June 28, 1983.

A violent incident occurred in Hinamizawa Village, Shishibone City, ＸＸ Prefecture.

The victim was Keiichi Maebara, also a victim of the previous string of disappearances.

At around 2:00 AM, he was stabbed in the stomach with a bladed object by the suspect of the last case (Mion Sonozaki) and was gravely wounded.

He was discovered when his parents woke up, and was then transported to the clinic.

He escaped death.

The criminal fled the scene.

On the same day, at approximately the same time.

A fall accident occurred in the Kamiishiki apartment complex in Shishibone City, ＸＸ Prefecture.

The victim was Shion Sonozaki, also a victim of the previous string of disappearances.

Late on the same night, neighbors overheard her having a big fight with someone and informed the manager.

The manager used a master key to enter the room and discovered that the victim had fallen from her eighth-floor balcony to her death.

The room had been torn apart and appeared to show traces of a fight.

One neighbor has frequently visited the Sonozaki house for a long time, and testified that he heard what sounded just like the two sisters having a fight, trading insults back and forth.

We believed this was related to the injury case that occurred the same day in Hinamizawa Village, perpetrated by said incident's suspect,

and did a thorough search of the room, but we could not find any traces that would imply that anyone but the victim was present.

The victim fell straight down into the foliage of a parking strip.

Her neck broke and she died immediately.

Her clothing was disheveled, and had markings that would imply a scuffle.

...We also believe, however, that it could have been an insanity-induced suicide attempt, based on the particular mental state of the victim after the incident.

We are conducting a thorough examination on both fronts, suicide and homicide...

"......Only for five minutes, understand?

Please, try not to excite him."

"Yes, yes. I'll be careful."

Kaclack.

The door opened... and as I expected, Ooishi-san came in.

"Hello, hello, Maebara-san.

It's been a while, hasn't it?

Tell me, how have you been since then?"

"...The doctor says my post-operative recovery seems to be going smoothly... but I think I got worse when I saw your face."

"Nah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! You wound me."

As Ooishi-san gave a laugh that smelled of sweat, he handed Mom a bag of assorted candies he must have purchased from the souvenir corner on the first floor of the hospital.

"Excuse me, Mrs. Maebara.

Would it be possible for me to talk to Keiichi-kun for just a few moments?"

Mom clearly wasn't pleased at the thought of a police officer talking to her son without her there.

...However, I insisted.

"......Mom.

Sorry, just a little while.

Just five minutes, okay?"

Though grudgingly, Mom left the room.

When she closed the door, Ooishi-san grinned widely and looked around the room.

"A room to yourself—how high class!

My old lady always gets a shared room, you know.

It is quite lively, however.

Seems like you're a higher rank if you have a worse disease in places like that.

The sicker you are, the prouder you are—or maybe the more arrogant..."

"...Ooishi-san, we only have five minutes.

I would like it if these were the last five minutes we ever saw each other.

......I don't have any connection to Hinamizawa anymore... and this isn't in Hinamizawa anymore either."

"...Yes, because there aren't any general hospitals in Okinomiya.

...Mind if I take a seat?

Down we go."

This was a large university hospital in Shishibone City.

It was splendidly urban, entirely different from the likes of Hinamizawa and Okinomiya.

It was hard to believe Hinamizawa was part of the same city.

"When does it look like you'll get transferred?"

"Dunno.

...I'm ready to go whenever, though."

Our moving plans were delayed a little because of my serious injury.

My parents had already left the house in Hinamizawa, though, and were living in our new one.

They planned to have me transfer hospitals to be closer to the new house once I'd recovered enough to be taken there.

"...Please, don't come to where I'm transferring.

I really will get worse then."

"Man... You really do hate me.

It may just be my job, but that stings.

That's why I brought you all kinds of lovely souvenirs in atonement."

"......You didn't need to bring an assortment of cookies for that."

"Well, you see...

There aren't actually cookies in there.

Look~"

Ooishi-san pulls open the can of cookies, and

......

Nwahh?!

Ow, ow, I'm stretching my scar...

"I didn't know what you were into, Maebara-san, so I brought all sorts of things~

See, all sorts of cute-looking ones, from Westerns to comic strips!

Lately they have this sort of H-manga aimed at girls, too~"

"D-D-D-D-D-D-D-Don't bring porn in here~!!!

Take them away, and go home!!

Ow, ow ow ow ow...!!"

"Nfu-fu-fu!

I thought for sure a healthy young person like you would be feeling a little needy, being cooped up in a place like this for sooooo long.

If you stay here too long, the only fetish you'll end up with is a nurse one, you know.

There are plenty of other beautiful things in this world besides nurses, after all!

Don't decide what to major in now—keep your options open!

You need to be a more all-around type of person.

Nfu-fu-fu-fu-fu-fu-fu-fu!!"

I gave Ooishi-san's vulgar laughter a pained grin.

...Somehow or other, I understood.

The fact that Ooishi-san was bringing it up like this...

meant that he must have had something important to talk about.

"............The incident with Shion-san really was unfortunate."

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

The night I was stabbed by Mion.

Shion fell from her balcony and died.

...They said the police were investigating all possibilities—accident, suicide, and homicide—but it could only have been Mion's doing...

Mion found out where Shion was hiding... and pushed her down to her death.

Nothing else was conceivable.

"............It couldn't have been an accident.

......It was Mion.

...It had to be."

"......The criminology guys are saying it had to be a suicide, but I'm of the same opinion as you, Maebara-san.

...She pushed Shion-san, and also stabbed you.

...In one night."

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

Has Mion...

still not been found?"

"Oh, that's right.

That's what I came here to tell you today.

...Yes.

We actually did find her."

"What?!

......Ow, ow ow ow..."

...Learning that... felt rather strange to me.

I was partly relieved that the incident was truly over... and I was partly sorry that my best friend had finally been caught.

...I felt many other things, too...

...My heart was a maze of emotions.

"That's not all.

In the Sonozaki house catacombs.

...We found a hidden well.

Just as you said, Maebara-san, we found the remains of all those who disappeared at the bottom."

"............I...

see..."

...That sliver of hope, that possibility I'd believed in... that Rika-chan and Satoko were alive... just from the fact their remains hadn't been found...

gone.

"It was incredibly well-hidden in those catacombs.

I mean, it was in the blind spot of another blind spot.

It was a vertical tunnel, dug out like a well.

...There was a ladder set up there, and when we went aaaaall the way down, there was another tunnel built there going through it.

...When we followed it a few hundred meters, we found ourselves at the mouth of an old unused well in the mountains."

"......I wonder if it was a secret escape route a previous Sonozaki family leader built."

"Probably was.

...Maybe it was made in the Meiji era.

Still... I'm impressed they built something like that."

".........

So everyone's remains......

were at the bottom...?"

"Yes.

...Even deeper down than the escape path, there was a pool of coal tar.

They'd been casually thrown into there.

They had fallen from a fairly high spot, so their remains were totally buried in it.

...It took a lot of time and effort to pull their bodies up."

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

Did you...

find them all?"

I hoped... that they at least wouldn't find Rika-chan or Satoko.

...That's what I wished for when I asked, but my shallow hope was crushed in the blink of an eye.

"Yes.

All of them.

...In fact, we also found human bones we think are over a decade old.

We think there are at least three people.

...I suppose it's the dark side of Hinamizawa's history.

I wonder how many people's bones... we'll find when we've sucked out all the mud.

...It's a scary thought."

............That weight had been pushing down on Mion's shoulders the whole time.

......Mion.

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

"...We've currently identified people who disappeared from Shishibone City decades ago.

...People are talking about how this opportunity might let us resolve the disappearing persons cases that have been abandoned."

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

After a deep silence...... he breathed a heavy sigh...

Ooishi-san went for his cigarettes to pass the time, but realized this was a non-smoking area, so he gave up and put them back in his shirt pocket.

"Oh, right.

...This is a bit of a detour......

but you know Rika Furude-san, right?"

"Of course.

...She's my friend."

"Did she ever tell you anything along the lines of her regularly taking insulin injections for diabetes?"

..........??

Rika-chan has diabetes???

I didn't know what he was talking about.

"Actually, we found it in her skirt pocket.

A syringe.

It was destroyed, though, so we couldn't identify the medicine.

...It was a bit out of place, so I got interested.

...You really don't know anything?"

......I didn't know anything about Rika-chan carrying syringes around with her.

"The Sonozaki family corporates...

er, the yakuza people.

...Anyway, there's rumors that they deal in psychostimulants.

...I was thinking that might have something to do with it, too."

".........Are you trying to tell me... that Rika-chan is a drug addict...?!"

"No, not at all... That isn't what I'm saying.

...It just seems strange however you look at it... that she would bring a syringe with her on her way to get soy sauce."

............I have no idea... what any of this means.

My eyes are spinning...

...I feel sick..............

"Are you all right?

Should I call a nurse?"

"I... I'm fine.

...Please continue..."

"Well, that's all I had to say about the syringe.

It was the only thing that personally struck me as interesting."

............Rika-chan...

"...Rika-san was sort of like the village mascot, after all.

...It looks like the village is in an uproar right now.

...Between the older blind believers, and the Sonozaki family who killed her.

The Three Families' effective control over the village is basically in shambles, too.

.........If someone came up to them with talk of a dam again, with this sort of timing, the entire village would be abandoned for sure this time."

"......I'm not... related to Hinamizawa anymore."

I actually was.

...I just said it because the thought about Hinamizawa being abandoned was unpleasant... and I wanted to end the conversation quickly.

There was a knock at the door.

It opened slightly, and my mom asked if we were still talking.

"Whoops!

We went off topic, didn't we?

...What a pickle!"

............I looked at the clock.

...Five minutes were long past.

He told my mother that there was something he really wanted to ask, and if she could wait a little bit longer.

"...Is that so?

Keep it short, okay?"

There wasn't any getting around the fact that she was thinking about what a police officer could be talking to her son about.

".........Maybe we should choose another day for this."

"...Umm... Ooishi-san.

.........Mion...

How is she right now?"

I wanted to just hear that answer and then get rid of him.

"............Before I tell you that, I just need one thing from you.

...I just need you to answer something in all honesty."

"......What is it?"

"...............I want you to take your answer seriously, got it?

...If you say something indiscreet, it could be viewed as an obstruction of the investigation, and you could be prosecuted."

...Ooishi-san kept threatening me until the end.

...What the hell did he want?

"......Maebara-san.

...Who do you think the criminal was who pushed Shion from the balcony?"

"............There's no way it could be anyone but Mion, is there?"

"Then who was the one who stabbed you?"

"............Please don't make me say it again.

...It was Mion.

...Mion Sonozaki."

......Ooishi-san smiled bitterly, then dabbed at his forehead with a handkerchief to wipe his sweat.

He should have expected that answer, and yet it looked as though he wasn't satisfied with it.

"She pushed Shion, and stabbed me.

...Didn't you just admit yourself that Mion was the criminal?"

"...The evidence we have that Mion killed Shion is based on testimony from the man living next door.

...This neighbor is actually a member of an organized crime group—in other words, he was Shion-san's bodyguard.

It seems he's a veteran leader in that vein, and was like a parent to the Sonozaki sisters growing up."

...That man said this.

The noise he heard from next door was just like the sound of a fight between the sisters that he was used to hearing when they still lived together...

and no, there was no doubt about it.

He said he heard Mion and Shion insulting each other, and heard them struggling.

At first, though, he thought it was a hallucination she was having, brought on by her dementia.

...You see, he thought that because that sort of ruckus... had been occurring every night.

However, that night... had been longer than the rest, and he claimed that he went to her room to give her a sedative.

The noise died down while he got the manager to give him the key.

He'd already decided he'd at least check up on her, and after she wasn't answering his calls, they took the plunge and unlocked the door.

Then they saw that the room was a mess.

...Since Shion had been pushed over the balcony, they decided it had to have been Mion...

and that's how it happened.

"...In other words, he only heard from the other side of the wall.

Plus, because the apartment complex is connected to their organization, it doesn't have many residents.

So they were the only ones who heard it happening.

...To reiterate, there was only one person who witnessed Mion Sonozaki."

"Even if he didn't see her... that's... isn't it obviously Mion's doing...?!"

"Now, settle down.

...This is what I'm saying.

...It means you are the only one who saw Mion Sonozaki for sure last night.

After all, Shion-san, the other witness, is no longer alive."

"............What are you trying to say?

...I don't really understand..."

At that point, Ooishi-san paused.

The fact that this was a no-smoking area completely slipped his mind, and he took out his pack of cigarettes again.

Ker-chack. He lit one with his lighter...

...and exhaled a long stream of tobacco smoke...

"......Were you really stabbed by Mion Sonozaki?"

"Yes.

............There's no doubt about it."

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

The smoke Ooishi-san breathed out floated away... like a thundercloud swept away by the wind.

".........Ooishi-san, you can't smoke in here.

...The nurses will get mad."

"Actually...

We found Mion Sonozaki at the bottom of the well too."

"............What?"

"She fell to her death.

We believe that as she was trying to escape to that hidden passage in the well, her foot slipped while climbing down the ladder...

she fell to the bottom,

broke her neck, and died.

...Yes.

The same way as Shion-san.

She broke her neck."

"...Um, well...

.................What......?"

"After you passed out that day, Mion Sonozaki tried to escape using the hidden well...

......but her foot slipped and she died.

...As if beckoned by the corpses of the other sacrifices she dropped down there."

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

But...

That doesn't make any sense, does it...?"

"The autopsy came to the conclusion that she definitely died on that day.

...She didn't go back there after attacking you and Shion-san.

...She was already dead by then."

My jaw... was on the floor.

...There was absolutely... no way that could be.

...Mion was the one that stabbed me... It had to have been her.

...There wouldn't have been... anyone else to do it.........

"Then...

then...

wh-who attacked Shion and me...?!

Who was it...?!"

"The one who attacked you... was someone who was Mion Sonozaki, and yet not Mion Sonozaki."

......My mind had become a complete mess... and I was starting to lose my ability to think straight...

"...Do you remember how Miyo Takano-san died?"

"Eh?

...Takano-san?

Ah... yes.

......I think I heard that she was... burned to death in some distant mountains..."

"We learned that she was burned after being strangled to death.

...The Gifu station did the autopsy.

It's a little bit strange.

...The results of the preliminary autopsy said that she had been dead for at least twenty-four hours.

Since that was contradictory, in their panic they seem to have revised it to say she died earlier that day."

...Despite me being an absolute wreck over what was going on with Mion...

he was telling me...... there was even more on top of that......?

.........I didn't understand the complex things Ooishi-san was telling me...

"The result saying she had been dead for twenty-four hours, as our own old criminologist says...

is pretty damn reliable.

...So then what would that mean?

...I've asked that question over and over...

but on the night of Watanagashi...

you were with Miyo Takano-san, weren't you?"

"......I was."

"You also met her on the day before, while setting up for the festival, right?

I mean, I ran into her too."

"......Yes.

...I was with her then."

"If she'd been dead for twenty-four hours...

then that would mean she was already dead the day before the festival."

"............Haha...

that can't be..."

"......She was alive during the festival preparations.

However... when you all slipped into the ritual storehouse...

Takano-san was already dead."

The origin of all that happened.

The beginning of everything.

...Our intrusion in the ritual storehouse... which I had come to regret countless times.

The one who tempted me...

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

Takano-san.

When she... invited us into the storehouse... she was already... no longer of this world...

"There are too many dead people walking around in this incident.

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

...............An incident...

caused by a dead person...

and ended by a dead person.

"...Also, apparently they're under pressure to revise the time of Mion Sonozaki's death not to the day of the incident, but to right after she stabbed you.

......Probably pressure from the outside, to get this incident wrapped up already.

...So I'd appreciate it if you didn't say a word about this to anyone."

Ooishi-san grabbed his jacket that was hanging on the chair, put out his cigarette with the bottom of his foot, and started pretending to wave away the smoke floating around.

"I've stayed too long.

...I had come here thinking I could at least end this incident as it applied to you, but...

...it looks like it got even more baffling instead."

Absent-mindedly... he walked towards the door... looking at me, unable to speak, out of the corner of his eye.

"......If it so happens...

that something comes up you want to talk about in the future, call me anytime.

My business card is in those souvenirs from before.

...When that time comes, I'll pay you a visit with some wonderful souvenirs again.

Nfu-fu-fu-fu!"

Ooishi-san... seemed to think I was still hiding something.

That I... after all this... would be hiding something...?

I'm the one things are being hidden from.

...I'm the one who wants to know.

"Then let us meet again one day.

Take care of yourself."

Slam.

I listened... to the tap tap tap... of Ooishi-san walking down the hallway.

...I still couldn't return from my state of bewilderment.

He wanted to end this incident as it applied to me...?

What was over?

Nothing was over.

...The incident...

was still...

continuing...

......Then, slip... an arm covered in fresh blood...

came out from underneath the bed.

...I wasn't that surprised.

...This was... an illusion I was seeing, seized with fear...

...Kei-chan...

I told you, remember...

I heard a... guttural voice coming from under the bed.

...I still recognized it as Mion's voice.

"...What, Mion?

......What did you tell me...?"

...I...

warned you on that day...

...After today...

that has possessed my body......

"...Ahahaha...

You did... You said that, didn't you?

......Sorry.

...Guess I wasn't careful enough.

......That's why I got stabbed.

...Ahahahaha..."

Possibly wounds sustained when she fell from the ladder...

many of her fingernails... were broken and torn...

Her arm... slowly felt about on top of the bed... searching for mine.

"Oh... hey...

Mion.

...I...

just, well,

thought of a good joke.

...Want to hear it?"

............The Mion under the bed didn't answer.

"L-Let's say......

......that I...

died here today...

...but... tomorrow, I'd still be here, living a normal life.

......So...... when Ooishi-san learned about it afterwards...

the time of death wouldn't make sense, once again!

He'd make a huge deal about how someone who should have died was alive... and he'd totally lose his head!

Takano-san, then Mion, and then me third.

...So?!

Funny, right?

Makes you laugh, doesn't it?

Hahahahahahahahahahahaha...!"

............Kei-chan...............

"...Laugh.

...Or was it n-not that funny...?"

Mion's bloodstained hand... groped around... and found my wrist.

Though her fingernails were torn... she gripped it hard... as if scratching me......

"Ow... ow, ow...

G-Go easy......

Ow... It hurts..."

...Kei-chan................

I've come for you......

I tried to shake my wrist loose... but the strength she held it with was unbelievable, and I couldn't.

She was only gripping one wrist... and yet my whole body wouldn't move.

...I couldn't even twitch.

My fingers were spread apart... and I couldn't make a fist, either......

.........And that...... fact that I couldn't make a fist... reminded me of the restraining table..............

...............!!!!

I felt... a crooked nail press against my left pinky fingertip.

...Mion's forehead was split open... and with a face covered with blood... she smiled...

and got right up... in front of my nose...

"......Nothing was over.

......Nothing was over.

This incident was far from being over.

...It was still going on.

It was still happening.

Someone, please end this incident.

This cruel, tragic, unfortunate, sad incident...

Please, end it.

That...

is my only wish..."

"I granted you one

before, remember?

You don't get any more.

......Ah-hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!"

Mion firmly held the nail down on my fingertip.

...And, with her other hand, she slowly swung a mallet up into the air, and.................