June 22, 1983, early morning.

A widespread disaster occurred in Hinamizawa Village, Shishibone, ___ Prefecture.

Volcanic gas (carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide) erupted from Onigafuchi Swamp, one of the Hinamizawa area's water sources, and spread through the entire village.

There were 1200 victims.

20 have gone missing.

The catastrophe was unprecedented, forcing local governments to evacuate approximately six hundred thousand people.

According to later investigations, magma pools and hot springs were uncovered directly under Onigafuchi Swamp,

and the gas that gushed from it was determined to be the cause of the disaster.

In addition, directly after the incident broke out, many came forth claiming this disaster was a curse based in Hinamizawa Village legends, first sparking a wave of chaos.

There were apparently local legends of a curse spreading a miasma, destroying the village,

and some scholars believe a similar gas disaster may have happened in the past and remained part of these legends.

More extreme periodicals suggested this was an extension of the string of freak death incidents that had been happening in recent years in Hinamizawa Village, stirring interest in theories about this curse of Oyashiro-sama.

In addition, relatives of those in Hinamizawa Village who had escaped the disaster complained of sickness afterwards and were hospitalized.

Some of them even died of unknown causes, further encouraging such extreme opinions.

On top of that, several relatives professing to be possessed by Oyashiro-sama's curse committed suicide in strange ways...

and the impact the disaster has had on the entire nation can no longer be ignored.

Wild visions of terrible toxic gas sneaking around in the middle of the night killing people spilled across the country,

causing a steady stream of people complaining of insomnia, difficulty breathing, headache, dizziness, etc.

Some who identified themselves as being obsessed by it began doing odd things.

Most of these were mistakenly attributed by the tabloid press...

but afterward, some even began to call the mental issues arising from the Hinamizawa tragedy the "Hinamizawa Syndrome"...

The Hinamizawa Village region, the object of all kinds of rumors and speculation, is currently closed off, and even flying overhead is prohibited.

The prohibition was, at one point, undone as a result of a decrease in the gas's density, but that autumn another gas burst was confirmed, leading to the area being cordoned off again.

Word is that the area is sound asleep, all traces of its former life intact and left to rot...

Only one survivor remains—Keiichi Maebara, age 1_, who lived at ___ Hinamizawa Village.

At the time of rescue, he had some trouble breathing due to fluid buildup in his lungs, but as a result of life-saving procedures he was kept alive.

He is currently in a general hospital somewhere in the prefecture.

The press have been asking for him for some time, but all interviews are being refused.

...What did he see in Hinamizawa?

What happened between June 21 and June 22 in Hinamizawa Village?

Today he remains silent, unwilling to speak of it...