Makina saves a group of students exploring a haunted building from a Shikabane as a bandit that attacked them with money. Nozomi Kasuga, one of the students, becomes infatuated with Makina and obsessed with death. Ouri questions an uncommunicative Makina about what happened to Minai. Curious about Ouri's compassion for Shikabane Hime and sensitivity to Shikabane, Makina approaches Keisei, who describes Ouri's first appearance at the orphanage at the age of three. Ouri was disaffected and detached from the world until he rescued a black cat crying by the riverbed. Shortly afterwards, the black cat was tragically run over by a car. Ouri, deeply affected by this incident, became keenly aware of death. Nozomi finds Makina and suggests that Ouri could never know Makina like she does, but Makina retorts by stating Ouri knows more about her than Nozomi ever will.