Ooishi stopped the car at the place where we always waited for Mion.
Come to think of it... I've never been to Mion's house before.
...I've only heard that it's right down this road.
"...This is as far as I can take you.
According to our information, there are quite a few security cameras set up on the premises.
Still, don't worry.
I've got a bunch of youngsters ready and waiting to slip past them and go in.
We'll be monitoring the inside with a one-way mic, so if you two give a loud scream, we'll know right away."
"...We'll persuade her for sure, so please be ready for her to turn herself in."
...In both our eyes... was determination.
...It was the only method available to us for lightening the sins of our good friend.
"Be plenty careful, you hear?
You probably don't believe it right now... but I don't want you two being sacrificed if at all possible."
"......You're right about that."
With that rude response, we left the car.
The clinging humidity and voices of the cicadas greeted us.
...I'd never have expected this would be happening today.
"...Let's go,
Keiichi-kun."
Rena took the lead and began to walk...
down the road I'd never been.
"Rena... You've been to Mion's house before, right?"
"Yeah.
A few times.
...It's a really big house.
You could fit a mountain into their backyard, too.
...You can pick mushrooms and stuff, though there are fences everywhere."
......Big enough to fit a mountain... That was amazing.
One of the Three Families controlling Hinamizawa... and the head family of the Sonozaki clan.
...Perhaps there was something to be said about its magnitude.
The path continued onward, level and uneventful.
There were metal fences along its edges, and beyond them were woods with trees growing thickly.
The fences were high.
...The tops of them bent inwards, sticking out like sharp spears.
Plus, there was dangerous-looking barbed wire wrapping them.
...No one could look at them and not feel intimidated.
In addition, there were signboards hung up here and there along the fence.
'Private property of the Sonozaki family! Entrance forbidden!'
'Beware of venomous snakes!'
'Active security cameras.
Intruders will be charged an entry fee of 1,000,000 yen.'
"...This forest... or should I say, mountain...
...Is this all their yard?"
"It's more like... their domain.
As you can see, it's private property, but nobody maintains it.
The forest isn't really the kind that you can go hiking in..."
She could say that again.
It really did feel like a neglected, savage woodland.
It was dark and damp... and certainly not a forest that made you want to go for a nice walk.
...Maybe that's just what happens when a landowner has too much land.
Like Ooishi-san said, there were security cameras hung up all over the place.
...Though they had been weathered by wind and rain, casting doubt as to whether they were even functional.
"...I wonder if Mion is watching us... as we come to her."
"I don't think she is.
...The only people living in Mii-chan's house are generally her and her grandma, after all.
There's nobody to watch the cameras."
...What a useless security system.
".........Well, Mii-chan's father... seems like a pretty tough person to get along with.
So whenever everyone in the family is getting together, the cameras are apparently working properly."
...That's right.
Mion's father... He was a big-shot yakuza, wasn't he?
Rena smoothly danced around the answer as she explained.
At last... a huge gate, as big as I'd imagined, appeared.
Was she living by herself with her grandmother... in a house with such a grand gateway...?
"...I wonder if she's here."
Beeeeeeep.
The old buzzer made a dull sound.
...Was it cut off in the middle and not getting to the house...?
We waited long enough without a response for me to start thinking like that.
....However, we finally heard footsteps walking through gravel on the other side of the gate.
...I nervously... balled my hands, my palms now sweating, into fists.
There was the clang of a bolt being released, and the gate opened slightly.
...The person peeking out of the gap... was none other... than Mion.
"...Well, this is unusual.
...Aren't you two going to school?"
Mion didn't seem all that surprised at visitors arriving in the morning, which wasn't a normal time.
...In fact, she almost seemed relaxed, as if she knew we were coming beforehand.
"...We... stayed home today."
"...Hmm.
...Kei-chan is one thing, but you too, Rena?
...You two are such troublemakers."
Mion... smiled lightly... in the way that the Mion we knew always did.
".........Well, let's not just stand here.
Come on in."
She gestured for us to follow her.
...I hesitated for a moment, looking at Rena.
"Let's go."
Rena smiled cheerfully, as if she were passing through the gate of a good friend's house, and then did just that.
...I rally myself and then go through the gate too.
On the other side... It hadn't been maintained very well, but it was clear that the lot was magnificently wide.
...It wasn't quite what you'd think of when you hear 'mansion'... but it was very clearly a vast place.
"Was this the first time you've been here, Kei-chan?"
"Ah... yeah.
...This house is enormous..."
"Steep thatched roofs aren't in fashion anymore.
This place could be a tourist attraction.
I want to rebuild it using totally average and boring reinforced concrete soon."
Mion drily smiled as she said that, then closed the gate and re-locked the heavy bolt.
"Don't worry about it.
Things have been dangerous lately.
Gotta do at least this much during the daytime."
"...Yeah... You're right..."
Maybe it was my imagination, but I thought I saw the hint of a shadow in her smile.
"Well then, good sir and madam, I shall show you inside.
...Please, come this way."
Mion bowed to us like a worker at a high-class hotel, then pivoted on her heel and began to walk.
Rena gripped my stiffening arm lightly.
"...Keiichi-kun, you're too tense.
...We came to see Mii-chan, remember?
You don't need to be that nervous."
...That's right.
When I get nervous, I tend to let everything show on my face.
...I'll stop tensing up.
...Even if something were to happen, there were two of us.
...Ooishi-san's subordinates were waiting outside the gate for us, too.
...There was nothing to worry about...
After thinking about it that much, I realized my nervousness was already gone, and laughed at myself.
"What's this?
...Mion, what's with this stone on top of the newspapers?
It's in the way."
There was a pile of newspapers on the floor of the entrance, and there was a large rock on top of them.
...I didn't understand why something like that was here.
...Rena noticed me looking at it questioningly and giggled.
"Rena, do you know?
What is this?
Some kind of good luck charm?"
"Ahahaha!
If you don't really know, then feel free to move it out of the way and put your shoes there.
Ah-hahahahahaha!"
"Keiichi-kun, there's a nest of swallows right above that stone."
"Huh?
Oh... You're right."
"This house is for people, but swallows still come in without permission and make nests.
It must be like a tradition for them—whenever spring comes, they always make a nest here.
It's kind of annoying, though."
"In other words, it's a sign to not take off your shoes here, because swallow poop could end up in them."
...I couldn't help but laugh at the silly contrivance.
My laughter naturally spread to the other two.
"A really long time ago, the Sonozaki family apparently cultivated silkworms.
Our ancestors would get all worked up over exterminating the swallows.
...When you think of it that way, maybe this is our just desserts.
Ahahahaha!
Anyway, come on in."
The inside of the house wasn't very bright at all.
...It was dimly lit, in fact, but mysteriously, I could still feel an elegance to the place.
...Mion seemed to want a more modern building... but traditional houses like this aren't bad, either...
"You're kidding, right?
There's a terrible draft, and the winters are freezing!
Don't go making my house into property of cultural significance and getting in the way of renovations, got it?
...What I want most is a house like yours, Kei-chan.
I'm pretty jealous of it.
It seems like it would be warm in the winter.
Oh, but snowfall seems like it would be a problem~"
"Snowfall's a problem?
...Does Hinamizawa get that much snow?
...Our latitude is south of Kanto, isn't it? Isn't this region warm?"
"Ahahahaha, you don't know, Keiichi-kun?
Hinamizawa is in an area that gets heavy snowfalls.
When we get a lot, everyone gets buried.
Sometimes you can't even get out of your house."
"Sometimes your car gets totally buried too, and you can't find where it is."
I-I wasn't aware of that!
Hinamizawa... was that bad a place in the winter?!?!
Come to think of it, my dad...
He said something like... this place got plenty of snow, so we could have fun building igloos.
...Still, your front door getting buried? Not being able to find your car??
That's way too much snow!!!
"Ah-hahahaha.
You remember from geography class, right?
The western side of Japan gets cold winds from Asia.
We're different from those softies protected by the mountains, nice and warm by the Pacific Ocean!"
"I'm... totally okay with being a softie, and nice and warm.
I hate the cold~~!!"
"Wah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!
We'll have to have a training camp to get Kei-chan used to the cold this winter, then!"
"No way, no way, there's no way that's happening!!
I hate the cold, and I hate training camps too, and I hate them even more put together!!!"
Mion laughed more uproariously than she ever had, then told us she'd bring out some tea and left her seat for the moment.
"Still,
there's a lot of fun things to do in the winter!
I bet our club will be a blast then!"
"...Our club continuing activities through the winter sounds totally horrible...
...Like swimming in the cold, or marching in the snow!
When did we turn into Mt. Redhorn?!?!"
"...Yeah. There are definitely a lot of tough punishment games for the winter season...
One time she made us have a Rio Carnival in the schoolyard while snow was falling!"
...I see the terror of our club cared not for the season...
...The victor would be decided by who could best adapt to the winter-only events...
"We do snowball fights, and shaved ice eating contests, and treasure hunts in the snow..."
"...Wait, why is everything outside?
Why can't we play tabletop games in a nice, warm room while it's snowing?!"
"Whoa, Keiichi-kun, if you're saying things like that, then you're gonna lose a lot this winter.
...We'll have lots of punishment games, and Rena won't lose. ...Hau!"
"Don't give me that 'hau'!!!!"
I settled things with a cross chop to the head.
"Ahahahaha! You're sure having fun.
Our walls aren't very thick, so be careful not to go flying through any, okay?"
The paper sliding door opened and Mion returned with a pot and a complete tea set.
"Do you want some sesame senbei to go with that?
Sorry we don't have much in the way of bean paste or other good stuff."
"It's okay, it's okay.
We didn't really come here to drink tea anyway..."
And with those words, the smile disappeared from Rena's face.
.........Ah, ...she did it...
...That one careless statement... reminded us of what we had nearly been able to forget.
...I had wanted to enjoy this peaceful time for a little longer... but we put an end to that with those honestly careless words.
When she noticed the smile disappear from Rena's expression, Mion, too... changed hers.
...It was as if the cheerful air... that was like a warm spring day until a moment ago... had slipped through the cracks in the paper door...
and altogether disappeared.
...There was no point... in regretting it now.
...We did not come here today... to chat and enjoy ourselves.
Mion silently poured the tea.
...During that time, both Rena and I sat kneeling without uttering a word.
"Here you are.
Drink up."
We couldn't even mutter a word of acknowledgement at those natural words of courtesy...
"............There's no poison in it or anything.
......Do you distrust me that much?
That's upsetting."
Mion gave a bitter smile at that and let her shoulders droop.
"............"
"............"
"............"
We all remained silent.
...We remained silent... hoping that someone else would speak up first.
That was, however, the one thing we didn't want to do... and so we sat for a long time.
At last, Mion smiled scornfully and opened her mouth to speak.
"...Hey, now, Kei-chan, Rena.
You're the guests.
Didn't you come here for something?
If you don't speak up first, this old man won't know what to do."
Rena and I exchanged glances...
...and we both resigned ourselves.
...Rena opened her mouth to speak first, so I stopped her.
"...Keiichi-kun..."
"It's okay.
......I needed to come here.
...Let me talk first."
"............Okay.
I understand..."
"What would Kei-chan have... to tell me?
'Please give me your daughter's hand in marriage,' maybe?
Ah-hahahaha!
Can't do that!
My little Rena and Kei-chan aren't meant for each other~!
Go wash your face with miso soup and try again later~!!"
...Afterwards, I thought her mean remarks were Mion's own way of showing consideration.
...Mion had said those mean things in a totally normal voice... and it drained the tension from my shoulders...
"............Mion.
...First.........
I have something to apologize for."
"............You do?
...What for?"
Mion pretended that she didn't know what I was talking about, but I'd clearly gotten my point across...
"...Well, on the night of Watanagashi.
......The... ritual storehouse behind the shrine...
I went in there."
"............"
I could see Mion's expression immediately become harder.
"............I knew it was somewhere I wasn't supposed to go, but...
it was just supposed to be a little bit of exploration... We didn't mean anything by it.
...Even so... I still shouldn't have done it...
......So I apologize.
...I'm sorry..."
To display my deepest sincerity... I pressed my forehead to the table.
...I'd meant it as my way of prostrating myself.
...I figured it wouldn't feel sincere enough if I raised my head right away... so I left it there on the table for a while.
Mion didn't say anything.
...With my face down, I couldn't tell what sort of expression Mion had.
......Only the voices of the cicadas filled the room.
...Mixed with them, I could hear the sound of the clock ticking.
...That was all.
When I started to struggle to breathe from having my head down for so long, Mion told me to stop.
"...You got me there.
...I didn't expect you to pitch it to me straight.
...You've got me on the ropes."
I looked up to see that Mion's face was calm, but she was smiling faintly.
"...If you understand that even though it was only a casual exploration for you, Kei-chan... that there are a lot of people who think it's no laughing matter...
...then it's okay.
There's an old saying... when in Rome, do as the Romans do."
"......It's been... days since then.
...It may be too late, but I apologize.
...What I did was wrong.
...Please, forgive me........."
...I could feel pitiful tears welling up within me.
...If I had done this sooner... maybe nothing terrible would have happened......
"......It's okay.
If you know what you did was bad, then that's enough, right?"
Mion spoke like it was someone else's problem, and I wasn't happy about it.
"...Mii-chan.
Keiichi-kun is apologizing seriously.
...I think maybe you should respond seriously as well... as well."
"...I am being serious, though.
Do I not look serious to you, Rena?"
"You don't."
Rena was giving her tit for tat... and so the room's atmosphere quickly began to grow sharper.
She was right—even though I came here to speak from the heart like this... it's felt like she hasn't been taking this seriously.
...Obviously, Rena isn't fond of that.
"...Keiichi-kun.
You can get up now.
Let's tell her everything.
...That looks like what Mii-chan wants, too."
"............"
I had known... it would turn out like this from the beginning.
...Hadn't I come here prepared for that...?
...I mustered my willpower and bit my lip.
"......Mion.
...You called Rika-chan and Satoko the day before last, right?"
"............I don't remember doing so.
If you have a reason to think so, could you let me hear it...?"
"It was evening, before dinnertime.
...Rika-chan should have come here.
Bringing a big bottle of soy sauce.
To have you share some with her."
Mion was trying to keep from showing any reaction... but I didn't miss her eyelid twitching just a little bit.
"............Why do you think that?"
"...It's not hard to understand.
Mii-chan, you saw it too, didn't you?
Rika-chan's room."
Mion put a finger to her forehead and acted like she was thinking.
"...There was chilled tofu, but no soy sauce.
Plus, the big bottle of soy sauce that should have been under the sink was nowhere to be found."
"......Ahahahahaha.
What?
Is that why she would have come here?"
"Mion, drop the act.
...You wrote it yourself on the notice, didn't you?
That you'd share your soy sauce?"
...Mion scratched her head.
I heard her ever-so-faintly click her tongue.
It was as though... we found out she'd purposely given too little change to a servant...
That's all I could feel from her.
"...Then, Mii-chan, you...
Rika-chan......
You era............
you hid her."
Rena hesitated for a moment.
...I could tell that she didn't want to use the word 'erased'... and that she was struggling to find another word...
"......That was really supposed to be the end, wasn't it?
...For you, anyway."
"......What are you talking about?"
"...You didn't foresee that Rika-chan would tell Satoko-chan that she was going to your house, did you, Mii-chan?"
"............"
"Then... Satoko-chan called.
...'Might Rika be imposing on you?'
...Yeah.
Probably just like that."
"............Ahahahaha!
You sound just like her."
"......Mii-chan... you were in a bit of a bind then,
because someone knew that Rika-chan had come here.
...So you decided to lure Satoko-chan here too."
"...Lure her out?
......Hmm.
...Like how, I wonder?"
Mion prodded Rena on, as if trying to get to the good part of an interesting story.
...I, however, knew. I had been watching Mion change the whole time.
She was restlessly twirling her fingers... she had clearly lost her calm.
...Of course, it was really a slight thing... and only I, who had been watching her this whole time, would have known.
Mion was... panicking.
...What Rena was saying... must have been... a bullseye.
"It probably went like this.
...'Satoko.
I actually made too much dinner today, so why not come over and eat?
Rika-chan came earlier and already ate some.'
......Something like that."
Scratch.
......Mion's nails dug into her knee.
"......Hehh...
......There's no recordings of the phone conversations or anything, so how do you know that much...?"
"...I know it because the dinner that Satoko-chan made for the two of them was plastic wrapped in their refrigerator, and hadn't been touched."
......For a few moments, Mion's face was frozen in utter amazement.
...She looked like she couldn't believe... that this person in front of her was Rena.
"............With just that to go on...... How did you even guess what we said over the phone...?"
"......It's a long explanation, so I'll get to the point.
...The contents of that refrigerator... provided a vivid account of what you said over the phone when you lured her out."
Mion's jaw remained on the floor...
That was the only way I could describe her face...
"............That's...
Ahahahahaha.
...I had no idea I had such an incredible detective right next to me the whole time.
...I can't believe you'd figure out everything, down to the phone conversation... just from what was inside the fridge...
......Ahahahahahahaha.
...You've got me there.
...You've got me,
you've got me,
ah-hahahahahahahahahahaha!!!"
...As if a dam had burst... Mion convulsed into laughter.
...Her laughter, though, definitely didn't make us want to laugh as well.
"Hahahahahahahahahahaha... haha, ...ha.
...Hah."
Mion grew tired of her dumb laughter, heaved a big sigh, and scratched her head.
...It almost seemed like... Mion had lost a detective punishment game for the club or something... and her punishment had been decided.
...Oh, how fun that would have been if it were true...
"...An incredible detective...
...Mii-chan, you're the one who guessed what Ooishi-san told us.
He called me an incredible detective too."
"............"
As soon as she heard Ooishi-san's name, Mion's eyes began to display panic more clearly, so that anyone would be able to tell.
"...Mion.
......The police have suspected you for a long time now.
...Ooishi-san's officers have had the house under observation so that they could break in at any time."
Mion attempted to feign calm... but it looked like she was having a hard time with that.
Part of her couldn't believe that the police had her surrounded, and she closely examined Rena's facial expression.
However, she couldn't detect a hint of falsehood.
...Finally, Mion seemed to accept the fact that the police were encircling the house...
"Was the mayor... Mii-chan too...?"
"Were Tomitake-san and Takano-san... you as well...?"
Mion didn't answer our rapid-fire questions.
...I could clearly see impatience in her eyes, which were still feigning calm.
At last... Mion, who had been sitting there lazily, readjusted her cushion and sat herself upright...
At that moment... the atmosphere in the room changed completely.
......Mion's expression... also changed.
The impatience and wonderment in her expression disappeared...... and she became so solemn you would think she was about to conduct a tea ceremony.
...I could sense it.
...It was now, in this moment.
...Mion had ceased to be Mion... but had changed into Mion Sonozaki, the current heir to the Sonozaki house.
That solemn atmosphere about her... was clearly abnormal...
and was entirely different from that of the Mion that I knew.
Now... I could believe it.
...Now... I could believe...
that she was the young leader who commanded the entire Sonozaki clan.
...Mion quietly placed both her hands on the tatami mat...
and gave a beautifully elegant bow, as if this really were a tea ceremony...
and named herself.
"...We meet for the first time.
...I am the current heir to the Sonozaki house.
...My name is Mion."
...Mion's movements were so elegant they could cut...
and we couldn't even answer her.
All Rena and I could do... was watch, baffled at her actions, which we could never imagine the normal her doing...
"...I would like to welcome you to the Sonozaki main house today.
I will greet you all in place of our leader, Oryou...
...It seems as though you have various things you would like to ask...
If I can be of any assistance, then I would like to answer, without concealing anything..."
What?
...What did... Mion just say...?
...Mion said she would answer anything we asked.
...There was a strong light of resolve in her eyes.
"............It's really......
all right if we ask anything, then...?"
"...I shall tell you everything I know...
That is why you have come here, after all."
Rena and I exchanged glances.
...There was a mountain of things we wanted to ask Mion.
However, we hesitated for a moment... on what we should ask first.
...The first question Rena gave...
was extremely abstract......
but it was the question everyone wanted to know right now.
"...Why............
would you do this...?!?!"
...That was what I wanted to ask as well.
...Why... would you do this?!
That didn't only go for Rika-chan and Satoko.
...It went for the mayor, Takano-san, and Tomitake-san as well.
...No, even further back—for all the incidents that had been occurring every year.
...For a little while, Mion couldn't respond.
...Right when we realized that the question was too vague and tried to put it into more concrete terms...
she finally opened her mouth to speak.
"To answer that question... will take some time...
...If that is acceptable, however, then I would by all means like you to hear it..."
...She spoke clearly.
...She spoke with a clarity... that a grandmother might use when telling a story from a long time ago.
"...Do you know that Hinamizawa Village used to be called Onigafuchi Village?"
Rena nodded lightly, then shot me a glance asking me if I did.
...I returned her nod.
...Hinamizawa was once called Onigafuchi Village... Yes.
I heard all about it that night from Takano-san in the ritual storehouse.
They firmly believed that demon blood ran through their veins, and cut off all contact with the outside world.
...They were worshipped by those in the villages at the foot of the mountains... and treated like 'transcendents,' those capable of magic.
"...That's right.
Our ancestors in Onigafuchi Village... were proud transcendents descended from the demons.
...Those in the villages at the foot of the mountains worshipped and honored them.
...Nevertheless, that all decayed with the end of the Tokugawa era."
The black ships arrived,
the era of the samurai ended,
the era of national isolation ended...
and the tradition of worshipping Onigafuchi Village quickly disappeared.
...Those things that linger from the past were all to be detested.
...That was the kind of era it became...
"The Meiji era began, and the name of Onigafuchi Village, with its long history, was forcibly changed to Hinamizawa Village.
...I have heard the Meiji government strongly wished to erase the old customs..."
The abolition of feudal domains, and the establishment of prefectures.
...An era had begun, seeing Japan sprinting up the stairs that were beyond their means to try and reach the same level of the rest of the world.
All things in the Western style were to be extolled... while all old traditional things were to be scorned.
...That was the sort of era it was.
"Our ancestors in Onigafuchi Village... were proud transcendents descended from the demons.
Onigafuchi Village disappeared in a flash..."
At last, Japan, provoked by the great European powers colonizing countries in Asia one by one, began a policy to increase its wealth and military power so that it could stand as a global power in its own right...
Conscription began, and they won war after war—the First Sino-Japanese War, and the Russo-Japanese War... and until the Pacific War broke out...
they recklessly climbed the staircase towards modernization...
"At the time... Onigafuchi Village had already lost its impenetrability.
...The villagers, once worshipped as transcendents, were now on the receiving end of inhuman treatment...
The sacred Onigafuchi Village had been groundlessly labeled an isolated village of those afflicted with incurable diseases, a mere shadow of its former self...
and stood on the precipice of an era of hardship."
...Thus began harsh days where one would suffer unreasonable discrimination just because people knew one was from Onigafuchi.
The children in the village at the foot of the mountain were taught not to go near Hinamizawa because filthy germs were rampant there.
...Children who had come into contact with children in Hinamizawa would cry and wail as their parents purified the spot they were touched by rubbing salt on it.
One of the adults said to the children... that if you got lost in Hinamizawa, you would be kidnapped by demons, cut up into pieces, and devoured.
...Never, ever go near the terrifying village of the man-eating demons...
That's what he taught them.
Another... said that during a famine long ago,
the people of Hinamizawa gathered up all the corpses they discarded into the dry riverbeds, then cooked and ate them in order to survive—groundless stories, but said in such seriousness.
Baseless slander added to baseless slander, making Onigafuchi Village's historically accurate, thrilling history all the more believable.
Perhaps the chain of undue discrimination was a manifestation of the people's anxiety towards the uncertain times.
...Of course, the story didn't end only with the perspective of children.
If anyone found out you were from Onigafuchi, you would be turned down from any job you applied for.
...People would even go back on engagements and marriage proposals.
...As for the marriages where one partner had lied about it—as soon as the truth got out, they were made to divorce.
"......It even caused trials.
...They would appeal that where one came from wasn't an important enough reason to divorce.
...They would, however, lose their case.
...Lying about one's birthplace apparently constitutes a heavy act of misrepresentation in marriage..."
"............That's...
terrible."
......I've heard about such discrimination towards those in small villages in civics class.
...Just because others knew you were from a tiny hamlet, you would be subjected to every societal disadvantage there was—a modern form of bullying.
...Though I only memorized that because it was going to be on a test one time.
...I recalled being suspicious about it, and unable to believe such discrimination occurred in modern Japan...
"......Well... I suppose I can't say that they weren't asking for it...
...Our ancestors were proud of the demon blood flowing through them—they lived their lives boasting about it and scorning those at the foot of the mountain, after all...
They struck fear into the villagers down there with their mystique, and demanded gifts of dread and tribute..."
With that, Mion smiled for the first time, albeit in self-mockery...
"...During the Pacific War, despite the slogans that all the country was acting as one... those from Hinamizawa continued to suffer all manner of discrimination.
...There were too many ways to count.
...They would send their husbands and sons to war... and the women on the home front would suffer greatly, too...
...My grandmother remembers it well... She remembers it being a difficult time..."
Even that bitterly long war, however...
finally ended in 1945.
"...Hinamizawa had lost many male hands, but at last, their fathers and husbands and sons returned to them.
...Of course, there were also many who didn't come back.
Nevertheless, for those in Hinamizawa, who were at their limits, barely able to maintain the village without the men, their return was a very happy thing..."
MacArthur's GHQ set to work on drastically improving mindsets, and strove for the abolition of unfair discrimination.
They could feel day breaking on the dismal night that was the previous era...
"...Hinamizawa was on the verge of turning into a ghost town.
Those in the village started to say that they should rebuild it once again, and got to work, trying to make the village even a little more plentiful."
...During that time, someone appeared who built up a fortune through a vast number of dealings in the black market.
That was Mion's grandfather.
The husband of the elderly current family leader—Sohei Sonozaki.
"Sohei said that he managed food warehouses in Harbin after being dispatched to the Chinese mainland. When it was time to pull out, he conspired with his superiors and comrades and stole a great deal of the army's canned goods.
...He hid them somewhere in the Seto Inland Sea and sold them widely at a high price on the black market, thus earning a fortune."
Sohei didn't spend that fortune for his own pleasure, either.
He entrusted the entire amount to his wife, the head of the Sonozaki house.
"...Let's revive this ruined village.
All who live here are our family, and this fortune is our collective property...
So he proclaimed to my grandmother, the current head of the family.
...That vast fortune was a huge reason why Hinamizawa was revitalized after the war."
.........I see.
With that, Hinamizawa came back to life, and that's how the Sonozaki family had established its current prosperity...
"...Of course, there were many people who begrudged the money coming from the black market, but the villagers no longer minded it..."
They succeeded at one business venture after another.
Those who had succeeded freely supported those who followed them.
The giant family of Hinamizawa, tied together with strong bonds, kept on expanding its influence.
The Sonozaki family, the center of everything, would be extolled for a long time as the minds behind Hinamizawa's revitalization...
"...The person at the middle of all of it was your Nana, Mii-chan?
...That's amazing.
What a great success!"
Mion looked like she was honestly happy Rena had praised her...
"...However... around 1955, the wind started blowing in the other direction again...
...because of the 'Canned Flesh Incident.'"
Canned flesh......
...It sounded so hideous... that just hearing it made me nauseous.
"Someone naming himself as my grandfather Sohei Sonozaki's superior confessed...
that those canned goods had been human flesh."
Hinamizawa, a village in which demons lived and ate humans.
...They were just about to wipe away that cursed stigma...
The light they had finally started to see in their peaceful lives... grew hazy and disappeared.
The shocking truth... as revealed by his former superior...
...The stolen provisions from the old Japanese army that had been a huge cornerstone for Hinamizawa's revival...
had been... canned human flesh.
Why were there cans like that?
Wasn't Sohei just the manager of food warehouses...?
His superior revealed that Sohei Sonozaki did not have the job of managing the food...
"...In reality, Sohei's job during the war had been to exterminate pestilent mice and to transport the corpses of those with infectious diseases..."
...It had been unfair treatment, and all because of the lowliness of his origins.
...As a result, though, he had returned safely without having been sent to the front lines or being detained—perhaps that was the only fortunate thing to happen to him...
Finally, Sohei was enlisted as an assistant at a military medical institution.
...There, however...
he found something even worse than the low, scorned, depressing customs of Onigafuchi Village...
in the research they were carrying out......
"............Could that have been...
...well, you know.
The bacteriological corps in the old Japanese army or whatever."
"...Keiichi-kun, you've heard of that?
What could it be...?"
I was pretty sure it was Unit 731...
...It was a nightmare unit that devoted itself to researching terrifying bacteriological weapons to break the deadlock in the war.
They used many innocent people as fodder for horrible human experiments.
...They methodically observed how many days a new strain would take to kill the victims.
How many days it would be when injected.
How many days it would be when swallowed.
...They dissected many people to find that out.
Sometimes, they wouldn't bother waiting until they were dead, and dissected them while they were still alive...
...They would strap them into centrifuges while still alive, and crush them in decompression chambers while still alive.
...When a live human decompresses... all the holes in their body get pushed outwards... and their intestines get pushed out of their anus like a snake winding out of it...
...I have a feeling... I saw something like that on a documentary one time...
"......That makes me sick...
...and they still hate Hinamizawa, huh..."
"......You said it."
Mion agreed with me, giving a faint, sad smile.
...It wasn't much in the way of communication, but for some reason I was happy to have it right now...
"The unit Sohei was in did way kinder research than that.
...They were researching concrete methods for reducing the difficulty of delivering food on the battlefield."
...The military's designs at the start of the war completely fell apart, and a chronic food shortage broke out all over the battlefront.
The food shortage led to malnutrition, and as their natural resistances lowered, the soldiers fell to one disease after another.
Spirit and morale lowered as well—they wouldn't be able to maintain their forces at this rate.
Apparently that's where the research started.
At first, it was to find methods of delivering food to battlefields.
...It was very broad, and included things from violent methods like stealing it from citizens to survival methods like how to cook unfamiliar insects and plant life.
As they were working out the details, they kept straying off course and going out of control...
until finally they knocked down a door called 'taboo.'
"...What do you think the easiest source of protein on a battlefield is...?"
"............"
Rena and I......
knew the answer without being told.
...So we didn't answer.
"...That's right.
...They were researching ways to handle using humans as food.
...Fighting onwards, sometimes eating the flesh of enemies and sometimes that of allies, became the ultimate service paid to their country.
...They were deathly serious about this doctrine.
...It really is a riot.
My grandfather was despised as someone who ate human flesh, and yet they had gone above and beyond that.
Apparently he always thought about it, too.
Even if he was a vulgar, man-eating demon, they were far more ugly demons than he.
So no matter how much he was scorned, he wouldn't put up with it."
...At last, they had a handful of test prototypes.
...When the soldiers learned it was human flesh, however, the scientists couldn't make anyone eat it.
...So it was apparently sent to the front lines.
The cans were labeled meat substitutes, and so that they wouldn't accidentally eat it themselves, they stamped the bottoms with a circle...
"...The starved soldiers on the front lines apparently loved all the prototypes they were sent.
Among them, those who cooked it in soy sauce, like it was sukiyaki, loved it the most..."
"C-Come on, Mii-chan, stop...
......I'm getting sick to my stomach..."
Rena really was pale-faced, and she looked like she was having difficulty continuing to sit on her knees...
Mion looked like she had more to say, but she sighed lightly and stopped there.
"...Then... those canned goods your grandpa brought back..."
"...I don't know if it's true.
Sohei denied it was human flesh up until the day he died.
However, those who begrudged Hinamizawa's sudden revival called him a savage for making a fortune from selling human flesh... and the villagers began to be scorned again.
...They returned to a time where children would be jeered at and have rocks thrown at them."
............The stifling silence came back.
...What a seriously hopeless...
and sad story it was.
......They discriminated, were discriminated against, discriminated, and were discriminated against.
Why must they attach worth and rank to it?
Why can't they live without looking down on people?
Why...... can't everyone enjoy life together?
...I didn't know.
"...My grandmother, the family head, once told the children of the village this..."
If they throw a stone at one of you... then two of you must throw stones back.
...The children asked her.
What if they threw stones at two of us?
Of course, the answer was simple.
"...If they throw stones at two of you, throw them back with four.
If they chase eight of you with sticks, drive them off with sixteen.
If they slander thirty of you, yell back with sixty."
Finally, the children asked...
What if we're attacked by a thousand people...?
Even that answer was simple.
"...If a thousand people attack you, then everyone in Hinamizawa will stand up against them.
...It was a manifesto to spur people into action.
...My grandmother rose up not only as the leader of the Sonozaki house, but as the mother of Hinamizawa."
It was halfway through 1955.
It was a time when riots over the treaty with the U.S. were rampant, a time of battle and action.
The people of Hinamizawa joined together and fought, treating unfair discrimination towards one as a crime against them all.
It didn't matter whether that one was a child or an adult.
If they heard that a child had been told off, then everyone would crowd the house of the perpetrator, acting as a whole.
If they heard an adult had been treated unfairly, men and women, young and old, would all band together and stand up against it.
...If you meddled with people from Hinamizawa, you would be in trouble...
They probably figured that if they could make others think that, they'd win.
"............Kei-chan, do you remember how many people came to help you when you got involved with those delinquents in town...?"
"............"
I recalled how much of an impression it had left on me...
that the people of Hinamizawa boldly came to my rescue, yet the people of Okinomiya averted their eyes so they wouldn't get involved.
"...My grandmother fought, and my parents carried on the fight.
...At last... peace returned to Hinamizawa.
...Of course, that peace had been placed on a razor's edge.
...When you consider the previous hundred years of history, the tranquility now can only be called a chance interval, standing on uneven scales."
".........Why..."
Could I really have an opinion on such a long and difficult history when I hadn't moved here more than a year ago?
...Yet... I said it anyway.
"Why... can't everyone just live in peace...?
...What happened to those old stories of Oyashiro-sama that I heard from Takano-san?"
Man and demon joined hands and lived together in harmony.
...Didn't Oyashiro-sama remain in this world to watch over that?
"......It's a fairy tale.
...I mean... that even if those people and the demons were real, the Oyashiro-sama who mediated between them wasn't."
"............Is that...
why Oyashiro-sama's curse happens...?"
...A cool gust of wind blows in from outside, fluttering Mion's long, beautifully clear hair.
Mion kept her refreshing smile, without answering, and didn't even change her expression... but even that became a silent answer.
"...So that Hinamizawa Village might once more be like Onigafuchi Village.
So that we may again be a sacred existence, worthy of worship.
...That was the earnest wish of our ancestors in Onigafuchi...
and the mission of those who inherit the 'demon' in the Sonozaki main family."
".........Those who inherit... the demon?"
"......For generations, the Sonozaki family has had a custom of including the character for 'demon' in the leaders' names.
...If you write out my name on your hand, it should appear plain as day..."
I trace out the word 'Mion' on the palm of my hand.
...Oh... She's right.
The character for 'demon' is in there...
"......Not only in my name, either.
...The demon is engraved on my body as well."
When she said that, she quietly rose, and...
began to lay her hand on her clothing.
"It's okay, Mii-chan.
......You don't need to show us, okay?"
"......Thank you."
...With just that exchange... I guessed what she meant.
......Most likely...
somewhere on her body...
there was a permanent seal, such as a tattoo or marking... that proved that she inherited the demon.
Mion didn't sit back down—she smoothly opened the paper door onto the porch.
...A refreshing breeze began to cleanse the damp air filling the room.
Mion quietly gazed out at the wide yard... for quite a while.
...On her shoulders...... was something I could never imagine the normal Mion carrying...
...It was the heavy,
heavy,
...truly heavy...
history of Hinamizawa—no, of Onigafuchi—weighing down on them.
...What kind of words... could I possibly say to a Mion like that...?
Rena wasn't saying anything to her, either.
Only the voices of the cicadas drowned out the silence.........
At last... after a long period of nothing, Mion murmured.
"...The serial incidents happening over the past five years.
...I was directly related to some of them, and indirectly to others.
Some were not the Sonozaki family, but were rather related to the others, the Kimiyoshi family and the Furude family.
...I think I was at the center of all of them."
She said it all without turning around... with her back to us.
...At some point, her tone of voice... had gone back to being the Mion we knew.
"......I have faith in what I've done, and don't feel any guilt.
...If I did... perhaps it would be that I will have to leave the stage before the heir is decided."
............
"......If I am caught, and tried in a court of law......
then I suppose that's how it works nowadays.
...Being able to retire with Hinamizawa at the most peaceful it's been in a hundred years...
could be the happiest thing that's ever happened to any of the Sonozaki leaders of past generations."
.........Mion leaned a shoulder against the paper door, then slid down it and flopped on the ground.
...It was an act of such resignation that just seeing it made me hurt inside.
......The numerous terrible crimes Mion had been a part of suddenly began to fade from my mind...
...Hey, Mion.
...I don't care what happens after this.
...Can't you just try to struggle as much as you can... try to run away...?
...As soon as I began to think that way, Rena's ringing voice filled the room.
"But... Rika-chan and Satoko-chan
...................................
You killed them, didn't you, Mii-chan?"
...The sharp points of her words stabbed into my chest despite not being directed at me.
"I'm not saying that it's okay if you killed other people.
...Regardless, Mii-chan...
You killed Rika-chan and Satoko-chan."
Rena's words... were more biting than any I had ever heard.
...Even now that we knew all the heavy history pressing down on Mion's shoulders... she had criticized her for killing our friends.
"............Just as I bear the duty of the Sonozaki family, Rika-chan bore the duty of the Furude family.
...That duty... was to protect the ritual storehouse."
...My chest tightened.
"......I learned around last year... that Rika-chan had said something about it.
...The bars on the storehouse door were too heavy for her... and she wanted to change them to a simpler lock and key.
...Even the priest before her had complained about it being heavy.
...He was very aware of how hard it was for Rika-chan."
"...I will make sure to guard it, so I want to replace the lock with something lighter."
I replied on the behalf of the Sonozaki family leader...
...Ever since the string of freak death incidents, there seem to be people who are insolent towards Oyashiro-sama, so you shouldn't replace the lock with a simpler one.
...That said...
The leader of the Kimiyoshi family...
old man Kimiyoshi, he...
If it's that difficult for you, Rika-chan, then I think it's okay to replace the lock, he said.
The very fact that it was locked with a key was an indication of it being somewhere you mustn't enter.
...There's nobody bad enough to break through it and go inside... he said.
......Even if we were alike as leaders... I couldn't find it in me to argue with old man Kimiyoshi, since I owed him so much...
In the end, we decided to change out the lock on the storehouse... and switched it to a really cheap and light padlock.
"...Old man.
Is this really all right?
Nana says that if possible, we should keep the lock the same."
"It'll be all right.
You're quite the worrywart.
...If something happens, this old man will take all the responsibility."
"...Do you promise?
...You mean that you will take responsibility as the leader of the Kimiyoshi family, right?
...You should... be well aware of how sacred the things inside really are..."
"......It's okay.
There aren't any bad cats in Hinamizawa who would open the lock and break in.
......Meow, meow."
"Ooh... oouuh...!!!"
Sobs... escaped from my mouth.
...Something hot and wet dripped down in spades and fell onto the tatami mat.
"...I had already heard of the thieves entering the ritual storehouse during the Watanagashi festival.
...There were four of them.
We decided to act within the day.
...At the same time... we needed to demand that the ones who allowed the thieves to break in, Rika-chan of the Furude family and old man Kimiyoshi, take responsibility..."
My tears... dripped and dropped.
Dripped and dropped...
Until just now...... I had decided that it was Mion's fault... that she killed Rika-chan and the others.
...That was wrong!!!
The one who killed them wasn't Mion...
it was me!!
"...I... I might as well have... killed them...!!"
"Ke... Keiichi-kun......"
I had... a chance to stop this tragedy from happening, and yet...
I didn't.
...Cheap curiosity got the better of me...... and I didn't.
If, at the time... I had stopped us from sneaking into the ritual storehouse...... Rika-chan and the others wouldn't have had to die...!
If I had... then nothing would have happened.
We would be spending our days... having lots of fun... like we always did...!!
"...I... I was...... an idiot......!!!"
If by shedding tears I could take it all back...
then I would have filled up the room with them.
...However... such a meager act wouldn't be enough to redeem myself... for the crime I've committed.
"Kei-chan...
You're not at fault."
Mion gently began to speak to me... as if trying to reason with me.
"As the leader of the Sonozaki family, I needed to act...
But given the history of the Sonozaki family... Thinking about it now, it's no big deal.
...Maybe I should have saved my friends... even if it meant casting all that aside.
...I yielded to it... and that's why I killed those two.
...I, Mion Sonozaki, and nobody else, killed them.
...I had hundreds of chances to stop it, but...
...I didn't stop.
I gave in to the easy role that was handed to me............ and abandoned all thought of fighting for my friends.
So this is my crime.
I killed them.
Mion Sonozaki... with these hands...
killed them,
and nothing whatsoever changed.
Nothing!
......Ahahahahahahahahahahahaha..."
Her masochistic laughter... was sad.
Especially because Mion boasted in club that she would turn the tables on whatever predicaments presented themselves.
......It was so painful.
"...Still... Mii-chan, you saved one person of your own volition."
"Eh...?"
As I looked at her surprised, Rena stuck her finger right at my forehead.
"...You left Keiichi-kun alive.
...As strong as you are, Mii-chan, it would have been no trouble for you, but...
...you didn't kill him."
That's right.
...Mion was so cunning that nobody could stand up to her, even in our club—if she had seriously tried to kill me...
I would have been dealt with on the very first night.
So many people had been sacrificed... but I was always left out in the cold.
...When did I first realize it?
...Even though people were disappearing one after the other... for some reason, I had this vague belief that only I would be left alive.
"............Humm.
...Why didn't I kill him?
...As a demon, I can't even begin to guess.
...Maybe Mion had some reason she didn't want to kill you."
"...What is that supposed to mean?"
Shhh.
Mion put a finger to her lips to say that Rena didn't need to talk...
"...Is Ooishi waiting outside?"
"Yes."
"Any way out?"
"No.
...They said they have the place surrounded.
It seemed like they called a lot of cars over the radio.
I think they have your entire property surrounded."
Mion fell silent.
...Rena's merciless words felt cruel...
but they weren't meant to be... maybe they were trying to lessen her good friend's pain, if only by a little—maybe they were considerate, like she was trying to help.
"Please...
turn yourself in."
............Mion didn't open her mouth... but she smiled, just a little.
"We'll go with you.
...We'll never leave a friend by herself."
"............Crying children and Rena are the only things I can't beat!
Ahahahaha..."
She rose, scratching her head.
...Her face had returned entirely to that of the usual Mion.
"I'm well aware... of how serious my own crimes are.
...Even if they accept me turning myself in...
I'll probably never be able to come back here."
"............"
......I couldn't say anything.
...The number of deaths Mion was involved in...
was just too large.
...So much so that maybe recommending that she turn herself in... was, in a way, extremely cruel.
"So, I'd like you to hear one last selfish request."
"What is it?"
"Thirty minutes is fine...
Just let me have some time alone with Kei-chan."
.........Huh?
My name suddenly came up... and it looked like I was the only one surprised about that.
"...Keiichi-kun...
is that okay with you?
...If you don't want to, then I won't make you."
"............You're right.
It's okay if you don't want to.
...After all, I'm a demon...
and Kei-chan is a bona fide human who moved here from somewhere else.
...For us to be compatible... as long as Oyashiro-sama doesn't exist to mediate...
simply isn't possible."
.........There was no reason for me to hesitate.
Mion had been engulfed... by heavy, unopposable tradition...
...The one who had forced her to kill her friends with her own hands...... That was me, and me alone.
In fact... with me cornered, it would have been okay for her to blame me.
...However...
Mion didn't say one word of blame.
...Far from it—I was guilty of the same crime...
and she let me go.
Amidst the fate she could not oppose... she saved me alone.
...I didn't know whether I should be thankful for that.
Thinking upon it now...
I didn't know how much easier it would be...
if I were to be granted the same punishment... as Rika-chan and the others.
The only thing... I knew for sure......
was that I had an equal duty to bear......
the sins that Mion shouldered.
So... when it came to Mion's last request...
there was no reason for me to hesitate.
"Sure.
...It's fine."
"............Thank you."
"......I'd like to thank you too,
Keiichi-kun."
Rena stood up.
...It looked like she would keep her promise with Mion and leave.
"Ah, it's fine, Rena.
You can wait right here.
...I just want to go around the yard with Kei-chan.
...If you're bored, you can go to my room. You can read any manga you like.
.........Ah, and if there are any volumes you like, you might as well take them."
"I don't want to.
Mii-chan's books belong to Mii-chan.
Rena couldn't bring them back home with her so freely."
"............You're such a good kid, only at times like this."
Mion took Rena's head and rubbed it violently like I always did.
"Okay... let's go, Kei-chan."
I began to walk after Mion, who headed for the hallway... when Rena silently stopped me.
".........Take care...
of Mii-chan."
"Yeah."
".........Mii-chan... really does believe she won't ever be able to come back."
...I didn't know much about laws... but with as many deaths as she'd been involved in, the chances of her escaping a heavy punishment... seemed non-existent.
".........Watch out... that she doesn't do anything rash, okay?"
Mion might not surrender herself to justice... but instead choose to put an end to things herself.
......Rena had already thought that far ahead.
"Right.
...I won't let that happen."
Rena rubbed at her tears, which had fallen without me noticing them
"Okay... then go after her."
I nodded and followed Mion, who had disappeared out the front door.
...I could clearly hear Rena sobbing from the other side of the paper door.
"......Why was Mii-chan... made a successor to demons?
...Maybe it just had to happen that way...
......But...
It's just so......
awful............"
Something hot burned down my cheeks.
......They were my tears.
I fiercely wiped them away.
...This was the last of my time I could offer to Mion, so I absolutely didn't want to let her see my tears during it.
Mion was already waiting outside the front door.........