Today was Saturday, so school ended in the blink of an eye.

It really felt good to go home with the sun so high in the sky.

On any other day, our club would have been up to mischief during our ample after-school time, but today Rika-chan had a rehearsal for tomorrow's Watanagashi to go to.

"How is that going, Rika-chan?

Do you have it down in practice?"

"...I'll try harder than last year."

"You were so exhausted and sweaty after last year's ceremony."

"She'll look far more fit for the role this year!

Please, look forward to the fruits of her training."

The Watanagashi Festival everyone had been talking about was tomorrow, wasn't it?

The festival being in June felt a little early to me, but the onset of summer came quickly this year, so it fit the image of a 'summer festival' pretty well.

"...Okay, we'll be off, then."

"Look forward to tomorrow!

Good day to you all!"

Satoko and Rika-chan waved to us energetically, then left.

"You know, I never asked. Where is the festival happening, anyway?

I don't remember there being anywhere around here that seemed suited for hosting one."

"They do it at the Furude Shrine.

We went there for a walk one day, remember?

It was that place with the really good view."

...Oh... Right, I remember.

There was a shrine all the way up on that hill, wasn't there? It seemed far too grand for Hinamizawa.

"There's a great meeting hall in the shrine too. The older people get together there and sing karaoke or practice calligraphy from time to time.

It's more like a recreational facility than a simple shrine!"

"I see.

I guess it makes sense that it looks so grand, then."

"Mii-chan, is your family going to help set up today?"

"Yep. We have male hands for that.

Most of our relatives come from town to help."

Male hands, huh? ...Well, I mean, I have nothing to do at home today, so...

"Would it be a problem if I squirmed my way in there to help out too?"

"Huh?

...You want to help us, Kei-chan?"

"...Not if it'll bother you all.

I was just kind of interested."

We had bon dances and other festivals in the town I used to live in, but I didn't even know where they took place, much less wanted to help.

You could say that I had absolutely no connection to the region.

Having come to Hinamizawa, though, it really made me feel like this place was a home that I had returned to.

Before I knew it, I harbored a little interest in the small, community activity of preparing for a festival the day before.

"I wonder if you'll be able to, Keiichi-kun.

There's a lot of building tents and setting up chairs.

I hear it's pretty hard physical labor!"

"I mean, I wouldn't be doing it alone, right?

The more hands we have, the faster it'll go."

Mion looked happy to hear that, but at the same time, her expression was complex, tinged with hesitation.

Rena gave her the last push for me.

"It's decided, then!

You should go for it, Keiichi-kun.

He's all yours, Mii-chan. Put him through the wringer!"

"Well, I can't argue with a recommendation from Rena.

Okay then, go home first, put on some work clothes, and come to the shrine.

Oh, and you might want to bring a towel to wipe your sweat, too."

"Got it!

I may look scrawny, but I actually quite like breaking a sweat under the hot sun."

"Careful you don't hurt your back, okay?

Right, enough of my old man spiel.

...I'll go to the shrine too, as soon as I've changed."

"Mii-chan, you do your best too!

Bye-bye!"

Mion waved vigorously to us and left. As far as I could tell from her gallant, retreating figure, she seemed to have recovered from the weak state she had yesterday.

"Girls are quick to get over things.

Mii-chan is already fine."

"Right.

Her switching back to normal so cleanly really makes it easy for me to talk to her."

"It was kind of funny though, wasn't it?

Kind of like Cinderella.

Like, you can't meet her anymore once the magic wears off."

Rena began to giggle a fair bit in amusement.

...Did she like this sort of thing?

Incidentally, me going along with it gave me a weird, hard-to-describe feeling. Did I turn myself into a plaything, or did they do it for me?

"If you think it's so funny, then you should try pretending to be a different Rena, too."

"Yeah, that sounds like fun!

Keiichi-kun, what kind of Rena would you want to meet?"

"One with a bust size of at least 90.

Huge knockers that you're okay with me touching."

"I-I can't do that...!"

"She'd be great at cooking, and make me lunch, and come to see me in the mornings..."

"I do that already..."

I pull Rena's head into a tight grip, then start to pet it.

"You're Rena Ryuugu, right?

Rena, not Reina!

So you just stay as Rena forever, got it?"

"...Thanks!

Have fun helping set up the festival~!"

"You got it!! Let's meet up tomorrow!!!"

I got changed right away, and, slinging a towel around my neck like Mion suggested, I set off for the shrine.

At the shrine... There were more people than you'd imagine even live in Hinamizawa there,

all cordoning off areas and setting up tent frameworks, chatting amongst themselves as they did so.

...All right, where is Mion?

The liveliness of the throng didn't make it easy to look for her.

I searched around as if I already worked there, and suddenly, the principal called out to me.

"Hm! If it isn't Maebara-kun. Interesting!!

Have you come to help with the Watanagashi setup?"

"Um... uh, hello.

Yes, I was just wondering if there was anything I could help with."

"How commendable your attitude is!!

Feel free to sweat to your heart's content!

Ga-ha-ha-ha!!"

Spurred on by the principal, I came upon a group of people setting up tents.

"Oh, what's this? It's Maebara-chan.

Did you come all this way to help us?"

I hadn't found Mion yet, but I supposed I'd just get in her way if I ran into her.

"Yeah!

I'm here to help!!

Just tell me where you need me!!"

"You young ones have all the vitality~!

Here, grab some work gloves.

Ever built a tent before?"

"No, never!"

Delighting in teaching a new skill to someone younger, plenty of people happily taught me all sorts of things.

"Okay, kid, go inside the tent and tie up just the cords for the top.

After that we'll stand it up and tie the rest of them!"

"Butterfly knots are okay, right?

...There, and... there..."

"All done?

We're standing it up!!

One, two, three!!"

What was once nothing more than a collapsed tent was raised on four splendid legs before my eyes in mere moments.

...Whoa...

Seeing it put together like this is actually pretty moving!

"Come on, no time to stare in wonder!!

We've got a lot more to do!"

"We packed the tents into the truck, so go get them from there.

They're heavy, so take someone with you!"

"Nah, I'm good! I may look scrawny, but I'm actually pretty strong...!

Whoa!?!?"

They look light enough, so I thought they were...but they're heavy!!

"That's why I told you to have someone help!!

Come on,"

said the man, lifting it up with a grunt and taking it away under his arm.

...Either I'm weak, or these old guys all have superhuman strength...

"Let's go! You're the youngest one here, so we're going to make you sweat for it!!

Do your best!!

Beer after work is the best~!!"

"Umm, I'm a minor..."

Sweat dripped from my body.

I had been fully and completely absorbed in helping them.

I would never have thought the cold barley tea from the women's society could taste this delicious.

"You're so young.

Make sure you drink a lot."

"Th-Thank you..."

It was then that I realized a crowd had formed near the shrine a ways off.

When I took a closer look, I saw a girl dressed in shrine maiden garb and a handful of old men looking like they were preparing for the ceremony together.

"...Is that Rika-chan?

Heeey!! Rika-chaaaan!!

Do you beeeest!!"

I shouted, and it seemed like she heard me.

Rika-chan, positively exploding with vitality, answered with a smile.

The older guys with me watched Rika-chan as well, with distant gazes.

"Rika-chama is doing a great job."

"She seems far more used to this than she did last year!"

The old lady who gave me the tea clasped what looked like prayer beads in her hands and said,

"Rika-samaaa~, we thank you, we thank you..."

and just like that, began to respectfully pray to her.

...Huh?

I just remembered that they called it the Furude Shrine.

...Wasn't Rika-chan's full name Rika Furude?

The man standing next to me answered my question.

"That's right.

Rika-chama's Furude clan is ancient and honorable, and has worshipped Oyashiro-sama for generations."

...Huh.

I'd always gotten the feeling she wasn't quite your average person, but it turned out she was from an esteemed family.

"After her father, who was the shrine priest, died the year before last, she's really been doing her best to learn the rituals.

...I wish the priest could have been here to see how wonderfully she's grown up."

"What?

Rika-chan's father passed away?"

"Okay! Break time is over.

Let's get the chairs we're not using back to the gym in Okinomiya.

Maki-san, pull the truck around here and take a few people with you."

"All right, Maebara-kun, let's get to work on one last job!"

Geh...!!

Y-You're gonna make me do more work...???

I can't tell if they know I'm a minor or not, but the older men all cheer me on, encouraging me to do my best and that the beer will be great.

"Kei-chan, workin' hard, I see!"

I passed by Mion.

She was carrying a big cardboard box. It looked like she was right in the middle of working as well.

Judging by the sweat seeping into her shirt, it seemed I wasn't the only one with his hands full.

"Yeah, I'm workin' my ass off!!

You work hard, too!

The beer's gonna be great!!"

"Aha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!"

We were worked to the bone until the sun began to set and it started cooling off.

It was soon full-fledged night, and the clear sound of the higurashi eased the moderate pain I felt.

The older guys began their night-before drinking party in a tent a fair bit off, causing quite a ruckus.

The shrine grounds, on the other hand, had turned into a lonely road tickled by the cool evening breeze, despite being so festive just a little while ago.

...The wind felt good.

I leaned on one of the stone guardian dogs at the front of the shrine. I gave my legs a good stretch as I let my mind wander, and suddenly, a paper cup filled with barley tea was thrust before me.

"Kei-chan, great work!

Here's some tea for you."

"You're so considerate~!

Thanks, Mi—"

Her voice sounded exactly the same, but it felt somehow different.

"Wait, you're...!!"

"Heya! It's Shion.

Don't go giving Mion all the credit.

She isn't considerate at all. Don't get us confused, okay?"

"Sh-Shion, you little~!!

Now that I've caught you, you're not getting away!"

"Ah-hahahaha!

It was your mistake, Kei-chan.

I've never said I was anyone other than Shion☆."

"Urgh... I guess I can't argue with that..."

"Hee-hee.

...That's right! You're no match for my older sister, so I can't let you be a match for me, either!

Anyway, your tea!

It's going to get warm."

"...Mgh."

"Come on, please cheer up.

I'm trying to make it up to you with this tea."

...Well, she did come all the way here to give it to me.

I guess I'll accept it.

I took the cup and downed it in one gulp.

...And then suddenly, aahhhhhhhhhh!!!

I heard a loud shout and it got stuck in my throat...

"*cough* *cough* *hack*...!!

Which one is it this time!?

Is it the real Mion!?"

"Sh-Shioonnnn!!!

Why are you hanging out with Kei-chan again!?"

"Because unlike you, I'm very considerate.

Kei-chan was so sweaty. I couldn't leave him alone, so I brought him some tea.

...By the way, why are you holding two cups of tea?"

Mion's face went bright red, and she tried to hide the paper cups behind her back.

"Ah, er, well...

This is...!"

"There's no way you, such a rough, timid, good sister of mine would ever briskly bring a male classmate tea, is there?

So what are they?

What are those two cups of tea?"

"These are...

Well...

Umm...

Ummmm...

Right!

I was just so thirsty... I figured I'd drink two...!"

"Ahahahaha, that's so like you.

Come on! Chug! Chug!"

As Shion cheered at her, Mion downed both the cups of tea, one after the other.

"Urgh, *cough* *cough*...!!"

"What a fabulous drink that was! I expected nothing less from you.

Kei-chan, you give her a hand too."

Wait... Suddenly this situation has gotten unbelievable.

...Mion doesn't usually get manipulated so easily like that...

I've known for a while now, but... Shion is terrifying.

"......Mion, ...You can't hold your own against Shion?"

"I hate her!

And lately I hate her even more~!"

Just then, I heard the snap of a camera shutter.

"Good evening.

The festival is coming up tomorrow!

Thanks for all your hard work setting it up today."

"Good evening.

...Oh, Shion-chan?

It's quite unusual for you to come here."

"Oh, hey, it's Tomitake and Takano-san!"

"Good evening. It's been a while, hasn't it?"

"So you're that transfer student I've been hearing about—Keiichi Maebara-kun, right?

You really did a bang-up job today! I'm impressed."

...I feel like I've seen this photographer guy before.

"Umm... Have we met before?"

"I'm glad you remembered.

We've passed many times on the road, Keiichi-kun.

I'm Tomitake.

I'm a freelancing photographer from Tokyo."

"Then do you recognize me...?"

"............I'm sorry, but I don't."

"She's Miyo Takano-san.

Do you remember when you were at the doctor's office when you still had a cold, Kei-chan?

Miyo-san is one of the nurses who works there."

"Call me Takano.

I'm pleased to meet you.

Tell me when you're coming in for treatment. I'll prepare a huge needle for you."

"...That's very thoughtful of you..."

Tomitake-san seemed to be quite entertained at the Sonozaki twins being in the same place, and he took picture after picture.

"I've heard about them, but this is the first time I've actually seen a pair of identical twins.

You really do look exactly alike!"

"We're not just alike on the outside! See, our underwear matches, too☆."

"Gyaahhhhhhh! You idiot, what the heck are you doing!!?"

...Things have never been as lively as when the two of them are together.

I'd thought they were exactly the same at first, but I've started to get a handle on which one is which.

Mion is Mion, and Shion... well, she seems a far better actor than Mion was.

In the first place, somebody that could spurn Mion so easily wouldn't have shown such weakness to those lardbuckets at Angel Mort!

If that was the case, then that cowardly behavior from that day was all... it was all a complete act!

"They were even more alike when they were little.

I heard even their parents had a hard time telling which was which."

"......That's really easy to imagine.

...I totally understand what they must have gone through."

Takano gave me kind of an odd look, but explaining would have been a pain so I didn't bother.

"Tomitake, are you going straight back to Tokyo after you get your pictures of the festival?"

"Yep. Though I would rather just stay here forever.

Silly adult things, that's all."

"I hope your photos win a fabulous prize soon. I've been praying for it!"

"Thanks!

Next time I come, I'll bring the pictures I took of you all today."

"Maebara-kun, you did a lot of work today.

You must be tired from all the physical labor you're not used to."

"Huh? Well... I'm tired, but it was still pretty fun."

"Ah, youth. I'm so jealous."

Takano-san smiled with an adult elegance that no one in my circle of friends possessed.

The wind caught her hair... She gives off an intelligent beauty.

"Oh, why, hello, everyone."

It seemed like our merry crowd was standing out—this time, an overweight older man addressed us.

...And again, it was someone I thought I knew.

If I recall correctly... he's a policeman, isn't he?

"Oh, Ooishi-san.

Good evening.

Doing a preliminary security inspection for tomorrow?"

"Na-ha-ha-ha.

Something like that.

Oh? If it isn't Tomitake-kun.

It's certainly been a while!"

"I'm honored you remembered my name."

"You really do love Hinamizawa, don't you?

The apartments around here are far cheaper than the ones in Tokyo.

You should just move here and get it over with.

I know a realtor I can introduce you to."

"I appreciate the thought.

I'd very much like to follow up on that."

"Na-ha-ha-ha!

All right, everyone, have a good year.

And happy new year to the Sonozaki twins, too."

"Happy new year, Detective Ooishi.

......We appreciate your work.

We'd like to end this year's festival with the least amount of inconvenience possible."

"That's pretty strict on me.

...Na-ha-ha-ha-ha."

Detective Ooishi left us with a low laugh and headed off to talk to some police officers standing a ways away.

...I gave Mion a glance, and saw her making an annoyed face, as if she were glaring bullets at someone she hated.

"......Yeah.

It'd be nice if the police didn't have anything to do during Watanagashi this year."

"Ah-ha-ha-ha.

You like this place too, don't you?"

"Oh, you mean to say you dislike it, Jirou-san?

...I quite enjoy such fantastic stories, you know.

Especially with the times being so dry and uninteresting."

"The curse of Oyashiro-sama, you mean?"

Curse—Tomitake-san used a troubling word.

Then, suddenly, someone tugged on my arm.

"Kei-chan,

I'm pretty hungry.

Wanna go to the tent with the drinks and have some candy and sweets?"

"Hmm... I'm up for that.

I've gotten a little hungry as well."

"Okay, let's go...!"

A moment later, Shion said something to Takano and Tomitake that stung my ears and gave me a start.

"I wonder who will die and who will disappear this year."

I pulled back from Mion's grip and stopped abruptly.

"Shion...

What did she just say?"

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

It felt like the air around us dried out all of a sudden.

"Let's go, Kei-chan.

...They're talking about something silly anyway."

"......You still haven't told Kei-chan?"

"I make it a point not to spread stories like that."

Shion's cold and quiet tone and Mion's harsh voice were quite the contrast.

"...Hey, wait, hold on. What are you talking about...?

If you know something, then tell me.

It doesn't feel right being the only one left out, you know...?"

I don't understand this. Someone explain it to me.

......However, Mion didn't seem to be at all willing to grant my request.

She squeezed my hand in hers a bit, but when she realized I would hold my ground on this topic, she let go.

"...I'm gonna go to the drinking tent first then.

If you don't come soon, Kei-chan, there won't be any left for you!"

"Argh, I get it already!

I'll be there soon."

Mion left, trotting towards a particularly noisy tent on the other side of the shrine grounds.

Before she got there, she stopped and turned back around.

I showed no signs of going after her, though, so she ran off.

"I could tell you if you haven't heard, I suppose...

But it might be smarter not to ask, and go with her to eat dessert."

...Hey, now. You've already gotten my full attention here. I'm not going to leave without asking at this point.

"I think Kei-chan has the right to hear this too.

......My sister was just stealing that from you."

Shion's voice was bristling with thorns, as if somehow blaming Mion.

"...What on earth are you talking about?

I don't really like people acting so self-important."

Takano-san, realizing how prepared I was, looked across the group. After confirming that there were no objections, she opened her mouth.

"Do you believe in curses, Maebara-kun?"

"Curses...?

......I think they're interesting, but I don't really..."

I felt their cynical stares, and winced.

...It was like they were telling me it was stranger not to believe in curses...

"You're not wrong, Kei-chan.

Curses are just superstition.

It's only natural that you wouldn't believe in them."

"...Mm-hmm.

Besides, you can take all the time you need to decide whether to believe in curses after you've heard us through,"

said Takano-san, giving a little smile.

They're trying to scare me.

...At least, that's what it feels like.

"All right... I'll start.

Keiichi-kun, do you know about the Hinamizawa Dam Project?"

Oh, yeah. The other day, at Angel Mort, Shion—or Mion, rather—told me all about it.

"You mean the plan for the giant dam that would flood all of Hinamizawa, right?"

"That's right.

Residents of the town banded together to fight it, and a fierce battle with the government unfolded."

I've heard that, too.

...The entire village united, using all the power at their disposal—mass media, political influence, and other things—and fought the country. The way Mion described it made it sound like a boast.

"...Oh, you know quite a bit about it.

Yes, you're right.

It's practically an epic tale, how just a thousand or so villagers banded together and rejected the government's plans."

"Did you hear this from my sister?

She likes those kinds of 'epics,' you know."

"...Yeah.

She told me."

"There was, however, an office for the Hinamizawa residents' opposition faction.

It was this shrine."

"You know the assembly hall? That's where it used to be.

Now that the whole thing is over, the senior citizens just use it for group activities. At the time, though, it was their last bastion."

Takano-san explained this, pointing a finger towards the assembly hall. I had been carrying things in and out of there all day.

...I mean, I would understand if they put an office like that in the mayor's house or something.

But having an office on shrine grounds made it feel kind of like a base camp for Sengoku Period warriors.

"That was basically the mindset, though.

Placing the main force in the shrine dedicated to Oyashiro-sama, Hinamizawa's guardian deity, was like a prayer for victory."

Oyashiro-sama...

That was definitely it.

They mentioned Oyashiro-sama's curse before.

Is it the same Oyashiro-sama?

"Do you know about Oyashiro-sama, Keiichi-kun?

It's the name of the god worshipped at this shrine.

It's said that he protects all of Hinamizawa."

"Well...

I don't really know much about him."

"I see. I think Takano-san knows more about the rest.

Tag, you're it."

"Well, that is generally the whole story.

Oyashiro-sama is the ancient god passed down in Hinamizawa, and the villagers say he has been protecting this sanctuary from the poisons of the outside world."

So essentially, he's a basic, standard guardian deity.

I guess you can find that sort of god anywhere you go.

"There's research into whether worshipping Oyashiro-sama is a manifestation of a kind of elitism, too.

What I mean is that the worshippers might think of themselves as 'chosen people.'"

...Believing yourself "chosen"—a nationalistic belief that you are part of a superior race, or that you're a special clan chosen by the gods.

They believe that they're a superior clan, so they believe strongly in cooperating with others, but they also end up being exclusionary towards other clans.

...I won't go into too much detail, but it's the sort of national and religious ideas that lead to war.

Of course, that goes for Japan, too.

"A long time ago, the people of Hinamizawa strongly believed themselves different from humans, that they were above them.

They believed that interaction with the lower world would sully their souls.

......So everyone believed that if one from the lower world came to the village, they would be sullied and suffer the wrath of Oyashiro-sama. Apparently that kept everyone away."

"Villages that hate outsiders come up all the time in mystery novels.

This was once a classic example of a xenophobic village."

"...Well, they'll deny it to preserve their pride. It was all a long time ago, after all!

Things are different now."

Shion followed up quickly, having sensed the thorns in Tomitake-san's words.

...Tomitake-san, embarrassed at what he said, scratched at his head.

Hmm...

...So this shrine worships Oyashiro-sama, thinks of Hinamizawa as holy ground, and it's a symbol of their traditional hatred of the outside world.

"...I get it.

So that's why they chose the shrine of Hinamizawa's guardian spirit as their base of operations—to resist the sullied dam construction project that came from the outside."

"Correct,"

smiled Takano, pleased.

...She must dislike stupid people.

"Superstition, every last bit of it.

The villagers gave everything, desperate to oppose the dam construction.

......And right in the midst of it...

the incident drove home the finishing blow."

...Oyashiro-sama's

curse.

"The person managing the construction site of the Hinamizawa Dam was murdered.

Four years ago, I believe?

It took the newspapers by storm. Do you remember it?"

"Uhh... No, not really..."

"He had a fight with a subordinate and was beaten to death with a pickaxe. His limbs and head were torn off, and the remains disposed of."

"One of those dismemberment homicides.

They were all the rage at one point."

...Such a gruesome incident...

But...it was just that—an incident.

A person caused the incident, after all. Should they really put it down to the curse...?

"Then the following year,

the man who had organized Hinamizawa's group of dam proponents...

He fell from a cliff while on vacation and died.

Apparently, it was an accident."

"Of course, most of Hinamizawa was hostile towards him.

The police were all over the case as if it were a homicide, but in the end, it was judged to have been an accident."

...Now it's an accident.

...This is the most curse-like one, but it's still far-fetched.

"And then, on the next year...

This time, the priest of this shrine contracted an unknown illness and suddenly died."

"...This may sound a little rude, but the old priest was kind of a wait-and-see type.

The whole village was in an uproar about the dam, but he just kind of didn't seem to want to bother.

The shrine was the symbol of the opposition movement, and its priest—well, his attitude worked against him.

...The villagers at the time had hoped for a leader, but their hopes were betrayed. Some people were apparently pretty angry, too.

So at the time, all the older people were like:

'This is Oyashiro-sama's curse.'

That's what they said."

......It did seem like every year, dam-related people the village had resentment towards were dying. It was pretty creepy.

"Oh, and also...

It's interesting. All of these incidents and accidents always happen on the night of the Watanagashi Festival."

"...What...!?"

"See? ...Starting to sound like a curse now, isn't it?"

"Then the year after that...

In other words, last year.

The sister-in-law of the man who was the leader of the dam proponents—the one who accidentally died—was discovered dead, having been beaten to death.

Of course, they caught that criminal."

"See?

Really seems like a curse, huh?"

...Four years in a row.

...Each one of the incidents and accidents were relatively commonplace,

but every single one of them happening on the night of the festival worshipping Oyashiro-sama? That's not normal.

"...The old folks have been blindly accepting Oyashiro-sama's curse because of the incidents these past few years...

Even younger people, too. At first they thought it was stupid, but now nobody makes fun of it."

Yeah, I can see where she's coming from.

...Even me. Even if I didn't think there was a curse at all, thinking about all the incidents like this makes me feel like... maybe it's real?

"For example, just look at the preparations for the festival you were doing today.

Everything might have gone crazy during the battle against the dam, but just a few years ago, the Watanagashi Festival was never this well-attended."

"Well... I guess you're right.

If we didn't have Oyashiro-sama to talk about, we wouldn't all be coming to a festival like this, huh?

There's a lot of people who say that infidels might be punished, so they really need to go to Oyashiro-sama's festival."

Shion nodded as if she were mocking herself.

"So how about now?

Keiichi-kun... You're starting to get the feeling that maybe, just maybe, the curse is real, aren't you?"

......I mean... You can't just laugh off people related to the dam construction project all dying like that.

If even I feel like this now, then the more superstitious members of the village must feel stronger than that.

"......Well, I mean...

...I still don't think there's a curse.

I can understand those that believe there is, though."

"Wow, Kei-chan!

You can really keep a cool head about this."

Shion grinned, realizing I'd rejected the curse.

"If it's neither a curse nor a coincidence...

then...

what should we make of these incidents?"

Takano-san said, smiling playfully, as if posing a riddle.

Neither a curse, nor a coincidence...

But every year, someone dies.

...What should we make of that, then...?

Tomitake-san, catching on to the fact that I had no idea what to make of it, opened his mouth and came to my aid.

"......Takano-san is suggesting that it might be the work of real people."

Eh!?

...Simple process of elimination would have gotten me there. I was a little taken aback at not having realized the answer immediately.

"Well, think about it.

If it's neither a curse nor coincidence, then people must be willingly carrying it out. It's the only explanation, right?"

Takano-san pressed on. I smiled bitterly in spite of myself.

Here I was just a few minutes ago, thinking the very concept of a curse was absolutely absurd.

When she suggested it was someone's doing, I ended up thinking... there wasn't any way it could be a person.

But Takano-san was right.

It was either a curse or it was a person's doing.

If unrealistic things like curses didn't exist... then the obvious next step would be to start thinking it was people behind it.

...But if that was the case...

I glanced at Shion...

"...If the culprit is a person, then they'd have to be someone from Hinamizawa.

That's what the police officer, Ooishi-san, thinks right now, too."

"......H-Hey, wait...

That can't... be..."

I thought I now knew the reason Mion didn't want to talk about this.

...If Oyashiro-sama's curse really existed... then that's fine.

It would be divine judgment for the dam project business.

However... if Oyashiro-sama's curse didn't exist (which it obviously didn't)... then the culprit would most likely be someone from Hinamizawa.

The villagers had worked desperately to oppose the dam construction project...

I knew they had used all sorts of methods to fight against it.

......If one of those methods was...

...maybe......

"People whisper that Oyashiro-sama's curse could be the doing of a secret group in the dam resistance movement."

...Shion dryly put words to my exact thoughts.

Of course, I didn't expect it.

...She was from Hinamizawa, so I didn't think she'd come out and say it herself.

"...If you calm down and think about it, anyone would come to the same conclusion.

There wouldn't be a motive for anyone but people who benefit from opposing the dam project, right?"

"I-I guess that's true..."

Admitting to the existence of a darker side of the dam conflict would be rude to Mion, who spoke of it so highly.

So I couldn't just accept Shion's seemingly-logical viewpoint...

"One more thing... the police probably don't know this.

...There's proof that someone from Hinamizawa committed these crimes, and the people of Hinamizawa know it."

"...Eh? ...What!?"

Shion rebukes me to keep my voice down.

"...S-Sorry...

......but, this proof...

What is it...?"

"It's the fact that one person dies, and one more person disappears."

One more person... disappears.

......Did that mean that someone besides the one who died from the curse was a sacrifice...?

"What do you mean by 'disappear'...?

...They just vanish and you never see them again?"

"That's right.

Suddenly and without a trace."

As she spoke, Shion pretended to do a trick with her hands like she were making a magician's hat disappear.

One dies a mysterious death, and one disappears, never to be seen again.

......A strange vanishing act.

But then why... How does that equate to someone from Hinamizawa being the culprit...?

"Well, actually...

Hinamizawa has this one reeeeally old legend.

...It's about how people offer sacrifices to Oyashiro-sama to calm his wrath."

"S-Sacrifices...!?"

"Yes.

They say they used to wrap a living person up in a bamboo mat and let them slowly sink down into a bottomless swamp."

Takano-san, though explaining something pretty terrible... has a look of glee on her face as she did so.

"As far as I can glean from the literature, it actually took three days and three nights for them to sink.

...See? Even people a long time ago liked symbolism.

As the body sunk, Oyashiro-sama's anger would be quelled.

Both were submerged into the deep.

...Heeheehee."

Takano-san was the only one laughing at this. Was she telling a joke or something?

Shion didn't move to deny it, but I felt a difference in temperature between her cool expression and Takano-san's.

"This whole conversation... Well, I think you can imagine after hearing it, but it's the secret history of Hinamizawa.

Everyone who has been in Hinamizawa for a long time knows it, but they don't talk about it."

"Takano-san's not from here, but she knows quite a lot.

She really likes local history, folk legends... stuff like that.

She learned about it all by herself, too."

"I'm really not all that amazing.

Just curious, that's all.

...Like a child.

I just want to see scary things for the fun of it."

Tomitake-san laughed, a little bit embarrassed.

"W-Wait a minute.

...What does that mean? The other person who disappears during the incidents... You're saying they're offered as a sacrifice!?"

"Yeah."

Shion answers in one word before anyone else can speak.

Someone dies, then someone disappears.

"...Hmm...

Well, whether they actually get sacrificed or not is a different issue.

But every time something happened in the past, one person died, and one other person disappeared.

...For example, the first one, where the dam site manager was killed. Apparently one of the people responsible for that still hasn't been arrested."

"...Couldn't that... couldn't that just mean he managed to get away?

I don't see why we should treat him as a sacrifice..."

"Well, that's basically what I think, too.

...There was also the year after that, with the leader of the dam proponents."

"Err... You said he fell from a cliff and died while on vacation, right?"

"Apparently his wife fell as well.

The police investigated fervently, but they were never able to find the wife's corpse."

"The river under the cliff was actually pretty high at the time, though.

She could have just been buried under the sand at the bottom of some lake downstream or something."

The perpetrator of a dismemberment like that wouldn't want to be caught, so they'd be desperate to run away and hide, too.

I thought I'd heard about cases where the corpse wouldn't surface after the person drowned in a swelled river like that.

...She vanished because of an unfortunate accident, but I still didn't see the connection to sacrifices...

......If you took each of the past incidents in turn, none of the disappearances evoked that terrifying of an image.

"The year after that, with the priest suddenly falling ill and dying, is much clearer.

His wife left a suicide note.

They found it in their house the night the priest died. It said something along the lines of her quelling Oyashiro-sama's wrath through her death."

......The curse... It seems to turn up in this one, though...

"Well, we may never know the truth of the matter.

The swamp the wife drowned herself in was the giant, bottomless one Takano mentioned before.

The police investigated it, but all they could find were several of her possessions—they never found the corpse.

The police suspect it was a faked suicide, and they're still investigating it now."

......Someone dies every year, and in the same way, someone goes missing every year.

Is she trying to tell me that everyone who vanished was kidnapped by some extremely efficient means and dumped into the bottomless swamp, still alive, and drowned to death...?

But a curse? That's unbelievable in its own right.

"And the next year... what was it, the dam proponent's sister-in-law?

She was killed."

So... at that time, someone else... 'vanished'?

"Someone did disappear.

...It was a boy around my age named Satoshi Houjou.

He's the nephew by marriage of the woman killed."

Shion cut in with a slightly strong tone of voice.

...She knew the boy who had disappeared pretty well... At least, that's the vibe I was getting.

"Well, that about sums everything up.

One person always dies, and one person always suddenly disappears."

...Leaving the suddenness aside...

...The fact was that each incident involved one person disappearing.

"Err... So, that means...

The first person who dies is because of Oyashiro-sama's curse, and the second person who vanishes is because the villagers sacrifice them? Is that it...!?"

"Kei-chan, there is no curse.

......Somebody kills the first person under the guise of the curse, and someone takes away the second person to be a sacrifice."

"But, Shion, that means... That means the criminal is in the village!"

"That's what I've been guessing from the start.

...It's pretty shocking, though, you know?

We live in the Showa period. It's kinda hard to believe people are committing murder like it's nothing, using some ancient justifications, huh?"

...It didn't have anything to do with our discussion... but I got the feeling that maybe Shion didn't like Hinamizawa very much.

Mion enjoyed talking about Hinamizawa and its 'epic tales.'

So she had avoided talking about Oyashiro-sama's curse, which didn't paint Hinamizawa in a good light no matter how you looked at it.

She was trying not to give me a bad impression of the village, so she didn't say anything.

...Shion, on the other hand, was somehow different.

She wasn't rejecting the concept of a curse to purge Hinamizawa of this bad impression, but rather because she strongly believed that a member of the village was the criminal behind this.

...Her conviction seemed a bit removed from the tight sense of community held by the people of Hinamizawa.

Once upon a time, they looked so alike you could mistake one for the other

...but talking to her now, I was getting a powerful feeling that Shion had a completely different personality than Mion.

"......Then everyone else... they all think someone from Hinamizawa did it, right...?"

Neither Shion nor Takano-san answered that.

The deafening silence told me all that needed to be said...

"...Then let me ask another question.

If someone from Hinamizawa is the culprit, then who is it?"

Neither Shion nor Takano-san had a reply to that question, either.

...Though it may have been rude to ask, I had hoped they wouldn't have one.

...The reason I asked was to argue that their explanation that the culprit was from Hinamizawa was nothing more than one possibility.

Shion caught on to my plan. She gave a pained smile at my petty spite and opened her mouth to speak.

"All I said really just amounts to circumstantial evidence, anyway.

If any of us knew who it really was, we'd have gotten them into police hands already."

As would anybody.

......Then what about Takano-san?

She, too, smiled dryly as Shion had and opened her own mouth.

"...Umm, well.

I'd like to clear one thing up.

I'm not a detective or anything, all right?

In all honesty, I'm not really interested in who the culprit is."

"Ahahahahaha. ...Takano-san, you sure are a handful."

Tomitake-san gives a bitter laugh at her surprising opinion on the matter.

"You see...

I just like cruel and atrocious ancient traditions and fairy tales.

I only enjoy them from a curious onlooker's perspective.

So even for this string of incidents, it's not so much finding out who the culprit is, but enjoying thinking about how the old traditions displayed by the incidents themselves still seems to have some pretty deep roots around here..."

Though she described herself as nothing more than a curious onlooker, her smile was as sharp as the tip of a blade... Women like her felt very strange and a little scary to me.

...Maybe it's just that I was in fearful awe of the person whose emotions I couldn't comprehend.

"Well, I don't think any of this is 'interesting' at all.

The Watanagashi Festival is coming up tomorrow, but I don't want anyone to die, or disappear."

"...Tomorrow, huh......"

That's right.

...It had completely slipped my mind.

...The string of murder incidents people attributed to Oyashiro-sama's curse—it wasn't over.

If last year's incident wasn't the end, then tomorrow night at the festival... would someone die, and someone disappear...?

"I do wonder who will die tomorrow and who will disappear, though."

Takano-san said, running a comb through her hair with elegant movements... with a thin smile and a voice that nearly made me shudder.

She almost looked like she was enjoying the thought of the incidents that could happen tomorrow...

Then, out of the blue, we heard a loud round of applause. They seemed to be ending the drinking party early.

Right, I was making Mion wait this whole time, wasn't I?

...I should go back to her soon...

"You're teasing the kid too much, Takano-san.

Now Keiichi-kun thinks it's all true."

"Heehee. I apologize.

It's that bad habit of mine again..."

said Takano-san, sticking out her tongue bashfully. The strangeness in her expression was nowhere to be found.

"When Takano-san sees an innocent child like you, she can't help wanting to poke fun at them. It's a real bad habit.

Keiichi-kun, you listen to everything so earnestly that she ended up getting carried away."

Unlike Takano-san, Tomitake-san seemed like a totally normal person with common sense.

They were apologizing after realizing what kind of impression they'd given me.

"The stuff Takano-san just said is all fiction.

If it made you harbor any bad impressions about Hinamizawa, then we apologize for that."

"...Geez, Jirou-san."

"You apologize too, Takano-san.

Tell him you're sorry for scaring him!"

Takano-san and Tomitake-san were arguing and messing around now...

The strained air around us had already dissipated.

"Kei-chan, you should get going soon, too.

Mion is the jealous type.

If she sees me she'll probably start a fight, so I'll just be going home."

"Really?

Then I'll go see what Mion's doing and apologize for making her wait, I guess..."

"Sorry for being such a nuisance, Keiichi-kun.

Could you tell Mion-chan we're sorry for borrowing you for so long?"

"Ah, yes. I don't think telling her will make her feel any better, but sure."

Tomitake-san and Takano-san, standing next to each other, both began to chuckle.

"Okay then, Kei-chan.

...Let's try and run into each other at tomorrow's festival!"

"We'll see each other.

I mean, it's us we're talking about, after all.

We'll be making so much trouble it'll be hard for you not to find us."

Shion and I said our goodbyes to Tomitake-san and Takano-san.

...Before we could leave, Takano-san called out to us.

"Thanks for listening so earnestly to what I had to say.

You're just so good at listening. I had a great time talking to you."

"Good at listening...? No, not at all..."

I was just in a state of perpetual bewilderment from all the shocking topics being thrown at me one after another.

"Did you like my story today?"

"......Well... It was pretty interesting."

"Then I'll tell you some more sometime, okay?

There's a lot of pretty interesting legends and fairy tales about Hinamizawa.

Of course, a lot of strange and creepy ones, too.

I'll choose a bunch of my favorites and tell you about them."

I was kind of happy, but kind of worried...

I can't help but smile dryly and scratch at my head.

"Keiichi-kun, you can go now.

Takano-san is just messing with you."

They say goodbye again and run off.

I heard Tomitake-san call out behind him in a clear voice that we would see each other at the festival tomorrow.

When I went to the tent Mion was waiting for me in... she was nowhere to be found.

I made her wait so long... Maybe she got mad and went home...

After asking some adults passing by, I heard that she went home, talking to some relatives.

...Maybe I shouldn't have done that.

But my regret for having made Mion wait...

...wasn't enough to triumph over the impression Takano-san and Shion's uncanny story left on me.

Serial murder incidents had happened four years in a row.

...Would tomorrow's events make this the fifth?

And... the possibility that someone from Hinamizawa was carrying this all out under the guise of the curse.

The queer tradition of ritual sacrifice, entirely unbecoming of the Showa period we lived in.

I regretted it a little, though it was too late.

...If none of those creepy stories had anything to do with me...

...then I should have let Mion pull me away from that crowd.

I felt a little ashamed about letting my cheap curiosity get the better of me......