Sound of the Sky

E1. The Sound that Fills the Air: The City of Dawn

A young girl named Kanata Sorami joins the army with the hope of learning to become a good bugler. She is assigned to a place called Seize, which is currently holding a festival where people splash each other with water. She is found by her superior, Rio Kazumiya, who gives her a bath and tells her about the legend of the Fire Maiden. While looking at a bell owned by Rio’s father, an owl steals it, forcing Rio to stop Kanata falling off the balcony trying to get it. As Rio participates in the festival, Kanata decides to search for the bell. She finds it hanging off a ledge, but when she goes to get it she falls into the lake, where she sees the golden skeleton of a winged creature. Stranded at the bottom of a canyon, she plays her bugle where she is responded to by Rio on her trumpet. She takes her to the Time Telling Fortress and plays the trumpet as the sun rises, introducing herself as Kanata’s bugling teacher.

★ 8.0

E2. First Battle: A Chair Story

During breakfast, Kanata is introduced to the other members of the 1121st Platoon; Felicia Heideman, Noel Kannagi and Kureha Suminoya. Kureha shows some hostility towards Kanata, but she is assigned to show her around the fort. When Kureha takes Kanata to see the tank of the squadron is kept, which is in the process of being repaired, Kureha expresses her depression because the military often ignores the squadron’s existence. Later that night, Noel and Kanata claim they saw a ghost in the barracks, so Kanata and Kureha are sent to investigate. They learn the place used to be a school. Kureha laments that their platoon is in the middle of nowhere and is generally ignored. The two are surprised by an owl, the same one that stole Rio’s bell, but with Kureha’s help they manage to capture it. They decide to keep it and name it Shuko.

★ 7.7

E3. A Day with the Squad: Rio Runs

As the others go to pick up some supplies, Kanata spends the afternoon training with Rio. Just then, Kanata comes down with a fever, reminding Rio of when her mother fell ill. Out of medicine, Rio gets help from a priestess named Yumina, who diagnoses her with malaria and treats her. When Kanata wakes up, she explains she was overworking herself since she felt useless. She also mentions to Rio that she always wanted to play "Amazing Grace," having heard from a bugler she met when she was little. Rio then plays Amazing Grace from one of the tanks, explaining that a squad, much like a song, is composed of many different parts.

★ 8.0

E4. Rainy Season Sky: Quartz Rainbow

Kanata goes with Noel to get more parts for their tank, the Takemikazuchi. They visit a glassworks shop run by Naomi, the lady who helped Kanata when she first arrived, and she takes interest in a glass dolphin. Later on, they run into Yumina and a couple of kids. The boy, Seiya, gets angry at them, since he hates soldiers due to the death of his parents. Kanata and Noel then go to a glassworks factory, where they are having trouble replicating the optical lens needed for the tank. Having noticed Noel feel down following the argument with Seiya, Kanata tells her it’s not the machine that’s good or bad, but the person inside it. After speaking with the workers, Carl and Maria, they give Kanata advice that allows her to become better at playing the bugle. This in turns helps Noel determine the effective lens samples by having Kanata check their sound. The tank works and Noel smiles for the first time in a while.

E5. Mountain Hiking: The Ends of the World

The squad take a "field trip" to the mountains where some observers need a maintenance check. Kanata, Kureha and Noël are forced to carry heavy backpacks on their hike up. Whilst they find the first observer quickly, the next one lies at the top of a mountain. They take a break at a running river but soon return to find their backsacks ravaged of their food and their compass. Despite the hunger, they eventually manage to find the remaining observers. At the last observer, Filicia shows the others signatures left by former members who had observed No Man’s Land from that point. They are then taken to a hot spring where Rio, who had fought against a boar to get some berries, awaits.

★ 7.0

E6. Kanata’s Day Off: Hair Braiding

The group give Kanata her paycheck early and she goes into town to spend it. In actuality, it is to get her out of the way whilst the others illegally trade some calvados to make some money. When they get word from Naomi that some investigators are planning to snoop in on the deal, they stage a mock shoot out to scare them off. Meanwhile, one of Yumina’s orphans, Mishio, runs off when she objects to having her hair brushed. Kanata finds her at the market, where she reveals she is looking for a certain box. Yumina explains to Kanata the box was a memento of Mishio’s mother that was taken when she died. Mishio ends up on a roof, but the noise from the mock shoot out causes her to slip. Kanata manages to save her before she falls, though it causes some rocks to fall that smash into the investigators’ car. While apologizing to Naomi, they notice the box Mishio had been looking for. Mishio decides to give it to Yumina as a symbol of how much she cares for her.