Witch Hunter Robin - Episode Twelve: Precious Illusions Version: 1.0 Date: March 12, 2004 Air Date: September 17, 2002 Summary by: Kala Mekiv (orbo@vauss.com) Website: http://usuyami.vauss.com/ Distribution of this summary is FORBIDDEN without permission from either Kala Mekiv or Shinji (csdiaz@edisto.cofc.edu). Author's Note: Lots of dialogue in this summary, straight from the R-B fansub. Also, I've changed something in the quote and the summary, but which I'll explain at the end. I did it because of what I saw in this episode, and it makes more sense when you place it in context with what was said. Anyway.... --------------------------------------------------------- The camera pans around various places within the Walled City as Robin walks down one of its alleys, as if she's in the midst of a casual way through the area. She stops and looks around when her eyes fall upon the old woman from the previous episode. The old woman tells Robin that she's wondering who she is as the young girl steps forward, then notices an F-shaped rune scrawled into the dirt before her. "It's time," calls the old woman's voice as Robin looks up to where she once was, only to be greeted to nothing. "The time which is like a prison, accumulated in this hellish world since a very long time ago. That is me." Robin starts looking around, trying to find the source of the old woman's voice as she speaks to the Craft user, but finds nothing. [Author's Note: Again, please remember that I've based these summaries off of Rice-Box fansubs. I do not have access to the third DVD, and I have not been watching the episodes off on Adult Swim.] [OP] A strange rune glows on the screen Amon is looking at as he chats with Karasuma, explaining that the rune is a witch's crest (The rune is the same F-shaped one Robin saw on the ground at the beginning.)--that is, a marking carved into the body of an accused witch during the Salem Witch Trials during the 17th Century in the then Eastern American colonies. Karasuma points out the same crest has been sent to the STNJ office quite often since the previous morning, originating from Robin's terminal. Michael searches for the source of the rune, but is unable to discover its origin. When Amon asks about Robin's whereabouts, Karasuma is surprised. She had thought Robin would be with her partner, and informs him that Touko called the office to inform STNJ of Robin not returning home the night before... Robin continues to wander the alleyways of the Walled City, coming to a strange clearing in the midst of the building jungle, where she finds the old woman from before. "A witch from Salem?" she wonders as her eyes set upon the elderly witch. "You finally noticed," the old woman replies as she pulls up her sleeve, revealing the crest carved into her arm centuries before. Robin refuses to believe it, as that would mean the woman would be well over 400 years old. The witch explains that time does not flow the same way for everyone--that for some, it may become "a stagnant abyss..." Doujima flips though another one of her fashion magazines, and suggests that Robin is merely skipping work. Sakaki retorts by saying Robin isn't her and would never do such a thing, while Karasuma attempts to reach Robin on her communicator. Upon hearing Robin hasn't shown up at Harry's, Doujima suggests that she ran away. Once again, Sakaki responds "She isn't you." Michael gets annoyed with the chatter amongst the STNJ crew, and suggests that they spend the time to find Robin, before it's too late. He suspects something is very wrong with the situation, and is also highly annoyed someone has broken into his security system. Amon and Zaizen discuss the mysterious rune that appears from Robin's terminal. Amon explains that while the rune was not sent by Robin, it appears to be sent to her terminal from some outsider, the first trace of the hacked message being sent after the hunt on Narumi the previous week [AN: Last episode]. Both try to see a connection with the hunt and the mysterious rune's appearance, but they feel that another witch has something to do with it and the sudden appearance of powers from Narumi. Zaizen orders Amon to continue the investigation on the hacker, while he does some further investigating on the Salem incident. "You say that my existance isn't the truth," the old woman tells Robin. "But how can you be sure? Being a witch, you who lend your hands to Confraria are--" Robin interjects, claiming that she isn't a witch. "Then what is this power that you have?" the woman continues. "Are you telling me that it's not witchcraft? In the end, are you a descendant of Saturn?[*]" An image of Francisco Goya's famous painting featuring the Titan Saturn devouring one of his children flashes momentarily upon the screen before Robin's stunned face. "Saturn..." she murmurs, still shocked from the information she received from the witch. Sakaki revvs up his motorcycle, commenting on Amon's orders to check out the Walled City to look for Robin. Karasuma enters her car, saying that Amon obviously has some sort of plan that he isn't letting the rest of them in on just yet, and suggests that once they arrive in the Walled City that they wait. "I wonder when the last witch hunt occurred..." the old woman wonders as Robin listens to her every word. She names off various European countries and the dates of their last official witch hunts--England, 1717; France, 1745; Germany, 1775; Poland, 1793. She continues, saying that as many as 9 million witches died as a result of the witch hunts. Robin is shocked--9 million!?--but learns that humans were jealous of the few witches who survived and continued to hunt the witches while snaking their way through inner society. Naturally, Robin refuses to believe this, stating the only witches she and STNJ hunt are those with evil hearts. The old woman smiles, stating she's watched over "them" (hunters) for more than 300 years and has heard the same words from all. Robin refuses to believe the woman is as old as she claims to be, so the old woman decides to prove to her what exactly the hunters have been doing all this time. "Let me tell you the pure truth..." the old womam murmurs as the scene fades to black. Doujima stares off into space, while Michael continues to pound away at his laptop. Doujima is knocked out of her trance by the sudden powering on of the lights and terminals in the office. Once again, the mysterious rune flashes upon all the screens of the terminals and Doujima panics. Michael is royally pissed as he discovers his security program has once again been bypassed. He gets a call from Amon seconds later, and tells him that the terminal line is jammed because of the hacker and the scarlet letter. Amon attempts to connect to STN via the terminal in his car, and gets an error. He wonders if there's an attack on STNJ... [Eyecatch] One of the residents in the Walled City discovers Robin's vespa. They grab her helmet off the scooter, and run off with it. The old woman begins to tell Robin about the history of witches--how thousands of years ago, a god began to emerge amongst the carvings of devout people. Robin sees the image of this so-called "god" and denounces it as nothing more than a devil. "'That's not a god,' you say?" the old woman's voice echos in Robin's mind. Robin spins around to see a small girl standing behind her. "So you want to say this is a devil, right?" The woman (through the image of the child) tells Robin that the image is of the first god, not a devil. Michael, still talking to Amon, informs him that he may have found the hacker, and can possibly catch him soon. It appears the hacker is using some loophole within the communication system using an access code to connect directly into the system, completely bypassing his security programs. Amon asks if he knows where Robin is, but Michael says he still can't manage to pin down exactly where to find her. Amon suggests looking within the Walled City. Karasuma and Sakaki find Robin's vespa, and inform Amon. Amon tells them to stay put until he arrives, then they will find Robin. Robin confronts the girl, and insists that the "god" the people worshipped was nothing more than the devil--Lucifer who was thrown from the Heavens due to his own greed for more power. The girl (in a child-like voice) asks Robin how she can be so sure it was the demon who fell from the skies. Methuselah continues with her story, telling Robin that the ones [AN: gods? Humans? Not sure here...] who committed atrocities were the "so-called gods." "They had to do it to rescue the people who took the wrong path!" Robin interjects. The woman replies the reason they made the gods move was out of jealousy--they were envious and afraid of their comrades who had extraordinarly strong powers. Out of the fear, the split amongst the great race arose and drove them to kill the more powerful members. "That's right, calling the fallen god who shared the same blood as a 'witch'--" the woman begins, but Robin refuses to listen. Methuselah tells Robin that the gods manipulated human thoughts--they drove humans to murder witches. "You should known this already," the woman says. "You also died like that--because of the blood you have inside of you. That's right--you also have the same blood that a witch does." Amon informs Zaizen that the hacker may have hacked using a terminal's personal line. Zaizen hrms, and says he gathered some information concerning the Salem incident--most of it appearing to be very accurate information passed between witches of the time period. He comes across information concerning Methuselah's witches, from the Cow clan that was assumed to be a myth, until Zaizen conducted his research. Zaizen is worried that a member of the Cow clan may be using their vast knowledge to control another witch's own dormant or active powers. Amon makes the connection with this information and the sudden unability to use his incredible powers. Zaizen tells Amon to find Robin as soon as possible. The woman shows Robin the image of a young woman kneeling before a statue of the Virgin Mary, holding the body of Jesus after it was removed from the cross, claiming it as the image of a young girl making her last prayer before being burned at the stake. Robin watches the girl from the shadows of the cathedral, and is startled to see that the girl, once she lifts her head, is herself. Shocked, Robin turns to look at Methuselah. "Eventually, people who hunt their own shadow will be hunted by your shadow," the woman's voice echos. "I am..." Robin murmurs as she has flashbacks of all the witches she has hunted during her time with STNJ. "My own shadows..." She is presented with more flashbacks of the witches she hunted. "I hunted them?" "The truth always has two faces to it," the woman replies. Robin hears the cocking of an Orbo gun as she turns around to face an armed Amon. The room around her fades into the warehouse where she hunted her first witch (from episode one), and she is surrounded by Amon, Sakaki, and Karasuma--armed with their own Orbo guns. She turns towards "Amon", who tells her they must hunt witches. Robin has more flashbacks of hunts and witches brought down by Orbo, ending with the scene of Karasuma, Sakaki, and Amon pumping the witch from the first episode full of Orbo. "You're wrong!" Robin falls to her knees and shakes her head. "I am NOT a witch!" "I'm wrong?" the old woman replies. "What is wrong?" "My Craft is... to hunt Witches!" Robin frantically tries to justify what she has been using her craft for to the old woman. "That is why you have been burning the flesh of witches, with the flame of the stake." the woman continues. "That's not it! That can't be!" Robin counters, still in denial of what she is and what she has done. "It's the same as 400 years ago," the woman says. "The anguishing history hasn't ended yet. It's still continuing... No, you people are continuing it. The same witch's blood that runs through your body." Robin looks up upon hearing footsteps, only to be greeted to the image of the end of Amon's Orbo gun. "We must hunt witches," Amon informs his partner. Robin frantically calls Amon's name as he pulls the trigger, "shooting her." Robin is taken back to the "cathedral" and the statue of Mary and Jesus, facing the old witch as a child in a wheelchair smiling back at a distraught Robin. "With this," the child tells Robin, "It can finally end..." A wall of flames surround the now elderly woman. "It's been very long... too long..." she tells Robin as she burns to death. Amon runs down an alleyway, presumably to find Robin. As the flames dissipate, all that remains of the old woman's existance is a gnarled, charred stick. Robin looks at it, then bends down to get it. Robin's voiceover says, "Four hundred years of knowledge... everything that approaches the depth of the Craft." She looks up, wondering what the significance of the stick is, then realizes that it IS the Craft. From the shadows, Amon watches her. "Methuselah, a witch who was given eternal life as a duty," he tells Robin. "Only the fire that could burn her body will bring death to her soul." Robin turns and glances at Robin. "That's why she called me...?" she wonders. "To end eternity...?" Amon replies, "It may be that even putting a witch to the stake may be connected far away from Methuselah's memory." "That kind of memory is sad," Robin answers as she walks over to Amon. Later that evening, Amon walks into the office, and asks Michael if he ever found out what the hacker wanted. Michael replies that the hacker only wanted to manipulate the system to gather information on Robin and to call her. "Saturn, huh?" Amon wonders. Michael looks up at Amon, clearly confused. "It's Greek Mythology. Doubt made him believe that his own child would steal his position. In the end, he killed his own child and ate his body." Michael is a little surprised at the story's end. "Those were the words the witch left to Robin," Amon finishes, knitting his eyebrows together as he wonders if there was something more the witch did to Robin. "The relic that might possibly be the secret of the Craft was recovered." Robin scrawls into her nifty PDA. "I am standing by for further action." A shot of the stick Robin gathered after Methuselah burned herself to death lies within a vacuum-sealed bag flashes momentarily on the screen. Robin closes her PDA, sets it down and sighs. [ED] ---------------------------------------------------- A few notes :) 1) In the Rice-Box fansub, the line Methuselah says to Robin is "Are you telling me that it's not witchcraft? In the end, are you a descendant of SATYR?" Based on what Methuselah, Robin, and Amon say and the fact they flashed the Goya's painting of Saturn a few times during this episode, I believe it's safe to assume that it is SATURN, not "Satyr." If you still have doubts, listen to the Japanese audio during episode 12. Anyone who has watched Sailormoon in Japanese (fansubs or otherwise) can tell you they recognize the word "Saturn" when spoken by a Japanese person and know that they mean SATURN. 2) Rice-Box mistakenly subbed the slum area STNJ and Robin have stayed in for the last two episodes as the "Gold City." They fixed this again in a later episode to say the "Wald City." Again, I believe that they meant to call this area the "WALLED City," and this is why I have used that in this summary. As I don't have the third DVD nor have I been watch Adult Swim, I cannot tell you exactly what term was used in the official release. I'm sticking with Walled City until further notice.