Chapter Text
June 20th, 1993
Hinamizawa, near the Gifu prefecture.
16:00
The radio silence was broken by the familiar voice of a seasoned policeman.
“.. Sergeant Kumagai here. Two disappearances have been reported: A man and a woman of about 30 years old, black hair both of them. The woman…” Kumagai continued his detailed description, broadcasted over the Shishibone police’s radio frequency to the patrolmen on the streets. That same transmission was caught by a police radio set in an old bedroom.
In that bedroom stood Rena Ryuugu, her eyes and ears set on the radio. She dropped the clothes she was about to put on and rushed to get a notebook and write down any details she could.
She was right. She had to bring some of her work home.
20:00
The old Board Game Club of Hinamizawa had assembled once more. It had been ten years since the tragedy that almost befall the village of Hinamizawa. Ten years after the peak of Oyashiro-sama’s curse.
It had been a merry reunion, with plenty of stories and life updates from everyone. The festival seemed smaller now that they were older, or maybe it was just the village weathering out little by little.
The group was sitting around in the shrine's stairs, killing time until Rika would have to get ready for the ceremony she held each year for the Watanagashi festival. And even in that happy and laid back context, Rena Ryuugu could be seen holding a small black device in her hand, some kind of portable radio that emitted only static.
The afternoon transmission about the sudden disappearance of two tourists in one of Shishibone city’s hotels had left her feeling uneasy. She had told the rest, and a similar reaction followed. They had all lived through the paranoia and the curse that had soaked through the village. They couldn’t bear another one of those. She had decided to keep an eye, or rather, an ear, on the subject. Mion and Keiichi seemed worried about her reaction, but given her current job as a police detective and their shared past, it was only natural that she’d care that much about that notice.
As the night carried on, with them laughing and talking about their last years, the low buzz of the portable radio came to life, putting everyone suddenly on edge.
“Kumagai… here… Bad news.” The seasoned policeman's voice brought with it the slow breathing of someone too stunned to speak. Everyone stared at the radio resting on Rena's hands, hoping for the worst. “An old woman called. There's a corpse. I’m on my way with patrols 3 and 5 for the river by the entrance connecting to Shishibone. Any members of the force on duty assemble on the spot and cordon off the area.”
Those words confirmed their worst fears. The chill breeze of that summer night suddenly felt horribly wrong. It felt like a humid, still, cold soaked through their bones.
Silence fell among the Hinamizawa Board Game Club as they attempted to understand what just happened. An old friend was greeting them back that night. One that was supposed to have died ten years ago.
Rena was the first to stand up, followed by Shion.
“I’m going.” She spoke in a serious voice, beginning her advance.
“Rena! We should leave it to them, you know, the…” Keiichi began, but was promptly stopped by the girl’s glare. Once she noticed his reaction, her expression softened.
“I know… I’m sorry, Kei. I just… Can do something this time. Without any roundabout methods. I can directly cooperate with the case.” She tried to explain herself, finding it hard with his worried face in front of her.
Mion stood up and walked up to her.
“Fine. We’re all going then. Come on, Keiichi, Satoko, Rika.” She signaled them to stand up and follow her. The younger girls did at once. It took a little hesitancy from Keiichi to do so, but he followed.
“Thanks, everyone” Rena nodded and led the group out of the festival grounds.
The way there was mostly filled with a silence broken sporadically by updates from the police’s radio frequency. Those came from the front, with Keiichi and Rena walking side by side and focused on the path ahead. Mion and Shion seemed to talk about something at the back of the group, in low voices to not bother the others, and in the middle Rika and Satoko could be seen holding hands in silence. Rika seemed more distressed than the others, holding her blonde friend’s hand tightly.
The group arrived at the scene, clearly distinguishable by the police cars stopped around it and the police tape limiting the scene where the body was found.
Rena took the initiative, approaching the tape confidently and followed by the rest of her troupe. She was stopped by a local patrolman.
“Miss, this is a crime scene. Please, step away.”
“Detective Ryuugu, Tokyo Metropolitan Police. Please, call sergeant Kumagai over here” She took out her badge from a small purse. The officer seemed a bit weary, but upon inspection of her badge, he moved back to call the sergeant.
“I had a feeling you would all show up” The sergeant let out a dry laugh. “So much for seeing your merry band together again.” Kumagai, with more grey hairs than Rena remembered, came to greet them. “This is, however, a crime scene. I cannot attend you or let you through.”
“Sergeant, sir. I can help. I’m with the Tokyo Metropolitan Police. And-”
“And this is not your jurisdiction.” Kumagai cut her off.
“But it is my hometown. Surely you would appreciate more hands” She insisted, stepping forward. Keiichi tried to stop her but was in turn stopped by Mion.
“Miss Ryugu…” He started, glaring at her for a moment. Rena’s look of decisiveness met his inquisitive stare. That exchange lasted for a few seconds. He thought of many possibilities and in all of them he could hear Oiishi’s voice telling him to just let them take a look. In the end, he let out a heavy sigh “Look, this is what we’ll do. I’ll let you take a quick look. But I’ll need your superior’s permission for you to help on the case.”
“Thank you, sir!” Her eyes lit up. She crossed the police line, promptly followed by the rest.
“The rest of you, however…” Kumagai stepped between her and the rest of the group. “Last I checked, you’re not policemen.”
Shion was about to complain, stepping forward to the group. Before she could speak, Rena did.
“They’re… My assistants?”
“Miss Ryuugu…” The sergeant gave her a stern look. She checked on the rest of the group, getting a thumbs up from Shion, followed by her pointing to her sister and Keiichi.
“Keiichi and Mion are. They know everyone here.”
“...” Kumagai lifted a finger, warning her as he stepped aside “Fine. But I want the paperwork for them being your assistants in this case by tomorrow morning. On my desk. Am I clear?”
“Yes, sir”
“Good. Go check the scene, then.”
“Hey, I wanted to go too! Rena! Ouch! Rika, why are you hitting me? You know you–” Shion’s voice faded into the background as the trio moved to inspect the scene.
The corpse was found stuck between some rocks at the riverside. It was yet unknown if it had washed down the river or if it had been left there. The policemen on site had already taken the possessions from the body and had examined them, identifying the victim as one Abe Tomio. Putting some gloves on, both Mion and Rena started checking for his belongings while Rena went to check the body.
Keiichi was left in the middle, alone and confused about why the two of them carried those handy gloved with them. Oh, well, so much for having friends who work on crime lately.
“Why does Mion have those, though?” He mouthed to himself, but ultimately decided to go help Mion, finding it the easiest and less disgusting option.
“This is weird…” The green-haired girl started. Quickly, Keiichi leaned in to look at whatever she meant. Mion was turning an ID card with the picture of the deceased in the front. “This man’s from Sendai... Why would he come here from so far away?”
“Maybe for family?” Keiichi proposed the idea, turning the name of the man in his mind.
“Maybe… We’d have to check some registries.” She looked around for some other policemen. “Sir! Yes, you” She waved at one of the patrolmen, who looked at her with a slight frown “Do we know the name of the other disappeared person?”
Rena, on the other hand, examined the body for any kind of clues. Using a small flashlight, her first instinct was checking the overall state of the face. She checked the pupils, which were dilated and the lips, which were not blue as she had hoped. It had not been any kind of suffocation. She noted a redness around the lips, however. She noted it down.
“Oh, excuse me.” She stepped back for an officer taking close pictures of the body. She took the opportunity to look around for anything the local policemen had missed.
After a short while of not finding anything, she stood by the riverside, tapping a little notebook she had taken out with a pen. She seemed stuck on some thought. Something didn’t fit. The victim showed clear symptoms of possible poisoning, but there was nothing around to indicate he had taken it there. There was always the option of him taking it upstream and washing away from there. But why there? Why Hinamizawa?
The clothes didn’t tell her anything either. He was found wearing plain clothes: a pair of long, beige trousers and a white button-up shirt. Formal enough, but not business clothes in the slightest. Was he a citizen of Shishibone city? Did he have any shady connections? His shoes didn’t even look that expensive. His shoes… That’s right.
She went back to the corpse, checking the pair of shoes and whatever was left on them. The water had taken most of the overall dirt on them but wedged in the sole was still some soil from the mountains. That morning it had rained, so it’d have been easy for him to get some softer soil stuck in there.
The image of Tomitake came to mind. A photographer… Could he be one, by any chance?
“Rena” She was taken out of her contemplation by Keiichi's voice, who called her along with Mion “Sergeant Kumagai told us they have everything they wanted and they’re taking the body and clues for inspection. We should leave.”
“No! I still haven’t checked his belongings”
“We have, don’t worry” He tried to calm her, pointing to Mion. “Miss law here did all the work, though.”
“Keiichi helped a little” Mion added, patting him on the back.
The little carefree exchange seemed to help with her tension. She took a last glance around the scene and decided to go back to the rest of their group. There, Shion was talking with someone on the phone.
“Yes, yes. Have it ready. No, that won’t be necessary. That… Oh. I’ll call you later.” She hung up and hurried to meet the trio. “Welcome back, traitors who left us behind!”
“Shion…” Mion let out a sigh. One of the two sisters clearly saw the situation as more serious than the other.
“I swear she’s been helping too, in her own way.” Rika reassured them from the back. Her words were quickly confirmed by a nod from Satoko.
“Yes! And we should get into a car, you won’t believe what I have waiting for you.”
Keiichi and Rena looked at Mion for answers, but she seemed as confused as they were.
“Shion, I think we all had enough thrills today… Can’t it wait until tomorrow?” Mion put her hands on her hips, trying to be the voice of reason in the group.
“While I would normally agree… It seems like Rena still wants to keep going” The detective gave a small nod. She was tired, but she was also about to accept any help she could get. Her mind would keep running on that mystery all night, anyway.
“Maaan… I have a class to teach tomorrow. But, sure… Let’s see what Shion has in store” Keiichi stretched and led the way “I got a big car to fit us all six, let’s go.”
“Hey, airheads!” Satoko finally decided to butt in, turning everyone’s heads in her direction “Aren’t you all forgetting something…?”
They all looked at each other, all except for Rika.
“The ceremony. I’m going to miss it if we don’t leave for it now…”
The whole group created a big fuss all of a sudden. They couldn’t believe they had forgotten something like that. In a moment, they put the case aside. It was now in the hands of the police and, for some of them, it was too late in the day to keep going anyway.
However, it was not yet too late for Rena, whose mind raced through possibilities while they walked back to the temple ground, whose ideas and early theories clashed with one another as she reviewed with Mion what each of them had found while they waited for Rika to get ready for the ceremony. It was not too late for Rena, the detective who stared at Rika’s dance looking for divine inspiration.
Rena, the detective who saw that heavy, ceremonial hoe in Rika’s dance fall and signal the start of another tragedy for Hinamizawa.