Garasu no Kamen Synopses

Tankoubon 46

Ayumi's special rehearsals

Ayumi is training with her mother. The rehearsals are very hard. Utako is throwing objects around to teach her daughter to "see" with the help of sounds.

Shiori visits Maya at the Kids Studio

While Ayumi keeps rehearsing in spite of the doctor's advice, Shiori visits Maya at the Kids Studio. After the rehearsals, Masumi's fiancée invites Maya to talk in a café.
Maya is really impressed by Shiori's ring with a massive sapphire, ans Shiori explains that it is the engagement ring Masumi Hayami bought for her. She is always afraid of losing it...
Then Shiori talks to Maya about Masumi. The woman begs Maya to forgive him and not to ruin his dream of putting Kurenai Tennyo on stage in case she is the winning actress. Shiori adds that Masumi is actually a kind-hearted man. Maya says that she knows that... Shiori is shocked.
When Maya is about to stand up and leave the café, Shiori makes the actress' handbag fall down and while helping her to gather the content of the bag, she hides her own engagement ring, wrapped in a handkerchief, in the bag.

Shiori's engagement ring

Masumi is in his office when a telephone call from Takamiya's family is passed on to him. Shiori doesn't feel well. Something happened and she is shocked.
Masumi is driving to Takamiya's place. Shiori is waiting for him and promises herself that she will erase Maya from Masumi's heart.
In the meantime, Maya finds the ring in her bag and, quite worried, wonders how it got there.
Masumi reaches Shiori at her place. The woman is in tears; she even slaps Masumi on his hand when he tries to help her get up.
Then she confesses to him that she lost her engagement ring and that she is so sorry that she would like to die.
Masumi encourages her to try and remember what happened; she is sure that she still had the ring when she met Maya.
She begs him not to get angry: in fact, she went to visit Maya only to help him, her soon-to-be husband... Suddendly she seems to remember that Maya was very attracted by her ring... She frowns, then mumble: "No, it can't be..."
Masumi asks Shiori if she is suggesting that it was Maya who stole the ring, but the woman defends Maya: even if the young actress hates him, she is not the kind of person who would do something like that.
Masumi, with a serious, thoughtful look, confirms that Maya wouldn't do anything like that: he knows this for sure, better than anyone else.
At these words, Shiori gets upset and starts crying again. Masumi cheers her up, promising that he will buy her a bigger ring.
Masumi is shocked. Maya can't be responsible for what happened... Can she?

Maya, still convinced that the ring entered her bag by accident (!), rushes to the place whose address she has been told on the telephone to reach Shiori and give her back the ring. The place is a luxury wedding dresses boutique. Maya meets Shiori in a private room where she is trying the wedding dress.
The young actress is clearly upset, anyway she praises Shiori, who asks her if she thinks that Masumi will like it.
Suddendly, Shiori decides that it's time to stop with the wedding dress, since a friend came visit her, and invites Maya to have a drink together. Maya exhitates, but Shiori orders some blueberry juice and cakes and sends everyone else away, keeping her wedding dress on.
Shiori looks at the clock with a smirk on her face, then while Maya is about to take the ring out of her bag, she interrupts her asking to bring her the glass of juice because she doesn't feel well.
Maya immediately heads for the table, while Shiori collapses onto her and the glass. Shiori's dress gets stained and the mad woman starts screaming!
Perfect timing. Masumi has just arrived, he was climibing the stairs when he heard his fiancée scream.
When he enters the room, he sees what happened and shouts at Maya.
Maya tries to stand up for herself and Shiori pretends to defend her, but then she faints...
Then the shop assistants give Maya her bag and mean to send her away. Mays is shocked, she drops her bag and the ring rolls out of her bag.
Everybody is astonished.
Masumi picks up the ring and questions Maya. Maya claims that she doesn't know how the ring got there and that she came to bring it back, but Masumi doesn't believe her. She could have used a better excuse; he can't believe she could act like that; he thought she was a better person... He shouts to Maya that he knows she hates him, but his fiancée shouldn't be involved!
Maya is petrified, while Shiori looks very satisfied...
Maya eventually goes away, shocked, thinking about Masumi's words.

Shiori asks Masumi to forgive Maya since now she has her engagement ring, and Masumi is touched by his kind-hearted fiancée.
He still can hardly believe that Maya could do what she did.
Shiori promises herself that she will conquer Masumi's heart.

Mizuki's female instinct

Masumi is in his office. He still can't believe what happened, and he can't believe he said those things to Maya either.
Mizuki enters the room to bring some coffee. She comments on what happened: it's hard to believe, yet if Masumi was there and saw everything, there is not much to add and there is no point in trying to understand.
Maybe Maya was jealous of Shiori? Masumi objects that this is impossible. Then, it can only be that Maya wanted to hurt Masumi, she still hates him... But Mizuki is not convinced: Maya has always been very straightforward, she doesn't need to vent her hate on a third person.
Masumi agrees... He knows that very well.
Mizuki is puzzled. Her female instinct tells her something is wrong. Anyway it's late and she has to go; before closing the door, she stops to ask Masumi if he is in love with Shiori. Masumi is shocked: obviously he does, she is her fiancée. Mizuki is not convinced...
I see. Since she's your fiancée you have to love her, right? It's strange... Your face didn't look happy at all...

Shiori's tantrum (again).

Mizuki has been asked by Masumi to take something to Takamiya's place. While in the house, she notices some men who are re-arranging the flowers in the house. Apparently the flowers have to be all blue this time.
Shiori, who hasn't seen Mizuki, enters the room where all the flowers are.
Amongs the flowers yet to be arranged, there are some purple roses. Shiori comments on their beauty, then cut them all with some scissors. She remarks that she hates purple roses, and she orders the men not to bring those flowers any more.
Mizuki is confused and shocked.

Ayumi's special rehearsals continue

Utako and Ayumi rent a studio outside Tokyo and the terrible rehearsals continue.

Hayami in business with the Takamiyas

Masumi is at Takamiya's place; He is driving a bargain with Takamiyas and having lunch with the family.
Shiori's grandfather is very pleased. He comments that soon Masumi will be also the manager of Takamiya's business. Masumi replies that he is a little too young to think about that, and Shiori asks her grandfather not to joke...

Mizuki shows up. She needs to talk to Masumi Hayami about a bomb probably sent by the Yakuza. While leaving, Mizuki remembers Shiori tearing the roses apart, and finds the whole situation strange.

The last roses...

Rehearsals at Kid's studio.
Maya is depressed, Sakurakoji is cheering her up. He reminds her of her Purple Rose Fan. He will surely send her loads of roses for her first show! She has to do her best for him!
She suddendly feels better. She thinks of Masumi. He is in love with Shiori, but when Maya is on stage, he is her number 1 fan.
Sakurakoji looks at her. He knows she is in love with her fan, but for the moment he seems happy with this.
Then a packet is delivered to Maya, together with a purple rose. Maya opens it, and she finds all her photos torn apart. She is totally shocked!
Together with the packet, there is a card that reads:
These are the last roses. I am very disappointed by you as an actress and I will no longer come to any of your shows.
Maya feels lost. She falls down her knees. Masumi abandoned her. What is she going to do now?
All the actors comments that it was a mean gesture. Kuronuma tells Maya to go home: she cannot rehearse in that state.
Also, when it's the moment to be sad, Maya'd better do it without trying to repress her feelings: every experience will be useful for acting.
While Maya is going away, Sakurakoji thinks that he will never forgive the purple rose fan for making Maya suffer so much.

On the way home, Maya thinks about Masumi; she thought that the purple roses would always be the bound between them.
Now that he abandoned her, she feels unable to go on.
It can't just all end like that. She will go to Masumi and explain everything to him, about Shiori's ring, the wedding dress...
She will tell him that she knows he is her purple rose fan!
She is not sure how she will manage to meet him, but she will find out how. She is not going to give up like that.

A piece of Maya's photo in Shiori's car?

Daito HQ. Mizuki informs Masumi that another threatening telephone call has arrived. About the 12th only on that day...
Probably it's connected to the rock band Fire X, produced by Daito; there has been an explosion recently during one of their concerts and one fan was injured.
Miss Mizuki suggests that the Police is informed. Probably the responsible is Hokuto Production, the previous agency; they might be supported by Yakuza.
Masumi took Fire X away from them, so he is in danger as well...
Masumi has to go to a meeting, and asks Mizuki to go to an art exhibition with Shiori: once again, he is busy and he cannot keep his promise.
When Shiori sees miss Mizuki, she understands that there is nothing she can do: business is business. She almost faints; she reassures Mizuki that she doesn't need a doctor, but she asks her to get her pills from the car.
Mizuki enters the car and notices a piece of one of the photos of Maya, evidently torn into pieces. Masumi's secretary is shocked.

Masumi is attacked!!

It's late evening. Maya is outside Daito offices. She has been told that Masumi was very busy and that she couldn't meet him, so she is waiting for him in the parking area.
She understood that she loves him deeply. There's nothing she can do about it. Even if her feelings annoy him, she want to confess them to him.
In the meantime Shiori arrives to Masumi's office too. The man is surprised at her visit; she starts complaining that he is still at work, that he promised her they would go out, blah blah blah. Masumi apologizes: the meeting was not planned, but he should have called her to apologize.
Shiori can't help asking him:
"Masumi-sama, what's more important, your job or me?"
Masumi changes topic. He apologizes again and again. He offers to drive her home, it's late and her family must be worried.
Also, he will do her best to meet her on the following Sunday; she is not happy but after another set of apologies, Masumi suggests that she uses that time to decide where to go; Anyway Shiori wants him to take her where he likes for once, so he will have to decide this time.
The couple is about to go out but Shiori forgot her lipstick so she has to go back and find it.

Masumi gets out of Daito's HQ. There are three men who are waiting for him; they say to each other that they must act now that he is alone, but before they move Maya appears and approaches Masumi.
Masumi is really surprised! Maya informs him that she really needs to talk to him: she doesn't know how Shiori's ring entered her bag, she did not pour the fruit juice on Shiori's wedding dress on purpose...She begs Masumi to believe her; crying, she tells him that she doesn't want to be misunderstood, because he is her precious... Her precious...
Masumi is speechless: Precious...?
Then Maya cannot go on, she tries to run away but Masumi grabs her by the shoulder.
What did she want to say? She came all the way to meet him, now she has to tell him why!

Then the 3 thugs interrupt them. They have something to say to Masumi.
In the meantime Shiori arrives to the hall of the Daito building and sees Masumi and the 3 men through the glass doors.
The 3 men claim to be "allies of justice", who don't forgive those who make the weak suffer, and Masumi understands that they do work for Hokuto Production.
Masumi orders Maya to go away, but one of the 3 stops her: she could call for help if allowed to go. Then the man sees her face and he realizes that she is one of Daito's products.
Masumi shouts at him to let her go, as she is not involved, but they intend to keep her so that Masumi can understand how it feels to have a product stolen by an other agency.
When the knife the thug is holding gets close to Maya's neck, Masumi starts punching all of them, and then embraces Maya.
Masumi tells the 3 thugs that he will not let them touch Maya, she is not involved in Daito's business!
Then he adds that she cannot have her face ruined just before such an important performance.

The 3 men understand how important Maya is for Daito and suggest that Masumi doesn't let them injure her.
Maya is terrified but Masumi tranquillizes her and embraces her even tighter (!).
The 3 men start hitting Masumi, who is protecting Maya with his body; Maya would like to go away but Masumi orders her not to move and not to forget Kurenai Tennyo, the play. While being protected Maya understands that Masumi cannot be the person who tore her photos apart. She doesn't know who's responsible for that, but she knows now it cannot be him.
In the meantime, Shiori is still looking at all of them astonished and wonders why Masumi is doing all this for Maya...
At some point Maya shouts to stop and finally Shiori asks for help.

A security man arrives at last. Masumi looks at Maya and asks her if she has been injured. She confirms she is all right and he is pleased.
Masumi asks the security guard not to call the Police: he doesn't want the news to be spread and he doesn't want Maya to be involved.
Then he faints.

Back in Masumi's office. Masumi is still laying down unconscious and Maya is next to him. The security man gives her a first aid kit to use while waiting for a doctor and leaves them alone.
Shiori is in infirmery because her blood pressure went down; the security man will take care of her. He asks Maya to call him if anything happens.

Maya is crying next to Masumi. She thinks of what has happened, of what Masumi has done for her and she realizes that she has finally seen the real heart and the true feelings of Masumi, hidden behind his mask.
Yet until that moment she hadn't understood anything. She apologizes to him and kisses him on the forehead.
Even if unconscious, Masumi feels the teardrops falling on his face.
Maya takes his hand and tells him that he is her Isshin; she starts reciting the goddess's words: he is part of her, she is part of him.
"My love, I will not leave you anymore..."
Masumi dreams of Akoya who talks to him as if he were Isshin and kisses him on the mouth.

Was it just a dream?

Masumi is regaining consciousness. He can hear Akoya's words from a distance... He wonders if it's Maya's voice. It is Maya indeed, who is talking to him while kissing his hand... She has finally understood Akoya's love! Masumi, in a sort of dream, sees Akoya who is getting farther and farther from him... He tries to reach her... He wakes up and...
Maya is not there. Shiori is standing in the room.
It's morning already. Masumi's head is aching, he can't remember what happened. He asks Shiori if Maya has been there, but his fiancée claims that Maya ran away as soon as the 3 thugs approached them. Masumi is convinced that it was all just a dream...
The truth is, Shiori entered Masumi's office in a rush, found Maya taking care of him and shouting sent her away!

The couple goes away. A cleaner finds a handkerchief with stains of blood in Masumi's office.

At Kids Studio, Maya is clearly happy. Sakurakoji is very surprised to see her like that, after what happened the previous day. But Maya explains to him that it wasn't her purple rose fan who tore the photos apart. Sakurakoji is impressed by Maya's faith in her fan.

The day after the attack, Masumi is having a shower in his place (!). He keep thinking of the previous night. Everything seemed so real! But the words he heard from Maya/Akoya were not the words he used to hear during the rehearsals...
Also... He wonders what Maya was about to say when she came see him at his office...
Her precious...?

Hijiri's back!

Hijiri, pretending he is a journalist, goes to the Kids Studio to meet Maya.
While waiting for her, he overheards due actors who comment on the fact that her fan sent her back her photo album with all the photos torn apart.
When Hijiri sees Maya, he's surprised: she looks very serene!
Maya promises that she will do her best for her precious fan, and asks Hijiri to tell her mysterious fan that she trusts him.
Hijiri understands that he doesn't need to tell her that it wasn't her fan who destroyed the photos.

Shiori's plot

Masumi is back to work. He receives a letter from Shiori.
His fiancée asks him to meet after work. She wants to show him a beautiful place. It's a present from her and it really means a lot to her. As a favour, he must leave his mobile phone at home, so he doesn't think of business while they are together. A car will pick him up at 5pm.
Masumi is quite surprised and he wonders what it is.

In the meantime, a middle aged woman, visits Maya at Kids Studio. She has a message from Shiori.
The woman asks Maya not to meet Masumi again. She already created a lot of problems: stealing Shiori's ring, ruining Shiori's wedding dress and now being involved in the latest accident. Maya tries to explain that these are all misunderstandings but the lady gives her an envelope and quickly goes away.
The envelope contains a 10,000,000 Yen cheque!

Kuronuma is very angry. He orders Maya to give that money back to Shiori. He calls the Takemiyas and finds out where Maya can find Shiori. So Maya leaves the studio to go and meet her.

It's 5pm. Masumi is getting out of his office as he promised Shiori.
A cleaner gives him the handkerchief stained with blood that he found in the morning in his office. Masumi wonders if it belongs to Maya...

Shiori is in her car. The traffic is slow because of a car accident, so she is running late!

Maya rushes to the Astoria cruise ship, and goes on board even without a ticket. She is desperately trying to find Shiori.

Masumi is on board too. A man is showing him what Shiori booked for the 2 of them. Masumi is informed that the Astoria is a luxury 1-night cruise ship for busy business people. Masumi is shown the double bedroom the two are supposed to spend the night in... He is outraged and wants to get out of the ship. While the other man is trying to convince him to stay, Masumi sees Maya blocked by some crew members. She is looking for someone, but she doesn't have a ticket. Masumi claims that he knows her so the crew apologise and go away.

In the meantime, Shiori is still stuck in traffic. She won't be able to reach the cruise ship on time and she can't even inform Masumi since he doesn't have his mobile phone with him!

Masumi and Maya stare at each other, astonished.
The cruise ship leaves, and Shiori is NOT on board!

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Attention!

Original story by Suzue Miuchi. Synopses by Francesca.
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