This article contains spoilers from To Your Eternity Season 2, episode 2, “Beating Will”, currently streaming onCrunchyroll.
Episode two ofTo Your Eternityseason two, “Beating Will”, is following the same pattern as season one by playing fast a loose with the lives of the characters and time skips. Last episode left off with Tonari facing off against Hisame and the Nokker in her arm while everyone else in the room, including Fushi and her fellow friend, Sandel, were drugged to unconsciousness. Tonari attacks Hisame in order to try and remove the little girl’s monstrous parasite, butthe Nokker starts dragging Hisame’s body awayin order to escape, contorting into different positions that result in bones breaking. Using her owl, Tonari is able to drug Hisame so she’d be asleep during the amputation, but the Nokker found an unconscious body much easier to control.
The Nokker attacks Tonari, partially taking root in her arm and escaping through the window with Hisame’s body. Tonari cuts out as much of the Nokker as she could but is unable to heal herself; she loses consciousness while reaching for Fushi’s unresponsive form, crying for help. When Fushi wakes up, Hisame and the guardians are gone, and the female doctor he just met is dying. Without knowing her identity, Fushi stands at Tonari’s deathbed as the Nokker infection slowly kills her. Sandel is by her side, and Tonari asks Fushi to show her all of his dead friends as her last wish.
Tonari’s Identity Realized
Fushi shape-shifts into everyone he’s met, going from his default as the nameless boy all the way to the children who were part of Tonari’s club. It’s with great relief Fushi can’t turn into Tonari or Sandel, rejoicing in the fact that they must be alive. Tonari asks what Fushi thought of her, and when she learns he’s grateful to her, she dies with a smile on her face.
Sandel bids Fushi farewell, asking him to use Tonari’s form sense her poison resistance was built up with him in mind. Sandel doesn’t answer when Fushi asks for his name, and Sandel cries, walking away from Tonari’s pyre,her owl circling the smoke.
Fushi turns into Tonari, taking stock of this new form, and it’s only when he hits the book at his back and reads through it does he realize his dear friend just died. Tonari said “better a lot of arrows than just one” before she died, showing her intent to be of use to Fushi as a form he could take.The last we see of her, she is a ghost, standing at Fushi’s side, with Gugu, March, and the bear; all of them forever at Fushi’s side.
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Farther out into the woods, Fushi finally comes across Hisame, who, though ragged and having lost time after being dragged away, still refuses to have the Nokker removed. With this drama having unfolded and Fushi’s continued rejection of her, Hisame accepts leaving Fushi’s side. Since she vows to never see him again, HIsame propositions Fushi for sex in order to bear his children like her grandmother Hayase wanted to do. In a rare moment of levity in this anime, neither Fushi nor Hisame really know how sex is supposed to go, so they just lie next to each other for the night. Come morning, Fushi delivers Hisame to the other guardians andorders them to remove the Nokker.
Unsure of what to do now and faced with the realization that Nokkers would attack anyone regardless of Fushi’s presence, the Beholder recommends Fushi find people who can understand him, sending him out on a journey to basically find friends. Fushi travels for years, sleeping in nice hotels, paying for food in items he can construct, and reading about new innovations and cultures.
New Successor to the Guardians
As the decades pass, the Guardians grow in strength and numbers, and a descendent of Hayase always finds him and offers their services in almost every way. They are all women who eventually leave Fushi to his own devices when he is unreceptive of their assistance, and this episode ends with the mostrecent successor introducing himself. The first male, Kahaku.
We see the first death of one of Fushi’s friends in this season, and the first form he gains. Tonari lasted slightly longer than expected - a whole two seasons technically! But that doesn’t make her death any less heartbreaking. The story continues with each new friend and each new death. Maybe one day Fushi can finally hold on to someone.
