...I saw a ceiling I was familiar with.

...Though I was groggy from sleep, I did notice that I was in my futon, like I was every morning.

I looked at my clock... and despite having turned in so late last night, I had awoken at precisely the same moment I always did.

I'm so low on sleep... but I guess you really can get up at the same time every day.

...The secrets of the human body never ceased to amaze me...

If I went back to sleep like this, I would definitely not be waking up again.

...I spurred myself on and slipped out of my futon.

Mom asked me about last night at breakfast.

......Apparently we, too, had gotten a call asking if we knew where Rika-chan and Satoko were, and Mom vaguely understood that something serious was happening.

"...So then, you were out late last night with all your friends looking for them?"

"............Until about three, I think.

.........Yeah."

"...Did you find them?

Rika-chan and Satoko-chan, I mean."

Crunch.

......I wearily bit into my toast.

...It really didn't have any taste.

Just then, we heard the chime go ding-dong.

I looked up at the clock and saw that it was about five minutes past my regular meeting time with Rena.

...It was her at the door.

"...Good morning.

...Did you get any sleep? Did you?"

"...I think I slept for a few hours...

You could probably count them on a chicken's toes, though."

"Ahahahaha."

Rena seemed pretty sleep-deprived as well.

...There was something missing from her usual spirit.

"...Are you... going to school?"

"Yeah...

......I think it would be better that way."

She said, smiling, albeit stiffly.

...Rena was probably worrying her heart out about those two as well.

...Even so, she wanted to go to school.

"...If you stay home today, I think you'd just be worrying non-stop and sleeping.

...I don't want that.

...So let's go to school together."

".........All right.

Wait just a moment.

I'll get ready."

I was... just a little bit happy about Rena mustering that much consideration for me.

We went to the place where we'd usually meet up with Mion, but she was nowhere to be found.

...We were a little bit late today, so we thought she'd be waiting for us...

"...I guess Mii-chan couldn't wake up today, huh?"

"Ah... that's right.

...For her, it wasn't just yesterday.

...She was up all night looking for the mayor the night before last, too..."

We waited for a bit.

...Time passed until it got to the point where it was okay for us to go on alone, and we exchanged glances.

"What do we do...?

Wait a little longer?"

At that point, my brain, which had finally been woken up by the morning air... recalled the ominous words Ooishi-san had left me with last night.

......The leaders of the Three Families were disappearing one after the other.

...And next... it might be the Sonozaki's leader.

Could Mion have............ No, that couldn't be...

"......Let's go.

Let's let her sleep for today."

Rena gave me a pat on the back.

"...Mion...

...She's still here, right?"

"Hm?

Did you say something?"

"Oh... nothing, just talking to myself.

...Let's get moving."

The two of us headed to school by ourselves.

On the way, we saw a bunch of our classmates accompanied by their parents.

...It even looked like some of them were being taken to school by car.

Surprisingly, the principal was also standing watch at the school gate.

I'd never seen that before.

"Good morning."

"Good morning."

The principal was bowing to our classmates' guardians.

...The wooden sword leaning next to him was a little ominous.

"Maebara-kun, good morning.

Ryuugu-kun, good morning."

"...G-Good morning."

"Your teacher has something important to say, so head straight to the classroom.

...All right?"

Rena and I said nothing.

......The madness that only existed at night had finally crawled out into the sunlight...

...That's what it felt like.

"Good morning everyone."

The hushed conversations that had been spreading for a while now all disappeared like an illusion the moment our teacher walked in the door.

...Silence dominated the classroom.

The principal came in with our teacher as well.

...This was clearly not a normal morning.

"...First, the principal has something important to tell everyone.

...Go ahead, Mr. Principal."

The principal cleared his throat and approached the dais.

"......I'm sure some of you already know this."

...The classroom was dead silent.

...Everyone was staring at Rika-chan and Satoko's empty seats.

The principal briefly and simply declared... that Rika-chan and Satoko had gone missing.

...There wasn't a single person in the classroom who didn't already know.

...There seemed to be many, however... who couldn't accept it as the truth.

It had been confirmed to them now by the principal's words.

...There were sobs throughout the classroom... and I heard a kid crying.

...They steadily spread throughout the whole room...

...The big-hearted principal wasn't able to keep his cool, either.

"Okay, everyone, pay attention!

From today on, your parents or guardians will be taking you to school.

For those of you whose parents can't do so, you'll be coming here in groups.

I made a handout, so read it carefully, and be sure to show it to your parents.

Understand?"

The teacher's voice was a little abrasive.

...Not even she could conceal the strain she felt from this unprecedented, abnormal situation...

They should have just cancelled school today.

However, Rena told me that the school was also like a nursery for the students whose parents both worked, so some of them wouldn't want school to be cancelled.

"Well then, let's begin the lesson.

...Class president... she's absent, I see.

Then whoever is on day duty, let me hear it!"

"All rise!"

That feeling of wanting to maintain an everyday atmosphere, even if only in school, precisely because our lives had been messed up... was something that I agreed with at this point.

As for the teacher, who always had her lunch in the staff lounge, she ate in the classroom today.

......I had to laugh at her curry bento—which was just a rumor until now—but there was nobody to laugh with me.

Rena brought her chair and lunch over to my seat.

...Today... it was only the two of us.

...The fact that we didn't need to drag any other desks over... was sad.

"...I'm sleepy."

"...Yeah.

...I don't feel like sleeping anymore, though.

...In fact, I'm jealous of the people that could sleep at a time like this. They've got nerves of steel."

"Ahahaha, you're right."

I was sleepy this morning... but my drowsiness had dissipated after coming to school and constantly feeling the incredible tension.

Rena's bento box didn't have its usual luster.

...That was to be expected.

Rena was up for a long time last night, too.

...She wouldn't have had time to make her lunch beforehand.

Since it's not like she would have gotten up early this morning...

"...Grab anything you want.

Go ahead, you can admit that my bento is better today."

"O-Okay... then I'll have some.

...Wow, a chikuwa roll with perilla and cheese? That's interesting."

"Rena, yours might have ready-made food in it, but it's pretty good too."

...I realized the two of us were desperately trying to brighten the afternoon mood to its usual level as much as we could.

...I looked around the classroom... and it seemed like we were the only ones trying to do so, surrounded as we were by gloominess.

"......Ufufu!

Just the two of us sharing our lunches like this... It's sort of...

well...

.........sort of like something!

...Hau~"

"Hahaha... haha..."

"............Ahahaha."

Our laughter... grew quieter.

...I was the first one to mess up...

"Sorry.

...I mean... well, I'm sorry."

"......No, it's okay.

...It's not your fault."

Our chopsticks... both stopped moving.

...We couldn't keep it up any more.

"...Rika-chan, Satoko...

I wonder where they went."

Those words might have sounded too miserable.

...Everyone was thinking it, using roundabout ways to address the topic... but I came right out and said it.

I heard Rena catch her breath...

"............Yesterday, while you were gone, I heard a bunch of things... so I'll tell you what I know, okay?"

".........Sorry again about last night.

...Go ahead."

At that time, since they had arrived for support, Rena was helping the ladies' society cook the miso soup we'd had.

They reported all of the information the villagers had gathered, and Rena said she overheard it.

"...They didn't know anything important, though, did they?

Rika-chan and Satoko went home after school, and then apparently went somewhere on their bikes, but other than that..."

Mion had told me yesterday.

...We had no clues.

"...Yeah.

...The police also said that they probably went out on their bikes to go play somewhere as soon as they got home.

...If they were going out to play somewhere on their bikes right after getting home...

then they might have gone into town.

...So I guess they concluded they disappeared while in Okinomiya.

The police were saying how they were going to expand their search to Okinomiya in the morning."

In town...

......It'd make sense why we couldn't find them even though we searched all of Hinamizawa, then.

...Still... something didn't fit.

......I had no basis for thinking that... just a gut feeling.

I revealed something to Rika-chan that was likely very important to her that day.

...Then, Rika-chan had told me to leave it to her.

...And then... err, what did she say...

Oh, right—if she didn't work hard, then something bad might happen to the dog, too. I think.

With all the talk of dogs and cats... I still didn't have the faintest idea what she really meant, but... it might have been Rika-chan's way of saying this was a race against time.

...Damn it!!!

I'd selfishly pushed my anxiety on Rika-chan... and tried to run away!

When I thought about it... I shouldn't have run back then.

I should have asked her more... about the dogs and cats.

...The more I think back on it... I really screwed up!!

...Anyway... I don't think Rika-chan was in a situation where she would just go off to play somewhere.

...Of course, I didn't have any evidence or conviction to base that on.

It was just a hunch.

".........I don't think...

I don't think she'd go into town."

"You think so too, Keiichi-kun?

I agree.

Rika-chan and Satoko-chan must have disappeared in Hinamizawa."

I looked back at Rena, startled.

...I could hear the conviction in those words.

Without replying to my gaze, she took her bento box and went to the hallway.

"...I'm going to go rinse this out."

She timed that in a way that broke off the conversation.

...Suddenly, I got the feeling that the next thing she had to say would be hard to say aloud in the classroom.

I hurriedly grabbed my bento box and followed her.

...Rena didn't go to the kitchenette, but rather to the water fountains out back, where students seldom went.

...The water flowed down onto our bento boxes.

...During that time, Rena didn't say a word.

Then, after making sure there were no other students around, she finally opened her mouth to speak.

"...The whole thing about Rika-chan and Satoko-chan going to town to play and then disappearing...

that didn't make sense for some reason...... so I decided to investigate a little bit myself."

"...Who did you ask?

What did you ask them about?"

"I asked the ladies' society all kinds of things.

...There was a lot of tofu in the miso soup yesterday, remember?

...The old lady from the Tomita Tofu shop came, too."

......The Tomita Tofu shop...

...Oh, I remember.

That was one of the stores on the road leading to the hospital.

Those huge lumps of tofu dancing in the bathtub-like cistern always looked nice and refreshing.

"The old lady says she remembers Satoko-chan stopping to buy tofu there on her way home from school."

"...Tofu?

Well, it's on the way home, right?

How is that a clue?"

"Just listen!

...Do you remember when we went to Rika-chan's house?"

Rena stepped away from the sinks and spread her arms wide to recreate the space of Rika-chan's room.

"......There was a pot on her gas cooker, and there was miso soup in it.

I think there was probably about half of it inside.

The rest was in the refrigerator.

They must have been planning to make chilled tofu.

It was on a plate in plastic wrap."

As Rena explained, she walked around, as if she were really going through Rika-chan's room.

"Still, Rena... why does this matter?"

"Keiichi-kun.

When you make miso soup, you put the tofu in last.

That means that Rika-chan, or Satoko-chan, whoever was cooking, was standing there making it up until right before dinnertime."

"Right up until...

dinnertime...?!"

Wasn't everyone saying... that their bikes weren't around, so they must have gone somewhere to play by themselves...?!

"The trash in the countertop bin was put in there really awkwardly, too.

...Rika-chan makes most of their food and lunches, but occasionally Satoko-chan does it too.

So Satoko-chan was cooking that night."

"...So that means...

...that Satoko, at least, didn't go somewhere to play...

She was preparing dinner...?!"

"Yeah.

Then I took a look at the rice cooker, and...

...there was rice for two still in there."

"...So she made dinner for both of them, but neither of them ate it.

...Is that it?"

Rena nodded.

"So next I looked in the fridge.

There was some chilled tofu, made from the other half that they bought.

That's not all, either.

There were a whole bunch of plates with side dishes for dinner, and all of them were in plastic wrap."

...You usually plastic wrap things so that you can have leftovers for the next day.

...My mom does it all the time, too, using them in breakfast or lunch.

"That's right.

You use plastic wrap to save leftovers for later.

...So the fact that they were in the fridge means that they didn't plan on eating them that night, at least."

"...Umm...

...Is that what it means...?"

"Keiichi-kun.

Think a little harder.

...Their dinner was totally untouched and wrapped up.

What do you think that means?"

"......Umm...

...Well...

...That means they didn't need to eat dinner anymore.

...So they would have gone out to eat, or ordered takeout."

"It must have been really sudden, too.

If they had decided to do that beforehand, they wouldn't have made anything, but...

...there was dinner for the two of them.

That means that when Satoko-chan was making their dinner, they really thought they were going to eat it until right before they didn't."

"...So, then...

the theory about the two of them going out to play and then disappearing...

is wrong..!!"

"Yep.

...They disappeared after making dinner, and right before they ate it.

...Probably around seven o'clock."

"......Where would they have gone at a time like that by themselves without eating...?"

"That's obviously where this is leading.

...Keiichi-kun, do you remember?

On their foldout table, there were things like soy sauce and a chopstick holder."

...There might have been something like that.

...I didn't remember.

"The container for the soy sauce...

it was empty.

There wasn't even a drop left.

Chilled tofu wouldn't taste good without it.

So I looked under their sink for the larger bottle of soy sauce they have."

"...You sure know a lot about where they keep stuff."

"Ahahaha, I've been to Rika-chan's house and cooked for them before."

Rena cleared her throat, her face returning to a serious expression.

"Then when I opened the cabinet, the big bottle of soy sauce wasn't there at all."

"...It wasn't there... Wh-What does that mean...?"

"Everything I'm going to say from here on is just Rena's idea.

......So please listen until the end without saying anything."

...Last night.

Satoko was making dinner like normal.

Rika-chan usually watched TV until the food was ready, so she was probably lying down watching a variety show or something.

Satoko put the tofu in the miso soup, and right when dinner was about to be ready, she noticed that they were out of soy sauce.

So Rika-chan, who had nothing to do, brought the big bottle of soy sauce to a neighbor's house to borrow theirs.

"...I don't really know my neighbors that well... Would people be willing to just give her soy sauce?"

"Yeah.

It's not all that uncommon in Hinamizawa."

So Rika-chan rode her bike out to get some soy sauce.

No matter how long Satoko-chan waited, though, Rika-chan didn't come back.

So then Satoko-chan called up the house where Rika-chan was going.

...Would Rika happen to be imposing on you?

Something like that.

Then the other person must have replied with something like this.

"'...We have plenty of food here, so you should come too, Satoko-chan.

Rika-chan has already eaten.'

...I think that's how they called her out there."

Satoko called Rika a few names in private and wrapped up the dinner she had made for them.

She put it in the fridge so she could use it for breakfast and lunch the next day.

Then Satoko got on her bike too...

and headed for the house where Rika-chan was.

"Okay, but... this is already pretty strange.

You don't normally make so much food that you can give it to people who suddenly arrived at your house."

A veteran housewife would never normally make so much food that she could feed two extra people.

"...Could it have just been a coincidence that they made too much...?"

"It's still unthinkable."

Rena flatly denied me.

"Since... Rika-chan knew that Satoko-chan had worked really hard to make dinner for them, didn't she?!

No matter what kind of food she was offered, she wouldn't let Satoko-chan's dinner go to waste."

...This was all only circumstantial evidence and Rena's guesswork.

...Even so, it was all... extremely convincing.

It was the only ray of hope we had to topple this situation bereft of clues.

"...Then, Rena.

...Where did Rika-chan go... to get soy sauce?!"

That was the heart of it...!!

It would have to be somewhere she'd be comfortable with asking for soy sauce...

and somewhere Satoko wouldn't think it suspicious that she'd been invited for dinner.

...So, who was it?!

Rena slowly shook her head...

"......That's all for Rena's guesses.

...These are all just ideas, okay?

Keep them a secret from the police."

"What is there to hide...?

Even if only half of what you say is right, it should be a good clue for all this..."

"Keiichi-kun.

...This all means suspecting someone from Hinamizawa.

...We can't suspect anyone without a really good reason."

............

I saw a few girls coming over to rinse out their bento boxes.

...Rena cut the conversation short there and returned to the classroom.

I stayed there alone, my body bathed in the lively voices of the cicadas...

...Let's think about this.

...In my own way.

...Rena had barely any information to go on, and yet she'd reasoned out that much.

...So there should be something that only I, who knew far more than Rena did, could deduce...

Ooishi-san said this last night too, but this incident was definitely occurring within Hinamizawa.

...Rena might not have wanted to believe it, but it's basically a given that the culprit is someone from the village.

The trigger for everything was when the four of us trespassed in the forbidden storehouse.

Somebody saw us going in there.

For the culprits, breaking the taboo was a crime punishable by death.

...So that night, Tomitake-san and Takano-san were sacrificed.

There were two left.

...Shion and myself.

However, before the culprits bore their fangs on Shion and me... they went after the mayor, to whom Shion had confessed her sin.

Next... they went for Rika-chan, to whom I'd confessed my sin...

...Then what about Satoko?

...Just a stray bullet...?

By itself, Rika-chan being sacrificed after I'd told her everything was mortifying...

but Satoko, who was sacrificed for no reason... wasn't that all the more regrettable?

...Everything... was my fault...!!

Who would be the next to disappear?

Would it be... Shion and me next time...?

...Why... Why weren't the culprits going for Shion and me right away, though?

If they had enough power to erase the mayor and Rika-chan, then why not just get rid of Shion and me?

If they went for us... well, I wouldn't like it, but I could still tolerate it.

......What I couldn't forgive was them getting rid of those we'd confessed to.

...Now that I think of it...

...yesterday, Shion said something alarming—she felt like someone was watching her.

......So then... was someone watching me as well...?

Strangely, though... I hadn't felt anything like that until now.

...Even though I'm the root cause of everything, I had never once had that impression.

Maybe that was simply because Shion was more cautious than me, and I was just careless.

......That's another story, though.

...Let's get back on track.

Why weren't the culprits going after Shion and me?

......I felt like that's where the key to this lay.

...Could it be...

Was I making a big assumption that I shouldn't have been...?

............

I thought and thought, but couldn't come up with an answer.

The one thing I understood...

was that I was a concerned party to this case...

and that I had a duty to watch over it until everything got resolved.

I heard the ring of the bell declaring the end of lunch break...

Would somebody else disappear tonight?

...If nobody else did...

then I wanted them to get rid of me tonight for sure...

...and then put an end to all of this.

Shion's hysterical voice on the phone last night came back to mind.

...They planned to murder those close to us first, make us as miserable as possible, and only then would they kill us...

"Maebara-kun, lunch break is over.

Go back to the classroom."

At the principal's urging, I returned to the classroom, which was quiet as the streets at night...