You know, one of the first films I remember seeing in theatres was Searching for Bobby Fisher. . .

Last Time. . .

We Now Comntinue.

We hold on this shot of black for a few seconds-- just long enough for the pause to be noticable-- before we

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INT, Makoto's Apartment

A close up of USAGI lying on Makoto's couch. She snaps awake just as we cut to her. We think it might be from a nightmare, until we see her close her eyes and groan groggily.

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Usagi, standing at a window. The sun is only just coming up; for Tokyo in early April, this means its only around 5:30. Usagi looks down to the bare street below, and then up to the Tokyo Sky Tree in the distance. Somehow, in the light of day, the scene has lost its lustre. Usagi turns around, and sees that there's light coming from the bottom of the bathroom door.

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Bathroom. MAKOTO stands in front of the mirror, doing something we never thought we'd see her do-- applying eye-liner. She's wearing a white t-shirt and a dark-green skirt; behind her hangs the top part of a dress suit of the same color as her dress. She's puts down the eye-liner and reaches for a packet of lipstick in a metallic case, but hesitates. She closes her eyes, and we

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INT, Juuban High

A flashback from a few months earlier. Makoto, now sitting in class, is applying lipstick and fixing up her her hair-- she's trying to hide what she's doing, given the cultural taboo in Japan of applying make-up in public. She turns around and spots SEMPAI, hanging out with some friends. Her face flushed, she looks down to something in her hand-- a button. She looks back up to Sempai as we cut to a close-up-- we see that one of the buttons on his uniform jacket is missing. We pan up to reveal SEMPAI looking over to Makoto and smiling.

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INT, Makoto's Apartment

The present. This memory has clearly infuriated MAKOTO. She looks down at the lipstick, the music builds, and then, as if focussing all her anger onto it, Makoto reaches out and GRABS THE LIPSTICK. She holds on to the lipstick, gazing at it-- whatever she was expecting to happen, hasn't. After a moment, she pulls herself together and starts applying the lipstick.

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USAGI, lying on the couch, looking at the bathroom, unable, or unwilling, to go back to sleep.

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INT, Mizuno Residence, Bathroom

AMI enters the washroom. As she approaches the sink, she sees something in the garbage container. She looks inside and takes the object out-- it's an empty pill bottle. Ami takes a closer look at the label: "Zotepine". Ami knows what this is, but has no idea what it's doing in her apartment.

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Dining room. Ami brings out a small, homemade breakfast and sets it on the table. She's all dressed up for school -- uniform, backpack full of books, all ready-- so she's shocked to see the message left for her on the dry-erase board by Saeko:

MESSAGE

School's been cancelled today.

It looks like something has been erased next to that message, but we can't tell for sure. Ami's dissappointed by the news. But there's something else written on the board-- a chess move: "Bxa4". Beneath the chess move is a text address-- whoever wrote down that move want Ami to send her next move there. AMI moves to the board and makes the move. She then analyses the board-- this was a surprisingly challenging move, and AMI has to think for a moment about her response. Then, in AMI'S eyes, we can see a flash of inspiration.

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A moment later. AMI sends a text message containing her (unseen) move.

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AMI sitting at the TV. She's jubillant. . . until the ongoing news of the attack at Big Sight snaps her back into reality. After a moment, we

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AMI pulling out papers from her drawer-- these were the same papers that AMI was working on yesterday, which SAEKO took down. As Ami is looking them through, she gets a text message.

MESSAGE

School's out, but we're not.

AMI reads what the message as we--

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. . .