It is 22 November 2007. Jiro Kitamura Keisuke Koide is spending his 20th birthday alone in a busy city, wandering a shopping mall and searching for a small gift to mark the day. A bright, enigmatic presence catches his eye: a smiling, mysterious girl who seems almost too bold for the moment, delivered by the striking presence of Haruka Ayase Haruka Ayase as a captivating figure. She moves with a mix of mischief and charm, even as she steals a pair of clothes in a swift, almost casual flash of risk, leaving Jiro watching, amused and puzzled at the same time. He’s drawn to her, though he can’t quite place why this chance encounter feels different from anything else he’s known. The girl follows him to a restaurant, and against the noise of the city, the moment feels intimate and surreal. He sits down to a simple spaghetti meal on his grandmother’s advice, and the girl appears beside him, declaring—quite casually—that it’s her birthday, too. The two exchange modest birthday presents, a small ritual that somehow makes the night feel real and unexpectedly warm.
What begins as a playful moment quickly spirals into a wild, impulsive escapade. The girl, who seems almost used to getting by on whim and adrenaline, rushes out with him before the bill is paid, prompting the startled restaurant manager to chase them through the streets. Despite the chaos, or perhaps because of it, Jiro finds himself charmed by her fearless, unpredictable energy, watching as she moves between lighthearted flirtation and startling acts of boldness. Their evening ends on a tearful, ambiguous note, with the girl leaving as suddenly as she arrived, leaving Jiro with a memory that feels both thrilling and incomplete.
A year passes, and the story returns to the same birthday scene, now with Jiro back in the same restaurant, alone and hopeful for a similar spark. The girl reappears and joins him once more, and for a moment the mood seems celebratory—until violence interrupts the calm: a gunman bursts into the room, threatening everyone, and the mysterious visitor proves she is more than she seems by hurling the attacker through a window and saving the diners with astonishing strength and precision. The danger reveals her true nature in a flash, but the revelation is just the beginning. Later, at Jiro’s home, she reveals her true identity in a startling 3D projection: an elderly Jiro from the future explains that he created her as a cyborg to intervene in his past, warning him of an impending disaster. The older version of Jiro claims he spent everything he had to construct this guardian, hoping to repair the flow of time and protect the life he regretted losing. The revelation is jarring, yet it provides a thread of purpose: this cyborg was made to save him, to alter the past to shape a future that might still be salvaged.
The older Jiro believes that sending the cyborg back has, in effect, restored the natural course of history, and the girl who appeared that night becomes more than a protector—she becomes a pivotal presence in Jiro’s life. She safeguards not only him but also many others from grim fates that the older Jiro had witnessed and mourned. Over time, Jiro grows dependent on her and, in a surprising turn, falls in love with her. Yet she cannot return his feelings in the same way, a truth that gradually strains their bond. In a desperate moment, on the evening of 13 March 2009, in a drunken rage, Jiro forbids her from seeing him unless she can feel his heart. The rift is painful, and it marks a turning point: he begins to realize that she has always stood by him, even when he could not feel the same level of reciprocity. She continues to safeguard him, remaining unseen, a quiet presence that keeps offering chances at a different, better outcome.
Then a cataclysm arrives that tests everything: a gigantic earthquake devastates Tokyo on 3 April 2009, tearing apart buildings and lives. In the chaos, the cyborg arrives to help, but even her extraordinary strength cannot save herself from the collapse of his apartment block. After she finally tells him that she understands his feelings, she is destroyed while saving him from the rubble. Grief-stricken, Jiro exerts all his will to recover her, and on 7 April 2009 he exhumes her body and devotes the next 61 years to rebuilding her, pouring his life into the project until he finally succeeds—only to pass away himself soon after, on 28 September 2074. The arc of love, loss, and homage thus threads through the long, quiet years that follow.
Decades drift forward to a distant future, where a girl in 2133 learns that a cyborg look-alike has become a public display. With her father’s help, she purchases the original cyborg in an auction on 9 October 2134, and uses a special device to access the memories stored in the cyborg’s hard drive. Moved and curious, she resolves to go back in time to meet Jiro, hoping to understand the man whose life had shaped the cyborg’s legendary mission. She is revealed to be the real girl who first met Jiro on his 20th birthday, the one who wanted to see him before the cyborg did, and the story revisits their first night together from her point of view in a powerful, full-circle moment. The scene then shifts to Jiro’s grief over the destroyed body of the cyborg, a heartbreak that has haunted him across generations. In a final twist, the girl returns again and declares that she can “feel his heart,” choosing to live with Jiro from that moment onward, thereby altering fate once more and offering a new, hopeful end to their intertwined destinies.
