The midnight hour approaches in an almost empty all-night diner. Mari sips her coffee & glances up from a book as a young man a musician intrudes on her solitude. Both have missed the last train home. Later Mari is interrupted a second time by a girl from the Alphaville Hotel; a Chinese prostitute has been hurt by a client the girl has heard Mari speaks fluent Chinese & requests her help. Meanwhile Eri is at home & sleeps a deep heavy sleep that is too perfect too pure to be normal; pulse & respiration at the lowest required level. She has been in this soporific state for two months; Eri has become the classic myth
- a sleeping beauty. But tonight as the digital clock displays 00:00 a faint electrical crackle is perceptible a hint of life flickers across the TV screen though the televisions plug has been pulled. Strange nocturnal happenings or a trick of the night?