When Otaru wakes up five days later, he finds only Hanagata in his room; the marionettes never returned, although a bag belonging to Lime and containing the medicine that saved Otaru was somehow left on the table in his room. Otaru begins a desperate search for the girls, greatly hampered by the fact that he has been accused of causing the explosion in Doctor Hess's lab and branded a terrorist. He eventually discovers the whereabouts of the three girls: Lime is now working as a nurse, Cherry at a temple orphanage, and Bloodberry in the circus. Otaru manages to rescue the girls and restore their memories, but is severely hurt in the process. He begins to believe that their lives in Xian are much better than the one they shared with him in Japoness, and that if he can't decide among them, they would be better off without him. It is with this conclusion that he decides to return to Japoness alone.