Episode Title:
Ortus II.
Episode Description:
After her brief encounter with the man in the lion mask, Ai meets up with Kiriko who insists on escorting her back to the inn. Having grown trusting of Kiriko, Ai reveals her anomalous nature as a gravekeeper and laments that her former village may have turned out a lot brighter if the townsfolk had adopted the ways of Ortus. Kiriko in turn reveals his true nature as an undead and tells Ai the story of his origin, whereby he was created by a witch using the living pieces of five friends who desperately wanted a child following God's Abandonment. Ai correctly deduces that Pox and Wreck are two of the five, with the others being Diva, Orius and Velera, who collectively are known as the "Fallen Five-Pointed Star". Upon returning to the inn, Kiriko enlists the help of Diva to have a look at the ill Scar. Diva's analysis reveals that Scar has a condition known as pseudocyesis and suspects that the voices Scar had been hearing are somehow connected. The following day, at Diva's request, Kiriko takes Ai to meet Princess Ulla and much to his surprise, finds that they both quickly develop a friendship. At the same time, a large mass of cloaked people approach Ortus. That evening, Julie and Ai discuss the disparity between the living and undead within Ortus. Just then, they are interrupted by the sound of the city's bells. Kiriko bursts into the room to inform them of the beginning of a ceremony to kill the group of one hundred and five humans who had approached the city and accept them into Ortus after having lost their will to live. This causes Ai to lament the contradiction this situation puts on her duty as a gravekeeper. While also thinking that Ulla is alive and the ceremony is being performed behind her back, Ai ignores Julie's questions and rushes to the citadel; unbeknownst to her, Ulla herself is the one performing the ceremony.
