Nagisa Furukawa.
The female lead had been dead for nearly a month.
She stood on the same hilltop where she and the male lead first met in Season 1, Episode 1, carrying her schoolbag, watching cherry blossoms flutter in the wind.
The entire scene was rendered in black and white—perhaps a reflection of the male lead's inner emotions.
"I hate this town. It's full of memories I want to forget.
Every day I go to school, chat aimlessly with friends, then return to a home I don't want to return to.
Day after day—will anything ever change?"
After this inner monologue, in the next moment, Tomoya Okazaki noticed Nagisa Furukawa standing by the hilltop path.
Their first meeting.
At first, Yu Zhihong assumed this episode was going to be filler—Jing Yu just recycling past scenes and editing them into a "recap episode" with ten or twenty minutes of new content to fill out the runtime and end the series on a lazy note.
He'd seen other shows pull this move before when ratings dropped or investors pulled out.
He never expected Jing Yu to do the same.
As he sighed internally at wasting his 1.5 yuan, he suddenly realized—
Something felt off.
With his sharp memory, he noticed immediately: this wasn't the same footage from Episode 1.
Tomoya's expression—and Nagisa's—were both different.
Both looked deeply sorrowful. They stood on the same horizontal line, catching glimpses of each other from the corners of their eyes, while pretending not to recognize one another.
What's going on?
Yu Zhihong didn't quite understand what he was seeing.
"If I speak to her now, I'll meet Nagisa… and end up in a relationship with her.
But maybe… maybe not doing it is better."
Wearing his school uniform, Tomoya Okazaki turned his head away from Nagisa Furukawa, refusing to look at her. His inner monologue continued.
"Maybe… we were never meant to meet."
Yu Zhihong's eyes narrowed.
Another hypothetical scene.
This "what if" premise had already shown up after Nagisa's death. Why bring it back again?
He sat up straighter. He still hadn't figured it out, but years of watching dramas told him one thing:
If Jing Yu really meant to give up on this show, he wouldn't go through all this effort.
Could it be… even in the final episode… there's still a twist?
The scene began to intercut between two worlds: the hilltop moment between Tomoya and Nagisa, and the snowy, lonely world of the girl and the robot.
In the fantasy world, the girl had collapsed into the snow during a brutal, inescapable blizzard. The robot remained by her side—man and machine—soon to be buried in snow.
Was this Tomoya's mental projection? Or was this another worldline entirely?
In this timeline, Tomoya—knowing what the future holds—chooses not to speak to Nagisa on the hill.
They stood there for several seconds. Neither said a word.
Eventually, Nagisa Furukawa turned away with a forlorn expression, walking down the slope—past Tomoya Okazaki—and away.
If she left like this, it would erase the future where she dies in childbirth or succumbs to illness.
But at the same time, it would also erase any chance of the two ever falling in love.
"Yeah. Maybe… maybe I was never supposed to speak to Nagisa.
If she never met me, then she wouldn't have…"
In the town-world, Tomoya Okazaki hesitated—torn between calling out to her or letting her go.
Meanwhile, in the fantasy world, the robot and the girl continued to struggle through the snow.
Scenes from both worlds alternated rapidly.
Yu Zhihong's breathing quickened without him realizing it.
He had a strong feeling—something big was about to happen.
"Hey… you're there, aren't you…"
In the fantasy world, the girl lying in the snow suddenly opened her eyes and looked at the robot desperately trying to wake her.
"Of course. I've always been by your side.
I'm about to stop being human, which is probably why I can hear you now."
At the edge of death, for the first time, she heard the robot's soul speaking to her.
"I had a dream. In it, I understood so many things.
About me… about you.
Will you listen to me?
We used to live in the same world. Long ago…"
The girl and the robot continued their soul-to-soul conversation.
The meaning was deep and abstract—Yu Zhihong was totally baffled.
But from her words, he could at least guess: if they had once lived in the same world, then this story involved two worlds.
One was the lonely, fantasy world, and the other was the small town world. So the world they once lived in had to be the town.
There was one connection between the two:
In the fantasy world, there were countless orbs of light.
But in the town world, only when Tomoya helped others solve their problems did a single light orb appear.
The girl—who had lost most of her memories—and the robot had once agreed to leave this lonely world together.
But now, the girl said she couldn't.
Because she was the world itself. If she disappeared, the fantasy world would collapse too.
She then explained: the light orbs in the fantasy world were actually the emotions of people from the other world, hoping for happiness.
"The other world… is there another me over there?" the robot asked.
"You should understand this. You exist in both worlds.
Only by crossing the boundary between worlds could we meet.
Now… you must shut down your consciousness in this world, travel to the other world, meet many people, go through many events… and find me again."
The girl's gaze toward the robot grew gentle and tender.
"The emotions of people in that world become light orbs here.
And my feelings… will become light orbs there, too.
When these light orbs come together, they become an enormous power."
That line finally explained the origin of the orbs from 'Clannad' Season 1 to 2.
So that's what they were.
Yu Zhihong suddenly understood everything.
Then—
The girl began to hum a song.
"Dango Daikazoku."
"This song… I know it," said the robot.
"Yes. It's the song you always used to sing to me."
Yu Zhihong froze.
He wasn't like the brainless audience members who only understood when the script directly spoon-fed the plot.
The moment the girl started humming, he sensed it. Goosebumps shot up his neck.
Wait…
Could this girl and robot be…?
Light rained down from the sky.
The robot's body turned into glowing particles, drifting toward the other world.
Just before parting—
The girl's eyes brimmed with gentleness as she looked at him.
"Goodbye… Daddy."
A soft, soothing background track played.
The song "Dango Daikazoku" wrapped them in a warm, healing melody.
Golden light enveloped them both—robot and girl dissolving into sparkles, becoming part of the golden sky.
Yu Zhihong's jaw dropped.
He understood. Completely, finally.
The girl in the lonely fantasy world was Ushio Okazaki, after death.
And the robot beside her—
was Tomoya Okazaki, the protagonist!
Parallel worlds.
This series, like 'Steins;Gate', had a multi-worldline structure.
And the fantasy world was the only spiritual realm among all those possibilities.