Stray Cat
Desolate snow waste land opens the scene for episode 6 where a lonely prison ward stands tall. Within the tall walls, blindfolded prisoners kneeling in front of a dug grave pit were being executed by a guard by shot to the back of the head. A man inside watches the execution from a window he stared on without any emotion as the prisoners were killed one by one.
[Title screen, Episode 6: Stray Cat]
In a thriving city, a car drives up to a building where a red car is parked. A cat that was resting atop of the hood perks up curiously at the newly arrived car. The cat is pure white with blue eyes that seems to understand what is going on around it. Mireille got out of the car first with Kirika following after. They were about to go into the building that they are parked into when Kirika hears the sound of a meow. Curiously, she turned around to look at the cat and it wiggled its tail slowly as it stared at Kirika. A moment passed as they exchanged looks and Mireille calls out to Kirika, wondering what she is doing and wanting her to hurry up so they could check in to the hotel. A bit sadden, Kirika looked back at the cat and walked in with Mireille.
The scene changes into a crowd of people standing around something. Upon closer examination, an old man is stirring a pot slowly and then pouring soup into cups of the waiting people. The old lady thanked him profusely as he nods his head in acknowledgement. Then Mireille begin to tell of him -- that no one knows his name and he worked for others while asking nothing in return. He have been doing charity work for many decades and people called him a saint and follow him. Flashes back to the past, a photo of when he was young is shown and Mireille goes on to say in the background that he is a former KGB agent named Yuri Nazarov. The face in the picture is the person that was witnessing the execution in the prison earlier. Mireille tells of the time during the Old Soviet Republic, the minority race Tatars were slaughtered by the order of Nazarov. Back to present time, Mireille spies on the old Nazarov as she tells more of him. That after the event, he quits the KGB and becomes a saint among the refugee. And now, a Tatar survivor seeks revenge and the death of Nazarov. Nazarov might be doing these deeds to redeem himself, but no matter what, the grudge of Tatar would not go away.
While Kirika and Mireille walks home from watching Nazarov, the white cat lands on in front of them gracefully with a soft meow. Walking slowly, the cat goes into an alley while Kirika follows it with her eyes.
Back at their hotel, Mireille opens up her laptop and begin to tap furiously at the keyboard and Kirika stares out the window. After a moment of thoughfulness, Kirika calls out that she'd go walk around for a bit.
Outside, Kirika looks into narrow alleys, hoping for a sight for the white cat. Soon, she hears the clanging of a fallen trashcan and sees the white cat digging away at the trash that has fallen out. Looking at the cat, Kirika smiles at its innocent look.
At the hotel room, Mireille rests on the bed with a magazine in her hand as Kirika walks in. Mireille wonders why Kirika had came back late and with a big paper bag in her hand. Asking if within the paper bag are midnight snacks, the bag moved by its own accord and the white cat peeks out and meowed! Surprised by it, Mireille asks what Kirika is thinking about... Kirika had no answer.
In a restaurant filled with soft laughter and people, Kirika and Mireille sat together eating dinner. Mireille asks Kirika again, what she is thinking about. Back in the hotel room, the cat contently drinks out of a saucer pan filled with milk as Kirika watches it. Mireille asks if Kirika is thinking of bringing it back to Paris with them. Kirika answers with wonderment of what the cat's name is... that it had a name, it'd be different from hers and that it is just lost. Kirika then says with sadness that she doesn't have a name and Kirika Yuumara is a fabrication of her. Turning away from Kirika, Mireille says she doesn't care the name Kirika is a fabrication and that she is like her, being lead in the darkness without knowing what is going on. That the truth could only be from the Soldats.
Flashes back to the scene where Mireille killed the smiling key that could lead her to the Soldats during Episode 5. Remembering the scene up to the part with the letter stating the passage of the Soldats, Mireille lies in bed staring off into the side of the room thinking. She says to Kirika that she doesn't know what the letter means, but she'd figure it all out eventually.
Come morning, while Mireille is still stirring within the comfort of her bed, Kirika and the cat is already gone. Outside in the park, Kirika sits on one of the bench with the cat on her lap. The cat rests with its eyes closed while she strokes it gently. With a soft voice, Kirika asks what the cat's name is, knowing she'd not get a reply. But a voice answered "Prince Myshkin." Looking up slowly, she sees Nazarov standing over her. Exchanging looks, Kirika softly says the name again as if in question. And suddenly, the cat leaps off of Kirika's lap and walks in front of Nazarov looking up at him. Bending over, he picks up the cat and it rubs itself against Nazarov's beard happily as he confirms its name, "Prince Myshkin." Kirika asks if the cat belongs to Nazarov, and the reply was yes and he disappeared few days ago. He continues to ask if Kirika took care of the cat and thanks her for her kindness. Kirika just smiled softly and said she wasn't sure about taking care part. Kirika then stood up and says goodbye to Prince Myshkin and it meowed in reply. Nazarov translate for the cat that it feels lonely. As they turn to walk away, all of the sudden, Nazarov grunts in pain and doubles over while Prince Myshkin looks at him worriedly. Hurried to his side, Kirika asks what's wrong and shakes Nazarov shoulder. Kirika begins to panic for Nazarov as she continues to shake his shoulder and calling out "oji-san!"
[Commericial break]
Back at Nazarov's house, Nazarov lies on the bed, gasping for breath with his eyes closed while Kirika watches over him. The cat jumps off the table suddenly and startles Kirika. Prince Myshkin had jumped up onto a little wooden ledge with a picture of a black cat and a yellow star above it. Looking at Nazarov again, Kirika gazes down and remembers what the doctor said.
Flashes back to the part where the doctor was there, he tells Kirika more about Nazarov. That he never thought of himself but only worked harder and harder for others less fortunate. And now, it is too late, the days of him remaining alive won't be long.
The sound of glass breaking brings Kirika out of her reverie. Looking over, she sees the cat standing over the broken picture frame that was on the ledge. As she pick up the picture frame, Kirika saw that there is another picture underneath the innocent cat picture. The picture is of a family long ago, "Bapkutsk, 1951."
Within moments, someone knocks on the door and Kirika puts the picture into her pocket and went to see who it is. Upon opening the door, quite a few are gathered outside and one old lady had a flower arrangement in her hands. Once inside, the old lady starts to say that they heard from Doctor Svenson that Kirika had saved Nazarov's life. Without preamble, the old lady took Kirika's hand in hers and begin to thank her profusely... Kirika didn't know what to say.
As Kirika walks home slowly, her thoughts were filled of Narazarov gasping for breath and in pain on his bed. And the old lady thanking her for saving Nazarov's life. When she came out of her day dream once again and look back, she is surprised that the cat had followed her. Looking away from the cat, she realizes that this is the only chance... and that if she doesn't do it now...
Back at the old shack of Nazarov, Kirika lands softly inside and runs up to the window of his resting bed. With a small mirror, she looks in and sees Nazarov sitting up on his bed with two children talking with him. Cocking her gun, Kirika takes aim at Nazarov as he talks with the children. The children are telling Nazarov to play with them again and for him to get well soon. Looking at the scene with the gun in her hand, Kirika tries to pull the trigger... but wasn't able to. A moment later, Nazarov looks up and sees the window where Kirika was aiming at him and knows that someone had been there.
Back at their hotel, Mireille examines the picture that Kirika had stolen and took a guess that one of the kid in the picture was Nazarov. Looking up from the picture, Mireille sees that Kirika is more downcast than usual. Shrugging it as norm, Mireille decides to investigate into Bapkutsk on her laptop. As she looks, Mireille says that she understands Kirika more now. That she knows all about combat and various languages, but no knowledge of Russian literatures. That Prince Myshkin is actually the main character of "The Idiot" by Dostoevsky. In the book, Prince Myskin is the symbol of a pure and naive soul. After a while, Mireille was not able to find any thing about Bapkutsk.
Continuing with the analysis, Mireille begins to talk of Nazarov and that whatever he does, it doesn't solve the problem of the refugee. That the only thing Nazarov gets out of it is self-contentment. Kirika breaks in when Mireille begins to says that the refugee should realize the fact. That the refugees already know and Nazarov also. That all they can do is wait for the snow to fall.
At Nazarov's shack, the old man wakes up to the sound of the cat meowing above him on the wooden ledge. Immediately, Nazarov notices that the picture underneath is missing. With a sigh, he closes his eyes and replays an old memory in his mind.
A young boy is out in the wood and hears gunshots coming from a house nearby. With a gasp of fear, he went behind a tree to see two people prodding a young woman with a small child in her arms. Two more shots are heard and the young boy gasps and tears well up in his eyes. In the background, Mireille narrates that Bapkutsk was on the border of Norway and while Stalin reigned, it was attacked by Tatars. And now, it no longer exists.
At the hotel where they were staying at, Mireille continues her narrative that Tatars and Norwegians have hated one another for a long time. Kirika adds that Nazarov is from Norway as Mireille decides that the causes and the results have been confused further. That Nazarov have suffered, but still wanted for the time when he killed the Tatars in the war prison. Mireille asks Kirika what she'd do about the task and cautions her that it isn't good if it ends up bad, especially that he is going to die anyway. Half way through the sentence, Kirika said that she'd do it.
In a chapel somewhere, Altena lights candle while Canta per me plays in the background. As snow falls, noir walks toward the shack of Nazarov.
Prince Myshkin looks up when Kirika opens the door and the snow drifts in. Nazarov is still on the bed resting. Walking in, Kirika stands over the bed and Nazarov wakes up and sees Kirika. Without any expression, Kirika raises her gun while Nazarov stared up at it. A moment later, Nazarov closes his eyes, resigning to his fate. To this act of defeat, Kirika hesitates and unable to stop herself, she remembers the picture of when Nazarov was young. At this pause, the world seems to wait as Mireille stands outside in the snow and Altena prays in the chapel.
Kirika opens her eyes with renewed resolution. Outside, as Mireille waits, a gunshot is heard. Altena smiles triumphantly during the same instant that the gun fired. Prince Myshkin runs outside, innocence lost. Mireille looks in to see that Kirika putting the picture back into the picture frame.
[End]
