Everything is a complete mess simply because no one can properly communicates. Tch, it figures.

— We finally get to learn a thing or two about what had happened to Shuichi’s precious friend group. Back when they were just wee children, there were six of them: Shuichi, Elena, Naoto, Aiko, Kaito, and last but not least, Honoka. We already know that Honoka would go and make a wish to the Alien a few years later. What we don’t know is what she wished for. Well, right off the bat, we get a huge clue: Naoto said that Aiko hasn’t been herself lately. At the time, he sometimes felt as though she was someone else completely.

— The group held a small reunion one day, but Honoka was the only person who appeared to have not shown up. Well, we know why that is. She’s turned herself in Aiko. The group, however, was clueless. They talked about how Honoka’s father had killed someone, and unfortunately, the community turned on the rest of the family. Then just like that Honoka “disappeared” one day. I have to presume that her father was punished for his crime and thus sent to prison. But even if he wasn’t somehow, Honoka had nothing to do with her father’s mistakes. But what can I say? People can be stupid and nasty.

— Aiko — who really isn’t Aiko — told her friends that they should just move on, because Honoka wouldn’t want to be found. That was mistake number one. Like c’mon, if you were going to be that cold about your own disappearance, this would obviously be fishy.

— Shuichi, Elena, and Naoto seemed rather passive back then. I suspect that they had their misgivings about Honoka’s disappearance and Aiko’s slight personality change, but they weren’t going to do much about it. Kaito, however, couldn’t let it go. He just had to look into it. Eventually, he found himself standing before the Alien.

— He then gathered everyone except Aiko to have a talk with the Alien. Why not bring Aiko along too? If he knew that Honoka had become Aiko, why not confront her right there and then? Why not hear her out? Why not let her say what she had to say? Because that would be communication, and communication might actually help. We don’t want help. We. Want. Tragedy.

— So the Alien revealed that he had granted Honoka’s wish and turned her Into Aiko. He didn’t explain it, though. After all, he didn’t have to. In fact, he didn’t really have to tell them anything. But he decided to give them incomplete information. If the Alien had told everyone what Honoka had told him, i.e. why she wanted to turn into Aiko, maybe disaster could’ve been averted. But we already know that the Alien is happy to see what humans do with his wishes, so even back then, he had no reason to spoil his own fun.

— Afterwards, Kaito insisted that if Honoka had done something, then they need to enact justice. That’s an if, though. A very big if. He didn’t actually know what she did. I can understand jumping to conclusions about someone you barely know. Ah, this stranger might have killed my childhood friend Aiko, so I’m burning with rage! I’m so mad that I can’t even think straight! But Honoka wasn’t a stranger. Honoka belonged to their group of friends just like Aiko. More importantly, Kaito wasn’t brimming with rage. He wasn’t on the verge of committing a crime of retributive passion. He was calmly discussing the matter with his friends while sitting on a goddamn park bench.

— But the mistakes just kept piling on. Naoto thought about the real Aiko and how she was doing. As a result, he realized something. He realized that she was being bullied heavily at the time. With that crucial bit of information, he seemed to have guessed that maybe Aiko had killed herself, and as a result, Honoka was just trying to replace her. BUT DID HE SAY ANYTHING TO THE GROUP? Of fucking course not. He simply told Kaito that he thought things should stay the same. Shuichi and Elena then seemed to have come to the same conclusion as Naoto, so they also told Kaito the same thing. How fucking stupid was that? Oh yeah, you wanna enact justice, Kaito? Well, lemme just sweep the issue under the rug even though I have critical information that might prevent you from doing something incredibly stupid. Ugh.

— Needless to say, Kaito didn’t accept this answer. He must have thought that he was the only sane person within his group of childhood friends. Aiko had disappeared, Honoka had turned into her, and there was a chance — a very small chance — that Honoka might have been responsible for Aiko’s disappearance. I mean, this ended up being wrong, but he just latched onto the idea, and nobody tried to talk him down! They were just like, “Well, duh, Honoka isn’t hurting anyone as Aiko, so let’s just leave it be!!!” Fuck, you guys were dumb.

— Honoka then went and visit the place where Aiko had died, and Kaito seemed to have followed her. She didn’t tell him what really happened to Aiko. She only said that Aiko “doesn’t even exist anymore.” But to be fair, Kaito asked only two questions. First, he wanted to confirm whether or not the Aiko-looking girl was really Honoka. Second, he wanted to know if Honoka could go back to being Honoka. He didn’t demand any further explanation. He didn’t ask, “Why would you go and kill her? She was our friend!” He didn’t ask, “Why can’t you turn back to Honoka?” He didn’t ask, “Why doesn’t she exist anymore? Is it because you killed her.” I mean, I feel like I would have a lot more questions for Honoka! If I was in his shoes, I would at least want to understand why one dear childhood friend would do something so horrible to another dear childhood friend. Didn’t he owe Honoka that much? Didn’t she deserve to be heard? But no, he just went and did the stupidest thing he could do: he started strangling her. Maybe this is just who Kaito really is. He already had the rope prepared. Again, this wasn’t a crime of retributive passion. This was premeditated murder. He came here with every intention to kill Honoka. Maybe he has always had a boner for murder and this stupid series of tragic events triggered his bloodlust.

— Soon afterwards, they oh-so-conveniently found Aiko’s suicide note. Naoto clarified to Kaito that Honoka had not killed Aiko. Rather, Aiko had killed herself, and Honoka tried to take her place in order to protect everyone’s happiness. But this is what I don’t get: Naoto had a feeling that Aiko had killed herself the other night! Why didn’t he say anything then? Why say it now? Well, you know why: HARDCORE TRAGEDY POINTS.

— Kaito then started walking to the Alien in a daze. He started rationalizing to himself that he was the only one who didn’t accept the current situation because he couldn’t just let Honoka disappear. What? What? You just killed Honoka, my guy. You made her disappear, you dumb shit. Oh my god, this episode is pissing me off so much that I now want to kill!

— When he got to the Alien, he made a wish. We don’t exactly know what he wished for, but considering how Honoka is now his Stand or whatever, he probably dragged her ghost ass back from the afterlife. After all, an urban legend started to spread around that time. Apparently, you can bump into Honoka on any given path, and if you can’t answer her question, you die.

— Kaito then said, “You can all disappear.” Who? Everyone? This world? The entire human race should be punished because he jumped to conclusions? Because he didn’t let Honoka explain herself? Because he committed murder like a goddamn idiot? What a joke.

— Anyways, back in the present, Clair has paid a visit to the very same cram school that Shuichi and her sister once attended. She isn’t that much younger than either of them, though. I wonder why she didn’t go to the same cram school. Maybe there was a age cutoff point.

— In the now derelict cram school building, Clair spots the very same doll that looks like Shuichi whenever he transforms. I’m not sure why this is significant, though. We already know why he has that form. Plus, there’s something bugging me. If this weird bear mascot was something that Elena was really into, shouldn’t Clair have known about it? Were they so far apart as sisters that she didn’t know what cartoon animal her sister was into?

— Speaking of Elena, she gets another phone call from Chihiro. That’s where the episode comes to an end. Welp, we still have one more episode to go. I doubt Shuichi and Clair are gonna confront Kaito in a single episode, so I really have no idea how the show is gonna end without a massive cliffhanger. Maybe that’s exactly what we’re going to get. I personally don’t find that very appealing.