COLD OPEN – INT. CHURCH – SILENCE BEFORE THE END
Rain pounds against the shattered glass above.
Flames crawl along the rafters like fingers of judgment.
Kairi kneels in the center of the sanctuary, blood trailing from her gut where Huáilán's palm cracked her open.
Around her: relics burning. Old photographs melting.
The altar has collapsed. The stained glass Virgin has shattered.
It's the church's funeral.
And hers.
Souta walks forward.
Her body broken. Her face split. But her eyes steady.
Ryouma limps beside her, gun heavy in his hand.
Huáilán keeps her distance—this is no longer her war.
This is bloodline business.
Kairi smiles through blood-soaked teeth.
She whispers like she's speaking to infants again:
"My children. You learned the final lesson."
Souta (quietly):
"You wanted this."
Kairi:
"I killed so many…
Tried to outrun ghosts…
But you two…
You were the only ones who ever stood still and let me rot."
Ryouma:
"You weakened yourself.
On purpose."
She laughs softly. Her voice trembles.
"I built a grave inside myself long ago.
I just needed someone strong enough to throw me in."
THE EXECUTION – A POETIC SLAUGHTER
Souta drops to her knees.
She holds Kairi's hand.
Ryouma loads the final bullet.
The camera rotates slowly, orbiting the trio in this collapsed church.
Kairi whispers:
"I love you.
In the only language I ever knew:
blood and silence."
She tilts her head back, exposing her throat.
Souta wraps her mother in a final embrace.
Tears mix with ash.
Blood with warmth.
Ryouma stands behind them.
A silhouette in firelight.
Gun raised.
Souta nods.
Kairi whispers one last word.
"Amen."
BANG.
The gunshot echoes like a cathedral bell.
Final.
Unflinching.
Kairi's body slumps forward into her daughter's arms.
Her mouth is still smiling.
Her eyes open.
But she's gone.
AFTERMATH – THE CHURCH COLLAPSES
As the three leave, the church implodes in flames.
The altar crumbles inward, dragging with it the stained glass remains, the dead, the blood.
The smoke rises like a soul.
Souta sits beside a river, smoking Katarina's last cigarette.
Ryouma packs up the last case file, locks it, and buries it under an unmarked grave in Kamikawa.
Huáilán disappears into a crowd of faceless civilians, vanishing from the story like a ghost who was never really there.
One final cassette is heard.
Kairi's voice—recorded years ago, her tone gentle and shaken:
"If I'm dead when you hear this… it means you survived me. And if you survived me, that means you're ready to live without monsters."