WARNING: The following contains spoilers for To Your Eternity Episode 3, “A Small Evolution,” now streaming on Crunchyroll.
Despite March's complaints about how she wants to grow up, she's already proven to be more of an adult than those around her -- a hundred times over. Her parents were unable to protect her, while the rest of the Ninannah villagers are celebrating her death, thinking it would buy them a year of safety from Oniguma.
March's nightmare in Episode 2 cemented her decision to cut her brief taste of freedom short and be sacrificed to Oniguma. Before she leaves though, she gives the boy who had saved her one final gift in Episode 3: a name.
Like a mother, March watches fondly as the nameless boy devours a pear. She says aloud that he should have a name and since he's an immortal being, it's only fair that he should be called "Fushi." Unfortunately, Hayase finds March and Fushi together and is ready to take March to the altar. With remnants of her nightmare still fresh, March goes with Hayase to protect the other girls from getting sacrificed. She gives Fushi one last pear and says farewell.
Meanwhile, Parona is still captured but has a few tricks up her sleeve -- or shoe in this case, as she grabs the hidden blade at the bottom of her shoe and uses it to cut through her binds. Just as she's about to finish, there's a rumbling sound. An enormous bear emerges with spikes all over his body and blood leaking out of his eyes and nose -- the exact same one that killed Fushi in Episode 2. Parona frees herself in time but is forced to jump off a cliff to avoid getting killed by the bear. She rolls down and lands in the exact same swamp March was in.
Meanwhile, March has eaten a jelly that makes her fall unconscious as Hayase and the other Yanome citizens carry her up to the altar and set up the ritual. The villagers clean the altar, collect the remaining bones from the previous year, and decorate the area anew with flowers and fruit -- offerings to Oniguma, with March being the main course. They repaint her cheeks with black ink and secure her limbs with rope so she can't escape. Poor March looks even smaller and more vulnerable than usual. It's revealed that the Yanome citizens have been using the Ninannah's fear of the mythical spirit Oniguma to control the village -- Oniguma doesn't actually exist. All they've been doing is choosing girls at random to die for no reason.
Parona bursts through the gates and tries to free March just as the bear -- whom the Yanome villagers now believe is Oniguma -- explodes onto the scene. Hayase watches with a small smile on her face, saying now Oniguma can have twice the meal. But just as she closes the gates, someone walks past her to enter the fray: Fushi.
Fushi watches as the bear lumbers over, expression curious. Without hesitation, Oniguma chomps down on his head but Fushi opens up his maw and frees himself -- except for his head. Suddenly, the headless body transforms into the wolf from Episode 1. The fight is bloody and violent as wolf-Fushi launches himself at the bear time after time, clawing and biting his nose. Like David and Goliath, despite Oniguma being ten times larger and slapping Fushi away repeatedly, the boy/wolf isn't giving up. Oniguma is literally tearing Fushi apart but his regeneration allows him to heal over and over again. Eventually, Oniguma is defeated.
Episode 3 of To Your Eternity has two twists. Despite the fact that Oniguma only sort of exists, Hayase doesn't kill March and Parona. Instead, she offers them two choices: either they die or the four of them -- Parona, March, Oniguma's corpse, and Fushi -- will follow her to Yanome. It's not ideal, but at least March will truly have the chance to grow up.
The second twist is when Fushi, still in his wolf form, pads over to March. March is delighted to see a "puppy" and drops the pear for him to eat. She had previously tried to teach the nameless boy to say thank you after someone gives him food. Fushi the boy hadn't been able to do it. But wolf-Fushi opens his mouth, snout still bloody from the fight, and says the word "Arigatou" in the exact same way March taught him.
