meakashi (eye-opening arc)

question arc: watanagashi

pov character: shion

timeframe: june 1982

• opens with shion running away from the catholic boarding school St. Lucia for the rich that "produces ladies"; she strategically planted a rumor that she was dating a male teacher so her escape would seem like an elopement scandal that could ruin the schools reputation
• she's picked up by her chauffeur/bodyguard, kasai to return to okinomiya. they chat; mion began living with oryou and taking over successor duties just a year prior (conflicts with himatsubushi?), around the same time shion was sent to this school. kasai is a semi-retired driver for of the twins' father the gang leader, whom hes close with; he has a very affectionate relationship with shion, as he raised her and now serves as her butler
• shion reminisces about the dam protests; shes fond of how much mischief she got into thinking of it as childhood misbehavior. she notes there was a rumor that the sonozakis kidnapped the minister of construction's grandson as blackmail; he was found in yagouchi in decidedly not a demoning-away incident
• sonozaki family tradition dictates the successor take the "demon" kanji character in their name; mion has the character for "demon", while shion has the character for "temple". another tradition is should twins be born into the family, the younger one must be killed; oryou allegedly tried to choke shion immediately after birth. the choice to keep her alive and lock her up in a boarding school is seen by the sonozakis as the merciful option she needs to be completely grateful for. oryou detests shion and sees her as a walking bad omen
• shion hates oryou. she has no attachment to hinamizawa, instead adoring her hometown okinomiya. she discusses the potential consequences of her escape with kabai, who mentions the main sonozaki house has a torture room in the garden. shion wishes to "not end up as a victim of that place" (...bro). she mentions being more afraid of her parents' reaction than of oryou's. she mentions her parents and kasai were in some sort of love triangle, with kasai privately keeping affections for the twins' mom, which may spill into how he treats shion (...but seemingly not a creep)
• her gambit is to try and use sonozaki family members/goons that were opposed to her having been sent to st lucias (either when it was decided before her birth, or when it was time to send her off) to stand for her return in the face of oryou

• The Notebook's Beginning
• unknown pov; notebook calls to mind miyo's notes but it closes with "please help this powerless young girl". details satoshi's june 1982 disappearance and potential reasons, from the perspective of trying to solve who's orchestrating the recurring deaths

• its 1982, the fourth year of the curse and one year prior to keiichi's transfer. shion awakes in her apartment; its nearly vacant due to having been foreclosed by her dad's gang dealings. shion calls mion via kabai; they feign their "intended" malice then laugh together. mion is proud she escaped; he wishes she could take over his role, as if thats something they had considered in the past
• shion requests he get a part time job at a specific uncle's (yoshirou) business and time their outings so it looks like mion has the part time job; requires a lot of precise scheduling. the uncle is jovial and happy to help shion, giving her an unusual temp job with more flexible schedule. its of course angel mort, and the uncle is a bit of a creep, but doesnt hurt shion
• shion says she was at st lucia's for two years, shortly after the dam protests concluded. the grandson was released, then it took a year for the construction to fully halt, then the project was still not formally cancelled, so tensions lingered in the village. the uncle reports the onigafuchi guardians formally disbanded with a ceremony about a year after the construction ended
• shion keeps comparing the protests to a festival from a kid's perspective. she kinda flippantly discusses the recurring murders she knows of thus far (implying she went to school around 1980). she details that the murders scared the villages kids into respecting oyashirosama, when previously he was considered flippantly. the uncle then informs her that the curse continued and caught the furudes, which shocks her
• the twins meet up in the library and discuss the curse. they share a moment of disagreeing over whether mr furude deserved it, which gives them pause; mion has grown into the successor role while shion has grown into her own independance. shion encourages mion to accept their difference and stay close despite of it, as mion is, in older sibling fashion basically constantly looking out for shion and often hesitant towards his own growth out of wanting to make sure shion will be ok with it
• the situation with mr furude was he was essentially a dam project centrist that was the sole person to not turn his back on the pro-dam houjous; as a member of one of the three families hes seen as meant to have taken a harsher stance, that he was failing oyashirosama by not dealing with them
• shion goes back to her apartment; has a meal with kasai. its revealed shes terrified of eating canned food because as a kid kasai would torment her with stories of unidentified dubious meat in cans; heavily implied to be related to the human meat cans mentioned at the end of watanagashi. kasai tells her that the news of her return has reached her mother, akane, first, and will reach her father then oryou within a few days. shion is relieved as akane is more on her side. kasai gently reminds her that his life is also on the line here, as a close friend of her dads helping the locked up daughter escape could end up with his death
• a few days later, mion tells shion over the phone that oryou indeed heard of her escape. the twins' parents are still together despite akane's excommunication; shion briefly narrates that akane was stripped of the successor title for having fought with oryou many years ago over not wanting to follow sonozaki traditions.

• A Smudged Diary
• pov satoshi (voiced!); hes trying to protect satoko from a round of their aunt screaming at them. shes completely distraught and crying, but has satoshi to rely on and feels better under his care... whereas he has no one to rely on, and is having serious bouts of dizziness from the stress impeding his basic taking care of himself

• some days have gone by, shion is fully used to having to time her outings to appear as mion; while out shopping, she absent mindedly knocks down three motorcycles belonging to delinquents. they carry her off to attack her; she considers that her knocking the bikes down was both an accident and "god's will", as they need to be taught to park their bikes properly... she's fearless and strategic about it, but is mad at "god" for putting her through this
• right as shes about to succeed in her strategy of "playing the role of a strong girl who's slowly giving into fear", satoshi appears and tries to save her. hes too timid to shout back at the delinquets, but stands his ground; they beat him. shion notes him as looking malnourished. eventually passerby gather and the fight disperses
• she has to stay in character as mion, but is close to faltering. she notices he must be one of mion's friends from school. he pets her as she protests that her crying was just an act, which makes her short circuit. he leaves without giving an introduction
• completely smitten, at home she calls mion, trying to figure out who that was; mion says its satoshi, who is very spacey and often pets people to calm them. he explains the houjou kids live with their abusive aunt and uncle; the uncle is a bigtime cheater, often residing with his mistress more than his wife. shion concludes he must be even more exhausted than satoko, which mion had not pieced together
• some days have gone by, and shion feels suffocated by her precise schedule and not being able to see any friends; her crush on satoshi keeps her going, which she finds silly but cant brush away. she meets him by chance at the park where hes absurdly spaced out; he claims the reason for him feeling particularly down is he failed a swing in a baseball match. he has a very gentle kinda ralsei style demeanor. shion really wants to just hear him out, but has to act like mion. she thus cheers him up, and he pets her again which shocks her again; her crush is making her muck up her mion characterization, but satoshi just stays 😊faced
• they go grocery shopping together; he cant tell broccoli from cauliflower. hes bad at shopping and truly really really spacey, but doing his best. shion finds a flyer noting his next baseball practice time; she wants to come watch him play, which embarrasses him. they depart; shion really wants to see him again. they pet eachother (weird imo to make that the crux of their affection...)

• A Crumpled Diary
• pov satoshi; exhausted after being yelled at all night, he puts satoko to bed. he cant sleep yet cause he has a lot of chores to do. he got a part time job at the grocery store via mion and really wants to start it off right

• shion as mion has been regularly showing up to watch the baseball team's sunday practices bringing them food. irie and satoshi suggest she becomes their manager. satoshi's batting has been improving
• the hinamizawa fighters and okinomiya titans rival teams had originally been part of the same team, before the hinamizawans schismed; the fighters are more lax about training but still do very well. (iries creep behavior is suddenly not just for laughs from shions pov?)
• irie reveals he intentionally recruited satoshi after the houjou parents' deaths to give him an outlet. satoshi started getting sick when he moved to his aunt and uncles. with a scare chord, irie describes satoshi's been sicker lately, likely due to having to protect satoko more and more; shion internally feels some hostility towards her for inadvertedly causing him extra stress, when he's so sensitive to stress
• irie mentions that satoshi disclosed he might leave the team soon, presumably due to not wanting to leave satoko at home alone at risk. shion loses mion points in saying they should somehow deal with making satoko endure her abuse better ("more mature"), rather than remove from the abusive guardians, which makes irie very suspicious. shion thinks to herself that she needs to do something to help satoshi [potentially get satoko out of the way...?]
• satoshi stops showing up for practice; shion as mion decides to stop showing up too, refusing the manager position again. shion hasnt been able to contact mion nor kasai lately as they have been marked within the mafia as potentially in contact with her. she bumps into rena (transferred just a couple months ago, april) who wants to accompany her home. they get trapped at a bus stop(!) in sudden rain
• rena, thinking its mion, wonders if shes feeling down due to satoshi avoiding the club members as a whole; shion without hesitation admits shes in love with him, and internally thinks more on how to get satoko out of the picture. as if sensing that deliberation, shion looks back up to see rena smiling coldly with her eyes glazed over (scare chord); rena continues to assess the topic, scary giggly like in arc1 but not quite threatening. satoshi has been skipping practice due to working part time to save up for satokos birthday present, which shion did not know
• rena mentions that satoshi confided in her that he was growing tired of protecting satoko. shion suddenly becomes aware of how rena effortlessly compels people to explain things to her; she had thought it was a mark of rena's maturity, but rena suddenly says he explained he trusts her because rena has experienced the same thing before: she describes it as "oyashirosama's footsteps having arrived to her bedside and looked down on her". she thinks satoshi is experiencing the curse, and that the desire to leave hinamizawa is brewing within him. shion is deep down terrified that she might be a curse candidate even thought shes returned to town
• rena describes the curse as an increase in paranoia, a feeling that youre being chased down and constantly watched, hearing extra footsteps as you walk. she told satoshi to let her know if his "symptoms" increase; most notable is their eerily similar nightmares
• rena details she was originally born in hinamizawa then moved to the ibaraki prefecture as a grade student, but heard oyashirosamas voice beckoning/threatening her back home the whole time. something happened (she snapped) then she returned, and hasnt felt oyashirosamas presence since then. she is convinced satoshi is unconsciously considering skipping town with the money hes saving for satoko, and is receiving oyashirosamas warnings to not do so as hed regret it the rest of his life
• rena goes on and on and shion barely comprehends. satokos birthday is a few days after watanagashi; watanagashi is right around the corner. dreading what could happen to satoshi, shion has mion arrange for her to go to school in his place

• Notebook Page 21
• pov shion; (there have been brief excerpts of her diary pages as splash screens in the past couple chapters) trying to piece together rena's story. she reasons the curse must be some sort of covert surveillance program where curse candidates are observed, wondering how rena survived being targeted
• Notebook Page 24
• unclear pov; continues the surveillance theory from the prev tip so presumably shion. satoshi is described as being in an even worse state... exactly as described by rena; seemingly fully exhausted, dissociating. mentions satoshis aunt as "the other victim"; possibly written after the festival ...? objective is proving the surveillance theory

• shion goes to school for one day as mion, where she sees both satoko and satoshi so worn out they seem like husks of themselves. she catches satoshi alone in the hallway, where his apparent exhaustion and coldness devastates her, and she starts crying in front of him. her conclusion is he now hates her; she returns devastated to the classroom to find satoko in hysterics begging for satoshis help over dropping her lunchbox. (typing it like that makes it sound pathetic, when its more like shes so severely cptsd she expects abuse as punishment for making minor mistakes even when alone. very groundedly written)
• shion suddenly starts severely beating satoko and admonishing her for crying/pleaing for help, for how much shes troubling satoshi. (?????? christ) the scene really seems like its meant to be shion acting exactly as how satokos aunt treats her. rika and then rena try to step in; as shion raises a chair to hit rika and satoko, satoshi tackles her. the two get into a full fight and screaming match. as satoshi starts to lose it a bit wondering if shion (mion) is persecuting them for being houjous as a sonozaki, rena "fierce as a demon" steps between them and has them reconcile, having the whole classroom swear this incident will be kept secret
• at home, shion details how she messed up to mion over the phone; mion is surprisingly calm about it but not open to letting them swap again anytime soon. shion becomes hysterical realizing that satoshi probably had no interest in her at all, having a grudge against the sonozakis; she blames everyone but herself in order. mion calls his gentleness and lack of expressing his grudge "maturity"; shion screams that that contradicts how the furudes were punished for "not being mature" and demands answers. mion hangs up with a specific passcode signalling shion to not contact him for a bit, a mix of him coldly shutting her out and potential threat of oryou being onto the twins
• shion has been extremely depressed for days. the day before watanagashi, kasai visits her with food. kasai, suggested to by mion, gives her an update on satoshi; teppei is staying with his mistress in okinomiya while the aunt, tamae, is still in the houjou household. having learned of the mistress situation, the aunt is taking a lot out on the kids
• shion wishes for this years curse killing victims to be tamae and satoko, or tamae killed and satoko disappeared ("sacrificed"). she wonders if the killings have been carried out by the sonozaki family this whole time; she asks kasai if he knows if this years victims have been decided, but he sincerely declines any knowledge of any decisions having been made ever. he mentions that the family has decided to not further meddle with potentially killing more houjous curse related or not, as the parents' death on watanagashi has the police very suspicious of the sonozakis already
• later, mion calls her telling her satoshi called him to apologize, but he realized satoshi probably wants shion as mion, not mion as mion. extremely grateful, mion calls satoshi; the two exchange apologies, with satoshi apologizing almost preemptively, as if hes planning revenge on the sonozakis rather than his relatives
• with a scare chord, satoshi yells at shmion for asking if satoko is doing alright; shes doing very bad. satoshi says hes quit his job as hes finally saved up, and asks her to take satoko to the festival tomorrow with finality; phrased as "keep looking after her [forever]". shion really doesnt want to, but wants him to rely on her. she realizes he sounds like hes about to disappear and is terrified; towards the end of conversation he suddenly nervously asks if she believes in oyashirosamas curse
• satoshi says he isnt planning to leave hinamizawa, but hes very concerned he "hasnt been forgiven yet". shion tries to laugh off the idea of the curse, but it isnt working; satoshi says he wont disappear until he buys satoko the teddy bear, which he will soon. they give hasty incomplete goodbyes; shion feels as if shes missing something and said the wrong things

• A Torn Diary
• pov satoshi; describes hearing a whisper declare he will be this year's demoning away victim. at a loss for securing a better future for satoko, he determines to leave her with the teddy bear she wants. closes with inviting the whisperer to take over him

• day of the festival (revealed as june 20th, its 1982). at 13.40, shion is fully depressed and sleeping through the whole day; she had mion agree to take satoko to the festival
• at 17.00 satoshi is at the dam dump, plotting something involving luring tamae there. tamae was paranoid, but seemingly as a self fulfilled loop of thinking as a houjou she would be discriminated against, thus treated her neighbors poorly, which lead to them disliking her
• its revealed tamae is related to the houjou father (stepdad), rather than the mother; not related by blood to the kids at all. the aunt and uncle have a horrible marriage, but arent divorcing due to the huge houjou inheritance, which tamae keeps related bankbooks hidden from teppei. satoshi was poor growing up, so he theorizes the inheritance is whats left of however the government was paying the houjous to oppose the dam project
• teppei quit coming home recently, realizing that leads to less fights with his wife; even without him, tamae abuses the kids. satoshi is turbo cptsd, but satoko is "failing to adapt" to detecting and defusing when tamae is about to go off, as she hates tamae
• at 17.51 mion, rika and rena are at the festival as its being set up. satoko is also there but following at a distance, extremely unwell
• rika tries to cheer satoko up, which doesnt go well; she suddenly asks her "if your suffering ends today, will you smile?"; with sudden lower register like in arc4, saying that its "already been decided"
• at 20.11 satoshi sneaks out of the window barefoot after dinner. watanagashi ends at 21.00 with a raffle; he's relying on the village streets being empty. he feels as if hes "another person" with superhuman abilities, especially sixth sense
• at 20.37 the raffle is being prepared at the shrine grounds; its the first and probably last year a raffle is being held with expensive house appliances supplied by oryou
• mayor kimiyoshi and oryou are conversing in a tent; suddenly, makino interrupts them with news of a murder: the victims face was completely disfigured. oryou laughs, ambiguously stating she knows who the victim is
• at 21.04 ooishi and kumachan are on the murder scene alongside a forensics team. irie arrives; he was driven there by an unseen clinic staff member. him and ooishi alone observe the body; its a middle aged woman (its tamae) who seems to have put up no struggle; seemingly premeditated by someone with a grudge
• irie was called to identify the body vis-a-vis keeping the investigation secret, not to assist with anything medical; he refuses to help. ooishi has no choice but to directly ask local neighbors, potentially compromising the investigation
• at 21.39 satoshi arrives at the murder scene, called by ooishi. hes asked about his uncle; satoshi doesnt know where he resides past that its with his mistress, who runs a club in okinomiya. when asked, he claims he wouldnt know of anyone that had a grudge against his aunt. its confirmed the body is tamae's. the cops force satoshi into one of their cars to drive him home
• departing, satoshi is very, very nervous asking if the cops have any leads. in his usual slithery way, ooishi asks for his cooperation with the investigation
• the morning after, shion receives the news via mion on the phone. shion realizes that mion doesnt have an alibi prepared for satoshi and suggests one; they both realize its too late to sort out. mion is surprised by the possibility of satoshi having committed the murder
• mion says he plans to hide for the night so shion can go to work. on exiting kasai suggests this is a bad idea, as the cops are surveilling the sonozaki main house, but shion is adamant and makes him drive her. on the drive there, shion sees satoshi at a crosswalk and darts out to see him
• shion is convinced from his demeanor that he killed his aunt but doesnt probe about it. hes as spacey as ever, noting that dealing with the cops exhausts him, but hes doing better compared to how he was as shion saw him at school
• the teddy bear is sold at the toy shop seen in arc2. satoshi reserves it. on their way out, the cops stop them; satoshi looks like he would immediately fold under pressure, so shion scrambles to come up with an alibi: she reveals herself as shion (with diary entry pause that she will be in grave danger over this) which bewilders the cops
• shion expects satoshi to be upset by this twist, but hes instead laughing. it all clicks for him

• notebook page 29
• pov shion; the police had no physical evidence that it was satoshi. in the end someone else was found to be the culprit airtightedly, which shion thinks her family invented

• at the station, the kids are interrogated separately: shion by kumachan, satoshi by ooishi. shion is dismissed by sonozaki goons coming to pick her up. shes brought to the main house, where shes brought in by a very stern mion
• shmion exchange absurdly formal, cold greetings. he takes her to the torture bunker in the garden where high ranking family members including oryou and akane(!) are perched to watch her get tortured
• shion realizes the family would have let her escape from the school go, but have to punish her for fraternizing with a houjou
• kasai and yoshirou are being held in a cell in the back of the bunker; mion gives shion the chance to apologize to oryou, promising her co-conspirators will be left unharmed if she does, but she hesitates; upon realizing satoshi will likely also be harmed, she starts desperately apologizing
• mion instructs her to use a torture implement to remove 3 fingernails herself to atone; she starts to, and its excruciating
• shion messes up the process for her second fingernail (ring finger) and completely crumbles, screaming for help especially from her mom; mion comes up and whispers encouragement to her in secret, then grunts forcefully complete the ritual after giving her a blindfold. shion passes out
• she was taken to a hospital in okinomiya after; an unhurt kasai came to pick her up
• shion is back to fully depressed, her hand still very injured 3 days later; kasai is checking up on her and bringing her food. he informs her the family has decided to withdraw her from st lucia's and transfer to an okinomiyan school thanks to her atonement
• shion will be allowed to be herself on a lot of conditions, including no longer trading places with mion and not appearing in public, especially not in hinamizawa; she is forbidden from meeting with satoshi ever again. kasai thinks these restrictions will loosen up after a year
• she goes for a walk; kasai follows her. she visits the toy shop, where the teddy bear has been removed from the store window; she bumps into irie, who notes satoko's birthday was yesterday (3 days after watanagashi)
• while explaining and laughing with irie, ooishi suddenly appears. as they're moving to escape from him, ooishi suddenly calls out asking shion how her fingernail removal wounds (he shouldn't know about) are faring. the specificity freaks her out, but she rolls with it
• ooishi asks her to converse over coffee, half calling it a date; she decides to hear him out on the condition that she can leave anytime. he mentions that he had his nails ripped out before, without much context
• ooishi takes her to the station instead and reveals satoshi has gone missing since yesterday. his last known whereabouts were withdrawing his savings at an okinomiya atm around 15.00
• ooishi notes they werent able to confirm the teddy bear was sold to satoshi; the teddy bear is also missing basically. shion considers it impossible for him to have bought the bear but not brought it to satoko
• shion loses it a bit, realizing satoshi was likely disappeared. ooishi offers her his hypothesis, that he was taken out of the picture by the sonozakis not because he was a houjou with a relationship to a sonozaki, but because he was a murder suspect with a relationship to a sonozaki
• ooishi elaborates that he mightve been disappeared due to the family knowing no amount of threats would keep shion from him. he mentions a teen boy was allegedly seen skipping town, so he might not have been killed. he concludes oryou wanted satoshi killed, but mion stepped in and instead had him banished from hinamizawa and okinomiya
• the proposed route was that when satoshi arrived for the teddy bear, it had already been purchased by a sonozaki, leaving him desperate and more willing to skip town, likely having been promised that the family would take care of satoko

• Notebook Page 34
• shion pov; the account of satoshi skipping town is that in a young man went up to a train station window to note his missing wallet; he wrote "houjou" as his surname then quickly swapped it to a different name. the wallet was never found
• Notebook Page 42
• shion pov; mulling over ooishi's theory about the sonozakis offering to protect satoko. concludes she was exempted from the houjou family stain, but kept with rika head of the furudes, whose legal guardian is mayor kimiyoshi, as a roundabout way of being kept under the three families gaze; not directly under the sonozakis as she is still a houjou

• some weeks after the murder, kasai informs shion that the murderer was found (unrelated guy). she meets with ooishi, who details a call from another station claimed one of their detainees confessed to tamae's murder
• this suspect supposedly has info only the murderer couldve known; he says the murder weapon was tossed into ouji river, which is being searched. ooishi admits he isnt fully convinced its this guy rather than satoshi, but apparently this new suspect choked on a spoon and died in prison shortly after confessing (unclear if intended suicide)
• ooishi tries to persuade them to make an info exchange deal, explaining that satoshis missing person case will be treated as just a runaway youth unless he is still a murder suspect. shion doesnt budge, weighing ooishi as a liability deal or not
• ooishi explains the hinamizawans are explaining his disappearance as a demoning away as part of the curse. shion recalls her conversation with rena at the bus stop; in her notebook, she refuses to believe that it was otherworldly interferance
• shion begins taking precise notes of the curse instances in her notebook. she sees the deaths as having been orchestrated by an outside group, likely the sonozakis, rather than by oyashirosama; she sees the deaths as a "payment plan" of pro-dam activists towards atonement, similar to her own atonement torture
• she weighs whether satoshi couldve on his own premeditated all of it, or if he received external guidance/directions/pressure as part of a grander scheme. she begins to think that tamae would be killed and satoshi disappeared regardless of if she had returned to hinamizawa/okinomiya
• she begins to wonder who oyashirosama even is from a folklore perspective; suddenly, she realizes someone has been watching from behind her this whole time. its miyo (!)
• shion is very offput by her but is very compelled by her knowledge about the curse; she has the impression she somehow knows about the murders very intimately, despite no police association. hmm...
• shion just now realizes the murder + disappearance combo situation, and that the disappearances are also termed sacrifices
• shion presses her with questions, which she's delighted to answer. miyo pushes her very folklore-oriented approach in answering. she asks if miyo's familiar with tales of hinamizawans being "man-eating demons" in the past; shion registers this as an extremely derogatory phrase used against hinamizawans after ww2
• miyo explains the villagers were actually cannibals and actually had demon blood from mingling with demons that came out of onigafuchi swamp. she explains the etymology of watanagashi (cotton/organ drifting)
• sensing shion's disbelief, she offers to lend her her own notebook so long as its kept secret. the notebook is extremely dense. miyo theorizes one villager is killed out of oyashirosamas anger, while another is sacrificed to stop further anger. traditionally, sacrifices are thrown into the onigafuchi swamp
• miyo leaves when she sees tomitake waiting for her, telling shion shes eager to hear her theories.
• the notebook is titled "research notes - miyo takano" (confirms the notes labelled such seen in previous tip sections are miyo's)
• shion arrives home, and receives a knock on her door; she thinks its kasai (lives next door) but its mion. conversing over cake, thw twins discuss how shion has started school in okinomiya, but regularly skips as it bores her; the twins' dad has asked shion to come back and live at home
• shion internally muses that the "successor" mion and "regular" mion are two separate people, the sonozaki demon taking over him... she muses that his role as successor was solidified when he receieved a tattoo on his back (arc2 miyo note). she casts away her brief torture related resentment thinking if shion had wound up the successor, she'd be doing the same
• mion apologizes, explaining that oryou has fully accepted the atonement, which shion goofily accepts. when mion wonders aloud where satoshi has gone though, shion loses it; she feels incensed, that mion is lying as its obviously the sonozakis who disposed of satoshi
• as if possessed, shion strangles mion; the pov gets a bit muddled. mion swears he doesnt know where satoshi is. shion considers herself taken over by the same demon that dwells within mion
• shion notices mion is also missing three fingernails. mion breaks down; he sincerely believes shion has suffered far more than he has, and wants to take responsibility for that as the older twin
• shion hears the demon in her mind (scare chord) asking how satoshi couldve been taken away if it wasnt mion/the sonozakis, but shes now completely sure the sonozakis arent involved. she wins the inner battle
• the twins fall asleep in embrace; mion desperately wishes they couldve been born as one person rather than two, and that they could both be human rather than one be a demon mafia successor and the other be a civilian

• Notebook Page 50
• shion pov; describes meeting with miyo several more times. miyo's thesis is that a previous oyashirosama cult evolved into the three families, who are presently enacting rituals guised as the curse to restore the village's past reverence towards oyashirosama
• Notebook Page 64
• shion pov; describes meeting up with ooishi further, less frequently than with miyo. the two have no further leads, and eventually ooishi gets too busy with other cases to keep meeting up. shion becomes aware hinamizawans began referring to satoshis disappearance as him "transferring out"
• Notebook Page 85
• shion pov; seemingly written very retroactively. describes that following leads and clues and theories really wore her down, but served as a way to cope with satoshis absence; she's worried she will forget him

• opens with poem narration (unknown narrator, its usually rena) describes shion's sorrow transforming into murderous intent over time. setting swaps to summer 1983
• shion moved back with her parents, has a new job and is adapting to her new school a bit better. she still occasionally stays at the room kasai has for her; shes currently going to hide there for a week
• while out shopping, she absentmindedly knocks down three motorcycles belonging to delinquents. they carry her off to attack her; she experiences deja vu. she hopes satoshi will come back to save her again; instead its keiichi (sprite reveal), acting out the same motions satoshi did but bolder/clumsier
• the delinquets go to sexually harass shion, but keiichi beats them (motivated for their perviness "losing" to his own :I), shion was preparing a stun gun in the meantime. eventually a crowd forms (via classmates keiichi instructed) and the fight disperses
• shion still feels that deja vu; keiichi pets her, but does it extremely poorly. mion over the phone informs her further; keiichi is a grade below shmion. its basically shmion are both each interested in both satoshi and keiichi, but shion prefers satoshi and mion prefers keiichi
• shion regards keiichi as a toy she can use to tease mion; she flirts with keiichi. conversing with mion later, shion realizes mion hasnt even registered the feeling as romantic
• shion spaces out: she misses satoshi dearly, and thinks the reason he hasnt come back is he doesnt know the confidential murder case was closed, so he thinks he must continue to lay low. she theorizes he's tried to call home to reach satoko, but wouldnt be getting through as satoko moved out; she is still bitter towards satoko
• zoning back in, mion describes the doll fiasco described in arc2. mion is devastated keiichi doesnt see him as a girl (Lol. Lmao); shion points out keiichi may be more interested in rena than him. shion teases that she'll try to steal him away too
• another day (close to watanagashi) at the shrine, shion is cheerfully messing with keiichi and mion in the presence of the whole club. shion rides a moped home; alone, she's extremely distraught by keiichi and the club's joy in general, thinking they've forgotten satoshi. shes terrified of forgetting him, and completely misses him
• internally she feels as if satoshi is promising to stay beside her as a spirit. she suddenly hears another footstep behind her; she cant sleep at night, spending the whole night talking to "him"
• she continues to feel his presence near her after that night, often hearing "his" extra footsteps. she makes plans to go to the festival with kasai, thinking satoshi loves to see her have fun with the club members
• at the festival, arc2 jokes re-play out. at some point she bumps into miyo and tomitake; instead of going to watch the ceremony, miyo invites her to come sneak into the ritual storehouse with them
• shion accepts, thinking that if the theory that the shed is full of torture implements is disproven, that also disproves part of the curse. she intentionally brings keiichi with her with the mindset if they get cursed for trespassing, the two of them can split the guilt; additionally a bit as revenge, thinking she can take mion's crush out of the picture the same way her satoshi was
• inside the shed, they encounter a statue of oyashirosama (scare chord) which irritates shion. keiichi looks bored, so miyo starts explaining the folkloric context to him; shion wanders alone and notes the torture implements here look older and less used than those found in the sonozaki main house's torture room
• she feels satoshis presence as different and gets scared; she inspects the statue once more and touches it: it looks like its cared after on a daily basis by rika. she thinks the culprit behind the curse stagings must be very nearby, and suddenly begins hearing a sound like a kid jumping up and down on the floorboards very very loud (like in arc2)
• she suddenly realizes whatever has been haunting her isnt satoshi at all. panicking, she begins clinging to keiichi
• the "rules" of this haunting satoshi/oyashirosama presence is its more intense the more distanced one is from crowds... it operates like a paranoia analogue

• Notebook Page 172
• shion pov; surmises miyo's theories about torture have all been correct. wonders if the kimiyoshis also have a torture storehouse
• Notebook Page 173
• shion pov; aligned with miyo's theories that the previous sacrifice rituals operated publicly as means of establishing the three families' control, and keeping the ritual implements hidden away increased public fear and devotion
• Notebook Page 179
• shion pov; calls miyo and tomitake outright cursed, and that their breaking into the storehouse mustve been alerted to the "curse system"; theorizes miyo was killed immediately after exiting the storehouse, with her body dumped elsewhere (the mountains). wonders if there wouldve been no victim that year had no one broken in that night

• after the festival, the sonozakis held a small party at the main house; lasts til 23.00. shion stays the night, sleeping in a futon beside mion's
• shion awakes around 3 am, startlingly alone. wandering, she overhears mion discussing with oryou in the latters room; tomitake and miyo have died. she realizes that the two of them know that the four of them trespassed, and is terrified
• a phone starts ringing in the distance; shion recalls rena's description of how the curse feels from a year ago, slowly piecing together that she is now experiencing it
• mion (eyes glazed over) suddenly grabs shion by the collar, and picks up the phone. briefly coldly tells the other side to not let this information leak out
• mion suddenly presses agains shion and demands to know what she overheard. shion realizes the curse is indeed inflicted on people that anger oyashirosama, rather than enemies of the sonozakis
• she tazers mion and then oryou; with unnerving calmness, vows to avenge satoshi and that she will not become a curse victim this year. she carries them both down to the torture bunker
• shion jails mion and restrains oryou. oryou alarmingly doesnt awake. when mion rouses, shion interrogates her: mion claims to not have anything to do with deciding each year's curse victims, and is very surprised by the suggestion this year's victims trespassed
• shion reveals she knows 4 people trespassed total, and mion theorizes that miyo and tomitake will be murder killed while the other two will be demoned away
• shion wonders if someone drugged her to make her spend the night in the main house; had she not woken up in the middle of the night, she thinks she couldve woken up in mions place
• shion plans to go to school as mion and ensure keiichi's safety. she muses that if mion is kept outside of the sonozaki's truly underground affairs to truly not be able to answer questions, some other middleman very close to oryou must exist. she briefly theorizes it's irie, and that tomitake's violent death was drug related, but concludes oryou wouldnt trust an outsider
• she theorizes it could be rika or mayor kimiyoshi; she realizes that coming into danger/contact with whoever executes the disappearances will get her more info on what happened to satoshi, which excites her; she lets her rage fully take over
• shion moves to interrogate oryou; shes dead. frustrated that she accidentally killed her sooner than planned, she whips her corpse. she feels the presence again, and this time calls out to it asking if its oyashirosama
• she goes to dump oryous corpse in the dungeons hidden tunnel, explaining to mion that she killed her for failing to uphold her end of her atonment. shion exclaims that mion lied to her (like arc1 rena) about oryou forgiving satoshi

• Notebook Page 183
• shion pov; she regrets accidentally killing oryou so quickly as she lost the chance to interrogate her. she compares the way the family mafia is run is closer to a government with multiple ministries that dont communicate in order to keep info confidential, hence why mion likely sincerely doesnt know the half of it yet
• Notebook Page 185
• shion pov; oryou most often called mayor kimiyoshi and the twins' father. the latter is in charge of the sonozakis' intelligence network

• shion dreams of satoshi's return and awakes crying. mayor kimiyoshi calls; informs shion (as mion) that there's an emergency ex-guardians meeting tonight. kasai calls; shion plays both roles
• shion probes on whether or not storehouse intruders deserve to be killed, and kasai thinks they do, which unnerves her. she immediately tells him she also tresspassed alongside keiichi
• kasai is gravely disappointed, which shion has never dealt with before; he pledges to still support her, but notes this is beyond the two of them and she will have to atone far worse than last year. she panics and hangs up on him abruptly
• momentarily terrified realizing she's basically already dead, she resolves to use her last moments to investigate what happened to satoshi as close to the source as possible
• she decides to permanently become mion, as if erasing shion's identity counts as a demoning away incident (like a substitute). she will use keiichi as bait to "draw out the enemy"; her tactic is to watch him be demoned away and thus study the situation
• she specifically wants to appear sick before classmates so as to paint mion and oryou sick, ergo not appearing in public for a bit
• arc2 flipside perspective: shion as mion meets up with keiichi and rena to school late, they think she has a fever. after falling asleep in class keiichi is sent out to go wash his face; shion trails after him, having requested to go home early. she claims to be sick due to a hangover. she asks him two questions: did he see miyo and tomitake? did he see shion? the latter question mion pre-empted the night before, messing up shion as mions current plans. keiichi gets really defensive; the conversation concludes far less paranoia-y than from keiichi's pov, but shion concludes that she very intentionally left him in crisis
• at home, shion as mion encounters shimoko, one of oryous housekeepers, locked out. she shoos her as if giving time off explaining it as oryou having a bad temper after the festival. shion takes a nap
• arc2 flipside perspective: shion calls keiichi to ask keiichi something important, and he asks her to come show him where the okinomiya library is. shion steals oryous motorcycle to carefully get to okinomiya without bumping into keiichi on bike
• shion deliberately tries to mirror how miyo revealed info to her 1 year ago in conversation with keiichi. inside the library, shion explains that her family has immense political and financial influence throughout the himamizawa and okinomiya area. ooishi suddenly interrupts them; shion skedaddles unnerved, but keiichi fails to follow her, gets stuck talking with ooishi
• shion as mion arrives at the furude shrine for the ruling families' council. conversing with kimiyoshi, she realizes mion/oryou were meant to lead the meeting; asks him to cover for her, as she isnt prepared at all and obviously hasnt received the anticipated instructions from oryou
• eight people are in attendance. the groups secretary is "kenchan". a seat for rika is empty; shion cant tell if the meeting intentionally excludes rika but as a formality leaves a seat for her, or if she is actually absent
• the meeting commences. the festival saw five thousand attendees. mayor kimiyoshi details this years deaths, and mion formally explains the reason they were killed is they trespassed the storehouse. the council erupts in anger and fear, telling off the dead couple and hoping oyashirosamas anger is quelled. shion is unnerved by the sincere uproar of a formal solemn meeting, realizing the absolute severity of what shes done
• she elaborates that shion and keiichi are further targets, who deserve less punishment for being children contrast the couple's adulthood. as she says this she expects mayor kimiyoshi, with whom she as shion is close, to be sympathetic, but is terrified to discover he is stone cold on board with punishing her
• she feels as if she is directly witnessing the curse in action, how the council members are obviously ploying to socially murder/disappear those targeted and collude alibis
• after the meeting, shion (mion) invites mayor kimiyoshi over to the sonozaki main house, saying oryou wants to have a word with him
• at home, shion serves him tea saying oryou is on her way. she tells him shion is presently in the torture bunker; the mayor shows concern and shion falters a bit, relieved his anger during the meeting may have been an act
• shion inner monologues that the twins started swapping places to share the joy exclusive to mion and sorrow exclusive to shion per the sonozakis ruling; their antics were caught onto quickly, and they began to be separated by the adults, starting with taking shion alone to an amusement part (...?)
• she expresses to him fear from the perspective of a twin that shmion are basically the same person, that mion is terrified of losing his sister to a demoning away
• the mayor then says so long as shion is truly sorry, he will take care of making sure she isnt demoned away. fully relieved, she asks for further affirmation that what happened to satoshi wont happen to shion. the mayor then refers to satoshi as a houjou brat, that the houjous all deserve to be disappeared while a sonozaki could never... and shion starts to lose it
• panicking, she asks "didnt shion atone? one nail for kasai, yoshirou and satoshi?" to which he says the third person the nails represented was shion, not satoshi
• shion in a cold fury drops the mion act and asks what satoshi had done to deserve being demoned away. shion loses it; with the same pov muddling as earlier, she tazes mayor kimiyoshi
• arc2 flipside perspective: on the phone with keiichi, shion reveals that miyo and tomitake are dead, and that the curse murder
• shion reveals she thinks the curse is a pretense for free for all uninvestigated serial murders committed in the village. in inner monologue, she concludes oryous ambiguous orders to deal with problematic people and the opaqueness of how its executed (she only ever ambiguously mentions that certain people "concern" her, all sonozaki branches in isolation seeking to fulfill her order should they get the chance, but not coordinating nor reporting progress/success to her) have turned all of hinamizawa itself into a murderer, like an infection. shion is fully certain oryou was the one deciding each murder victim, but now all of hinamizawa with its interconnected infected murder system is her enemy
• three components to the "curse system":
• oryous opaque command system blurring reponsibility
• she already killed oryou, the designer of this system
• the sense of unity between villagers vs outsiders
• she has kimiyoshi unconscious, the "infector" of unity
• the oyashirosama curse excuse to let watanagashi murders go without proper investigation
• shes intends to use keiichi as bait to figure out who the third designer is (its rika...)
• keiichi is in crisis, falling into shions plan; she hangs up on him. as mion, she calls the kimiyoshi household asking if anyones had any luck finding the missing mayor, urging them to put together a search group at the furude shrine; the mayor is in the torture bunker strapped up to essentially a very slow-working noose
• she interrogates him about satoshi; he knows its shion now and has no information to offer. despite not having hard evidence either way, he tries to slowly explain to her theres basically no chance of satoshi having survived while being very careful of her temper and ability to kill him
• he suggests satoshis body was dumped in the dumping well within the torture bunker. she considers diving down there, but realizes that would be suicide; as the realization is hitting her, in mourning she feels as if satoshis ghost has truly returned to her. she wants to jump down the well and join him, but "he" urges her to keep living
• shion hysterically screams at mion for failing to save satoshi, thinking he was definitely killed within the bunker and disposed of on the spot, very likely with mion as witness. reveals that the twins completely, intentionally swapped their roles at a very young age; shion has been the eldest all along, having been born as mion. "shion" effectively has never properly existed

• Notebook Page 188
• shion pov; after terrorizing mion / venting she joined the kimiyoshi search party. the group comments that they're repeating the same thing they did for satoshi last year; shion realizes similar to how she in the group now knows mayor kimiyoshi cannot be found, last year someone analogued her in knowing satoshi could not be found, and likely called off the search for him out of their own convenience

• arc2 flipside perspective: at school the next day, keiichi and mion both seem unwell; keiichi is unnerved while mion missed sleep due to the search party. the school at large is unnerved because of the mayor's disappearance
• shion inner monologues that keiichi is doing alright given the circumstances, and that miyo had at some point told her that rika is "odd" and "behaves as if she knows shes oyashirosamas reincarnation". even though rika is the head of the furudes now, shes rarely included in related meetings for being so young; regardless, similar to oryou, rikas "concerns" are very strongly heeded/tended to in secret
• alt perspective: before keiichi met rika after school, shion as mion probes her alone. shion concludes rika has knowledge about the curse only a member of the "curse network" could have, but rika says the trespassers shall be forgiven if theyre remorseful. shion manhandles rika, who calls the trespassers "cats" but remains her usual expressionless. rika claims as a miko that oyashirosama doesnt acutally mind people trespassing
• shion sneers that such lies are the reason rikas parents died. rika claims those two were killed unrelated to the curse. shion is outraged, and rika cant decipher what she means; shion beats her
• she tries to pressure rika for info by detailing that kimiyoshis current disappearance is punishment for her crime of requesting a simpler lock on the storehouse, and that keiichi will also suffer. rika seems both genuinely confused, and as if shes holding back from saying something
• the goal was the ensure keiichi can still operate as bait, as now both the ex-guardian meeting members and rika know to target him
• back at the main house, shion theorizes that if not for miyo and tomitake trespassing, this year's curse victims wouldve been satoko and teppei. she thinks that last years curse "shouldve" targetted satoko rather than satoshi and imagines a what-if scenario of satoshi surviving without his sister
• on the phone with misc village elders, shion confirms they consider keiichi the next target; even ooishi is somehow in the loop
• shion realizes shes just using the curse system directly as a sonozaki head rather than following its trail; she concludes she will both keep people chasing keiichi and appropriately warn him, trying to not kill him. she aims to let him live after she catches everyone ("her enemies")
• rika visits the main house in the late evening, asking for some soy sauce (arc2); shion realizes oryou/mion had handed out flyers offering soy sauce. she lets her in, and finds rikas footsteps weirdly always line up with her own; rika occasionally intentionally leaves an "extra" footstep, like the curse symptoms
• shion turns around while crouched (soy sauce) to suddenly see rika staring at her oddly; rika suddenly pepper sprays her and starts to beat her with intense resolve
• rika tries to keep shion blinded to inject her with a syringe(!), but shion escapes the pin and pulls out her stun gun. the syringe contains a clear liquid which shion surmises must be something that takes immediate effect
• shion tazes her (accidentally low setting) then injects her with the syringe; rika convulses then rises, looking extremely paranoid, retching and pleading for "hanyuu"
• shion approaches to grab rika and take her to the dungeon, but she suddenly grabs a kitchen knife; rika is suddenly composed like her scare scenes in arc4, refusing to be tortured. she kills herself via repeatedly slamming the knife into her own throat
• rikas weirdly resistant to her own suicide method, and her blood looks unusual; shion starts to see this scene as them both as demon descendants giving into their true nature
• shion howls bloodthirsty as rika dies; despite repeat stabbings and insane amounts of bloodshed, she doesnt die until she claws out her own throat(!); she was creating an opening to rip out her larynx
• shion is bizarelly, insanely ecstatic; she realizes she has now disposed of all three heads of the ruling families (all three curse components)
• shion concludes that the world had gone crazy since the night satoshi was disappeared (killed); her pov gets a bit muddled. it sounds like the reason mion and shion had their initial definitive swap is the older twin wanted to spare the younger twin from the fact shion as a role was destined towards sorrow forever: younger twin really wanted to eat snapper, so older twin allowed a swap (sounds like it may have not even been intended as fully permanent by the twins, but it was the day they got formally separated so it was forced)
• the night shion (the original mion) had her fingernails tortured, she screamed for their moms help as their mom is the only one who could tell the twins apart; she was trying to signal that she is the true mion, and thus within the hierarchy should not be subjected to torture (...but both twins were missing fingernails)
• its revealed within the murky pov that shion is mulling all this over while torturing mion. shion is chastizing her for having used snapper as an excuse to swap for an important family meeting (...that lead to permanent swap? it sounds like it may have been the night of the tattooing), while mion claims to have not had such foresight. shion demands to be returned her original name and role
• shion forces mion to swap presentation, so that "shion" (mion, originally named shion) is in the cell and "mion" (shion, originally named mion) is outside. screams at her to never pretend to be mion ever again; the two swap their vocal inflections as well. its not this confusing in-text
• mion declares she will kill shion for the crime of failing to save satoshi
• arc2 flipside perspective: mion calls keiichi as shion. she lies about feeling paranoid all day. she pretends to be extremely distraught about the mayors disappearance; she plays up the idea that he's disappeared as a side effect of being confided to (did not occur). she loses control a bit, the same way her pov tends to get muddled, described as kinda the demon taking over
• keiichi tries to comfort her in her faux panicked state, but suddenly realizes rika is probably in the same danger; its emphasized that rika had told keiichi she will intervene... its revealed satoko is already in the dungeon as this conversation takes place
• the search party described in arc2 forms, and mion (as mion) goes to participate. mion is internally jealous of renas vast knowledge and experience with all this weirdness, also suspicious of her ferocity
• arc2 flipside persepctive; mion holds a ladder down for keiichi to try climbing in the sheds second story window. she explains the orphan girls' living situation, growing internally angry that keiichi doesnt know about satoshi. she notes that satoko and rika were best friends irregardless of their family conflict far before the dam conflict even happened
• mion realizes satoko was most likely spared from the curse due to being best friends with rika; she realizes shion (having stolen mions role) probably had that same "veto power" and couldve saved satoshi. she starts repeating that satoko is cursed, internally losing it as a realization that satoko was the true reason that satoshi died (within the reasoning that satoko was "meant to" die with tamae in 1982)
• from keiichis pov mions eye are glazed over, which from her pov is "oyashirosama acting through me"
• rena comes back with a bunch of worried adults. the girls are not home. mion directs the oncoming groups of adults into search party divisions; she watches keiichi split off, thinking that very risky. in directing the crowds, she overhears a lot of the search party adult members finding keiichi incredibly suspicious, but it appears rena went after him to kinda watch over him
• ooishi shows up; mion resolves to destroy the mion persona as well

• Notebok Page 195
• mion pov; expresses shock that rika was the curse system assassin sent after her
• Notebook Page 196
• mion pov; theorizes that the real desecration may have been attacking and killing rika. outright says tomitake must've been injected, and further regrets killing oryou; the page is blacked out with scribbling

• mion enters the torture bunker; kimiyoshi is dead (visibly, but stabbed just in case), satoko is restrained and shion is screaming for mion to stop from down the cell hall
• mion made satoko watch her dispose of rikas mutilated body earlier
• mion repeatedly stabs across satokos arm; shion is in hysterics (mions intent). mion declares she'll let satoko go if shion apologizes a thousand times, which she immediately begins; mion begins chastizing satoko for begging for help and crying while mion tortures her (jesus)
• she declares satokos ultimate sin is that she kept begging satoshi for help, comparing her to a useless vampire incapable of seeing how she hurts others. satoko grits her teeth and sincerely agrees, saying she basically deserves all this. she begins losing feeling where shes being stabbed
• satoko says she believes satoshi will return and get to see how shes grown to not need to depend on him anymore; she desperately wants to apologize to him. she believes satoshi is watching over her and will come to save her as soon as he confirms how strong she is; she holds back from screaming and crying further to prove her strength, which frustates mion
• mion is distraught by the realization satoko is stronger than her and had stronger resolve to wait for him. as satoko dies, mion thinks she sees satoko imagine the siblings' very sweet reunion
• she imagines satoshi is disappointed in her, and realizes she failed to protect satoko like he had asked before watanagashi 1982
• she realizes whats been haunting her hasnt been satoshi nor oyashirosama, but herself, trying to remind her of her promise to protect satoko. she thinks shes abandoned by satoshi for failing to keep the promise, abandoned by her own self as well; she realizes her demon is taking over her purposeless body
• mion laughs madly while shion screams in horror. mion speaks as the demon (different register?) saying she'll next kill keiichi then herself, and make shion watch
• arc2 flipside perspective: on the phone with keiichi, while still feigning the shion role, she coldly explains to him everyone whos disappeared is most definitely dead. keiichi loses it; mion tries to explain the curse system and curse myth to him. keiichi points out no matter what system is in place satoko was not intermingled with this years occurrances; mion feels as if satoshi is speaking through him and breaks down, maintaining her misc lies as shion
• after probing a bit keiichi outright calls bullshit, revealing he knows shes not shion. mion breaks out into maniacal laughter, pleased that he pieced it together, and hangs up
• cuts to rena and keiichi entering the main house to meet with mion the next day. mion has accepted her defeat and subsequent death, eager to be figured out. shes shocked theres still showing a degree of affection after figuring out she/her demon killed those disappeared; she suddenly (implied to be the demon register) slips into a much more formal manner of speaking
• arc2 flipside perspective; internally mion reveals half of what she explained from arc2's perspective was made up (unclear which parts, but generally based on miyo's research rather than sonozaki family secrets). she fully believes as a demon she deserves to be punished now, thinking their efforts to understand her as a friend despite her murders are pointless
• mion is surprised by renas sharpness, but realizes rena ultimately doesnt know the extent of the mion-shion swap. rena and keiichi tell him she must turn herself in; she agrees, but requests she gets to spend a bit of time with keiichi alone, leaning onto "mion"'s crush on him as an excuse to bring him down and kill him. they agree
• mion takes keiichi out to the backyard, and explains to him that shion (known to him as mion) is in love with him, but he interprets it as the okinomiyan twin being in love with him (she isnt, but considers it). lures him into the dungeon under the guise of coming clean
• mion realizes the ultimate torture for shion is killing keiichi in a way that makes him think his mion (shion) is doing it to him. mion is progressively shocked and warmed by the extent of trust keiichi has for his mion (shion) to not run away from this obvious trap. shes weighing whether or not he will realize she is not his mion
• keiichi runs to comfort shion in her cell; she realizes whats going on and screams in horror. mion tazers keiichi and tortures him. internally, she feels horrific as she failed to heed satoshis wish and feels like shes just waiting to be granted her own death
• right as shes about to hammer nails into keiichis joints, he realizes she isnt mion; he thinks shes a demon instead. mion is shocked, but had already decided his last chance to guess such had passed
• the flipside perspective explains that it was indeed keiichi failing to give shion the doll that brought out mions rage/demon, since seeing shion so upset over her romance reminded her of the fact she no longer had satoshi
• internally she feels as if its her own fault for failing to resist the demon (jealousy)
• keiichi pleads saying the demon should release mion, and miondemon agrees to let him live, but not shion nor mion. right as shes about to start tortuing keiichi, the cops start to roll into the bunker, so she instead stuns keiichi with a stungun
• mion frees an inconsolable shion, forcing her to swap roles again and sending her down the corpse dump tunnel; as soon as shion (dressed as mion) starts climbing down mion tazers her
• right before shes killed, shion explains she also loved satoshi, and had interrogated oryou on the disappearance. oryou confided that the sonozakis did not disappear satoshi whatsoever. mion realizes that the sonozakis take a lot of credit for murders/etc they dont actually have relation to in order to keep their reputation
• shion says she thinks oryou believed mion (as shion) ripping her nails out sufficed to allow her relationship with satoshi to continue. she explains oryou had been trying to investigate the origin of the oyashirosama curse system herself. the two mull over how rika attacking mion makes no sense from this perspective
• mion realizes her entire revenge plan was misplaced; shes instead executed a fifth year of the curse. she admonishes shion for lying and shion begs for her to believe her (affectionate addressing). she kills shion

• Notebook Page 199
• mion pov; doubts if shions before death confession was truthful, but agrees that theres no way the sonozakis have actually had this much influence over the supposed curse killings. concludes these 200 pages of research are bullshit but resolves to leave it as evidence, pleading for someone to figure out the truth (signed and dated)

• opens with prefecture police report on mion being a suspect. the twin that emerged from the bunker with keiichi was thought to be shion. victims remains have yet to be found. ooishi tips that the murders were a lynching. details that shion (actually mion) has been in severe shock, unable to help with the investigation
• mion pov: her faux insanity to fool the cops turned real. still haunted by the spectre that she now believes it to be shion's ghost, she severely struggles with herself in her apartment as if in a fight with the ghost (mentioned in arc2). she believes shions ghost cant rest until mion also dies
• someone bangs on the apartment door; mion believes it to be shion. she jumps off the balcony and rushes to pursue and kill keiichi via the fire escape
• fully insane (and possibly injured?), she reaches the maebara mansion and throws pebbles at keiichis window. seeing him, she momentarily cools off; keiichi gives her a doll, which fires up her jealousy again. she becomes completely paranoid in trying to say goodbye to keiichi and stabs him
• suddenly mion describes that last interaction as nothing but a dream she was having; as shes climbing back up the fire escape to re-enter her apartment, she slips and cracks her head open. once more regretting failing to protect satoko, she intentionally rolls over to fall further and fully die
• closes with shion wishing this had all been nothing but her coma dream, apologizing for having been born, thanking everyone for loving her
• credits roll, again memorial; rena, ooishi, kumachan, irie, etc survived. kasai dies of liver cancer in 2004. keiichi died of heart failure in the hospital after surviving the stabbing (in arc2, this was presented as mions ghost catching up with him)
• closes with the club members + shion enjoying lunch together in school as a music box plays. shion has been working to help satoko improve her distate for a bunch of veggies; kept her promise to satoshi

• A Happy Diary
• police pov; exchanging theories on mions death while inspecting mions notebook. it was kasai banging on mions door the night she died, not shions ghost. he was close to finding her body but could not. ooishi receives a call from sato (sonozaki grunt working as his informant in arc4) informing him that theyve realized the wrong twin had been tattooed as the successor
• ooishi realizes the overall twin name swap; kumachan comments that the notebook is incomprehensible and was given as evidence under mysterious circumstances. ooishi concludes its overall a happy diary of a young girl in love, who just made mistakes out of misplacing her love
• Disowned
• shion (original mion)'s pov; asking akane (! sprited) why she was disowned: oryou and akane mutually cut ties over akane declaring she will marry a yakuza. the two fought with katanas in their living room, then akane got married; she had to remove several fingernails as atonement, which have remained poorly healed
• akane reveals her relationship with her mother is actually pretty good apart from keeping appearances, shes just not the successor. mentions that oryou herself also had to atone via fingernails, implied also romantic. kasais sprite is there but he doesnt say anything

• the author directly addressing the players, asking a hypothetical: if you were being murdered, what kind of circumstances would your murderer have to be under for you to sympathize with them?