WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Platinum End Episode 8, "Symbol of Promise," now streaming on Crunchyroll and Funimation.
The divine battle royale leaves no room for hesitation and doubt, and already, Mirai Kakehashi's pacifistic attitude may cost him dearly in future battles against Metropoliman and the other God candidates. The same can be said of Saki Hanakago, Mirai's old friend and first ally in the battle royale.
Saki has Revel as her angel, who only granted her the power of the red arrow, and Saki needs Mirai to defend her as a fully-armed God candidate. Now, Saki must face an inner challenge and confront her intense guilt over her past actions. She can only face Metropoliman with a clear heart and mind.
Among the three allied God candidates, Saki has done the least, and she stayed behind while her new ally Nanato Mukaido led Mirai into battle against Metropoliman at the Great Tower. So far, Saki has provided limited tactical input, although her mere presence is enough to motivate Mirai to fight hard and protect someone other than himself. One evening, after Nanato leaves for home, Saki makes a pained confession to Mirai.
Saki confesses that despite her and Mirai's happy childhood together, she started making fun of him behind his back, feeling pressured by her unkind classmates to mock Mirai as a smelly and unwanted pig. Saki was only going with the motions to avoid getting targeted as an ally of Mirai's, but all the same, the modern-day Saki makes it clear that she cannot forgive herself for this, and she has self-destructive thoughts about it. She feels desperate to escape the heavy guilt, and at one point, she waded into the ocean to drown herself until Revel found her and signed her up for the God candidate battle. Saki has a strong sense of empathy and kindness, which prompted her to feel this crushing guilt. She also recalls Mirai's words about how he'd rather be bullied than bully someone else, no matter what.
Mirai doubts that Saki would try once again to take her own life, and he doesn't believe her when she expresses her desire to perish as punishment for her misdeeds. To prove this to both of them, Mirai flies high into the air with Saki and nearly drops her on purpose. Distressed, Saki cries out that she wants to live, and that she views Mirai as a role model when it comes to hope for the future. She can atone by supporting him in this battle, not by ending her life. Saki recuperates for the rest of the night, and her head soon clears up.
The next day, Saki assumes a more active role in the strategy meeting with Nanato, and she helps Nanato decide on the team's next move. They have a lead on Metropoliman's true face and approximate body size, so Saki offers to use her red arrows to recruit allies and investigate the local area for surgeons who died recently. Interestingly, Saki's new theory has already been proven correct in a previous episode, when Metropoliman had a surgeon remove the bullets from his body, only to kill the surgeon to tie up that loose end. Nanato confides in Mirai and wonders what changed to make Saki so cheerful and proactive.
Saki's mental burden has been lifted, and she can proceed into the God candidate battle with a clear mind and firm resolve. She vows to fight hard to repay Mirai for his kindness and live up to their childhood expectations for the future, and Saki even aims to obtain wings and possibly white arrows. If so, she can become a fighter on par with Nanato, complete with body armor, and become a secret weapon in the battle against Metropoliman. So far, Metropoliman has, at most, a faint inkling of who Saki is, and if she plays her cards right, she can catch him off-guard and possibly defeat him. Now is her time to shine -- she must not fumble this opportunity.
