Yumi and the Nightmare Painter

Yumi has never taught another yoki-hijo and is quickly frustrated by the difficulties of teaching Painter. Her rigidity and belief in protocol clash with his artistic inclinations.

When they are back in Painter’s world, Yumi suggests that Painter try to put on the “souls” of clothing. Painter manages this, dressing himself in ghostly forms of clothes. Yumi and Painter then debate whether she should study painting. As they do, they hear a knock on the door and see a note of suspension taped to it. The foreman believes that Painter is ignoring his duties and has apparently not seen any evidence of the stable nightmare. Given this is Painter’s first offense, the other painters will be told he is on medical leave. Painter accepts that he and Yumi need to do something about the stable nightmare and agrees to train Yumi to defend herself.

He directs Yumi to his trunk of supplies, where she sees large brushes, canvases, paper, and a portfolio. Yumi tries to open the portfolio, but Painter stops her. He then demonstrates how he paints bamboo, and Yumi appreciates how formulaic it is, though she notes that it seems at odds with his insistence that art comes from emotion. As they paint, Painter expresses surprise that Yumi knows what bamboo is, and she states that it grows in some of the colder regions of her land.

Later, Akane knocks on the door and tries to get Yumi to go with her to dinner. Painter tells Yumi to pretend that she is studying for important exams, and Akane leaves. Yumi decides to take a break from painting and goes to the window and looks out at the city, noticing the darkness of one alley. Unbeknownst to her, this is a nightmare.

After 11 days, Yumi finally lets Painter stack stones. He has, in this time, grown used to the heat of Torio; he is also bored of his lessons.

Yumi first has Painter pick up a stone and find its center of balance, which he does relatively quickly. Painter tries to comment on its appearance, but Yumi dismisses this as irrelevant, prompting the pair to bicker until Painter accidentally insults her teaching. Yumi moves on to how he should create a stable base, and he manages to create several stacks, some reaching six stones. He is pleased by this accomplishment until Yumi tells him that he would need to stack 20 or 30 stones regularly before the spirits will come, but Yumi encourages him, nonetheless. When she begins to use the spirits of stones to stack them, he sees the merit of her artwork. Her dedication makes him feel some of his own passion for art return. He also begins to empathize with her more, understanding her loneliness.

As they work, there is a disturbance in the village that Painter goes over to investigate. They see a group of bearded men getting out of a wagon. They announce that they are scholars from the Institute of Mechanical Solutions in Torio City and that they had arrived to help the town. Having heard about the yoki-hijo’s troubles, they state that they have brought a machine that can stack stones.

Back in Painter’s world, Yumi fumes about the scholars and calls their machine an abomination. Painter defends the idea of the machine, telling Yumi that her precise approach seems mechanical, too. This leads Yumi to wonder what life without a yoki-hijo could be like, but she decides that the spirits might need help because of the machine.

As they start painting, Yumi thinks to herself that she finds this enjoyable. Eventually, they settle down to work on painting bamboo, which Yumi is growing tired of. Akane and her friends then appear at the door and insist that Yumi go out with them. Painter initially resists but lets her go.

At the Noodle Pupil, Painter goes off to speak to Design while Yumi sits with Akane and her friends. When they ask her about Painter, Yumi says that he is hunting down the stable nightmare, but no one believes this. Yumi then sees Design stretching a glowing rope between her fingers and goes over to the bar. Design explains that she is lengthening the distance that Painter can go from his body. Yumi has mixed feelings about this. She knows it is probably for the best, but after a life of loneliness, she enjoys having someone constantly by her. Design says it is possible that Yumi is from another planet.

The next morning, in Yumi’s world, Painter insists on feeding himself and eating alone. When a horrified Yumi asks what he is doing, he says that the spirits have given her the freedom to choose a life. When Liyun arrives to criticize the yoki-hijo, he rebuffs her.

As they bathe, Painter explains that he has decided—like Yumi—to embrace his current situation. She is making the most of her life in Kilahito, so he will live the life of a yoki-hijo his way. He argues that, since he is the yoki-hijo, his authority is all-powerful—the logic of this makes sense to Yumi. Painter insists that her system was broken, and someone from the outside had to say so.

They then go to meditate, and Painter has painting supplies brought to him, reasoning that his mind is clearest when he paints. Despite Yumi’s earlier reservations, she is touched that Painter is trying to engage with the position in his own way.

When they walk to the ritual place with Liyun, they hear the scholars arguing in their tent. Liyun explains that their machine is not working and reveals that she has heard of these machines before, considering them to be blasphemy. They practice stacking rocks for several hours, with Painter managing to stack 12 by the end of the day.

Upon their return to the wagon, Hwanji, one of Yumi’s attendants, asks that the yoki-hijo tell Liyun this behavior was not Hwanji’s fault. Painter enquires further, and Hwanji tells them that she used to be the attendant to a yoki-hijo of the reform movement, something that Yumi has not heard of. Painter urges Hwanji to go on, and she explains that the vast majority of yoki-hijo insisted on having less restrictive living conditions but could still perform their duties well. Liyun has hidden this from Yumi.

Two days later, they are in Yumi’s world again. She spent the previous day meditating while Painter roamed the city. Yumi now thinks about her wish for freedom and how she still feels guilty about this.

When Liyun arrives, she asks how Yumi knows about the reform movement. Yumi presses Painter to question her further, and Liyun admits the movement exists, but she insists that this is just a brief rebellion for Yumi. When she leaves, Painter says that he hates Liyun, but Yumi still defends her. She says her role is more important than her life. Painter tells her that her happiness is also important.

As they bathe, Yumi says that she is glad to know the movement exists and asks what a life full of choices is like. Painter says that having choices does not make life easy: He had the chance to speak to people, but lacked the skill. Painter tells Yumi about the difficulties he has with socializing and his feeling of being disconnected from other people—this is something that Yumi relates to deeply. She tries to reach out and touch his hand but still cannot make contact.

Yumi, now feeling rebellious, asks how they can break the rules, and Painter suggests that they spy on the scholars. Once they are left alone to meditate, they sneak away, with Painter shedding most of his clothes so he looks like a worker. On the way, Painter becomes curious about how the trees float. Near the tent, Painter stays hidden in trees while Yumi goes ahead to spy, invisible in her ghostly form.

She moves through the wall of the tent and watches the scholars try to deduce what is wrong with their machine, which is a cabinet-sized metal box with many legs. One scholar believes that the problem is the power source, while another scholar says there was no problem with the father machine. A scholar then primes the machine by pressing a plate. Yumi sees hion lines appear between his hand and the plate as he does this, and then hion lines appear from her body. The machine turns on, and most of the scholars rush to examine it. However, the scholar closest to her grabs a device, which points directly at her. The machine seems to steal the warmth from Yumi, and she flees, pursued by scholars.

With Yumi away, Painter experiments with the trees. He climbs one and realizes that he is weightless close to the trunk, but he can weigh it down by leaning outward. He then sees Yumi run through the wall of the tent, shouting that the scholars have found her. Painter unhooks the tree from the ground and climbs into the canopy. By the time the scholars reach the tree, it has floated out of reach.

The tree is carried southward by the wind, toward an orchard where Painter decides they should land. As they fly, they both notice how beautiful their surroundings are, and Painter finds himself entranced by Yumi. When they are near the orchard, Painter leans backward, and the tree descends. Twenty minutes later, Liyun finds them at the shrine, and Painter denies having seen anything unusual.

Yumi tells Painter about what she saw in the tent, and he suggests that the presence of the hion lines meant they were about to experience an industrial revolution. They then go to the place of ritual, where they see a crowd gathering around the machine. The machine begins to stack stones, and Painter becomes determined to beat it. He manages to do well, and a spirit eventually appears halfway between him and the machine. However, it is drawn into the machine.

The scholars tell the crowd that the machine would be kept running until the needs of everyone in town have been met.