Color of Clouds

"Color of Clouds" (曇色, Kumori Shoku) is the seventh episode of the Kyoukai no Kanata anime series, released on November 13, 2013. It was storyboarded and directed by Noriyuki Kitanohara, with animation direction by Shoko Ikeda.

Sakura is pressed to settle things with Mirai. For this reason, she decides to attend her school, shattering Mirai's peaceful school days. Akihito soon finds out more about Sakura, while Mirai decides to confront her once and for all.

Synopsis
As Sakura feeds another youmu to her weapon, she remembers the day before the death of her sister Yui. On that day, she reminded Sakura of her weak powers as a Spirit World Warrior as demonstrated by her inability to see the purple sky created by the Hollow Shadow and advises her to stay indoors throughout the ordeal. In the present day, Hiroomi laments over the loss of his HND48 collection after trying to sabotage Mitsuki himself by passing an application copy of Mitsuki for the idol group. Soon enough, Mitsuki shows up before Mirai, who attended an udon eat-all-you-can event and has to tend to a bonsai damaged by a baseball game outside.

Soon, Shizuku Ninomiya shows up and tells them news of Sakura Inami transferring to their school, much to Mirai's shock. Shizuku recommends that Mirai ask the Nase family to intervene against Sakura's transfer, but Mirai decides not to, thinking that nothing would change whether or not Sakura was admitted to school.

With Mirai heading back to school to get something she forgot, Akihito is left to return home alone. Here, he sees Sakura collapsing after an intense fight with a flock of bird-shaped youmu. Akihito takes her home and prepares some omelet rice for her, although she refused to eat it for some reason. Sakura then reveals that her weapon consumes youmu stones to gain strength, and that she is borrowing the weapon under the condition that she kill Mirai Kuriyama. Akihito, however, has doubts that she can do such a feat after experiencing the stress on his body after using her weapon even for a short while.

Suddenly, Mirai shows up at Akihito's doorstep and he is forced to ditch Sakura into a cabinet while he tries to talk Mirai into leaving immediately. Eventually, he fails and Sakura eventually leaves herself, but not before exchanging glares with Mirai.

The next day, Mirai's quiet school day is shattered when Sakura finally transfers into her section. A concerned Akihito tells Hiroomi about what he found out about Sakura, and Mitsuki eventually finds out about Mirai trying to settle things with Sakura.

True enough, Mirai meets up with Sakura at a nearby market and confronts her head-on. But unlike their last encounter, Mirai is more determined to defend herself after realizing that dying would not erase the regret of losing Yui Inami. Eventually, Mirai shows the gap between her and a weak Spirit World Warrior like Sakura, and the weapon in Sakura's hands soon turns against its owner, attempting to devour her. Mirai's quick thinking saves Sakura from the attack, and Mirai decides to reconcile with her. Sakura hesitates at first, but she eventually goes home with Mirai. Meanwhile, Miroku Fujima retrieves Sakura's discarded weapon. Although disappointed that he wasn't able to get a hold of Sakura, he heads back, confident that the youmu stones stored inside would be enough for his real target: the stone of the Hollow Shadow.

Later that night, Mitsuki finds Izumi with a perplexed expression. There, Mitsuki sees the town's streets making a crystal-clear image of the surrounding buildings. Izumi then mentions that the Lull is coming, and what follows this is "Beyond the Boundary".

Characters
List of characters in order of appearance:

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

Trivia

 * This episode is named after the grayish clouds that were present during the day Yui Inami died and the day of the final confrontation between Sakura Inami and Mirai Kuriyama.

Cultural References

 * The idol group HND48 may be a reference to the idol group AKB48. The HND stands for "ha-na-da", as in Jukki Hanada, the series screenplay writer. Jukki Hanada also handled the series composition for the idol-themed anime series Idolmaster: Xenoglossia.

Unanswered Questions

 * Why did Miroku Fujima gave Sakura Inami her weapon?
 * What are the Lull and "Beyond the Boundary"?