......My head was pounding.
...The sky... was bright.
...It was cold, too.
......It hurt.
Each sensation I felt... led to a new and different one awakening.
When I came to... I was lying face-first on a dry river bed.
...A few body parts hurt a lot.
The skin over a bunch of my joints was torn, turned blue or red or oozing blood.
...I could tell it was my bones that were in pain from the agony I felt whenever I moved.
...I looked up and saw how high the bridge from which I had fallen was.
......Considering I'd dropped from there... it was a miracle that I could open my eyes again.
Right next to me... was a broken, upside-down car seat... which I guessed some pranksters had brought here.
...Maybe... this thing had been conveniently lying right under me, allowing me to escape instant death.
...Miraculous.
Of course, I didn't know... whether this miracle was fortunate or unfortunate.
I'd failed to die... and now I was still stuck in this insane world.
......How long had I been unconscious for?
...The sun was high in the sky, so it looked like only one or two hours had passed.
...But my body's sluggishness didn't make it feel at all like so short a time had gone by.
...Mentally, it felt like I'd been asleep here for a decade.
"......Ow...... agh........."
The more feeling returned to my body... the more the pain flooded in.
...It hurt so much it would have been better not to have woken up.
...I needed to get to a doctor.
...Yeah... to Coach's clinic...
The term "Coach's clinic"... brought memories back one after another... memories I wish I hadn't recalled.
Satoko was no longer on the bridge.
...She would have returned to Hinamizawa by now.
And she would... put on some clothes, go to the clinic, get a check-up, and report on how crazy I had seemed.
The police were waiting for me without a doubt.
This time, would they find out for real that I'd killed her uncle and arrest me, or would they just send me to a mental institution like I thought they might?
......Still... I didn't care which it was.
Please, someone stop all this pain.
...You can boil me or cook me after that—whatever you want.
I began to walk unsteadily... just limping along.
I went downstream... and then through an animal trail-like path in the woods...
I walked haphazardly, searching for a path I knew.
...Eventually... I finally came across a familiar road... and set off towards the clinic.
......Not to my house... but to the clinic, which had treated me like a lunatic.
......It was hot and humid.
...There was no wind, and the air was stagnant.
For a while now... I've been smelling the terrible stench of burned eggs, and it made my face scrunch up.
...And then, at last, I noticed something.
I couldn't hear any cicadas.
It was the first time I'd heard Hinamizawa be so utterly silent.
...When I thought back, it seemed like birds always chirped in the morning, cicadas always cried loudly in the afternoon, and higurashi always rose up in chorus in the evening—always something to hear.
I couldn't hear a single insect.
The only thing I could hear was the rustling of the wind brushing the treetops.
......I'd never experienced this sort of quiet before.
Even the only sound coming from the trees lacked life somehow.
The trees were yellow, and many leaves were spread on the ground, despite it being too early for autumn.
...Even the weeds that had been growing so persistently at the side of the road had yellowed, browned, and lost their vigor.
......Only the sunlight itself was of the June Hinamizawa I knew.
...And yet it seemed like the seasons had switched all of a sudden.
".................."
Looking at the fallen leaves and rotting weeds led me to spot a few small insects turned on their backs.
...They weren't moving.
They were corpses.
......I looked closer to see insect corpses scattered all around... like a child had collected them as samples and then strewn them about...
...This stench... What was it?
It was terrible... like burned eggs.
...Combined with all the bug corpses and leaves falling from the trees in summer.
......Had someone sprayed herbicides or pesticides around here?
...Even at school, we apparently fumigate—they call it pest disinfection or something—once or twice a year...
I hadn't run into anybody, despite how bright it was outside.
It was mid-afternoon... and yet it felt like I were sauntering about at midnight.
Well, with this smell, nobody would want to be walking around outside.
...Just what was this... anyway...?
.........There was no sound,
no noise,
not even a breath... Hinamizawa was silent.
The school would come into view... right after turning this corner.
...And yet I couldn't hear any commotion at all.
...None of the shouts or grunts that children always made.
......It was simply... quiet.
Just as pretending to ignore the silence... had grown intolerable... I saw the school.
And finally I heard something.
...It was the sound of a few trucks.
There were a few very tall trucks parked in the schoolyard, idling.
About ten workers in raincoats... were unloading things from their trunks.
...It was hot and humid even in my casual clothing... I couldn't imagine how unbearable that must have been.
...And then I remembered.
Our school was rented from the forest service field office building, wasn't it?
...It wasn't strange at all for forest service trucks to be doing some kind of work in the schoolyard.
...Besides... What did forest rangers do, anyway?
......I felt bad for them having to work in such heat... and with such a stench about.
They were taking colorful cargo out of the truck and lining it up in the schoolyard.
They were containers... fairly large ones, inside multicolored, patchwork bags.
Heavy, too—they were being carried in pairs.
They lined them up very neatly, like tuna at a riverside fish market.
Several, dozens, hundreds of tuna... were completely filling the fairly wide schoolyard up.
...I forgot my pain for a little while... captivated by this big forest ranger job I'd never seen before...
As I stood there, watching in a daze... the people in raincoats working on the other side noticed me.
...One of them pointed me out and they shouted a few things back and forth.
......I thought they might yell at me for getting in their way... so I decided to leave post haste.
But then, two trucks drove up behind me.
I stepped aside and they entered the schoolyard.
...Sheets covered their trunks, but I could tell they were completely full.
...As they passed, there was an awful smell that made me want to choke.
...It wasn't the same burned eggs smell as before... but an even worse one, like rotten crab meat.
What on earth was it?
...I'd been enshrouded in one terrible stench after another all day.
Then, certain white letters emblazoned on the side of the passing trucks caught my eye.
"Ground Self-Defense Forces"
......What?
Self-defense forces... Like the army?
Why was the army in the schoolyard...?
"Hey, you!
Where did you come from?!"
Suddenly, someone slapped me on the shoulders from behind.
I turned around... and a canopied SDF jeep was parked there.
...The SDF person had on a green raincoat and a gas mask like in the movies, carrying a compressed air cylinder.
...He didn't look normal—there wasn't an inch of exposed skin anywhere.
"......Where did I... Oww, ow..."
When I tried to talk, I stretched a wound on my head.
...It made the SDF people exchange glances.
...I couldn't see their faces through their masks... but they seemed surprised.
"Do you live in Hinamizawa?
Can you tell us your name and address?"
"......Well, yeah, I sort of live here.
...My name... is Keiichi... Maebara.
...Oh, and my address... ___ Hinamizawa Village, Shishibone..."
After seeing me tell them my name and address without hesitation, one of the SDF people watching from the jeep started talking into a radio.
"...Base, do you read?
Base, do you read?
We have a 402—survivor discovered.
I repeat, we have a 402, we've found a survivor.
He's in front of the forest service office."
"This is Base, we copy.
Secure the survivor at once.
What is his status?"
"Healthy.
Wounded all over, but not fatally.
He can walk on his own.
We'll send him to HQ for safety."
...I was prepared to go along with the police... but the SDF...
...I couldn't help but think it seemed a little bit much.
They urged me into the back of the jeep.
And then... they told me to put on this gigantic gas mask.
...I did so, and one of the troops fiddled around with it, strapping it tightly to me.
...It was heavy, hard to see out of, hot, and difficult to breathe.
...Just looking at the world through the lenses... made it lose its sense of reality.
My breathing sounded like some giant monster through the mask.
...At this point... I had no idea what was happening.
With much trepidation... I asked the trooper adjusting my mask.
"...Umm... Excuse me.
...Has something happened...?"
"Where were you?
What were you doing?"
...Hey, don't answer a question with more questions...
I was the one asking you..
"...I, umm... fell from a rope bridge way back in the mountains.
...I think I passed out on the river bed.
...I don't actually know what day it is."
"Today is June 22nd, 1983.
Wednesday."
...That surprised me.
...Satoko pushed me off the bridge on Tuesday the 21st.
...That meant... I'd been asleep on that river bed for an entire day.
"...Forgive me for asking again, but... did something happen?
Why is the SDF here?
Is this a drill?"
".................."
...Had my question been that difficult for him?
...None of the troopers would answer me.
The one in the driver's seat talking on his own radio turned on the vehicle's.
...He turned the dial and some broadcast station or another came in.
...I started to listen to the voice of a radio announcer I was familiar with...
"...was conducted at the prime minister's office.
In regards to questions from the press that the SDF not responding to the disaster promptly
was directly related to this unprecedented, unheard-of catastrophe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Okuno had this to say."
"~and so... I believe that once the SDF received the dispatch order from the prefectural governor, they responded promptly."
"According to him, the SDF was prompt to respond to the crisis after receiving their orders.
He implied that it was the prefecture's responsibility for taking too long to comprehend the situation.
When did the governor who requested the SDF's dispatch actually become aware of the outbreak of such an unprecedented catastrophe?
And did he not invite further damage because of the time lost before he sent the request for disaster relief—in other words, because of the bureaucracy?
We are awaiting further investigation into the matter."
"That was Mr. Okada, reporting from the prime minister's official residence.
At this point, we can take another look at the political response following this disaster."
In the middle of the night, between June 21 and June 22.
A large-scale disaster broke out in Hinamizawa Village, Shishibone.
The details have not yet been investigated, but there was an eruption of volcanic gas from somewhere in the Hinamizawa area.
The gas was relatively heavy, and as it spewed out, it began to flow.
That flow went down along a small river and headed directly into Hinamizawa Village. After a few hours, it had covered the entire region.
It happened in the middle of the night.
2:00 to 4:00 AM.
Every home and household in the village was afflicted.
With most of the residents asleep, it is thought that all died without noticing the crisis.
The catastrophe striking in the middle of the night caused its detection to come too late.
...But there was still one small opportunity to have noticed it.
3:00 AM.
A news dealer's shop in Okinomiya sent a vehicle carrying the morning newspaper to its branch office in Hinamizawa.
Usually the shop would be contacted upon the vehicle's arrival, but this morning, that didn't happen.
The news dealer's shop made repeated calls, but got no response.
The shopkeeper sent his eldest son to check on things, but they lost contact with him as well...
"...It is extremely regrettable.
If they had contacted the police or fire department at this point, it is highly possible the situation would have turned out more positively.
At the very least, it's possible that a portion of the village might have been saved from tragic annihilation."
6:00 AM.
Residents in areas in the same region began continuously calling 119 to report the smell of rotten eggs, dizziness, nausea, and headaches.
The fire department received the same reports, all from the same confined region.
They speculated a truck loaded with chemicals may have gotten into an accident and reported it to the local police.
6:30 AM.
Contact was lost with a patrol car on duty in the Hinamizawa area after the officer reported the smell of rotten eggs.
The local police considered the possibility of a large-scale disaster involving highly lethal gas and reported it to the prefecture and prefectural police at 7:15 AM.
8:00 AM.
The governor was travelling to nearby prefectures for inspection, so in accordance with regulations, the prefectural environmental disaster prevention chief was provisionally escalated to director-general and set up a disaster countermeasures office.
However, without contacting the governor, the countermeasures came too late.
"As has recently been pointed out by citizens' groups, his trip with honorary Diet members to inspect other prefectures was based solely on good relations, and it's rumored they preoccupied themselves with a drinking party.
Sources closer to him claimed the governor had been drinking all night, and had gone to sleep in a drunken state.
He was completely drunk when the environmental chief phoned him as well, and apparently he could not get him to pay any attention to the matter."
And so the authorities, in the hour or so it took for the governor to grasp the situation and sober up, did nothing but accumulate information...
"Though not as extreme as the governor's case, the environmental chief who became director-general in the governor's absence will likely also be questioned about his negligence.
In addition, without any procedures in place on the prefecture's side that predicted catastrophes this massive, they would always react too late, and that ended up being fatal."
9:12 AM.
On the advice of the prefectural police, the governor requested a disaster relief mission from the SDF.
By the time the Chemical Defense Unit, equipped with protective equipment, arrived on the scene, eight hours had already passed since the incident's outbreak...
"Whatever the case may be, it was unfortunate this happened while everyone was sleeping in the middle of the night.
Had the same disaster occurred during the day, it likely would have been entirely different."
All households in the Hinamizawa Village region were wiped out.
There were over one thousand victims.
The SDF is still confirming the situation on the ground, but their results are predicted to only increase that number...
"Here with us in the studio today is Dr. Fujiwara, a professor at ____ University who is well-acquainted with volcanic disasters.
...Doctor, can such a sudden and horrible outburst of poisonous gas actually happen?"
"It isn't at all unusual for this to happen right around craters, at least.
Japan is a volcanic nation, and so has many active volcanoes.
There is always a danger of hazardous gas around any of these craters, and it's generally a rule among mountain climbers not to go near them."
"Does this mean the rotten egg smell that visited Hinamizawa Village was the normal sort of gas from volcanic craters?"
"Judging by how it smelled like rotten eggs, we think it was hydrogen sulfide, a gas seen particularly frequently in accidents compared to other volcanic gases.
If it's dense, it becomes extremely dangerous."
"Hinamizawa Village is very far away from the craters of any volcanoes.
Can hydrogen sulfide be generated even from a place not close to a crater?"
"I don't know all the details, so I can't say anything concrete...
But in other countries, there are records of gas eruptions due to magma buildup under hot springs.
It's an extremely rare event, but it is possible for such a thing to happen even in a region not near craters."
"Thank you very much, Doctor.
...We appear to have an announcement from the Japan Defense Agency.
Mr. Morikawa, are you there?"
"Yes. I'm at the Japan Defense Agency.
The agency has just made an announcement regarding the source of the Hinamizawa Village gas disaster.
Analysis from the Ground Self-Defense Force's Department of Chemistry has found that the gas was a mixture of carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide."
"Mr. Morikawa, do you know whether the gas is still erupting or spreading to nearby areas?"
"According to the SDF's 9th division, who are currently engaged in a rescue operation at Hinamizawa Village, the gas density is steadily decreasing.
They've announced that the damage will not spread.
However, it does not change the fact that surrounding areas are still in danger, and that very strict observation must be maintained."
"That was Morikawa from the Japan Defense Agency.
And now we have a report on the state of those who have been made to evacuate the Okinomiya area.
Shimoshinozaki Elementary School is one of the evacuation sites, and we currently have a reporter on... bzzz... scene... bzzz... bzzz..."
".........Wait.........
what?"
Inside the jeep clambering and bouncing along the rough road... none answered my muttered question.
An unprecedented catastrophe...
had destroyed Hinamizawa... in a single night...?
Where was Hinamizawa Village, anyway?
...Some place deep in the mountains, right...?
Names of places I'd heard about on the radio were always like that.
...They were all places... I'd never heard of... much less knew the locations of...
Wiped out...?
What does that mean...?
Don't... they usually say how many died, and how many were injured...?
How many people were alive?
Where... where did everyone evacuate to...?
Eventually we came into view... of Coach's clinic.
For the first time, I saw the flag of Japan hanging on a pole outside.
...Japan's circular sun hung down as though exhausted...
Many SDF tents were set up in the clinic's big parking lot, and many strict security vehicles were parked there as well.
When they saw the jeep coming, men in white clothing and gas masks came running out of the clinic, frantic, carrying a stretcher.
"You're going to be all right.
How do you feel?
Can you walk?"
"......Yes.
...Ow, oww..."
And because of my "oww"s, they forced me to lay in the stretcher anyway.
...People who seemed like doctors were looking at me and notifying others of my condition via radio.
"Multiple wounds.
High possibility of fractures and internal damage.
Large laceration in the head.
Pupils normal, but even without bleeding from the fundus, brain damage is still possible..."
And then... from the clinic entrance, people lying on stretchers were brought outside to replace me.
......Judging by their clothing, they were from Hinamizawa...
and that's how I knew they were victims.
They brought the stretchers in front of a truck.
...Two troops, holding shoulders and legs... like some kind of baggage... picked them up and threw them into the trunk...
"......Wha...... ahh...... aaaaaahhhhhhhh......"
...In the trunk of the truck... people's bodies... piled in heaps.
...They were just like baggage... and that told me they were already nothing but shells.
At that moment... I remembered... all those colorful sacks filling the trunks...
...
and them... lined up in the schoolyard like a fish market...
Hundreds... of empty shells.
...Corpses...
corpses...
corpses...
corpses...
corpses...
corpses...
corpses...
corpses...
corpses...
corpses!!!
"You jackasses!!
Don't just throw the victims in like that!
They lived here!"
The troops carrying the sacks answered with a humble salute...
...The world didn't need this insane version of Hinamizawa.
My...
my final...
wish...
again......
it was granted...
......I... didn't understand anything anymore...
...None of it mattered...
......I wished... I cursed... and then it happened the next day......
Then please, tomorrow morning, let me die.
...That insane night... it's still going on... please, please end it already.
"......?!
Hey, he's lost consciousness!!
Shout his name!
Quickly!"
"Maebara-kun!
Can you hear me?!
If you can hear me, just blink!!
Maebara-kun!
Maebara-kun!
Maebara-kun!!"
Suddenly... the world didn't matter to me anymore.
...I wasn't interested in their cries.
"His breathing stopped!
Get his respiratory tract open!
Use CPR!!
Make him live!!
Damn it, damn it...!!
No more, no more dead people!!
Nobody deserves to die!!
Don't kill him!
Don't kill hiiiiiiiiiiim!!"
...I could hear the voice of a man crying and screaming in my ears.
......Nobody deserves... to die.
Those words came from his heart.
They were... so, so... commonplace... and they soaked into my heart, too.
...Maybe it was a mistake... to take someone's life... even if it was to save Satoko.
...If... if this is the price I had to pay... this horrible tragedy.
.........Then this is a little much, Oyashiro-sama.
............Why... why did you never punish me...
...Come to think of it... Satoko said something.
Oyashiro-sama's actual curse... never goes for the target at first... but kills everyone they love before that.
Oyashiro-sama's... curse.
...It was a convenient excuse I told myself at the very end... that it wasn't my curse that destroyed it, but Oyashiro-sama's.
............Given that I was in a stretcher, this next bit might have been obvious...
...But last of all, I realized one thing.
...
...
Y
e
a
h
...
...
...
...
T
o
d
a
y
...
...
...
I
had
not
heard
those
...
...
...
...
...
...
foot
steps
following
me
...
...
...
...
ev
en
...
on
ce
...
...
And now... I was liberated...
As the cries of the higurashi... I couldn't have been hearing... filled my mind...
Their tearful ensemble... was the only funeral march I had.