A girl with wings and a staff (The wings turn into the staff.) watches over some detectives at a murder scene. Cue to our protagonists (I think…), Machiya Shouta and Ayase Asuna. Shouta and Ayase are having a lively conversation, and he seems like he's about to confess to her when she gets a call.

Ayase finds out that her father has been murdered.
Shouta waits for her at the police station, but she decides to get a ride home from the police. In class, he sees the kid in front of him watching the news on a cell phone. (Prime example of Japan's cell phone integration…) The news states that the body of a man, Ayase Takezou, was found.
As Shouta heads to where he usually hangs out, (The roof of an abandoned building where he [tries to] launch rockets.) he seeks smoke and rushes to investigate. He discovers none other than the girl from the first scene. She introduces herself as Fumika, and asks Shouta if he is Ayase's lover.

Well, he'd certainly like to be, but…
Shouta explains that they go to different schools. They met one day when he was [trying] to launch rockets. Ayase had come to the roof of the building, became fascinated, and thereafter came to visit almost every day.
Since Shouta's not Ayase's lover, though, Fumika cannot deliver the letter. As she turns to leave, Shouta asks what the letter is about. She tells him that it's a letter from Ayase Takezou to Ayase's lover. Shouta asks if it's a will, and Fumika says no, it's a shigofumi, a letter from the afterlife.

SHE GO FOO ME
He laughs and says that's impossible, saying that dead people cannot write. Fumika's staff, Kanaka, pipes up and says dead people can write, since there are different stages in the afterlife. This elicites a, "Wutnow, a talking staff?" from Shouta.
Fumika turns to leave again, and after some (painfully fast) thinking, Shouta shouts that he'll become Ayase's lover.
Meanwhile, Ayase and her little sister Miku are in their apartment packing up their stuff. (I'll assume they're moving out.) Ayase gets a call from Shouta. Under the watchful eye of Fumika and Kanaka (Both of whom have apparently approved of his little plan.), he attempts to confess to Ayase; but instead says that the rocket is almost done, and that she should come see it. After hanging up, Shouta holds a comedic relief bicker with Kanaka.
Shouta gets hard to work on making the rocket, mixing fuels and whatnot. (Where's he getting all these combustible materials, anyhow? >_>) During this time Fumika keeps a watchful eye while eating pizza.
At least it's not Pizza Hut.
The night after Shouta completes the rocket, he is confronted by Fumika who asks why he believed in the shigofumi. Shouta simply explains that nobody believed that he, a high schooler, could build a rocket. However, Ayase did, so he felt he could try believing.

Awh…
The next morning, Ayase has a chat with some lady, who asks her if it is okay with her friends for her to move so soon. Ayase pauses, before replying no. Meanwhile, Shouta looks proudly upon his ready-to-launch rocket. As he returns to the roof room, he notices the shigofumi lying on the ground, with Fumika and Kanako nowhere in sight.
Fumika and Kanako are exploring the lower floors of the abandoned building, when they stumble across a suspicious room with a bed and filming equipment. This causes some sort of unpleasant flashback for Fumika, who moves to leave. Kanaka objects, saying that 'Shouta could use some private time.' This startles Fumika, who immediately checks her bag. She cannot find the shigofumi, and Kanaka apologizes for leaving it in Shouta's roof room.
Fumika runs back to the roof room, to find Shouta standing there clutching the crumpled shigofumi. He's read it, and apparently it accuses Ayase of killing her own father. Shouta throws the letter angrily to the ground, and runs to Ayase's apartment. Although she is srprised to see him, they sit down on a park bench and have a chat. Ayase says that she's talked with city hall and has decided to move to the 'facility' with her sister. Since they don't have a mother and her father's deceased, Ayase doesn't want Miku to give on dreams like college. She tells Shouta not to give up on his dreams either. Shouta tells himself that there's no way she could be a murderer. He goes on to tell her the rocket is complete, and asks her if she'll go out with him if it flies properly. She says, 'Sorry', and is about to explain something when Fumika shows up.
Shouta puts himself between Fumika and Ayase, shouting that he'd believe Ayase over some shigofumi.

He says that he and Ayase are leaving, but turns around to find…

Oh shi-

*stabbity*

Our protagonist is lookin' kinda… dead.

Holy yandere
As Ayase moves towards Fumika, Fumika says that living people tell lies and are ugly, weak, and scary. The episode ends with Ayase slashing her knife at the viewer.
Thoughts:
Oh wow ending. The majority of the episode proceeded rather plainly, with sorrow when Ayase's dad died and hope with Shouta's hard work. I certainly didn't foresee Ayase's real personality, despite a few hints thrown here and there. Wasn't sure what to think of this series at first, but certainly am hooked now. Wonder what's going to happen to Shouta?
January 17th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
Needs more subs. Stupid Japan altering episode due to current events again.
January 18th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
lol did some girl kill her dad with an axe again?