Hope That Time There Shouldn't Have Been Any

The Hope From When It Shouldn't Have Existed (あるはずもないあの時の希望, Aru Hazu mo Nai Ano Toki no Kibō) is the sixth episode of the anime series of Black Rock Shooter.

Plot
In the Otherworld, within Insane Black★Rock Shooter, Mato Kuroi's voice muses that she killed her, and that the little bird's feathers have become dirty. The girl she killed looked like Yomi, and it bothers her. She states that she can't fly anymore.

She looks at herself, within a blue void while she is within Insane Black★Rock Shooter, and gasps in mental anguish.

Spikes start to penetrate into Insane Black★Rock Shooter, and purple light glows from her, turning her into her iconic form. Nearby, Black★Gold Saw is startled and looks behind her. Both ready their weapons and lunge at each other.

Within Insane Black★Rock Shooter, Mato writhes in pain. Black★Gold Saw cuts Insane Black★Rock Shooter's right arm off, and Mato shrieks. Shortly thereafter, Insane Black★Rock Shooter pulls the wounded arm off and continues to use it as a weapon, causing Mato further pain. She then goes limp as Insane Black★Rock Shooter continues to attack. Meanwhile, Strength carries Dead Master's body away.

At home, Yomi Takanashi wakes up peacefully, and puts her glasses on. She sees her hair chopped short and wonders what happens.

Yuu tends to Mato's body and says it must have been hard, and that she did well. She pats Mato, telling her to come back, but Mato does not respond. Panicked, she takes Mato to Saya Irino's house, where Saya asks, "Why...Black★Rock Shooter..."

Saya only answers the door after multiple rings from Yuu, who desperately asks what she should do.

Saya hits Yuu, yelling at her that the other selves will lose the humanity they have left if they have to endure large mental burdens, and that their other selves will awaken. She explains she put stress on Yomi to awaken Dead Master, and now Mato...

Yuu says that she didn't expect Mato to get trapped there, and she thought it would be enough to awaken Black★Rock Shooter. Saya pleads with Yuu, saying that Black★Rock Shooter will destroy the other world if left unchecked, and something would happen to her then. Yuu responds that it's hard for everyone if things remain the way they are, including for Saya, but Saya says that she herself doesn't matter, and walks to Mato, saying that if she killed Mato right there...but is unable to do it and cries to herself, saying that Mato did nothing wrong.

Black★Gold Saw and Insane Black★Rock Shooter continue to fight, with Insane Black★Rock Shooter chopping off one of Black★Gold Saw's arms. Black★Gold Saw coercers her into a different area, and uses the liquid she used previously to summon more hooded figures to help her.

In the morning, Yuu is sobbing. Saya says that Mato is locked inside Black★Rock Shooter, and that she will have to try to talk to her in the other world, because Mato might respond if she hears a voice. She commands Yuu to remain, saying that Mato isn't the one she wants to protect the most; it's "that girl".

Insane Black★Rock Shooter massacres the hooded beings which chorus with voices of "it hurts, it's painful". She makes her way to Black★Gold Saw and hears Saya's voice pleading with Mato. Insane Black★Rock Shooter stops at her blade right over Black★Gold Saw's head.

A reaction is triggered in Mato and suddenly Insane Black★Rock Shooter is pinned to a bunch of pillars, and in a ripple under Black★Gold Saw, Saya's face appears and Saya tells her story.

On a summer day, while she was a high school student, Saya met Yuu, a silent and stoic girl, soaking wet and looking depressed while in a bathing suit. Saya inquired what was wrong, and chased after her. She saw a bunch of girls snickering, but chased her anyway. She told her to come to where she lived, a large house, and serves her noodles.

When talking to her mom to get Yuu some ice cream, she found out that Yuu, both at home and school, was constantly bullied and had many familial problems. However, she locked her pain inside her body.

Determined to help her, Saya continued to try to befriend her, and at a moment where they talk together in the area Yuu assisted Mato in going to the Otherworld, Saya says that Yuu is strong for holding herself together. However, Yuu told her that it's not Yuu who's holding the pain; it's "another girl", who is coming out to take her pain instead. Thus, Yuu says the pain doesn't hurt her much. Saya continued to want to do something for her, to help her pain.

One day, Saya's mother came in and told her something has happened to Yuu's house. The house was on fire, and desperately, Saya called for Yuu. She came to the conclusion Yuu set fire to it, taking revenge on the people who had done these things to her. Saya turned around to see Yuu, being held by a firefighter, asking if Saya thinks she did it. Yuu only smiled. Pleading that she didn't think that, Saya chased after the ambulance Yuu was being taken away in only to fall over.

The cause was eventually determined to be a cigarette that Yuu's stepfather had forgotten to put out. However, Saya couldn't forget that smile Yuu had given her, and she wondered what she could do for Yuu. One day, she saw her sitting at their meeting point, and approached her, pleading that she would do anything.

Yuu replied that there is no world more painful than the one they are in, and said that she was wondering if she should let her other self take all of her pain. Yuu said that if Saya truly wants to do "anything", then Saya needs to protect her. Yuu's eyes glowed orange and she came close, and told Saya to say her name, which initially confused her - and then Yuu forced Black★Gold Saw and her name to emerge.

Insane Black★Rock Shooter only emerges from the pillars and attacks Black★Gold Saw again. Saya continues to plead with her, and Insane Black★Rock Shooter jettisons the blade to the side where she would have killed Black★Gold Saw. It comes to pass that the reason for this was that she was pushed aside by none other than Strength. Insane Black★Rock Shooter drops Strength into a fissure and chases after her. While they leap between areas, many colors pass by.

In the tumult, Black★Gold Saw's body is found limp. Strength puts her away, and faces Black★Rock Shooter.

Saya wakes up, and says that "that girl" protected her; even though she did something horrible, and she couldn't do anything, that girl still protected her. Yuu tells her that "that girl" forgave her, but Saya says that she failed her duty to protect that world. Yuu holds Saya close and apologizes to Saya and Mato, saying that Mato must be feeling a lot of pain right now. She also apologizes to Black★Rock Shooter, saying she forced her wish upon them.

Mato, within Insane Black★Rock Shooter, says that she understands that she's been forcing the pain she has onto another girl. She says that Black★Rock Shooter is there to save everyone from their grief - and says that despite that, it's wrong.

Yomi returns to school, her hair in braids, and responds cheerfully to Kagari. Kagari mulls to her other friends that something's wrong, even though Yomi is cheerful.

Later, while sitting at a bench, Yomi deletes the mail folder with Mato's name on it from her phone.

Characters

 * By order of appearance
 * Mato Kuroi
 * Insane Black★Rock Shooter/Black★Rock Shooter
 * Black★Gold Saw
 * Dead Master (corpse)
 * Strength
 * Yomi Takanashi
 * Yuu Koutari
 * Saya Irino
 * Strength
 * Incomplete Girls
 * Kagari Izuriha

Trivia

 * This episode adds Insane Black★Rock Shooter to the opening; in the scenes where the normal Black★Rock Shooter appears and is shown getting injured, Insane Black★Rock Shooter appears.
 * The title of this episode is one the lines in the song Black★Rock Shooter.
 * Unlike in other episodes, right before the opening sequence, the ticking noise and vocals at the start of the Black Rock Shooter song are heard. In other episodes, the song starts without this segment.  In both this episode and episode 3, the opening lyrics can be heard, and in both episodes, the camera focuses on "Strength" before cutting to the opening credits.
 * Insane Black★Rock Shooter uses both of her own weapons in conjunction with the King Saw to pry her way into Black Gold Saw's realm.