While staring off into the stream, I somehow got separated from Rena.

I wasn't very lonely though.

I know this place now.

...This is where I live. My home.

It's probably better if I just stay here instead of wandering around aimlessly.

Someone would surely find me while I was enjoying the evening breeze.

...I heard a familiar voice.

It was Tomitake-san's.

I headed towards it.

"How did it go, Tomitake-san? Were you able to get some good shots?"

"Yeah. Fortunately!"

Tomitake-san was with a girl.

...I felt a little like I was intruding.

"How was it, Keiichi-kun?

Did you enjoy the festival?"

From the way she spoke, it seemed like she was a resident of Hinamizawa.

...I really should try harder to remember people's faces here.

What was her name...?

"Well... umm... It was fun."

My face must have given away how desperately I was trying to remember her name, because she gave a lighthearted chuckle.

"It's probably because it hasn't been long since you moved here.

It's pretty hard to believe, seeing how friendly you've gotten with the other kids."

If that's how it looked, it was probably all thanks to Rena and Mion.

"Perhaps you feel more like a resident of Hinamizawa after taking part in the festival today...?"

"...Hmm...

I wonder about that."

"Oh, that's not like you."

I had tried to get used to Hinamizawa.

But... there were still plenty of things I didn't know.

The faces of people I'd met, for example.

...Things that had happened in the past, as well.

"...Oh.

You're feeling left out because of something like that?"

"It's not so much as feeling left out...

It's just... I'm not sure how to say it..."

That incident at the dam construction site.

The fighting over it and other conflicts.

...That terrible incident they pretended they didn't even know about whenever I brought it up.

Even though it was in the past... As someone living in Hinamizawa, it wasn't wrong to want to know about both the good and bad that had happened here.

"If it will put you at ease, then I'll tell you everything I know."

Tomitake-san's smile made me more relieved than I'd ever been.

It was hard to think of what to ask when someone said "ask me anything," though.

...Even when there was so much I wanted to ask.

"Then... could you tell me about what happened when the dam was being constructed?

There was a big incident where Hinamizawa was going to be submerged, right...?"

"I think the locals would be more knowledgeable about the dam than I am.

Well, if you don't mind, I'll tell you what I know.

...It's only what I read in the newspaper though."

Tomitake-san's eyes entered an unfocused gaze as he searched through his memory. Then he spoke.

"The decision to start the dam project was finalized seven or eight years ago.

I heard it was the next largest project after the one in Kurobe."

There were three major issues in Japan at that time.

Improving inter-island transportation infrastructure, meeting the higher demand for electricity,

and flood control.

There was a boom of dam building due to the massive economic stimulus they provided on top of generating electricity and flood control.

Hinamizawa had the right conditions to support dam construction, so it was singled out.

"The dam reservoir would have covered quite a lot of ground when it was completed.

The entire area, right up to Yagouchi way upstream, would be underwater."

"...But... why did they have to pick a populated area like Hinamizawa?

Couldn't they have instead picked a place where nobody lived?"

"Hmm~... I'm not really sure why, but I heard that it was just the right terrain for building a dam."

Of course, there were protests here in Hinamizawa.

Rika-chan had said that they had 'fought.' From that choice of words I had to guess things had turned violent.

"There was a trial and it was even brought up before the National Diet.

It was covered in the Tokyo newspapers, too."

Mion had told me all about that, as well.

I'm sure every resident of Hinamizawa had united to fight together.

...The feeling of solidarity found here, which could not be expressed properly with mere words, was likely brought about by that battle.

"As a result, bribery and scandals were brought to light.

As things got more and more complicated, they eventually halted construction."

If I wanted to know, now was my only chance to ask.

It was certainly a bizarre incident that boys my age would be curious about.

I felt a little shame from the fact I was petty enough to have my curiosity piqued by Rena and Mion's refusal to talk about the event...

But I figured I might as well ask since I had the chance...

Just so I would stop thinking about it so much.

"So... there was a dismemberment... right?"

"There was.

I happened to be here in Hinamizawa at the time,

so I remember it well."

Tomitake-san's answer was nonchalant in contrast to my hesitantly forced-out question.

"...It was about this time, four years ago.

It was the day of the Watanagashi, if I recall correctly."

Debate on whether to continue construction on the dam was in disarray. Scandal after scandal rocked the project near the end.

...The incident that was the final nail in the coffin for the dam project.

A fight at the dam construction site ended in the victim being murdered.

Fearing prosecution, the six assailants divided the remains into six pieces and each hid one.

Five of the six criminals turned themselves in out of guilt, but one was still on the run.

The right arm he'd hidden had yet to be found.

The major details lined up with what was in the tabloid I'd read earlier.

It certainly was a tragic incident... but it wasn't so terrible that Rena and Mion needed to hide it from me.

I guess they didn't want someone who'd just moved here to have a negative impression of Hinamizawa.

I felt grateful for having friends who worried so much about me, as well as shame for still being so interested in it.

"It was near the end of all the trouble with the dam, you see.

So everyone was saying that it was Oyashiro-sama's curse."

"Oyashiro-sama's curse, huh..."

Oyashiro-sama was the name of the god at the shrine that held the festival today, if I recalled correctly.

I see.

Their guardian deity rained divine punishment down on the evil dam construction for trying to flood Hinamizawa.

"Apparently the younger ones didn't think so...

But it seems the elderly in the village never doubted that it was Oyashiro-sama's curse."

The woman with Tomitake-san chuckled mischievously.

Tomitake-san began laughing with her. It was so infectious I ended up laughing as well.

"...But... I wonder about now.

There are quite a few, I think.

Amongst the youth, too."

"A few... what?"

"People who believe...

in Oyashiro-sama's curse."

The woman's lips were still curled into a smile, but her expression turned stern.

"Then after that...

it continued every year.

...Always around this time."

"Continued? What continued?"

Tomitake-san paused for a second as if to build up some suspense. Then he whispered to me, as if someone might have been listening.

"Every year... on the day of the Watanagashi...

...Somebody dies."

"The year following the dismemberment, on the day of the Watanagashi...

A man from Hinamizawa who had supported the dam fell off a cliff overlooking some rapids and died, while he was on vacation.

Speaking of his wife, unfortunately, her body was also never recovered."

"He supported the dam construction even though he lived in Hinamizawa.

At the time, there were whispers amongst the elderly saying it was Oyashiro-sama's curse."

The woman chuckled mischievously again.

"Then the next year.

The night of the Watanagashi.

The shrine's Shinto priest died suddenly from an unknown illness.

His wife drowned herself in the bog that night."

"The shrine's Shinto priest... You mean he was from the shrine here?"

The woman nodded.

"There was a rumor amongst the villagers that they weren't able to quell Oyashiro-sama's anger."

"Then the year after that, again on the night of the Watanagashi...

they discovered the battered body of a local housewife."

...Housewife?

Up until now, all these mysterious deaths were people involved with the dam or who had connections with Oyashiro-sama.

With that in mind, could the housewife have been involved in some way, too?

"Exactly."

The woman stated slyly.

...No, it was more menacingly.

"The victim's family, you see...

happened to be that of the younger brother of the dam supporter who fell to his death two years before."

"The younger brother is still alive, it seems,

but it did bother him quite a bit. So he moved to the neighboring town."

...For a while, I stood there with my mouth agape.

The battle over the dam construction, with Hinamizawa's future at stake,

and the murder at the center of it all.

That was all I knew, and that was all I wanted to ask about.

But that wasn't all there was to the story.

Homicide.

Body disposal.

Accidental deaths.

Terminal illness.

Suicide.

Fatal beatings.

I'm a pretty level-headed person...

I don't really want to believe in curses...

But... the freakish deaths happened every year, on the day of the Watanagashi, and all of them were related to the dam construction...!?

It was easy to dismiss each of them as coincidences by themselves.

But when you put them all together...

Dismissing all of them as coincidence would then defy logic.

I don't believe in curses.

But... Every single year, on the day of the Watanagashi, somebody or something 'makes' it happen...

Without fail...

The woman chuckled again, as if she picked up on what I was thinking.

It felt like she was saying, "Maybe there was. Maybe we frightened him." Stuff like that.

I felt embarrassed at being read so easily. I pressed Tomitake-san to continue, a bit of impatience and irritation in my tone.

"Then?

So someone died the next year, right...?

Who was it that time?"

"I wonder...

...

Who do you think, Keiichi-kun?"

"Th... The hell!?"

The way he said it didn't agree with me. The sarcastic tone ticked me off.

"Don't avoid the question...! I'm serious here...!"

"Hey, hey. Calm down, Keiichi-kun."

I realized when she tried to calm me down that I had been panicking.

"We aren't trying to avoid the question, Keiichi-kun.

It's just... When you say 'the next year,' that's..."

"That's today."

When Tomitake-san hesitated to say it, she finished for him.

...I broke into a cold sweat. I really didn't like the direction this was headed.

"Nobody wants to speak of it, but they all think it's going to happen again tonight."

"Th-The festival was so cheerful, though!!"

"Well, the victim last year, the housewife... She was a non-believer.

It turns out she didn't even attend the Watanagashi festival."

"There was a rumor going around that if you didn't participate in the festival, you would incur Oyashiro-sama's wrath.

...Didn't you hear anything about this, Keiichi-kun?"

I never even heard a whisper of that rumor.

"...Th-Then the reason everyone was at the festival was... they were afraid of the curse!?"

"I figured that must have been the reason...

...There were a lot more people at the Watanagashi than usual."

"I guess everyone was... just afraid after all.

Of Oyashiro-sama's curse."

"..."

I couldn't utter a single word...

In this modern age.

Where we've made progress in all scientific fields, shedding light on the unknown and misunderstood.

Where black and white television has been eradicated and we've sent men to the moon.

Even with all of our accomplishments...

This can exist in modern society?

"Tons of invitations were sent out to neighboring towns' youth groups to help pad the numbers.

But after that string of events, few decided to join.

The municipal committee members were complaining about how hard it was to gather participants."

"Also, the police are treating each case as isolated; they don't believe they're connected.

...But apparently they sent quite a few plainclothes officers for security."

It finally began to dawn on me why Rena and Mion were reluctant to talk.

If nothing happened during this Watanagashi, everything would have been over with and I'd be none the wiser.

...If nothing happened, all would be well.

In that case, it would all end up being just crazy talk.

I should have just pretended like I knew nothing from the beginning.

Then they wouldn't have had to act like nothing happened.

...And we would have all gotten back to life as usual.

"...Maybe it was just too much for him, after all."

The woman ran her fingers through her hair as she sighed.

"N-No... It wasn't,

not at all..."

I had tried to act strong, but that just served to emphasize how much the information had unsettled me.

After seeing how I looked, Tomitake-san appeared to regret saying anything.

Letting out a sigh, he then spoke, forcing an awkward, upbeat demeanor.

"Keiichi-kun, surely you don't believe in such things as curses."

"...Well... no..."

"If the causes of all of the crimes were unknown, with the perpetrators and their methods all mysteries, then I'd concede the possibility of a curse.

But that's not how things are in reality.

Police investigations have already uncovered the truth and perpetrators for all of the cases."

Hearing him say "police" made me feel a lot better.

It was perfect for repelling the word "curse."

"...The first one, the dismemberment, for example.

I told you, didn't I?

All but one of the perpetrators were arrested.

It's only a matter of time for the last one.

The motive turned out to have been an argument they had while intoxicated.

That's no curse.

...Don't you agree?"

That was true. If it didn't happen on the day of the Watanagashi, then I wouldn't think it was related to the curse at all...

"The accidental deaths of the couple who supported the dam is the same.

He was in a position that made others hate him. The police made a point of investigating from that angle.

They concluded it was an accident.

Not foul play."

"But they both happened on the day of the festival, right...?"

"Ha ha ha.

Just think about it, Keiichi-kun.

Do you think people with a lot of enemies here in Hinamizawa could participate easily in a local festival?

It would be especially hard for them to be around during the Watanagashi.

So they probably left Hinamizawa intentionally around this time of year to travel, don't you think?"

It wasn't a very clear explanation, but I sort of understood what Tomitake-san was getting at.

So I pressed on earnestly, asking more questions so that I could convince myself.

"Then, Tomitake-san, what about the priest who died after that?

The one with the unknown illness.

...That also happened on the day of the festival."

"It's even easier to explain what happened to the Shinto priest.

The Watanagashi is a really big event that happens once a year. It was probably from all the built-up stress.

Or it may have been because of a pre-existing condition."

"But it was an unknown illness.

It's hard to believe such a thing could exist with all our advances in medicine..."

"It's just an exaggeration.

Rumors making rumors.

Anyone would get worked up over having incidents happen two years in a row.

The sudden death is quite unnatural, though...

Of course, the police ordered an autopsy because of the strange way he died.

...But there wasn't enough for them to open a full investigation, you know?

Turns out it was just a sudden death due to illness."

"...The priest's wife committed suicide, correct?

What about that?"

"I believe I already explained that.

Everyone was shaken up by the incidents happening for a third year.

Those who are of strong faith were quick to believe it was the work of the curse.

...Of course, that included the priest's wife.

Apparently they found a suicide note that said something like:

...

'My death will quell Oyashiro-sama's anger.'"

"Well, then, how about... the next incident, with the housewife?

That happened on the day of the Watanagashi too!"

"The perpetrator has already been caught and the case has been closed.

Turns out it was just some nutjob trying to continue the legacy of the Hinamizawa curse."

"Then... Then...! ...How about the incident the next year!?

...Oh, uh..."

Oh, yeah. This year is the next year.

Tomitake-san gave a hearty laugh.

"Nothing will happen.

Not this year.

...There was never a curse to begin with.

It's just that a group of people believed it was the explanation for a string of coincidences."

...My internal computer finally got itself back on track.

I felt a bit embarrassed by how childish I'd become after losing control and panicking.

"I can see very clearly now that Keiichi-kun really does love Hinamizawa.

Even if Oyashiro-sama's curse actually did exist,

I can't imagine that Keiichi-kun would become a target."

I felt very relieved.

I should probably just forget everything I heard tonight.

I'll greet Rena and Mion tomorrow with the same smile as always.

They'd probably also like tonight to end without incident, so they can continue on tomorrow without having worried me.

Perhaps seeing my change in attitude, the woman who had been listening in stretched as she got up from the rock she was sitting on.

"...Well, then.

I should be getting back."

"Goodness! I think I may have gone on a bit too long!"

There were so few people compared to the crowd from before. I could only make out a few groups of families enjoying the cool evening air.

I looked at my watch; it seemed we'd talked for the better part of an hour.

"Didn't you come along with your friends, Keiichi-kun?

Not going to look for them?"

"...Oh, yeah...!

They might all be looking for me!"

"Heheheheh!

You're quite the scoundrel, making the girls look for you."

"See you, Keiichi-kun. Have a nice night.

...You too, Jirou-san. I'll see you a bit later."

...Tomitake-san seems to be quite the scoundrel himself. (So his name is Jirou...)

After dusting off her backside, she disappeared into the crowd of people still busy cleaning up the shrine grounds.

"Keiichi-kun~!!

So sorry~!!"

In her place, Rena came running over.

I could see all the others behind her.

Speak of the devil.

"My bad, Kei-chan...!

We got so caught up in our discussion!"

I'd completely forgotten about them while caught up in my own conversation, so we were even.

"My, so Tomitake-san was with you!

This works out perfectly!!"

"We still need to settle the shooting gallery competition."

"Ah, th-that's right...!

So I guess I'm gonna end up dead last?"

In the end, after my dramatic victory, Rika-chan was the last challenger. But there weren't many targets left.

The ones remaining were all tiny and difficult to hit.

She did take her time and aim, but all three shots completely missed. She was to end up sharing the loser's crown with Tomitake-san.

...However, she did her little meeping cry in front of the owner, and he turned to mush instantly.

She was given a pack of gum as a consolation prize.

Her methods were a bit audacious, but she did avoid being the loser rather magnificently.

"...Come to think of it, Rika-chan is quite the trickster."

"I have no idea what Keiichi is talking about."

"Now then! It's decided that Tomitake-san is dead last~!!!"

Everyone cheered and applauded. Tomitake-san smiled wryly, slightly bewildered.

"So~ Tomitake-san, are you ready? Penalty time!!"

"Huh? Oh, I completely forgot about that!!"

You're too naive, Tomitake-san. This is why you've got to avoid losing in our club...

Mion pulled a felt-tip marker from her pocket.

...Oh, it's that.

"Show him some mercy, Mion.

At lease use a washable marker.

A permanent one is too harsh."

"Ahaha, it just has to be permanent.

Water-based marker would come off in the laundry."

"Whoa, whoa! What is this!?

Please take it easy on me!!"

All of us pinned his arms behind his back and Mion approached him with the marker in one hand.

"Aaand squip, squip, squip!"

But she didn't write on Tomitake-san's face... She wrote on the shirt he was wearing.

"You'd better have your big break this year! -Mion"

Rena took up the marker next. "Show me your photos next time, okay?☆ -Rena"

It was a little heartwarming, and I just had to laugh.

"Haha, this is more like a farewell card than a penalty."

"Ho ho ho! I'm not as soft as the rest!

I'll make sure this is a proper penalty!"

"Haha~ dead last! -Satoko"

"Try harder next time. -Rika"

"Here you go, Keiichi-san."

I couldn't decide what to write, but based on what kind of penalty this was... this was probably the most appropriate.

"Come back and play again. -Keiichi"

Tomitake-san was silent the entire time.

At first he was quite bewildered, but now he had a different look on his face.

"So I have to wear this all the way back to Tokyo as part of the penalty?"

"Of course! You'd better wear it all the way home~!"

"Ahahaha, you could wear it when you come back.

It would be nice!"

He appeared deeply moved.

Embarrassment mixed with a wealth of other emotions made him turn a bright red.

"Understood. I'll wear this the next time I come here.

I promise!"

Everyone cheered and applauded.

It was the finest parting gift possible for a buddy heading out tonight.

I saw the woman who was with Tomitake-san standing near the festival grounds.

It seemed Tomitake-san noticed her too, and knew it was time to leave.

"Seems like your guest is waiting~!

Isn't it about time?

Hmm~?"

"Yeah,

that's certainly how it seems... haha."

Tomitake-san headed off towards her and seemed to apologize for making her wait.

We all shouted stuff at Tomitake-san.

Each time we did, he looked back and waved his hand.

...Eventually, he faded into the darkness of the night, out of sight.

It was quite the casual farewell.

This wasn't the first time any of us had seen someone off.

They had done the same thing many times before.

"...He's gone."

"Well, it's about time we take off too!"

Rika-chan had to stay behind with the other committee members, since they were having a meeting. Satoko was tagging along with her.

I headed back home with the usual suspects.

The walk back was quite lively, with talk of the day's war stories.

Should have done this, should have done that, that kind of stuff.

Rena and I parted ways with Mion, and then it was just the two of us.

Then we got to my house and I parted ways with Rena as well.

"It's already pretty late. Are you alright by yourself?"

"Yeah, I'm perfectly fine!

It's close. I'm going to run, too."

"...If you run into some weirdo, just yell."

"If I do shout... will you come and save me, maybe? ...Maybe?"

"If I hear you."

"Hau...!

...O-Okay!

I'll scream loud enough so you can hear me!"

Merrily spinning her arms around at high speed, Rena dashed off.

She was fine. In that mode, not even an adult could stand against her.

Rena's cheerful presence disappeared and it finally became quiet again.

The curse that not a soul mentioned, even under their breath.

...The more I learned about it tonight, the more unsettling it became.

It didn't show on any of their faces, but they were probably all quite concerned about it as well...

But if nothing happens tonight, then it all ends up being just crazy talk.

Nothing will happen. Nothing bad, nothing at all.

"What's wrong, Keiichi? Why are you standing in a place like that?

Come inside. You'll catch a cold."

It was my mom.

"Did you go, Mom?

To the Watanagashi festival?"

"In the end your father didn't wake up,

so I missed it.

A little disappointing."

Mom stuck her tongue out with a bit of an embarrassed look on her face.