Shun’s final farewell on the surface

Shun’s final farewell on the surface is the last time he speaks to Asuna and the culmination of his longing to see the open sky. In the fading light, he gives her a quiet blessing, entrusts her to the cat beside him, and faces the stars with fear and happiness held together. The scene ends before his death is shown; its finality reaches Asuna later through the news that a boy wearing her scarf has been found dead.

Sunset and the unasked questions

As the sun slowly sets, Shun gazes at the lingering orange light in the western sky and smiles. His observation that Asuna has not asked him anything shifts the conversation toward what she might want to know: “You must have all sorts of questions.” Asuna responds reflexively with surprise. The exchange is brief, but it places her unspoken questions beside his composure; Shun recognizes that there is much she could ask, even as the scene approaches its end.

The calm of the sunset also gives the farewell its measured pace. Shun has said, “I have no regrets left,” and the light continues to recede while he speaks with Asuna. Rather than turning the moment into a declaration about his fate, the scene lets its significance gather through small gestures and words whose full weight becomes clear only afterward.

A blessing for Asuna

Asuna says she will leave once the cicadas stop crying. Meanwhile, Shun thinks that he has to make sure to do something, “if nothing else.” He calls her name and tells her, “I’ll give you a blessing.” The words turn his intention into a final act of care: even at the end, his attention is directed toward Asuna and what he can still offer her.

At his request, Asuna does as he says, and Shun gently kisses her on the forehead. She startles, opens her eyes, and begins to ask whether he has just kissed her, but her reaction does not undo the tenderness of the gesture. The blessing is not explained further; the scene makes it concrete through the kiss, a farewell that Asuna receives before she understands its finality.

The sky and his last words

Shun has longed to see the surface sky shining with stars. Beside him is the cat, whose name he praises as fine. He asks it to take Asuna to a better place because he cannot do so himself. The request entrusts her future to another, and the narration identifies these as the last words he says to anyone.

After that, Shun speaks only to himself. Beneath the beautiful, star-filled sky, he admits, “Right now, I’m really afraid.” He immediately adds, “But I’m really happy, too.” The two feelings remain side by side: the scene neither makes his fear disappear nor allows it to cancel the happiness of seeing what he had longed to witness. He stretches out a hand as if to catch a star; his vision blurs, and the chapter breaks away without showing what happens next.

The news of his death

The farewell’s outcome is disclosed afterward, when Asuna’s mother tells her that a boy was found dead on the dry riverbed below the outcrop Asuna likes to visit. The boy had her scarf wrapped around his arm. Asuna’s mother addresses her by name as she explains that he was dead; Asuna cannot take in what she has heard, and silence follows.

The report confirms the loss that the earlier scene left unstated. The scarf connects Shun’s final moments to Asuna, while the discovery on the riverbed supplies a concrete aftermath without explaining how he died. Because the reader has already seen him ask the cat to care for her and reach toward the stars, the news recasts the sunset, blessing, and final confession as a farewell whose meaning Asuna could not yet know.