Episode 5: Non-existent

**"Nonpresence -none-"** *Transcription:* "Muzai -none-" (Japanese: 無在 -none-) is the fifth episode of *Madlax*. It debuted on May 3, 2004 in Japan.

## Synopsis

A boy named Chris has just entered the Gazth-Sonika with help from a merchant named Brian. Chris hides while the adult talks to two men that have come by to pick up the boy. The two strangers shoot and kill Brian, but Chris stays hidden so they don’t find him.

SSS gives Madlax new orders: to retrieve certain materials that are being sent from Nafrece to the terrorist group Galza. The crime organization Enfant is also trying to confiscate the materials. When she hears the name Enfant, Madlax calls them “The merchants of death who sell weapons to government troops,” and we can assume she meant the government of Gazth-Sonika. Focusing on the mission, Madlax asks what the materials are that she must acquire, but Three-Speed says he doesn’t know.

First, Madlax visits an information broker who works at a shop that sells souvenir figurines and statues. In episode 3, this man gave Madlax a lot of information about Gwen McNicole. This time, he is unable to provide any useful information about Enfant because the organization hides their secrets so well. The informant does tell Madlax, though, that a merchant named Brian has gone missing. Madlax tries to track down this merchant and is told he picked up a dangerous job over in Avenue, the area by the sea that separates Gazth-Sonika and Nafrece. By the waterfront, Madlax is confronted by Chris. He points a gun at her and tries to steal her motorcycle. After drawing her own gun and making Chris lower his, Madlax decides to let it go. She tells the boy she’ll take him where he wants to go on the bike.

Second Lieutenant Limelda Jorg reports to Carossur Don, asking for her orders. This proves Don is working in the Gazth-Sonika government. His orders for Jorg are to find an illegal immigrant (Chris) and capture him. At first Jorg refuses because that’s a job for the police and not for a squad member. But when Don says that her hated rival, Madlax, is also on this case, Jorg decides to take the job after all.

Madlax provides Chris with food and a place to stay. She also questions him and he reveals that a month ago, his dying mother told him that his father is in Gazth-Sonika. Chris left Nafrece to find his father. Since his father is said to be part of the resistance group Galza, Chris felt that he had to enter the country illegally. He was helped by Viederica Morey. Morey told Chris to try to find out the “real” reason for the civil war still raging in Gazth-Sonika. Madlax says she thought the war was caused by royalists clashing with the Galza terrorists, but Chris says that Morey believed there was more to the story. Though Madlax calls Chris an idiot, she agrees to help.

Near a Galza encampment in the jungle, Madlax drops off Chris and says goodbye. As the boy fades from sight, Madlax experiences a vivid flashback from 12 years ago, wherein explosions keep going off and a very young Madlax searches for her father among the ruins. All she has left of him are his army dog tags, which have been warped by a bullet going through them. Madlax still has her father’s tags with her in the present. She says she wants to find her father. That’s why she had decided to help Chris.

As he walks down the dirt road, Chris suddenly sees a car and a van coming toward him. They pull over and out come several armed men, ready to kill him. Of course, Madlax comes to the rescue on her motorcycle.

A gun fight starts and the female mercenary kills all of the men easily. Having put two and two together, Madlax then asks Chris what his father’s name is. Chris replies that it’s Ming Dulk, the leader of Galza. Enfant was after Chris because he was the son of Galza’s number one. Chris himself is the “material” that Madlax was supposed to retrieve. Rather than giving him to her client though, Madlax decides to help Chris find his father.

After a scene that strongly implied Carossur Don and Limelda Jorg had slept together, the two of them set out to stop Madlax and capture Chris. They go by helicopter and quickly reach the jungled mountains marking the beginning of the battle zone. Chris and Madlax, who also just reached the mountain, are forced to stop and hide. If they waste any time, say Madlax, military reinforcements will arrive. So they have to hurry and kill Jorg and Don, who are waiting for them at the mountain top.

Among Chris’ belongings is a General’s military uniform: a memento left behind by his father. Chris wears the General’s clothes and comes up the hill, and his army medals are enough to confuse Jorg and prevent her from shooting him right away. Then Madlax springs into sight and, in midair, shoots the rifle out of Jorg’s hands. Landing just feet away from the enemy, Madlax holds them at gunpoint with her two hand-guns. She says she will spare their lives if they tell the military not to bring reinforcements. Jorg and Don have no choice but to comply. While Madlax keeps a close eye on the enemies, Chris goes on by himself, into the area where Galza and the Royalists actively fight each other. Before he leaves, Chris promises to meet Madlax again at her apartment in three days.

That night, Chris arrives at a large, grim-looking residence almost like a church or a small castle. Chris is told that his father, Ming Dulk, is in there, but viewers should recognize it as the home of the masked man (Friday Monday). Once Chris enters the building, Friday closes an old book written in another language (the Firstary) and appears before the boy. Laughingly, the villain tells Chris, “There is no such man as Ming Dulk here. Actually, he never existed in reality. There is no information about a Chris Krana anywhere in Enfant’s information. There’s not even a record of your mother’s existence. You do not exist in this world. This is part of what was twisted by the start of the war twelve years ago.” The scene ends without showing what happens to Chris. The same night, Carossur Don thinks about Madlax, happy that he got to meet her that day. He seems to admire her, but he may be scheming against her.

Three days later, Madlax gloomily waits at her apartment. Chris never fulfills his promise to meet her. “Chris is a liar,” says Madlax sadly.

## Preview

Episode 6

*"Even if you don't have any memory of me, my feelings won't change. It is true loyalty, a willingness, to die."* – Elenore Baker