Ultramarine

Ultramarine (群青, Gunjō) is the second episode of the Kyoukai no Kanata anime series, released on October 9, 2013. The episode was storyboarded and directed by Yasuhiro Takemoto, with animation direction by Nao Naito.

Synopsis
A dazed Akihito is rescued from certain harm as Mirai fends off an attack from the youmu that manifested itself in Mirai's apartment unit. Mirai then gives chase as the youmu tries to flee, dragging the battle outside of her home and into the streets. Although Mirai was able to fend off the youmu's attacks, the youmu's tricky tactics forces the fight into a stalemate. Regardless, Mirai and Akihito continue their pursuit in hopes that killing it would be a decent income for Mirai.

Mirai soon gets a chance for the kill by unsealing her powers for a moment, but hesitates as she is reminded of the last time she had slain a youmu. Fortunately, she manages to deal the final blow. Akihito soon hands the ore-like remains of the youmu to Mirai and wraps back the wound on Mirai's hand as a gesture of thanks after saving him. However, in spite of this kind gesture, Mirai tells him that she refuses to join the Literary Club. Mirai passes out soon after.

Following that encounter with the youmu, Akihito brings Mirai back to her home before heading back to his own. On his mailbox is an unusually blank postcard addressed to him.

The next day, Akihito brings Mirai to the Shindou Photo Studio, the base of operations of Ayaka Shindou, an official youmu appraiser for the Spirit World Warrior Society. They are welcomed by Ai Shindou, Ayaka's housemate and a youmu like Ayaka herself, a fact that Mirai did not accept that easily at first. Fortunately, she soon understands the nature of youmu thanks to some explaining. Mitsuki also shows up in front of the photo studio and they head to school with Ai. Here, Mirai reiterates that she has no intentions on joining the Literary Club and that decision remains so even as Akihito tries to persuade her.

After failing to get Mirai to join the Literary Club, Akihito then goes to talk to Hiroomi Nase, who is able to effortlessly get on Akihito's nerves. Akihito asks him about the youmu he encountered the day before, but Hiroomi refuses to speak, and instead comments on how Akihito is meddling in business that he should not be involved in.

Later that day, Akihito visits the Shindou Photo Studio, where Ayaka Shindou has just appraised Shizuku Ninomiya's last kill for 26,000 yen — a disappointment for Shizuku, who felt that the youmu she just slayed was far too aggressive than usual. Shizuku later leaves for her supposed first date, allowing Akihito to ask Ayaka about Mirai visiting the shop. Unfortunately, the barriers set up by spirit world warriors to conceal the presence of the photo studio causes Mirai to lose her way and only through Mitsuki's help, Mirai manages to discover the photo studio's whereabouts.

Meanwhile, Akihito takes this chance to ask help from Ayaka to read the "blank" postcard his mother had sent to him, which is actually a special postcard that spirit world warriors can create by imprinting their thoughts in the postcard. To Akihito's disappointment, all he sees is his mother, dressed in a cat costume, acting cutesy at her son. And to make things worse, Mitsuki, who has just arrived with Mirai, seems interested to listen to the entirety of the message.

After going past the rather embarrassing part, Yayoi goes to the more serious part of her message. She warns Akihito that a powerful youmu called the "Hollow Shadow" (虚ろの影) is coming, and she urges him to avoid any encounters with it, particularly because, as Ayaka recalls after the end of the message, five high-ranking spirit world warriors were unable to last five minutes during the last known encounter with the "Hollow Shadow".

Ayaka proceeds with appraising the youmu Mirai had slain, and to her disappointment, it only cost 1,000 yen — too little income for such great effort to defeat it. However, Akihito shows his relief, since Mitsuki is welcome to have Mirai in the clubroom, and that Mirai had earned as a spirit world warrior for the first time.

However, although Mirai is thankful enough to treat him for a beef bowl, she tells Akihito to avoid meddling in spirit world warrior affairs from thereon because she had murdered someone with her own two hands.

Characters
List of characters in order of appearance:

Characters in italic are only seen briefly and have yet to make a proper appearance.

Trivia

 * The title of this episode is based on the color of Ayaka Shindou's eyes, which is ultramarine . Ultramarine is a pigment acquired by grinding lapiz lazuli into a powder, and is known for being the most expensive pigment during the Renaissance period.

Unanswered Questions

 * Who is the person lying dead in front of Akihito in his short vision?
 * Who was the person Mirai killed in the past?
 * How powerful is the "Hollow Shadow?"

Quotes

 * Ai: "Youmu come in all shapes and sizes!" — To Mirai and Akihito, pertaining to herself and the youmu killed the day before
 * Ayaka: "For shaking her butt, she should win first for avant-garde." — Referring to Yayoi, Akihito's mother, and her way of "greeting" her son