tatarigoroshi-hen (curse killing arc)

• opens with an old landlord and tenant discovering a body in their apartment's sewer drainage pipe thingy. cops arrive, the body is a mid 20s woman with her ears and nose cut off and instestines removed, huge slash in the stomach
• the kids are having lunch together. keiichi laments his parents are in tokyo for a couple days so he'll have to cook for himself; the curry competitition from watanagashi chapter is mentioned as having taken place. the kids decide to have a bento competition tomorrow as their club activity, with the punishment being getting chewed out by their teacher for disliking curry. keiichi worries since he doesnt know how to cook at all. rena offers to help if he tries and fails.
• keiichi nearly burns his house down cooking, satoko and rika show up to save him as satoko had planned to cook for him bc she knew he couldnt hold his own. while shes cooking, rika tells him that in getting to take care of him satoko gets to relive having her brother satoshi back; keiichi doesnt recognize his name and they dont address where he is, like hes on some trip away
• in leaving, rika has keiichi promise to play satokos big brother every now and then so shes less lonely

• Satoko's Trap Course (Elementary):
• the teens go on a mountain trail lead by the younger girls, where they fall into all the traps satokos set up there over the years

• at school the next day, the kids' club activity is judging their bentos. the loser with the worst bento has to go in front of their curry obsessed teacher and declare curry bad
• keiichi has a bento made of satoko's leftovers, while satoko and rika cheated by borrowing bentos from their classmates. the judging devolves into a classroom courtroom debate: satoko and rika are the losers for cheating, and keiichi joins them in solidarity
• the setup of the scene is satoko's cooking, presumed as keiichi's, is being degraded & she cant speak up much
• after school, rika has something to attend to so keiichi and satoko buy dinner ingredients then cook together. after dinner, keiichis parents call saying they will be back tomorrow. the whole time, keiichi is enjoying his role as satokos surrogate brother very much & the two have a sweet heart to heart about how they enjoy this new sibling-like bond
• however satoko senses rika may have requested keiichi do this and theres some lingering resentment. keiichi accompanies satoko on the way home

• on a saturday, keiichi has to depart from club activities (half-day at school) to attend a business party for his dad. its revealed his dad is a (sketchy?) manga artist. satoko calls him on the phone and urges him to come over to the okinomiya elementary school with a baseball bat, which keiichi interprets as the club losing in a physical fight.
• keiichi arrives, its baseball. the club hatches a plan revolving around satoko to beat the okinomiya team's koshien-level student player: keiichi pretends to share his desserts fetish, the two of them will go to angel mort on the condition of letting the clubs team win. satoko is great at baseball
• irie is introduced as the hinamizawa school baseball teams coach. hes some sort of maid-obsessed pervert that is extremely creepy towards the kids
• the teams win means irie will treat them all to fancy barbeque tomorrow (sunday)
• im left with "is that cause of satoshi/wait what about satoshi...?" thoughts

• satoko's trap course (advanced)
• its revealed satoko lies traps at school for coach irie in addition to keiichi. rena suggests the reason she plays all these pranks is out of wanting attention, that she enjoys being chased and reprimanded as playing. however iries reactions, presented as playful, are bizarrely off-color creepy
• the kids just treat him as fun and silly. im losing my mind

• at the sunday cookout at the furude shrine, satokos the centre of attention. irie and keiichi wind up chatting about her alone
• irie wants to marry and also adopt satoko. im losing my marbles. that she is only just barely above 10 years old is mentioned. im shocked and appalled
• irie repeats that satoshi "transferred", explaining that the houjou kids directly watched their parents die in the accident from arc1; doesnt explain what happened to satoshi
• shion shows up, shes the ghost manager of the baseball team. in this loop keiichi met her by chance in okinomiya. shes barred from club activities
• keiichi must play a punishment game. later while cleaning dishes, shion approaches him and they chat about the houjou kids. keiichi mentions satoshis "transfer", which makes shion lose her composure, suddenly eager for more information on the supposed transfer. she realizes shes lost her cool and steps away. keiichi is mildly scared
• on the way home, keiichi cant help but ask mion and rena what happened to satoshi. rena suddenly gets too serious, her eyes glaze over, and she strongly asserts he was a victim of oyashiro samas curse. mion keeps trying to make her stop, resorting to hitting her. its incredibly bleak and bizarre
• mion seems to be lucid; rena leaves the two behind. mion levels with keiichi saying the parents' death was popularly attributed to the curse, but is vague about satoshi saying he just disappeared one day and thats very difficult for satoko. he tells keiichi to try and avoid this subject around rena because she believes herself to also be a past victim of the curse, which makes her go a bit nuts; he doesnt believe this but doesnt want to hurt her
• in bed that night keiichi feels as if his life is about to immediately turn for the worse. he feels like he spoiled their fun day with his curiosity

• the slacking manager
• dialogue between shion and irie at the end of the sunday event. irie keeps calling shions bluff about quitting as manager so she stays in her role. he calls her satoshis girlfriend and than he'll surely come back for her, which flusters her
• copy of the preliminary autopsy
• note marked for ooishi. description of the body lacking ears and nose from the arc's intro
• restrained in a weird way, ears and nose cut off, gutted, abandoned w weight in the ouji river. suspected relation to the sonozakis
• east round three:
• ooishi in the precinct playing mahjong with coworker cops: the multilated body belonged to ritsuko "rina" mamiya, waitress at a hostess club owned by the sonozakis. her bf, teppei houjou is still alive; satokos uncle who was married to the housewife that was beaten to death last year

• the following monday, satoko is absent from class. rika is gloomily distressed but doesnt explain. the kids try their best to cheer up without satoko; rena notes "if we all die tomorrow and only one survives, we'd still have to do our best to have fun before that"
• during lunch, keiichi is cornered by ooishi (first meeting). ooishi threatens him then hurts him, asking if he could get in contact with satoko. some passing-by classmates spill the beans that satoko didnt come to class today
• irie intervenes, strongly painting him as a dependable reponsible adult (which is insane, theres no in-text awareness i feel insane). ooishi notably addresses irie as 'doctor', which irie quickly tries to cover up.
• irie takes keiichi to the nurses office and bandages his ooishi inflicted injury. there, he explains the houjou siblings were abused by their aunt and uncle before the aunt's watanagashi death. he notes the uncle is in okinomiya with his lover. he explains oyashirosamas curse in slightly better detail to keiichi for the first time this loop.
• he says ooishi began tormenting the siblings after their aunts death, and that theres rumors ooishi appearing in june and asking questions is the harbringer/marker of whoever will die during the next watanagashi, as "oyashirosamas servant"; i find this unreliable
• notably keiichi seems less paranoid and instead more in tune with the collective himanizawa mindset of strong hostility towards outsiders mentioned in arc2
• irie is surprised by keiichi saying satoko didnt come to school today but theres a surprising lack of addressal that she may be missing and ooishi is there for that
• irie being a doctor may place him as the doctor that administered keiichis vaccine in arc1; similar to how shion and miyo were present and active in arc1 but not revealed til the next arc; vaccines are suspicious; the hospital is suspicious

• research notes
• 4 out of 8 curse victims have been houjous; they were poor before the dam conflict and thus were eager to accept gov grants towards it. the family planned to move out of hinamizawa(!)
• ooishis
• i thought these were miyo notes like last arc initially but no author was listed; they are phrased and formatted exactly like miyos prev notes (which also didnt note author)
• ooishi's post memo
• >note to ooishi from a precinct cop regarding info call from a chief. uncle houjou is confirmed to have embezzled from the sonozakis; hes described as having been his lovers pimp. hes returned to himanizawa following his lovers murder, which has even more tethers to the sonozakis

• on the third day of her absence, satoko returns to school during lunch, roughed up. after class she immdiately goes back home; shes keeping a peppy facade but the kids deduce her uncle is back and abusing her
• the kids brainstorm how to save her but are unable to formulate concrete plans; mion mentions a previous attempt to involve authorities and that only made things worse
• keiichi and rena both get very heated during the discussion; at the peak of yelling her eyes glaze over, and keiichi speaks as unreasonably as during arc1
• keiichi goes over to uncle houjous house; there he encounters irie, who gave satoko a ride home for her absurd grocery trip. they briefly meet the alcoholic uncle; irie takes keiichi away to drive him home, trying to stop him from having an outburst
• in the car they discuss their powerlessness for satokos situation; again irie is presented as a reasonable trustworthy adult. satoko has come to see herself as a massive burden as her brother vanished on her birthday last year; last year she called welfare herself (pre-watanagashi)

• case 31
• child abuse center report about satoko's self-report, notes that the aunt & uncle "agreed to coaching"; notes of unspecified specialists being good for the case

• at home, keiichi brainstorms trying to save satoko from her uncle but ultimately doesnt have any good ideas. his most seriously considered idea is of kidnapping her and making her live in his house in secret, as if thats any better
• he briefly off-hand mentions its possible to get in and out of his room via the roof; this seems to explain the end of arc1
• the next day keiichi oversleeps; he heads to the dam instead of school. there he meets tomitake (first meeting), who's lost; keiichi offers to guide him to his destination, the furude shrine. there they meet with miyo (first meeting, but she knows keiichis name)
• miyo says the festival is in 2 days so the three of them discuss the curse. miyo is a folklorist who declares oyashirosama's curse as "her life's work". she thinks the curse is an excuse for the villagers to commit premeditated murder, making examples of troublemakers. she catches onto keiichis probing, who seems eager to figure out the probability of uncle houjou being the next victim
• miyo says she'll tell keiichi who is perpetrating the murders if he promises to 1) not regret it 2) not tell anyone 3) not tell anyone she told him. keiichi "realizes why he wants to know" and the scene cuts out...?
• keiichi arrives back at school for lunch. no acknowledgement of whatver miyo last said. there, the club is relieved hes ok and that he didnt kidnap satoko; satoko is absent today. the club members agree to contact the authorities regarding satokos abuse
• keiichi and mion are pulled into the teachers lounge where she asks them about satokos situation. keiichi angrily demands she seriously help rather than make empty promises; the kids exit while shes on the phone

• article
• brief law listing defining child abuse and its prohibition statistics from the ministry of health and welfare
• details common statistics surrounding child abuse; satokos sprite is unusually shown in the bg
• sexual abuse statistics are mentioned last with ominous sfx
• the framing of this note presents the level of abuse satokos suffering through as statistically rare but potentially the worst possible kinds

• the next day at school (one day before watanagashi), the kids arrive at school and satoko is there. the welfare officer arrived last night and she drove them away
• rika and the teacher explain to keiichi in private that satokos uncle is her second stepdad; the man up until now referred to as mr houjou, the one who died of the curse, was actually her first stepdad. her mom dated misc men then remarried, which is presumed to have left a mark on satoko, who would not accept father substitutes and would pull cruel pranks on them
• for the stepdad that died, satoko had pulled a prank in which she called welfare saying he was abusing her. since then, welfare has treated all calls for satokos case as potentially pranks; her uncle is the first case of an abusive stepdad, but between potentially not being believed + thinking enduring it would make satoshi return no longer seeing her as a burden, satoko refuses to accept help
• at the very least satoko will continue going to school
• at lunch, the kids try to settle into their usual antics
• keiichi goes to affectionately pet satoko, which suddenly sends her into a screaming, terrified frenzy; she pushes him away wailing loudly and starts throwing things around in the classroom, apologizing and asking for something to stop
• she clings to the curtain crying for her brother, attacking keiichi every time he approaches; rena realizes something and yells at keiichi (eyes glaze over) for them to swap places. rena gently approaches; its heavily implied satokos been sexually abused, as shes more open to rena and confides in her something unseen to us
• rena hugs her, apologizing, saying theyve failed her; the rest of the kids start crying in reaction
• the teacher steps in and satoko immediately snaps back to her usual cheerful self, claiming the destruction all around is from her roughhousing
• keiichi suddenly faints; he has an out of body experience...? dream where he realizes oyashirosama is useless, that he ought to take the matter of killing uncle houjou into his own hands. with sudden, scary clarity he devises a precise plan to execute during watanagashi
• when keiichi wakes, the club members sans satoko are startled by him barking at them, claiming his eyes just glazed over

• emergency
• june 18 1983 report (today) on satokos last night welfare check (noted as "yesterdays"); unclear author/origin, seemingly from the same welfare office that sent the current social worker
• notes that satokos boy that cried wolf call was in 1977 and is indeed the reason she isnt taken seriously, but notes this as the office chiefs decision; whoever is writing the report urgently needs to be removed from her home
• d2-3 number 44
• satokos 1977 sos report; satoko was labelled as a problem child by the agency particularly by the office chief

• the same day (saturday), half-day ergo keiichi goes home early and begins seriously considering the murder plans. he thinks of it in terms of going against oyashirosamas desires, in contrast to his earlier conversaion with miyo
• he decides to use satoshis bat in the classroom locker (found accidentally out of curiosity previously)
• that night he calls mion to ensure satoko is taken to the festival, leaving the uncle alone. during the phonecall, mion suddenly breaks down, admonishing keiichi as if hes satoshi; it sounds like this is actually shion, whos getting the same call as last year
• keiichi suddenly suspects that last year, satoshi killed his aunt and was forced to flee to avoid getting caught, painting satoko as the sister of a murderer; he resolves that he will kill the uncle better, staying with satoko
• satoshi seems to have bought satoko the giant teddy bear she wanted but was never able to deliver it

• for the attention of those on the housewife slaughter incident case
• july 1982 report by okinomiya police chief takasugi, in the anti drug department, details a misstep in alerting a sister police department (presumably the one ooishi works in) that a man they caught for drug posession gave a confession that aligns with the murder of aunt houjou. postscript part of the report (thats being described in this report) states said man died in custody the day prior to the reports writing

• the sunday of watanagashi, keiichi heads out and digs a whole deep in the forest. he re-resolves to commit the murder, without the cold emotionlessness of earlier
• he notes he scored unusually high iq in cram school, got placed in an advanced course there but not in regular public school; this is the one thing hes done hes proud of as hes otherwise average. thus his life was boring before he moved to hinamizawa (the phrasing of it is he prefers practical problems to abstract ones)
• title drop: "it will all be over when the higurashi (evening cicadas) cried."
• keiichi retrieves the bat and sets p the murder; he describes satoshi giving his approval and blessing through the bat
• keiichi brutally kills the uncle in an eerily calm yet animalistic state, but his plan to hide the evidence has some missteps. he kills him with finality when the cicadas cease
• it begins to storm. after finally burying the body, he clumsily makes his way home on bike with shovel in one hand. hes nearly run over by a car; they both swerve, keiichi falling and hurting his ankle, then the car circles to him
• miyo steps out of the car and offers to drive him home. tomitakes bike is in her backseat and she claims her trunk is "too full" for keiichis bike; she puts his bike in the backseat
• her smalltalk coincidentally describes how to go about burying someone in the mountains. keiichi is unnerved, but ultimately too exhausted and briefly naps in the car
• once at his house, miyo walks him to the door; they discuss the other bike, which she explains is her own, chosen by tomitake but lended to him when he visits hinamizawa. she then coldly repeats "you and i never met tonight", which keiichi eventually accepts; he recognizes she definitely also killed someone tonight
• he has several impulses to kill miyo to hide all evidence more thoroughly; at the end he recognizes she mustve been having these same impulses
• once shes left, he suddenly prays/wishes for her to die violently in a fire, leaving her body unrecognizable (this is what happened in arc2); all of a sudden he feels the invisible presence behind him from prev arcs (long hair, child?)

• fire from hell
• unclear police precinct, a cop/first responder accepts a call urgently requesting the fire department regarding a sudden, uncontrollable fire distantly on the other side of the mountain far from homes/roads
• 5 oil drums burned, one of which contains a body; per arc2 its miyo
• victim of the fifth year
• discussion between ooishi and other cops: tomitakes body with his throat clawed out was discovered in town. ooishi says he was certain uncle houjou would be killed, suggests they were watching the houjou house trying to catch the sonozakis. his lack of coming home yet is noted but not given importance

• the next day, keiichi excitedly is ready for his life to get back to normal. he arrives at school very late; at the gate, he hears the invisible footsteps again
• he chats with his classmates, who claim he was at the festival yesterday while satoko wasnt. satokos doing awful, also claims her uncle is still alive. keiichi is unnerved, believing theres another him
• keiichi nearly lets slip he killed the uncle last night; rena and mion catch onto this and (with eyes glazed over) force him to accompany them on a trip to the dam after school
• on the way there, keiichi feels those invisible footsteps again. he tells rena he'll go to the hospital instead; shes very suspicious of him, so he decides to indeed go to the hospital
• the hospital is revealed as irie's clinic. keiichi is sent to a check-up room right before closing. there irie tends to him; he jokes a bit about doppelgangers replacing. keiichi trusts him and feels compelled to share the truth. he does, and irie seems to believe him, concluding that indeed he killed the uncle but mysteriously people remember him going to the festival and that the uncle is still alive
• keiichi violently yells, refusing sedative or the chance to calm down until the very end. irie steps out for tea
• iries writes down notes in german
• keiichi trails behind him in secret; he overhears irie requesting a sedative tea for keiichi alongside assessments of how many men are available to potentially restrain him. one "mountain dog" operative is mentioned. he notes keiichis paranoia/delusions/false memories, keiichi feels betrayed
• irie is informed miyos body was found, notes that "risa's" was as well in an unknown prior incident. hes held up by a call from ooishi; keiichi takes the moment to escape from the clinic via his rooms window
• keiichi takes miyos death to mean the curse he placed on her worked and that she deserved it. he wishes for iries death
• it begins raining; keiichi believes last night "has not ended". he is continuously haunted by invisible footsteps, which hes begun attributing to miyos appearance last night
• keiichi decides the only way to verify if he killed the uncle is to dig up the corpse and see if it has a tiger tattoo (irie mentioned satoko has mentioned it)
• he finds the hole site; after a bit of digging, ooishi and some other cops creepy up. they begin forcing keiichi to dig, kicking him, throwing mud etc
• eventually the cops dig in his place, and ooishi begins violently interrogating keiichi with mud water; before he can serious hurt him, the other cops report theyve dug the maximum possible amount. theres no corpse, the cops silently leave
• keiichi wishes for ooishis death

• inquiry request
• june 20 precinct license lookup: ooishi calls the depertmant asking for a plate (h-4344) within the prefecture, which a random cop finds and notes as uninteresting. on trying to deliver the information, ooishi's car's comms are unresponsibe record of malice
• very unclear pov / descriptions, of a man telling pov character that they smell bad, the food they cook smells bad and they must bathe abnormally frequently. describes the man being "processed" by the same thing that possessed a man who said something strange before he died. the pov character hopes for circumstances that will allow for them to effortlessly kill the man. ends with "ahh, someone is apologizing again..."
• presumably satoko...?

• keiichi believes as punishment for killing the uncle, he was stolen away into an alternate demon world version of hinamizawa where everything is off
• he beings to feel unnerved by the word "impossible"
• the next morning (leaving unclear what happened on his way home), he decides he'll keep killing uncle houjou even if he comes back each time
• he takes a rusty hatchet from his dads garage and sets out to the uncles house. there he finds a limp, heavily burnt satoko who had been instructed to stay in the burning hot bath, seemingly overnight
• keiichi goes into a blind rage swinging the hatchet all around the uncles room; hes nowhere to be found. instead he goes to save satoko, whos barely conscious
• at this point i realized miyo may have dug up the body between keiichi burying it and encountering him...?
• at the clinic theres cops. irie has committed suicide via the sedatives he was going to give keiichi
• satoko is upset by the news, but also embarrassed at not being properly dressed (its absurdly bad) so the two want to step by rikas house then go back to the clinic
• on the way there keiich starts to lose it a bit, thinking himself responsible for this string of freak accidents. satoko doesnt really believe him
• at the shrine they find rikas body on a garbage bag being plucked at by crows. her entrails are spilling out; they lose it
• satoko becomes convinced keiichi killed her too and flees (hes still carrying the hachet)
• keiichi slowly pursues her, not to hurt her but out of wanting to explain. they settle at a suspended bridge; keiichi tosses the hatchet and stands at a distance from her with his hands on his head, facing away from her
• breaking down, satoko explains she thinks keiichi and several others have become possessed and thats what lead them to kill. she notes his eyes glazed over, accosting him for daring to pretend to be keiichi
• she explains the world started "going insane" as keiichi describes presently feeling a few years back, when she snuck into the ritual storehouse during hide and seek. she became trapped inside and broke a statue of oyashirosama in an escape attempt
• rika was thought to have intentionally let satoko in; as punishment she was struck by her dad (the priest) in front of the other kids seemingly with a torture implement. satoko describes not having fessed up to save her friend leading to her being cursed
• in the end, she tosses keiichi off the bridge, calling him a murderer and an enactor of her curse, begging for satoshi to come back
• keiichi plummets, wishing satoko could be happy again, then wishing this insane version of hinamizawa would end

• research notes
• miyos notes on oyashirosama: the kanji for oyashiro are not known. one theory of miyos is based on a local legend: that the 8th firstborn daughter, if the past 8 genereations have all had daughters first, is said to be the reincarnation of oyashirosama. certain kanji could fit in to fit the name this way
• the locals believe rika to indeed be a reincarnation. miyo muses that hinamizawa would revert to cannibalistic demons without rika-as-oyashirosamas guidance; she is very excited by such a prospect

• keiichi comes to about a day later in the afternoon. heavily injured, he barely manages to make it out of the riverbed, into the roads. the village is completely, eerily still; he notes a rotten egg smell in the air
• he makes it to school; there army trucks are loading up hundreds of bodies. some of the guys there notice keiichi and hurriedly give him a gas mask. they drive him to the clinic, where the army has set up a makeshift emergency hospital. on the drive there, he hears the news
• approx 12 hours after keiichis fall an eruption of volcanic gas covered the entire village, killing everyone. the local authorities failed to engage emergency measures in time as the disaster occured at 2-3am; dispatch occurred around 8am, far too late
• keiichi is the only known survivor. he briefly wishes for death, which appears to work, but the medics revive him
• police(?) reports notes it as the "great hinamizawa disaster"
• everyone that survived the gas either died in accidents while fleeing or mysteriously committed suicide shortly afterwards. some fanatics studying the case developed similar mental issues. such paranoia is dubbed "hinamizawa syndrome"
• the credits roll, formatted as a memorial of victims. notably tomitake is listed as "real name unknown"
• epilogue: in 2003 an elderly couple find a cassette tape that appears to hold keiichis only interview regarding the disaster dated nov 28 1983.
• the interviewer describes keiichis survival as "impossible" as the gas practically originated from where keiich had fallen. keiichi remains tight-lipped, believing the interviewer wouldnt believe him, but discusses his cursing abilities and that impossible things did occur in hinamizawa. he clals himself the fifth years curse victim. he describes no longer hearing the invisible footsteps that supposedly power the curse. he curses the interviewer, who 15 years later indeed dies as described
• its explained this interview is considered fake, as keiichi had attempted suicide of august of 1983, then was shortly after taken to a mental institute that did not allow interviews and such
• however this interviewer is known for taking absurd measures with absurd methods for obtaining interivews. regardless, keiichi died of a sudden fever 2 days after this interview, apparently having claimed to have begun hearing the footsteps again

• miyo laments that the villagers gruesome deaths werent shown in detail, irie laments that hes just a minor character (hes happy he got sprites though). rika again wants to drink alcohol?
• in plot mystery discussion the characters point out that each arc has progressively explained more about the previous ones. they describe the differing bad ending outcomes as a result of slightly diverging choices being made in multiple instances of the same world
• amusingly they devise a "perfect route" plan, where all the past arc's theorized turning points are avoided, pre-sacrificing tomitake early
• keiichi calls, announcing shion as the next pov character. hes excited to be fired because that means he'll get sprites