Last Quarter Act 1:
A Wild Ride From Beginning To End

Date: Feb. 27th, 2025 Reading Time: 11 mins. Word Count: 2673

This story contains depictions of suicide, drug use, domestic violence and is overall just messy. If you find these topics to be triggering, I kindly ask that you skip this and wait for the next post. Thank you for stopping by, and I hope you have a good day. ♥

Where It All Began

"I was so drawn to him—to those blue eyes and that sad melody—that I almost forgot who I was."

The chapter starts out with a flashback of our protagonist, Mizuki, standing in a city street at night, asking a street performer about the song he's singing. She's wearing a shortened uniform skirt, those big, loose socks that were popular with Kogyaru, and a large scarf. The street performer, a foreigner with a 70s classic rock sense of style, takes off his sunglasses and looks up at her with charismatic eyes and a gentle smile.

It then jumps to a scene of her, present day, leaving her family home. It's late as she's frantically gathering some things to pack in her large designer tote bag; she's saved up some money and will find a job where she's going. "Whatever it takes!" she thinks to herself as she makes her way to the door. Mizuki's little sister stands in the doorway of her bedroom, asking her what she's doing. Mizuki breezes by her without a word, headed to the front door, while little sis stands there dumbfounded. Meanwhile, Mizuki's stepmother hears the commotion and tries to wake up her father. Without moving a muscle, he tells her to "let her be." Stepmom makes her way to the front door and tries to stop Mizuki.Apparently she hasn't been for a while; stepmom asks her where she's been and where she's going. As stepmom pleads for her to stay, Mizuki says, "Thanks for everything," but before she can make it out of the door, little sis rushes up to her yelling, "Don't go!" She continues with, "I'm sorry…" Mizuki looks over her shoulder at her with a sorrowful smile. "I hope she finds a way to be happy here and doesn't turn out like me," she thinks to herself as she leaves, hailing down a cab shortly after.

Flashback again; we're sitting with the street performer. Mizuki asks him a few basic questions: name, age, and where he's from. Adam, twenty, England. She mentions that it's "hella cool" that he speaks Japanese, and that the only reason people don't stop to listen to him is because everyone's too busy and don't have time to notice others. "You listened, that's enough for me," he tells her. Mizuki smiles at him, then looks down at her watch and realizes she needs to leave for work. Adam asks her not to leave and she tells him she'll be back. "Where will you be tomorrow?" she asks. "Anywhere you like. Singing whatever you like." Completely smitten now, she remains seated next to Adam. "Don't you have school, Mizuki?" She doesn't wanna go. "No work today?" She doesn't wanna go. "Won't they worry about you at home?" She doesn't wanna go. "Wanna come to my place?"

Now at Adam's place, Mizuki mentions how fancy it is. Adam responds by stating that he's just borrowing the place and has to leave in two weeks. She asks him why he came to Japan and he responds with, "I came to see you." Mizuki then asks how he's so smooth (that's a bit of a stretch) with these lines, especially while speaking Japanese. He mentions that he learned the language from his ex-girlfriend who passed away from an illness. They both fall silent for a moment; Adam lights a cigarette (caseoh voice L smoker). Redirecting the convo, Mizuki asks Adam to play the song he played earlier; it's called Last Quarter. Color me surprised.

Now we're back in the taxi (the use of flashbacks in this chapter was a bit…). Mizuki asks the driver to turn the radio up, as she hears a familiar voice. The arrangement is different, but it's Last Quarter. The driver seems to like the song, mentioning that he doesn't know much about western music, but could "get to like this." The song ends and the radio host mentions the band's name: Evil Eye. With this, Mizuki realises she knows virtually nothing about this man, stating that she met him half a month ago, though it feels much longer, apparently… She recognizes she's doing something stupid, but can't go back as she's already begun "running towards these feelings and can't stop."

Mizuki dashes inside of Adam's borrowed house with a few bags. Adam asks her where she's been, to which she responds, "Shopping!" He was worried she had disappeared. As she begins putting things away, she tells Adam that she's "pretty rich right now," having saved up money for a year in order to move out. This is where we learn about her family. The previous year, Mizuki's father remarried. With the new wife and her daughter moving in, it no longer felt like home to her. The stepmom's daughter is actually her half sister; a product of him cheating on his now deceased wife. She laughs as she recalls this. Adam looks at her melancholically. Mizuki, returning a somber look of her own, asks him not to make her leave, stating that she called her family to let them know she was staying with a friend, and that they won't come looking for her. Adam replies by saying that while she was gone, he was looking for her and he's glad she's back; a gentle smile plastered across his face as he speaks, but his eyes still hold that sad gleam.

Later in the day, Mizuki's listening to him practice guitar. Suddenly, her "Pocket Bell" (a brand of Japanese pagers), goes off. The message reads:

Sorry—Miss you
Tomoki

The message is from her junior high ex. Tomoki cheated on her for a long time and Mizuki put up with it until he tried hooking up with her friend, which was the final straw for her. She laughs again while recalling this and the following dialog ensues:

Adam: Why are you laughing?
Mizuki: Huh?
Adam: Why do you always laugh when you talk about things that hurt you?
Mizuki: Well, there's nothing to do but laugh, right?
Adam: I think crying would make more sense.
Mizuki: But then I'd be miserable.
Adam: I think forcing laughter is more miserable.

Adam lights a cigarette, with the same melancholic face from before, as Mizuki slowly begins to cry. She cried until dawn.

Mizuki hadn't cried that much since her mother passed. Her mother had always been frail, but her father's infidelity broke her. Mom passed by taking all of her prescription sleep aids in one go. "I hated my father for that, and I resented my mother for leaving me," she says, reflecting back.

Continuing to reflect, we get a glimpse of her relationship with Tomoki. They began dating in her last year of junior high and, just like her dad, he was a cheater. In spite of that, she continued to be with him because he was the only one that would "just hold her." Mizuki says that she didn't want to end up like her mother. "I decided then that I would be a strong woman… even though I barely knew what that meant. I still don't, actually."

It All Comes Crashing Down

"If all we have is each other, will we end up in heaven or hell?"

Mizuki wakes up the following day and chats for a bit with Adam. While doing so, Adam reaches out to hold her hand. Mizuki remarks that his hand is cold and recommends he put on a jacket. He denies being cold at first, until he notices her looking down at some marks near the inside of his elbow. Adam's expression becomes somber, while Mizuki looks concerned. Adam then decides he'll go get that jacket after all, but not before stating, "I'm off that stuff now. I promised my girlfriend I'd quit." Mizuki calls him out by saying that he's lying and the tracks are fresh. Adam snaps back, "It's your fault for dying!" This is when Mizuki realizes that all he sees in her is the "lover he lost."

Grabbing her bag, Mizuki heads for the door; Adam stops her before she can leave, begging her not to go. Mizuki tells him that she's just leaving for work, if she even still has a job, given she's apparently had two no-call no-shows. "Don't go. Stay right here with me. Why are you leaving me behind? I hate it." Hearing Adam say that reminded her of what she exclaimed to her mother right after her passing.

They both begin to tear up as Adam leans in to kiss her, and as they kiss, his hands slowly move up to her neck. His grip tightens and he only releases when Mizuki begins to cough. She falls to her knees, still coughing. He, too, falls to his knees, clutching his head with both hands as he says, "...You made me do it… Forgive me…" This was followed by an "I love you." Still crying, Mizuki holds him and says that he has to stop using before the drugs destroy him. She then reassures Adam that she's not going anywhere.

Adam disappeared after this, taking his guitar with him. It rained for all three days that he was gone. As Mizuki lay in bed, wondering where he could be and if he would return, her cell began to ring. Thinking it was her ex (never gave Adam her number), she reached for her phone. "I'd probably forgive him like I always did. Then I'd return to my old life. At least that way, I wouldn't be alone. I'm not even a little bit strong," she thinks to herself as she answers.

"I'm sorry I left you."

Mizuki tears up when she realizes it's Adam's voice on the other end. He apologizes for disappearing, then tells her he has to leave (presumably the country, it's not explicitly stated). Mizuki tells him to take her with him, and Adam tells her to meet him in the place they first met; he'll wait for her until dawn. She wonders how this will work when she doesn't have a passport, but still rushes out to meet him.

The following scene shifts to Tomoki, slumped over a bar in a pool hall. His friend (who looks like Kyosuke from Nana, just without the locs) wakes him up, reminding him that the morning trains have already left. As they head out, Tomoki's bringing up the rear, moping about. He tells the friend that he's going to see Mizuki again. The friend, seemingly the only person with some sense in this series so far, reminds Tomoki that Mizuki's "really pissed at you," and that if Tomoki "cared so much, why didn't you treat her better?" Tomoki's response? Aya, Mizuki's friend, isn't blameless, either, going after her friend's boyfriend, and that women are terrifying. Tomoki's friend responds with, "You don't get to say that. You're the animal."

As they continue to walk, Tomoki spots Mizuki and begins to speculate why she's out at this time. As he speculates, Mizuki begins to second guess everything, as she has difficulty finding Adam. When she finally does spot him, it's as if she's reached the light at the end of the tunnel. She thinks to herself, "I've lived in this town seventeen years. A lot of painful things have happened to me, but a lot of good things, too. I'd throw it all away to follow you. If I had you, I wouldn't need anything else, Adam. The rest of my life belongs to you. You can do with it whatever you like." Girl… The codependency makes me want to visit a therapist.

While she's thinking all of this, Tomoki is working up the courage to talk to her. Mizuki takes a few steps forward to cross the street and meet Adam. Both Tomoki and Adam notice an oncoming car; Adam stands there stunned, dropping his cig, while Tomoki, who's closer, reaches out and tries to stop her. All we see next is her bag and a single shoe flying into the air like something out of Tom and Jerry.

What's That Melody?

"It's like a whisper only I can hear."

"Where is this? What am I doing here? What's that melody? It's like a whisper only I can hear. I feel like I've been walking a long, long time. Where was I trying to go? Where should I head to next? I'm so exhausted… I wish I could stop thinking and go to sleep." Mizuki is standing in front of a large fence with seemingly no beginning or end. She places her hand on it, stating that the other side of it feels warm. As she ponders where the entrance is, she notices a little girl who's sad because she can't find her cat. Mizuki decides to help her and the two walk for a bit, searching for the lost little kitty. As they search, Mizuki mentions how much she likes the song that's playing, while the girl is confused because she hears no music. Mizuki says it's coming from the other side of the fence, and after stating this, she spots the kitty. The girl and the cat happily run off after thanking Mizuki for her help.

The chapter (yes, this all happened in a single chapter…) ends with Mizuki questioning whether or not she's dreaming and she begins to shout, asking if anyone else is there and to let her through the fence. "He's calling out to me," she says. "Pounding on the door of my memories. My blue-eyed lover who was always singing and holding his guitar."

Final Thoughts

You ever have so much to say that you're rendered speechless? That's how I felt after reading this. Still kind of feel this way. Maybe it's because, unlike Mizuki, my brain is fully developed (no shade!), but it's a little insane to see how many red flags pop up throughout this story thus far. This is nothing new for Ai Yazawa, however, as flawed people are a common theme in her works. Sometimes her stories feel like if Shakespeare wrote shojo.

The guys so far in this series are not my favorite, to say the least, particularly the main love interest. Addiction is truly a disease, so I won't judge him too much for that, but there's never an excuse for putting your hands on someone. Get therapy, go to rehab, do something that doesn't involve manipulating and assaulting the person you claim to love so much!

Throughout it all, though, I don't fault Mizuki. Her poor decision-making when it comes to love is understandable, given her circumstances. Everything circles back to her dead-beat, good for nothing father. Clearly he was terrible at hiding his deeds if his child, who wasn't even in high school at the time, could pick up on the fact that he was cheating. And Mizuki, having watched her mother essentially die from heartache, it makes sense that she would try her best to avoid it, and making bad decisions in the process. We have got to stop proving Freud right…

Chapter one has been a whirlwind of emotions, giving me a feeling akin to when I watched Degrassi for the first time at the tender age of eight. Funnily enough, it was the episode where Ricky pushes Terri and she falls, hitting her head on a rock, and she ends up in a coma. It's the sort of drama that keeps your attention because, though there are bits in the writing that feel a bit juvenile in retrospect (understandably so), it has the same gossipy shock factor as a daytime soap.

Can't wait to see what ridiculousness awaits in chapter two!