As a manga that includes a lot of people dying, Shi ni Aruki has its share of tear-jerking moments.
- The entire tragedy of what happens to the Kurosu family. After the family patriarch Tokimune dies of an accident, the rest of the family dies one after another, with many turning on the adopted daughter Tokiko before they perish. It's diminished slightly by Tokiko not caring that much due to being on poor terms with most of them, but it's still saddening to know that she went from having a large family to being an orphan within the span of a few months.
- Miyuki's suicide. After losing her entire biological family in a short period of time, she hangs herself. It's notably the first death in the story that manages to affect Tokiko; she's visibly stunned when seeing her sister's hanging body, and after reading the suicide note that says it isn't her fault, she bitterly calls her sister a liar, repeatedly blaming that her inability to mourn alongside Miyuki for being the final straw that drove her to take her own life.
- Even after all the people Sou Aoya killed, his death scene is rather sad. He spends his final moments comforting Ai and telling her to claim that he kidnapped her so that she won't be viewed as an accomplice. For all his flaws, he really did care for Ai.
- Natsuki's death. After barely avoiding being strangled by her bag, she tells Tokiko that she doesn't hate her for being a murderer in a grand Platonic Declaration of Love speech, assuring Tokiko that they'll figure things out and that she'll always be on her best friend's side. Then Tokiko tries getting a notebook out of her bag as they walk to the police situation, resulting in a ball falling out that trips Natsuki, causing her to fall into the street where a car runs over her head, killing her instantly. Not only is this the death of one of few wholly likeable characters in the story, but you can see Tokiko actually force herself not to breakdown at the realization that her best friend just died right in front of her.
- Tokiko's suicide. Most of the deaths in the series didn't affect her at all, but it's clear when Ryouta stumbles upon her at the train station that Natsuki's untimely demise may have well and truly broken her. For as much as she happily espouses how much freedom she has now that all her loved ones are end, she reels at the idea of forming an emotional bond with anyone ever again, insisting that no one could ever replace Natsuki, and her happiness spiel ends with her gleefully jumping in front of a train, deeming that killing herself is the only path to happiness now that her planned future with Natsuki is no longer possible. To add insult to injury, when she does the deed, Ryouta is the only one fazed by this: most of the onlookers have rather callous reactions, complaining that they had to watch someone kill themselves or being annoyed that this will make them late for work.
- Near the end of the series, two of the surviving characters meet with the nurse who delivered Tokiko, who after the interview asks how Tokiko was doing. They decide to lie to her and say the person in question is doing well and enjoying a happy life, not wanting to reveal that the child that the nurse worked desperately to resuscitate was eventually Driven to Suicide.
- Tokiko's birth mother comes to claim her remains and reveals that giving up her daughter wasn't a callous act of abandonment, or because she thought Tokiko was some cursed abomination, but simply because she was just a teenager whose family didn't have the means to care for another child. She's absolutely devastated to learn what happened.
- Each volume includes an extra chapter, telling the story of how Tokiko and Natsuki gradually became friends. The last of the four chapters ends with Natsuki walking home alongside Tokiko during their second year of middle school, hoping that they'll be friends forever... right at the end of the volume in which she and Tokiko die.
