The day after Watanagashi.

Ooishi showed up at our school.

It isn't uncommon for Ooishi to show up here today.

Interestingly, he always asks to see the most key person in that world.

He asks for Keiichi in the world where he gets sick.

He asks for Rena in the world where she gets sick.

In this world, he asked for me.

".........Did Tomitake...

really die...?"

"Yeah.

...The way he went was pretty strange, too.

Like he was on drugs and hallucinating.

He clawed out his own throat until he died."

"...I couldn't prevent it."

There's nothing I can do now.

I knew this was going to happen.

I'm sure Takano is dead too...

"......And Takano?"

"I have bad news about her too.

She was found burned to death in the mountains over in Gifu Prefecture.

Based on the condition of the body, she was choked to death before her body was burned.

It's a tragic story no matter how you look at it."

"......I know what you're thinking.

You think I know something about what happened to them."

"Heavens, no.

I only have one question.

Who would talk about such a disturbing plan at the festival where anyone could hear...?"

"...You think, I'm involved in this murder?"

"Well, I wanted to suspect you, but I don't.

If you were responsible in some way, you wouldn't have given me the hints you did.

At the very least, I'm sure you're not involved with the people who killed them."

"......I'm glad you're not suspicious of me."

Ooishi threw a ten-yen coin into the offering box, and shook the bell in prayer.

"Please let us solve the mystery of Hinamizawa this year!"

"......Are you trying to get me involved in your investigation?"

"Na ha ha ha...

I was just talking to Oyashiro-sama."

Ooishi is well aware that people call me the reincarnation of Oyashiro-sama.

...That must have been his attempt at a joke.

"...I'd like to see the curse disappear forever too."

"Oh, that means we both want the same thing."

"......I made a prediction about where you might find Tomitake's body.

Didn't you have a police cruiser nearby?"

"Yeah, I listened to your prediction, and had a cruiser patrol the area.

The place where the concrete and gravel roads meet...

It's on the very border of the village.

It gets very dark there at night.

It always seems like if something bad were to happen, it could happen there."

".........So where did you find Tomitake's body?"

"We found him dead by the rice fields near Okinomiya."

That's not where his body is usually found...

If he was fated to hallucinate and die, he would die in exactly the same spot, whether the cruiser was there or not.

Just because the cruiser was placed there...

Tomitake's body was found in a totally different spot.

...In other words, the existence of the police cruiser disrupted that fate.

"Anyway.

There's something else I found very interesting.

...I told the officers in the police cruiser to check every vehicle that passed by.

As it turns out, one of the cars that headed toward Okinomiya after the festival was over was Takano's."

Takano lives in Okinomiya.

It wouldn't be strange for her to head back home after the festival.

"However, she was the only one inside the car.

Tomitake wasn't with her."

"......Tomitake always comes to Hinamizawa on his bike."

"Then she could've loaded his bike in the trunk and given him a ride.

But he was not with her.

However, his body was found among the rice fields near Okinomiya, past where the police cruiser was patrolling in Hinamizawa..."

"............What are you saying...?"

"There's no way he could have biked through the dark woods to avoid the police cruiser.

He somehow took the road without being noticed by us.

.........Furude-san.

Can you tell me what you know about the relationship between Tomitake and Takano?"

".........They're dating.

...That's all I know."

"I find it hard to believe that Takano would drive back home alone in the dark without her boyfriend.

What if she had Tomitake in her trunk, and she was planning to dump his body in the woods...

but because the cruiser was in that area, she had no choice but to pass by...

and dump him on the side of the road."

Both Tomitake and Takano were sent here from Tokyo.

I have no idea what their real identities are.

I can't say that Takano had no reason to kill Tomitake.

However... I've never considered that possibility before in my life...

Takano killing Tomitake...?

...But why??

I can't think of any reason.

Nothing comes to mind,

and it's hard to imagine Takano was cornered to the point she had to kill him.

...In fact, it was more plausible to think she was enraged when the lovesick Tomitake acted cold towards her, and she strangled his neck.

"I never really thought they suited each other.

...Na ha ha, I don't mean to insult Tomitake-kun, but I thought Takano-san was way too smart for him.

Have you heard of any rumors that she was trying to use him for anything...?"

"...None.

But I can ask around.

I'll let you know if I find out something."

"Thank you very much.

I'm just glad that the reincarnation of Oyashiro-sama is on my side."

But even the reincarnation of Oyashiro-sama couldn't solve this mystery for over a hundred years...

"But...

you said Takano was killed too...

How can she be the culprit?"

"Well, it's because you leaked me the information, I mean, the prophecy.

Without that, I'm sure I would've just believed that both Takano and Tomitake were the victims of the fifth year's curse of Oyashiro-sama.

I feel like it's different this time.

Maybe as though this is someone trying to make the curse of Oyashiro-sama happen."

".........So you really think... that Takano-san is the culprit...?"

Basically, this is what Ooishi is trying to say.

They're not both victims.

The culprit is also pretending to be a victim.

This is really hard for me to believe.

...I can't think of any reason why Takano would do something like this.

Ooishi only feels the way he does because he doesn't know her as well as I do.

For another thing, how can he explain that Takano's body was found?

Didn't the police in Gifu Prefecture identify the body?

"For a charred corpse, the easiest way to identify them is by their dental records.

Although, according to the old man in forensics, they're still not 100% sure.

...And besides, there's a contradiction with the estimated time of death.

It just doesn't make sense."

"What do you mean......?"

"Well...

The test results show that she was dead on the night before the festival.

Apparently they inspected the contents of her stomach and such.

But at the time of testing, they already had information about Takano.

They knew that she was at the festival that night, and realized that the test results didn't match up.

So they just dumped the results and decided to take the dental records alone.

These things do happen every once in a while...

However, if Takano really is the culprit, this body might belong to someone else."

"......Is it possible to do something like that?"

"When a body is burnt, dental records are the only way to identify it.

This might sound too much like a mystery novel, but what if, for example, someone faked Miyo Takano's dental records?

If they were skillfully forged, we could have the wrong ID.

...Anyway, the Gifu police department has made up their mind that the body belongs to Takano.

Within police departments, we sometimes have issues with false test results.

That's how most false charges are made.

......It feels to me like this is one of those times."

"...So you think Takano is alive?"

"Since last night, both Miyo Takano and her car have gone missing.

If that body found in Gifu isn't Takano... this is going to be very interesting indeed."

"................"