music & lyrics / Hazuki

but the end is already nigh
even that piercing smile is gone

i lament the future, without knowing where to head next
i keep walking, i keep crying, although nothing changes

the red of that day wilts and falls
the burning flames walk again too

spilling blood to protect, killing each other to protect
those days continued on and on, i thought they’d never end

Through to the end from now,take by your hand,gaze into last rays.
If I can be reincarnation,if the day will come when find you again.
I wish to take by this hand once again.

the perfectly clear blue sky cast down the end and disappeared
a powerful light burned through the dark, and we disappeared
only the shadows of us, our hands atop one another, remain there now
our ceaseless prayers go beyond time, an unfulfilled wish

spilling blood to protect it, killing each other to protect it
i keep screaming, i keep crying, even if i can’t change a thing

praying for a tomorrow that will never come again

(Continuation of 「above the skin」)

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As written, this song is a direct continuation of above the skin. In UNDERNEATH_FILES VOL. 3, Hazuki says that many people asked him about the “but” at the end of above the skin. He said he wrote it with a continuation mind, but didn’t want to complete the story and end the world of that song. Eventually he decided a continuation would be interesting, and tied above the skin’s first line together with from the end’s last line (“praying for a tomorrow that will never come again”), so they loop.

The interviewer and Hazuki further discuss the lyrics and eventually cover the theme in detail:

“Interviewer: The lyrics are pretty concrete.
Hazuki: It was rather unpleasant to write. It was so graphic I was disgusted… The image is vivid. And part of it is in English, right? At first this was all Japanese. Then I was seriously disheartened when I looked over the whole thing, (laugh), like I can’t sing this during a show… So I made it English. I didn’t force it, but… I intended it to be all Japanese at first.

I: This is something that’s happening now, in the era we live in.
H: I’ve never come into any contact with this, and I don’t know anything about it… Why did I write it? It wasn’t this clear with ‘above the skin’.

I: Situations like this are happening somewhere in the world, right? Not that you were trying to express such a thing so straightforwardly, but what were you thinking you wanted to convey?
H: Hmm… I don’t really want people to think or feel anything specific when they hear this, but… “spilling blood to protect, killing each other to protect”. I wanted to write this line. Who is right and who is wrong is really a matter of perspective, both of them are killing each other with a sense of justice… Both sides have people they want to protect. It’s so sad.

I: War is like that.
H: Yep. Both sides are right, in their own eyes.

I: I feel like just thinking about that conveys something.
H: With “above the skin” I wasn’t thinking of war at all… Here, with light burning that darkness, I think people can understand that it’s war. In “above the skin”, it was the egoism of the emotions that humans have… It was about ego, like if you look at something from a different viewpoint, it may have been affection. That’s what I was depicting, but now it’s like this.

I: So it turned into a feeling of overlooking these viewpoints?
H: No, instead the viewpoint feels fixed. It turned into something definite.”