Episode 23

**Eternal Night** (常夜, *Tokoyo*) is the 23rd episode of the Summer Time Rendering anime.

## Synopsis

Hiruko is still not defeated and a small part of her remains. Ushio and Shinpei's right eyes resonate. Shide, who was surely defeated, appears before their eyes again like an immortal. Shide keenly senses the new awakening of Ushio's "observer eye" and invites them to the place for a decisive battle to take it away. Shinpei and Ushio firmly join hands and push forward into the darkness that has been opened up.

## Summary

Seeing Hiruko turning to a small baby and is no missing both eyes, Shide throws her away, no needing her anymore as he doesn't believe she can recover anymore. He sees her eye went to Ushio and states that if he steals it, he can still achieve his wish. Hiruko tells him that she can still recover if she eats a lot of humans and if he gets her eye back from Ushio, but Shide is no longer interested in her. Ushio and Shinpei both get angry and head towards him. Shide notes that he can't let Hiruko die as his mud armor will disappear and per her wish, he will take her to her home with him. He then splits Hiruko in half and opens a dimensional portal, while Hiruko doesn't wish to return with this body. Shide then enters, inviting Shinpei to come and settle things.

The portal then starts sucking in people. Ushio tries to stop Shinpei, telling him that if he enters, he won't ever come back and will be lost forever, and wishes to go in alone. As Shinpei refuses to leave her, Ushio asks Ryunosuke to get Shinpei out of here, however, Ryunosuke wants to keep his promise to his sister and save Haine. Shinpei tells Ushio that he will always follow her and that he loves her, and wishes to be with her. Shinpei and Ushio then enter the portal, which closes after them.

Shinpei wakes up in Haine's world. He sees the edge of it and realized that at the edge the flow of time gets cut off. He realizes that time doesn't work in this world and he won't be able to loop if he dies. Shinpei decides to go looking for Ushio. Ryunosuke feels she is nearby and the rifle she printed still haven't disappeared. However, Shinpei is with an injured leg and Ryunosuke offers to take care of his body and share the pain with him. Taking control over his body, Ryunosuke and Shinpei continue looking for Ushio. As they look around, they feel the place looks similar to Hitogashima. They eventually hear singing and see a ball, which Shinpei recognizes as Haine's. As the ball starts moving, they start following it. They reach an old town where they see a Kobayakawa store and human-looking shadows, however, Ryunosuke notes that they don't seem hostile.

The ball leads them a group of shadows, who then disappear and Shinpei sees Ushio in the middle. Ushio doesn't feel well and Haine comes out of her. Ryunosuke recalls Hizuru saying that since Ushio came out of Haine, a future may come where Ushio's personality is eliminated and Haine takes over, she will kill her, if not Ryunosuke should kill her. Ryunosuke prepares to shoot, but Shinpei stops him and Ushio states she is okay now. She explains that this isn't the Haine that killed Ryunosuke, and that back then Haine's personality split into the human girl, Haine, and Hiruko. Inside of Ushio is the little girl that became friends with Hizuru. Haine wants to talk with them and as they agree, Haine comes out. She explains she had a long dream, which was Ushio's memories. She apologizes for everyone that got involved with her and for those that died. Ryunosuke tells her there is no need to apologize as Hiruko ate him and the one to really blame is Shide for orchestrating it all. Haine explains that this is Tokoyo, the realm of the dead and where times doesn't flow. Haine points them out and they realize that Ryunosuke isn't shifted ahead in time and realize this was probably Shide's plan. Shide wants to take Ushio's eye and with it, he can transcend to an even higher dimension, where time and space will be at his command. Ushio then explains she read Shide's mind and he wants to destroy the world and just "turn it off" like a game.

Suddenly a WWII air raid starts and Ushio protects them from the bombing. Shinpei tells them that if Shide plans on taking the eye and returning to the real world, that means there is a way for them to return as well. Haine states they need to kill Hiruko, and then Tokoyo will vanish too. Haine explains that the raid is from Hiruko's memories and Tokoyo is connected to her memories, although its a day Hiruko likely wishes to forget. Ushio then realizes that Shide is forcing Hiruko to relive that day. Haine explains she also have memories of that day and will try to suppress the memory for few moments, however, they should be careful of Shide's armor, whose armor can reflect any force directed at it. They need to erase Shide's armor first and Ushio is confident she can do it as she got a present from Mio.

Haine then suppresses the memory and stops time. Ushio then jumps from a bomb to a bomb, heading up to the planes where Shide is. She jumps on his plane and slices him up, but realizes that there is no one inside of him. Shide then wonders if she figured his secret and as he reflects her hack, he attacks her leaving only her legs and eye behind. As he reaches for the eye, Ushio eats a fragment of a child Ushio and recovers in a child form, retaking her eye. She then jumps and touches Hiruko, hacking her and erasing the air raid memory. As they fall, Ushio contacts Shinpei and tells him that Shide's real body is in the real world and is controlling his armor remotely through Hiruko. Shinpei wonders what is going on with the armor right now and Ushio notices that the part she erased, haven't recovered. Shinpei then states she can erase the entire armor.

## Characters

* Shide
* Haine
* Shinpei Ajiro
* Ushio Kofune
* Sou Hishigata
* Mio Kofune

## Trivia

* The episode title might be a reference to the japanese folk story from Richard Gordon Smiths *Ancient Tales and Folk-lore of Japan*. Which was named Tokoyo, and was a about the daughter of an exiled samurai who defeated and slew a sea monster.
	+ Also the plane of existence where the Shadows reside in likely based off of the shinto mythological underworld, Yomi. Just as the higher dimension that Shide is trying to reach is probably based off of Takamagahara, The High Plain of Heaven from the same mythos.