tsukiotoshi (exorcism chapter)

originates in ps2 port (2007)
tatarigoroshi bad ending, meant to be read after meakashi

reading time: 09/02/26 - 10/02/26 2 sessions

• keiichi pov; satoko's absence from school has been prolonged. he pushes rika to explain what's up: rena realizes that it's teppei's return, explaining the child consultation centre's uselessness
• frustrated with her powerlessness, rena suggests that satoshi had the right idea. mion is enraged, trying to prevent her from explaining what she means. keiichi asks if mion's family could just handle things, which enrages her further: she yells at everyone
• suddenly, shion enters: she declares that mion is a demon, explaining that the reason the village won't help satoko is because of the sonozakis and the blame now falls onto mion. mion tries to protest (to say she's not meant to be the family head), which shion sharply shoots down, shouting at her
• keiichi tries to stop shion from leaving but accidentally smacks her. she jumps out the window; he chases after her. only when he promises to rip out his heart (??) does she slow down: he presses gardening shears against his chest to prove how strongly he wants to help satoko. she realizes what he means and they agree to save satoko
• they storm into the teacher's office: chie explains for now, she plans to talk to teppei directly and assess the situation
• shion intercepts keiichi and takes him to satoko's house, which he's never been before. she teases him, but they both feel as if they're being followed (hehehe)
• at the house, keiichi loses control and slams the doorbell. shion realizes she's up for trespassing
• keiichi is incredibly unnerved, but shion balances him out. they locate satoko via scoping the house out from the garden. they jump in through a window and get into a fight with teppei's mahjong friends
• keiichi is badly beaten; satoko is clutching onto shion. suddenly, irie enters: in trying to ascertain the situation, satoko butts in explaining everything is fine
• irie drives the kids home. he explains he wishes he could take matters into his own hands, but ultimately the problem is that satoko views her abuse as an atonement for having "caused" her brother's disappearance
• keiichi is enraged and shion begins sobbing.
• keiichi decides to "roll the dice" and kill teppei or die trying. he has a nightmare of being forced to make a terrible decision. he awakes (still on the drive home), and starts to feel like he has to finish was satoshi failed to do
• trying to sleep after skipping dinner, he starts to hallucinate. it's emphacized that being around other people lessens the paranoia; his mom comes in and tells him rena has come over
• keiichi has a bit of blood on his fingertips from being beaten. rena, with eyes glazed over, suddenly wonders if teppei's blood would look like that
• rena has brought over her leftovers. she motions to have keiichi walk her home: she wordlessly heads to the dam dump instead
• ominously, rena retreats to her car hideout. keiichi follows: she has a 🐹hamster in there
• inside she's ripping her hair out, frustrated about how little they can help satoko. she explains that this is where she hides from her family, and how lucky keiichi is to have a nice family
• vacantly, rena proclaims this is goodbye. keiichi grabs her, trying to snap her out of it; she gently explains she will kill teppei
• the next day, both rena and mion are absent from meeting up with keiichi, but present at school at maximum cheerfulness
• keiichi goes to discuss their argument yesterday, but notices rena staring daggers at him; he instead simply apologizes. she ominously approaches, affirming that friends shouldn't keep secrets from eachother
• keiichi, mion and rena ominously probe one another trying to figure out why each of them stayed up too late last night
• the watanagashi festival is tomorrow
• keiichi recalls that last night rena explained to him that she hates the toys rina has given her, that rina and teppei are her enemies. at the time, she began scratching herself
• after school, rena immediately excuses herself. daydreaming left alone, shion eventually comes to see keiichi, distraught as satoko has again refused help
• suddenly, shion starts to cackle between sobs. she admits she wants to kill teppei; keiichi takes her to meet up with rena so the three of them can kill him together. rena thinks they have oyashirosama's blessing for this (in the form of a fourth set of hands helping them)
• as if possessed, the three of them plan the murder. they agree to meet at keiichi's house later; shion is late, which makes keiichi and rena paranoid that she won't keep the secret
• shion arrives; she was delayed by receiving a creepy silent phone call where she could hear nothing but someone breathing
• the plan is to kill him on watanagashi similarly to how keiichi did so alone in ch3. keiichi will be the one to do the killing to keep the girls technically not shouldering the worst of the crime
• shion realizes they should use satoshi's bat. the girls laugh hysterically, insisting keiichi joins them (jumpscare-y)
• they're interrupted by a silent phone call like the one shion received. another call rings: its mion asking if keiichi has festival plans. the way she's phrased it sounds like she's also planning to kill teppei (and thus would miss the festival)
• keiichi is suddenly unnerved, thinking the girls upstairs are eavesdropping. returning to his room, he accuses them; the two of them are equally paranoid and accusatory, thinking keiichi is about to back out and betray them
• rena suggests they outright inform mion if not include her in the plan, but shion is adamant that mion should be treated like an enemy
• shion then burns the notebook with their plans
• the next day keiichi is chipper and well-rested. in the afternoon he meets up with the girls in the dam. suddenly he's hearing nonexistant sounds, freaking them out; he's unnerved at at one of them bringing a duffel bag, which turns out to only contain lunchboxes
• they dig a hole deep in the mountainside. rena recounts that last year, satoko found her crying alone around the mountains and comforted her
• shion suddenly hallucinates someone patting her head and starts uncontrollably apologizing between screams. she calls herself the worst, that she's always hated satoko; she's wished for satoko to suffer in exchange for making satoshi suffer. satoshi's disappearance thus was to fulfill that wish
• she explains that that's proof of oyashirosama's existence, and that she would be next to disappear if they carry out the murder
• rena affirms that oyashirosama exists. keiichi feels terminal symptoms creeping up on him, but just keeps digging
• as the sun begins to set, rena accidentally drops her shovel in the grave. jumping in to get it, keiichi starts to hallucinate the girls are whispering about betraying him
• in the evening as they're waiting for the time to call teppei they eat the lunch
• keiichi suddenly recalls sometime last year his mom had a pet bird that suddenly died, which made her neglect eating/cooking a bit. he resolves its very important to eat even if you don't feel like it
• keiichi has no appetite while shion is freaked out by the inclusion of canned tuna in a rice ball
• shion makes the call. the kids get into position: shion and rena will topple teppei's bike with a rope and keiichi will kill him
• keiichi suddenly hears the fake ringing sound again; he realize it's emanating from shion's apparent stun gun. he gets extremely paranoid, afraid shion might kill him after ensuring teppei is out
• rena also brought her hatchet in secret. keiichi panics, then stabilizes with the resolve to kill
• teppei arrives. keiichi immediately kills him, proclaiming that the killer is oyashirosama
• as if pulled out from a dream, he realizes rena and shion are behind him asking if he's alright. they then approach the corpse and mutilate it as part of ensuring he's dead. a storm begins
• suddenly, satoko appears on the clearing; she screams in horror, then tremblingly asks what everyone's doing here
• while they're trying to gently get her away from the scene, satoko recoils; she had left mid-festival to check on teppei as she expected him to beat her for having gone to the festival at all. in trying to explain this, she fully freaks out, screaming for help, calling them murderers
• she falls to the ground. as she tries to get up, shion shocks her. they go to bury the body; keiichi is getting more and more unnerved
• while burying the body, the girls depart to plunge the bike and dispose of the remaining tools. keiichi begins to feel hanyuu behind him. when he looks, the girls have returned
• shion proposes that she take care of satoko until the police quiet down about the murder. rena and keiichi drop by rena's to clean themselves then go to the festival for their alibi
• they meet up with mion who tries to explain that satoko left early. they play around in the festival despite their exhaustion to rule out all suspicion
• keiichi has a nightmare of teppei's murder playing out with him as the victim
• keiichi awakes feeling horrible but casts it aside in favor of his sense of wanting to help satoko. mion and rena are both absent from walking to school together. at school, satoko is absent. before class the kids joke around
• as keiichi tries to leave with rena after school, rika stops them. feigning pain, she grips keiichis wrists to stop him from leaving, asking him about last night sharply
• she insistedly asks if they know where satoko is
• keiichi and rena are incredibly unnerved but evade questioning. the walk home is very awkward
• they realize they need to contact shion and verify if satoko's ok, but can't find her at angel mort nor get ahold of her on the phone
• late at night shiom calls keiichi back. she explains the current extent of the police investigation and assures him that satoko is "sleeping" someplace safe for now. unnervedly, they decide to meet at the okinomiya library tomorrow
• the next day, shion affirms everything is fine. she explains the reason the cops are reacting so immediately is because it's a watanagashi disappearance
• she further explains jirou committed suicide and miyo seems to have been murdered. keiichi begins to worry that since three people died this year, three will need to disappear
• as rena motions to leave, keiichi sternly asks where shion is keeping satoko. suddenly, ooishi enters; he has been eavesdropping
• he asks where the kids were on the festival night. shion says she was at work, explaining she isnt close to keiichi without hesitation (re: keiichi's paranoia of being betrayed revolving around affirming friendship)
• leaving, rena chimes in saying she's also worried for satoko's whereabouts
• in school the coming days, satoko's absence is oppressive. one day after school, rika asks keiichi to speak with her behind the gym shed
• she asks again where satoko is, declaring she doesn't care if keiichi is an accomplice to a crime. all she wants to know is where satoko is
• keiichi is terrified, unable to comprehend how rika knows everything. rika is stern, asking again, emphasizing that if they don't recover satoko immediately she will die. she drops into fredrika's voice (desperate rather than demeaning)
• rika tags alone with keiichi and rena to find shion. she hasnt been going to work; they get her apartment address from her uncle. there they bump into kasai: he doesn't know where she is and allows them to wait for her there
• hours later, ooishi appears instead. the kids try to evade him, but he follows behind them at a slow pace. he calls out that shion hasn't come home to her apartment since the night of the festival
• he explains that shion's scooter hasn't returned to okinomiya in days; there's a duplicate of the same make but with a different plate. keiichi horribly realizes that satoko was never brought to okinomiya
• rika quietly realizes that satoko is already dead
• the kids decide to check the houjou house; it's empty. wandering nearby, keiichi finds shion's scooter ditched in a bush
• keiichi breaks a window and clamors into the house. there's breakfast foods scattered across the floor
• rena opens a room door and finds shion's corpse with a lot of stab wounds propped against a futon. curled up behind her is satoko's corpse with throat clawn marks: presumably satoko went L5, killing shion and then herself
• rena screams in horror; a completely defeated rika comments that there's nothing they could've done as this was predetermined
• rena and keiichi maddeningly scream they'll make whoever did this pay while rika dejectedly has gone through this scenario before. keiichi retrives the knife satoko wielded, planning to use it for revenge
• the next day, keiichi stays home from school. in and out of bad sleep, he's eventually woken up by a phone call: it's shion
• they banter, then keiichi asks if she's been going to work then home. he traps her in questions about how they conducted the murder: he realizes it's mion posing as shion
• he lures her to the dam dump hideout. it's indeed mion: she's been posing as shion both to give her an alibi and to probe keiichi and rena, afraid that they're going down satoshi's route
• rena appears and tells mion to stop lying. she claims mion's plan was to kill satoko on the festival night under the guise of the curse. mion seems geniunely shocked by the news of satoko and shion's deaths
• mion is reduced to frantic tears, apologizing; keiichi goads her that all of this must've been sonozaki orders from the start
• rena and keiichi swing into her at the same time. keiichi imagines she's asking about todays club activities (echoes her dazed state in taraimawashi's ending)
• they stay holding the corpse til night falls. rena then starts to reminisce about how dear mion is to her, and begins unravelling wondering why things had to turn out like this
• keiichi tries to say this is just mion's "destiny" within oyashirosama's curse to die like this, which upsets rena. keiichi realizes she will kill him too
• the weight of keeping the murders they committed together secret for the rest of their lives suddenly weighs heavily on keiichi; he thinks of it as a very twisted bond like a dark marriage
• he decides to stop trusting rena. rena suggests they bring mion's corpse to join shion and satoko's
• they go to rena's house to retrieve a cart. rena unnervedly asks keiichi if she trusts her, which he struggles to respond to
• he realizes she's retrieved his kitchen knife and is keeping it close by discreetly. he locates her hatchet and places it on the cart also discreetly
• they place mion into the cart. rena is acting mechanical levels of dejected now. keiichi realizes he'd do anything to hear mion's voice again: he begins hallucinating her responses to his thoughts
• at the house, keiichi places mion's corpse in the pile and prays for them. rena declares she's burning the house down
• rena suddenly declares that all of this has been keiichi's fault: he shouldn't have involved shion without consulting rena at the start. she elaborates saying it's all her own fault for relying on keiichi
• rena loses it, laughing hysterically, explaining that she's going to reclaim and rebuild her own happiness no matter what without anyone's help
• keiichi lunges to run away, but rena gently grabs him. fallen to the floor, they tightly hug; rena stabs him with the kitchen knife as the room is engulfed in flame (WOW)
• rena claims keiichi became an agent of oyashirosama sent to stop her but she's now saved him. keiichi starts apologizing as he bleeds out
• pov swap to rena with deep red text: as the house fully burns, she thinks of it as her rebirth
• she bikes to the shrine to "free" rika too. the shrine is surrounded by cop cars
• earlier in the afternoon, rena had gone to kill rika who was scarily open to the concept, saying that whether rena kills her now or later will not change the outcome. disgusted with the idea of destiny and fate, rena locked her in the ritual storehouse to kill her later
• tonight, a swarm of elderly people are praying on the shrine grounds, borderline unresponsive to rena asking what's going on
• they eventually harshly explain that rika is already dead: she was disemboweled in front of the offertory box. the group is praying to dispell the rest of the curse's power. an old woman holds rena by the wrist to stop her from running
• suddenly, kumachan across the crowd spots rena: he notices keiichi's blood on her dress and alerts the other cops
• rena makes a break for it on bike. cop cars block her exit to okinomiya; she runs into the forest
• she collapses near where teppei was chased down. she talks to herself, and narrates about how this habit of talking to her "other inner self" helps ground her
• she dreams of reuniting with her friends but is awoken by armed militia officers (either mountain dogs or the extermination crew) surveilling the area near her (close to an okinomiya school)
• rena is shot in the shoulder and tumbles down a small hill; in motioning to get up, a cop is suddenly shot beside her. his last words are urging rena to escape the village as the disaster is occurring
• rena runs to her hideout in the dam dump. the sound of an evacuation flyer lures her out; she is shot. her dying wish is for the truth about this incident to be uncovered