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[OP] Again we see a busy Tokyo street, the familiar opening. A voice is heard: "I don't need parents. Every human is alone and is connected to nobody." [Title: Layer:04 Religion] It is evening and the wires are humming. In Lain's room, fans blow cooling her
upgraded Navi. Many pieces are strewn about, as Lain consults a textbook. The computer
system is significantly larger. Lain's father peers in the room, frowning, watching Lain's
activity. In the kitchen of the house, The scene shifts to a man running, panicked up a flight of stairs. As the man
screams we see the foot of a small child walking, apparently in the man's direction. The
man continues to scream as night scenes float by. The man tries to open an apartment but
cannot get the key in the door in his panic. He drops his keys and tries to find the
correct one. As he turns, he see a small girl in a frilly pink dress and holding a stuffed
dog. The girl stands and watches but her eyes At the school Reika , Alice, and Juri are discussing some news. There will be a
study hall because a special staff meeting has been scheduled. Apparently an upperclassman
committed suicide the previous night. Alice asks Lain, who had her back turned to them,
"Right, Lain?". Lain turns to face them. She is smiling and holding a book
behind her back. "Sorry, what is it?" Lain asks. Juri says "Lain wouldn't
know anything about it," but Lain continues "about the suicide?" Reika is
surprised and asks Lain, "You know something about it?" Lain explains "I
only After school the girls have stopped to buy some ice cream. Juri asks "What
other rumors are there in the wired?" Lain responds "I heard there's a
game." Alice asks "Is it a network game?" Lain responds that she doesn't
play it, but adds "I heard that all of the kids that died were hooked on it."
Juri notes "Boys like those kinds of things." Alice wonders "A game, but
why?" Lain starts to reply but then gags as she stuffs the rest of her ice cream in
her mouth. Alice tells her to be more careful, and Lain asks "May I go home
now?" Reika responds quizzically, "You don't need our permission!" Juri
asks what Lain's hurry is and Lain tells her that she can't wait to get home and Suddenly Alice turns as something bumps into her. The strangely scary stuffed dog from earlier lands at her feet. Alice apologizes and picks up the dog and hands it to the girl. It is the strange girl from earlier, but she does not look as threatening. The girl hugs her dog, looking as cute as can be, and says "No, it was my fault." She turns to walk away with an older female. Evening and Lain is in her bedroom working on the Navi. Larger than ever, it now encompasess several machines that appear to be networked together with multiple monitors. We see a number of communication devices including an ISDN terminal adapter. Lain speaks to the Navi to login. She checks for mail and has a new voice mail. A man's voice is played: "Hello Lain. Since I can't answer your question I asked my friend in my laboratory. If you really have a Psyche processor you have to set the oscillator to 'Variable' mode as you thought. Almost all parts of the Navi are up to standards. But there are still some differences. I wish you luck." While listening to the message Lain continues to tinker with the computer parts. The message finishes "Well, ask me again if you've got other questions." Lain returns to the keyboard and stares blankly into the flashing displays.
It is still night and the camera pans across outside scenes. We see the top of a
building and the patter of running feet. On the roof of tbe building we see a boy who
appears to have been cornered against a chain link fence. As he stares at what appears to
be chasing him our view shifts to a view of passage ways reminiscent of the popular real
video game Doom. The boy turns saying "I already stopped it! I'm done with it!"
He appears to be yelling at no one. He runs again falling down some steps. As he looks up,
the game like passages appear again with a shadowy figure which faintly resembles lain
approaches. The boy screams with fright as the figure advances. The figure is seen more
clearly and is definitely We hear the boy's voice again, searching through the game maze. "This is
not the Wired!" he cries. "Why?" Lain's voice calls out "Wait. Don't
run away." The boy stands, looking almost digitized and says "Who are you? Are
you also a 'PK'? Help me!" Lain responds "I can't go to your place."
"What's going on," the boy pleads. Suddenly an array of glowing palms appear
blocking his way. "Stop making fun of me!" the boy says, shrugging. As he backs
up he stops and turns to see a short haired little girl smiling at him, floating above the
floor. She opens her mouth and moves forward looking as if to bite. The boy raises his
hands as if he was holding a gun and says "Blast Charge, Gauge 5!" He cocks the
invisible weapon and states "Go to Hell!" He pulls the invisible trigger and
fires again and again saying "Die! Die! Die!" We see the girl floating and
bullet holes appear to riddle her smock. Her face changes from meancing to angelic and
surprised. A very diferent looking girl as she falls to the ground. The boy continues to
shoot until his invisible gun just seems to click, its rounds spent. The virtual world
fades We now see the boy talking, as if from a digital display. He says "I was only scared. I didn't notice that it was just a little girl." As the scene fades to black he says "But I didn't know." Now we see visions of the strange game-like halls. A voice tells us:
"Phantoma is a client application, a network game played over the Wired. I downloaded
the client from an illegal server and played it. Its interface looked like a video game
set in a dungeon. I don't know why it was attached to a tag game for little kids." We
now see a strange screen that looks says Phantoma. The camera pulls back and we notice
that this is on the screen of Lain's Navi. She is crouched, turned away from the screen as
it shifts to the standard Tachibana logo. "Mail has arrived," the Navi
announces. "Open it," Lain instructs. A male voices is heard: "Hi Lain. I
didn't expect you to be interested in Phantoma. Yes, I investigated. But I'm not sure.
It's The Navi screen flashes text of an apparent chat room. A variety of voices speak, first a female: "I was waiting for you for a long time." Another female voice: "Why? Why didn't you come?" In audible male voices scream. Yet another female voice: "This is a fortune. If you get…" A male voice: "As a result, Knights is not a real gorup. But it did think it had control in the Wired. In a matter of speaking, Knights rule like a religion in the Wired." A different male voice: "If you love someone more than I, I'll give up you. But if…" A female voice: "Believe me, I was being followed by someone…"
To be continued... images (C) Pioneer LDC |
Mika sneaks a drink of a soft drink
directly from the bottle. In the living room, Lain's father sits with her mother. Lain's
mother asks "How is she?" Mika enters and comments: "Lain is weird, I mean
she's naturally weird, but.." "She's not weird," her father interjects.
"What do you mean?" Mika asks. Amazingly, Mom speaks to tell Mika its not good
to talk to her father like that. As Mika leaves, the Mother asks "Is it so?" and
Father says it is. Mother rubs Dad on the head and then Dad draws her near him [Balto:
Bootie time]. 
cannot be seen. As the man watches her,
the girl's face shifts to appear like a head with large black holes for eyes. The man
cries "Why are you doing this to me." As he tries again for the door the girl's
hand reaches around him. She appears to be floating, eyes closed with a contented smile on
her face. An adult voice comes from her saying in English: "Gotcha". The scene
shifts away to the man's scream. 
heard
from someone." Alice asks where, and Lain responds "On the Wired." Alice
comments "Then you must have used your new Navi. Could you show it to us later?"
Lain agrees, noting "but I'm modifying it a little at the moment." Juri is
surprised and adds "I didn't know that you were interested in hacking." Reika
has noticed the improvement in Lain's demeanor and points this out to Lain. Lain, pleased,
responds "You think so?" Juri agrees, but Alice looks at Lain, with worried
eyes, frowning. 
work on her Navi.
Juri whines "You prefer a machine to friends," but Alice defends Lain saying
"You shouldn't be saying something like that." Juri thinks her comments are just
fine. Alice smiles and asks "Lain, show it to us when you complete it." And Lain
smiles and nods yes, then skips off down the street. Alice, showing her worried frown
again, notes "Lain certainly has changed." 
At Cyberia
we see JJ the DJ sorting out recordings. A voice calls "JJ" and continues
"Do you know the game that those brats are hooked on?" He responds "Yeah,
its Phantoma. Forget about it. It's not for adults like you." [Notes for Shades and
Balto: Phantoma sounds strangely like Ultima, a very popular, very real online game.] He
turns then and says "Right, Lain?" but no one is there. "I don't get
it," he says, "I could have sworn that I heard her." 
Lain. The boy runs back on the rooftop again, and the scene fades
away into the game grid again. It seems as if the game itself is chasing the boy. He runs
through clotheslines hung with white sheets. [Shades: He deserves to be hunted for wearing
that hideous cat sweater.] As he leans over to catch his breath he throws the handheld
computer which was in his back pocket to the ground, shattering it. Its display, however,
continues to glow eerily. 
away
and we again see the rooftop. The boy sits against the fence dazed and staring into space,
as the white laundry sheets flap in the wind. In front of him, wrapped in a sheet, lies a
lifeless body. As the camera pans backward we see an etherial vision of Lain, standing on
the edge of the building look sadly over the scene. 
a
very common game in the Wired. But the problem is in its function of connecting to other
programs. It seems that there is a strange 'hole' in the protocol. We guess that it was
made by he Knights." Lain turns back to the Navi and re-loads Phantoma. Her dad has
stealthly entered and speaks to her: "Lain. Looks like you've gotten used to
communicating in the Wired a lot." "Yes," Lain replies cautiously.
"Let me give you a warning," her father says, "The wired is just of
communications. You must not mix it up with the real world." Lain stares at her
father as he continues, gravely "Do you understand my warning?" Lain smiles,
hauntedly and says "You're wrong. The border is not so well-defined. Soon, I'll be
able to enter it and I'll be metamorphisized completely with full range and motion."
Her father repsonds "Even with the newest model, a commercial Navi can't do it."
Lain laughs, almost snidely "I can because I modified it." "Is it the
Psyche processor?" her father asks. Lain, smiling with wide possesed eyes tells him
"Don't worry. I will always be myself." "Is that so?" he asks and
turns to leave. Lain just smiles as he exits, then returns to the screen. 
Lain is
just hunched over the keyboard as the camera pans back. The computer seems to have grown
yet again, with huge stack of processors to Lain's left. Then a voice: "Lain, how
come you're not in a hurry to get here?" Suddenly the red dot of a Laser site passes
over Lain's face and dances around her room. It is coming through the window and Lain gets
up to investigate it. Outside the two men who have been watching Lain are outside the car
looking up. Lain stares at them angrily as the laser pointers affixed to men's head gear
flash over her face. "Go away!" Lain calls out. The men speak to one another for
a moment, then Lain looks at them more intently and says "Go away!" Suddenly, 
Lain's bedroom
window begins to oscillate and rumble. The dark haired man's headpiece shatters on his
face, and blood drips from his eye The car bolts away as Lain watches from her window. The
Navi calls out "Intruder interrupted." And the beaconing hum of the electrical
wires are heard over the city.