This post has spoiler text.

This was partly inspired by a poem called “The Lady of Shallot”, by Lord Tennyson. In it, a woman from Arthurian legend is cursed and forbidden to look at the outside world. She can only look at the world through a mirror and weave what she sees through the mirror. One day, she sees two lovers through the mirror and is sick of her cursed life saying, “I am half sick of shadows”. She decides to defy her curse and look at Camelot and ends up seeing Lancelot and falls in love. But by doing so, she is cursed to die. Before that, she gets into a boat and floats down the river to Camelot. There are many different interpretations to this poem.

It made me think of Mayu, who was tired of only living life experiences only through her own figurative mirror, from the hospital. She would see people come and go, but never lived those life experiences herself because of her illness. A son who could look forward to eating pancakes with his parents after he got better. High school friends who came to visit a classmate. And seeing Isuka surrounded by people, wishing she could be friends with her and be like her. She knows she doesn’t have long to live, so she eats a blue apple to live her dreams in the virtual world. And her desires are fulfilled, in a way. A dream-world Isuka is her best friend. She is given an IDA uniform, is able to fly, and is free from the constraints of the terror of time. Some of her desires even manifest in the real world, where hallucinations of students come to visit an old friend (as well as a burning hospital and streams of butterflies, but anyway). But doing so also seals her fate to inevitably succumb to her illness through lack of medical care (although she didn’t expect to survive anyway). Sometimes having poor health feels like being cursed in life. The difference in this story is that it tries to leave a message of hope. Perhaps the butterflies are meant to evoke images of rebirth and hope in this story (besides her admiration for Isuka, obviously).