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The apparent Heaven, however, is just another part of Hell. The supposed escape route is itself a component of the execution.
The JP title of Ch2 can be understood as "A Heaven Almost Indistinguishable from Hell" or "Heaven Almost as Close as Possible to Hell".
The academy is repeatedly associated with Hell, thus the route upward leads to Heaven.
In Akutagawa, Paradise remains above and separate from Hell, while in Kirumi's execution, the representation of Paradise is brought down into the very place where the condemned person has fallen.
And yet the execution does not end with Kirumi's fall alone. The children's drawing descends and lands on her body. Its image of a blue sky and sunlight is now physically placed over the person who had tried so desperately to reach it.
It is not a realistic depiction of an escape route, nor an elaborate illusion that could plausibly be mistaken for the outside world indefinitely. It is an artificial representation of a sky. It reduces the destination she has struggled towards to something childish and flat.
In the original story, Paradise is painfully real—a legitimate escape route squandered by human selfishness. But Kirumi was being shown an image of salvation that was never available to her.
And the detail that it is a child's drawing makes the image even more pointed.
Her Video does not simply give her something to live for, it gives her an ideological framework through which she can rationalize murder. Her obligation to the nation becomes so set that Ryoma's life is subordinated to it, i.e., she uses her "selflessness" to justify the killing.
As Kirumi ascends, circular saws tear at her from the walls. Kandata's main struggle is moral—his climb is exhausting, but his downfall is his own sudden cruelty when he tries to kick the other sinners off his thread.
Kirumi's worldview becomes dangerous when her belief in her own duty begins to supersede the moral autonomy of others. She is approaching the world as though the existence of people who need help necessarily creates an obligation for her to act—and as though fulfilling that+
+obligation can justify almost anything.
This is where the distinction between altruism and self-abnegation matters.
Altruism is concern for the welfare of others. Self-abnegation is the denial or suppression of one's own interests, desires, or identity. Denying yourself does+