An elderly couple living in Osaka Prefecture
discovered a cassette tape while organizing the possessions of their son, who passed away eight years ago.
Their son went missing when his fishing boat capsized in 1995. He was 47 at the time of his death.
Eight years later, in 2003, they had begun to organize their son's remains in order to organize their minds, and came across the cassette tape in question.
From 1975 to 1989,
the deceased had experienced working as a journalist for a photography periodical, and this tape is thought to have been created during that time.
The label on the tape read "11-28-1983 Keiichi Maebara."
It is thought the tape was recorded during an interview with Keiichi Maebara, the only survivor of the Great Hinamizawa Disaster that occurred in June of 1983.
As the only person who lived through the disaster on the night of June 21, shrouded in mystery, many interested parties attempted to question him, but he never once spoke physically to anyone in a public place.
...Therefore, the tape caused quite a stir, possibly being of extremely high value.
...Click.
"......It's really hard to talk about stuff when I know I'm being recorded."
"Please, don't worry about it.
Here, it won't be a problem if I do this, right?"
(After this, the sound quality dramatically decreases.
Did he cover the recording device with something?)
"Then let's get started.
...Here's my first question.
Keiichi-kun, where were you the night of the Great Disaster?"
"...I had gone behind the shrine... then took a path through the woods for a while...
...There's a rope bridge there.
A little while before you get into the mountains.
...I fell from there and lost consciousness."
"Did this happen during the night of the disaster—between the 21st and the 22nd?"
"......No.
It was the morning of the 21st, on Tuesday.
Which means I woke up the afternoon of the next day... I think I was out for a day and a half."
"Why on earth were you there?
I mean, I'm sure everyone wants to know, but the bridge you fell from that day—a weekday, I might add—was quite far from both your house and the school, wasn't it?"
".................."
"Speaking frankly, there are some who say you knew of the Great Disaster beforehand,
and fell from the rope bridge as you were trying to flee the village."
"...This isn't a joke.
Please don't be so arbitrary about this."
"I think it's a terrible thing to say too.
Please don't be offended.
...Anyway, about the rope bridge you fell from... It was right here on the map, right?
The rope bridge beyond the back of the shrine and through the path in the woods."
".........Probably.
...I never went over there, so I can't say for sure."
"Hahahahaha.
I guess I just want to know why you were out somewhere you'd never been before on a weekday morning."
"....................."
"And then... well, about the river bed you fell unconscious on, have you heard the rumors about that being impossible?"
"...'Impossible'...
...That
...that word...
again...?
Again...
again..."
(For a little while, Keiichi Maebara mutters the word "impossible" several times.)
"...Why... would it be impossible?"
"You know how the volcanic gas originated in the Onigafuchi Swamp?
Some scholars did some pretty delicate simulations and modeling and discovered something very interesting."
"........................"
"The volcanic gas was heavier than the air,
so it went along the ground, flowing into lower and lower places, kind of like what water does.
And with Onigafuchi Swamp as its source, they were able to test how much time it would take for the gas to erupt and spread across the whole village.
...So, well.
That river bed you were unconscious on.
The gas...
It would have flowed down there."
"......I don't really understand what you're getting at."
"In other words, if you were really passed out on that river bed, you would have been in the middle of all the toxic gas that was spreading everywhere that night.
That means there was no chance you could have been passed out there."
"........................"
"Allow me to be a little more frank.
I think that maybe... you might be telling a lie.
...During the Great Disaster, you were hiding in a safe place... keeping an eye out for when the gas got thinner, then reappeared and were secured by the SDF.
...How about that?
Is that right on the mark?"
(For a short time, the journalist presses Keiichi Maebara further, in a teasing way, but all that can be heard are heavy sighs.)
"......Even if that was the case... I wouldn't be surprised at this point."
"What do you mean... you wouldn't be surprised?"
"...You said it before, didn't you?
That it was 'impossible.'
...Impossible things happen in that Hinamizawa all the time.
...There are people who shouldn't be existing.
Dead people end up alive.
...It's not really that unusual.
...Never thought I, of all people, would be asked to prove... that I was still alive when I was supposed to have died... hahahahahaha.
Ahahahahahahaha... ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!"
"Ah-hahahahahaha! Ha-ha-ha..."
(The journalist and Keiichi Maebara both laugh for a while.)
"All right, then, I'll change the subject.
What do you think of the debate about whether this disaster was the curse—the fifth year of the serial freak death incidents in Hinamizawa?"
"I don't think it was.
I was the curse that year, after all."
"Hm?
Ahahahaha!
What do you mean?"
"What do I... I was just answering the question."
"The curse... well, you probably won't believe me when I tell you this.
...I was the one who caused it.
...I was the one... who wished for the whole village to die, and it happened."
"Hahahahaha...
What an... exciting story."
"Exciting?
...I suppose you could call it that...
I was the one who killed Takano-san, and Coach and Ooishi too.
...At the time, I had some kind of divine power.
......Yes... I suppose it was like footsteps."
"Footsteps...?
Wait... hahahahaha, what's that supposed to mean?"
"You... have you never heard footsteps before?
...Tip tap.
Click click.
Ku-ku-ku.
Today, when you're walking around, try stopping suddenly—something interesting will happen.
......Anyway.
...If you hear an extra footstep...
even though you'd already stopped walking......
You'd better be careful, you know.
...Huhuhuhuhu."
"Ah... ahahahaha!
Y-Yes, I'll be careful.
Haha, hahaha!"
"......Is what I'm saying... really that funny to you?
You've... been doing nothing but laugh in my face this whole time...
...You're just like Coach.
...You pretend to sympathize with me, to listen to what I have to say... but your eyes are telling me you think I'm a lunatic."
"Haha, haha.
...That's not true.
Hahaha..."
"No... I can tell.
Your eyes are the same as Coach's.
......I never heard the footsteps again after that day.
...So I don't think I have that terrible power anymore.
...Perhaps... right here, right now, I'll wish for you to die.
I'll wish for your death, for saying all these unpleasant things.
...Yes, this time, why don't I decide how you die?
......Takano-san was burned to death, so.........
let's go with the opposite—with water.
...I hope you drown and die—how's that?
...If I'm in top form like I was then, you'd die before tomorrow morning for sure.
......Now then... I wonder how many days it will take you to drown?
...Hu, hahahahahahahahahaha.
...You'd better be careful, you know.
D o n ' t
g o
g e t t i n g
y o u r s e l f
k i l l e d
b y
s o m e
s t u p i d
c u r s e
I
p u t
o n
y o u ,
o k a y ?
...
...
Ha
ha
ha
ha
ha
ha
ha
ha
ha
ha
ha
ha
ha
ha
ha
ha
ha
ha
ha
ha
ha"
(The recording ends in the middle of Keiichi Maebara's laughter.)