Souichi Gotou

About

A boy who, to hear him tell it, has had his parents on his back "since the moment I was born." His father (an attorney) and his mother (housewife) kept the pressure on him to succeed and do well for the sake of the family. Failure to live up to these standards got him branded an embarrassment, as did his fascination with butterflies. The insects seemed to have an affinity for him, flocking around Souichi and, by his account, singing to him. When he failed the entrance exam to a prestigious high school and had to settle for a lesser school, the pressure from his parents became so great that he took a box-cutter to his neck and committed suicide.


Then he came back to life. Souichi was actually being kept alive by the negative energy of demonic spirits. He stood a strong chance of becoming purely an evil spirit unless Tamaki, and a medium in training, could perform an exorcism; however, this would kill Souichi. Tamaki even contemplated exorcising Souichi without him knowing it, but dismissed that idea as showing Souichi no respect at all. Meanwhile, Souichi's mother comes on her own to Tamaki's temple and, fearful of her son's demonic power, begs for her son to be exorcised.

In the end, with his parents still unable to forgive Souichi for not being the son they wanted, unwilling to love him the way the butterflies did, Souichi confronts Tamaki, who has to exorcise his demons even if it means that Souichi dies again. Tamaki almost died himself, except that his girlfriend Asahi brought him the rosary that he had forgotten; Tamaki needed the rosary to protect himself during the exorcism. As Asahi put it, "I chose your life over Souichi's, so we'll just have to be unforgivable together."