[HorridSubs] Puchi Pura Lotte! - 03 [1080p HEVC 10bit AAC][4CDE45D6].mkv

" Lotte At Bat /

In the Land of the Blind, etc. … "

The bell rings, bringing yet another school day to a close.

Lotte walks down the orange-tinted halls of Umehara Junior High, headed once more for the Flower Arrangement Club (Tentative) clubroom.

As she passes by her fellow classmates, she catches snippets of the other students' excited conversations.

"… Man, Kanemoto-sensei was in a mood, today. I think she …"

"… Did you catch the latest episode last week? It was so good! …"

"… wonder what's for dinner tonight …"

"… nervous about the test tomorrow …"

"… finally saved up for that new game …"

"… So much better this way. Right, Arisa-chan?? Now we don't have to see anything …"

All around Lotte, students walk the halls, unseeing.

Their eyes covered by blindfolds or bandages, some bloodier than others.

Only a few occasional stragglers remain among the sighted.

"… You should join us, Emma-senpai! It's much better like this."

"… Ehh?? But doesn't it hurt? I'm afraid of pain."

"… Daijoubu, daijoubu, we'll do it together! A bit of pain is nothing in exchange for a lifetime of bliss …"

Lotte winces at each reminder of the false Midori's cheerful words, which echo now through her head, in reverb-heavy recollection:

If something is too painful to look at …

A brief image of two glass eyes, sitting side by side, on a table in an empty room, flashes on the screen.

… Just don't look, silly!

Lotte frowns.

She continues walking, passing by an increasingly blinded student body.

So engrossed in her thoughts is she, that she fails to notice the bulletin board of MISSING posters, Midori's eyes still scratched out on each photo, the collection having grown past the board's margins, overflowing onto the walls now, almost to the floor and ceiling.

From within the empty FAC(T) clubroom, view of the entrance.

Lotte's silhouette appears outside, as she approaches.

She slides open the door, takes off her slippers, closes the door.

She walks over to the table, sits down on the tatami.

She puts her head down, stares at the orange-tinted wall.

Once again, she is alone.

Time appears to pass, Lotte fading from one position to another, across the static, unmoving clubroom.

Minutes. Hours, perhaps.

Nearly impossible to tell with the constant and eternal twilight, where shadows refuse to lengthen or recede.

… Finally, she has enough.

Lotte stands up, puts on her indoor slippers, and leave the clubroom.

She marches through the empty halls of Umehara Middle, across the entirety of the school.

When she reaches her destination, she stops in front of the closed door.

From outside, she hears laughter, and voices chatting excitedly.

The label on the door reads:

FLORAL DECORATION CLUB (DEFINITIVE)

Lotte's jaw tightens at the sign.

… She opens the door.

Hesitantly at first; then, with full determination, as the resulting Thwack! against the frame announces her arrival to the occupants within.

There, from the center of the room, the members of the Floral Decoration Club (Definitive), turn their heads at the sudden intrusion.

The false Midori, smiling wide, two deep, sunken caverns where her eyes should be.

Tomoe, eyes wide, staring at her childhood friend.

Sana, expressionless, a pair of bloody scissors in her hand.

… And Hanako, her eyes covered by crimson-stained gauze bandages, wrapped all the way behind her head.

"W-Who is that, guys?" the blinded Hanako asks, hands reaching out clumsily.

The false Midori smiles. "Why, it's Lotte-chan! She's finally decided to join us."

Lotte trembles, her fists clenching.

"Hana-chan …," she whispers. "Not you too …"

Hanako tries to turn her head to where she thinks Lotte is.

"A-ah, you mean this?" she says, pointing to her bandages. "I-I was kinda scared to … B-But Micchan said i-it will be f-fine … if Sana-chan did it for me … Because we're best f-friends …"

Sana, still holding the scissors in one hand, makes a peace sign with the other, and flatly declares, "Yay. Operation successful."

Hanako continues, "A-and Micchan was right! It hurt a bit at first, b-but now I don't have to … l-look at that awful sky anymore …"

Lotte turns to Tomoe. "Why didn't you stop this?" she demands.

Tomoe looks at the tatami floor, unable to meet Lotte's gaze. "I—…"

The false Midori interjects, "Oh, come now, Lotte-chan. Haven't you seen the rest of the school? Everybody's doing it."

Lotte snaps, "Yeah, all because of you."

The false, eyeless Midori smiles. "I merely showed them the way. Defenestration is a choice."

Lotte scoffs. "'Defenestr—' … I'm pretty sure that's not what that word means."

A close-up of a page in a dictionary suddenly appears on the screen, focused on one entry in particular. Bold black text on cream-white paper.

Defenestration (noun): the process by which one is thrown out of a window.

Lotte gesticulates wildly, pointing at something she assumes everyone else can see.

"… See!?"

Midori (Fake) chuckles. "And what are eyes, if not windows to the soul? The existence of the word implies a 'fenestration'. And to reverse such an act—"

Lotte stamps her feet. "STOP. STOP IT. SHUT. UP. I don't want to ever hear another word from your disgusting—" She turns to her former friends. "Guys, please! Stop all this! Just come back to the old clubroom! This is madness!"

Silence now, except for the sound of Lotte panting. Tears streaking down her cheeks.

At last, Sana stands up.

"… You're right, Lotte. It is madness."

With the bloody scissors still in her hand, she points at the window.

"No sun. No moon."

Then she brings her arm down again.

"… No more."

Then she raises the scissors again, this time bringing it up to her eyes, and, opening the blades wide—

"SANA, NO!"

—pushes them into her eyes.

Squelch.

*

The bell rings.

After school.

Around her, students in blindfolds pack up their belongings.

Outside the classroom window, the eternal dusk.

Lotte walks, back hunched, staring at the floor, as she lethargically shuffles to the FAC(T) clubroom.

Inside the clubroom, she sits—no, she lies down on her side, on the tatami floor.

She closes her eyes, drifts off to sleep.

She is awakened, minutes, or maybe hours later, by a voice.

"… Lotte?"

Lotte's eyes flutter open.

Tomoe is standing over her.

"Tomo-chan?" mutters Lotte, drowsily.

Her eyes widen, she scrambles to sit up.

"Tomo-chan … What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at the—… you know."

Tomoe rubs the back of her head. "I just … wanted to see how you were."

For the first time in weeks, a slight smile forms on Lotte's lips.

Tomoe smiles back.

Lotte leans in close, grabs her childhood friend's hands.

"All that defenestration stuff—it's dumb, right?"

Tomoe purses her lips. "Well …"

Lotte's grip tightens. "You wouldn't do anything like that, right? Hana-chan, and Sana-chan, they're barely even themselves anymore. The whole school's gone nuts."

Tomoe looks off to the side, says nothing.

"… You wouldn't do anything like that, right? Right?"

"…"

Lotte, growing more desperate, stands up to meet Tomoe's gaze directly.

"Promise me."

"Lotte … I …"

"Promise me!"

Silence.

"… Okay. Okay, I promise."

Lotte sighs, relieved. Then slumps down to the floor again.

Tomoe bends down, and takes a seat beside her. And smiles.

Then says, "So … any new games, Lotte?"

"… Tomo-chan?"

"Let's play something fun … like old times."

Lotte stares back for a bit.

Then, she smiles wide, and says:

"… Okay!"

*

On the way home, after club activities.

Lotte and Tomoe, walking side-by-side, through the residential streets of Umehara.

"… next time, I'll beat you!" laughs Lotte. "Just you wait and see!"

Tomoe smiles, somewhat faintly.

"Oh, oh! And tomorrow, I'll bring snacks too! What do you want? I'll buy!"

"Lotte, listen …"

"And I've been thinking, it's about time to redecorate the clubroom. Won't you come help me? I'm thinking—"

"Lotte …"

The two turn the corner, into the street where Tomoe's house is.

Parked in front of Tomoe's house, is a moving van.

Lotte freezes in place.

"… What's this?"

Tomoe looks away. "… It's what I've been trying to tell you."

Lotte shakes her head. "No. This is a joke, right? I—…"

The door to Tomoe's house opens. Her parents, wearing blindfolds, carry boxes from the house, to the van.

Lotte stares in disbelief. Then, angrily: "Is that … Is this why you came to the clubroom today? One last pity visit before you leave!?"

Tomoe says nothing.

Then, after a long and awkward silence, she begins the short walk back toward her house.

"… Goodbye, Lotte," she says, without looking back.

*

The bell rings.

Another day, over.

All around her, as Lotte sits at her desk next to the classroom window, her blindfolded classmates pack up their belongings, talking excitedly among themselves as they leave.

Soon, Lotte is alone.

From the open window, she hears the distant Crack! of a bat striking a baseball outside.

She cranes her head out, and looks out over the sports field.

The blinded students, in proper formation. Outfielders, infielders, blind, all of them blind, along with—

—The false Midori, on the pitcher's mound, glass eyes intact, staring back at Lotte in the classroom, on the second floor.

Midori (Fake) smiles at Lotte, waves with a gloved hand.

Lotte, enraged, slams her fists down on her desk.

She shoots up, storms out of the classroom.

Down the hallway.

Down the stairwell.

First floor hallway. Front entrance.

She strides determinedly across the courtyard, approaches the sports field.

At the dugout, she picks up a metal bat from the rack, while from the pitcher's mound, Midori (False) calls out:

"Lotte-chan! How nice of you to join us!"

Lotte, bat in hand, marches toward the straw doll with the glass eyes, while around her the other students stand around, dumb and unseeing, and as she approaches, Midori (Fake) continues, "Come to join the game? Just in time. We're short a—"

Lotte winds up.

Thwack!

The sound of metal striking the doll's head.

"YOU'RE NOT MIDORI!"

Thwack! Thwack!

"GIVE HER BACK! TELL ME WHERE SHE IS!"

Loose straw spills out against an orange sky, flying through the air with each strike.

Hushed murmurs through the horrified crowd of middle school students, as we pan through the crowd of eyeless faces. Some of them are crying behind their blindfolds.

The doll lies lifeless, the top of its head gone.

The only thing remaining of its face its terrible smile.

"GIVE MIDORI BACK!"

Lotte continues thrashing away at what is now a lump of meat.

"GIVE HANAKO BACK!"

No, straw.

"GIVE SANA BACK!"

No, meat.

"GIVE TOMO-CHAN BACK!"

No, straw. Meat. Straw.

Meat, straw, meat.

Meat.

Straw.

Meat.