Takunaha Arc

The Takunaha Arc is the fourth story arc in Fumetsu no Anata e.

Gugu's past
The two brothers Gugu and Shin live in a makeshift tent in the forest. They work every day on the fields of a farmer and sell his vegetables at the market in the nearby city. They save up the money they earn to one day build a big house for both of them to live in. One day, when Gugu returns home, he sees his brother talking to some people. When Gugu digs out the boy with their savings, he notices that some is missing and asks Shin if his friends saw where the box was hidden, to which Shin snaps back that he shouldn't accuse his friends. While eating, Gugu meets a small dog and feeds it. The next day, the dog follows him to the market. As it turns out, the dog belongs to a young girl from a wealthy family. As a thanks for finding her dog, she gives him a very valubale ring that would allow him to stop selling vegetables for the rest of the life if he sold it. Gugu tries to ask the girl's name, but she has already left.

When Gugu comes home, neither his brother nor their savings are anywhere to be seen. In an effort to fight against his fate, Shin left Gugu behind. Gugu continues to work hard for the farmer until he comes across a cart carrying logs one day. Suddenly, a log falls off the cart and barely misses Gugu. The owner of the cart rushes to get help to get the log back on his cart, but the log starts rolling down the hill instead. At the bottom, a girl is collecting flowers. Gugu runs as fast as he can to save her and manages to shove her out of the log's way, but it pulls him down the cliff instead and lands on his head.

When Gugu awakens, he finds himself laying on a table. Dazed, he gets up and takes a look at himself in a mirror. He discovers in horror that his face is completely disfigured. It turns out that Booze Man, an infamous alcohol vendor, found Gugu at the bottom of the cliff and performed operations on him to save his life. Three months later, Gugu is working in Booze Man's liquor store when Pioran and Fushi arrive.

Fushi and Pioran arrive in Takunaha
At first, Gugu shyly greets Fushi, but as soon as he realizes that he can't even say his own name yet, he breaks out into laughter and asks Booze Man if he could show him around. They spend the day together and in the end, Gugu decides that because they're both "monsters", they should be friends.

The next day, Gugu teaches Fushi the daily routine; how to clean, cook and tend to the field. At dinner, Booze Man wonders what to do with him and Pioran jokes about selling him, which Gugu is clearly against. He wants to accept Fushi as family, more precisely as his little brother.

A few days later, the girl Gugu saw on the market visits the liquor store. She's looking for something to treat a wound on her arm with. Gugu and her talk a bit until the girl asks for a name. However, she doesn't mean Gugu's name by this, but Fushi's. She's fascinated with Fushi and when she visits the shop again, she only has eyes for him, much to Gugu's discontent. He tries to separate them by interrupting their conversation, but the girl, whose name is revealed to be "Rean", is set on spending as much time as possible with Fushi. Later that day, Gugu sulks in his room. Booze Man finds him there and tells him that, instead of sulking, Gugu should find ways to make himself a more interesting person. Thus, Gugu decides that he will train to make his physical strength his redeeming feature. When Fushi tries to mimic him, Gugu tells him to go get some sleep instead as he doesn't want Fushi to become an even more interesting person in Rean's eyes.

The next day, Rean announces that she'll start working in the shop and also move in with Booze Man and Gugu. After dinner, Gugu asks Fushi to show him what he can create. To test his ability to heal himself, Gugu cuts Fushi's hand and concludes that pain must be the stimulus that lets him reproduce objects. He wonders if Fushi could reproduce fire if he got burnt, but he can only reproduce the wooden stick of the torch Gugu holds to his hand. Fushi makes a pained expression, but Gugu completely ignores this and instead tells him that it's not like it would kill him. Later that night, Fushi leaves Booze Man's house and spends the night outside instead. The next morning, Gugu looks for a way to heal Rean's wound and Booze Man, much to Gugu's surprise, pumps alcohol from Gugu's stomach cavity into a bowl. He explains that he gave Gugu an extra organ because he wondered how alcohol brewed inside a human would turn out. Gugu is clearly upset by these news and runs outside. Fushi sees him run away, but doesn't follow after. Back in the shop, when asked if he is worried, he firmly denies. As if trying to prove that he doesn't need Gugu, he tries to handle cooking dinner on his own, although he fails miserably. Even though Pioran and Booze Man complain about the food, neither of them nor Fushi or Rean go out to find him.

Gugu leaves
Gugu realizes that no one is coming after him and decides to get all the alcohol out of his body, but fails. He spends the night in his old tent. The next morning, Fushi tries to do all the chores around the house, but fails because he hasn't understood what purpose these tasks serve yet. Fushi is aware of his failures, however, and asks Pioran for help. She refuses and tells him to find Gugu so he can teach him.

Meanwhile, Gugu has reached his former employer's home and asks for work. The farmer agrees and even invites him to move in, but the farmer's son, Chan, disagrees. After the news spread about Booze Man having a new test subject, Gugu was declared a monster, which is why the boy doesn't want him to live with them. The farmer scolds his son, but Gugu acknowledges that he cannot be part of their family if they can't love him. He proceeds to take off his mask and everyone looks at him in shock. While on his way back to the tent in the forest, a group of men runs by and takes his mask, only to throw it into a nearby rice field. Gugu ponders if he really needs the mask and ultimately decides to leave it behind in the field. While Gugu is confident without his mask, the farmer is surprised and wonders why he threw it away, but ultimately lets him work for the day. The next morning, however, Chan urges Gugu not to come to work because they're "not a freak show". And so, Gugu quits. Because of his looks, he can't find new work and thinks about selling Rean's ring, but ultimately decides against it. As he walks through the market, he hears someone shout his brother's name. He discovers that his brother's life hasn't been easy either and gives him the ring. Shin calls out to Gugu, but he denies having a brother and leaves.

During the night, Gugu is captured by two men, but they don't get far. Fushi had been looking for Gugu and attacks the men until they run away. Later, a group of teens go look for the "monster lair" in the forest, where Fushi transforms into the Spirit Bear to scare them. Fushi and Gugu quickly grow close again as they play pranks on the townspeople, but Gugu still doesn't want to return to Booze Man's place. Worn out, he collapses and Fushi has to reproduce food from stimuli to feed him. When he sees Rean's dog, he thinks about the name the Nameless Boy gave him, which leads to a conversation about what "dying" means. Gugu is glad that at least Fushi will remember him and asks him to turn into him once he dies.

Minutes later, Rean appears at the entrance of the tent and tries her best to get Gugu to go back home. She explains how Booze Man is sorry about what he did and that he'd remove the alcohol. Gugu says he can't go back because he threw away his mask and with it his humanity. And so, Fushi heads out to look for it. While he's gone, Rean shows Gugu her scar so he might feel better about the injuries on his face. Rean is frustrated that her parents think she's overreacting because she's worried about it. She says that her parents treat her like a pet, meaning that she's constantly supervised and can't decide anything on her own. Gugu, on the other hand, thinks that they are great parents because they care so much for their daughter. It's only after Rean gives the mask she brought with her to Gugu that he comes out of hiding. The two decide to go back without Fushi. Meanwhile, Fushi has found Gugu's mask in the rice field where the hooded figure appears behind him and tells him to be careful because his enemy is always looking for a chance to strike.

In town, Rean gets captured by a man working for her father, but Gugu saves her and the two run away. Fushi finds them sitting next to a path and returns his mask to Gugu. After talking to Rean, Gugu decides that he can go back to Booze Man now because he no longer cares about his circumstances, i. e. the alcohol in his stomach and his face. On the way back, a maid of the Cropp family recognizes Rean despite her mask, so Gugu takes her hand and the two run away again. Fushi distracts her by turning into March and pretending to be hurt, allowing Gugu and Rean to get to Booze Man's tower.

Fushi's second fight
Fushi, however, is attacked in the forest by his "enemy". Gugu hears the scream of the maid that was with Fushi and goes to check out what happened. He finds Fushi in a puddle of blood on the ground and almost gets hit by one of the being's tendrils, but Fushi saves him by transforming and reproducing a spear to block it. He tells Gugu to run away, but he refuses. Once again, Fushi begins to lose his vessels, this time because he's worried about Gugu and can't concentrate on the fight. The being picks up Gugu by the ankle and flings him away, the trauma causing him to throw up. This doesn't stop him from thinking about how he could help Fushi, though. He notices that the ground around him is burning because the alcohol he spat out caught fire. With a lit torch in hand, Gugu returns to help Fushi, but his stomach is already empty. He rushes back to the tower, but the alcohol that inevitably leaked into his blood is already starting to kick in. Back at Booze Man's tower, Rean's parents have arrived and are about to take their daughter back home. Dazed by the alcohol, all Gugu can think of is Fushi and he demands to get more alcohol from Booze Man. Luckily, Pioran remembers what happened the last time Fushi was in trouble and so, Gugu gets his stomach cavity refilled. Rean's parents try to leave but Pioran stops them.

Gugu rushes back to where Fushi is fighting, but Fushi is nowhere to be found. Gugu uses his newfound "fire breathing" ability to burn the being in the shape of the Spirit Bear but Fushi is still missing. As the being's core burns up, a sliver of light indicates that Fushi, who had been reduced to the vessel of a stone during the battle, has just regained the vessels the being stole from him. Surprised but relieved that the battle is over, Fushi and Gugu return to the tower. While everyone is enjoying dinner inside, the hooded figure talks to Fushi outside. It urges him to leave so he can grow stronger. It also reveals that it named the beings "Nokkers". Fushi wants to stay with Gugu because he believes that he needs him to fight against these beings. The figure accepts this, but warns him that it will lead to Gugu's death.

Four years later
Four years have passed and Gugu and Fushi are still living in the Booze Man's tower. Rean still runs away from home regularly to visit the liquor store and has become good friends with both Fushi and Gugu. Fushi has not changed forms in these four years because the Nokkers didn't attack in that time and because Fushi chose to grow older like Gugu. Because of this, Fushi's abilities haven't improved since his last battle.

Rean tells Fushi about her upcoming 16th birthday and invites Fushi and Gugu to the party. She also tells him that she will have to get married once she turns 16 and complains that she will end up like her mom, stuck with a person she doesn't love and bratty kids. This is why she plans to introduce her boyfriend to her parents at the party, but she doesn't have one yet. Fushi points out that the feelings she's experiencing when thinking about Gugu are the same ones Gugu experiences while talking to Rean. He asks her if she isn't going to tell him that she's getting married, and tells her outright that Gugu likes her and would be happy to marry her. Meanwhile, Gugu helps Booze Man carry some bags when suddenly Shin shows up at the tower. He tries to talk to Gugu, who doesn't respond. Finally, he blurts out in anger if he only came here so Gugu could tell him how worthless he is. Shin apologizes and explains that something was wrong with him back them, but Gugu denies this, saying that the Shin back then was the real one. Shin doesn't give up and promises to make it up to Gugu so they can make a fresh start living as a family, but Gugu refuses because he has found a new family and doesn't want his brother to take these "precious treasures" from him. After Gugu leaves Shin to continue working, he enters the liquor store and hands over something he "held onto" for Gugu to Booze Man. Rean is curious to know what that something is and once she sees it, she is more than surprised. It turns out that Shin never sold the ring Gugu gave him after he received it as a gift from Rean. She realizes that the boy who returned Meer to her that day was Gugu.

She goes to return to ring to him, but finds him asleep on a pile of turnips. Like she did four years ago, Rean tries to put the ring on Gugu's finger, but it's far too small for Gugu's large hands now. Encouraged by Fushi's words, she tells Gugu that, if he wanted to court her, now would be the time. Gugu is confused and even when Rean asks him out loud if he loves her, Gugu can't help but panic. Unlike Gugu, who forgot what happened the day he fought the Nokker because of the effects of the alcohol, Rean remembers how he said that he loved her the most. Red from embarrassment, she yells at him to come to her birthday party and then runs off. Booze Man comes up to him and announces that he just finished making a new "anti-treeman" mask with an ignition mechanism for Gugu, who immediately tries it on and decides to wear it to Rean's birthday party.

Booze Man suggests to empty the liquor in his stomach so he could enjoy the tasty food at the party, but Gugu declines with the reason that he wants to be in fighting form in case a Nokker attacks. Before they go, Booze Man tells Gugu and Fushi to be careful and even starts tearing up. Pioran asks why, to which he answers that he can't stand the fact that he will die before Gugu and that he wants to stay alive until Gugu has found his own path in life.

Rean's birthday party
On the way to the party, Gugu and Fushi talk about presents. While Fushi already has a pot of vegetables with him, Gugu decides to buy a "Dream Bellflower", a purple flower and the only thing Gugu can think of that Rean might like. They arrive at Rean's home, a large mansion. While Gugu is busy with making Fushi a plate of food, the other guests start gossiping about him. Rean goes to greet them and starts touching Gugu's mask in admiration. She blushes upon realizing what she is doing and when Gugu tries to talk about what happened the day she told him that she was going to get married soon, she frantically tries to change the topic, instead turning to Fushi to accept his present. Gugu, too, gives her the flower he picked out for her, when suddenly the crowd starts whispering among themselves. Rean asks him why he picked out that flower, to which Gugu answers that he thought she would like it since it was purple, her favorite color. Her maid explains that this flower became an omen of bad fortune ever since Rean's accident four years ago. Gugu hurriedly apologizes, but Rean seems to brush it off and walks away with the flower in hand. Her mother offers to throw it out, but Rean refuses, arguing that it was the first gift she ever received from him.

Meanwhile, the other guests at the party are trying to force Gugu to take his mask off, pushing him backwards until he falls into a fountain. Rean rushes over, alerted by the noise, and helps dry off his mask. Suddenly, she comments that at this rate, Gugu would never be able to kiss anyone, causing the other guests to start laughing. Her maid informs her that her father is calling for her, who introduces her to the fiancé he picked out. Rean isn't particularly pleased about this, but sits down to talk with him nevertheless. Gugu watches them from afar for a moment before deciding to head out and return to Booze Man's tower. Gugu tells Fushi that things will change from now on because those are the rules. Waiting for Fushi to finish his food, Gugu walks through the mansion's rooftop garden where an exhausted Rean catches up to him. She decides to ask Gugu once more about the injury under his mask, prompting him to tell her the story of how he fell off a cliff and had his face crushed under a log. Through Rean's questions and comments, more and more details of the story are revealed and even though Gugu never admits that the girl he saved that day was Rean, her comments reveal that she has already realized this. She smiles and takes a step closer, ready to confess her feelings, when the balcony they're on suddenly crumbles under their feet. Gugu manages to push Rean to safety, but falls down the steep cliff himself, barely hanging on to the tendril of a Nokker which he mistakes for a root.

The Nokkers attack again
The hooded figure appears and stops time for a brief moment to inform Fushi that there is a Nokker underneath the mansion, capable of destroying the area before the count of 30. An earthquake starts to set in and the building starts to crumble under the sudden shock. Fushi yells at the crowd to get outside and transforms into the Spirit Bear to keep the ceiling up long enough for everyone to escape. Meanwhile, some of the guests have tied a rope from their clothes to help Gugu up, just as the Nokker tried to get into his body. He asks them what happened and then rushes inside the building, where he meets Fushi. He apologizes to Gugu, feeling responsible for the attack, and instructs him to get Rean's parents to the outside. He does as told, but instead of staying with Rean and her parents, he runs back inside to help Fushi, who has lost the vessel of the Spirit Bear and resumed the appearance of the Nameless Boy. Instead, a Nokker shaped like the Spirit Bear and covered with rocks emerges from the side of the building and attacks the duo. Gugu feels encouraged by the Nokker's inability to stretch out its hands and attempts to burn it, but to no avail. The stone pieces covering the Nokker shield it from the flames. It breaks open the ground to try and crush them, which they escape by a hair's width. Gugu argues that there must be something on the inside, they would only have to find a crack to burn the flesh beneath the armor. The bear tries to shake them off but can't, and after prying open a large enough crack, Gugu is able to burn the Nokker. However, in an attempt to save its core the Nokker manages to shoot a tendril into a nearby wall. Fushi tries to sever the tendril before the core can pass into the wall, but fails. Thinking they have scared it away, the two brothers don't pay attention to their surroundings, leading to Fushi in March's vessel to be crushed. Shocked, Gugu rushes to the puddle of blood left behind and doesn't notice the bear's paw preparing to strike him. Lucky for him, Rean saves him by pushing him out of harm's way. Gugu briefly ponders staying with his brother, but ultimately decides to make a run for it to save himself and Rean from being buried alive under the rubble. Finally, the building completely collapses. Fushi regains consciousness after being knocked out by the rubble, triggered by immense pain. The Spirit Bear Nokker looms behind him and Fushi tries to fight it on his own, but isn't very successful. He realizes that the pain he is feeling isn't his own. Meanwhile, everyone else is looking for Rean, who is trapped under the rubble with Gugu who acts as a shield to protect her from the heavy stones. While the Nokker and Fushi fight relentlessly, Gugu promises Rean that help will come soon, while Rean is more worried about his well-being. They decide to go pick a new flower together after the old one was crushed in the commotion and as Rean opens Gugu's mask, he finally finds the courage to confess to her. The two kiss and Fushi feels an enormous amount of pain, before it dies down completely. He drops to his knees and transforms into Gugu, confirming that he has died. He keeps fighting the Nokker, denying Gugu's death over and over. The Nokker eventually manages to push him down a cliff into the water below and is about to crush him with his tendrils when its stone armor suddenly cracks and leaves the Nokker's core unprotected, which promptly flees. Instead of going after it and retrieving his lost forms, however, Fushi decides to help find Rean and Gugu under the rubble. After rescuing Rean, Gugu's brother Shin emerges from the crowd and carries Gugu away on his back. Gugu wakes up on his brother's back and is reunited with his friends and family. Everything is perfect, even Gugu's face has miraculously healed. He turns to leave and go pick flowers with Rean, but suddenly remembers the battle with the Nokker. However, no one seems to register his questions. Gugu turns to look over his shoulder where he sees his loved ones crying and quickly realizes the truth. He abandons the perfect dream he was offered and decides to stay near Fushi as a spirit. Fushi prepares to leave Takunaha on his own, fearing that the enemy will find him again and kill more innocent people. Meanwhile, Rean wakes up and immediately rushes to see Gugu. Fushi breaks out into a panic when he sees her approaching and in a desperate attempt to spare Rean the truth, he transforms into Gugu and tells her that Fushi has died instead. Rean quickly realizes the truth, but lets "Gugu" lead her to "Fushi's" grave despite this. Pioran tells "Gugu" that he can leave the rest to them and leave, to which Rean asks where he's going. However, both Pioran and "Gugu" tell her to stay behind, so she declares that she'll wait at the spot they promised to pick flowers at instead. At night, Rean is still at that spot. Her father calls out to her, telling her they've been looking for her all over, and sits down next to her. Rean tells her father that she won't be getting married because she loves someone else, who then asks who that someone is, but Rean simply says that he's not there anymore and probably traveling with Fushi.

Fushi's journey to Jananda
Fushi transforms back into his usual form and walks in silence for four and a half days, struggling with his emotions. He commands the "black thing" to come out and tell him what he should do, and what he wants to do with him. The being explains that he created Fushi to collect and preserve the information of this land. Fushi asks if the Nokkers would stop coming if he stopped being himself. He turns into a fruit, but the being states that this is not "abandoning himself". He warns Fushi that the Nokkers would do with him as they liked if he didn't grow stronger and eventually revert him back to his empty state as an orb, making the memories and vessels he has acquired until now disappear as well. Fushi blurts out that the being should fight the Nokkers himself, which it could quite easily, but argues that because it cannot control the mind, the Nokkers' goal would still remain and their attacks would continue. This is why it needs to train Fushi until he is able to defeat the Nokkers by himself. Fushi refuses this idea, saying that he doesn’t care what happens to him anymore because nothing he could do would bring back Gugu. Suddenly, he is triggered by a certain smell and runs off into the forest. As he jumps out of the bushes, he finds Pioran riding on a donkey.

After reuniting, she explains that she decided to follow him because she wasn’t able to help Fushi in Takunaha. Fushi tells her to go back because the Knockers will come after him, to which Pioran argues that she wants to support Fushi and give meaning to the years she has left. Fushi becomes more and more annoyed as he tries to convince Pioran to go back, but she doesn’t give in. Thus, the two continue to travel together, however Fushi keeps his distance from Pioran and refuses to accept food from her. Pioran on the other hand continues to care for Fushi. After a while, Fushi asks Pioran to promise him that she won’t die. Sometime later, they stop at a city. While Pioran is enjoying good food in a restaurant, Fushi is anxious that if the Nokkers came now, he wouldn't be able to protect the city. He settles for letting Pioran finish her food while waiting outside, a good distance away from the other buildings. He briefly talks to the hooded figure, asking it where the Nokker is now and if it can always tell where they are, to which the being responds that they are crawling pests that cause him intense discomfort once they start moving. Pioran interrupts their discussion and bluntly tells Fushi that he can tell her anything. Fushi decides to confide in her and tells her about the "man in black" and the Nokkers. She asks him what he wants to do and Fushi quietly ponders what he should do, eventually concluding that in order to protect Pioran, all he can do is get stronger. The next morning, Pioran asks Fushi to pick her some fruit from a tree. Fushi tries to, but can’t. Pioran comments on this by saying that he could do it in no time if he turned into March. However, Fushi doesn’t remember March because that vessel was stolen from him in his last fight against the Nokkers. Pioran is taken aback and tries to explain to Fushi who March is, but he still doesn’t remember her in the slightest. He can remember that he was once able to climb trees, and as he thinks harder about it, blurry silhouettes of her start popping into his mind. He starts to remember what she meant to him, but nothing more. Pioran later calls this phenomenon a ‘second death’, to which Fushi assures her that he won’t let it happen to anyone else. He spends the following days acquiring new stimuli, but quickly discovers that he cannot turn into living things and only produce their dead shells. One day, Pioran offers Fushi to take him to a place with no people, the Sarlnine Forest, where he could train without putting people in danger. Fushi is unsure at first because they would have to take a boat and a Nokker could attack them while at sea, but Pioran ultimately convinces him. As they arrive at the port, Pioran points out the boat they’re going to board, but a girl appears and guides them to a different ship instead, explaining that the other one is full. However, as soon as they board it, they get separated and Fushi is shoved into a cage full to the brim with people. A man burns a mark onto the passenger’s hands and also on Fushi’s. After a short moment of shock, Fushi worries about what might happen to Pioran. Meanwhile, the man announces that their final life will begin now, on an island called Jananda Island.