh. On the way back, Noriko points out Merina, in her uniform, wouldn't have taken the train. It would have been too conspicuous. She thinks she's just vanished. Kaihei asks back where he should look for her then. Surprisingly Ryouko answers his question, "I think you won't find her even if you look for."
Back in the school, Ryuu approaches Kaihei and the girls to help. Akane has told him what has happened. Kaihei tries to introduce the two girls to Ryuu but remembers he doesn't know the name of Noriko's friend. Ryouko introduces herself, staring at Ryuu with sharp eyes. Ryuuzou is for a moment frightened as he fears she has noticed he is not a girl.
Noriko suggests to go to the shower room where Merina disappeared first. "People say, when investigation gets stalled, go back to the site of the incident." Her idea reminds Kaihei of the message to his pager. He asks Noriko if she sent it but she didn't even know he has got one. She teases him by asking if he's got a girlfriend to send message of love to it.
Anyway they decide to see the shower room. On their way, Kaihei sees a man burning a rubbish. Akane tells him he is the caretaker, Rokuzou.
At the entrance of the room, Noriko tells Kaihei to stay outside for a moment because some girls may be having a shower now. The idea makes Ryuu jubilant and he tries to follow the three women into the room. Kaihei manages to prevent him until Noriko calls him in from the inside. Then an old woman on a bike passes by and stops near Kaihei. She turns back and says something to him. Although her mouth does move, no words reach him. She then rides away without looking back.
Noriko calls him again from the shower room. When he comes in, she shows the cubicle Merina was using. She says Merina was having a shower until a moment before vanishing and it's impossible for Merina to go out of the school without any clothes. Ryuu cuts in to ask Kaihei if he saw Merina naked. No, she was in the uniform. But to think of that, her ribbon wasn't fastened properly. Also her bottle of shampoo, left in the cubicle, reminds him that he smelled lavender when Merina passed by him.
Ryuu wants to know about the girl who saw Merina last. Akane explains Asako must be still in the class but Ryouko thinks otherwise. She will not take Jasmine's class on a day with winds like this.
They come to the beach where Asako is surfing. Kaihei walks towards a group of resting surfers and borrows a board. Akane wonders if he is a surfer himself but Ryuu assures he is not. Seeing him struggling, Noriko tries to remember if Kaihei can even swim.
As Kaihei struggles to reach Asako, Ryuu tells Asako it is rare for him to be absorbed in something so much. He is usually a man to follow a stream. The position of the chairman might have affected him. Noriko and Ryouko come to them to tell they have to go back the restaurant. The students of the cookery course run Restaurant Luminous within the school. Noriko, who has a qualification of "instructor", suggests Ryuu to take a cooking lesson. He is interested in the idea and decides to go back to the school. He tells Akane to come with them because, as things go, it will be still long before Kaihei reaches Asako.
Kaihei loses his balance on the board and gets nearly drowned when Asako pulls him to the surface. She asks him if he is a beginner. He admits he is a beginner of chairman. Asako thinks he has come here to bring the delinquent student back but doesn't say much because she sees a giant wave coming towards them. She urges him to get back on the board. "Stand up when I tell you so" Her assistance turns out to be in vain. Kaihei gets thrown into the sea many times.
Asako and Kaihei are back on the beach in the dusk. He asks about the last moments before Merina disappeared but, before he can hear much, Jasmine comes to catch Asako. Kaihei tries to make an excuse for her but fails to stand up as his knees crumble. Perhaps his honest actions have influenced Asako, she obediently tells Jasmine that she will take the extra lesson. As she is leaving for the school, Asako looks back and tells Kaihei, "I was a bit shocked when Merina vanished. But to think of it well, Merina might have been wishing to vanish."
ED
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