It had been very hot for the past few days, and the corpses went rotten quickly.

Any housewife knows how fast fresh meat can go bad.

I know it, too. That's why the first thing I did was to dismember the corpses.

There was only one reason why I needed to dismember them.

I had to reduce them to a portable size, in order to carry them to a place where they'll never be found.

When men see the words "dismembered corpses," they'll probably feel disgusted, because they don't cook.

But housewives are used to taking the guts out of fish, and they sometimes even see living maggots.

They take the maggots off of the food, or even cook it with the maggots still on.

The heat will kill them, after all.

Women don't tell men what they do in the kitchen because men wouldn't eat the food if they knew.

So it didn't really bother me much to dismember them.

I was released from all my problems by killing them.

Cleaning up the mess was like nothing to me, because I got freedom and regained my happiness.

I dismembered the corpses using carpenter's tools like a saw and a hatchet.

I'm wearing a black sweat suit I bought for today because I thought I might get stained with blood.

Bloodstains don't show on black fabric, and I can just throw it away after it's done.

I brought a plastic sheet I found in the dump because I thought the blood might spread otherwise.

If I did the work on this sheet, I could just burn it after I was done.

...In the end, dismembering human bodies is no different from preparing food on a chopping board.

I was very tired from chopping apart two adult bodies, but I didn't have a problem doing it.

I cut off their arms, legs, and heads, dividing each body into six pieces.

I heard before that blades get easily ruined by fat when you cut apart a corpse. So, I brought many kinds of tools.

And I was right. I didn't have to go back and forth between here and my house to get another tool in the middle of work.

A long time ago, the construction manager was murdered and his body was dismembered here during the dam conflict.

He was cut into six pieces in the same way.

Well, I had two bodies, so there was double that, though.

I remembered the main suspect was still on the loose, and the victim's arm he hid hadn't been found yet.

I wonder where he hid it.

I'd like to ask him. I smiled wryly.

Unlike the arms, legs, and heads, the torsos were difficult to take care of.

I thought about cutting them into smaller pieces, but I decided against it because I thought it'd be troublesome to clean up the guts.

I put each piece in a black trash bag and sprayed on a lot of deodorant. I wasn't sure if that would help against the smell, though.

Many bugs flew around me while I was dismembering the corpses. After I finished putting all the pieces into each bag, the bugs were still flying around, but that was just because they could smell the blood.

After I cleaned up everything, they were all gone.

Now all I need to do is get rid of these twelve black bags.

Burning them would be easiest, but I don't think I can burn them to ashes without using a cremator.

The best way is to bury them somewhere.

Other than the torsos, every piece is small enough to fit in my backpack.

I could easily carry them without being noticed.

I could throw them into the river running through the dam construction site...

but if I did that, somebody would find them for sure.

I've seen on the news several times before that a bag with a body part in it was found beside a river... Every time I heard something like that, I always thought the murderer was stupid.

I thought about dumping them into the Onigafuchi Swamp. But rotten meat floats.

I thought about weighting the bags... but there's no guarantee they'd stay down.

So, that left me one choice: to bury them.

There are many unexplored mountains at the end of the abandoned districts around Yagouchi and Takatsudo.

It's probably best to bury them somewhere in the mountains.

While it would be safe to bury them here in the garbage dump, too, it's not perfectly safe.

And so, I'm going to bury all these bags somewhere deep inside of a mountain, in order to completely erase the two of them.

...My joints hurt, since I've been using muscles I don't normally use.

I cleaned up the mess very carefully and got into my hideout. While still wearing the sweat suit, I laid down on the mattress.

I washed my hands carefully, but there was still dirt and blood under my nails.

...I should take a shower later and wash it off completely.

When I say things like "disposing of corpses," it sounds like I'm the greatest evil of the century.

But that's only true if I get caught.

What I did isn't a crime as long as I don't get caught... Plus, I didn't do this because I wanted to commit a crime.

I didn't do anything wrong.

I did this to protect my father's life and mine.

People might speak ill of me, but I don't care about them.

In the end, I don't think anybody can really pass judgment on my sins.

Sins aren't something to pass judgment on; they're something to confess and to atone for.

In other words, nobody can measure the weight of a sin other than the person who committed the crime.

Do I regret what I did? Do I feel sorry?

No.

I don't think I did anything wrong.

I truly believe there was no better way than killing them.

I'm sure it was the right thing, because... my life had already started to change since the night I killed them.

A few days earlier. I just came home after killing Teppei.

...My father was cleaning the room Teppei had thrashed earlier. His eyes were swollen. He'd been crying.

"...Reina... where have you been?"

"I was talking with him.

I said, 'Rina-san will never come to our house again,

so please leave us alone.'

Therefore, he'll never come back."

"I don't think he'll stay away from us that easily...

You should watch out for him for a while, too..."

It's hard to explain to him why Teppei would never come back.

...I can't tell him he shouldn't worry because I killed him.

I grabbed ice cubes from the freezer, put them in a plastic bag, and handed it to my father.

"Here you go, Dad.

...Your cheeks are swollen."

He must have only noticed it just then.

"......Oh... thank you."

"Don't worry about cleaning up the mess. I'll do it.

I'll get the vacuum cleaner."

".........Reina."

He called out to me.

"......I'm sorry.

...I'm so sorry."

"It's not your fault.

...They make their living by deceiving people.

...You were just one of their targets."

"......Reina... did you know who they were?"

"...Yes. I found out recently.

I didn't tell you because I thought you wouldn't believe me.

I'm sorry."

He looked down.

When he told me about how he wanted to get remarried, I told him that they were bad people and that they scammed others with badger games.

But he didn't listen to me.

So, I was right in saying that he wouldn't have believed me at all.

"She took advantage of your pain."

"............I'm... a very bad father."

Then he started talking about how he met Rina, as if trying to absolve his guilt.

It was when he was suffering the most, and he needed to drink away his sorrow.

At a bar he happened to go into, Rina-san was the one who came to his table.

It was her job to be a good listener when her customers talked.

Rina must really have been a great listener, and offered words of comfort when he talked about the divorce.

If he was emotionally stable, he could've taken it as a kindness that she was only offering at the time.

...But he was so desperate that he took it the wrong way.

After that, the tragedy was inevitable.

He wanted to believe that it was destiny, and he glamorized everything about her.

...It would be easy to laugh at him, and say that he was just dreaming.

But I don't blame him, because being weak is also part of being human.

He had plenty of opportunities to grow suspicious of her questionable spending habits.

...But my father just read even that behavior as an attempt to cheer him up.

He bought everything she asked him to, and Rina had landed her catch.

He shouldn't have brought his lover to the house where his daughter lived.

...But he was crazy about her, and he didn't even think about it.

"......I'd forgotten that I was a father first.

......What was I thinking......?"

He started crying.

I held his shoulders gently.

"It's okay.

......You realized it in the end. You're my father no matter what.

.........You're the only family I have."

He couldn't stop moaning.

......We held each other and cried together...

The next day, my father got up early in the morning.

He was already cooking breakfast when I got up.

And he told me...

"Your father is going to get his act together from today onward."

"Ah... Ahahahahahahahaha.

Dad, you should've used salad oil before you cooked them sunny-side up."

"Hh!

...Ahahahaha, it's been a long time since I cooked. ...Ahahahahaha."

He pried off the burning eggs on the pan with a spatula, and he added salad oil to it.

It was too late.

Doing that just made it an even bigger mess.

But I didn't say anything, because I wanted to eat his eggs. I waited at the table quietly.

He put the burned eggs on a plate, and brought them over to me.

It looked like he tried to salvage them by adding cheese, but it didn't really work.

Still, it smelled good and crispy. It actually stimulated my appetite.

Thick-cut toast popped out of the toaster.

I made coffee with extra milk and sugar because my father liked it sweet.

We put everything on the table. It looked terrible, like the cooking class of an elementary school... But to me, it was precious, because my father tried very hard to make it, wearing the apron.

"Great.

It smells good.

I hope it tastes as good as it smells. Ahahaha."

"It might be better that you do the cooking...

I feel bad making you eat this..."

"I'll take care of cooking when you take care of getting a job."

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

It had been a taboo to talk about work in our house.

He hadn't worked since the divorce.

It wasn't only because of the divorce, though.

He just didn't have to work because the settlement my mother gave him was so huge.

Plus, I let him be lazy because I felt guilty about the divorce.

But...... my father cleared his wrongdoing by showing repentance to me.

...And I also atoned for my sin

of not doing anything about my mother...

by doing what I did the previous night.

Now, we are free of sin.

"I... I'm going to try to find a job.

I'm thinking about going to the employment service agency today."

"Yeah.

That's a great idea."

It's not money that he wanted.

He just needed a normal lifestyle.

"...I'm old and not very strong... I'm a bit worried if I can find a job at all..."

"What kind of job are you looking for?"

"I'd prefer a desk job, but I don't think a lot of companies would offer one to an old man like me."

"I can ask my friend.

Mii-chan is the daughter of a big landowner in Hinamizawa, so she might be able to find you something."

"No, it's okay. I'll do it myself.

I have to man up, you know?"

"Ahahahahahaha."

I don't remember the last time we enjoyed breakfast like this.

...I don't even remember the last time we had breakfast together.

For the first time in a long time, the morning light felt refreshing.

...I wanted to keep enjoying life like this.

But unfortunately, I had to go to school.

I told him that I'd skip school that day and that I wanted him to take me somewhere fun, but he tried to be a good father, and said that I had to go to school.

"Well... I have to go now."

"Okay... Have a good day at school."

He followed me to the front door.

I was a bit embarrassed for some reason.

He talked to me while I was tying my shoes.

...He followed me here not because he wanted to see me off, but because he wanted to tell me something.

"......I've been sad ever since your mother divorced me.

But I realized that I shouldn't be sad, because I have you, Reina.

I didn't have to feel sad at all."

"Dad...... that's what being a family is about."

"......Yes, you're right.

...Again, I'm not a good father, because I had to learn something that simple and important from my own daughter."

"Well, I have to go now. Keiichi-kun is waiting for me."

"Have a good day.

Oh, Reina.

I'm going to cook dinner tonight.

I'll do the grocery shopping on the way back from the employment service agency.

Look forward to it. I promise I won't fail like I did just now."

"Ahahahahaha, okay!

I'm looking forward to it.

See you tonight!"

I left the house. My father saw me off, still in the apron.

...It was the first step of our new life.

I finally regained it.

I finally regained everything we lost after we left Hinamizawa.

My mother wasn't around... but I didn't feel sad because I had my father.

The cries of the cicadas sounded as if they were celebrating my new life.

The sunshine was bright, and the wind was sending up a nice breeze.

The only thing that wasn't nice was... the ticking clock?

I was late because I spent too much time talking with my father.

Keiichi-kun might already be gone. I don't think he'd be waiting for me that long.

...But... he was there anyway.

"Hey!

Good morning!"

"Ahahaha, good morning~!

Sorry I'm late."

"It's okay.

I usually make you wait.

So, it's okay that I wait once in a while.

Wa ha ha ha ha!"

"We're really going to be late.

We should walk fast, I think... I think."

"Yeah.

Let's walk fast.

We might have to run at the end."

"Mii-chan might already be gone."

"She's waiting for sure.

We're friends.

We'd never leave each other behind, right?"

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

"Anyway, did something good happen this morning?"

"What?

Why do you ask that?"

"Well, you look very happy for some reason.

I just thought maybe something good happened to you."

The good mood I was in must have been too obvious for Keiichi-kun to ignore.

I had not only my family, but my friends too.

I felt something warm spreading in my heart.

"...Ahahahahaha.

Well, I'll tell you what happened this morning.

My father made breakfast, but... ahahahahaha..."

"What? Isn't that the right way to cook eggs?

You use salad oil for making salads, don't you?"

"What?!

Ah ha ha ha.

I have to tell everyone you just said that!"

"What did you say?!

Those rude remarks are unforgivable!!"

"Fine, bring it. If you're saying that, then you're willing and ready to throw down, aren't you?!

"Hey hey, what's going on?

Satoko, Kei-chan, why don't you two place an outside bet on our club activities today? It'll be fun."

"Mii-chan, what's an outside bet? What is it?"

"An outside bet means what it says,

that Satoko and I would place a bet on each other outside the game.

The one who played worse than the other has to suffer an extra punishment besides the normal one!"

"......That means I get to see one of you suffer no matter who loses today."

"Heh heh heh!

So, what do you say, Satoko?"

"That sounds like a wonderful idea to me!

Keiichi-san will take a punishment for being the lowest-ranked in the game and another punishment for losing to me! Ah, how wonderful!!"

"Great! I like your spirit, Satoko!

Alright, let's play today's game with their outside bet!"

"......It's more fun to think about punishments than to think about the game itself."

"It sure is!

I can't wait to see how miserable Satoko's going to look after she takes her punishment!"

"Keep dreaming, Keiichi-san!!!

Ouch!

Take that!

Stop it!!

Hyaah!"

"Stop fighting, you two! The game hasn't even started yet!"

Chie-sensei opened the door and came in.

"Take your seats, everyone.

Let's start homeroom, and then you can all go home."

Everybody headed to their seats.

"Mii-chan."

"Hm? What?"

"I'm sorry to ruin the mood, but...

I have to go home after school. I have things to do again today..."

"Oh... Okay.

Well, I'm sorry that you have to go.

Are you busy with housework or something?"

"Yep."

"Well, this ol' man has no right to stop you when it comes to housework.

I don't do housework myself. Our housekeepers do."

"You should help them sometimes.

It'll be good training for married life."

"Don't worry about that.

I already have the kind of skill, you know, to be a good wife.

Heh heh heh heh."

Mii-chan looks like the kind of girl who tries to stay away from chores as much as possible, but she can actually do everything. That's just who she is.

She went through hard times to learn those things,

but she acts like she learned them without any struggle. That's also who she is.

I like that about her.

"What?

Are you going home, Rena?"

"Then you won't see Keiichi-san go to the teacher's office wearing an embarrassing uniform. What a shame."

"......It's going to be fun. Pity you have to miss it."

"...Yeah, I'm sorry."

"You went home right after school for housework yesterday, too.

Did something happen?"

"Yeah, kind of.

It might take me a few more days."

"Well.

Then I guess you can't join us for a while."

"...Maybe.

I'll try to finish as soon as I can."

"Can we help out with the thing you have to do?

If it's something like carrying out old furniture, let me know.

I can help with that!"

"Are you redecorating your house?

This ol' man can bring lots of help for that."

"Oh ho ho!

I have an idea! We can make a game out of helping her out with her housework!"

"......At this rate, the person who doesn't end up helping her will be the winner."

"Ahahaha, thank you guys.

I really do appreciate it."

"Well, it seems like there's nothing we can do.

Therefore, I announce Rena Ryuugu's withdrawal from the front lines as of today!

I order you to take a rest 'til you finish doing your housework, and to return to the front as soon as you've regained your strength!

Well, there are many games for four!

Oh, can you play mahjong, Kei-chan?"

"Yeah!

My dad sometimes forces me to play mahjong with him and his friends from work!"

"Hoh ho ho ho!

Of course, we are good at mahjong as well!"

After that, they fooled around and made a lot of noise, just like they always did.

I looked at them, and reminded myself that I'd always have a place to return to. I left the classroom with a smile.

I was going to Yagouchi on my bicycle.

...I had to find a place to bury the bags with the body parts.

Hopefully. I could finish burying all of them today before it gets dark.

With that, everything would be over and done with.

"I don't like that the back of the tiles are made of bamboo.

You guys haven't marked them, have you?"

"I wouldn't be too sure!

Keiichi-san, you sound traumatized by the experience you had with our card game."

"Well, I think there are some scratches on them.

They're cheap ones, you know.

But it's more fun when there's an element of doubt, don't you think?

Heh heh heh!"

"......Mii, how many reds do you want to use?

Six?"

...Rika-chan sounded professional, and it scared me.

Oh well.

I should start by checking the tiles.

...Playing mahjong with my family is different from playing it as a club activity. I have to be cautious!

It's possible that one tile is missing or that there's one extra of a particular tile in here.

"We don't do things like that!

...Still, that's interesting.

I didn't think about that.

Let's see..."

"Let's put them all face-up on the table and check them before we start the game.

Come on."

Everybody flipped the tiles face-up.

"Hm?

One dragon is missing."

"One Lo-pin and one Lo-so are missing, too.

...Oh, one Lo-wan is missing also."

"What's going on?

There are so many missing tiles."

"...Oh!

I remember.

Hold on a second."

Mion hit the palm of her hand with her fist, moved her chair aside, and stuck her finger into a gap in the floorboards.

She then pulled a tile out of there.

"There you go. This is the dragon.

I don't remember where I put the other three."

"Wait, Mion.

Why are there so many tiles hidden in the classroom...?"

"Nya ha ha ha ha...

Well, you know, heh heh heh heh...!"

She must have hidden the other three tiles somewhere in the classroom and forgot where.

We couldn't play mahjong with three tiles missing!

I suggested playing another game, but Mion insisted that we had to find them and suggested making that "treasure hunt" our game.

"As long as I can make Keiichi-san suffer a punishment, I care little as to what kind of game we play, but...

To be honest with you, I'd prefer to play something more interesting than that."

"I agree.

Plus, you're not sure they are here in the classroom, right, Mion?"

"No, they're here.

...Or maybe this ol' man might've put them in his pockets and left them by the washing machine.

I don't remember."

"......I recommend checking the total number of tiles after we play mahjong with Mion next time."

Everybody except Mion nodded in agreement.

"What?

You don't want to play our classroom tile-hunting game?"

"In other words, 'cleaning up the mess Mion made so she could cheat'!

Do it yourself.

Don't use our club activities for personal reasons."

"Fine, fine.

So, what do you want to do?

We can't play mahjong now.

What are we playing, then?

Does anybody have any ideas?"

As our club president, Mion usually decides what we'll play.

I couldn't just come up with something on the spot.

While we were all thinking, Mion hit her palm with her fist, just like she did earlier.

"I got an idea.

If you don't want to hunt for tiles,

let's do a real treasure hunt!

What name comes to your mind when I say treasure hunting? Rena, right?"

"You mean... are we going to the garbage dump at the dam construction site?"

"I don't really go there often, but the place is large."

"......I've heard that the place is haunted by the ghost of the man who was murdered there. His body was cut into pieces. We shouldn't go near."

"Ah ha ha!

A ghost? I like it!

That's even better!"

"I didn't know there was a rumor like that.

...I do know that someone was murdered there and that the main suspect is still on the loose.

He hid the arm of the victim, and it hasn't been found yet, right?"

"......There's a rumor that the construction site manager, the victim of the dismemberment murder case, became a ghost and that he's wandering around the place to find his missing arm."

"Rika?

You don't like ghosts?

Don't tell me you're still scared of ghosts!"

"...I'm a shrine maiden. I can see them even if I don't want to..."

"Wow... you can see ghosts...?!

If I remember right... I've heard those who can see spirits see them as naturally as they do us."

"That's utterly ridiculous!

I've been living with Rika for a long time, but I've never seen anything like that!"

"......That's just because you can't see them. But I can.

......For example, when you're asleep in your bed,

I always see...

Nipah~☆"

"R-Rika!

Why did you smile like that!!

What were you about to say? What do you see when I'm sleeping?!!!"

...Satoko, I feel sorry for you.

You can pretend you're not scared of ghosts during the day, but I'm pretty sure you get scared when it gets dark.

...I'm gonna have to make a silent phone call tonight just to scare the hell out of her. Hee hee hee!

"Including myself, I don't think anybody really likes going there.

Rena is the only one who does."

"If Rena finds a ghost when she's in her Kyute Mode, she might take it home with her."

"That's so true!

She'd say,

'hauu, I'm taking you home with me!!'"

Wa ha ha ha ha.

It was so easy to imagine that all of us laughed.

"Well, let's do it!

Let's go treasure hunting!

If you find a ghost, you win!

You get a point if you find the victim's missing right arm.

And you also get a point if you find... umm, anything that Rena would like!

We can show what we found to Rena later, and we'll let her decide who's the winner!"

"Ohh ho ho!!

I can't wait to win the game and make Keiichi-san take double the punishment!!"

"Hey, Satoko. Are you sure you want to win? That means you're going to see a ghost... Wooooo!"

"S-Stop it!

You're getting on my nerves!!"

"......I don't want to go there. I'm scared of ghosts, too."

"What do you mean, 'you're scared of ghosts, too'?

Who else are you referring to?!!

I'm not scared at all!!

Hey, Keiichi-san! Stop doing that!!"

"Let's go, everybody!

Let's find the ghost!!"

"""Wooooo!!!"""

...And it'll be over with.

Everything will be over and done with.

Yes, it will be over when the higurashi cry.