"He may be lost somewhere like I was." "Being lost sounds nice." "Oh, I want to take you home!" "He's old, right?" "Maybe he's just wandering around senilely?" "The village headman is a lively person who teaches calligraphy and kendo." "Then what happened?" "Are you saying it's Oyashiro-sama's curse?" "The village headman left for a meeting at the shrine's meeting room past noon yesterday." "And the meeting ended well after sunset." "No one has seen the village headman since." " "Cotton Drifting" Chapter - Episode 03:" "LIES" "When They Cry" "Furimuita sono ushiro no (shoumen dare)?" "Kurayami ni tsume wo tatete (yoru wo hikisaita)." "Amadare wa chi no shizuku to natte nodo wo tsutai ochiru." "Mou dokonimo kaeru basho ga nai nara kono yubi tomare watashi no yubi ni." "Sono yubi goto tsuretette ageru." "Higurashi ga naku akazu no mori e." "Atomodori wa mou dekinai." "So Oyashiro-sama's curse occurred five straight years." "Do you believe in curses?" "If it's caused by people, the culprit's likely from Hinamizawa." "If it's the curse, Shion and I, who entered the ritual tool shrine..." "Oh, Rika-chan." "Rika-chan?" "Did you fall down?" "No." "No." "Then what happened?" "Don't mind me." "Before that..." "Did you do something bad on festival night?" "Keiichi?" "Sorry for asking you a strange thing." "Please forget about it." "R-Rika-chan." "I want to say it." "But she's the shrine maiden of that shrine." "She'd be the one who'd never forgive people breaking the taboo." "On festival night I heard a cat went inside the ritual tool shrine." "A-A cat?" "Yes, a cat." "Meow, meow." "The cat saw what's inside and got scared and surprised." "It ran out full speed and keeps on shaking and meowing." "W-What should that cat do from now on?" "Mi?" "The dog watched as the mischievous cat went inside." "They keep taking turns asking the cat whether or not it had snuck in." "It'll be all right." "I'll protect the cat." "It could be that some dogs may have just misunderstood." "It'll be a little tough, but I'll do my best." "Leave it up to me!" "But the older sister cat is upset." "Since the little sister cat did a bad thing, she's really upset." "Let's not have club meetings starting today." "I want the older sister cat to be left alone for some time." "Older sister cat?" "Mion?" "Keiichi, if the mistaken dog that bit the village headman tries to bite the cat, please let me know." "That night, even metaphorically I regretted telling Rika-chan everything." "Her story was incomprehensible." "That's not all." "She spoke like she was there, in such detail." "Keiichi, phone." "It's Sonozaki-san." "Hello?" "It's Shion." "Shion!" "Um, I'm sorry about yesterday." "I just got carried away." "We're in the same situation." "I'm sorry for talking like you were to blame." "If you regret it, I'll forgive you." "From now on, let's inform each other of our concerns." "We share a common destiny." "Yeah, I got it." "Um, is it true that gramps Kimiyoshi went missing?" "Kimiyoshi?" "Oh, the village headman?" "Yeah, so I heard." "You didn't know?" "Yes, what should I do?" "Yesterday, I told the village headman about that night." "It's my fault!" "Stop it." "It's not your fault." "No, it's my fault!" "Because it happened right after." "He disappeared that night." "Killed because I told him." "Killed because I told him everything." "Killed because I told him." "Killed because he found out." "Killed because I told him everything." "Me too..." "I also told Rika." "Rika-chan!" "Hey, Rena." "Phone call." "It's Keiichi-kun." "Let me confirm this once more." "You called Rika's home, right?" "And you're worried because there's no answer, right?" "Y-Yeah, I think it rang for about ten minutes." "Her home isn't that big." "Satoko's there too, so there's no way they couldn't hear it." "Hey!" "Rena!" "Kei-chan!" "Anyway, let's go." " Not there." "Strange." " What's wrong, Rena?" "Rika-chan and Satoko-chan always park their bikes here." "Rika-chan!" "Satoko-chan!" "Are you there?" "Rika-chan!" "Satoko-chan!" "It's locked." "What about the second-floor windows?" "They might be open." " Kei-chan, ladder." " Okay." "I'll check the main house." "Main house?" "The Furude main house." "I heard it's been left alone since Rika's parents died." "Oh, right." "Rika's parents..." "Satoko's too." "Her parents fell off a cliff due to Oyashiro-sama's curse and her brother Satoshi went missing." "Since then, they've been living here together." "It must be hard on them." "She's cursed." "I said she's cursed." "M-Mion?" "Satoko Hojo is a cursed child with Oyashiro-sama's curse." "Satoshi-kun was working so hard for his only sister but he got erased." "Poor Satoshi-kun." "He got nothing in return." "She's cursed." "Go near and you'll die or be erased by the curse." "She'll never have peace of mind." "It's Satoko's fault that Rika disappeared!" "It must be." "It must be." "It must be." "It must be." "It must be." "It must be." "It must be." "It must be." "H-Hey, calm down, Mion." "It must be." "It must be." "It must be." "It must be." "Mi-chan!" "Keiichi-kun!" "I borrowed the key!" "Oh, good save." "Right, Kei-chan?" "Maybe there's a different Mion I don't know about." "At that moment, I thought that for the first time." "When They Cry" "When They Cry" "Satoko-chan!" "Rika-chan!" "If you're there, answer me!" "Where did they go?" "Nowhere, it seems." "I don't want to think this but the village headman disappeared last night." "You can't say it's unrelated." "No way..." "Is it my fault?" "Are you okay?" "It's all my fault." "It's my fault..." "Keiichi-kun..." "They're saying the kids should go home now." "It's my fault that they disappeared." "Why do you think that way?" "Why?" "I know you care about your friends very much." "But I know that it's not your fault." "I know it's not your fault." "Y-You know?" "I didn't tell Rena." "Are you thinking that I may disappear too?" "Then don't worry." "I definitely won't disappear." "How can you say with confidence that you won't?" "Definitely..." "Mi-chan probably won't be able to wake up today." "Yeah." "She searched all night for the village headman two nights ago." "Let's go." "I wonder where Rika-chan and Satoko went." "The granny from Tomita Tofu Shop said she recalls Satoko coming to buy tofu yesterday on her way back from school." "Tofu?" "Yesterday at Rika's home, a pot was on the stove and miso soup was in it." "What does that mean?" "You put the tofu in miso soup at the very, very end." "That means right up till dinner Rika-chan was standing there cooking." "I also looked inside the rice cooker." "There was rice cooked for two people." "There were some untouched dishes in the fridge which were all wrapped up." "Um..." "You wrap up leftovers you want to keep, right?" "What do you think that means?" "Um, then they didn't need to eat anymore or something?" "All of the sudden too." "If they knew beforehand, they wouldn't have been cooking." "They disappeared after they finished cooking dinner." "Probably around seven." "Where'd they go at that time?" "Do you recall a soy sauce bottle and such on the dinner table?" "The little soy sauce bottle was empty." "Checking under the sink the large bottle of soy sauce that's usually there was missing." "What does that mean?" "From this point, it's just a guess but I think she went to get soy sauce from the neighbors." "Since Rika-chan hadn't come back for a while Satoko-chan called the house where she went for soy sauce." "Did Rika come by your house?" "I think they responded like this..." ""We have dinner ready, so you should come over too."" ""Rika-chan is already eating."" "Then where did Rika-chan go to get soy sauce?" "That's it for my speculation." "It's just a guess after all." "Maebara-san!" "Hello." "Why are the police here for you?" "I'm not the culprit." "I know." "You can go on ahead." "Later." "Are you taking me to the police?" "No, no." "I just thought we could talk in the car instead of standing around." "So how's the investigation going?" "Investigation?" "For what?" "There've been too many lately." "Which one?" "All of them." "Oh, all of them." "Tomitake-san and Takano-san's cases went cold, unfortunately." "What about the village headman?" "Did you find any clues?" "We've traced his steps." "In the morning two days ago when he went missing he secretly saw a proctologist at a university hospital in Shishibone." "Proctologist?" "Yes, he kept it secret from his family and others." "Probably didn't want to hurt his ego, a proctologist and all..." "There was a train accident on his way back so he went to the meeting at the shrine right after returning." "What's wrong?" "Does something bother you?" "No..." "Yesterday, I told gramps Kimiyoshi everything." "When was that?" "Then I'll tell you..." "I heard Tomitake-san and Takano-san died last night." "The village headman disappeared two days ago." "Shion heard about Tomitake-san and Takano-san in the morning." "But the village headman secretly went to the hospital." "I told him yesterday." "When did Shion tell him?" "Maebara-san?" "Maebara-san?" "Listen, I don't necessarily think you're the culprit." "I know the four of you snuck into the ritual tool shrine that night." "It was already a rumor by the next day." "For that itself, you should be interrogated for trespassing but the question is what was in there." "Something that explains why those who sneak in keep getting killed." "There were a lot of torture tools from a long time ago." "Is that all?" "Yes, that's it." "There wasn't something horrible hidden that'd force your silence?" "No, there really wasn't anything else." "Then maybe there was something that you didn't see." "What I want to know is why you're safe while the other three were harmed." "I want to know what's so different." "Wait a minute." "Only me?" "What do you mean by the other three?" "Takano-san and Tomitake-san and..." "I'm saying Takano-san and Tomitake-san died and Shion Sonozaki-san went missing." "Only you are still living unharmed up till today." "S-Shion went missing?" "I'm saying Takano-san and Tomitake-san died and Shion Sonozaki-san went missing." "Hello?" "Oh, Kei-chan?" "It's me, Shion." "Did you hear about Rika and Satoko?" "Yes, what happened after that?" "Were they found?" "They weren't found." "Kei-chan, please don't feel bad." "The more I think the person on the other end is actually Shion the more scared I get." "This isn't Shion." "Who is this person?" "When..." "When did you tell him everything?" "Did you know he had hemorrhoids and was going to the hospital?" "I knew he had hemorrhoids since he was in pain when he sat." "Then which hospital did he go to?" "Sorry, I don't know that." "But why does that matter, Kei-chan?" "She doesn't know the hospital." "Then going to the hospital to tell him isn't possible." "He barely came back in time because of the train accident." "To make his meeting, he had no time to listen to her confession." "When did you tell the village headman everything?" "Kei-chan, why are you asking me such a thing?" "You couldn't have caught him in the morning." "Did you also attend the meeting?" "No, that's impossible." "Because Shion Sonozaki went missing the day after the cotton drifting!" "Please, if what I said is wrong, tell me so." "Shion, please!" "Shion, you didn't see the village headman." "If you did, it would've been after his meeting." "That is, right before he went missing, or..." "It has to be after he went missing!" "To get my happiness, I had done everything but had done nothing to be blamed and accused of." "The sound of footsteps became louder every day." "Then I noticed the fact there was no time." "I was a believer in life, to be myself always." "And was asking whether I would be alive." "Give me a reason why not to adopt in this way." "Or judge me to be guilty of so many incurable sins." "Tell me why or why not?" "Complaining way too much." "Maybe I overlooked something fatal for me." "Preview" "Preview A regret you cannot end." "A story that will never apologize." "What is engraved there is the other me." "When They Cry." ""Cotton Drifting" Chapter, Episode 4:" "WISH." " "Cotton Drifting" Chapter - Episode 04:" "WISH "Cotton Drifting" Chapter, Episode 4:" "WISH." " "Cotton Drifting" Chapter - Episode 04:" "WISH Can you believe it?" "Can you believe it?"